Nutrition and Wellness/Chapter 1: Wellness and Food Choices

- Wellness: Reaching for your personal overall best level of health. Wellness doesn't mean having a perfect body or being free of any health problems!

Practicing Wellness
The 3 categories of wellness:
 * Physical Health
 * Emotional/Mental Health
 * Social Health

Steps to Improve Wellness

 * 1) Water (without water: Tired, flaky skins, etc.).
 * 2) Recognizing/Accepting responsibility for your own health.
 * 3) Sleep (without sleep: More likely to get sick/body can't function).

Physical Health
Physical Health refers to normal functions of your body systems.


 * Includes bright, clear-eyes, firm skin, clean teeth and healthy gums, good muscle tone and erect posture.
 * Also means having enough energy for daily living, a normal growth rate, resistance to illness, and the ability to relax and sleep well.

Taking action for Physical Health
- What can you do to maintain or improve your physical health?


 * Follow a varied and healthful eating plan with many different foods, including fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
 * Consume about 8 cups of water/fruits each day... + if needed.
 * Include plenty of physical activity.
 * Eat breakfast, good hygiene, precautions... such as your seatbelt.
 * Regular medical/dental checkups.
 * Avoid tobacco, alcoholic beverages and drugs (harmful).
 * Keep informed about nutrition and wellness.

Mental and Emotional Health


Your mental/emotional health includes how you deal with your daily life and how you feel about yourself, people with good mental/emotional health often have better physical health - and they enjoy life to the fullest! Benefits of having healthy mental and emotional health includes:


 * Helps you cope with change, face your problems, and handle anger, frustration, and disappointment in an acceptable way.
 * You are able to work towards your goal.
 * With emotional well-being comes a sensitivity to others, open-mindedness, self-esteem, and self-confidence.

Social Health
Social health involves your relationship with others. You have a high level of social health when you:
 * Praise and accept others
 * Enjoy friends of both genders
 * Are helpful and considerate
 * Accept rules and be responsible
 * Handle conflict in a constructive way
 * Communicate well
 * Handle peer pressure

Nutrition and Active Living
Your lifestyle includes how you live your life and all the things you do; Nutrition and Active Living are 2 partners for a healthful lifestyle. Nutrition is how the food you eat affects your body.


 * The food choices you make today will affect your health and quality of life for years to come.
 * Follow the golden rules = 60 minutes of excersises

Many influences on your food choices

 * People around you
 * Culture - The shared beliefs, values, and behavior of a group of people
 * Food Supply
 * Schedules, energy, budget - aka - resources: Things such as time, money, and personal energy that help you reach a goal/or complete a task.
 * Advertising and media
 * Knowing about food, nutrition, and wellness
 * You - Your age, attitudes, emotions, health, and goals all affect what you choose to eat

Steps to Wellness

 * Practicing wellness can affect you positively today and into the future. Making responsible decisions and setting realistic goals are important skills to master.

Action Plan
An Action Plan is a step by step approach to identifying and reaching your goals.
 * 1) Set realistic goals, what's your goals? Is it realistic? How will it be to achieve?
 * 2) Decide on a plan (If I have to ask how, you are missing detail!)
 * 3) Identify small achievable steps (how will you work your way up?)
 * 4) Take action (When will you start?)
 * 5) Stick with it (How will you make sure you don't give up?)
 * 6) Get support (Who will you be your support system?)
 * 7) Check your progress (How do you know its working?)
 * 8) Reward yourself