Wellness, Fitness, and Lifestyle Management Notes

Introduction to Wellness, Fitness, and Lifestyle Management

Dimensions of Wellness

• Wellness is a state of overall well-being, not just the absence of illness.
• Health: The state of the body or mind, including the presence or absence of illness or injury.
• Wellness: Achieving optimal health and vitality across all dimensions of well-being.
• Risk Factor: Conditions that increase the likelihood of disease or injury.

Nine Dimensions of Wellness:

• Physical: Includes fitness level and self-care ability.
• Emotional: Understanding and managing feelings.
• Intellectual: Having an active and curious mind, solving problems, and seeking knowledge.
  • People who enjoy intellectual wellness never stop learning.
• Interpersonal: Developing and maintaining supportive relationships.
• Cultural: Interacting with people from different backgrounds, accepting and valuing cultural differences.
• Spiritual: Guiding beliefs, principles, or values that give meaning and purpose to life.
  • It may or may not be based on organized religion.
• Environmental: The livability of surroundings and the health of the planet.
• Financial: Managing money effectively to achieve peace of mind.
• Occupational: Finding happiness and fulfillment through work.

New Opportunities for Taking Charge

• Life expectancy has significantly increased since 1850.
  • In 1850, the average life expectancy was only about 38–40 years due to infectious diseases and poor environmental conditions.
• Improvements in public health have added over 25 years to the life expectancy of Americans.
  • Recent improvements include greater roadway safety, decline in childhood lead poisoning, and health insurance expansion.
• The decline in life expectancy in 2020 was mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which became the third-leading cause of death.
  • The opioid and obesity epidemics also contributed to recent declines.
• Today, major health threats include:
  • Heart Disease
  • Cancer
  • Chronic Diseases (linked to obesity and poor eating habits that began in the late 1970s)

Leading Causes of Death

• Chronic diseases develop and persist over a long period.
• Lifestyle choices are conscious behaviors that affect the risk of disease or injury. Examples:
  • Never smoking
  • Regular physical activity
  • Healthy diet

Leading Causes of Death in the United States (2020)

1. Heart Disease: 690,882 deaths (20.6% of total deaths). Lifestyle factors include diet, inactivity, smoking, excessive alcohol use, and obesity.
2. Cancer: 598,932 deaths (17.8% of total deaths). Lifestyle factors include diet, inactivity, smoking, excessive alcohol use, and obesity.
3. COVID-19: 345,323 deaths (10.2% of total deaths). Lifestyle factors include diet, inactivity, smoking, excessive alcohol use, and obesity.
4. Unintentional Injuries: 192,175 deaths (5.7% of total deaths). Lifestyle factors include inactivity, smoking, and excessive alcohol use.
5. Stroke: 159,050 deaths (4.7% of total deaths). Lifestyle factors include diet, inactivity, smoking, excessive alcohol use, and obesity.
6. Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases: 151,637 deaths (4.5% of total deaths). Lifestyle factors include diet, inactivity, smoking, and obesity.
7. Alzheimer’s Disease: 133,382 deaths (4.0% of total deaths). Lifestyle factors include inactivity and smoking.
8. Diabetes Mellitus: 101,106 deaths (3.0% of total deaths). Lifestyle factors include diet, inactivity, smoking, excessive alcohol use, and obesity.
9. Influenza and Pneumonia: 53,495 deaths (1.6% of total deaths). Lifestyle factors include smoking and excessive alcohol use.
10. Kidney Disease: 52,260 deaths (1.6% of total deaths). Lifestyle factors include smoking, excessive alcohol use, and obesity.
    Note: HIV/AIDS is a major killer, ranking as the tenth-leading cause of death for Americans aged 25–34 years in 2019.

Leading Causes of Death among Americans Aged 15–24 (2019)

1. Unintentional Injuries: 11,755 deaths (39.5% of total deaths).
   • Motor Vehicle Accidents: 5,867 deaths (19.7%)
   • Poisoning: 4,346 deaths (14.6%). Primarily due to drug and alcohol overdose.
2. Suicide: 5,954 deaths (20.0% of total deaths).
3. Homicide: 4,774 deaths (16.0% of total deaths).
4. Cancer: 1,388 deaths (4.7% of total deaths).
5. Heart Disease: 872 deaths (2.9% of total deaths).

Lifestyle Factors and Quality of Life

• Lifestyle factors affect both the quantity and quality of life.
• The major difference between life span (how long we live) and health span (how long we stay healthy) is freedom from chronic or disabling diseases.
• Exercise habits vary among people with different incomes, education levels, and locations.

National Health and Wellness

• A healthy population is vital for the nation’s vitality, creativity, and wealth.
• Poor health strains national resources and increases healthcare costs.

Health Insurance Options

• The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law in 2010, but some provisions have been altered, affecting insurance costs.
• The ACA established health exchanges to facilitate insurance purchases, with federal help available for those below income requirements.
• Insurance plans are often available through employers, universities, and professional groups.

Benefits to College Students:

• Young adults can stay on their parents’ health insurance until age 26 under the ACA.
• "Catastrophic" plans may be tempting for young, healthy students, but these plans do not cover many important types of care.
• Students with low incomes may qualify for Medicaid.

The Healthy People Initiative

• Healthy People 2030 aims to:
  • Attain healthy, thriving lives and well-being free of preventable disease, disability, injury, and premature death.
  • Eliminate health disparities, achieve health equity, and attain health literacy to improve the health and well-being of all.
  • Create social, physical, and economic environments that promote attaining the full potential for health and well-being for all.
  • Promote healthy development, healthy behaviors, and well-being across all life stages.
  • Engage people across multiple sectors to take action and design policies that improve the health and well-being of all.

Progress toward Healthy People Targets

Behaviors That Contribute to Wellness

• Be physically active.
  • Physical fitness: Attributes that allow the body to adapt to the demands of physical effort.
  • Sedentary: Physically inactive; literally, “sitting.”

Benefits of Regular Physical Activity

• Increased endurance, strength, and flexibility.
• Healthier muscles, bones, and joints.
• Increased energy (calorie) expenditure.
• Improved body composition.
• More energy.
• Improved ability to cope with stress.
• Improved mood, higher self-esteem, and a greater sense of well-being.
• Improved ability to fall asleep and sleep well.
• Reduced risk of dying prematurely from all causes.
• Reduced risk of developing and/or dying from heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and colon cancer.
• Reduced risk of becoming obese.
• Reduced anxiety, tension, and depression.
• Reduced risk of falls and fractures.
• Reduced spending for health care.

Additional Behaviors for Wellness

• Choose a healthy diet.
• Maintain a healthy body weight.
• Manage stress effectively.
• Avoid tobacco and drug use and limit alcohol consumption.
• Protect yourself from disease and injury.
• Develop meaningful relationships.
• Plan for successful aging.
• Learn about the health care system.
• Act responsibly toward the environment.

Wellness Factors Outside Our Control

• Heredity, the environment, and health care access also interact to influence wellness.
• For example, a sedentary lifestyle combined with a genetic predisposition for diabetes and inadequate health care can affect health.
• Behavior can influence the balance towards health.

College Students and Wellness

• Students often lose academic time due to stress and other physical/emotional health problems.
• Improving time management, diet, and exercise can improve wellness.

Reaching Wellness Through Lifestyle Management

• Moving toward wellness involves cultivating healthy behaviors and overcoming unhealthy ones.
• Behavior change: A lifestyle management process.

Steps to Get Serious About Your Health

1. Recognize the problem behavior and the ability to change it.
2. Examine current health habits.
   • Think about your behavior.
   • Talk with friends and family members.
   • Digital trackers can help.
3. Choose a target behavior.
   • Target behavior: An isolated behavior selected for change.
   • Start with simple goals and build on success.
4. Learn about the target behavior.
   • Assess how it affects wellness.
5. Find help.

Building Motivation to Change

1. Examine the pros and cons of change.
   • Consider both short-term and long-term benefits and costs.
   • Believe that the benefits outweigh the costs.
   • Focus on shorter-term goals for better motivation.
   • Remember that small differences add up over time.
2. Boost self-efficacy.
   • Self-efficacy: Belief in one’s ability to take action and perform a specific task.
   • Locus of control: The perceived source of responsibility for life events.
   • Visualize the benefits of change.
   • Use self-talk: A person’s internal dialogue.
   • Seek role models and supportive individuals.
3. Identify and overcome barriers.
   • Don’t be discouraged by past failures.
   • List key barriers (problems, challenges, short-term costs).
   • Develop a practical plan for overcoming each barrier.

Enhancing Readiness to Change

• The transtheoretical, or “stages-of-change,” model is effective for lifestyle self-management.
  • Precontemplation: No intention of changing behavior.
  • Contemplation: Intends to take action within six months.
  • Preparation: Plans to take action within a month.
  • Action: Outwardly changes behavior and environment.
  • Maintenance: Successful behavior change is maintained for six months or more.
  • Termination: Has exited the cycle of change and is no longer tempted to lapse into old behavior.

Dealing with Relapse

• People seldom progress through the stages of change in a linear way.
• Most people make several attempts before successfully changing their behavior.
• If relapse occurs:
  • Forgive yourself.
  • Give yourself credit for progress.
  • Move on.

Developing Skills for Change: Creating a Personalized Plan

1. Monitor your behavior and gather data.
   • Record the activity.
   • Note when and where it happened.
   • Describe what you were doing.
   • Note how you felt at that time.
2. Analyze data and identify patterns.
3. Set "SMART" goals:
   • Specific
   • Measurable
   • Attainable
   • Realistic
   • Time frame–specific
4. Devise a plan of action.
   • Get what you need.
   • Modify your environment.
   • Control related habits.
   • Reward yourself.
   • Involve the people around you.
   • Plan for challenges.
5. Make a personal contract that includes:
   • A statement of your goal and your commitment to reaching it.
   • The date you will start.
   • The steps you will take to measure your progress.
   • The date you expect to reach your final goal.

Putting Your Plan into Action

• This stage requires commitment.
• Use all your strategies to make your plan work.
• Ensure your environment supports change, and seek support from others.
• Congratulate yourself.

Staying with It

• Expect obstacles.
• Step back, assess progress, and make changes.
• If the program stalls, identify the problem:
  • Social influences
  • Levels of motivation and commitment
  • Choice of techniques and level of effort
  • Stress barrier
  • Procrastinating, rationalizing, and blaming

Being Fit and Well for Life

• First attempts might not go beyond contemplation or preparation.
• Once started, don’t stop.
• Assume health improvement is a lifelong process.
• Tackle easier problems first, then use that knowledge for more difficult problems.
• When challenged, remember you’re creating a lifestyle that minimizes health risks and maximizes enjoyment of life.