Chapter 1: Introduction to Wellness, Fitness, and Lifestyle Management PDF

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The first chapter of notes discusses the different types of wellness. Throughout the notes the concept of physical, intellectual, spiritual, emotional, interpersonal, cultural, environmental, financial, and occupational wellness and the differences with each of these....

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Chapter 1: Introduction to Wellness, Fitness, and Lifestyle Management Introduction to Wellness, Fitness, and Lifestyle Management: ● Different dimensions of Wellness ● Major health problems in the U.S. ● Lifestyle behaviors impacting Physical wellness. ● Steps of behavior management. Wellness: A new health goal Health Vs. Wellness: ● Health: A physical state: Typically defined as the overall condition of a person’s mind, or body and as the presence or absence of illness or injury ●

Wellness: a person’s ability to achieve optimal health. - An Idea/ A behavior/an attitude/ an effort towards better living.

Another difference: “Locus of control” ● Factors affecting health are sometimes uncontrollable: genetics, environment, age. ● While wellness is all about choices and decisions. ● Decisions to control risk factors: Wellness - Eg. smoking. Different Dimensions of Wellness: ● “A true wellness is to have a balance between the different dimensions in order to improve the overall quality of life”. ● Encompasses all dimensions of well-being. Different Dimensions of Wellness: (continued) - Physical - Emotional - Intellectual - Spiritual - Interpersonal Figure 1.1The wellness continuum

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Environmental Financial Cultural Occupational

Physical Wellness: ● Not limited to overall condition or presence/absence of disease; ● It includes fitness level and the ability to care for one’s self. ● Some of the behaviors related to physical wellness include: - Eating well, avoiding harmful habits, exercising, practicing safe sex, etc. Emotional Wellness: ● Your ability to understand and deal with your feelings. ● Includes evaluating your thoughts and feelings, monitoring your reactions, and identifying obstacles towards emotional stability. ● Qualities that need to be developed for emotional wellness are: - Self-acceptance, self-confidence, self-esteem, trust, optimism, ability to understand and accept one’s feelings, ability to share feelings with others. Spiritual Wellness: ● Having a set of guiding beliefs, principles, or values to give meaning and purpose to life. ● Helps one’s to focus on a positive aspect of life and to overcome negative feelings like anger, pessimism. ● Spiritual wellness is reflected by the capacity to love, forgive, and care for others. ● Sources for spiritual wellness: - Religion, art, nature, meditation, or good works, etc. Intellectual Wellness: ● An active mind is essential to wellness, and needed for detecting, and solving the problems in life. ● Can be improved by challenging your mind through learning new things, being creative, working on new ideas, questioning, having curiosity, thinking critically, sense of humor, etc. Interpersonal aka “Social wellness”: ● Shows someone’s ability to establish and maintain satisfying relationships. ● Depends on good communication skills, capacity for intimacy, and ability to cultivate a support system of family and friend

Cultural Wellness: ● The way you interact with the people who are different from you in terms of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, religion, and culture. ● It involves: - Creating relationships with those who are different from you - Maintaining and value your own culture. - Avoiding stereotyping based on ethnicity, culture, religion, or Sexual orientation

Environmental Wellness: ● The livability of surroundings. Defined by our efforts towards making the environment cleaner and safer. - E.g., Developing clean natural resources, promote recycling, reducing waste and pollution. Financial Wellness: ● Demand & supply balance. ● Ability to live within your means and manage money in a way that gives you peace of mind ● Avoid unnecessary debt, ● Saving some for your future. Occupational wellness: ● represents the level of satisfaction, fulfillment, and joy you gain through your work. ● This requires: - Enjoy what you do; - Positive relationship with co-workers - Recognition from manager and colleagues ● “Ideal job draws your interest, passion, your vocational skills, and allow you to feel that you are making a contribution in everyday work”. Physical Wellness: ● New world - New challenges - In 1900, Infectious disease was a top concern and biggest challenge for physical wellness. Life expectancy in 1850 was 40 years, in 1900 it was 47 yrs. - In 2015 it became 78.8 years (largely due to the development of vaccines, antibiotics, and public health measures. ● Still, most Americans spend the last 10-15% of their lifespan with limited activity due to poor health resulted in impaired life. New Challenges of the Present World: ● A set of chronic diseases have emerged as major health threats. Chronic disease: Disease that develops and continues over a long period of time; e.g., heart disease, cancer, etc.

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3 Leading causes of death for Americans are: - Heart disease (CVD) - Cancer - Chronic lower respiratory diseases

● Good thing: Lifestyle choices provide control over these diseases TABLE 1.4 Leading Causes of Death among Americans Age 15–24, 2015 Behaviors contribute to Physical Wellness: 1. Be Physically active - The human body is designed to be active. - Physical inactivity(Sedentary lifestyle) is common among Americans. - More physical activity leads to a stronger and more fit body and benefits both physical and mental health - Helps in Preventing heart attack, respiratory diseases, high B.P. 2. Choose a Healthy diet - Avoid diets that are too high in calories, unhealthy fats, and added sugar - Try to add diets high in fiber, complex unrefined carbohydrates, fruits, vegetables. 3. Maintain Healthy body weight: - Obesity and overweight are associated with fatal conditions and diseases like cancer, Heart diseases, Diabetes. - Obesity kills 112,000 Americans every year. 4. Stress Management Technique: - Use eating, drinking, use drugs, or smoking as cope up strategy. - Use meditation and other stress management techniques instead of eating, drinking, or smoking too much. 5. Use of Alcohol and Tobacco: - Tobacco use is associated with 9 of the top 10 causes of death in the U.S. and results in about 500,000 deaths every year - 14% of American adults are current smokers and Cost about $300 billion (due to healthcare and loss of productivity) - Alcohol consumption is associated with 8 of the top 10 causes of death in the U.S. and results in 90,000 deaths each year and costs about $224 billion per year. 6. Protect yourself from disease and injuries

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Unintentional injury: Injury that occurs without harm being intended: safety equipment, ergonomically sound work environment. Avoid infectious disease, sexually transmitted disease, etc.

Other Behaviors Impacting Physical Wellness: - Develop meaningful relationships. - Act responsibly toward the - Learn about the health care system environment - Plan for successful aging College Students and Wellness: ● Factors affecting academic performance in college students: - Stress(33.2%), - Anxiety(26.5%), - sleep difficulties(21.8%), - cold/flu/ sore throat(16.1%), - depression(18.7%), - Concerned about troubled family/ friend(11.9%) - excessive use of internet/computer games(9.9%) - lack of exercise, unhealthy eating habits, excessive alcohol consumption (15.5%), drug abuse(11%), ignorance of precautionary measures, etc. Getting Serious about health: Prepare yourself ● Steps: 1. Examine current health habits: Think about your behavior, Talk with friends and family members. 2. Choose target behavior: Start with small and simple- called “Target behavior”. Chances of success are greater if the goal is simple. 3. Learn about your target behavior: why is this important to change? 4. Find help: Some behaviors are deeply rooted; they need extra support(Friend, family, or professional) Building Motivation to Change: ● Successful change needs motivation. I. Examining pros and cons of change: Profit - Must believe that benefits outweigh the costs. II. Boost self-efficacy: - Locus of control: taking responsibility - Visualization and Self-talk. - Role Model And supportive individuals. III. Identify and overcome barriers to change - List key obstacles and develop plans for them - Consider your past failures as experiences. Stages of Behavior Change:

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Pre-contemplation: No intention of changing behavior. There can be several reasons like Don’t think they have a problem, maybe unaware of the risk, or previous unsuccessful attempts. Contemplation: Intending to take action within 6 months. Realizes the risk acknowledges the benefits but is worried about the cost. Preparation: Planning to take action within a month or have already begun to make small changes but not regular. Action: Outwardly changing behavior and environment. Requires the greatest commitment of time and energy. Maintenance: Enter this phase when successful behavior change is maintained for 6 months or more. Termination: Exited the cycle of change and are no longer tempted to lapse into old behavior. Having a new self-image and full of self-efficacy regarding that target behavior.

FIGURE 1.5 The stages of change: A spiral model D. Dealing with Relapse Most people need several attempts before they successfully change First thing: don’t give up! Relapse is not failure. In the initial stages, there are more chances for relapses so better be prepared for them to avoid guilt If a relapse occurs: Forgive yourself Give yourself credit for progress Move on Creating a Personalized Plan Monitor behavior and gather data Record behavior and surrounding it. Analyze and Identify patterns Be “SMART” about setting goals The goal should not be vague; “like drink more water” don’t go too challenging Devise a plan of action Get what you need, Modify your environment Control related habits Reward yourself Involve the people around you, Plan for challenges in advance. Make a personal contract: start date, mini-goals/steps to measure progress, strategies, rewards, expected final date Staying with It

Possible sources of blocked progress: Social influences Lack of motivation and commitment Choice of techniques and level of effort Stress barrier; e. g. wrong timing Procrastinating, rationalizing, and blaming Take on your easier problems first....