What Matters/Health, Fitness, and Wellness

Health, Fitness, and Wellness

Physical fitness can be achieved through physical exercise.

The World Health Organization defined health in 1946 as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." Physical fitness is considered a measure of the body’s ability to function efficiently and effectively in work and leisure activities, to be healthy, to resist hypokinetic diseases—those that occur from a sedentary lifestyle—and to meet emergency situations.

Assignment:

• Follow the advice of Michael Pollan: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
• Ensure your living space promotes your good health. Remove clutter, toxins, chaos, and noise. Include pleasing things to look at, such as plants, art, and flowers. Manage the light. Include sunlight during the day if possible. Ensure complete darkness for sleeping. Create your sanctuary.
• Have your physician complete a through physical examination of you.
  • Also have regular dental examinations.
• Attend to any health concerns identified during this physical exam.
  • Address any tobacco use, obesity, abuse of alcohol, other substance abuse, and any addictions that may be present.
• Walk 10,000 steps each day, or engage in some other systematic physical fitness program.
  • If you want to lose weight, then move more than you eat to create a negative energy balance. Manage satiety.
  • Lifting weights is good for people trying to gain weight since it triggers the body to build muscle mass.
  • Sleep at least for 7 hours for optimal muscle gains. If you are a skinny guy you can also follow these assignment tips to improve your fitness and health.

Optional Assignment:

Consider using an activity tracker to help achieve your health and fitness goals.

• Survey the activity trackers that are currently available.
• Choose one that will fit your lifestyle, health, and fitness goals.
• Obtain a suitable activity tracker, wear it, use it, benefit from it.
• If it stops being useful, reflect on why. Was it an unsuitable device, was it difficult to use, was it telling you inconvenient truths, have you abandoned your health and fitness goals? Resume with a revised program based on what you learn from this reflection.

Suggestions for further reading:

• Pollan, Michael; Maira Kalman (2011). Food Rules: An Eater's Manual. Penguin Press HC. pp. 240. ISBN 978-1594203084. 
• Pollan, Michael (2007). The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. Penguin. pp. 450. ISBN 978-0143038580. 
• Buettner, Dan (2010). The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest. National Geographic. pp. 320. ISBN 978-1426207556. 
• McDougall, Christopher (2011). Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen. Vintage. pp. 304. ISBN 978-0307279187. 
• Sternberg, Esther M. (2010). Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. pp. 352. ISBN 978-0674057487. 
• Agus, David B (2012). The End of Illness. Free Press. pp. 352. ISBN 978-1451610178.  I don’t know if this book will be helpful to you. It describes innovations that may provide powerful, personal, and preventive approaches to health in the foreseeable future. It also challenges several traditional assumptions about health care. The author seems well informed and sincere, so I include it for your consideration.
• (Evaluate the book: The 22 Non-Negotiable Laws of Wellness: Take Your Health into Your Own Hands to Feel, Think, and Live Better Than You Ever thought possible )
• (evaluate books by Jack LaLanne)