June 22nd, 2019
Chapter 10
Getting back in the swing of things:
When someone has been inactive for a while, it is important to ease back into the physical activity they may have left off from doing. Whether it is an injury that has kept them from exercising regularly or just a lack of motivation, it is crucial to take things slow on the return to the gym. Section three of this chapter discussed the safest ways to return to activity. The beginning of one’s fitness journey (or return to a previous one) is referred to as the initial conditioning stage. During this stage, lighter exercise is recommended to ensure that soreness and injury do not occur. Although you may have heard the expression “no pain, no gain” before, you certainly do NOT want to listen to that advice as you are in this stage (or really any stage of exercise at all). Although starting out slow may seem boring, there are many small changes to your daily routine that can benefit you positively without requiring any major adjustments.
How to stay active without overdoing it:
- Try taking the stairs instead of riding an elevator or escalator. This might not be something you’ve considered as exercise before however doing this all day everyday can add significant activity to your daily routine!
- Park further away from your destination or walk all the way to where you’re trying to go.
- Try simple bodyweight exercises. This will allow you to get comfortable with them and build good form before adding more weight.
If lack of motivation has kept you from exercising but you are working to overcome that obstacle, seek activities that interest YOU! If you are someone who enjoys biking, try taking a spin class. If you like swimming, try a water aerobics class. There are such a wide range of fitness activities to try so don’t get discouraged if you try something and don’t enjoy it. When signing up for fitness classes remember to stay mindful of what fitness level you’re at. If you’re still in the initial conditioning stage, don’t sign up for an advanced class as that would be setting yourself up for frustration!
New beginnings can be very intimidating and the gym is definitely a place where a lot of people feel especially intimidated. Fitness is something that is meant to help you, not hurt you so stay slow and trust the process. Fitness isn’t something that can be rushed but if you remain patient with it, you will eventually see and feel the results you want.
I can relate this to my health aspect because throughout this course I have been trying to eat cleaner and more regularly. Although this is not directly related to fitness, the idea of starting out slow and working my way towards my end goal is relevant. Just how a person starting out on their fitness journey cannot be expected to successfully complete a marathon, I had to remind myself that the journey of improving my health aspect was a gradual process.
What to do if you overdo it at the gym:
Say you don’t follow the advice that you just read about, then what? Well fortunately for you in section thirteen of this chapter there is a simple acronym to help you properly address your fitness-related injury. RICE.
R– Rest! Now that you have addressed that you have an injury, do not make the damage any worse by continuing to abuse the injured area.
I- Ice. Put ice over the injured area to relieve any pain or discomfort you may be feeling and also to reduce any bleeding that may be occurring internally or externally.
C– Compression. Use an elastic bandage to ease any bleeding that may be occuring and gently keep the area of injury secured. Be careful not to make the bandage too tight, as you don’t want to restrict the normal blood flow!
E- Elevation. Be sure to keep the injured area raised up above the heart so that any excessive bleeding or swelling is reduced.
This first-aid information is of course in regard to minor injuries that can heal themselves with time and rest. Any and all major injuries that do not seem to heal after 24 hours should definitely be looked at by a medical professional.
Safely exercising in extreme weather:
Section fourteen of this chapter shared a little information on how to properly exercise in extreme temperatures and this was something that I found super interesting. I can vividly remember having cheer practice at my high school in a large, humid gym with tons of windows. Although it wasn’t outside in the direct sunlight, I certainly remember how much the sun gleaming in through the large windows effected my practices. There were many times where I felt so overworked and exhausted that I was sure I was experiencing heatstroke (luckily I wasn’t actually but at times it certainly felt like it!). Heatstroke occurs when the body’s temperature is above what it is able to cool off. The temperature of your body can increase from it’s typical 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit to a frightening 105 or even 110 degrees.
Symptoms include: red, hot skin; rapid heart rate and a high body temperature.
Heatstroke is not something to mess around with because it can cause serious disability or death. To avoid this, try to exercise in shaded areas, give yourself time to rest during workouts and always have plenty of cold fluids available during exercise. These may sound like very simple ingredients to success but without them, serious injury can occur.
This is easy to relate to my health aspect because just as overworking the body in extreme heat leads to negative effects, undernourishing my body by not eating enough or not eating the proper foods to fuel me also lead to negative effects on my health.
Chapter 11
Seriously, don’t sweat the small stuff:
This chapter discussed something that far too many people have unfortunately been effected by: cancer.
One of the interesting tidbits of information within this chapter was the information that stress and psychosocial risks can have an effect on someones likeliness to develop cancer. When I first read this is truly had no idea how something like stress could possibly increase someone’s risk of cancer.
Section fourteen explained that on average, people who are overstressed or who experience persistent emotional problems tend to show higher rates of cancer than those who do not. This is because people who experience difficulties sleeping, who eat unhealthily or who are experiencing emotional or physical trauma have weakened immune systems. This makes them much more susceptible to cancer! This was something that I had never heard before so as someone who is working on adjusting what I eat and how often I eat, I am taking this advice into serious consideration when planning out my weeks from now on. I am someone who is constantly getting less than four hours of sleep and who often skips meals without noticing so to reading this information was a huge wake-up call that I need to make some real adjustments.
Get out the umbrellas, hats and sunscreen:
Section nineteen was a bit more personal for me because it shared a lot of information on skin cancer. This is unfortunately something that many of my aunts and uncles have had in recent years, so to learn about it was really interesting and informational on. personal level. Skin cancer occurs when ultraviolet light (UV) damages the immune cells of the skin and essentially primes skin for cancer.
When I learned about skin cancer in high school, it was made out to seem very minimal or not something to be SERIOUSLY concerned about because most types of skin cancer are curable. This section informed me that although yes, some types of Melanoma have a survival rate of 98%, there are types whose survival rates are a small 17%.
Because this is something that seems to run in my family and the few times I have gotten a bad sunburn I have peeled very easily (a symptom mentioned within this section) I am definitely going to be as cautious as I can be when enjoying the rest of my beach days this summer!
What I didn’t know about Diabetes:
Section 23 of this chapter discussed something I have never really known much about: diabetes. I have always known the main causes of diabetes and the health risks that diabetics have however I have never really known the difference between the types of diabetes.
What I learned is that Type 1 diabetes accounts for only about 5% of all cases of diabetes. Type 1 is also known as juvenile diabetes because it occurs most often in children and adolescents. This kind of diabetes requires daily injections of insulin because of an immune system that attacks and diminishes insulin-making cells within the Pancreas.
Additionally, I learned that Type 2 diabetes accounts for about 95% of all cases of diabetes. This kind of diabetes is diagnosed when the pancreas doesn’t produce enough insulin or when the body becomes resistant to it. This is known as insulin resistance.
With diabetes increasing from 108 million people in 1980 to a whopping 422 million people in 2014 it certainly isn’t something to ignore as someone who is interested in becoming a health educator.
Chapter 12
While reading section three of this chapter, I remembered the sick days I spent at home where I painfully sipped on warm honey water to try and relieve my aching throat. What I’m referring to are the times when I’ve had strep throat. This sickness is caused by a microorganism known as Streptococcus which causes different kinds of bacterial infections. I’ve personally experienced streptococcal pharyngitis (strep throat).
What I didn’t know about this microorganism is that it causes various types of sicknesses aside from strep throat. I’ve heard of scarlet fever and toxic shock syndrome before, but I had no idea they began with the same microorganism that strep throat develops from!
The two main types of streptococci:
- Group A streptococci: Causes strep throat, scarlet fever, toxic shock syndrome, necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating strep).
- Group B streptococci: Causes sickness in newborn babies, pregnant women, older adults and adults with preexisting conditions such as diabetes.
Avoiding sick days:
Lucky for you, flu vaccinations are free and available at CVS, Walgreens and many other local clinics. Why am I mentioning this you ask?
I am mentioning the availability of flu vaccines because the flu is a sickness that can result in serious health complications and even death. With an estimated 3,000 to 49,000 deaths related to the flu every year, it is seriously something to protect yourself from. Although college-aged people are not at the highest risk ( children under age 5 and adults over age 65 are), it is still important to get vaccinated every year.
Each year vaccinations are adjusted to meet the news strains of influenza. Because of this, getting re-vaccinated is the most effective way to avoid catching the sickness. I was surprised to hear that information because (and I guess I had never really thought this deeply about the flu before) I didn’t realize that the vaccination is adjusted each year!
Too much of a good thing isn’t always a good thing:
This section genuinely baffled me.
The understanding that “superbugs” or highly resistant organisms have evolved to be resistant to certain antibiotics is amazing to me. I was so amazed to learn what an over-usage of antibiotics within the food production industry, improper disposal of antibiotics when people finish prescriptions and overuse of sanitizers and antibacterial soaps have now led up to.
A whopping 70% of produced antibiotics are ingested by fish and animals within food production. This is because they are believed to help animals grow more and resist diseases as they are farmed. Humans not only contaminate animals, but waterways as well! By flushing excess prescriptions down the toilet and improperly throwing them away those medications are polluted into waterways and soil. An estimated 150 MILLION antibiotic prescriptions are released into soil and waterways every year, that is far too many to be good. The cleaning industry has also contributed to the increase of antibiotic resistance by how many cleaning supplies are “antibacterial” which has led the germs that are not killed by them to grow even stronger.
My Health Aspect
This week was just about the most successful for me as far as my health aspect has been so far!
Although I still haven’t gotten the hang of packing food ahead of time (my wallet is kind of hurting since there are so many healthy food options for take-out close to my work), I definitely ate a solid 3 meals everyday throughout this past week! Luckily, I had a pretty normal work schedule which made it easy to plan out times to eat and stay hydrated so that was a huge help towards my goal of not forgetting or skipping a meal while I was so busy. I can definitely say that I felt the difference each morning when I woke up or each day when I was at work because overall I felt much more energized and awake! I definitely didn’t realize how tired or unenthusiastic I felt prior to eating on such a normalized schedule and routine but I am suer excited about how this week went and am looking forward to these next few weeks where I am hopefully going to continue to improve even more!
Lindsey's Health Blog 