Tips

      Since I’ve already stated why I chose this topic, the benefits of the healthier life, my goals, healthy snacks, and memberships something that I feel I am missing is tips. Everybody loves to have some extra information that can benefit them and these are some perfect examples.

•  Raise your breathing and heart rates and that strengthen your muscles.
• Help kids and teens be active for at least 1 hour a day. Include activities that raise their breathing and heart rates and that strengthen their muscles and bones.

·         Don't keep junk food in the house. You cannot eat what isn't there.

·         Drink water or diet soda instead of snacking.

·         Move – not only will you not be snacking, but you will also be burning calories. Go for a walk.

·         Watch your food portions - resolve never to "super size".

·         Got a sweet tooth? Try sugar-free gum, sugar-free hard candy, etc.

·         Cut back on or cut out caloric drinks such as soda, sweet tea, lemonade, etc. If you have a 20-oz bottle of cola every day, switch to diet cola. Or better yet switch to water and use sugar-free flavours to add some zest to the water.

·         Use a salad plate instead of a dinner plate.

·         Start eating breakfast. It helps you eat fewer total calories throughout the day.

·         Add just one fruit or veggie serving daily. Get comfortable with that and then add an extra serving and so on until you reach the recommended Canada Food Guide suggestions.

                                

These are all tips and hits that not only myself but everyone should taking into consideration when wanting to start living a healthier lifestyle. Something that I need to remember is that changes don’t happen overnight and if I really want to follow through with this healthy lifestyle I am going to change to be peasant. I believe it was also a good idea to start this kind of a change now before I get to university because it would be a lot easily to start now then it would to start later.

Snacking

        Eating a healthy lunch and dinner is not something that I normally struggle with, but being someone that can literally eat all day….. Snacking has become a problem. When I’m hungry between  meals which is always I tend to go for the things that I can just quickly get my hands on, some snacks may include cookies, granola bars, pizza, candy and my most favorite CHIPS. With that said I think that snacking is one of my weaknesses and is something I want to work on so that I can become a healthier individual.   

Bad snacking

After doing some research on how I can substitute my unhealthy snacks for healthier snack this is what I was able to find.  

·         Fresh fruit or individually packed containers of cut-up fruit.

·         Raw vegetables including carrots, peppers, zucchini, cherry or grape tomatoes.

·         Baby carrots and whole wheat pita triangles with hummus.

·         Pumpernickel bagel with peanut butter and banana.

·         Fresh, frozen or canned fruit with low fat yogurt or in a smoothie.

·         Sweet red, yellow or green peppers and bread sticks with salad dressing or low fat dip.

·         Whole wheat tortilla wrap made with salmon or tuna and salad dressing, onions, celery and green peppers.

·         English muffin with melted cheese and apple slices.

·         Dry mixed cereal and a container of milk.

·         Dark green leafy salad with orange sections and almonds.

·         Nuts, pumpkin or sunflower seeds.

·         Plain popcorn.

·         Popsicles made with 100% fruit juice or yogurt.

·         Water, milk, fortified soy beverage or 100% fruit juice.

All of the snacks listed above are foods I would actually eat, I just need to get into the habit of making food instead of just grabbing what’s around me and that Is something I am going to work on.

Memberships???

        Since I am student and I am going to university next year I don’t think that getting a membership to a gym is something that I can benefit off of, but I did happen to find so alternate ideas that I could do instead of getting a member ship. Since summer is just around the corner it I very good idea that I take full advantage of good life’s free summer for teens.  The program is be made available seven days a week, between 8am to 4pm, with the last check-in at 3pm at each club. It is also said that teens will have full club access with the following exceptions: tanning, pool, sauna, whirlpools, certain free weights/machines and Hot Yoga. This programs is something that I hope to take advantage off.

          Another program that I looked into that I personally enjoy is hot yoga. http://mykula.ca/ The link posted is too a yoga studio called Kula that is located close to my house which makes to accessible for me to walk to in the summer. This studio offers 30 days for 30 dollar, being an affordable price and also having the convince of being located near my house Kula is something that I will definitely have to check out for the summer. When starting this healthy living goal I thought that maybe it would be difficult since I don’t want to commit to any gyms or memberships, but after doing my research there are many other affordable programs I can enroll myself in without signing a contract.      

When starting something new I think it’s important to make some kind of goals or guide lines for yourself so that you don’t get lost and you remember what it is you’re pushing for. Thinking about what goals I could make for myself that involve healthy living was a little bit tricky at first, but then I realized that my goals are very general.  Some of the goals I made for myself consist of…..1) cut back on the unhealthy snacks and replace them with healthy foods. 2) Exercise at least twice a week. 3) Join soccer for the summer. 4) Go to good life in the summer. 5) think positive.

             With those being some of the goal I made for myself I could say they are very basic but that’s because I’m not trying to do anything crazy, I would just like to follow that basic step to becoming a healthier individual. These goals aren’t just short term goal either, I hope that eighty years from now I can be still following these goals and adding new ones every year so that I can benefit of off these goals as much as possible. The goals that I made today aren’t set in stone either, if I feel as if something isn’t working I will be able to add and change them to my preference which is the overall advantage of doing something for you. This really isn’t something that I have to put too much work into so that I can get good result so I am excited to try out my new goals to see what might happen.    

Why i chose this topic for my PLN.....

         I chose the topic healthy living for my PLN because I feel as if it’s something that I need to work on and start to enroll myself in every day.  Although I don’t have any type of weight issues or anything like that I feel as if it’s still important to be eating healthy foods and it’s still important to be getting your daily exercise. I’ll admit I don’t eat healthy and I don’t get my daily exercise but I believe this summer is a perfect opportunity to start my new ways before I go off to university.  Another reason why I chose this topic is because I would like to live a long happy healthy life. With that said these are some of the benefit of living a healthy life that I could think of, it reduces your risk of dying prematurely, Reduces your risk of dying prematurely from heart disease, Reduces your risk of developing diabetes, Reduces your risk of developing high blood pressure, Helps control your weight, Helps you build and maintain healthy bones, muscles, and joints, Promotes psychological well-being.

            Although this area isn’t really something I could say I have a lot of awareness or experiences in I am able to say I am trying and that this Is exactly why I am doing healthy living for my PLN. Hopefully after I have completed all my research needed for my PLN I able to become more aware of what’s needed to change my daily routine for the better and what’s needed to switch my current bad habits for good ones that will later on benefit me in the future. When I have completed my PLN I hope that it just doesn’t stop there.  

This picture represents some of the habits I would like to enroll myself into so that I can get the best results.

itune 3

       The two lectures that I have chosen to do on iTunes both had to do with psychology. I chose to do psychology because it is something that has interested me throughout my high school years and will later on study as a minor in university.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/psychology-1-001-fall-2010/id391539320 is the link to the first lecture that I got through on general psychology. This lecture basically gives a brief description of the following, the human mind, along with such aspects of mind as perception, cognition, emotion, and behavior.  Although I believed that I had a decent general understanding of psychology I did learn some new interesting fact that I didn’t know before.

The second lecture that I decided to look at was on human happiness. http://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/psychology-156-fall-2008-uc/id354824220 that been the link of this lecture.  Some new interesting things that I did not know before about human happiness are the following. To be happy is the pursuit of any normal human being. Compared to sadness, happiness breeds an atmosphere of joy and strength that sustains and energizes us. I have also learned that happiness doesn’t come from what we have in comes from the confidence we have within us.

Overall I believe that it is important to have a good background understand of what you might be taken later on in your future and that is exactly why I chose to listen to these two lectures on psychology. It is never bad to have too much knowledge and it is never bad to greater your understanding of something that may later on be you career for life and that is exactly what I believe I did today.   

 

itunes 4

As technology has changed for the better so does the teaching and learning methods of universities and colleges. With time everything has to chance because new techniques are discovered to enhance the old ones, so that’s what I believe is taking place in today’s society. Universities and colleges are going in this type of technology route because it’s easier for the students to learn and it’s a different type of teaching technic for the professors. I also believe that universities and colleges are going in this type of route because when the student graduate from the post-secondary school and go into the work force their not going to be too far behind in the technology field with all their experiences in their previous years.

The type of possible advantages for the students has something to do with what I just stated, and that is that they have that advantage when they go to their future jobs. They have an advantage over all the other people that don’t have this type of technology taught in their post-secondary years, giving todays people a better opportunity to get hired. New technology has defiantly sky rocketed from what it previously was many years ago, and like people say some things change for bad and some things change for good and the technology has definitely changed for good. Technology is something that gives people an opportunity to learn for free, to learn bigger and better things and lastly to give people an opportunity to get ahead.