The last week of class was not my best week when considering my goals. My goal this week was to try and have more healthy dinners after becoming quite successful with my goal of eating healthy snacks. I was unable to achieve the goal this week for most of the week, but it was also only my first week trying it so I believe that I can still get it done within the next couple of weeks.

I believe that there really aren’t any excuses as to why I couldn’t do better on my goal this week, but it is in the past and I need to do better in the upcoming weeks. I should be eating healthier foods that are homemade rather than going out and buying food with my friends, which would also save me money in the long run by quite the amount.

My plan now that this class is over is to most certainly still try and continue with my goals of eating healthier foods and I want to basically just live a healthier life food wise and this class was the perfect start for me in doing that for this school year. I talked earlier in a different post about how I think it will be difficult to eat healthy at school but I am also going to try my hardest with doing that. One way that I am thinking about eating healthier would be buying things that are healthy at the store like snacks so I don’t end up at crimson eating chicken tenders for a snack after lacrosse.

Chapter 13

The first thing that I would like to talk about in chapter 13 is the hearing loss section. This is because I was looking at the information and answering the questions, and I realized that you can very simply damage your ears just going to sporting events or concerts. I noticed that it said if you can not hear the person next to you, then you should wear ear plugs. I have been to hundreds of professional sporting events in my life, some of them some very big ones, and there have been several times where if the person next to me tried talking I would have no idea what they are saying. I think that people are unaware of how common hearing injury’s can happen. I personally do not like wearing ear plugs because they take away from the excitement of the game, and you can not hear everything. The louder it gets, the more fun you are having, I did not realize how dangerous that could actually be.

Another thing that stuck out to me was how many safety precautions people have to take when they go out drinking just to be safe at the party. It is insane to me that we can not trust anybody because some people in this world have the mindset that having sexual intercourse with someone who can not even speak to say no is completely okay. It is so wrong that people go about their everyday lives thinking like that. Girls are told that if they go to the bathroom without their drink, they should get a new one because someone could have stuck something in there to try and rape them off of a drug. This is something that has become so common that girls are being taught to buy a new drink after going to the bathroom. It is crazy to think that these people who are actually raping woman are out there and you have no idea what they look like or who they are. Woman are also taught that they should never stay at a party when all of their friends leave, because once again you never know what kind of people could try and rape you. Rape could even occur between two best friends because someone is too drunk to say no to the other person.

Finally, I am going to bring up the dozing and driving section because it is something that happens far too often. I have actually caught myself nodding my head back and forth while driving home from work. When working a shift everyday from 8 AM to 4PM and having to drive an hour home at 4 PM, there are times when you can catch yourself dozing off while driving. One solution to this would be to go to the nearest rest area and just close your eyes and sleep for an hour. Would you rather be home an hour later, or not make it home at all because you fell asleep and got into a car accident. Something that I find myself doing a lot is drinking a coffee right before I leave and it will always have me wide awake throughout the whole drive home. I do not find myself dozing off at all while I am driving because I am very cautious about it, and want to stay safe.

Chapter 14

This chapter went into detail about a lot of different things with our environment and our living conditions. One thing that I found very interesting was when it was talking about how you could actually have unhealthy living conditions in your own home and really not even know that it is happening. One thing that must be watched out for when moving into an old home according to the chapter is asbestos. This is something that could be inside the fabrics of your home, and it is very unhealthy for you. It can cause cancers and diseases like mesothelioma. We always have to watch out around us, even in our own homes if we want to be healthy. Upgrading our living conditions is something that is very important, and start upgrading by looking out for several things like asbestos in your own home.

One thing that was truly mesmerizing to me in this chapter was the amount of fresh water that we have in the world. We only have 1-2 percent of all our water that is actually considered fresh water. If I was to not read this chapter and take a guess, I would have guessed around 25-30 percent of the water in this world being considered “fresh water.” It is quite scary when you think that the percentage is that low because it makes you think, are we drinking clean water at this point? If we have such little fresh water then how are we finding water that is considered to be clean and fresh. Water is something that is truly important to us all if we want to live a long and happy life, so we need to make sure that we are not polluting in our water so we can keep that number at 1-2 percent, or even better we can try and raise that number and help us all.

Finally, chapter 14 talked about is trash, how much of it we generate, and how much of it we recycle. One stat is that Americans generate 4.5 pounds per day of trash EACH per day. Let that sink in for a second, each one of us generates 4.5 pounds per day of trash. Now, I am not too good at math, but that is a lot of trash that this country does not need. A lot of that trash also is not ending up in the proper place because a lot of people will just throw it on the ground wherever they are because they do not care about the environment. Something that is not surprising to me is that food scraps generate the most amount of trash. This is not surprising because each person eats about 3 meals a day on average, and I can guarantee that most people do not finish their meals all three of those meals, causing all of the food scraps to end up in the trash.

Chapter 15

A very important piece to chapter 15 was deciding when to contact a physician. This is important because it is something that we all come across, “can I treat this myself, or should I be going to the doctor at some point in the near future?” I feel like with cuts it is mostly clear, if it is just a scab or a scrape you’re fine, but if you think you might need stitches definitely go to the doctor and let them figure that out. There are other times where it can be very hard, if you are sick and getting a cold when should you go to the doctor? When is that sickness lasting too long where it may not be a cold anymore. There are a lot of illnesses that start off with the same symptoms as a cold, which is why we should always be watching out for wether or not the “cold” is lasting too long and we should see our physician about what it could be. They can also always give you medicine that would work better if it is just a cold.

A second thing that this chapter talked about was Medicaid and what that actually is. I truly did not know much about Medicaid at all, but I now know a lot more than I did. It is basically something that is funded by the government for low income families that can not afford health insurance for themselves or their kids. There are some things that are not as good as regular health care obviously, including who you can see and when you are going to be able to see them. I think that Medicaid is very important because it is helping these families get something that they would otherwise not be able to have in their life. Obviously there are drawbacks to it, but I think that it is a lot better than them having no medical care at all and being in some serious trouble.

Finally, the chapter talked about was Medicare. Yes, there is big differences between Medicare and Medicare. Medicare is something that you are basically funding while you are working throughout your whole life, and then you are given it when you retire and are over the age of 65. There are currently around 55 million people in the USA that are reviewing Medicare. So, the big difference is that Medicaid is something that is not payed for, while Medicare is something that you are paying for throughout your whole entire working career. Medicare is important because it basically is there to help you through retirement and the rest of your life after you retire.

Thank you to everyone for a great summer course, I wish all of you the best in the rest of your endeavors at Bridgewater State University, have a great rest of your summer and good luck!

I began the week on a very strong not on my new goal of not eating anything after dinner, and it actually seemed quite easy. The last couple days though, I have been very busy and didn’t eat dinner until about 10pm and I feel like that completely defeats the purpose of my goal. My goal is so that I am not eating pointless calories late at night, but here I am eating dinner at around 10 at night for the past 2-3 nights, not helping me at all.

On another note, I have been doing pretty good on just eating healthy foods when I do decide to snack. I had a set back this week with my family party and did snack on some cake and desserts, but other than that I would say that I am doing a good job. My favorite healthy food to snack on is actually apples because I very much enjoy the taste. I do not like vegetables which does make it a little bit harder for me to reach my goal of healthy foods.

Another thing that I am going to work on will be having healthier foods at dinner time. Dinner time has been used as my “cheating” times because I don’t watch what I eat when I am having meals, and I am going to start with making my dinner healthier. I think that this is the most important meal when it comes to eating healthy because there is very little time to actually burn calories after I eat dinner. After lunch I am on my feet almost the entire day and burning so many more calories compared to dinner.

One thing that chapter 10 talks about is being physically active and how important that is for your body. This is very important to my goal because I am strictly talking about eating healthy, but physical activity is something that is also needed when it comes to achieving goals of being healthy.

Another thing it talks about that was very interesting to me was posture and how important it is to everyone. I have truly never thought about posture and how that is important, but it is very clear that it is basically a workout. It can help with so many different things especially when you are not able to get up and work out during the day while you are at work.

Chapter 10 is also about how one must become physical active and what they should do. One thing is setting goals, and this was very important for me. If I am not setting goals then I am getting nowhere, and goals are something that just motivate you greatly. When it comes to physical activity goals are needed because it is not very easy to visibly see yourself losing weight.

Chapter 11 talked about cardiovascular diseases and this was something that was extremely interesting to me. I have truly never looked into diseases like this and how common they are among all of us. These diseases can be deadly but they can also be cured if the right steps are taken. 4 of the key ones include hypertension, atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, and stroke. Stroke was the only one that was something that I have heard about before reading this chapter.

Diabetes is also something that was brought up, and I truly never knew that type two diabetes was more common that type 1. I actually thought that type 2 was a lot worse than type 1 and I was very unaware of the facts behind diabetes until I read this chapter. I believe that this is something that I should look more into especially because it is so common in the US, and it is only becoming more common.

Finally chapter 11 talked about cancer. This is something that I was very well known about but it is something that I want to talk about because of how serious it is. It talks about how to prevent cancer, but truly the only way to prevent it is to get tested and make sure that you do not have it. My father had cancer while my mother passed away of it and it is something that every should take very seriously and get tested for before it is way too late.

Chapter 12 talks about your immune system and how that works. It is something that is great when you actually know how it works. There are so many little pieces that people never knew existed. If you asked someone they would probably just say “blood is pumped from the heart to the rest of the body,” but it is so much deeper than that and it should be known how the things inside your body work. This chapter went into great depth on how blood is pumped throughout your body and I am glad that I now understand it a lot more.

Secondly, the chapter discusses infections and how common they are. One bacterial infection that is very common is pneumonia. It is something that people get, and it could very much so be deadly if it is not treated right when it is found. It leads to inflaming of the lungs, and could cause you to completely stop breathing. There are several bacterial infections that could become very severe if they are not treated.

Finally chapter 12 is HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. These are things that are very easily avoidable, but at the same time hard to avoid for anyone who is sexually actively. The most common way to rodent sexually transmitted diseases is wearing a condom and using the proper protection by making sure that you are only having sex with a women you are dating and completely trust. Sex is something that people do for fun, and this could turn into people getting diseases and spreading them around.

This week I began to try and focus on not eating anything after dinner, and if I ate something after dinner I made sure that it was something healthy like an apple. This was very successful for the first week of trying it, I never found myself even really needing to eat an apple, I just ate dinner and then called it a night with food. I came up with doing this idea because I have found out that eating right before bed is the time when you gain the most calories because you are doing the least exercise.

I believe that this goal of eating less junk foods is something that is very achievable for me based off of how the last three blog posts have gone. I did struggle at first, but right now it seems that it is becoming something that I am starting to be able to do with ease. My first couple of goals were to stop eating when I came home from lacrosse, and to stop eating junk food after dinner. With these goals not being so hard to reach, I want to try and reach a goal that will be a lot harder than that. One thing that I am hoping to do is to start bringing healthy lunches to work instead of going to the places to eat that are around me. Although there are some healthy places to eat around me, packing my own healthy lunch is the only certain way to know that I will not be eating any junk food. This goal will be hard for me, as it will result in me needing to wake up earlier to make my lunch but I do think that if I can reach this goal it will be a very big step.

The only flaw that I have thought about so far when it comes to trying to reach my goal is that when I do move back into school, it will be MUCH harder to eat healthier. Even the healthy options at the dining halls are not very healthy. At school I try and eat the quickest food that I can get at the dining hall so that I can go about my day without sitting in the dining hall for an hour. I am going to try and focus on buying salads and putting them in my fridge until dinner time so I can avoid the unhealthy dining hall foods all together.

Chapter 7

One very interesting thing that chapter 7 talked about was the consumption of alcohol among college students, and how that trend is not going down and does not seem to be going down any time soon. This is the first thing that I bring up because when it comes to eating healthy, drinking bud lights is probably the most unhealthy thing that you could do. This is why people call stomachs the “beer belly,” because it is actually known to cause people to gain a very large amount of weight if they drink too much. I believe that one of the key factors in eating healthy would be staying away from alcohol and making sure that I am taking every step necessary to eat healthy.

Tobacco was something that was brought up right after alcohol was talked about, this does not cause you to gain weight, but it is unhealthy so I thought that it would be a topic to talk about. Although weight is not the issue, people can truly die from tobacco and nobody is untouchable. There are so many different long term and short term risks to using tobacco including cancer. One thing that is very interesting is that obviously tobacco is found in cigarettes, but even if you don’t smoke you could get lung issues just by being around the people that are smoking. There are so many hazards to smoking that it is truly not worth it, and people should really think about quitting if they currently smoke right now. With tobacco there is also “dip” which can very easily cause you to get mouth cancer. Once again, these are not things that are necessarily unhealthy weight wise, but they are so unhealthy in general that I thought I would bring it up as a topic of interest.

Chapter 8

The most interesting thing that chapter 8 brought up was how important each nutrient is to us. One thing that is very important is water. Water is something that makes up around 55 percent of our body weight meaning that we should always be drinking water to stay healthy. Water is also something that could help lose weight because then you will have the energy to actually work out and try and lose weight on a daily basis. For me, I am trying to eat healthy then water is very important. I should be having water with every meal instead of going and drinking soda or other drinks that are unhealthy.

Chapter 8 also talked about nutrients as in carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, fats, and proteins. In this chapter they brought up the importance of each thing to us in our daily lives. One thing that is important is that we do not have too many fats. Although fats are important for us to survive, we should not be having too many. When talking about eating healthy this chapter was actually very helpful because it told me exactly what should be in my food when it comes to the things that were listed above. It told me how much I should be eating, and when it is going to be considered too much.

Chapter 9

Chapter 9 was all about things like weight, which is something that is very important to my goal of eating healthy. The first thing that I want to talk about is obesity. The chapter focused on this for a little while, and it was shocking realizing how many people in the US and even in other countries are obese. Obesity is an epidemic in the US that has to be stopped before it is too late. Obesity basically means that you are just about non-stop eating and gaining weight. This is very important to all of us because no one wants to eat so much that they are considered obese, and once you start it is very hard to stop. For me, it is nowhere near the obese scale, but I still want to be able to eat healthy before I do start to gain weight from the way that I am eating. There are so many risk factors to obesity, and you could actually end up getting diabetes from obesity.

Another thing that this chapter spoke about was how to actually lose weight, and how some people tend to go the way of surgery. That route is not something you want to take, and you should try and exercise and eat healthy if you are trying to lose wight. It is very important that we all exercise the right amount each day, and then do not just go home and eat when we are bored. Weight loss is something that is very crucial in most peoples lives, and we should all be doing it the right way and not just going under a knife to try and lose weight and be risking our lives.

This week was not a good week, but also not a bad week. There were some days were I would eat any food no matter that calories in it, but other days I wouldn’t eat any junk food. This is something that I know is going to be very hard to maintain throughout the remainder of this summer, and hopefully the remainder of the year.

Something that I want to try with achieving this goal is that I will eat no snacks after dinner. I want to make it so that I will have my dinner and have nothing, including healthy snacks. I will obviously drink water and gatorades to stay hydrated and healthy. I think that the time when I eat the most unhealthy is when I am about to go to sleep and bored so I decide to eat junk food. I am hoping that next week I can make sure that I am eating healthier and not eating unhealthy when I get home from lacrosse or the gym. I think that the first week of doing this was easier than this week, but I am going to keep working on my goals to make sure that I achieve them.

A second thing that I really wanna try is not eating anything except for healthy foods after lacrosse. I know that I will be hungry after a lot of expertise, but I can do something like eat a salad or an apple. I don’t want to come home and go to a fast food place on the way home. I also want to continue this during the school year and not go right to the dining hall for unhealthy food, I could have healthy foods in my dorm room instead.

One thing that I learned in chapter four was basically loving yourself within an intimate relationship. I truly think that if you do not love yourself you have no ability to love someone else. This relates to eating healthy because if I am not eating healthy I am not going to love my body, and I am going to worry about myself way too much and could not focus on anyone else.

Another thing that I learned from chapter four was all about healthy relationships. This is very important clearly because if you don’t have one then no one could have a relationship. You need to respect each other and you need to be there for each other at all times of the relationship, especially when the other person is down. This also relates to my goal because I simply need someone there to encourage me when I am down on my goals. It doesn’t have to be a relationship as in a girlfriend, it could be a relationship as a friendship. Just having someone there for you is so helpful when it comes to chasing your goals.

The final thing that I learned in chapter 4 was about prolonged problems in relationships. This means that people are struggling with their relationship and eventually they will break up if these problems can never be solved. I believe that there is a similarity to my goals with this, if I am having prolonged problems and also don’t have someone to support me I feel like it would be very hard and I would most likely give up on my goals.

The next two chapters can’t really relate with my goals, but chapter 5 had to do with things about how a woman’s body changes when they are pregnant. It also talked about what woman need to eat to stay healthy and make sure that they have a healthy pregnancy. The final thing that stood out to me was when it talks about complications with pregnancy, this is something that sticks out to me because it is truly scary thinking about all of the complications that can happen.

Chapter 6 was something that talked a lot about addiction. One thing that it spoke about that I mentioned earlier was also on support. It was saying that someone with an addiction will not be able to stop their addiction without support. I truly believe that this is a statement that is very true, without someone there to help you then you will not be able to get rid of that addiction. Chapter 6 also brought up the different ways that an addiction can hurt a family and how it can separate them. Individuals have to watch their family members suffer and it is very hard on them that sometimes they will even supply drugs. It then speaks about the drugs that students use in campuses and how harmful that they can be for everyone on the campus.

My first couple of days trying to begin a more heathy eating process went quite well to be honest. I was not going home late at night and eating junk food, but I could have done better on eating healthy foods for my main meals of the day. I think that I have done a good job on cutting back on some of the junk food though. I think that for starting my goals, i did a pretty good job on the first about three days but also have so much room for improvement. I actually even was able to go to the gym and lacrosse without even thinking about eating any junk food after (Anyone who plays a sport knows how hard it is to do that!)

In chapter one, we learned about setting goals and making sure that you can achieve those goals. This is something that is very important because without those goals your progress is not going to be seen. I believe that it is very important to set goals that you can achieve, especially making them slightly easier in the beginning so that you can feel good about yourself to start. My first goal was to make sure that I do not eat any junk food past dinner. The way I achieved this goal? Have things like apples and bananas in my house. If I am truly hungry, then I will eat that food and not go for the junk food that is all around my house. I believe that setting an easy goal at first is important so that you can actually start off on a good note and not give up right off the bat because you didn’t reach your goal.

Another thing that I think is very improtant when it comes to achieving your goals and that we learned about was having a good support system. This is because if you have people that know you are trying to reach your goal, they will not do things like put junk food in your face and say “hey, want this?” You need to make sure the people around you know your goals, and that they are going to respect them even if they are not achieving the same goals. Be respectful around the person trying to reach the goals and try and throw even a small compliment out there to help them. Nobody understands how much a compliment will help the person that is trying to achieve their goal.

The most interesting part about the reading/work was something that actually has nothing to do with my goals, it was the fight-or-flight response. I enjoyed learning about this because it is something that happens a lot and we do not even realize it. I think that if we are aware of these things happening then we can calm ourselves down a lot easier and not worry about what is going on. I think that fight-or-flight is something that is very important and that everyone should be looking into researching.

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