For this week’s chapter, I was interested in the material that the textbook covered and learned a lot about how many factors go into body image, whether positive or negative and for weight management. I have never really been one to always look to step on the scale, other than when going to a doctor’s appointment. I for the most of always found it important to be healthy or to stay on track, but I think a lot has helped me always stay healthy by allowing myself to have times where I’m not on track or I choose a burger and shake over a healthier option. I never let myself be ashamed of enjoying foods and allowing myself to have them, but I have always been aware of what makes my body feel at its best so I have usually been more encouraged by fueling my body with foods that allow me to feel that way. There have been times where I either had a really bad week with my food choices and at the end of the week I was miserable, even then I never looked at that as too much of a negative and put myself down I just always chose to allow them to motivate me to get back on tracker or find some new recipes to try out that are healthy.
I loved learning about physiological factors, such as metabolic rates, the basal metabolic rate, and exercise metabolic rate. I, of course, have heard of them, but never really took the time to know what it means and how it applies to you personally. I think it’s just amazing to see this factor for your body in almost like a math equation and how certain calculations can tell you what and how much your body needs and of what. This is something I want to invest in learning for myself so I can apply it to my health aspect on clean eating and staying healthy. Learning what your specific body needs and how it breaks down food along with how much you are burning will be a great tool for allowing me to stay healthy and give my body what it needs!
Learning about measures of body fat is another one I would like to apply to my health aspect, I, of course, do not want to emphasize how important this is, because I know a lot of people can become obsessed with a number or having a certain goal number and not going over it, but I do not feel the need to get too carried away with that. I do love challenging myself and it just so happens that my mom bought a scale that can tell you your body fat percentage, so I want to just note that along with my health journey to see what changes that may have. I did learn that usually, these methods require a professional and usually done in a clinical setting, but I do not see that happening so I do want to just stick to the scale. I never knew how many different assessments that they have to measure body fat, from underwater weighing, skin folds, bioelectrical impedance analysis, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, and bod pod. I do not think numbers are crucial if you are an overall healthy person, I just do find all the different methods and assessments that you can try to are cook. I believe that our bodies do enough communicating with us on how we feel and signaling that we are treating our bodies well with the right nutrients and exercise or if we are not.
Lastly, I did want to touch on eating disorders and what I learned from it because I think it can be challenging to know when sticking to a healthy lifestyle can be difficult and sometimes other problems arise and people do confuse eating less will mean that they are just going to get skinny. I know I am no expert, but from my experience, I have had people in my life struggle with eating disorders and there are a lot of different factors or types that play a part in creating an unhealthy habit. When I had read this chapter I never knew how much thinking does control eating disorders and finding out that many people who are struggling with these disorders use these habits to gain a sense of control and power of the food they chose to eat. These are all things that I think are huge in learning and understanding and maybe even catching things that you never thought of as a problem with eating habits. This is important for anyone to know and especially trying to take on a new health aspect and challenge for yourself and understanding how your body works and what it needs to work best!
Samantha Lundrigan - Health & Wellness 