Weight Loss Guidelines - Essay Example

Introduction

Living a lifestyle that is healthy is one of the goals that different people aim at achieving. The ability to lead a healthy as well as physically fit is critical for every human being. I realized the importance of body fitness the day I could no longer fit in my jeans. I used to argue that I do not have enough time to go to the gym and that going to the gym could cause injuries. What triggered my interest in body fitness is a health scare that almost knocked me down. One afternoon as I walked towards the parking lot, I felt sharp pain on my chest and the next thing I was admitted in the hospital, diagnosed with what I thought was mild stroke which if things had gone bad would have been a cardiac arrest. This made me rethink about my lifestyle. This is when I reached out to a friend who had mentioned to me about his weight loss struggles and a discourse community he had joined. He told me that they had meetings in the social hall thrice a week. After joining body fitness I realized the benefits of healthy eating and working out were immeasurable. All the members of this discourse community were trying to attain physical fitness and healthy eating habits. After joining body fitness, I have been influencing other members to be consistent in attending the social hall meetings as I always get there on time every day that we have a meeting. I have also been sending them alerting messages on the day we are having meetings to ensure that no one forgets.

Research procedure

When I was gathering my information, I heavily relied on common and personal know-how in the field of body fitness and the exercises involved. It was also easy to get complex knowledge, especially from YouTube channels by professional gymnasts who offered classes on body fitness. Similarly, in my community, several friends have been involved in the social hall where body fitness classes are offered. My artefacts are pictures of various exercises and their demonstrations. The first one shows press-ups and push-ups which aid in strengthening muscles around the shoulders, biceps and triceps (Wood, Peter D., et al.). The second artefact illustrates how sit ups are done which aid in reducing belly fat. The third artefact demonstrates skipping of ropes which is also a significant exercise in burning fats which lead to body fitness. The fourth artefact is a treadmill machine which is useful in losing weight. Lastly is an artefact that demonstrates how to carry out squats. These artefacts are accompanied by the guidelines on healthy lifestyle during the weight loss journey.

Weight loss guidelines

Goals and issues

Fitness to may people is a lifestyle while to others is a hobby. The members in body fitness vary in age, expertise and gender. However all the members in this community have a common goal which is being healthier and fit. This is achieved through training and nutrition. Once I joined the discourse community, I could realise the zeal among the members especially with their commmitment in exercising. A few had challenges especially on nutrition and they required a light tap on their shoulders to encourage them to carry on.

Another goal amongst the group is to ensure that those losing weight did so without causing life threatenig effets on their bodies. This is evidenced by some members overdoing some exercises or spending so much time in the hall even when resting is needed. Continued monitoring of the activities is required in order to ensure that all the exercises by the members are safe and helpful. This means that exceptional skills by people and communiaction is necessary in every level of training that a member is at. Despite having undeniable passion for body fitness, some members get burned out after a few days, others give up when they do not see any change quickly while others are denied training time by the complex work routines in their jobs. However those that are consistent with training are able to notice changes in body fitness and they confess how the group has assisted them to achieve that.

Group Communication

In the social hall where we attend body fitness sessions, we have posters on the walls that demonstrate how different exercises are performed while other posters have instructions how the machines are properly and safely used. Someone that comes to the social hall frequently to attend the body fitness sessions understands the posters' vocabulary better than someone who gets to this hall for the first time. Other genres of the body fitness are message reminders and use of social media like whatsapp where pictures and valuable information is shared to the rest of the community. There is use of strict as well as slang language. Informal language is usually found on the social media where hashtags and abbreviations are used under the picures. In others, you will find a well articulated post on facebook on discovery on a amethod of training or discovery of a new food which makes one lose weight quite fast. The different degrees of strictness appeals differently to different people. Formality in older folks might attract them more as compared to the younger generations.

Group dynamics

In the social halls where we have meetings and training, there are caregivers who assist in cleaning and attending to minor accidents that may occur in the process of training. This ensures that any fast aid requirement by any member is availed at the spot. Members through communication by the officials get guidelines on the activities they will carry out in every specific day in the hall. This ensures that we carry the required attires and also be psychologically prepared for the exercises. When joining the group, one provides his or her details, the present weight or body mass as well as the objective of joining the discourse community to the selected committee that oversees the running of the group. The committee consists of the chairperson, secretary and the treasurer who are elected by other members from the group. This data is updated after every month in order to check for the progress of the individual members. Members with the least improvement are enlisted to more beneficial and thorough exercises seeking better results.

There are regulations that govern the discource community to ensure that members do not lose track of their objectives. For example, if a member misses one or two training days, he or she compensates for the lost time by training for more hours than the others. This has limited the number of absentees. In the group, everyone has an equal chance in decision making and this has created a family like feeling or a sense of belonging to every member. We share our experiences, challenges and the help each other out towards becoming physically fit.

Conclusion

Every choice made has a positive and negative significance. The choice I made to join the body fitness community has really changed my life. Initially, I would throw my clothes away once I could not fit in them without noticing that I was becoming chubby. I would also eat anythng I came across whether healthy or not. Since I joined the discourse community, the exercises and sharing have made me rediscover my lost physique and pride in my appearance. I have also improved in maintaining a healhty diet.

The way we communicate, exercise together and focus on one goal as a group has also made a change on how I solve challanging problems. We all love what we do as a group and I have seen many more members join while others have shown interest especially with how they enquire from us when they see how we have changed. The group has shown us all that where there is will a way will eventually be there.