Hi guys I wanted to start this chapter on talking about my physical and health updates for the week. I have been trying to focus on meal prepping and getting every workout in. But that was not the case this week. I have been extremely busy as my schoolwork has been none stop and also I just recently got a new 8 week old puppy, which is a lot of work. I honestly just want the world to go back to normal so I can have normal conversations with my friends and family not having to worry about this anymore. Hopefully it doesn’t go into our summer even thought I am fearful it is going to.

Overall this Chapter focused on sexually transmitted disease and infectious conditions. The first thing that stood out to me was how quick acting and strong our immune systems are at this age. “As soon as an antigen breaches the body’s initial defenses, the body responds by forming substances called antibodies that are matched to that specific antigen, much as a key is matched to a lock”(p.286). This is crazy to think about how our bodies are always on guard trying to protect and defend itself from infection illnesses or diseases. There are a multitude of steps that our body does to defend itself. It is also cool to think that we build immunities to diseases that we have already had. Meaning once we develop them it is almost impossible for us to redevelop the same illness or disease. Another thing that can help keep our immune systems strong is to work on bettering ourselves everyday through physical activity and practicing healthy habits.

The next that caught my attention was the tremendous risk that STI’s have. It is crazy to think that even when practicing safe sex by using condoms or other protective sexual products you are still at a moderate risk to develop an STI. So the only way to truly stay away from ever developing this is not engaging in sexual intercourse which is ridiculous and I feel that there should be something that is going to limit your risk factors more than the average condom would. Another thing that caught my attention was the large number who are afraid to face the reality of the situation. “Unfortunately, the infected usually continue to be sexually active, thereby infecting unsuspecting partners”(p.298). IT is scary to think that so many people are “afraid” to seek medical attention and rather continue to affect there health and the health of the people they choose to infect. This is pure ignorance.

The last thing that caught my eye was the emerging diseases chapter in which it stated “Although our immune systems are adept at responding to challenges, microbes and other pathogens appear to be gaining ground”(p.294). This is concerning especially because of the pandemic we are in right now, facing a virus that we have not seen before so our bodies don’t know how to react. This has happened many times over the years and will continue to happen when new and emerging viruses and disease continue to develop and spread. The only thing we can do to help prevent this is limit “human overpopulation, inadequate health care, increasing poverty, environmental degradation, and drug resistance”(p.294).

I figured I would post a picture of my new puppy with my other german shepherd to put a smile on everyones face who is struggling with this quarantine.

The first thing that I found interesting about this chapter is getting motivated for physical activity. Which I think plays a big part in how we all feel right now being stuck at home. I know me personally I struggle to get motivated sometimes when it is so much easier to be lethargic all day and do nothing rather than workout out of do some sort of physical activity. A big thing for me that has been hard was that fact that I recently integrated this past week some cardio sessions into my training. I have been doing 3 low intensity cardio sessions and 1 high intensity training session to work on cardiovascular health. This chapter discusses people coming up with excuses rather than performing the exercises like, “(“I don’t have time”) to environmental (“I don’t have a safe place to be active”(p.234). Which these excuses are not going to work in this current state of being quarantined. The best thing that we can do is set small goals to work towards each week slowly increasing the intensity as we progess. Also I believe that if you get a workout partner who is also quarantined to build off and motivate each other it will be very helpful to stay on track.

The next topic I found interesting was developing core strength which I think a lot of people look past. But core strength is going to help your perform better in any physical activity you do and also help with back pain and posture. “A weak core generally results in poor posture, low back pain, and muscle injuries”(p.242). This is an body part that is not fun to train as most people don’t think it is important because you only see it when your shirt is off for guys or in the summer for girls. As mentioned in the chapter there are some ways that you can increase you core in a more enjoyable way. Such as “Yoga, tai chi, and Pilates”(p.242). These exercises have all been known to help not only the core but also “develop the mind–body connection through concentration on breathing and body position”(p.242). Which this can help mental growth and stability and also reduce things such as depression and anxiety, which can be very beneficial.

Third thing I wanted to talk about is the health benefits that come with physical activity and exercise. There are so many different health benefits that come along with any activity that I don’t understand why more people would want to do them. But something that I found interesting that I didn’t know prior was longer lifespan. “Several studies indicate significant decreases in long-term health risk and increases in years lived”(p.233). This alone should be enough to motivate people into working out. Overall I felt this chapter to be very informative and show me the benefits of cardiovascular health and all of its benefits.

Before I start discussing this Chapter, I just wanted to talk about how life is going in quarantine. To be honest, I have so much time it is almost hard for me not to focus all my attention towards my goal. I have been focusing so much on what my body is intaking and my training sessions have started to become better and more energized than they were prior to this pandemic when gyms were open. This in my opinion is a great test for everyones goals and to see who is really motivated with all the obstacles that have arose. Overall my goal is becoming more and more aligned with my results.

This chapter is focused on weigh management and body image, Which I think a lot of people obsess over, me being one. I wanted to start this blog off with the disorders that many people face on a day to day basis when it comes to body image and weight management. I wanted to talk about muscle Dysmorphia, which is “a form of body image disturbance and exercise disorder in which a person (usually male) believes that his body is insufficiently lean or muscular”(P.223). My own personal experience with this is my over obsession with how I look. Ever since I was younger I was known as the skinny kid so I made it apparent once i came to college that I wanted to change that. And now i believe that sometimes I misjudge how I look and assume I am a lot smaller than I am. People struggle largely from the social media influencers who edit there pictures and take certain drugs to be perceived in a certain way. So males and females look up to them and try to achieve there exact body type and when they don’t they get disappointed. This leads to these disorders and problems that people face causing them to take extreme and unhealthy measures to obtain this look they are going for.

I thought I would touch on this next topic because it aligns with my current goal. Which is trying to gain weight. This is hard for some people because you have to take in there activity level, metabolism, genetics, etc. So for some people it seems impossible to gain weight and others the complete opposite. But none the less I think that this journey has taught me a lot about what I need to do to gain weight. It is about consistency and never missing a meal. And something that I did wrong at a younger age and don’t do anymore is eat anything and everything. This in my opinion just leads to excess amounts of fat being added onto your body. You need to intake the right amount of calories and the right macronutrients and you want them to be clean and healthy foods. A big thing that comes along with trying to gain weight is relaxing, “Relax. Many people who are underweight operate in high gear most of the time. Slow down, get more rest, and take steps to control stress and anxiety”(P.218). A huge thing with gaining weight is resting and letting your body recover which in this current time is the easiest thing to do. So take advantage of it.

Next topic I wanted to discuss is Mindful eating which is apparent in this current quarantine. It is very easy to go to the fridge when you get bored and indulge in unhealthy food. But this is just bringing you further away from your goal. “Once you have evaluated your behaviors and determined your triggers, you can begin to devise a plan for improved eating”(P.210). The biggest thing that you can do is assess your problems and devise a plan, which can be as simple as not buying unhealthy foods in the grocery stores. This then causes you to if you get bored and think your hungry be either one turned off by the small amount of snacks you have or two eat a healthy and nutritious snack that is going to benefit your caloric intake for the day.

Just thought I would add a picture of me working out in the home gym. Motivation is key guys stick to your goals and then once this is all over it will be that much easier to continue on the process.

This chapter was very interesting to read due to me having a great understanding and knowledge on nutrition to try to gain as much lean muscle mass as possible. I think that not only in this class but in life nutrition is a very important topic to have knowledge on and understand how the right nutrition affects your body. People who have certain goals to achieve whether it is losing weight, gaining weight or muscle it is all very relative. In the sense that nutrition is 80% of the focus no matter what the goal is.

Something that I do daily is track my macronutrients which consist of taking in the right amount of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. I track them each day using Myfitnesspal , which is a very user friendly app that allows you to keep on track due to the wide range of food that they have for selection. Something that I think people overlook is water consumption, “The human body consists of 50 to 70 percent water by weight”(P.182). This being said it means that you have to intake large amounts of water to have the body function properly, and healthy. Something that i focus my attention towards is protein consumption, I put myself around 250-300 grams of protein a day to maximize muscle growth. This chapter focused on the benefits of protein being “Proteins are the key elements of antibodies that protect us from disease, of enzymes that control chemical activities in the body, and of hormones that regulate body functions”(P.182). This is something you should take into consideration because of the coronavirus pandemic right now. A healthy diet is only going to help your chances of fighting the disease off if you do develop symptoms.

The final topic that I wanted to discuss was the essential nutrients Fats. Which so many people misunderstand they think that if they are trying to lose weight cut of fats completely which isn’t the case. When losing weight you should monitor your fats and try to consume more healthy fats such as Avocados, coconut oil, olive oil, nuts, etc. and limit the saturated fats that your body intakes which are found in a lot of unhealthy non nutritional foods.”The AMDR for fats is 20 to 35 percent of calories, with 5 to 10 percent coming from essential fatty acids. Within this range, we should minimize our intake of saturated fats”(P.188). This being said I weigh around 230lbs and my daily caloric intake is around 4000 calories I should have 20-35 percent of my calories being fats, which comes out to around 90-110 grams of fat. Which seems very high but you have to take in the essential fats that our body needs to stay healthy.

Overall this chapter was very beneficial for I think everyone in our class to read and learn about because as all of our goals are different we all need to take into affect all of these things to provide our bodies with essential nutrients to have a healthy and happy life. This week has been a little draining and tough as I feel myself getting bored and not as motivated to workout as it isn’t the same at home as it is at the gym. I miss the environment of everyone in there working to better themselves but this is a test I guess to see who really is looking to achieve there goal because it is very easy to skip the gym or a workout when you are at home and you could stay in bed instead.

These past couple weeks have been really stressful to say the least with everything going on. The stress between figuring out whats going to happen with school, jobs, and overall living. It has been bitter sweet hearing the fact that we need to self quarantine and pretty much be stuck in our house alone but also getting some break from going into work and school. The biggest thing that a lot of people are worrying about who set health related goals especially in this class is the fact that gyms are closed for who know hows long. But we need to take this time to focus our efforts on different aspects of health for example if we are primarily focused on the muscular strength aspect we can refocus our efforts on to cardiovascular health so we still stay in shape. In my case I figured that the gyms were going to close and I was fortunate enough to have a home gym that I can still continue my fitness journey on. Although i do miss the regular gym due to the atmosphere and feeling of being surrounded with other people who have the same goals which motivates you.

I am sure that since we are all college students we all have experienced our own use of alcohol and tobacco, whether that has been good or bad experiences. It tends to be the college norm to drink whether you want to or feel peer pressured to. Several factors however influence college students to drink so heavily when going to college especially the fact that have the new freedom of living away from home and being able to do what they want without consequences or so they thought. Actually a lot of college students who binge drink “In the past 12 months, a significant number of college students who drank experienced at least one negative consequence of alcohol consumption”(153). This can lead to students having bad experiences that they may regret later or life or even the next day. Alcohol when not drinking responsibly can cause some people to experience situations that they would not be in if they were sober. Drinking also may affect your grades while in school. “The more students drink, the more likely they are to miss class, do poorly on tests and papers, have lower grade point averages, and fall behind on assigned work”(154). I will be the first to say that my freshman year first semester I feel into this category and did not perform as good as I would have hoped to. But you live and you learn with every situation in life.

Another topic that I found interesting was the large percentage of people who use tobacco products. “Approximately 36 million Americans age 18 and older report using tobacco products”(169). This has definitely been an upward trend that a lot of younger kids are getting involved with especially with the vapes and e-cigarettes having such a wide range of flavors which draws in the younger crowd. This is becoming a problem not just with people who are in college and 18 and older but also it is affected the younger age from 12-18 which is scary because kids at this age are still developing and it is going to affect them in the long run.

Since this is a health class I figured the last topic I would talk about was the effects that alcohol and tobacco have on your overall health and health in the gym. For people who are avid gym goers or even people who just like to stay in shape the use of these drugs are counterproductive and will hurt you although you may not think so if used short- term. For people who are interested in losing weight Alcohol is a big way to actually do the complete opposite and make you gain weight. According to this chapter “By drinking an extra 150 calories a day more than you need, you can gain 1 pound a month and up to 12 pounds a year”(158). Which I am sure a lot of people are not drinking one drink a day so they think this won’t happen but if you pair just drinking on the weekends you consume a lot more calories than you think. Whether it comes from the alcohol alone or the munchies you get when you get home from the bar. In turn even if you aren’t worried about gaining weight because you go to the gym, you have to consider the fact that on days where you consume a lot of alcohol you are less likely to want to go to the gym the next day because you are hungover. Even if you do get the courage to go you might not have the best workout because of the dehydration factor. The use of tobacco also has some very negative effects on the health of the body. ” Smoking decreases oxygen supplied to the heart and contributes to irregular heart rhythms”(170). Also “Smokers are more prone to breathlessness, chronic cough, and excess phlegm production than are nonsmokers their age”(170). These two things alone contribute to how effective your workouts are without the health of your lungs and heart how are you going to improve the way you look and feel. So these two drugs combined play a big toll on your bodily functions.

Addiction is something I am all to familiar with, I have a family history of family members being addicted to drugs and alcohol. So I have grown up around it which I think has kept me away from these negative substances. A thing that stood out to me was the different types of addictions that are not correlated to drug use. I was not aware that things such as compulsive buying addictions actually occured. Chapter six states that “Compulsive buying is estimated to affect 6 percent of the U.S. population, mostly women”(Donatelle, 2019, p.138). This surprised me because 6% is a lot of the population when you really think about it. This addiction takes over there lives they shut out family members and friends to prioritize all there time around shopping and spending money. This in turn can lead to depression and the feeling of loneliness because this addiction shuts people out. Also they are codependent on these materialistic things which consumes all of there money so they are broke and all they have to show for it is clothing or designer bags that are only depreciated in value the more they are worn. The video on Pearson really caught my attention because the females that were being interviewed didn’t even realize they had a problem until they really took a step back and looked at what little they had in life.

Another topic I wanted to talk about was something that I think everyone suffers from in a sense which is Exercise addiction. Exercise addiction is described as “use exercise compulsively to try to meet needs—for nurturance, intimacy, self-esteem, and self-competency—that an object or activity cannot truly meet”(Donatelle, 2019, p.139). We all have a image that we want to look like from the social media posting unrealistic pictures that aren’t achievable without the use of steroids or photoshop. This causes us to obsess over how we look constantly checking the scale constantly looking in the mirror to see if we have gained progress. This is something that I need to work on myself I obsess over eating the specific amount of food through tracking and weighing my food to get the perfect macronutrients and also obsess over training in the gym. This is something I need to work on as I sometimes see myself focusing more on my body growth rather than my financial and educational growth.

The last topic I food interesting was something that ties into the last topic discussed which is addiction over anabolic steroids. “When users stop using steroids, they can experience psychological withdrawal and sometimes severe depression, in some cases leading to suicide attempts”(Donatelle, 2019, p.147). This ties in with exercise addiction. People are obsessed with the way they look so they do drastic measures like anabolic steroids. This leads to many problems especially when you chose to get off of it, your body issues become next level and you become dependent on how your body looks on steroids and can’t live without that look.

Overall I found this chapter to be very interesting and beneficial for people who are struggling from any type of addiction whether it is drug related or not. This past week has been a good week I have had a very successful week with tracking calories and my gym sessions have been really focused and driven to get to the goal I want.

This week overall has not been such a good week I have been struggling with consuming enough food because I simply don’t have the time to meal prep. This is something I need to work on and maybe implement a time management strategy to help be more efficient. I have still been going to the gym constantly and have been tracking my weight and there has not been any downfalls which is good, but I am not where I want to be. So I today I woke up early and meal prepped for the next 5 days to ensure that I will not use the excuse of not having enough time.

The first thing that caught my eye with reading this chapter is the wide range of options for preventing an unwanted pregnancy. Options range from barrier methods including condoms for both males and females to hormonal methods, to surgical methods. So the options are there it is just a matter of if you plan properly. I noticed while reading this chapter that hormonal methods can be difficult to take if you life a busy and stressful life “If a woman misses one pill, she should use an alternative form of contraception for the remainder of that cycle”(Donatelle, 2019, P.105). Also they have some negative side effects “Different brands of pills can cause varying minor side effects. Some of the most common are spotting between periods (particularly with extended-cycle regimens), breast tenderness, and nausea”(Donatelle, 2019, P.105). Yet there are a lot of advantages with these as well the main one being that if taken correctly it can be 99% effective in protecting you from unwanted pregnancies.

Another thing that caught my attention was the sterilization process. This is offered for both females and males. The female procedure is called tubal ligation which is, “the woman’s fallopian tubes are sealed to block sperm’s access to released eggs “(Donatelle, 2019, P. 118). The male procedure is called a vasectomy which is, “is frequently done on an outpatient basis, using a local anesthetic”(Donatelle, 2019, P. 118). Both of these procedures are permanent and cannot be reversed. This is a huge step in preventing pregnancy and something that you have to think about for a while it is usually performed in people of older age who have already had multiple children and are just not looking for another by accident. The only concern with this procedure is that it does not offer protection against STIs so you still might need to take further precautions when performing sexual activities.

My last topic from this chapter is going to be discussing abortions which is in my opinion a last measure. This is why these precautions are all so important. To prevent unwanted pregnancies especially ones that end in Abortion. There is such a large debate on wether this is right or wrong in a recent poll “47 percent of Americans described themselves as pro-choice, while 46 percent described themselves as pro-life”(Donatelle, 2019, P. 120). I definitely think that there is reasons that they should keep it but there are also reasons that they should get rid of it. It is a topic widely discussed and debated and could be prevented if you just take the necessary precautions above.

Honestly I did not know about a lot of these methods discussed about in the chapter and it was very informative. This topic did not pertain to my goal for this class however I think practicing regular sex with a partner can be very important in releasing unwanted stress that might be preventing you from reaching your ultimate goal in this class. I also thought I would add a photo showing the large riots that abortion cause.

This week has overall been very productive. I have been really focusing on the gym and trying to improve muscle function throughout each workout. Although my life is very stressful I have been using some techniques discussed in the previous chapter and It really has been helping me balance my life as a whole. I continue to push forward each week closer and closer to my goals. I weighed in at 229lbs today which is the heaviest I have ever been. I am really happy with how this blog has been helping me focus on my goals and track my progress through this facebook group.

This chapter discusses very important factors of living a healthy and happy life. Although I thought that I knew everything about relationships considering I have been happily in one for the past two years I guess I really don’t . There are things that we need to work on together to help grow and progress our relationship further than it already is. Something that I think that I need to work on not just with my intimate relationship but all of my relationships(family, friends) is communication. It sounds so simple because since we were kids we have been trying to communicate, we would “flail our arms, cry, scream, smile, frown, and make sounds and gestures to attract attention or to communicate what we want or need”(Donatelle, 2019, P.83). Communicating is key to any healthy relationship and we sometimes just simply forget to do so.

While reading this chapter I really got interested in the family aspect of relationship. Simply due to every relationship starting from your family. We tend to forget or take for granted our family members and not show them the love they deserve. But our relationships outside our family start from learning from how we were taught “to care for, love, and socialize with one another”(Donatelle, 2019, P.73).

Overall this Chapter really showed me how to grow in any relationship. Also how to develop new and healthy relationships in life. All of these factors play a huge factor in mental health without having healthy relationships we would have no one to acknowledge us and learn from.

As someone who is currently managing work as well as being a full time college student, I am no stranger to stress. In fact this semester has been my worst semester yet. I am currently taking 7 classes to graduate on time, and the workload is very stressful as I feel I have no free time for myself. Stress defined is “the mental and physical response and adaptation by our bodies to the real or perceived changes and challenges in our lives”(50). This whole chapter goes into how stress affects your body positively and negatively. An interesting factor of stress that I didn’t know about was eustress which is “positive stress, presents the opportunity for personal growth and satisfaction and can actually improve health”(50). This was a surprise to me because who would’ve thought that stress could be positive.

Stress can be managed well through means of exercise. I know that for me if I am having an extremely stressful day and I decide to go to the gym I will release a lot of my stress through lifting. Which can be a very helpful tool when getting stressed. Stress is no joke and we have to look out for it. We should always be trying to adapt to the stress of our everyday lives because chronic stress “may not feel as intense, it can linger indefinitely and wreak silent havoc on your body’s systems”(51). The dangerous side of stress is the long term effects of being in a stressful environment day in and out. Stress is more prevalent in our current generation as we are labeled the “stress generation”. This is due to the tremendous stress we put on ourselves around getting a job, finishing school, etc.

I can relate very well to the chapter talking about stress relating to poor sleeping habits. If there is a stressful situation in my life I can’t get it out of my head when I am trying to go to sleep. I toss and turn without getting quality sleep. This not only affects me the next day but, long term if I am constantly having these poor sleeping habits it will negatively affect my body functions. As discussed above we are known as the stress generation due to the rapid growth of technology and how we use it. When we are stressing about something we tend to do what I listed above and if we can’t sleep we turned to our phones which in turn cause for longer periods without sleep. Good habit to get into would be an hour before bed turn off and put down all electronics to get the most quality sleep in a night.

As I discussed in my last blog, I started mediation which I believe has helped my stress levels. I have been meditating 15-20mins in the morning or at night which has really released a lot of built up stress throughout the day. Something that I believe I need to include in my everyday environment is time management. So i plan on getting a journal and adjusting it weekly with time management to control my work and school so they do not conflict one another.

Thanks to everyone who read my blog have a great weekend. Also thought I would throw in a picture of my dogs because they are great ways to deter stress.

In Chapter 2 the focus is on Psychological health and wellbeing. This aspect of health is beneficial for overall health because if your not psychologically healthy you are not going to get the boost to go to the gym, eat healthy, and worry about how you look and feel. The thing that first caught my eye was the influences of psychological health and how your surroundings can help or hurt you. As stated “family members shape your psychological health”(Donatelle, 2019, p.33). So having a good support system around you is just going to make you benefit and build key factors that come along with psychological health. Which entails self-esteem and self-efficiency. These two characteristics come back to having a good support system as stated in the chapter, “Self-esteem results from the relationships we have with our parents and family growing up; with our friends as we grow older; with our significant others as we form intimate relationships”(Donatelle, 2019, p.34).

A topic that I found very interested this chapter was Mindfulness. Which is “the ability to be fully present in the moment; to focus your thoughts and engage in nonjudgmental observation(Donatelle, 2019, p.40). This is something I need to interpret in my daily life. This would help benefit in so many ways and help me grow not just physically but also mentally. Something that I believe would help with psychological growth that is discussed in this chapter is meditation. Meditation is so important is clearing and removing any negative energy from your body. It is so easy to meditate for 15-20 minutes a day and I think starting today I am going to implement this into my daily routine.

Overall Physiological health is so important for growth and people don’t understand the different disorders that people can develop. These disorders such as anxiety, mood, personality disorder, etc. are very deteriorating to our overall health. Thats why as discussed in this book I think to prevent these illnesses and successfully grow with age you need to interpret what the chapter discusses. I have inserted a quote that helps me time to time to realize and see why you should never give up. Which helps build my psychological health when I need the extra drive.