Table 1: Nutrition, Behavior, Sleep and Exercise Log
Nutrition | Behavior | Sleep | Exercise | Stress Management | ||
Daily calorie intake – 1,600 calories | Food | |||||
Day | Target | Actual | ||||
Monday | 2 cups fruits | 3 cups of orange juice with sugar | 2 cigars, 1 bottle of whisky | 10 hours | 2 hours walking | No stress issues |
3 cups of vegetables | 1 cup cooked spinach | |||||
7 ounces of grain | 12 slices of brown bread | |||||
6 ounces of protein | 7 eggs | |||||
3 cups of dairy | 5 cups of milk with sugar | |||||
Tuesday | 2 cups fruits | 4 cups mango juice with sugar | 4 cigars | 12 hours | 1.5 hours walking | Loneliness and eating snacks |
3 cups of vegetables | 1 cup leafy salad green | |||||
7 ounces of grain | 8 slices of bread | |||||
6 ounces of protein | 8 tablespoons of peanut butter | |||||
3 cups of dairy | 4 cups of milk | |||||
Wednesday | 2 cups fruits | 3 peeled oranges | 1 beer, 3 cigars | 9 hours | 2 hours walking | Staying quiet and eating snacks at every opportunity |
3 cups of vegetables | 2 cups cooked spinach | |||||
7 ounces of grain | 9 cups cooked rice | |||||
6 ounces of protein | 10 ounces chicken with 1 tablespoon salt | |||||
3 cups of dairy | 6 cups of yoghurt with sugar |
Self-Assessment
I currently weigh 180 lbs and my goal is to attain 150 lbs. My calorie consumption is over 22,000 calories. To achieve this, I have to attain a certain target of nutrition, limit consumption of tobacco and alcohol and do regular exercises. As an adult, I am required to be active at least two and half hours every day. I am also required to limit my consumption of sugar and salt. However, I often end up with unhealthy choices. At the end of a 4 week log, I ended up gaining 3 lbs instead of losing. [“Write my essay for me?” Get help here.]
I walk a lot each day, as my job requires me to do so quite often. I believe this is helping my health. Also, I exercise for a short while each day, which I believe helps improve my life by burning excess calories and keeping my body strong (Casey, Benson & MacDonald, 2004). Ensuring that I vary what I eat each day helps in regulating the amounts of calories I consume on a daily basis. Thus, according to Schulherr (2008), I must keep check on what I take to ensure that my diet is balanced every day.
Adding sugar and salt to my food may not help in improving my health. Too much of these may increase my risks of suffering from diabetes. Remaining silent or deciding to stay lonely whenever I am stressed up is also not helping me improve my health. It may end up complicating my stress levels. On the same note, eating snacks each and every time I am stressed up can result to obesity. Also, I understand my alcohol and tobacco consumption behavior is risky. This is because tobacco increases the risk of lung cancer while alcohol increases the chances of developing liver complications. To be specific, I consume at least a cigar on a daily basis and some alcohol. My addiction to these has placed me at risk of developing lung cancer and liver complications (Lister, 2009). [Click Essay Writer to order your essay]
I tend to take too much calories on Wednesdays. On other days, my consumption is relatively constant. I sleep for longer than 12 hours on weekends and do not exercise at all. This is because I have no engagements on weekends to remind me that I need to wake up, get ready and attend to. Also, I tend to take more cigarettes and drink more beer on weekends. This inconsistency is due to my habit of generally being indoors on weekends. This also implies that I do not exercise on weekends. However, it is worth noting that I am sometimes keener on my diet whenever I have appointments to attend to. Those are also the times I get to remember to exercise. That is why there is a variation between week days and weekends on my food consumption patterns and behavior.
Plan
In order to address my weaknesses, I intend to limit my daily tobacco consumption to 1 and my alcohol consumption to 250 ml per day. I also plan to reduce my sugar and salt consumption as much as possible. I intend to implement this by ensuring that I take dairy products and fruit juices in their natural form. Also, plans are underway aimed at increasing the amount of time I take during exercises to more than two hours every day. To achieve this, I intend to join a gym club and maintain a fixed schedule of attending the gym every morning and another hour in the evening. To increase my active hours, I will also walk to the places that are at walking distances. For long distances, I will use a bicycle as opposed to a car. When stressed up, I will try to talk to my close friends about it instead of being lonely and being indoors eating snacks (Duppong et al., 2007).[Need an essay writing service? Find help here.]
To improve on my strengths, I will ensure that I do not exceed the target quantity of each type of food and vary them as much as possible. I will also ensure I stay away from foods that have too much cholesterol and fat. An excess of red meat may lead to undesired health conditions. Thus, my plan is to avoid red meat as much as I can. Currently, I get enough sleep, though sometimes I sleep abnormally longer. This will be adjusted to no more than 10 hours of daily sleep.
Now that I have joined a graduate school, I expect my hours of sleep to change. I also expect to be very busy. To keep up with my plan, I will ensure that I complete my daily activities at 9.00 pm or earlier and retire to bed. I will then wake up at 5.00 am and go to the gym, exercise for an hour before going to my classes. After classes, I will go to the gym for one hour prior to settling down to my homework. After the homework, I will take my supper and go to bed. And the cycle goes on (Casey, Benson & MacDonald, 2004).
Advising
Assuming I was advising a patient with the same health log as mine, I would emphasize on more exercise. I would also advise him or her to limit his or her consumption of sugar and salt. Besides, it is important to limit the consumption of sugar in order to avoid becoming diabetic in the future. It is also important to find alternative stress management techniques rather than staying indoors indulging in eating snacks. This is because eating while stressed up may lead to obesity (Gibson et al., 2004). If one does not exercise regularly, it is easier for him or her to gain weight. Thus, it is important for the individual to exercise more and to cut down excess calories (Casey, Benson & MacDonald, 2004).[Click Essay Writer to order your essay
References
Casey, A., Benson, H., & MacDonald, A. (2004). Mind your heart: A mind/body approach to stress management, exercise, and nutrition for heart health. New York: Free Press.
Duppong, J., Costin, C., Broome, K., Smeltzer, D., & Truitt, B. (2007). You can’t just eat a cheeseburger: How to thrive through eating disorder recovery.
Gibson, A., Heyward, V., Mermier, C., Janot, J., & Wilmerding, M. (2004). Comparison of DXA, Siri’s 2C, and Lohman’s Db-Mineral Models for Estimating the Body Fat of Physically Active Adults.International Journal Of Sport Nutrition And Exercise
Lister, B. (2009). Importance of Nutrition and Health Education. Nutrition And Health,20(1), 11-20.
Schulherr, S. (2008). Eating disorders for dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Pub.