# Nutrition and Wellness/Chapter 1: Wellness and Food Choices

* Chapter 1
* Wellness and Food Choices
- Wellness: Reaching for your personal overall best level of health. Wellness doesn't mean having a perfect body or being free of any health problems!

### Practicing Wellness

The 3 categories of wellness:
* Physical Health
* Emotional/Mental Health
* Social Health

###### Steps to Improve Wellness

* Water (without water: Tired, flaky skins, etc.).
* Recognizing/Accepting responsibility for your own health.
* Sleep (without sleep: More likely to get sick/body can't function).

#### Physical Health

Physical Health refers to normal functions of your body systems.
* Includes bright, clear-eyes, firm skin, clean teeth and healthy gums, good muscle tone and erect posture.
* Also means having enough energy for daily living, a normal growth rate, resistance to illness, and the ability to relax and sleep well.

##### Taking action for Physical Health

- What can you do to maintain or improve your physical health?
* Follow a varied and healthful eating plan with many different foods, including fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
* Consume about 8 cups of water/fruits each day... + if needed.
* Include plenty of physical activity.
* Eat breakfast, good hygiene, precautions... such as your seatbelt.
* Regular medical/dental checkups.
* Avoid tobacco, alcoholic beverages and drugs (harmful).
* Keep informed about nutrition and wellness.

#### Mental and Emotional Health

Your mental/emotional health includes how you deal with your daily life and how you feel about yourself, people with good mental/emotional health often have better physical health - and they enjoy life to the fullest! Benefits of having healthy mental and emotional health includes:
* Helps you cope with change, face your problems, and handle anger, frustration, and disappointment in an acceptable way.
* You are able to work towards your goal.
* With emotional well-being comes a sensitivity to others, open-mindedness, self-esteem, and self-confidence.

#### Social Health

Social health involves your relationship with others. You have a high level of social health when you:
* Praise and accept others
* Enjoy friends of both genders
* Are helpful and considerate
* Accept rules and be responsible
* Handle conflict in a constructive way
* Communicate well
* Handle peer pressure

### Nutrition and Active Living

Your lifestyle includes how you live your life and all the things you do; Nutrition and Active Living are 2 partners for a healthful lifestyle. Nutrition is how the food you eat affects your body.
* The food choices you make today will affect your health and quality of life for years to come.
* Follow the golden rules = 60 minutes of excersises

#### Many influences on your food choices

* People around you
* Culture - The shared beliefs, values, and behavior of a group of people
* Food Supply
* Schedules, energy, budget - aka - resources: Things such as time, money, and personal energy that help you reach a goal/or complete a task.
* Advertising and media
* Knowing about food, nutrition, and wellness
* You - Your age, attitudes, emotions, health, and goals all affect what you choose to eat

### Steps to Wellness

* Practicing wellness can affect you positively today and into the future. Making responsible decisions and setting realistic goals are important skills to master.

#### Action Plan

An Action Plan is a step by step approach to identifying and reaching your goals.
* Set realistic goals, what's your goals? Is it realistic? How will it be to achieve?
* Decide on a plan (If I have to ask how, you are missing detail!)
* Identify small achievable steps (how will you work your way up?)
* Take action (When will you start?)
* Stick with it (How will you make sure you don't give up?)
* Get support (Who will you be your support system?)
* Check your progress (How do you know its working?)
* Reward yourself