WAVE Tools for Wellness Physical Health

Exercise

According to the CDC only 38% of college aged adults get moderate physical exercise and about 35% get no physical activity. The CDC recommends getting an average of 30 minutes of moderate activity a day to maintain a healthy life style. At the NMSU activity center students can engage in numerous sports and exercise classes. http://www.nmsu.edu/~recsport/ You can even check out sporting goods for a camping trip.

7 benefits of regular physical activity

1. Strengthen cardiovascular and respiratory systems.
2. Keep bones and muscles strong.
3. Manage your weight.
4. Prevent and manage diabetes.
5. Ease depression and manage pain and stress.
6. Reduce your risk of certain types of cancer.
7. Sleep better.

Avoid Common Pitfalls

Too much too soon
Pie in the sky goals
Avoiding expert advice
Over exercising
Improper breathing
Lifting either too much or too little weight
Not staying hydrated
Eating too little
Fixating on the scale / weight loss
Not having a good balance between weight lifting and cardiovascular exercise
Remember something is better than nothing when it comes to exercise!

Click here for more information

Sleep

Most people require 6-8 hours of sleep per night which is about 1/3 of our lifetime experience. Sleep is restorative, it enables the body and mind to rejuvenate, reenergize, and restore. As a person sleeps, it is thought that the brain performs vital housekeeping tasks, such as organizing long-term memory, integrating new information, and repairing and renewing tissue, nerve cells and other biochemical's. Sleep allows the body to rest and the mind to sort out past, present, and future activities and feelings.

Sleep Deprivation and College Students

Many studies have shown that high school and college students are typically sleep deprived and that sleep is the first thing to be compromised when trying to juggle school, work and fun. The average sleep-deprived student may experience impaired performance, irritability, lack of concentration, and daytime drowsiness. They are less alert, attentive, and unable to concentrate effectively. Additionally, because sleep is linked to restorative processes in the immune system, sleep deprivation in a normal adult causes a biological response similar to the body fighting off an infection. Persistent sleep deprivation can cause significant mood swings, erratic behavior, hallucinations, and in the most extreme, yet rare cases, death.

Many students make the mistake of “pulling an all nighter” before an exam only to find out that they could remember very little of what they had studied the night before. Sleep is an important part of learning retention so a good night sleep prior to an exam is just as important as actually studying for the exam..

Another common mistake is using alcohol as a way to help fall asleep. Alcohol may help a person fall asleep however the quality of sleep is compromised. Sleep follows five cycles that repeats itself throughout the night and alcohol impairs the natural progression of the sleep cycles. When a person falls asleep while intoxicated it’s unlikely that they will wake up feeling restored regardless of the number of hours spent sleeping.

Types of sleeping disorders

To find out more about sleep disorders such as insomnia, sleep apnea, narcolepsy, etc click on the following links:

http://www.shuteye.com/insomnia_causes.asp#sleepapnea

http://www.sleepassociates.net/

Nutrition

It’s seems that it’s become increasingly more difficult to figure out exactly how to eat healthfully and fad diets have contributed greatly to the confusion. Is it low fat, low carbohydrate, high protein or is it high fat, low carbohydrate high protein? Or is it low protein, low carbohydrate, low fat which sort of equals hardly eating. Yes to grapefruit but no to apples? Six small meals a day ? No food after 5:00PM? Is a calorie a calorie or are some calories somehow different? Is the traditional food pyramid now upside-down? No wonder we are confused! There are so many idea’s regarding nutrition and many of which are contradictory. How do we make sense of it all?

Weight and Dieting

To make matters even more confusing what’s a “healthy” weight and what about dieting? Some researchers state that being even moderately overweight places one at greater risk for many diseases including heart disease, diabetes, cancers, and high blood pressure. Others claim that being overweight in and by itself is not what places one at greater risk but that lack of exercise is the culprit and that there is a clear correlation between inactivity and excess weight. Is it really unhealthy to be moderately overweight or is it simply about fashion and the current trends in body size? During the later half of the 18th century women purposively tried to look larger in order to attract a mate. Did you know that Marilyn Monroe wore a size 16? Currently the average clothing size for women over the age of eighteen is a size 12 and yet women are often encouraged believe that a 3, 5, or 7 is what’s “normal” and acceptable?

To add to the confusion what about this term “set point” when it comes to weight? To read more about “set point” click here.

Despite all of the confusion it seems that this much we know for certain. People are able to lose weight on any number of fad diets but eating for health rather than weight loss is what usually results in permanent weight loss and contributes to more holistic healthy body, mind and spirit. For more information click here.

The incidence of eating disorders has dramatically increased since the late 60’s, early 70’s and has been an epidemic in the United States and European countries since the early 80’s. For more information on Anorexia, Bulimia and Binge Eating Disorder check out the rest of our Wellness Wheel where a whole section has been devoted to this topic.

Substance Abuse

Coming soon. For more, click here.