HK 11 - MODULE 7

CONCEPTS
OF
WELLNESS
AQUINO , DINAH D.S.
HK 11 - ST4

PROF. ROWENA CARDENAS

CHE - BS NUTRITION
ATTENDANCE #7
 concepts of wellness
(Reflection in module 7)
Ever since I was a kid, I never made it to the "normal" and recommended weight for
my age. I have always been the obese student in the room and honestly, my weight
became something that my classmates made fun of me during my elementary days.
"Kumapit na kayo, parating na ang dambuhala," a statement from an old classmate during
elementary that I still clearly remember and still keep within me. Now, that I just finished
high school and now in college, I experience all the negative things that being overweight
brings to a person - being judged, opted out during team exercises, and the preference to
the skinny and fit people over the overweight ones. I could not blame people honestly.
Who would want a person, like me who is extra-extra large in size, be in a group for
physical activities? None. As I reflect on how my daily routine has been before, I saw a
stressed and distressed me who used binge eating as an escape. Now, I am suffering the
consequences of being an obese - fatty liver, not fitting in clothes, and early symptoms of
Type 2 diabetes. I realized, that I was really not living healthily and ignorantly wasting the
good life that God has given me.
Through this module I was able to learn the 5 keys to live a longer life. And they are as
follows:
Healthy Diet
Healthy physical activity level
Healthy body weight
Not Smoking
Moderate Alcohol Intake
I do not smoke nor drink heavily so the main factors affecting my weight is my diet
and level of physical activity. To be honest, I live a sedentary lifestyle. I prefer slouching
and scrolling on FB more than exercising. By learning the 5 keys to live a longer life, I am
again reminded of the fact that if I wanted change on my body, I need a change of habit.
Moreover, I have learned in this module that we can break the chain or the history of
diseases that runs in our family by living healthily. In both sides of my parents, we have
the history of type 2 diabetes and ovarian cancer which killed my grandparents. I realized
that if I continue living this lifestyle, not only that there would be a high possibility of
getting those diseases but a possibility of passing them to future generations of my family.
 REFLECTION
In this module, I have also learned that wellness is not all about the physical but also
involves the emotional, spiritual, social, and mental aspect. It is important for us to note
that being fit and healthy physically does not automatically mean that we are well overall.
We also have to consider these aspects especially our mental health due to the events
that we experience today. Just like what is said in the video, "we cannot give what we do
not have." With this, we can relate our lives to the lives of others. It is indeed true that
nowadays, people care more about their careers and possessions than their health. It isso
evident in my life right now that I get to focus more on other things than my health which
leads me to who and what I am right now - emotionally unstable and obese. I get so
hooked up in the career that I want to have in the future that I forget the most important
which is my optimum health. If I continue being like this, there is a high possibility that I
would not be able to enjoy the things that I am working so hard for today.
From all the learnings that I learned from this module, the one that I think became the
most influential was that we are never too late to start again. If we really wanted change
in our body,it will take our daily choices on what to eat, what we do, and how much we
care for our body. I recently started working out and doing cardio exercises and I would lie
if I will say that it was easy to get back again to living a healthy life. I am having the most
trouble with my self-discipline and portion control. I was so accustomed to eating a lot so
abruptly stopping it is a lot for me. Perhaps, what I needed to do is to take things gradually
and know that I must be patient with myself because I did not gain this excess weight in
my body overnight; and so I will not lose them overnight as well and it will take my time
and dedication. Moreover, it is a challenge for me to have a strict diet because I can only
eat what is dined in our table and I cannot choose the foods that I need to consume to
effectively lose weight faster. Thus, what I could do is to really watch my portion and
refrain from eating processed and junk foods as they will just slow down my metabolism.
With all of this, one thing that will summarize all of my learnings from this module is
that we need commitment to be able to live a healthy lifestyle. We need commitment so
that no matter how difficult things are for us in order to achieve the wellness that we
want to have, we will have enough reasons to continue and move forward rather than
give up and lose again with our old selves. We need self-awareness over everything that
happens in our body and what we do with our body. In conclusion, the only way to
successfully start a change is to want it, and the rest will follow. It needs to matter to us
like our lives depended on it (which it really does) for us to put 100% of our heart into
something.