Sci_241_Final_Paper

Personalized Nutrition and Exercise Plan Mandi Powers SCI/241 December 12,010 Lisa Morris Personalized Nutrition and Exercise Plan Nutrition and exercise are something that I have never cared about. I never worried about how my body would be affected by the foods that I eat. Those things never crossed my mind until I started this class. It is not easy to change the eating habits that we have grown so accustom to, but if I want to live a healthy life I have to make those changes. I have developed a nutrition and exercise plan that will help me stay on track while I make changes to my diet. In this plan I am going to discuss cholesterol and how it could be a potential health problem that I could face, and how following this plan will help my avoid cholesterol problems in my future. This plan will be initiated in the next 30 days and is something that I can follow from the first day throughout the rest of my life. Cholesterol is a soft waxy substance that is found in many of the foods that we eat. Cholesterol is not only found in some of the foods that we eat but produced by the liver as well. The cholesterol is needed to produce some hormones and vitamin D, helps to build cell walls and creates bile salts that digest fat. The liver produces about 1,000 milligrams of cholesterol a day. Foods like fatty meats, eggs, dairy products like milk, cheese, and ice cream are all loaded with cholesterol. The cholesterol that we take in can’t travel through the body alone. It has to combine with certain proteins. The proteins come along and pick up the cholesterol and carry it to other parts of the body. High cholesterol can lead to other health problems such as heart disease. The risk of heart disease goes up as the cholesterol level in the body goes up. If I really want to avoid cholesterol problems in the future I have to have some nutrition and exercise goals. The first nutritional goal would be to cut down foods like fatty meats, cheese, whole milk, and egg yolks. These foods are all full of cholesterol. By cutting down on these foods it will help lower my cholesterol level. To lower high cholesterol levels it is important to limit the total fat intake to 25-35% of the total daily calories. Less that 7% of the daily calories should come from the saturated fats and no more than 10% from polyunsaturated fats. The second thing is to exercise on a daily basis. If I start exercising for let’s say 30 minutes a day in the beginning I will be able to slowly work my way up to longer periods of time. The daily exercise will help me build muscle tone and drop a few pounds. Walking, swimming, jogging, and bicycling are all good way to get exercise. In my area these thing can’t be don’t all year round. In my opinion the next best thing to actually getting outside to do these exercises is using the Wii game console with the fitness games. This will help ensure that when it is cold and there is 6 feet of snow, I can still get my work outs. The next thing that I can do is have 3 healthy meals a day. The daily reccomendations of the food pyramid for me based on my age, height, weight, and gender are 3 cups of milk, 5.5 ounces of meat and beans, 2.5 cups of vegetables, 2 cups of fruit, and 6 ounces of grains. I have never eaten 3 meals a day. My day usually consist of one meal around 5 and snacking the rest of the day. I will start with a breakfast of whole grain toast with orange juice and a cup of milk. Lunch would be a grilled chicken salad with fat free dressing, fruit, and water to drink. Dinner will now be cooked at home more often and not be ordered take out. A grilled steak, mashed potatoes and a vegetable with milk to drink would be a healthier meal than the greasy pizza loaded down with pepperoni and cheese that we would usually have on a busy day. Any snacks that I have throughout the day will not be candy bars or chips and soda, now I will have things like whole grain fruit bars, a piece of fruit, or raw vegetables like celery or carrots. The last thing that I will do is stop buying junk food and food loaded with sugars. I will start making grocery list and not buying things that are not on it. If I stop buying the junk and start buying fruits and vegetables the temptation will be gone. If I don’t have the junk food here in the house I won’t be tempted to eat it. What are the actions I am going to take to make sure that I meet each one of these goals' First thing I think I would do is make a chart and assign a different type of exercise every day. The different types of exercise will work different muscles in my body. This will help make sure that all of my muscles get worked properly. If I assign a different exercise to everyday of the week and perform the exercises at the same time of day my body will get used to the new routine and not make me tired or sore. I will also keep a journal. In this journal I will be able to keep track of the foods that I am eating along with the amount of exercise that I am getting. The journal will also track weight loss. I am sure that I am going to have setbacks or difficulties in the beginning. The first thing would be no motivation. Without the motivation to do this it will never happen. For me the motivation is my family. I don’t want to end up with major health problems because of my diet and have to depend on my family. I want to be around to see my kids grow up and have families of their own. So every time that I don’t feel like exercising or if I go for the junk food I will just think about my kids and that will get me motivated. It is going to be difficult at first. I am so used to eating nothing but junk that it will be hard to pick up a banana instead of a bag of potato chips or candy bar. To get past this I could still treat myself to some of the things that I enjoy, but I have to limit these treats to once a week or once every other week. That way I still have my sweets to look forward too. How will I measure my success' My body will tell me if I am successful. My body is going to notice the changes first. I should notice more energy and stamina. The second thing is that I will keep track of is my weight loss. With a healthy diet and exercise I should notice that I drop a few pounds. I am not looking for a large weight loss but a few pounds a month would be nice. Nothing is going to happen overnight, but after just a few weeks I will begin to notice changes. What evidence will I have to know that my plan is effective in helping me avoid any future cholesterol problems' My health is going to me my evidence. If I follow my plans and stick to my workouts there is no reason that I should have to worry about having high cholesterol. It is not something that runs in the family but with the way that I eat junk food I am really interested in knowing what my level is. By getting enough exercise and following the reccomendations of the food pyramid I will have all the evidence I need in my body. If I don’t follow this plan I could end up with high cholesterol that could lead to heart disease. When the level of cholesterol in the body is high it builds up on the arteries causing atherosclerosis, a form of heart disease. The arteries will become clogged and the heart does not receive enough blood or oxygen and one might suffer from chest pains. If the blood supply is blocked off to a portion of the heart the end result is a heart attack. It is important to have the cholesterol levels measured every couple years to make sure that it is at a safe level. High cholesterol does not cause any symptoms so it is impossible to know when your cholesterol levels are too high. In conclusion nutrition and exercise are very important. By eating health and exercising on a daily basis I can help avoid health problems like high cholesterol that could potently lead to heart disease. I developed this plan to help me avoid these health problems and if I stick to it and follow it I will lower my risk of high cholesterol and heart disease. The higher the cholesterol levels are the higher the risk of heart disease. The most important thing is to stay motivated so that I can follow this plan and see my children grow up and have families. Change is not easy but with this plan it should be easier on me and my family. References: (n.d). cholesterol, Retrieved from XRefer XML database http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cholesterol/CL00002 http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/guide/heart-disease-lower-cholesterol-risk