Diet and Exercise

The biggest thing I learned from this unit was how unhealthy I actually am. From my lack of exercise to my poor choices in diet. I was also interested to learn that my weight and body mass index fall just above the under weight threshold. I will try to incorporate more healthy food options into my diet and try to decrease the amount of fast food and junk food I intake. Increasing the amount I exercise will likely be the harder thing to accomplish. I walk over 5 miles a day at work according to the pedometer on my phone but I don't really engage in any cardio. Following the suggestions in the readings I think I will try to enlist a friend to exercise with and hopefully we can keep each other motivated. I dusted off my hockey equipment in anticipation.

To assist me in tracking my progress I plan to use the S Health app that came with my phone. http://content.samsung.com/us/contents/aboutn/sHealthIntro.do It tracks activity and diet habits and charts everything in easy to read formats. To change my eating habits I've decided that I need to start cooking food at home more often and to incorporate more fresh ingredients and less processed foods. I figure the easiest way to do this is by starting with foods I like as well as those that are easy to prepare. Instead of deep fried chicken fingers I'm going to substitute grilled chicken breasts. My french fries I will be replacing with baked sweet potato wedges. This should greatly reduce my cholesterol and sodium intake. Chicken is the only lean protein I'll likely eat as I hate fish especially tuna fish. (shudders at the thought) The suggested healthy diet for weight gain in the text made me laugh as the portions seemed funny; "6 Tbsp. of Raisins" and "16 Animal Crackers" I'm not sure how to measure my raisin intake in Tablespoons so I'll use the Food Tracker portion of the S Health App to record my calorie intake.

The terms that were new to me were the types of stretching; static, active, passive,ballistic, and dynamic. I had no idea that there were different types of stretching. The only education I ever received on stretching was from middle school gym teachers who learned to strecth in the military.In the mid 90's when I was in high school I remember the girls learned yoga and calisthenics but we just played basketball. I plan on incorporating the stretching techniques into my new exercise routine to hopefully avoid pulling one of those muscles I haven't used since 1998.

Drug and Alcohol Abuse

After reading these chapters I felt the need to renew my attempt to quit smoking. While I have always been aware of the dangers of smoking reading it in the text forced me to think about thoroughly and I think it is time. Being a smoker you think about lung cancer but when the list of related conditions keeps growing its hard to avoid not thinking about quitting. I wasn't aware of the possibility of blood clots and subsequent strokes being so much higher for a smoker and the lesser side effects such as yellowing teeth and skin doesn't sound too appealing either.

I enjoyed the discussion in this unit because everyone has some first hand experience with tobacco or alcohol even if they don't use them personally. It is very different to discuss actual experiences with the topic rather than speculation on a hypothetical event. I was very interested to see a varying degree of perceptions on the topics. Again, those perspectives can only come from first hand experience.

http://www.nysmokefree.com/
Above is the link to NYSmokeFree.com, I plan on using the advice on their website along with my doctors recommendation to hopefully quit smoking successfully this time. I'm hoping that with a combined approach of nicotine replacement and behavior modification will result in me finally being able to quit.