My passion for health sparked eight years ago. I spent most of my childhood in a weight class my mom liked to call “husky.” As a result, I struggled to develop a comfortable body image because my physique did not fit the status quo. On a life-changing mid-October day in 2008, my PE teacher (who also doubled as a life coach) gave a compelling lecture on the unhealthy effects of a sugary diet. She spoke about the daily recommended amount of sugar, our body’s response to excess sugar, and the success stories of her clients who minimized their sugar intake. I knew in that moment that I had found the answer I so desperately wanted. I vowed to never drink a sugary soft drink again: in my first year without the vice, I lost an astounding forty pounds. Eight years later, my passion for health has transformed more than just my body, giving me a breadth of confidence in everything that I do. Because of all of the benefits, my commitment to health is stronger than …show more content…
I teach high school chemistry in Colorado Springs’ poorest school district. Because I knew so many kids did not eat -- let alone could not afford -- a healthy breakfast, I developed a “grab and go” snack system that provides students with free, daily nutritious snacks. To further encourage wellness across all disciplines, I led a professional development session for my colleagues on incorporating “break breaks” into the classroom. These short mental breaks are mind and body challenges that keep a student’s mind engaged and regain focus of the class. Brain breaks are not only a useful teaching technique, but a means to encourage a healthy lifestyle in the day-to-day curriculum. Since the implementation of my health and wellness initiatives, students have experienced an average increase of five-percentage points on
Growing up my mother would say “You are what you eat and it will catch up to you someday.” Well that day has arrived; no longer am I able to consume any type of food plus dessert without consequences. The results from the sugar intake is making itself known in how I feel and look.
In an article written by Julie Corliss, medical writer at Harvard Health Publications, she addresses Americans unhealthy sugar intake, “Added sugars make up at least 10% of the calories the average American eats in a day. But about one in 10 people get a whopping one-quarter or more of their calories from added sugar” (Corliss). Sugar not only leads to weight gain, but also increases the chance of suffering from heart disease. Moving away from artificial and processed foods will help Americans lose weight and start towards a healthy lifestyle. If the body is consistently treated poorly, this will reflect in the mirror and on the scale.
My ambition in seeking acceptance to your program is to do my part to improve the quality of the health care system through increasing my own abilities in health care management. While there are many medically qualified individuals working in medical management, there is unfortunately often a serious deficit in quality management experience. In order to achieve my ambition, I plan to utilize my strong medical qualifications and improve upon my strong management experience.
While switching to diet fountain drinks, artificial sweeteners and sugars, individuals are unaware that it contributes to a decline in health like regular sugar. Similar to a person with an addiction, society cannot acquire enough sugar and seems to crave more of it every time they consume it. Sweet breads such as doughnuts and conchas surround those environments, basically tempting to consume more sugar intake. The environment sabotages individuals from the beginning. In my family’s case, we are at risk of becoming diabetic, so we are constantly trying to limit our sugar
Beautiful young people are the whimsey of nature.Real beauty comes from learning ,growing ,and loving in the ways of life . That is the art of life. These programs leave a passion in me for the pure knowable world and these programs inflame me with a curiosity .Most people complain of fortune ,few of nature ; and the kinder they think the latter has been to them,the more they murmur at what they call the injustice of the former .The truth is ,that nature ,seldom profuse,has distributed her gifts more equally than she is generally supposed to have done.Education and situation make the great difference .Culture improves,and occasions elicit .I believe that enthusiasm will take me further than any amount of experience .Enthusiastic people can
Sugary beverages suggest a poor dietary quality; they are loaded with added sugars and attribute to the body’s energy density. “A 20-year study on 120,000 men and women found that people who increased their sugary drink consumption by one 12-ounce serving per day gained more weight over time—about 4 pounds per year” (19). Through increasing the daily intake in trivial increments, the body substantially results in an increased BMI (body mass index) and an increased body fat percentage score. Another study conducted at Harvard found that a 60 percent increase occurs in children for each 12-ounce they additionally drink daily. (________) The growing correlation between obesity and sugar has led to further studies, and statistical data. Researchers have revealed that in total, “half the people in the U.S. consume sugary drinks; 1 in 4 get at least 200 calories from such drinks; and 5% get at least 567 calories.” It was additionally found that one-fourth of Americans are consuming more than 135 grams of sugar per day from soda and other sweetened beverages, which compares to people of the past who only had 10 grams of fructose a day (_____). Such a high daily intake of sugar and calories illustrates the risk that arises when people consume too much sugar; that is, sugary drinks result in weight issues and medical consequences.
As a fellow high-school student, I have a rich experience with its hustled lifestyle. We attend hours of classes every day, are involved in multiple extracurricular activities after-school, and return home late at night not to replenish, but instead to finish homework from half a dozen courses. Because of this packed schedule and the fatigue after a daily battle, instead of seeking healthy options during their break time, students usually grab some “chips and Coke” (Bittman, par 11), or tasty, inexpensive, and almost-instantaneous food.
One recommendation for the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, is to encourage people to drink more water. This a recommendation that would include children, adolescents, and adults. Increasing water consumption has shown to help limit excess weight gain1, while drinking water can also improve student’s readiness to learn by increasing the level of cognitive functioning 2. As previously described by Heidi, sugar sweetened beverages is now consumed instead of water in a large sector of the population. Consuming water instead of sodas, sports drinks, flavored milks, fruit-flavored drinks, and other beverages with added sugar can prevent dental caries3. For example, substituting water for one 20-ounce sugar sweetened soda will save people about
The problem that will be the focus of this single system design (SSD) is how sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) intake, contributes to various health issues of persons (adults and youths) who are obese and moderately overweight. SSBs are a great source of added sugar in the diets of many American adults and youth. Even though the consumption among U.S. citizens is prevalent it differs between various geographical regions, and that consumption has increased five-fold in this and many other western countries since the 1950s. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture (2015) dietary guidelines for Americans daily intake of added sugar was not to exceed 10% of total daily calorie, but mine at one time reached 3x’s the norm. According to the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (2016), even when a person consumes at least one SSB daily, it can be associated with adverse health issues over time. Among these health issues are obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. Reiterating the statement about consumption vary among geographical areas, according to the 2009–2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 50.6% of U.S. adults and youths consumed at least one SSB on a given day. The prevalence of daily SSB intake was higher among U.S. citizens living in the Northeast (68.4%) and South (66.7%) than among persons living in the Midwest (58.8%). Believe it or no, of these percentages younger and middle aged adults consumed
That being said, I have started taking active steps to improve my overall health/fitness. (I don’t care about thinness, except as an incidental byproduct of a reduction in overall body fat.) For one, I’ve started limiting my sugar intake. To be fair, I wasn’t eating a lot of sugary foods. I eat very little candy. There aren’t many pastries in my life. I maybe knock back a bowl of ice cream once a month. Where I really fall down on the sugar is in my coffee. My father loved coffee and loved it SWEET. I learned to drink coffee from him, so I always took my coffee sweet. Lots of sugar, yeah baby! Then I discovered flavored creamers…
Today typical 20-ounce soda contains 15 to 18 teaspoons of sugar and as much as 240 calories. A 64-ounce fountain cola drink could hold up to 700 calories. Furthermore, people who drink this “liquid candy” do not feel as full as if they had eaten the same calories from solid food, and they do not compensate by eating less (Chan, 2015.) According to the same, one out of three children in the United States are overweight or obese, and the nation spends an estimated $190 billion a year treating overweight or obesity-related health conditions (Chan, 2015). Several studies, show the devastating effect of sugary drinks on people’s health including the risk of not only developing chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke but also a contributor to the obesity epidemic.
In the beginning of this course I gained an understanding of what health coaching is and the importance to have health coaching skills in any given profession. Health coaching is a partnership to add support and guidance to create a vision/goal and turn it into a reality. I understand a coaching session takes practice to master, it’s not that simple to help clients. Learning the practice of health coaching has showed me to stay away from the expert mode to allow the client to become an autonomous expert. As described in our textbook, coaching is similar to delivering a baby, the coach isn’t going to have the baby, but the client is the one giving birth. This similarity describes the coach to add support and help the client with the end goal. As a coach we address their desires, feelings, reflections, energy, and needs to generate moments that build into greater things. In order to address all of these different areas the foundation needs to be set, that is the coaching presence. I learned a coach needs to be flexible, present, confident, open, and seek new ways of change. The coach “being” is used to create and establish a partnership were the client reflects the coach’s presence in his or her process. Jordan and Livingstone (2013) explain the importance of the client and coach relationship, they described it as a tool of therapy needed for goal attainment. During my health coaching experience, I used this tool of therapy by applying motivational interviewing,
They have found an alarming connection between the consumption of sugar in soft drinks and cardiovascular diseases, as one soft drink a day increases the chance of death by one-third. Also, individuals who consume a quarter of the daily calorie intake from sugar increase the death risk by half. The World Health Organisation recommends that a maximum of ten percent of calorie intake comes from added sugar. ”Not only is added sugar an unnecessary cause of calories, but also predisposes to strokes and heart attacks. We need to take action now.” (Hope,
This seems to have given students two messages. First that I notice and care about their feelings/well being. Secondly, that I want them to take care of themselves and be healthy. In fact, I have noticed that when I have repeatedly given certain students the suggestion to take a work break they seem to become aware of themselves and start coming to me when they sense that they need a quick snack or stretch break. I think implementing this has also helped me too because I also have tried to practice what I preach and have my water bottle and snack around too! I hope that students see that I really believe good nutrition and ultimately I hope that these healthy habits have an effect on the way that they take care of themselves at home too.
There is increasing evidence to show that consuming sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) is associated with increased risk of obesity or elevated body mass index (BMI) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Conversely, several empirical studies have also shown that reduced consumption of SSBs reduces the risk of obesity and developing T2DM.1-10Obesity is a global public health problem of pandemic proportions .2 An estimated 1.6 billion adults worldwide were overweight with BMI of 25kg/m2 and over and approximately 400 million of these adult were obese with BMI of 30kg/m2 and greater in 2005. It was estimated that these numbers will reach 2.3 billion for overweight and 700 million for obese adults in 2015.2 In the United States, there was an