I’d like to start by restating my health aspect for reference: to eat healthier. It sounds like an easy objective, but it’s proven to be a bit hard for me in my current lifestyle.
The first piece of content from chapter 1 of the text that I’d like to discuss is the topic of environmental health. Environmental health is described as the dimension that includes the health of the environment in which you live and work. Perhaps I’m shifting blame, but I like to say that my work environment is what prevents me from heating healthy. I work part time at a Jersey Mike’s, and I also coach basketball. On rare occasions, I work at Jersey Mike’s in the morning/afternoon, and drive to coach basketball at night. As a result, I end up going through a lot of drive-thrus. Even on the days where I only work at one place or the other, sub sandwiches don’t exactly spell out healthy, and neither do the vending machines at local high schools. Furthermore, it doesn’t help that the area in which I live, Braintree, has a higher number of fast food options than they do healthy options. I also found this dimension especially important of the six because of the external factors that play into it. In my case, sure, I can move apartments or find new work which puts me into a better situation, but those aren’t easy fixes. My point is, there are a whole lot of factors in this dimension that are out of the individual’s control.
Next, I found the social cognitive model to be pretty interesting. I think more people are driven by social anxiety than they are by internal thoughts. More people see how they want to look or feel based on marketing campaigns, or movies, or social media. The minority, and this is just my belief, is the group of people who take the initiative and create change all on their own. In my opinion, this theory of the three models of behavior change makes the most sense.
Lastly from chapter 1, I want to talk about the steps they highlight to improve health. I think the problem I have with obtaining my health aspect is that I don’t identify a target behavior as the text lays out. I can’t just say, “I want to eat healthier,” and expect results. The text talks about starting smaller and targeting a specific negative behavior first. For my current situation, I think the behavior I need to correct is having better food options readily available for me at my apartment. I allow too much time to pass between grocery store trips, and when I do go I need to be better about getting things like fresh produce. That way, if I’m working until 10pm, I know I can come home and have a healthy snack before bed rather than hitting up McDonald’s.
Moving on to chapter 2, I want to talk about emotional health. Out of context, it may not sound like emotional health would impact how one eats, but people act on their emotions all of the time. Before I go any further, I’d like to clarify something. I know my health aspect is specifically EATING healthy, but I think it’s safe to say that what you’re drinking is included in your eating habits. With that being said, let’s use a night out at a bar for a baseball game as an example. You’re a Red Sox fan, and your favorite team just beat the Yankees in a thrilling, extra inning game. You’re feeling extreme euphoria, so you celebrate with your friends with some more drinks which alone is a an unhealthy habit. However, the domino effect doesn’t end there. The next morning you wake up feeling hungover, and the only thing you’re craving is a greasy double cheeseburger from the local diner. This is just one example of how your emotions can lead to unhealthy eating habits.
The text uses the term “support system” a couple of times in this chapter, so I’d like to group that into my next talking point. I’ve already eluded to this earlier in this blog, but people often make decisions not necessarily on their own, but because of social cues or reasons. Having a solid support system is crucial in leading a healthy life. When you and your friends are looking to get food from somewhere, how easy is it for you to defer to your buddy who wants to go to the new burger place? This is especially more difficult if you’re on a diet and your friends aren’t. The text goes on to explain how creating a support system is a health strategy. It’s possible that your friend also wants to go on a diet. Talk with them and create a diet plan that works for the two of you.
My last takeaway from chapter 2 is that of spirituality and it’s actual relevance to one’s health. I’m just having a hard time with this one aspect and its definition. The lines are a bit blurry to me, even after reading this portion of the text. Reading it, it sounds a lot like emotional health. Later on it says that relationships are one of the facets of spirituality, but that starts to sound a lot like social health to me. This is a topic I would love to hear more about.
One term from chapter 3 that is entirely new to me is eustress. I’ve never heard of this term before, but I love the idea behind it. In a way, you can view all types of stress as eustress if you treat it as a personal challenge to overcome and learn from. For example, and to link it to my health aspect, going on a diet may sound like an impossible task for someone, but if you set a specific goal, like a weight you want to hit, then you can treat this stress as a personal contest against yourself. At the end of your diet, when you hit your target weight, you can come out of the experience a healthier, stronger person.
I never knew how deep the effects of stress went before reading this text. It cites things like constipation and gassiness as side effects which I had never heard of. It’s obvious though how closely related these are though to bad eating habits. Furthermore, I hear all the time about how people eat when they’re stressed out. I personally don’t get this way, but I believe that there is a direct connection between stress and excessive eating.
Lastly, I was very surprised to read about sleep and how it’s related to stress. I specifically was shocked to hear that a lack of sleep increases risk of type 2 diabetes. Surely this can’t increase one’s risk immensely, but this is a topic I would really be interested in reading more about.
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