Since I have already explained how my week was in respects to my health aspect, I’ll just jump right into the chapter. This is a hard chapter to read due to the heavy topics. Violence is something that I think about everyday in respect to keeping myself and my loved ones safe. When it comes to my friends and I going out, I try especially hard to keep my eyes on everyone so that we all stay safe. When looking at the statistics for all these types of abuse and rape it makes me sick. “Over 23% of undergraduate women have been sexually assaulted one or more times during their undergraduate years” (Donatelle, 2019, p.314). This is far too many young women to be assaulted and this only includes those who report it. It is a sad reality to think that walking through campus, 1/4 of the girls you pass have been sexually assaulted. I think it would be interesting to see a statistic on how many men have sexually assaulted women.

Another scary statistic that I found in the book is that “1 in 370 is the lifetime odds of dying in an assault by a firearm”(Donatelle, 2019, p.310). This does not sound like a lot until you realize that the odds of dying in the passenger seat of a car crash is 1 in 647. I would have thought that car crash deaths are more likely than death by firearm, but I live in a place where it is not common for someone to carry a weapon. I think this statistic is sad because it it more likely for you to die in an act of violence from another person than your chances of an accidental death via car crash.

Donatelle explains that the majority of vehicle crashes are because of factors that are within the drivers control. Some examples of this are distracted driving, such as texting and impaired driving, such as driving drunk. These both lead to a lot of car crashes and risk the safety on the road, but the main killer on the road is not wearing your seatbelt. “forty-nine percent of all people killed in MCVs in 2014 were not wearing seatbelts at the time”(Donatelle, 2019, p. 322). I find it interesting that even with the new cars that beep at you until you buckle up, people try so hard to do just the opposite. It takes two seconds to put on and take off your seatbelt, so I am unsure of what the excuse for not wearing one is. If it is uncomfortable, they sell seatbelt covers to help make it more comfortable, so there really is no excuse except for people just being stubborn, but it is a simple change that they can make to help possibly save your life.

I have been doing a good job keeping up with my goals this week. I have gone on a run every day that is has not been raining and I have been keeping up with my workouts. I decided to start meal prepping and it worked for a while, but I have run out of my food and have gone back to things that are easy to make and are not the best to eat. I have been trying not to beat myself up about it though because I would rather eat things that are not super healthy than go to the grocery store and risk getting sick more than I have to.

The Covid-19 pandemic is something that will probably be in everyone’s blog this week because it is changing everyones lives. Having to stay quarantined is not an easy task, but it is a necessary part of getting back to life. It has been hard to eat healthy in this pandemic because we are all trying to limit our exposure to the virus and going to the store does the opposite of that. While there are downsides, I have found it to be very helpful in my workouts because I finally have plenty of time to workout and get everything else I need done. The book explains that an endemic is an infectious disease that is “present at expected prevalence rates in virtually all populations on earth”(Donatelle, 2019, p.283). The next level up is an epidemic which happens “when the number of cases suddenly increases with higher than predicted endemic numbers”(Donatelle, 2019, p.283), while what we are all living through right now is a pandemic. A pandemic is considered a global epidemic, so its numbers are higher than projected worldwide.

One big thing that is known as a proper precaution for contracting Covid-19 is washing your hands. It is very important for everyone to wash their hands frequently to kill germs that may have transferred ed to your hands from nearly anything you may have touched. One thing that the book talks about is the fact that “antibacterial soaps may actually encourage the development of antibiotic resistance”(Donatelle, 2019, p.295). This means that if they created a cure or vaccine for coronavirus that was made of antibiotics, it may not work on many people due to the fact that everyone has been trying especially hard to use antibacterial soaps. This is something that the scientists working on the vaccine will have to take into account and work around. It also makes me unsure whether I should be using regular soaps or antibacterial soaps.

Another infection that is talked about in the book is meningitis. This is described as “an infection or inflammation of the meninges, the protective membranes that surround the brain and the spinal cord”(Donatelle, 2019, p.289). The statistics on meningitis are enough to worry anyone who has it, 5-10% of people with meningitis die from it and 20% have permanent brain damage from it. I often work in a daycare run out of a family friends home, and two summers ago, the woman who owns it had been diagnosed with meningitis. It was a very hard time for her and her family. After spending months in the hospital, she was able to finally come home and take over the day care, but it took a lot fighting for her and a lot of rehabilitation as I am sure it would be hard for anyone to go back home and to work after such aggressive medical treatment.

Cancer is a touchy subject for many people, because it is such a common way for people to die. I can not think of anyone that I know that has not had a loved one either have cancer or die from cancer. Personally, I have had 3 of my grandparents die from cancer and I have seen many family friends fight with the disease. “The word cancer refers not to a single disease, but to hundreds of different diseases. They are grouped into four broad categories based on the type of tissue from which the cancer arises”(Donatelle, 2019, p. 263). The four groups that the book talks about are Carcinomas, Sarcomas, Lymphomas, and Leukemias. Carcinomas are in the tissue covering the body surfaces and are the most common place for cancer to exist. Sarcomas are in the middle layer of tissue like the bones and muscles and tend to be more severe than carcinomas. Lymphomas are in the lymphatic system and attack the part of the body that is supposed to be fighting infections. Leukemias are typically in the bone marrow or spleen because they form in blood-forming parts of the body. I have known that there are different types of cancers, but it is very interesting to learn about what each does.

My maternal grandmother passed away 20 years ago, after fighting breast cancer for a very long time. This was a reality check to the women in my life and my mom would always tell me as I was growing up to do self-examinations. In the book, Donatelle explains that “the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force no longer strongly promotes doing the BSE on a monthly basis”(p. 268). I found this very odd because of how much it has been instilled in me to do monthly exams. After reading a bit more, the book explains that many women would become more worried and would often get unnecessary testing because of this. The book explains the correct way to do a BSE(breast-awareness self-examination) and says that it is a good idea to get to know your body but do not obsess over it unless there are clear changes.

Another big disease that people often have to worry about is diabetes. “People with diabetes need to check their blood glucose level several times throughout each day to make sure they stay within their target range”(Donatelle, 2019, p. 280). This disease calls for a whole lifestyle change of the person affected. Not only do they have to watch their blood, glucose levels, but they also need to make sure that they are staying active and eating the right foods. A few of my family members have type 2 diabetes and there was a time when I was younger that my brother and I were at a very high risk for getting it too. My parents made me and my brother log all of the food we ate each day and only allowed us to drink water (we hated it at the time, but in the end it helped us a lot). The fact that this disease is somewhat preventable makes it very shocking that so many people have it, but it is not easy for many people to make a lifestyle change, even if it is for their health.

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This week I changed up the way that I worked towards my health goal. Since I finished the 21 day fix, I decided to make my own workout routine (the workout videos got annoying after a while). I have a notebook where I write down what workout I should be doing each day and it helps me keep track of my progress. Today is leg day and I have 6 workouts listed, but on other days such as Mondays when I do core workouts, I may have 10 workouts. I try to push myself to do all of the workouts I have listed 3 times, but on days where I have much more workouts, I may choose a couple to leave out. I like this plan because I can adjust it to me and my needs, if I am not feeling well, I can modify my workout to better fit how I feel and if I feel like I can do more, then I’ll either up the weight or the reps. In a perfect world I would be going on a 30 minute run most days, but the weather has not been motivating me to go outside the past few days. This lockdown has given me the time to focus on my health in both a nutrition aspect and fitness. I have been able to snack less these past few weeks, which is mostly due to meal prepping, mindful eating and drinking more water. I have noticed that if I feel hungry, and substitute eating with a glass of water, I often feel better than I would have if I had snacked.

This week has turned out pretty good in reference to my health aspect. Tomorrow is the last day of the 21 day fix program I have been doing. I am proud to say that I have worked out every day for the past 21 days. There have definitely been times when I have dreaded getting up to workout, but it only takes 30 mins a day and I feel much better about myself because of this program. I have been bouncing around with a few ideas as to what to do next, because I want to pick another program to do so that I keep up with my fitness while the gyms are closed. There is an 80 day program that focuses on the mixture of fitness and nutrition and I think I may do this once I am done with my current program. I am a little worried that I will have trouble committing to a program everyday for the next 80 days, but if I can stick with it I know I will see the results I have hoping for seeing that I am seeing results after 21 days.

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I really like the program that I have been using because it focusses on making sure to stretch out before and after each workout. This has visibly improved my flexibility, which makes me feel all around better in my skin. “Flexibility refers to the range of motion, or the amount of movement possible, at a particular joint or series of joints: the greater the range of motion, the greater the flexibility.”(Donatelle, 2019, p.227). The more that I stretch out my muscles, the more range of motion I have. I can notice this in certain stretches where I used to not be able to stretch with my fingertips to my toes, but now I can grab my foot in a stretch. This is helpful not only in situations where I need to touch my toes, but also when working out because my body feels warmed up. When my muscles are stiff, it can be hard to do certain exercises.

A big problem I have when I workout is motivation. I always find reasons to avoid exercising because it is so much easier to lay in bed all day than to get up and work out. I have done a good job keeping myself motivated, but I can tell sometimes it is much harder to find the motivation. On page 231, Donatelle talks about a few excuses people use to avoid exercising and how you can combat it to get yourself more motivated. The section I most fit into is the “lack of motivation, willpower, or energy”. There are quite a few ways to help me get more motivated. I think the most useful tips I could use are to set a time to workout just as I would for another commitment and to schedule this in times when I have the most energy. I have noticed lately that I have not had as much energy as I had in the beginning of my program and after reading this I have realized that maybe I am working out at the wrong time of day for me. In the beginning of the program, I worked out in the morning and felt great, but the last week or so I have been working out later in the day which might be the reason for my lack of energy and motivation.

Another thing to help with my motivation that I learned in this chapter was to go into each workout with a plan. Especially when the gyms open back up and I am done with the online programs, I need to have a plan of what exercises I will do. “A comprehensive workout includes a warm-up, cardiorespiratory and/or resistance training, and then a cool-down”(Donatelle, 2019, p. 239). When I went to the gym, I almost never did a warm up or a cool down and after the 21 day fix, I realize first hand how helpful it is to have both of them in your workout plan. I have learned a lot from the virtual exercise classes and I plan on using some of the workouts in my workout routine in the future.

This week I have been doing alright with my health aspect. I have kept up with the 21 day fix workouts so I have worked out every day for the past 2 weeks so far. Some days it is easy to get myself to do the workouts and some days not so much. Today was one of those days where I honestly just wanted to lay in bed all day and not workout. I have not felt great today, but I eventually made myself get up and spend 30 mins working out. I am proud of the fact that I have worked out for at least 30 mins a day for 14 days straight, but I really need to work on my nutrition because I know I will never reach my goal by just working out and not giving myself the proper foods. I have decided to stop drinking for a while and hopefully that will help me achieve my goal and feel better about myself.

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I’d like to think that everyone has their struggles with their own body image at some point in their lives. Not because anyone should feel like that, but it makes me feel better about my own body image and it is just reality. I wish we didn’t but the reality is that it is hard to accept yourself when the media is so prevalent in our lives. The media is always showing the most “perfect” people online and on TV. Not only are they giving people expectations that are very hard to fulfill, but they are also always advertising very unhealthy foods that are “low-priced, high-calorie and supersized portions”(Donatelle, 2019, p.207). It is hard for anyone to watch an advertisement for some super unhealthy comfort foods without craving them, this reigns especially true for children since they are so easy to influence. When children are raised on fast-food and unhealthy choices, it can follow them to adulthood and it is not easy for them to make healthy choices later on in life.

A good way to train yourself to eat less or eat more healthily is to utilize mindful eating. “Mindful eating means eating with awareness – awareness of why we are eating, what we are eating, and how much we are eating”(Donatelle, 2019, p.212). This is an important tool that I often forget to use. I have a nasty habit of binge eating and it is not an easy habit to kick. By taking a moment to think about why what and how much food I am eating can help me to make the decision to put the snacks away. The book talks about how we should assess whether we are actually hungry or if we have been triggered to eat by a factor in our environment. It says to keep a log of eating triggers to help your awareness of why you are eating. This is something I think I could benefit from because I often find myself eating even though I am not hungry (especially now that we are all quarantined and it is hard to find other things to do to distract myself). My eating habits are a big reason that I am not completely satisfied with the progress I have made with my health aspect because it is hard to see results when I over eat.

In the past, I have tried many different diets to control my eating habits and some work temporarily while others do not work at all. The book calls these yo-yo diets because once you lose the weight you are destined to gain it all back once the diet is over. “After repeated losses and gains, it becomes increasingly harder to lose weight and easy to regain it”(Donatelle, 2019, p.206). I find this to be personally true and honestly pretty disappointing. When I started this class, I chose to use intermittent fasting as a way of achieving my health goal because it had worked in the past, but in the end I gained the weight back and this time around it was very hard to commit to and ended up not working for me. I am actively trying to find new ways to achieve my health goal that are more long term and healthier for me.

This week has gotten a bit easier to manage my health aspect. With the gyms all being closed, I had to get creative to work out. I have decided to start doing virtual work out sessions in my living room. I chose to do the 21 day fix which requires you to work out for 21 consecutive days with no rest days in between. Tomorrow I will have been doing this for 7 days and it is honestly pretty rewarding to say that since I had thought about quitting so many times during the week. The work out if for 30 minutes each day (give or take) and it typically pretty intense. Since we are all quarantined for who knows how much longer, I figured this is the perfect time to work on myself and really commit to changing for the better. I have been trying to get myself to go on an additional walk or run each day as well, but it is not always so easy with this New England weather.

Something I have definitely been struggling with since being quarantined is my nutrition. First of all, my family has stocked up on a lot of pasta and canned foods so that we don’t have to go to the store often. We have a limited supply of fresh produce, such as fruits and veggies, and that is typically where I get my good nutrition from. I have found myself eating way more pasta and starches lately which is not great and is definitely something I need to work on through mindful eating. Mindful eating is “eating with the understanding and awareness that what you’re putting in your mouth has an affect on your body”(Donatelle, 2019, p. 194). One thing that the book mentions is not to use food as a reward because it interferes with the bodies ability to feel hunger (Donatelle, 2019, p.194). This makes a lot of sense to me because I have always given myself rewards of food to motivate me to get things done and I have a very unhealthy relationship with food. Now that I know that food should not be used as a reward I can help myself much better.

Another thing I could work on for myself and my health is my water intake. “The general recommendation for women is approximately 9 cups of total water from all beverages and foods each day” (Donatelle, 2019, p.180). This is definitely far from the amount of water I have been getting lately. I will usually drink about one water bottle worth of water while working out and maybe another throughout the day, which is not enough water when you account for the terrible diet I have had lately. In the past, drinking more water had helped me lower my hunger and binge eat less. I find it interesting that the book talks about how people usually get the right amount of water they need because their bodies tell them that they are thirsty. This is interesting because I do not feel like I get enough water and I don’t often drink things other than water, so I can’t imagine that someone who drinks soda or juice often would get the right amount of water just be being thirsty.

Growing up, I was overweight so I have had to learn through the years how to read the nutrition facts labels on food. “In 2016, the FDA published a new label that is more helpful for consumers”(Donatelle, 2019, p.191), and it made people focus on their caloric intake. The new labels have the amount of calories per serving in bing bold numbers so that it is easy to read. Another big thing that was a good change to the label was listing the added sugars separately. This makes it clearer to the consumer how healthy the food they are buying is. I am interested to see if the obesity rates have gone down at all (or will go down) since the release of the new labels.

I don’t think I’m alone when I say these past couple of weeks have not been easy. Being in quarantine it is easy to get lost in Netflix shows and binge eat. Since the gym has shut down, I have not been keeping up with my workout routine. I have been trying to do things to stay active, like walking my dog and playing just dance, but nothing I do gives me the feeling of a good workout at the gym. It’s hard to get motivated to do much of anything productive and I have noticed my body showing the affects of that.

I find it interesting how well each chapter relates to my life each week. Given the fact that saint patricks day and my birthday fall within the same week, my friends and I found ourself binge drinking a lot at this time. The fact that “a standard [alcoholic] drink contains 12 to 15 grams of alcohol, so a single drink can add about 100 empty calories to your daily intake” (Donatelle, 2019, p.156) is a scary thought. Gaining one pound a month just by drinking alcohol is something that probably affects many college kids, myself included. These past few weeks I have had almost no responsibilities, given that classes and my internship were cancelled and I am temporarily out of work, so I have spent a lot of my time drinking excessively. I know this is not a good habit and I have begun to cut down on my alcohol consumption as I start to get back on somewhat of a schedule. My hope is to keep cutting down on this bad habit as a way of achieving my health aspect of losing weight. The book gives many ways to help cut down on alcohol consumption and I think that I could utilize some of these tips, such as taking a break from alcohol and staying active. These tips can possibly help me and others stay healthy and achieve our goals.

I am amazed at the nicotine epidemic that has gone on over the past years. When the Juul came out, people loved it and it helped a lot of my friends stop smoking cigarettes. The fun flavors that we used to be able to buy made the juul even more attractive to both adults and teenagers. Juul must have known that “children are three times more susceptible to advertising run by tobacco companies than are adults.”(Donatelle, 2019, p.164) because their ads were definitely aimed towards younger people. I know high schoolers were vaping and it made them feel cool. Once the younger generation was hooked on the juul, the government banned the juul for some time and now I do not know the statistics, but I am sure that there is a handful of kids that are now going to turn to cigarettes to just get their nicotine fix.

On page 172 in the textbook, there is a timeline of the affects smokers have when they decide to quit smoking. Donatelle explains that only 24 hours after quitting, the persons risk for heart attack decreases, after 1-9 months, energy should be restored and after 15 years the chance for coronary heart disease is the same as that of a non smoker. I find it fascinating that someone that someone who smokes can be in just as good health with someone who never has if they quit. It is inspiring that someone with a nicotine addiction can stop smoking and live a healthy life. It gives me hope that even though I have not been the healthiest of people, I can still lead a healthy life if I work hard enough at my goals

This week has not gotten better from past weeks when it comes down to my health aspect. I have been having trouble sticking to my diet and finding time for the gym. I did go to the gym a few times this week, but I always feel guilty when I did not make it as much as I had hoped. Going to the gym will not do anything if I am not keeping up with healthy eating habits, but I just can’t seem to kick the junk food this week.

Since I was young, I have had trouble with binge eating, it is an unhealthy coping mechanism that I have that I will probably have to fight off my whole life. The behavior has become addicting for me at times and lately it has been hard for me to pull myself away from compulsively eating 3 days worth of calories. Food addictions and binge eating are not in the book as a type of addiction, but it seems to fit the definition of a process addiction pretty well; “known to be addictive because they are mood altering” (Donatelle, 2019, p.130). I know for me, eating an abnormal amount of ice cream helps my mood very short term. I know that it only effects my mood short term which makes it hard sometimes to stop because I have built up a tolerance in a way, so I just keep eating until I feel like I am going to explode.

Above is the cycle of psychological addiction and I think that it really lays out what addiction is like step for step. Take me and food, for example, I start my relapse into binge eating due to some trigger or stressor. In this case, my stressor is my overwhelming course load, as well as an internship, 2 jobs and 6 dogs to take care of. This is the point in the semester where I start to get a bit burnt out and stressed out, so I often fantasize about food that would be really good and comforting, then I lose control and end up getting said food. After I eat enough for a small family I feel extremely guilty about the fact that I binged and after a few times I usually try to get myself to stop the behavior… until some time passes and the cycle repeats itself. It is not an easy cycle to break, and I struggle with it every day considering food is such a prevalent thing in everyones day to day life. This is a big reason why I chose a healthier diet/ lifestyle as my health aspect to work on, not because I thought it would be easy, but because it is something I could really benefit from.

Switching gears to a much more detrimental addiction, heroin, which as Donatelle(2019, p. 141) explained, is a depressant that can cause drastic mood swings, but typically keep the user in a dreamy and drowsy state. The textbook talks a lot about the physical symptoms of addiction, but does not talk about how people behave. People will go to extreme measures to try to keep people from knowing that they’re an addict or to get money for more drugs. I once lived with a heroin addict. This girl shaved her head to convince my family and I that she had ovarian cancer. When she would go to “chemo”, she was actually just getting high. When she showed those physical signs (drowsiness, mentally slow feeling), we associated it with chemotherapy, when it was actually the heroin. She ended up stealing a lot of money from my parents before we found out that she was hiding her addiction. I always did wonder, why did she lie about her addiction? Was it because she did not think we would let her live there if she was a junkie, or was it because she had an easy way to get money from us, or was she just ashamed of her habits? These are just a few questions that the people around an addict might ask. If I had been closer to her maybe having an intervention may have helped her.

My attempt to work on my health aspect this past few weeks has not been great, but I worked hard at turning that around this week by making myself go to the gym more this week. I have noticed that I need to make sure that I reward myself occasionally with a soda or ice cream in order to keep myself motivated to keep working on myself. I originally tried to cut out everything which made it so much easier to fall into my bad habits. By giving myself a treat here and there I am telling myself that it is ok to eat things that I like as long as I am also working towards my goal. I made it to the gym four days this week which is huge for me because I have been having trouble with my time management lately. I have worked in times in my schedule after work, class or my internship to go to the gym and some days I may only go to do cardio and leave within 30 mins, but the fact that I got myself there and made time to work on it is a big step for me in the midst of the chaos that has been my life lately.

Since this chapter is mainly about contraception and pregnancy, I could not help but to think of a few of my friends. One of my best friends from childhood went through a very traumatic child birth that is related to the chapter and that I believe is an important that people know. I am not going to use her real name for her privacy, but I will call her Lizzy for this blog. Lizzy went to the hospital a while ago because she was in a lot of pain, she thought she had an ovarian cyst, so typically the doctors would prescribe her a painkiller for that and send her on her way. This time was different though because it turns out that she was pregnant and was giving birth to a beautiful baby girl who was 4 months premature. Lizzy was not showing at all and no one had any idea that she could have been pregnant. She had an ectopic pregnancy, so the baby grew outside of the womb. Sadly the baby only lived on her own for 10 minutes because she was so underdeveloped. “One of the most traumatic events a couple can face us a stillbirth” (Donatelle, 2019, p.123). I can’t imagine the pain that they are going through. For Lizzy and her boyfriend to have no clue that they were pregnant, then have their baby in their hands, only to have her last breaths 10 minutes later. My heart goes out to them. I thought about not including this into my blog because it is such a sad story, but after talking to Lizzy, we decided it’s important for people to be aware that things like this happen all the time and she wants her baby to be remembered. I’m not religious but god bless their souls.

On a brighter note I have another friend that is currently six months or so pregnant. I believe she is almost in her third trimester so she is showing her baby bump off and loving the pregnant lady attention that she is getting. Although her and her boyfriend did not intentionally get pregnant, it is a very exciting time for them. She said the moment that she knew she was pregnant was when she cried over a cookie at the grocery store. She was trying to be healthy and wanted a cookie so bad that she broke down to tears. Emotional upset was listed as one of the early signs of pregnancy on page 118 of the book and is a common symptom among pregnant women.

I am very proud of my friend for taking excellent care of her body while she has known she has been pregnant. She has been smoking cigarettes for years, but once she found out she was harboring a child inside her, she has yet to pick up another cigarette. She has only had a glass of red wine every once in a while and is very cautious about how much is in the glass. She has done a great job of improving her own health so that he baby will be healthy.

One thing that struck me while reading all of this was the section about contingency planning. I have not heard my friend talk about a plan for if anything happens to them and who would take the baby. I am not the babies parent so obviously I do not know nor need to know everything about what they plan to do, but I like to be there to help when needed. She has been very responsible about the whole pregnancy and this being her first child, she has done a bunch of research, so I would not be surprised if she has a plan in place. This is something I will talk to her about just to make sure she has a plan because, like Donatelle(2019) says “A prearranged plan of action can smooth their[the kids] transition into new families; without one, a judge will usually decide who will raise them [the kid]” (p.117).

This blog was a bit different than others due to the fact that I have little personal experience on this topic, so I had to take my second hand experience and relate it to the book. I think that even relating the material in the book to my friends experiences makes the content of the book much more understandable and interesting.