Healthy_Decisions

With all the stress that comes along with being a college student, my fellow students and I are almost sure to make unhealthy decisions in our day to day life. These decisions can pertain to a number of different safety concerns, fitness, nutrition, or alcohol and tobacco use. Hopefully, not all of us make bad decisions in every single one of these categories; however, we all have specific areas that need improvement. The two main areas in which I identified my two unhealthiest choices were tobacco use ad consumption of unhealthy food. Both of these areas negatively affect my otherwise healthy lifestyle and are things which I can improve on. As an athlete, completing this list really made me think of what I have been putting in my body. I will now briefly discuss these issues and how I can improve on them in order to elevate my lifestyle to the next level. One area which I identified as having a negative effect on my health is tobacco use. I do not smoke a lot; however, any amount of smoking can have really hurt someone who is athletic. I never smoke before participating in sports and try to reserve it for the evening or before I go to sleep. Regardless of when I smoke I can always feel it when I run or cycle and I know it is hurting my overall performances, so I have came up with a few different solutions for this problem. The solutions I have generated to fix this issue are to try to break the occasional smoking by replacing it with other, not a dangerous, items. I personally know people who have replaced cigarettes with toothpicks, chewing gum, or hard candy. I think all these are more positive ways to service the hand to mouth fixation that smokers so often deal with. It may seem strange, but just having something to chew or suck on really can calm your nerves when in need. For example, instead of turning to a cigarette to calm my nerves in the evening, I could have a few pieces of hard candy to suck on and the small sugar rush could hopefully calm me just as well. It is no secret that sugar is also bad for you but I would be willing to have a little to stop the use of something that is hurting me so much. Medicines like Nicolette, Chantix, or electronic cigarettes, which introduce nicotine in to ones system by other means, are also available. I do not think these are viable options because it is my belief that if one is going to quit smoking one should not keep putting the addictive chemical into their body. However, if I really had a hard time quitting and could not do it on my own, I would give this a try. These are all good options, which are much healthier than smoking, but it all starts by deciding what one really wants out of life and making the decision to completely stop smoking for good. The other area which I identified as being very unhealthy is my food consumption. Because of my high level of physical activity, I rarely monitor my food intake or what I am eating. I am also impacted because I work as a cook at a bar six nights a week and am constantly surrounded by greasy, fatty food when dinner time comes. I am far from over weight but I fear that if I do not change my eating style I will see possible medical problems later in life. To facilitate this change, I have thought of an idea which I really believe will work. The first is making a list of what I am going to eat a day in advance and setting aside time to create meals ahead of time. For example, I could sit down on Sunday night and create a meal plan for Monday. Then I could make lunch and dinner with healthier food and back it to go instead of eating whatever is around, which is usually far from healthy. Taking time to do this will not be easy, especially with work and school taking so much time already, but it will be easier that dealing with complex medical conditions when I grow older. In a modern world such as 21st century America, there are many things which can be detrimental to one’s health. Lists can be created and pledges made but in the end of the day all of these mean very little. Without proper knowledge and dedication there is no list or pledge that will make people change. In a society so concerned with convenience, healthy decisions are so often forgotten. I cannot speak for anyone else but thanks to my education and dedication I believe I will be able to change these negative decisions in to healthier ones; by doing so, my life will be transformed for the better.