The Importance Of Physical Wellness

Submitted By djarmon11
Words: 1590
Pages: 7

My father has always told me that if I did not make time for exercise, then I will have to find time for illness. Physical Wellness is defined as, “the ability to apply your knowledge, motivation, commitment, behavior, self-management, attitude, and skills toward achieving your personal fitness and health goals.” It also involves any and all aspects of life that keep our bodies in top condition. I have always been good at keeping my physical wellness in good shape, as far as the actual getting out and exercising part. I exercise about five times per week now, doing cardio and weightlifting as well. I also do a lot of push-up/sit-up/pull-up routine to prepare to my hopeful future career as a Navy SEAL. But the one part of Physical Wellness that I have never been able to truly master is eating healthy and eating properly to burning fat. WebMD wrote an article called Healthy Eating-Getting Started on July 19th, 2011. WebMD also published it. Basically what it was discussing is the importance of eating a well balanced diet. Having a well balanced diet not only helps towards physical wellness, but also reduces the chances of having a heart attack or a stroke. It also discusses the importance of knowing how many calories a person needs. The Dietary Guidelines suggest that less active women and older people only need 1,600-2,000 calories a day, active women and less active men only need 2,000-2,400 calories, and active men should have between 2,400-3,000 calories per day. This article also discusses the importance of listening to certain signals from your body. It discusses the differences between hunger and appetite, as well as the meaning of fullness. Hunger is the body saying that your stomach is completely empty and that your blood sugar is running on empty as well. This will cause you to search for food, and is a very powerful psychological feeling. If you prolong the feeling of hunger long enough, you will reach the point to where you can think of anything but eating food. Fullness is our brain telling us that we okay to stop eating. Because of these brain signals, we will not eat for a while and not have a desire to find food to survive. Appetite, however, is more of a desire. It is such a powerful feeling that if can override fullness, and can cause someone to eat long after they are full. It is something our body is telling is to get a emotional feeling from the good food we eat. It is also a combination of the smell, “sound,” and sight of the food. Appetite is one of the number one causes for why I do not eat very healthily. I want to eat what taste good, regardless of if it is good for me or not. Laura Niedziocha calls the next article I researched Can you Burn Fat and Still Eat Carbs. It was written on July 31, 2011 and was published by Livestrong. It talks more about how exactly someone can burn fat and lose weight by what exactly you should eat. Exactly one pound of fat on a person contains around 3,500 calories. So you would have to be at a “caloric deficit” of 500 calories per day in order to lose one pound per week. It stresses the importance of keeping a food journal as well. It also tells you to eat only carbs that are high in fiber, and complex carbs that come from fruits and vegetables. The importance of exercise is the key to it as well. If you work out longer than 40 minutes, the body turns to using fat as a source of energy. If I can incorporate these techniques into my diet then I can start to lose weight and burn fat. What I want to change exactly is my diet. I want to make sure I am taking in all the right types of foods that will maximize fat loss, which will result in weight loss. Specifically I want to watch the amount of calories/carbs I intake and figure out how many I should be eating in order to burn fat. My motivation to change is my goal to become a Navy SEAL. I need to be a lot lighter than I am which will help me make it through the SEAL training a little bit easier. Also, getting into