Health Plan Write up
This was an outline of everything we had to do personally for the project. We had to create health plan and attempt to stick with it for at least one month. We could record different things we saw and at the end we wrote reflections on how we did each week. Here is mine! Enjoy.
Health Plan
Daniel Cohen
11/5/13 - 12/5/13
Leader
I hope to prevent diabetes and heart disease.Those are my two main concerns. I just want to be healthy and fit and full of energy more than anything else. I do not want to just be skinny because that is not the main sign of health. I have been getting sick more frequently and my immune system is not good as it used to be. I went 15 months without being sick and now I get sick every couple of months. My health plan can affect my dad because he is the type of guy who loves to go out and eat, but not exercise afterwards. His excuse is that he is old and he cannot handle that on his body. But it would help him because his family is known to have a history of heart disease, and without keeping your heart pumping, it is easy for a blockage to occur. I think the diet and going to the gym can motivate him to start going with me and continue to stay healthy. He recently found out that he is prediabetic so this could really be good for his dietary habits. For me, it will help me lose weight, gain confidence and energy. Those are the three things that I want it to help with the most. I also believe it can help reduce my stress levels.
The things that I am planning to change and monitor with my health and fitness are in three different categories. I want to improve my physical fitness/health, mental health, and nutritional health. For my physical health I want to always be out of my house during the day for at least 30 minutes. I want to be skating for at least an hour a day and if I cannot do that then I want to go to the gym during the week. I used to go to the gym about 4 times a week with my brother, but ever since he left for college I haven’t really been to the gym. The way I will monitor will be by how long it takes me to get tired from skating. The way I will do this is by how long it takes for me to lose breath and how long I skate for all together. Usually I will want to stop skating and go to bed very early on. After about 30 minutes I will not want to skate anymore and have no energy. Hopefully by the end I will be able to skate for multiple hours at a time and get a good enough workout to lose weight. For my nutritional health I was originally going to plan to just have a vegetarian diet so that it would be no meat at all, but I realized I have a lot of chicken in my diet so I decided to switch to just chicken and turkey since they are lean meats. I also want to have Isagenix shakes every single morning as my breakfast. They are protein shakes that equals a meal replacement and it has a lot of the nutrients I need. My plan is to have one of them in the morning, have something some what healthy for lunch and then have a normal meal with chicken and rice for dinner. For my mental plan I chose to meditate for at least 30 minutes a night and pay the math 24 mental game. I want to meditate because I really want to focus on my breathing and I want to work on controlling my heart rate. This is really important to me because focusing and controlling my breathing and heart rate can help with my asthma attacks. Many times when I get these attacks, I tend to sit down, take deep breaths and just focus on my breathings. Many times it helps me and benefits me. I want to do it at least three times a week so that I will become a natural and any time I feel a shortness of breath I will result to meditation rather than my rescue inhaler. The math 24 is a really fun mental game that I do a lot of my time anyways. In the game you have 4 different numbers. The object is to get to 24 using the four numbers that are given and you can use any of the basics procedures like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. I just feel it is something that will keep my brain sharp and it will help with repetition. the same numbers tend to pop up and by using them previously, I tend to start to find patterns. The way I will determine and monitor how I am doing is by seeing how many math 24 cards I can solve within one minute before and after the project is over and how long it takes for me to go to sleep after meditating.
For the musculoskeletal system my past fitness was good up until this summer. The only thing I fractured in my life was my left leg and then this summer I tore ligaments in my left knee and it messed it up severely. I could not walk for 3 days and I kept injuring my leg. My current health with it is not good. If i walk on it wrong, bend it a certain way, or run at all it will re tear the ligaments and I will be hurt for several days after. I cannot play basketball, volleyball or many of the other activities I love to do because I am afraid I will re-injure it. My cardiovascular health has been okay in the past. My heart does not seem to be giving any bad signs however my dads side of the family has had many cases of heart problems. My uncle has had 3 hearts attacks and my Grandfather has a pacemaker. My dad has not had any signs of heart conditions at all so perhaps I do not have any problems. I do, however, has a severe case of asthma and have to use my rescue inhaler on a regular basis. My current level of health is good though. The only bad sign is that I run out of breath very quickly when I am doing physical activity. If you asked me to run from the school to my house which is only 1 mile away I would probably be out of breath and throwing up. With my digestive system, I have had problems breaking down sugar and wheat in the past. Many times from sugar and wheat, I would gain weight extremely fast and it would make my eczema start to flare up. When I moved to California I noticed that I really started to gain weight and I realized it may have been an environmental factor. Now I still have many of those problems and I still cannot break down a lot of foods very well so I keep a lot of excess weight. It is mostly because of the diet choices I make. I have been fine with my nervous system in the past. I have always had a functioning brain and I have never pinched a nerve or anything like that in my life. I still find that my nervous system is in tip top shape.
For the beginning date I will assess three different areas. My nutrition, physical, and mental health. For my nutritional assessment, I will take how many calories I had for that week and have that as my average calorie marker during the week. Then every week after that I will compare it and see if I am doing better or worse. For my physical assessment I will see how many jumping jacks and push ups I can do in a minute. It would have been a cardio assessment but because I hurt my knee I can’t run. For my mental assessment I will monitor how long it takes for me to fall asleep. How I will monitor this is by having checkpoints. I will get into bed by eleven o’clock every night. If I cannot sleep by 12 I will mark if it takes longer than that. For my daily routine the three are different. For nutrition I will log if I eat any red meat that day. I will also log if I had my shake for breakfast. For my physical I will mark if I skated for at least 30 minutes that day and if I went to the gym that day or not. For my mental I will see if I meditated before I went to sleep and if it helped me go to sleep quicker. And with the math game I will just log if I solved 10 or more in one night with no time limit. For my weekly log I will log the nutrition by seeing the number of calories I had and comparing it with my start date and see if I had less calories or more that week. For my physical aspect I will see if I skated everyday and how long I skated each time to see if my times went up. For the second part I will see if I went to the gym at least 3 times that week. If it was 3 or more then it was a successful week. For the mental I will see how much better I did with the math 24 and see if I could do 10 in less time each week.
For my end date I will be journaling about how much better I feel with the new diet and see if I have more energy than when I started. For the physical I want to see how many jumping jacks and push ups I can do afterwards in one minute. I would also love to see how long I can skate for before losing all of my energy. For the mental I want to see if I need my inhaler less than usual and if I can slow and speed up my heart rate on command.
I have a couple of goals and accomplishments that I want to achieve before this plan is over. The main goal is to lose weight. I just want to be healthy and happy with my body. The other is to stop using my inhaler so much when it is unnecessary to do. I want to reduce the risk of heart disease as much as possible. I only want to use it one time a day or less.I want to lose at least 10 pounds and be active every single day. I want to be out of the house for at least one hour a day. I think I can accomplish the ten pounds and I will definitely get better at skating. I think I will have more energy because I will be skating everyday. I think that my stamina will go up a lot because of my skating every day. The only problem is because I want to skate so much and lost ten pounds, that means I have to be more physical. If I am more physical then that mean that I have to use my inhaler more. I think that my inhaler go will be very hard to reach but definitely doable.
All of these goals will surely help me prevent cardiovascular disease. Losing weight will be extremely helpful so I can stay active and keep my heart pumping. Taking weight off will help my heart because it will not have to pump and work as hard. Using the inhaler less will be very beneficial because every time I inhale the albuterol it scars my lungs. It also increases my heart rate when I take it and I get anxiety when I cannot slow it down. It will help my heart and my lungs very much which is good for me.
Week One Health Plan Reflection
Baseline Assessment: For my baseline assessment, I wanted to do something that would test my strength given the fact that I hurt my knee. So I decided to do pushups and jumping jacks (which were still a little hard on my knees). My first assessment on 11/5 was : 47 jumping jacks in one minute and 24 push ups in one minute. I was not happy with the results whatsoever. I was out of breath and sore.
12/5/13: I re-did the jumping jacks tonight and I got 70 in one minute! I was not happy with the results because I am sick but I did do a lot better than my first test so I was happy about that. I then re-did my push ups and got 39 in one minute and was extremely happy about the results. All the days I went to the gym to work on my upper body strength really paid off!
Wow. This week has been such a roller coaster for me. Not emotionally and not because it is hard to follow the diet plan, but because I was in situations where I could not access all the necessary ingredients for my health plan. However I did find myself exercising every single day and skating everyday for at least an hour. I had my shake every single morning that I was home and everything but I did cheat with red meat. Overall I did well with what I could do, and I definitely think I can stick with this health plan for the rest of the month and even longer. The only reason I cheated with the red meat rule was because I did not have dinner on Monday and my dad was already on his way home so he picked me up In and Out for dinner. Then the second time was on Monday again of the next week and my dad had left over steak so we ate that so it did not go to waste. The only reason why I did not have my shakes on Saturday and Sunday was because I was in La for college day and the Odd Future Carnival. Since I was up in La for those two days, I couldn’t work out or skate so it ruined my schedule. I did meditate though. I slept at my brother’s house and he does not have AC or a fan in his place. So I was overheating and freaking out. I could not go to sleep since it was too hot so I layed down and started focusing on my breathing. I slowed down my heart beat and just tried to relax. After about 10 minutes of focusing hard on my breathing I finally fell asleep. This was amazing to me because I can never sleep if I am over heating. I also played Math 24 with my brother because it is kind of our ritual. We both are very competitive and love the game.
Wednesday: I had my shake like I always do in the morning and I stayed away from red meat. I told my dad to just give me chicken for dinner and it worked very well. Then after school I skated for over an hour and had no time to go to the gym. Then I meditated at home and it was amazing. I felt super released. I also had basketball tryouts this day and puked.
Thursday: I had my shake but I had my In-n-Out this night. I meditated but did not play math 24 at all even though I wanted to.
Friday: I had my shake and I stayed away from red meat. This was college day and it was hard to stay away since all of the choices were ham. I went back to my brothers and meditated myself to sleep that night.
Saturday: I did not have my shake this morning since I was with my brother and I did have red meat at the concert because I bought a hot dog. I meditated again and fell asleep that night.
Sunday: I did not have my shake again because I went home on a train but I did not have red meat because I slept the whole day I got back. I did meditate but only for 20 minutes and became restless. I did play math 24 on my computer and went back to bed.
Monday: I did not have a shake because this was my day off and I woke up at 12 so I skipped breakfast. I did skate and did not have time to go to the gym.
Tuesday: I didn’t have a shake because I went to a cafe with my friend early in the morning and got eggs and coffee. I did skate but only for 30 minutes and no gym time.
Weekly calories: 15330
My weekly calories: 14260
Week 2 reflection
I don’t know how this program is working out for me. I don’t know if I am really bad at it or if I am just having to do it at a bad time. I had a lot of “no’s” for my section this week. I think it was because I had my dad’s birthday and my brother came down. Of course for my birthday my dad took us to a fish house and I am allergic to fish so all I could have on the menu was steak. I also went to practice one time during the week but that did not end well. I am not on varsity which is very disappointing! I was running trying to condition myself the whole practice. I was actually surprised at how well I did. Then I had taco bell and kind of destroyed all that hard work. But after taco bell I went to the skate park and skated for about 2 hours. The next day I went to the skate park again but ruined all of my work because I had Jack in the box after. I find that I literally destroy all of my hard work with eating the wrong types of food. That is probably why I weigh more than I want to. It is not that I don’t exercise enough, but it is because I eat all the wrong foods. If I do the most intense workout and then go and eat 60 cheeseburgers, all of my work will be lost. On Saturday it was my dads birthday like I explained so that consisted of nothing. The next day my brother was still in town so I decided to hang out with him and play video games with him and do homework most of the day. On wednesday I just hung out with my friend and skated for a little bit. It was actually really fun. We bonded a lot. Throughout the whole experience I found that I have not only gotten exercise throughout the week, but I also had a lot of fun with my friends.
Tuesday: Today was just an average day for me. I went skating for 30 minutes but it got dark so soon so I did not get much skating time in. I also just went home and relaxed. I did not have a shake because I was in a rush but I did stay away from red meat which I was extremely proud of myself for.
Wednesday: Today I had my shake and everything. I stayed away from red meat but this was a homework day for me because I just went home and did homework. I relaxed afterwards and just watched some television.
Thursday: On Thursday I had my shake but I gave in to taco bell and I had a wrap that had bacon in it. But then I went to the skatepark the next day and got in so much exercise. I also went to basketball practice that day and practiced for an hour straight of just running and when I was not on the court I was running up and down the sidelines.
Friday: I did have my shake today but I had red meat again! I went to the skatepark for 2 hours and got in a good workout but then me and a whole group of friends went to Jack in the box after and got a big meal. I had tacos and a breakfast sandwich with sausage. I also meditated that night since my body was so sore!
Saturday: I did not have a shake because it was my dads birthday. I did not even get up in time to have breakfast so I skipped it. I decided not to eat the whole day since I was having dinner at 5. It was my dads birthday so I cheated everything that day.
Sunday:I did not have a shake because we went out for breakfast for my dads extended birthday celebration. I had bacon as well so I had red meat. I still skated later that day however.
Monday: I did have a shake but I had a pork burrito for lunch. Did not skate but I meditated as I got home.
Demonstration of how I have been logging my calorie intake:
Meal
Food
Calories
Breakfast
Shake
350
Lunch
Cup noodles + cheese its
330 + 150
Dinner
Caramelized meatballs
390
Snacks
Chips
150
Drinks
Total:
690
Amount recommended: 2190
Difference: 2190 - 690= 1500
Meal
Food
Calories
Breakfast
Shake
350
Lunch
Sandwhich
330
Dinner
Pizza and chicken
750 + 220
Snacks
Cheese it and fruit snacks
150 + 160
Drinks
Total:
1960
Amount recommended: 2190
Difference: 2190 - 1960= 230
Meal
Food
Calories
Breakfast
Shake
350
Lunch
Pizza + cinnasticks
450 + 320
Dinner
Salami and crackers
370
Snacks
Cheese its and fruit snacks
310
Drinks
Total:
1800
Amount recommended: 2190
Difference: 2190 - 1800= 390
Meal
Food
Calories
Breakfast
Shake
350
Lunch
cup noodles
200
Dinner
Steak dinner
600
Snacks
Fruit snacks X 3
240
Drinks
Starbucks Frappacino
450
Total:
1840
Amount recommended: 2190
Difference: 2190 - 1840 = 350
Meal
Food
Calories
Breakfast
Shake
300
Lunch
Dinner
Steak, salad, Creamed spinach.
1200
Snacks
Key lime pie, 2 bites
100
Drinks
Total:
1300
Amount recommended: 2190
Difference: 2190 - 1300= 890
Meal
Food
Calories
Breakfast
French Toast
750
Lunch
greek salad
400
Dinner
In n out
700
Snacks
cheezits
50
Drinks
Total:
2000
Amount recommended: 2190
Difference: 2190 - 2000 = 190
Meal
Food
Calories
Breakfast
Shake
350
Lunch
Cup Noodle
200
Dinner
Taco bell
450
Snacks
Cheezit + cheetos + 2 fruit snacks
150 + 160 + 200
Drinks
Total:
1510
Amount recommended: 2190
Difference: 2190 - 1510 = 680
Week 3 reflection
This was a very exciting week. Part of the week was school and the other part was thanksgiving break. This week I did semi-well. I did do a lot of activity up until Monday. Tuesday: It was a very normal day for me. I had a shake for breakfast and I had steak for dinner so I didn't follow my rule about no red meat. Wednesday: It was a very active day for me. I got in a lot of skating and I learned new skateboard tricks. The reason why I got so much exercise was because when you are learning new tricks on a skateboard, you constantly do the same motion countless times. So by the end of the 2 hour skate session, not only did my legs hurt, but my back was drenched with sweat. I actually love this feeling because you know that you got a really good and beneficial workout. Thursday: The next day was a little more laid back. I went to my friends house and we had to skate in his garage because it was raining. We were very discouraged but then my friend texted me telling me that the skatepark was dry and it didn't rain where the park was located. We decided to take a ride over and check it out. He was right it was not very wet but it still had a couple of patches that were slippery. That day I went home and I had a California burrito which is really bad for me. I felt extremely sick afterwards because it is one whole pound that the body tries to digest. Friday: Finally it was Friday! Usually I have a shake on school days but this was a special day. I decided I did not want one and I had eggs instead. They were actually really delicious as well. The day was extremely normal, and then I went back to my friends house and we had burgers to celebrate that we were on break. We were both excited so we went to in n out. I decided to have them come back to my house and we slept at my house. But we played video games and stayed up until two in the morning so I did not meditate. I just went into my bed and fell asleep as soon as I hit the pillow. Saturday: Then it was Saturday and I decided to sleep in until about two in the afternoon. I got a full 12 hours of sleep but instead of feeling rested I just felt even more tired because I think I overslept. I decided to stay in bed until four. I finally got up and went to eat something. I did not have a shake though. Instead I found steak and decided to warm it up with rice and veggies. Then I finally took a shower and called my friends. They wanted to go and skate so I decided I would get dressed and go meet them. I met them and we skated at the park until about nine. Then we all went home because my mom was coming down to visit me the next day. I went home and did homework. I knew that meditating was part of my homework so I decided to just force my meditation but it did not work out too well for me. I then completed 10 math 24 cards and then decided to relax. Sunday: I knew that my mom was coming in so I woke up pretty early. I did not have a shake, or breakfast at all for that matter. My mom finally came at night and I decided to go skate because this was the last day I could skate for about one week. So I went at about seven and came back at 11 o’clock. I spent a little time with my mom but then she made me a salad for dinner and it was amazing. The whole day I stayed away from red meat. Since I was getting my wisdom teeth pulled they say not to eat for about 12 hours and so I did not eat or drink water after the salad. I meditated that night because I REALLY needed it. I meditated because my anxiety was acting up. I was extremely nervous to get my teeth pulled. I did not do math 24 because I was too nervous and I kind of forgot. It was the last thing on my mind at that time. Monday: Today is finally the day. I got my wisdom teeth pulled and it was extremely scary, but afterwards it was fine. Since I got them pulled I could not have a shake since I couldn’t drink anything from a straw and I could not open my mouth to wide or else my stitches would rip. So I just had ice cream and soup. The soup had chicken so I did stay away from red meat which was very good. I did meditate in the car but ended up falling asleep which is actually very good I suppose. I did not do math 24 or skate because of my condition. I basically just watched tv and fell asleep. Tuesday: Today my teeth started to really hurt. Once again I did not have a shake. Instead my mom made me eggs. My diet was the same thing again so I did not have red meat. I did not skate or go to the gym or meditate. I just watched tv and tried to deal with the pain of my teeth. It was less stiff but it was very sore.
weekly calorie count: 15330
My weeks calorie count: 12270
Week 4 reflection
This week was actually somewhat healthy but not exactly by choice. This week involved my wisdom teeth recovery but it also included Thanksgiving. Luckily my teeth healed enough for my Thanksgiving to be enjoyable. But I got back on my feet this week. I got into filming, I skated, I relaxed, I went to a movie, I did all sorts of things. I really liked how relaxed the week was except for stressing about homework. I feel that I can eat as healthy as I want but if I have stress it can result into eventual weight gain. I lost one of my extremely important projects and it was really making me upset but I eventually calmed down because I emailed my teachers and I received help and support from parents. Also a side note I really did not have shakes this whole week just because of my teeth and it was my break. Wednesday: Today I went to go see the new Hunger Games movie with my dad. It was so amazing and I did not have anything to eat in the theatre since the movie was at 10:00 in the morning. We thought that no one would go to see it on a wednesday at 10:00 in the morning but apparently it was a very popular time to go to a movie since it was packed. Luckily we found our good seats and enjoyed the movie. Then after the movie we basically had a relaxed time when we went back to the house. I did not end up eating at the theatre so I had some ice cream and soup when I got back. By this time I was over the soup since I had had it since monday for basically every meal. But since I could only have salad, soup and ice cream, I stayed away from red meat once again. My mouth was feeling a little bit better, so I knew that I would be okay for Thanksgiving the next day. I just played video games and went out with friends. I did not do anything too crazy and I did not play any sports, so my mouth would be well rested for the next day. I did meditate when I got home because it was becoming more of a habit and I really enjoyed doing it, but then I spent time with my mom so I did not do any brain exercises. Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving!!! I finally could chew solid food, and luckily today we made a lot of food that was eatable by me. I did not have a shake in the morning. In fact I did not have anything to eat at all in the morning. I was saving my appetite for the big dinner that was being planned for 4 o’clock but ended up being at 5. So you can imagine how happy and hungry I was when I saw all the food on the table. First we all said a prayer and I dug in. This is where I broke eating red meat. We made turkey, duck and lamb chops. I had the lamb chops and broke my no red meat rule. I definitely did not skate or go to the gym even though I should have. I had a really fun time with my family and we had a lot of fun. I did not get to meditate but instead we played math 24. The reason we all played it was because when I was introduced to the program in 5th grade I would play it at the dinner table and we would all try to get it. So it has carried on and we played it on Thanksgiving. Friday: I am super stufed from Thanksgiving but I really want to go and do something active since I had been sitting inside all week recovering from my wisdom teeth. So I finally decided to pick up a camera and film my friends skating. It was extremely fun. I did not have a shake in the morning because my mom cooked me eggs and toast which I was extremely thankful for. I then went and skated for about 1 hour at Carlsbad skatepark and then I filmed for 2 hours. Then I went back home and had a salad. I really was proud because I could have had lamp chop leftovers but I decided I already had too much red meat so I stayed away. I was so tired from crouching and skating that I just went to bed and decided not to meditate or play the brain game. Saturday: This was my day off from everything until I remembered about my homework. For about 4 hours I stayed inside doing all of my homework and then I finally got a text asking if I wanted to skate. I went and filmed all my friends skate and it felt really good, just to get out of my house. I did not have a shake because I was too focused on my homework so I at italian shaved ice as my dinner. I then went to the gym for a little and then my friends came over. We just stayed up to watch Netflix and eat cookies until about 2 am. Then I went to bed and did not meditate or play the brain game. Sunday: This was the laziest day for me. I woke up and made myself a shake and then I went to the mall with my friend. She had to exchange something and then we walked around and shopped for stuff. We probably walked the mall a total of three times and by the end my knee hurt from walking. We then got lunch and I had my first ever philly cheese steak. I realized I broke my no red meat rule but it was so good I did not even care. Then I went home and went to the gym for about 45 minutes. Afterwards I came home and said goodby to the remaining family that was still at my house and I finished up last minute homework. I did meditate because I wanted to relax and then I watched some tv which was nice. I was super bored so I decided to play math 24 and I found myself completing ten cards in about 5 minutes. Monday: I did wake up and finally had a shake for breakfast. It felt a little weird but good at the same time. I did not stay away from red meat though because I had a piece of steak my dad cooked. I did not skate or go to the gym because I had day of peace training. I did not meditate but I had some cards lying around so I did math 24. I then had another shake for dinner and it felt really good. Tuesday: I had a shake this morning like I do basically every school day. I did not stay away from red meat though because I had hot dogs and beans. I did not go and skate because I had a dentists appointment but I did go to the gym right afterwards. I did not skate because I re injured my knee during filming. I did meditate because I needed to fall asleep and I did not do math 24 because I had too much homework to do.
Suggested Calorie count per week: 15330
Amount I did have: 13460
I found that I am not the best at sticking to a goal. I can be motivated in the beginning but I find that I slowly tend to lose it when I am about halfway through. I think this is because it is so easy for me to give up. My house is filled with a lot of red meat and sugar and snacks, so it is all availible for me. The will power is what I really need to work on. I find that I really want to be healthy for weeks at a time I just need to find that balance of staying motivated. I did not accomplish all of my goals. I only lost 3 pounds instead of ten, and I still use my inhaler more than once on a regular basis. However I do find that I am much more energetic. Lately I have been motivated to do my homework and get it completed when I get home from school rather than just sit on the couch and watch tv. I also find that I want to go out and skate and film my friends at almost all hours of the day. Before this plan started I would get tired around nine o’clock without having done any physical activity during the day. Now I feel tired a lot later, around 10:30, even after I have skated for hours at a time. I am very happy that I feel more energetic. I feel like even though I broke the diet plan a lot, I still ate healthier overall than I do during normal weeks and that helped me a lot. I also think the meditation helped me relax and get a lot more sleep which is extremely vital for my health in particular.
In the future I definitely need to stick with it 100%. I need to find the willpower to say no to burgers and sugar and chips. I need to stick to a very strict diet plan of two shakes and one salad a day. I also think I need to cut out meat al together and go vegan. It may be more expensive but it is a completely healthy lifestyle and will definitely give my body a break from trying to process foods that I cannot. I also think that I need to focus more on the gym and doing cardio rather than skating. Its not that I don’t love to skate, however I tend to get hurt a lot and then it restricts me from working out more. I think a good gym schedule would be very beneficial for me and I can work on cardio at the gym.
I think this will definitely serve me in the field of cardiovascular disease because I will be losing weight and ultimately that is what will keep me healthy. It will make the heart have to work less and give the lungs a break from carrying so much weight around. If I get my dad on the same plan I definitely think I can help prevent the risk. It is already on his side of the family so he should be eating healthy and keeping his heart healthy at the same time. I have been trying to get him to become more physically active but he is a lot older and his bones don’t work the same way they used to when I was a kid. I still really want him to become vegan with me and to exercise with me. It is not only to benefit him but it would give me a support system as well.
I will definitely stop eating wheat, sugar and dairy to help benefit me. I know that my body cannot handle any of those food and my doctors have been telling me for years along with my mom. I think it has come to a point where I need to do what is best for my health. I know it will benefit me in the long run, preventing me from cardiovascular disease, keeping my weight down and giving me more energy. I think the thing I learned that will help my future self is to make decisions best for my body not my taste buds. Sure I may love the taste of candy, but everytime I eat it I know I could be doing something healthier. In the end I only have one lifetime and I want to spend that one life feeling as good as possible.
This was an outline of everything we had to do personally for the project. We had to create health plan and attempt to stick with it for at least one month. We could record different things we saw and at the end we wrote reflections on how we did each week. Here is mine! Enjoy.
Health Plan
Daniel Cohen
11/5/13 - 12/5/13
Leader
I hope to prevent diabetes and heart disease.Those are my two main concerns. I just want to be healthy and fit and full of energy more than anything else. I do not want to just be skinny because that is not the main sign of health. I have been getting sick more frequently and my immune system is not good as it used to be. I went 15 months without being sick and now I get sick every couple of months. My health plan can affect my dad because he is the type of guy who loves to go out and eat, but not exercise afterwards. His excuse is that he is old and he cannot handle that on his body. But it would help him because his family is known to have a history of heart disease, and without keeping your heart pumping, it is easy for a blockage to occur. I think the diet and going to the gym can motivate him to start going with me and continue to stay healthy. He recently found out that he is prediabetic so this could really be good for his dietary habits. For me, it will help me lose weight, gain confidence and energy. Those are the three things that I want it to help with the most. I also believe it can help reduce my stress levels.
The things that I am planning to change and monitor with my health and fitness are in three different categories. I want to improve my physical fitness/health, mental health, and nutritional health. For my physical health I want to always be out of my house during the day for at least 30 minutes. I want to be skating for at least an hour a day and if I cannot do that then I want to go to the gym during the week. I used to go to the gym about 4 times a week with my brother, but ever since he left for college I haven’t really been to the gym. The way I will monitor will be by how long it takes me to get tired from skating. The way I will do this is by how long it takes for me to lose breath and how long I skate for all together. Usually I will want to stop skating and go to bed very early on. After about 30 minutes I will not want to skate anymore and have no energy. Hopefully by the end I will be able to skate for multiple hours at a time and get a good enough workout to lose weight. For my nutritional health I was originally going to plan to just have a vegetarian diet so that it would be no meat at all, but I realized I have a lot of chicken in my diet so I decided to switch to just chicken and turkey since they are lean meats. I also want to have Isagenix shakes every single morning as my breakfast. They are protein shakes that equals a meal replacement and it has a lot of the nutrients I need. My plan is to have one of them in the morning, have something some what healthy for lunch and then have a normal meal with chicken and rice for dinner. For my mental plan I chose to meditate for at least 30 minutes a night and pay the math 24 mental game. I want to meditate because I really want to focus on my breathing and I want to work on controlling my heart rate. This is really important to me because focusing and controlling my breathing and heart rate can help with my asthma attacks. Many times when I get these attacks, I tend to sit down, take deep breaths and just focus on my breathings. Many times it helps me and benefits me. I want to do it at least three times a week so that I will become a natural and any time I feel a shortness of breath I will result to meditation rather than my rescue inhaler. The math 24 is a really fun mental game that I do a lot of my time anyways. In the game you have 4 different numbers. The object is to get to 24 using the four numbers that are given and you can use any of the basics procedures like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. I just feel it is something that will keep my brain sharp and it will help with repetition. the same numbers tend to pop up and by using them previously, I tend to start to find patterns. The way I will determine and monitor how I am doing is by seeing how many math 24 cards I can solve within one minute before and after the project is over and how long it takes for me to go to sleep after meditating.
For the musculoskeletal system my past fitness was good up until this summer. The only thing I fractured in my life was my left leg and then this summer I tore ligaments in my left knee and it messed it up severely. I could not walk for 3 days and I kept injuring my leg. My current health with it is not good. If i walk on it wrong, bend it a certain way, or run at all it will re tear the ligaments and I will be hurt for several days after. I cannot play basketball, volleyball or many of the other activities I love to do because I am afraid I will re-injure it. My cardiovascular health has been okay in the past. My heart does not seem to be giving any bad signs however my dads side of the family has had many cases of heart problems. My uncle has had 3 hearts attacks and my Grandfather has a pacemaker. My dad has not had any signs of heart conditions at all so perhaps I do not have any problems. I do, however, has a severe case of asthma and have to use my rescue inhaler on a regular basis. My current level of health is good though. The only bad sign is that I run out of breath very quickly when I am doing physical activity. If you asked me to run from the school to my house which is only 1 mile away I would probably be out of breath and throwing up. With my digestive system, I have had problems breaking down sugar and wheat in the past. Many times from sugar and wheat, I would gain weight extremely fast and it would make my eczema start to flare up. When I moved to California I noticed that I really started to gain weight and I realized it may have been an environmental factor. Now I still have many of those problems and I still cannot break down a lot of foods very well so I keep a lot of excess weight. It is mostly because of the diet choices I make. I have been fine with my nervous system in the past. I have always had a functioning brain and I have never pinched a nerve or anything like that in my life. I still find that my nervous system is in tip top shape.
For the beginning date I will assess three different areas. My nutrition, physical, and mental health. For my nutritional assessment, I will take how many calories I had for that week and have that as my average calorie marker during the week. Then every week after that I will compare it and see if I am doing better or worse. For my physical assessment I will see how many jumping jacks and push ups I can do in a minute. It would have been a cardio assessment but because I hurt my knee I can’t run. For my mental assessment I will monitor how long it takes for me to fall asleep. How I will monitor this is by having checkpoints. I will get into bed by eleven o’clock every night. If I cannot sleep by 12 I will mark if it takes longer than that. For my daily routine the three are different. For nutrition I will log if I eat any red meat that day. I will also log if I had my shake for breakfast. For my physical I will mark if I skated for at least 30 minutes that day and if I went to the gym that day or not. For my mental I will see if I meditated before I went to sleep and if it helped me go to sleep quicker. And with the math game I will just log if I solved 10 or more in one night with no time limit. For my weekly log I will log the nutrition by seeing the number of calories I had and comparing it with my start date and see if I had less calories or more that week. For my physical aspect I will see if I skated everyday and how long I skated each time to see if my times went up. For the second part I will see if I went to the gym at least 3 times that week. If it was 3 or more then it was a successful week. For the mental I will see how much better I did with the math 24 and see if I could do 10 in less time each week.
For my end date I will be journaling about how much better I feel with the new diet and see if I have more energy than when I started. For the physical I want to see how many jumping jacks and push ups I can do afterwards in one minute. I would also love to see how long I can skate for before losing all of my energy. For the mental I want to see if I need my inhaler less than usual and if I can slow and speed up my heart rate on command.
I have a couple of goals and accomplishments that I want to achieve before this plan is over. The main goal is to lose weight. I just want to be healthy and happy with my body. The other is to stop using my inhaler so much when it is unnecessary to do. I want to reduce the risk of heart disease as much as possible. I only want to use it one time a day or less.I want to lose at least 10 pounds and be active every single day. I want to be out of the house for at least one hour a day. I think I can accomplish the ten pounds and I will definitely get better at skating. I think I will have more energy because I will be skating everyday. I think that my stamina will go up a lot because of my skating every day. The only problem is because I want to skate so much and lost ten pounds, that means I have to be more physical. If I am more physical then that mean that I have to use my inhaler more. I think that my inhaler go will be very hard to reach but definitely doable.
All of these goals will surely help me prevent cardiovascular disease. Losing weight will be extremely helpful so I can stay active and keep my heart pumping. Taking weight off will help my heart because it will not have to pump and work as hard. Using the inhaler less will be very beneficial because every time I inhale the albuterol it scars my lungs. It also increases my heart rate when I take it and I get anxiety when I cannot slow it down. It will help my heart and my lungs very much which is good for me.
Week One Health Plan Reflection
Baseline Assessment: For my baseline assessment, I wanted to do something that would test my strength given the fact that I hurt my knee. So I decided to do pushups and jumping jacks (which were still a little hard on my knees). My first assessment on 11/5 was : 47 jumping jacks in one minute and 24 push ups in one minute. I was not happy with the results whatsoever. I was out of breath and sore.
12/5/13: I re-did the jumping jacks tonight and I got 70 in one minute! I was not happy with the results because I am sick but I did do a lot better than my first test so I was happy about that. I then re-did my push ups and got 39 in one minute and was extremely happy about the results. All the days I went to the gym to work on my upper body strength really paid off!
Wow. This week has been such a roller coaster for me. Not emotionally and not because it is hard to follow the diet plan, but because I was in situations where I could not access all the necessary ingredients for my health plan. However I did find myself exercising every single day and skating everyday for at least an hour. I had my shake every single morning that I was home and everything but I did cheat with red meat. Overall I did well with what I could do, and I definitely think I can stick with this health plan for the rest of the month and even longer. The only reason I cheated with the red meat rule was because I did not have dinner on Monday and my dad was already on his way home so he picked me up In and Out for dinner. Then the second time was on Monday again of the next week and my dad had left over steak so we ate that so it did not go to waste. The only reason why I did not have my shakes on Saturday and Sunday was because I was in La for college day and the Odd Future Carnival. Since I was up in La for those two days, I couldn’t work out or skate so it ruined my schedule. I did meditate though. I slept at my brother’s house and he does not have AC or a fan in his place. So I was overheating and freaking out. I could not go to sleep since it was too hot so I layed down and started focusing on my breathing. I slowed down my heart beat and just tried to relax. After about 10 minutes of focusing hard on my breathing I finally fell asleep. This was amazing to me because I can never sleep if I am over heating. I also played Math 24 with my brother because it is kind of our ritual. We both are very competitive and love the game.
Wednesday: I had my shake like I always do in the morning and I stayed away from red meat. I told my dad to just give me chicken for dinner and it worked very well. Then after school I skated for over an hour and had no time to go to the gym. Then I meditated at home and it was amazing. I felt super released. I also had basketball tryouts this day and puked.
Thursday: I had my shake but I had my In-n-Out this night. I meditated but did not play math 24 at all even though I wanted to.
Friday: I had my shake and I stayed away from red meat. This was college day and it was hard to stay away since all of the choices were ham. I went back to my brothers and meditated myself to sleep that night.
Saturday: I did not have my shake this morning since I was with my brother and I did have red meat at the concert because I bought a hot dog. I meditated again and fell asleep that night.
Sunday: I did not have my shake again because I went home on a train but I did not have red meat because I slept the whole day I got back. I did meditate but only for 20 minutes and became restless. I did play math 24 on my computer and went back to bed.
Monday: I did not have a shake because this was my day off and I woke up at 12 so I skipped breakfast. I did skate and did not have time to go to the gym.
Tuesday: I didn’t have a shake because I went to a cafe with my friend early in the morning and got eggs and coffee. I did skate but only for 30 minutes and no gym time.
Weekly calories: 15330
My weekly calories: 14260
Week 2 reflection
I don’t know how this program is working out for me. I don’t know if I am really bad at it or if I am just having to do it at a bad time. I had a lot of “no’s” for my section this week. I think it was because I had my dad’s birthday and my brother came down. Of course for my birthday my dad took us to a fish house and I am allergic to fish so all I could have on the menu was steak. I also went to practice one time during the week but that did not end well. I am not on varsity which is very disappointing! I was running trying to condition myself the whole practice. I was actually surprised at how well I did. Then I had taco bell and kind of destroyed all that hard work. But after taco bell I went to the skate park and skated for about 2 hours. The next day I went to the skate park again but ruined all of my work because I had Jack in the box after. I find that I literally destroy all of my hard work with eating the wrong types of food. That is probably why I weigh more than I want to. It is not that I don’t exercise enough, but it is because I eat all the wrong foods. If I do the most intense workout and then go and eat 60 cheeseburgers, all of my work will be lost. On Saturday it was my dads birthday like I explained so that consisted of nothing. The next day my brother was still in town so I decided to hang out with him and play video games with him and do homework most of the day. On wednesday I just hung out with my friend and skated for a little bit. It was actually really fun. We bonded a lot. Throughout the whole experience I found that I have not only gotten exercise throughout the week, but I also had a lot of fun with my friends.
Tuesday: Today was just an average day for me. I went skating for 30 minutes but it got dark so soon so I did not get much skating time in. I also just went home and relaxed. I did not have a shake because I was in a rush but I did stay away from red meat which I was extremely proud of myself for.
Wednesday: Today I had my shake and everything. I stayed away from red meat but this was a homework day for me because I just went home and did homework. I relaxed afterwards and just watched some television.
Thursday: On Thursday I had my shake but I gave in to taco bell and I had a wrap that had bacon in it. But then I went to the skatepark the next day and got in so much exercise. I also went to basketball practice that day and practiced for an hour straight of just running and when I was not on the court I was running up and down the sidelines.
Friday: I did have my shake today but I had red meat again! I went to the skatepark for 2 hours and got in a good workout but then me and a whole group of friends went to Jack in the box after and got a big meal. I had tacos and a breakfast sandwich with sausage. I also meditated that night since my body was so sore!
Saturday: I did not have a shake because it was my dads birthday. I did not even get up in time to have breakfast so I skipped it. I decided not to eat the whole day since I was having dinner at 5. It was my dads birthday so I cheated everything that day.
Sunday:I did not have a shake because we went out for breakfast for my dads extended birthday celebration. I had bacon as well so I had red meat. I still skated later that day however.
Monday: I did have a shake but I had a pork burrito for lunch. Did not skate but I meditated as I got home.
Demonstration of how I have been logging my calorie intake:
Meal
Food
Calories
Breakfast
Shake
350
Lunch
Cup noodles + cheese its
330 + 150
Dinner
Caramelized meatballs
390
Snacks
Chips
150
Drinks
Total:
690
Amount recommended: 2190
Difference: 2190 - 690= 1500
Meal
Food
Calories
Breakfast
Shake
350
Lunch
Sandwhich
330
Dinner
Pizza and chicken
750 + 220
Snacks
Cheese it and fruit snacks
150 + 160
Drinks
Total:
1960
Amount recommended: 2190
Difference: 2190 - 1960= 230
Meal
Food
Calories
Breakfast
Shake
350
Lunch
Pizza + cinnasticks
450 + 320
Dinner
Salami and crackers
370
Snacks
Cheese its and fruit snacks
310
Drinks
Total:
1800
Amount recommended: 2190
Difference: 2190 - 1800= 390
Meal
Food
Calories
Breakfast
Shake
350
Lunch
cup noodles
200
Dinner
Steak dinner
600
Snacks
Fruit snacks X 3
240
Drinks
Starbucks Frappacino
450
Total:
1840
Amount recommended: 2190
Difference: 2190 - 1840 = 350
Meal
Food
Calories
Breakfast
Shake
300
Lunch
Dinner
Steak, salad, Creamed spinach.
1200
Snacks
Key lime pie, 2 bites
100
Drinks
Total:
1300
Amount recommended: 2190
Difference: 2190 - 1300= 890
Meal
Food
Calories
Breakfast
French Toast
750
Lunch
greek salad
400
Dinner
In n out
700
Snacks
cheezits
50
Drinks
Total:
2000
Amount recommended: 2190
Difference: 2190 - 2000 = 190
Meal
Food
Calories
Breakfast
Shake
350
Lunch
Cup Noodle
200
Dinner
Taco bell
450
Snacks
Cheezit + cheetos + 2 fruit snacks
150 + 160 + 200
Drinks
Total:
1510
Amount recommended: 2190
Difference: 2190 - 1510 = 680
Week 3 reflection
This was a very exciting week. Part of the week was school and the other part was thanksgiving break. This week I did semi-well. I did do a lot of activity up until Monday. Tuesday: It was a very normal day for me. I had a shake for breakfast and I had steak for dinner so I didn't follow my rule about no red meat. Wednesday: It was a very active day for me. I got in a lot of skating and I learned new skateboard tricks. The reason why I got so much exercise was because when you are learning new tricks on a skateboard, you constantly do the same motion countless times. So by the end of the 2 hour skate session, not only did my legs hurt, but my back was drenched with sweat. I actually love this feeling because you know that you got a really good and beneficial workout. Thursday: The next day was a little more laid back. I went to my friends house and we had to skate in his garage because it was raining. We were very discouraged but then my friend texted me telling me that the skatepark was dry and it didn't rain where the park was located. We decided to take a ride over and check it out. He was right it was not very wet but it still had a couple of patches that were slippery. That day I went home and I had a California burrito which is really bad for me. I felt extremely sick afterwards because it is one whole pound that the body tries to digest. Friday: Finally it was Friday! Usually I have a shake on school days but this was a special day. I decided I did not want one and I had eggs instead. They were actually really delicious as well. The day was extremely normal, and then I went back to my friends house and we had burgers to celebrate that we were on break. We were both excited so we went to in n out. I decided to have them come back to my house and we slept at my house. But we played video games and stayed up until two in the morning so I did not meditate. I just went into my bed and fell asleep as soon as I hit the pillow. Saturday: Then it was Saturday and I decided to sleep in until about two in the afternoon. I got a full 12 hours of sleep but instead of feeling rested I just felt even more tired because I think I overslept. I decided to stay in bed until four. I finally got up and went to eat something. I did not have a shake though. Instead I found steak and decided to warm it up with rice and veggies. Then I finally took a shower and called my friends. They wanted to go and skate so I decided I would get dressed and go meet them. I met them and we skated at the park until about nine. Then we all went home because my mom was coming down to visit me the next day. I went home and did homework. I knew that meditating was part of my homework so I decided to just force my meditation but it did not work out too well for me. I then completed 10 math 24 cards and then decided to relax. Sunday: I knew that my mom was coming in so I woke up pretty early. I did not have a shake, or breakfast at all for that matter. My mom finally came at night and I decided to go skate because this was the last day I could skate for about one week. So I went at about seven and came back at 11 o’clock. I spent a little time with my mom but then she made me a salad for dinner and it was amazing. The whole day I stayed away from red meat. Since I was getting my wisdom teeth pulled they say not to eat for about 12 hours and so I did not eat or drink water after the salad. I meditated that night because I REALLY needed it. I meditated because my anxiety was acting up. I was extremely nervous to get my teeth pulled. I did not do math 24 because I was too nervous and I kind of forgot. It was the last thing on my mind at that time. Monday: Today is finally the day. I got my wisdom teeth pulled and it was extremely scary, but afterwards it was fine. Since I got them pulled I could not have a shake since I couldn’t drink anything from a straw and I could not open my mouth to wide or else my stitches would rip. So I just had ice cream and soup. The soup had chicken so I did stay away from red meat which was very good. I did meditate in the car but ended up falling asleep which is actually very good I suppose. I did not do math 24 or skate because of my condition. I basically just watched tv and fell asleep. Tuesday: Today my teeth started to really hurt. Once again I did not have a shake. Instead my mom made me eggs. My diet was the same thing again so I did not have red meat. I did not skate or go to the gym or meditate. I just watched tv and tried to deal with the pain of my teeth. It was less stiff but it was very sore.
weekly calorie count: 15330
My weeks calorie count: 12270
Week 4 reflection
This week was actually somewhat healthy but not exactly by choice. This week involved my wisdom teeth recovery but it also included Thanksgiving. Luckily my teeth healed enough for my Thanksgiving to be enjoyable. But I got back on my feet this week. I got into filming, I skated, I relaxed, I went to a movie, I did all sorts of things. I really liked how relaxed the week was except for stressing about homework. I feel that I can eat as healthy as I want but if I have stress it can result into eventual weight gain. I lost one of my extremely important projects and it was really making me upset but I eventually calmed down because I emailed my teachers and I received help and support from parents. Also a side note I really did not have shakes this whole week just because of my teeth and it was my break. Wednesday: Today I went to go see the new Hunger Games movie with my dad. It was so amazing and I did not have anything to eat in the theatre since the movie was at 10:00 in the morning. We thought that no one would go to see it on a wednesday at 10:00 in the morning but apparently it was a very popular time to go to a movie since it was packed. Luckily we found our good seats and enjoyed the movie. Then after the movie we basically had a relaxed time when we went back to the house. I did not end up eating at the theatre so I had some ice cream and soup when I got back. By this time I was over the soup since I had had it since monday for basically every meal. But since I could only have salad, soup and ice cream, I stayed away from red meat once again. My mouth was feeling a little bit better, so I knew that I would be okay for Thanksgiving the next day. I just played video games and went out with friends. I did not do anything too crazy and I did not play any sports, so my mouth would be well rested for the next day. I did meditate when I got home because it was becoming more of a habit and I really enjoyed doing it, but then I spent time with my mom so I did not do any brain exercises. Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving!!! I finally could chew solid food, and luckily today we made a lot of food that was eatable by me. I did not have a shake in the morning. In fact I did not have anything to eat at all in the morning. I was saving my appetite for the big dinner that was being planned for 4 o’clock but ended up being at 5. So you can imagine how happy and hungry I was when I saw all the food on the table. First we all said a prayer and I dug in. This is where I broke eating red meat. We made turkey, duck and lamb chops. I had the lamb chops and broke my no red meat rule. I definitely did not skate or go to the gym even though I should have. I had a really fun time with my family and we had a lot of fun. I did not get to meditate but instead we played math 24. The reason we all played it was because when I was introduced to the program in 5th grade I would play it at the dinner table and we would all try to get it. So it has carried on and we played it on Thanksgiving. Friday: I am super stufed from Thanksgiving but I really want to go and do something active since I had been sitting inside all week recovering from my wisdom teeth. So I finally decided to pick up a camera and film my friends skating. It was extremely fun. I did not have a shake in the morning because my mom cooked me eggs and toast which I was extremely thankful for. I then went and skated for about 1 hour at Carlsbad skatepark and then I filmed for 2 hours. Then I went back home and had a salad. I really was proud because I could have had lamp chop leftovers but I decided I already had too much red meat so I stayed away. I was so tired from crouching and skating that I just went to bed and decided not to meditate or play the brain game. Saturday: This was my day off from everything until I remembered about my homework. For about 4 hours I stayed inside doing all of my homework and then I finally got a text asking if I wanted to skate. I went and filmed all my friends skate and it felt really good, just to get out of my house. I did not have a shake because I was too focused on my homework so I at italian shaved ice as my dinner. I then went to the gym for a little and then my friends came over. We just stayed up to watch Netflix and eat cookies until about 2 am. Then I went to bed and did not meditate or play the brain game. Sunday: This was the laziest day for me. I woke up and made myself a shake and then I went to the mall with my friend. She had to exchange something and then we walked around and shopped for stuff. We probably walked the mall a total of three times and by the end my knee hurt from walking. We then got lunch and I had my first ever philly cheese steak. I realized I broke my no red meat rule but it was so good I did not even care. Then I went home and went to the gym for about 45 minutes. Afterwards I came home and said goodby to the remaining family that was still at my house and I finished up last minute homework. I did meditate because I wanted to relax and then I watched some tv which was nice. I was super bored so I decided to play math 24 and I found myself completing ten cards in about 5 minutes. Monday: I did wake up and finally had a shake for breakfast. It felt a little weird but good at the same time. I did not stay away from red meat though because I had a piece of steak my dad cooked. I did not skate or go to the gym because I had day of peace training. I did not meditate but I had some cards lying around so I did math 24. I then had another shake for dinner and it felt really good. Tuesday: I had a shake this morning like I do basically every school day. I did not stay away from red meat though because I had hot dogs and beans. I did not go and skate because I had a dentists appointment but I did go to the gym right afterwards. I did not skate because I re injured my knee during filming. I did meditate because I needed to fall asleep and I did not do math 24 because I had too much homework to do.
Suggested Calorie count per week: 15330
Amount I did have: 13460
I found that I am not the best at sticking to a goal. I can be motivated in the beginning but I find that I slowly tend to lose it when I am about halfway through. I think this is because it is so easy for me to give up. My house is filled with a lot of red meat and sugar and snacks, so it is all availible for me. The will power is what I really need to work on. I find that I really want to be healthy for weeks at a time I just need to find that balance of staying motivated. I did not accomplish all of my goals. I only lost 3 pounds instead of ten, and I still use my inhaler more than once on a regular basis. However I do find that I am much more energetic. Lately I have been motivated to do my homework and get it completed when I get home from school rather than just sit on the couch and watch tv. I also find that I want to go out and skate and film my friends at almost all hours of the day. Before this plan started I would get tired around nine o’clock without having done any physical activity during the day. Now I feel tired a lot later, around 10:30, even after I have skated for hours at a time. I am very happy that I feel more energetic. I feel like even though I broke the diet plan a lot, I still ate healthier overall than I do during normal weeks and that helped me a lot. I also think the meditation helped me relax and get a lot more sleep which is extremely vital for my health in particular.
In the future I definitely need to stick with it 100%. I need to find the willpower to say no to burgers and sugar and chips. I need to stick to a very strict diet plan of two shakes and one salad a day. I also think I need to cut out meat al together and go vegan. It may be more expensive but it is a completely healthy lifestyle and will definitely give my body a break from trying to process foods that I cannot. I also think that I need to focus more on the gym and doing cardio rather than skating. Its not that I don’t love to skate, however I tend to get hurt a lot and then it restricts me from working out more. I think a good gym schedule would be very beneficial for me and I can work on cardio at the gym.
I think this will definitely serve me in the field of cardiovascular disease because I will be losing weight and ultimately that is what will keep me healthy. It will make the heart have to work less and give the lungs a break from carrying so much weight around. If I get my dad on the same plan I definitely think I can help prevent the risk. It is already on his side of the family so he should be eating healthy and keeping his heart healthy at the same time. I have been trying to get him to become more physically active but he is a lot older and his bones don’t work the same way they used to when I was a kid. I still really want him to become vegan with me and to exercise with me. It is not only to benefit him but it would give me a support system as well.
I will definitely stop eating wheat, sugar and dairy to help benefit me. I know that my body cannot handle any of those food and my doctors have been telling me for years along with my mom. I think it has come to a point where I need to do what is best for my health. I know it will benefit me in the long run, preventing me from cardiovascular disease, keeping my weight down and giving me more energy. I think the thing I learned that will help my future self is to make decisions best for my body not my taste buds. Sure I may love the taste of candy, but everytime I eat it I know I could be doing something healthier. In the end I only have one lifetime and I want to spend that one life feeling as good as possible.