Healthy Habits Away from Home

January 25, 2010  
Filed under Opinion

When you are at school, the responsibility to be healthy lies solely on you. It is not always easy to keep up good eating and behavioral habits when you are not being forced to do so by your parents. You may succumb to healthy habits at home, but if that behavior slacks off at school, it can leak into other areas of your life.

Healthy does not just mean eating well. Healthy refers to well-being in your mind and body, not to mention being free of disease. For some people it may seem difficult, but actually there are many things you can do to keep up your well-being at school.

The first, and most obvious, reason to think fit at school is to eat well. I understand that at lunch it may be hard to resist those French fries, but balance out your meal. If you take a fried chicken sandwich, pick up a fruit cup, too. We are teenagers, and we love sweets. We should not have to be deprived of all things sugary, but compromise and think in moderation. I know people who eat a la carte every day, and that just does not seem that healthy to me. Man cannot live well on pizza and cheese sticks alone!

Another tried and true way to be healthier at school is to be active! Join a club or sport! There are plenty of extracurricular activities offered at our school, do not be afraid to try one. Even if you just found out about the club or have never played the sport before, go for it! Is that not the point of school anyway? To learn?

If you want to be active, but do not have time after school, sign up for a physical education class. Aside from the basic P.E. class, our school offers weightlifting, fitness for life, and body blast. Find one of these classes that suits you, and get on that healthy bandwagon!

You can also be healthier at school by getting more sleep. Who knew?  Teenagers should get at least eight hours of sleep a night in order to perform better in school and extracurricular activities. Getting the right amount of sleep will help you with your concentration and response time, as well as keeping you physically healthy and in a good mood. Seeing how being a teenager is often an emotional rollercoaster, getting an ample amount of sleep would not only be a great thing for you, but for everyone around you too.

An additional way to be fit for school is to stay organized and manage your time. If you claim this has nothing to do with being physically fit, then I will happily disagree. I know from first-hand experience that staying organized can help you to get things done faster, like homework. When you get things done faster, you can spend more time doing fun activities, like sports, the after- school programs previously mentioned or sleep!

A fourth way to be healthy at school is to wash your hands! I know you have been told this many times before, but this is because it really works! Wash your hands or use hand sanitizer after you sneeze, touch something a lot of people have touched and especially after using the restroom. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen someone go to the bathroom and then not wash their hands. It is disgusting! And, by the way, just running your hands under the faucet for three seconds does not count. Do the rest of us a favor please, and use soap. No one wants to end up sick because you did not care enough to spend twenty seconds washing your hands correctly.

One final healthy habit for school is a simple one: laugh. Be positive. Think of the glass as half full. I know you have heard the saying laughter is the best medicine, and it is true! It is an easy antidote to pain and stress. Laugh at yourself when you are in an embarrassing situation, or even tell yourself a joke. Laughter relaxes your whole body and releases endorphins, the feel-good chemicals. It also boosts your immune system by decreasing stress hormones, and increasing immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies.  Not to mention it improves blood flow in your heart and therefore helps protect you from heart problems. Who knew you could lower your stress levels, lower your risk of a heart attack ,and feel better  just by letting out one little chuckle?

I encourage all students to take these healthy habits into consideration. It is not hard as long as you are conscious of the decisions you are making. Maintaining a healthy and positive lifestyle at school is the first step to creating a healthy and positive life for the future.

—–
Jaime Birzer

Tags:

 Email This Post        Print This Post