Health and Wellness - Essay Example

inserts his/her full Health and Wellness I have been told since childhood that good health is important in order to live a long and prosperous life. In order to be healthy a person must always maintain hygiene by taking shower on a daily basis, washing hands before and after eating, cleaning nails and cutting them and maintaining the cleanliness of one’s clothes. The basic steps mentioned above constituted my definitions about health. I did not care much about eating healthy food. This is because I always thought that only people who suffer from obesity and diabetes are the ones who should focus on maintaining a healthy diet and since I’m thin and young I should care less about eating healthy food such as fruits and vegetables, which according to me was monotonous. However, when I turned 15 years old I started getting awful pain in my stomach that I could not manage especially when eating meals, such as Indian food, that contained a lot of spices or drinking sour drinks. Initially, I thought that the pain was normal but it started getting worse because of which my mother took me to the hospital. Upon diagnosis, I learnt that I have Irritable Bowel Syndrome which is caused not only by excessive thinking, anger, concealment of feelings, tension, and stress by also by eating unhealthy food or eating only one meal a day. I was shocked to know that humans can get diseases based on their psychological state. The fact that I was diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome re-shaped my dentition of health as I started believing in the importance of maintaining good health. I realized that a healthy individual is someone who maintains his/her hygiene that gives him/her physical and intellectual comfort and the luxury of being able to enjoy life without ignoring the importance of eating healthy food and exercising. Furthermore, I do not believe that a healthy person is a person who does not have any disease. Rather, a healthy individual is someone who’s aware that he/she has a certain disease but is capable of controlling his/her disease and re-shaping his/ her health. This is because there are cases whereby people who take care of their health and diet suffer from genetic diseases or unexpected diseases such as diabetes or cancer. Additionally, there are individuals who, in spite of not taking care of themselves or their diet, do not suffer from any illness or disease. My recognition and awareness of maintaining good health has been shaped, to a great extent, by my teachers at school and parents at home. They have influenced my perceptions of health along with inculcating in me the seriousness required in maintaining personal hygiene and a healthy diet. In addition, my experience of the Irritable Bowel Syndrome has also helped in shaping my perceptions of health and wellness. After being diagnosed with this disease, I started caring more about myself, thinking less about issues in life that worried me, controlling my anger and sharing my feelings with others. Indeed, I started focusing more on the kind and amount of food I ate after being diagnosed with this disease. For example, I used to eat a lot of fast food prior to this disease which could have contributed to my ill health. However, soon I became proactively involved in developing healthy habits, including giving up on fast food, with the help of my support network. Moreover, one of the major individuals who have influenced me a lot when it comes to maintaining good health is my father. Despite being diagnosed with diabetes and high cholesterol and having suffered from a heart attack, my father was sustain himself through these times and, in the process, learnt how to control his ill health rather than being control by it. He has started to exercise on a daily basis and play different kind of sports such as tennis, horse riding and volley ball. He also eats whatever food he feels like eating. However, my mother ensures that the food is cooked in a healthy manner as she arranges his meals. As a general rule my father abstains from meals that contain a lot of oil and sugar. Furthermore, he always encourages me and my siblings to remain active by playing sports every day, eating healthy food and engaging in sport activities at school. Soccer was amongst the sports I used to play in school. Also, I used to spend all the time of my lunch break playing in the playground with my friends with the sand and chalks. Despite our fun-filled and, at times, unhygienic activities, our school focused on protecting us and keeping us healthy and clean. In fact, before the break started the teachers would give us uniforms to wear over our clothes so that our clothes do not get dirty or damaged. Once the break started the teachers would keep us in class for 10 minutes or more until we finished eating our food. The teachers would not allow any student to go to the playground until he/she finished his/her food. Indeed, I believe that if the teachers did not do that none of the students would have developed healthy eating habits, which could have negatively affected our health and our performance at school. This is because not eating the right amount of food would lead to loss of concentration in class as well as fatigue. However, the school’s concern for health and hygiene was not limited to just that. The school used to arrange programmers to talk about the importance of health and sports in class with students. Additionally, the school ensured that the students were vaccinated promptly. When I entered high school I began caring less about food and spent all my time studying in the break and spending less time with my friends. I was focusing on getting high grades and a perfect GPA so that I could earn a scholarship by the government and be able to study abroad. Owing to this pressure of achieving good grades, I neglected my diet and used to eat only one meal per day as I preferred spending my time studying rather than “wasting” it by eating. This is reflected in the fact that my weight decreased from 55 kilos to 50 kilos upon entering high school as I use to think a lot about my future and I was extremely worried that I will not be able to get a good GPA. As one may guess, one of the main causes behind the Irritable Bowel Syndrome was neglecting my health and getting worried about my scholarship. Nevertheless, I was able to achieve my goal and managed to get a good GPA and a scholarship to study aboard. However, I was left with long-term effects of my ill habits. Ever since I started losing weight in high school, I have found it hard to gain weight as I have lost my appetite and am addicted to eating junk food compared to healthy food- a habit which I’m trying to change. With the help of my family, I have started to eat less junk food and eat more healthy meals. In fact, when I went back home this summer I started to go to the gym, which made me feel much better about myself as I started getting strength and balance. Indeed, I have felt that my appetite has increased as I have started eating more and have gained weight (approximately 3 kilos) in summer. My mother also arranges healthy meals for me. However, when I came back to the USA I have started losing weight again. This is because of the stress from my school which commenced upon my arrival as well as the feeling of being homesick. Despite this, I’m working hard to change my current situation and have tried to arrange a schedule for my school work so that I do not feel overwhelmed by the course load. In fact, I have started to cook meals at home instead of ordering food from outside all the time. Furthermore, I now force myself to go to the gym even during times when I feel it is hard to keep up with gym in the midst of mounting academic work. Keeping in view these strategies, I hope I am able to gain weight and maintain a healthier food diet. Read More