how to stay fit in the holiday season (391)

      Hi readers! Have you ever noticed that with the holidays comes the packing on of pounds? So much food and treats to celebrate Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New years that people soon forget about their health. When holidays (4th of July, etc.) come around during the spring and summer, people don't usually gain as much weight because it's so easy to just step out side to go for a job with the dog or ride your bike for a few miles. In the winter though, it is was harder because it is way too cold to do the usual possible activities.
      One good solution to this problem is to get a gym membership. My family got one for very cheap because my family is all in the medial field and it has benefitted us all very greatly. When I work out, I have many options at the gym so this is a good option for anybody. You can either play basketball, volleyball, racquet ball, lift weights, run on the treadmill or track, and many more making this suitable for all ages. 
     Another option is to go ice skating! Although it is cold, it is a good idea to get moving and you can go with friends or family to benefit more people. It is not very expensive and very close if you live where I do. You rent skates so you don't need to have your own, and you can skate for as long as you want for a low and reasonable price. The rink is cold, but you will end up heating up due to moving around a lot.
     Sledding, snowboarding, or skiing are very good activities to stay fit in the winter also. Whether at a local hill to sled or up at Sundown to do the lather, they are fun ways to keep your body moving! If you are going to choose these, make sure to bundle up good and have proper nutrition and hydration. Although fun, these activities can have major health problems such as hypothermia if you don't think about proper preparation.
     Staying fit in the winter is easy if you know how and where to do it. It is very important to stay moving and not just turn into a couch potato. I hope you follow my tips and make it a good holiday season!

Stick to the chef (426)

        On a Sunday afternoon, there is nothing better to do than procrastinate doing your homework. In the fall mood, I decided to make some caramel apples! Although, not very healthy readers, sometimes you just have to let it and do it. It was kind of a hassle since I had to go to the store and buy everything because I didn't have any apples, caramel, chocolate, or the candy for toppings. Also, because I haven't attempted to make these before, it was the first time I tried. And to say the least, it was a huge mess.
         I took a recipe online and tuned it to fit my need. Below is the recipe I used to make my own.
5 apples
2 bags of caramel singles
4 tablespoons of milk
1 bag of semi sweet chocolate chips
crushed up assorted candies of your choice
5 dowels

1. Wash the apples and stick a dowel through the middle of each.
2. In a big bowl, unwrap all the caramels and add the milk. microwave for 4 minutes, and stop to mix it every minute.
3. Mix caramel until it is smooth
4. Dip the apples in the caramel (I used a spoon to cover mine because I wanted the coat to be even)
5. Let the apples sit for about 20 minutes and while you are waiting crush up the candies and put them in separate bowls for easy access
6. Pour the chocolate chips into a bowl and add a splash of milk. Microwave for a minute, stirring occasionally.
7. Dip the caramel apples in the chocolate and immediately put on the assorted crushed up candies

       While making these, the kitchen was a mess. Caramel seemed to be everywhere and the crushed up candy got everywhere. The caramel apple it self was pretty good, but it did have some flaws. The caramel was perfect, the right amount of thickness and it wasn't too chewy. The chocolate on the other hand, was disgusting. If I were to do this recipe again I would've looked up what to use instead of going off of my own knowledge because the apples I dipped in chocolate were very bitter.
        I used green and red apples to see if the type of apple made a difference, and to me it did. I really liked the contrasting flavors of the tart green apples and the sweet caramel, but maybe that's just me. I know a lot of people who like the red type too because it kind of just builds on the sweetness. Either way, caramel apples are one of my favorite fall treats even if this time around wasn't too good. I recommend using an online recipe instead of just eyeballing it to get the best results.

Getting a puppy- a positive outlook to your health :) (305)

       We have all been that child. The one begging their parents for a puppy and giving multiple reasons to persuade them into finally breaking down and getting the adorable animal that we were hoping for. In some cases, though, the parents do not give in and the family is left without a complete house hold. But not for long! Soon after I got a new puppy about a week ago, I realized that there was more to a dog than just a loving member of the family.
       When my mom sat me down to talk about adding Bleu (a black Labrador  to the family, she only talked about the responsibilities. Feed her everyday, make sure she has water, give her bathes, the usual. But there was one thing that caught me, I needed to walk Bleu every day. This got me thinking about whether getting a dog was only beneficial to the family, or also to our health.
      Every member of my family switches off walking her every single day and getting only 30-60 minutes a day in makes us feel better. Bleu keeps us on our toes and while she is helping our health, she is also helping hers. When we got her, she was a rescue dog that was very sick and with the help of our vet, she is now playing and is very active.
     After a week of having Bleu, I have found myself feeling better and better after walking and playing with her. So if you are having a hard time persuading your parents whether or not to get a puppy, use a different approach. Other than using the original promises of taking care of it all by yourself (it never happens), use the excuse that a puppy will not only add love to your home but will add health.

Cell phones: A threat to our social health?

     Cell phones. Yes this has turned into a common household word in the past decade as new innovations came from the flip phone to the new iPhone 6s. New cell phones come out  every month with new technology that makes it "better" and more "modernized" than the last model. Our cell phone is always with us, either in our back pocket or our backpack and never leaving our sides, kind of like our best friend. But what happens when our cell phones end up becoming our ONLY friend?
    Walking down the halls of Kennedy High School during passing time it's hard to see anybody. They are all looking down at their cellphones on social media websites talking to their online friends and missing the physical people who are walking right beside them. Student's don't even take the chance to talk to each other anymore. At sporting events, people sit with their heads in their laps trying to find comfort in their online friends. Where there used to be noise from friends talking after class has ended, now comes a chilling silence. It's very scary if you ask me. If we are so reliant on internet friends, what will evolve to be our "norm"? What will happen to people's ability to be open-minded if they don't physically talk to others?
    In my opinion, people will become so reliant on the internet that they will loose social skills and decline mentally. If you have no  one to physically talk to, how do you know how to talk when the opportunity comes? It is very scary to think of a world with mentally declined citizens due to no communication with the world around them because they are glued to their phones. Yes new technology is fun and interesting because it is NEW, but to what extend is enough enough?

To eat or not to eat

       Hi Readers! In one of my first blogs (linked below), I talked about what to do if you want to have a good workout. Part of that was to make sure you have a good meal the night before and during the day leading up to your workout. When I was reading over my previous blogs to get new ideas about what to write for this week, I decided to test this out just to show my readers just how important food is.
       Food is very important to gain protein to fuel up for a hard workout. Whether it's running, lifting weights, or just walking with a friend,  protein and carbs are essential for a healthy and progressive workout. People with an eating disorder that disables them from eating think differently from this. With the eating disorder of anorexia, a person views them self as "not skinny enough" and they begin to starve them selves for their idea of perfect. The problem with this, though, is that the body naturally starts to take in all of the fat from what little they eat to make up for what they don't. This results in way slower weight loss and becoming very unhealthy.
       For my "normal" routine I fuel up as healthy as I think I can. Every night after I work out, I eat foods that would bring back the electrolytes I lost and I do not eat foods high in fat the night before or leading up to a workout. I usually eat healthy foods during the day prior to a work out, and although this might be a little unhealthy, I don't eat right before a workout because I hate getting cramps. I wanted to test how my whole workout would turn out if I tweaked one little bit of my workout so I tried two different ways.
     To test how important it is to fuel up with proper foods before a workout, I started the night before right after my workout that day. I got a fatty meal from Wendy's and ate that before bed. The next day, I ate fatty foods again. For breakfast, I had a muffin, for lunch a cheeseburger, and an ice cream cone right before my workout for that day. Needless to say, my workout was a complete mess. I found myself having to stop on the treadmill to take breaks, was very out of breath, and had very bad stomach cramps. The misconceptions about fatty and sugary foods is that they give you quick energy, but what others don't realize is that this "quick energy" is usually followed by a crash. I was so interested with these little changes screwing up my routine that I decided to test out another idea before going back to normal.
       The night after that workout, I ate like I normally do. I fueled up on the proteins I needed and did not eat foods high in fat. The next day, I ate foods that would benefit my workout during the day like I usually do. But the only difference between this and what I usually do is that I stopped eating four hours before my workout to show my readers how important it is to actually eat something before you start working out. This test workout was also a complete mess. All I could think about the whole time was food, my stomach was growling and cramping, and I had little to no energy so I felt very weak and in capable of finishing my workout.
        I can not stress enough how important it is to fuel your body right before a workout and even in everyday life. We only have one body and we need to take care of it to the best of our ability. We can not stuff it with fast foods and then "make it up" by working out. If you are planning a workout, please take my advice and fuel your body with the qualities and quantities it desires and needs.

Link: http://beazyy.blogspot.com/2015/09/how-to-have-great-workout-and-feel-good.html
       

Mental Health- Lamar Odom

            Hi readers! Today, a tragic event has taken place in the reality TV world. October 14, 2015, Lamar Odom, famous LA Laker basketball was found unconscious in a brothel (a place where prostitutes are found). As officials still haven't told people exactly what happened, there is speculation that there were drugs in his system. As answers start to rise, so do the question of what caused his downfall.
           I'm sure you all have seen or heard about Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom's relationship and breakup. The media fed it to us viewers as "true love", but we soon saw on Keeping Up With The Kardashian's that these two rushed into their relationship and that he was not mentally ready. They were married only one month after marrying and Khloe filed for divorce only 4 years later due to Lamar's drug problem.
          During his life, Lamar has lost many important people to him at a young age, making him a perfect fit to decline mentally. He is vulnerable to anything and everything and he must have a weak mindset. I feel strongly that he should've stayed in rehabilitation longer for a better result of not harming himself.
            As for now, Lamar is in critical condition and needs to gain strength to get better. If he makes it out of this alive, I strongly feel as though he needs to focus on his mental health and get better. Also to get better, i feel like its for his own good to not have the media publicize this event so much and just leave him alone so he can get better.
           

The fight against cancer (275)

         At the end of September, my family was affected by the worst disease there is. Cancer. The disease does not care how old you are, how much family you have, or your job. It takes innocent lives that don't deserve to die so young. We, as Americans, need to start fighting harder to find a cure for this disease that keeps taking our loved ones.
          I feel like people need to start getting checked more often to catch it early because it spreads very fast. Some people might not be getting them due to insufficient funds and that's not a good reason at all. Donations from a fund could go to this and help people find out a diagnosis early enough for treatment.
         I am very grateful that i go to a school that cares so much about this cause. We have pink outs for sports in October for breast cancer awareness, cancer games with special shirts, and just awesome fundraisers that go for the support of finding a cure. It is amazing that even though we are young, we can still help with the cause.
      In my opinion, though, we can be doing more to help the cause. Doctors and researchers are progressing and giving us hope which is great, but it always ends in no solid evidence. I feel that more studies need to be done and not just left hanging. A person was cured with AIDS, which is thought to be incurable, so i feel like we will find the cure very soon. The cancer foundation has a lot of money from donations and I am hoping to soon see some results.

Online Gym(517)

        What if you didn't have to spend your time in boring gym classes and could actually use that hour in the day for an academic class while still obtaining the credits? Previously, students have wondered this but this year Kennedy High School has answered them. Online gym is being  offered to students who have a full schedule of academic classes and is pretty much described as gym class on the students' time.
         Last year, the Cedar Rapids Community School District started the new gym requirements. When I was a freshman, a student could use a sports or academic waiver to get out of gym and still get the credits. But when the school took away this option last year, all of Kennedy freaked out wondering how they were going to get their gym and academic credits to graduate. That's how online gym was born.
          As a student with a full schedule (0-6 hours), this seemed like a great idea for me so I could still take the classes I am interested and not have to worry about losing gym credits. Last year I was not able to take all of the classes that i wanted to because of Kennedy's gym requirement, so it took no thought to decide that I needed to take online gym.  I feel as though this option should have been around earlier because students would've been able to take more academically enriching classes than just walking around the gym on their phone for an hour.
         I feel very strongly about the need for this type of gym because of the ease it has for the student. In the class, a student only has to go in to do a fitness lab(participate in a gym class for 30 minutes) 13 times a semester. What's even better, though, is that the fitness labs can be done any time so you could do all 13 in a row and be done for the rest of the semester which is very helpful. Also, the online portion of work is a like a piece of cake! There are only about 6-7 ten or fifteen minute assignments a week and you have all semester to do them. This is really helpful during a students' schedule because they will never fall behind.
        Online gym is an awesome alternative to the normal school gym class because in the assignments, students learn new things about fitness, what to eat, eating disorders, etc. Before online gym, all students did was hangout in the gym on their phone and not learning anything at all. Other students might not like the extra work, but I like it way more so I can make my own homework schedule with it.
       Although some students might have different views on online gym, I think the district hit the jackpot with this idea. With work, after school activities, and other homework this is the perfect way to make up gym class without taking the time out of my day everyday. In my opinion, this is the silver lining on the new gym requirements and should be taken advantage of.

The Reality of An Addictive Series (343)

   

Lately, I have been up late (yes, even on school nights), binge-watching a show that I have a slight obsession with. Grey's Anatomy. It is a fictional ABC series that I watch on Netflix and is centered on the residents of Grey Sloan Memorial hospital (formerly known as Seattle Grace hospital) and the resident’s struggles and personal lives. The producers knows exactly how to keep a person watching because the plot is twisting every other minute, which makes me want to keep watching episode after episode.  

           Another thing that has gotten me into a medical show is my want to go into the surgical field in college. I have always wanted to be a surgeon and when I heard about a show centered on what I aspired to be, of course I watched it. Lately, though, I've noticed more and more about the details of the show that may just be included for viewers taste and do not actually happen in real life. Such as when a resident (Izzy Stephens) fell in love with a patient and decided to cut a wire that would place him at the top of the transplant list when he was near death, she did not get kicked out of the program she only got suspended.

            With this in mind, I consulted an article written by a surgical resident who confirmed my suspicions. Amanda Kirzner says that after watching Grey's Anatomy she was in for a surprise when she started her residency. She stated,"On the show, the interns appear to have bypassed the floor work and consult stages and function like chief residents in the OR, which is highly unrealistic."  

           In my strong opinion i feel as though even with the viewer's opinion in mind, if you're going to make a medical show it should at least be realistic. I feel like Grey's Anatomy could still be exciting addictive even without the botched reality of it. The show is still my all-time favorite, but I would definitely love to see it change to something more realistic.



http://thedo.osteopathic.org/2014/09/greys-anatomy-vs-real-life-residency/

Sickness and Absences

It’s about that time of year again. Whereas the temperature goes down, the absences go up due to illnesses. Although we can take many precautions to keep ourselves from missing class, it almost always ends up happening anyways. When students are sick, I believe they need to take time for themselves and focus on themselves so they can get better and get back to class.

            I believe it is very important to be in class to learn every single day, and also that making up after an absence is not the same as being in class. But, I also believe that being sick is not your fault and you should not be punished for it. Students have a lot on their mind and that’s not even before the pressure of making class work up due to absences. If a student is gone, I feel like they should have a reasonable amount of time to get their missing work turned in, but not the next day.

            Last year, I was gone in the hospital for a week and when I got back to school, I was forced by some of my teachers with homework assignments that were due in the next couple days. I know it is my responsibility to make up time that I missed, but the stress only added to my sickness and made me miss even more school resulting badly for me in the long run. I feel as though if I were given more time, like I feel all students should get, It would’ve been more beneficial to my health, my attendance, and to my grades.

            Although it is the student’s job to make up all assignments, I feel as though teachers need to be better about putting assignments on homework so that when we are gone, we can still get caught up. I fully understand the need to be in class every day to be able to get the full extent of what was learned that day, but you can’t help it when you are sick. I feel as though if teachers were more considerate towards our health instead of just getting work turned in, it would be a better outcome for all of us.

            

School lunches.. the real cause of childhood obesity?

In earlier years, the debate on what high schoolers ate for lunch was little to none. Kennedy High School used to bring in vendors such as Subway or Pizza Hut on certain days that students could buy for lunch. My sister, who graduated in 2005, had a very different lunch menu than what I have today because she had the choice of these vendors that got taken away before I started at Kennedy. Now, the choices all very strict and limited. A lot of students, including me, decide to eat outside of school because all we have to choose from that we actually like are chips, Rice Krispie Treats (that have turned to whole grain…ew), and little snacks that end up making us feel empty by the end of the day. Although there are other choices for full meals, they are very small and people have to end up buying two.

The new idea for a healthier student lunch came with Michelle Obama’s idea to reduce childhood obesity. The fat and sugar that we ate in our school lunches everyday was thought to be the cause of this, but I think not. The same lunches that have been in schools for years have not caused as much childhood obesity until now so it’s not logical to blame the lunch food. Instead of eating at school, where kids could also get fruit or vegetables with their meal, students just wait until they get home to binge on junk food. A dollar menu McDonald’s hamburger looks and taste more appealing than a school hamburger, and the new school lunch is just making the decision between these two more easier for students.

Children’s parents and home environment also have a huge impact on their weight and eating habits. If a child’s parents continue to only buy foods with a high fat level, how is the child supposed to know how to properly balance their nutrition? I see how taking unnecessary fats and sugars out of school lunch seems like it is showing the kids how to eat healthy, but all it is doing is stopping them from eating until they get home. Also, what people don’t realize is, home is where it all starts. We don’t learn our bad eating habits at home. In my strong opinion, obese parents and parents who don’t care lead to obese children. If a parent is not paying attention to their own child’s eating habits than it is the parent’s fault, not the child’s.

In conclusion, I believe that this obesity problem will not be solved by changing up a menu at a child’s school. Parents have to become more involved in their children’s health and want the best for them if they don’t want the children to reach obesity. I believe that obesity starts at home caused by careless eating habits (except for medical conditions, of course), so I’ve always wondered why the school and state believe it is caused by what is served one meal a day. I understand that the level of rising obesity in children is rising, but the solution should not be changing school lunches. It should be changing parent’s mindset. 

Take a Break!

     High school students always have something going on. Whether it's sports practice, studying for a big test, work, or after-school activities, we never make any time to just  relax. Although we are prepping for out future and want to make sure it is the best it can be, a break every once in a while is essential to keep our health up.
      As a student who takes 3 AP classes, has a zero hour, has a job and activities after school, I can sometimes find myself becoming overwhelmed or stressed and it has taken a toll on my immune system. Every time I felt myself started to get stressed, I soon found myself getting sick with viruses due to not getting enough sleep. After a year and a half of this, I found ways to take small breaks while still staying on track.
     There are many ways you can achieve the goal of being less stressed. If you're a tea lover, start drinking tea more often and especially when doing homework. Tea relaxes you so you're not as on edge. I started to bring tea to school every day and I've felt way better than have before. If you don't like tea, try taking a 30 minutes break from what you are doing and take a bubble bath to loosen your muscles. Trust me, it works! Also, you can get out and go for a jog to take your mind of things.
      I strongly believe that in order to be successful and healthy, you need to take a small break every now and then to think about your own health. I understand that we are teenagers and need to prepare for the real world, but adults have days off from work too!