As far as I can remember as a child, I was a very resentful and angry kid. It took me many years to learn how to control my anger and eliminate my resentfulness. I come from a small village in Puerto Rico, where everybody socializes with everybody whether they are related or not. As a teenager, I learned that I had to make decisions in how I was approaching people and for what purpose, whether I was visiting them to gossip or whether I was visiting them because I missed them and I wanted to spend time with them. That impulse of always being resentful for things I could not control and were not going my way, was the hardest emotion that I needed to control. I needed to learn how to express myself when things were not going my way, especially with the people involved. I needed to learn to explain how I felt, while controlling my emotions. This created in me social skills that I did not have in the past. I used to get angry with people easily and did not want them in my life any longer.
Eventually, I would feel horrible for my behavior, and would begin to question myself. I would ask myself, “why did I pull away without expressing my feelings?” These feelings might have been easily resolved if I had just faced the person and questioned her or him. This personal growth brought in me more happiness and stability. This also brought security in my mind, and strength. When the mind is sick, it sickens the body, and when the body is sick everything seems to spiral out of control and the happiness that many seek little by little disappears.
My medical history is fine for the most part. I was recently diagnosed as a diabetic, so I changed my diet and exercise patterns to avoid taking pills for this disease. I recently did a stress and cardiovascular test and the results were normal. My blood pressure and vital signs are considered normal and no major illnesses or side effects affect my body. When exercising, injuries are an important factor since I am overweight and I had a car accident, which affected my back. I have to look at how much I can force my body to do, since I can hurt my feet and my knees, which carry a great part of my body weight. I also visit a chiropractor twice a month to maintain my lower back pains to a minimum.
I motivate myself to walk every day between 15 to 20 minutes twice a day. This level of physical activity may not be enough, but it is a start. This activity was set in place since I started to study health and wellness. The studying of health and wellness has been a motivational tool for me to use as a technique. My major motivation is that I will go to my accurate weight size for my height and feel more comfortable around people. Eventually I will start jogging a mile every day as I used to do.
Some of the things that I am trying to change from my habits are to smoke less, do more exercise and eat as healthy as possible. Those are the recommendations that I try to live by. I have reviewed and answered several tests dealing with stress, eating habits and exercise, and according to them I scored low which means I need to improve in those areas (Howley & Franks, 2007).
Those are the areas in my life that I have to be concerned about and try to improve the score. I am not the type of person who joins a gym or hires a personal trainer to guide me. Luckily, I researched and followed advice from a personal trainer on the internet and I learned a lot. In the article “The Effects of Exercise on Food Intake and Body Fatness,” I learned a lot about how exercise reduces body fat. Exercise can influence my energy and can reduce body fat. Also, the courses I have taken pursuing my health and wellness degree, the advice from my professors and classmates have allowed me to improve my wellbeing (Elder & Roberts, 2007).
I think one of the things I need to do is to keep walking during my coffee breaks and overcome any obstacles that I may encounter that might discourage me. Some of these deterrents are the little free time that I may encounter while working and the severe weather that I might face. One of the solutions that I propose for myself is to prepare myself for the weather, and to make sure I stop working when it is time for my coffee break so I can go and do my exercises. Another factor that I have to consider to achieve my goal in maintaining healthy is to minimize or stop smoking completely.
References
Elder, S.J. & Roberts, S.B. (2007) The Effects of Exercise on Food Intake and Body Fatness: A Summary of Published Studies. Nutrition Reviews, Vol. 65 Issue 1, p1-19.
Howley, E.T. & Franks, B.D. (2007) Fitness Professional’s Handbook, Fifth Edition: Exercise and Older Adults.
Howley, E.T. & Franks, B.D. (2007) Fitness Professional’s Handbook, Fifth Edition: Health Appraisal.
Congratulations on your awesome goals! You have shared your testimony with us, and that really paints a beautiful picture of the progress you have made over the years, and continue to make. You made this progress because you wanted to, you researched, you applied what you learned, and you believed in yourself. You wanted to figure out who you were and why you had certain behaviors. I give you huge kudos for taking responsibility for your health and wellness, and for your determination!
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work! :)
Sherry
Jose, I think you will do great. You project a positive vibe through your writing. I am impressed that you didn't just give up, but worked toward changing your health situation. You didn't mention what level you are in spirituality, but from your blog I think it has to be somewhere near 9. Best of luck to you in your goals.
ReplyDeleteAs a side note, I think your dogs are adorable.