Wellness and Fitness for life : objectives:

1. Wellness and Fitness for life: objectives: • Identify benefits of living a wellness lifestyle • Describe the dimensions of wellness • Describe the major lifestyle threats that lead to disease in Americans • Describe what is an internal locus of control • Describe the goals of Healthy People 2010

2. Benefits of living a Wellness lifestyle: • Increases energy level and productivity • Decreases absenteeism from work and school • Increases the ability to communicate emotions to others assertively rather than aggressively or passively • Promotes the attitude that life’s difficulties are challenges and opportunities rather than overwhelming threats

3. A “well” individual may display: • An appreciation of all living things, no matter how ugly or beautiful, how great or how small. • The ability to laugh, cry and genuinely feel emotions without getting lost. • The ability to maintain healthy relationships. • An appreciation for one’s role in preserving the environment. • A deep satisfaction with life and life’s stages. • Operates from an internal locus of control.

4. More benefits of Wellness lifestyle: • Increases the ability to cope with stress and resist depression • Improves physical appearance • Promotes self-confidence • Delays the aging process • Decreases recovery time from illness or injury • Promotes social awareness and the ability to reach out to understand and care about others

5. Dimensions of wellness: • Physical • Emotional • Social • Environmental • Occupational • Intellectual • Spiritual, zest for life • Financial

6. Modifiable behavioral risk factors that contribute to death and disease: • Tobacco 20% • Poor diet and exercise 14% • Alcohol 5% • Infectious agents 4% • Pollutants and toxins 3% • Firearms 2.5 % • Motor vehicles 1% • recreational drugs 1%

7. Leading causes of death: • Heart disease • Cancer • Stroke • Chronic lower respiratory disease • Unintentional injuries • Diabetes • pneumonia

8. Examples of health promoting behaviors: * exercise • Adequate sleep • Avoiding processed sugar • Fiber in the diet • Brush 2-3 times/day and floss teeth 1-2 • Avoid driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol • Express anger in healthy ways • Interested the the views of others

9. Health promoting behaviors continued: • Close intimate relationships • satisfied with study habits • Satisfied with spiritual life • Promote a clean and safe environment • Drive within the speed limit • Always use a seat belt • Avoid tobacco • Drink less that 4 alcoholic drinks per week if over 21 years of age.

10. What is a health disparity? • Differences in the incidence(frequency of occurrence), prevalence(number of cases of a disease in a specified population , mortality, and burden of diseases and other health conditions that exist among specific population groups in the U.S.

11. The National Institute of Health has identified 6 areas of disparities among ethnic minorities: • Infant mortality • Cancer screening • Cardiovascular disease • Diabetes • HIV infection/AIDS • Immunizations

12. Healthy People 2010, leading health indicators: • 1. Physical activity • 2. Obesity • 3. Tobacco • 4. Substance abuse • 5. Responsible sexual behavior • 6. Mental health

13. Health indicators, continued: • 7. Injury and violence • 8. Environmental quality • 9. Immunizations • 10. Access to health care

14. Achieving a healthy lifestyle: • Lifestyle choices are learned, begins at birth and throughout our lives. • Learned and programmed, unconsciously and consciously. • Subliminal advertising: messages, words and symbols are embedded or hidden in advertisements.

16. Homework: • Bring in an ad that promotes something unhealthy.

17. Health behavior is influenced by many complex forces: • Family, role models, social pressure, advertising, psychological needs. • What are some of the needs that are met with tobacco use? • What are some of the needs that are met with gang behavior and violence?

18. Acceptance Belonging to a group Love Support Common values Acceptance Belonging to a group Love Support Common values Needs:family Gangs

19. So with any type of behavior change one has to become aware of why the behavior exists: • Precontemplation stage-no intention of changing, denial and defensiveness, need to raise consciousness/awareness. • Contemplation stage, aware of serious problem. Increase knowledge, and understanding that behavior is inconsistent with values. Social strategies help, like AA.

20. Preparation Stage: • Plan to take action, develop a plan, think more about the future than the past. • Most people make the mistake of unrealistic goals and expect miracles. • Setting goals that are too ambitious, often guarantees failure and also lowers self-esteem.

21. Preparation stage continued: • People often view lifestyle change as temporary instead of lifelong, this accounts for the tendency to revert to the old behavior. • In this stage, a specific goal and interventions are designed.

22. For example: • Goal: gain 10 # by December 15, 2006 • Eat 3 nutritious meals per day(all portions should fit on a plate) and 3 non-junk food snacks • Do not count calories • Weigh self on same scale once a week • Drink lots of water, 6-8 glasses per day

23. Action stage: • Actively engage in new behaviors, others can see • Try to implement rewards and incentives • Making changes in the environment • Avoidance of certain places and/or people • Make sure to have reminders-daily planners • Make a contract with self • New behavior gets gradually integrated

24. Maintenance stage: • Retain the gains that were made during the action stage • Change never ends with action • Many people may experience a relapse and return to the previous stages • Learn from relapse, instead of reacting to it • Success=maintaining goal for at least 2 years • Make sure to keep up avoidance, support groups, contracting, etc.

25. Termination Stage: • Person feels confident that change is successful • Sometimes you do not completely fail or succeed, it is important to keep a positive outlook, try not to feel guilty • Goals may have been too general or unrealistic • Interventions must be relevant • Reassess entire program

26. Changing self-talk: • Rational-emotive therapy, based on the premise that there is a close connection between what people say to themselves and how they feel. • Everyday emotional problems stem from irrational thinking, when there is a difference between what you think should happen and what happens.

28. In summary: • Quality of life can improve by increasing ones wellness. • Wellness involves many dimensions. • Success in achieving wellness goals increases if you are specific and write them down.