Student Reflections in Chem/Food Science with Mr. Riley and Mr. Johnson

Photo Courtesy of Sanguini

My fitness pal has really showed me that I need to be eating more. I knew before doing the my fitness pal I needed to eat more, but I didn't know I was eating this little. Since we started I have been eating more then what I used to. I'm also doing a sport right now, so it is even more important to eat more. To top it all off they brought in someone from Life Plex to show us how important it is to eat healthy. He talked about how carbohydrates and sugars are used differently in the body. I now have a better understanding of what I need to eat and how much of it I need to eat. I don't want to just eat a lot of food. I need to eat the right kinds of food too.

Blog Contributor: John Hunter
{WSOI Sophomore, WSOI Student Advisor, BPA Member, Boys Varsity Tennis Team Member}

I have been aware that I am not a healthy eater, always having been a lover of junk food and fast food, especially McDonald's.  The activities that we've done in FoodChem in addition to my appointment at the LifePlex for my testing for gym have opened my eyes to see my unhealthy eating in a new light.

I am taking my gym credit during SRT through the LifePlex.  One of the tests I did was a breathing test and the result of the test told me I should be eating around 1500 calories or more a day.  The lady administering the test told me that since I am a moderately active person that I need to be eating more calories.  Typically, I eat around 1200 or less.  I learned that though I am not deliberately doing it, I am starving my body of the essential nutrients it needs.  I had not even realized that this was going on.

The next week in FoodChem we started logging our meals in My Fitness Pal.  I've noticed that the foods I eat are really high in sodium and sugars that are not natural.  Natural sugars, fats, and sodium are good for you in moderation, but when they are unnatural it's harder for your body to process them.  I've made sure I'm more conscious of the types of sugars and fats I put into my body.  I am trying to steer clear of processed foods, and instead I am trying to eat more fruits and vegetables.

When Mr. Haug from the LifePlex came to speak to us, he really stressed the importance of water for a healthy body.  Of course, I already knew this but I still refused to drink water.  I just don't like it very much.  He told us that we should be drinking between 1-2 liters of water a day if not more.  This really stuck out to me and I thought about the time I drank a whole two liter of Pepsi by myself in a day.  That's how much water I need to be drinking a day.  It was so easy to drink that Pepsi, it's going to be a lot harder to drink the water since I don't like it.
   
All being said, it's going to be a hard journey to healthy eating.  I'm so used to eating unhealthy, but I think now is a great time to change.  I think that the key to getting healthy is making one small change at a time and sticking to it.

Blog Contributor: Haley Mills {WSOI Sophomore, WSOI Student Advisor, PHS Cheerleader, Crimson Choir Member}

Student Reflection on Culture Week Activities

Culture week is my favorite part of school because it's a time to learn about our classmates and facilitators but most importantly ourselves.  This week we have embarked on a mission of discovery that has led me to learn interesting things about my personality.  Two of the activities that I really enjoyed were the Myers Brigg Test and the Compass Points activity.
    
 I have now done the compass point activity twice and each time I discovered something interesting.  The first time that I did this activity was in a Student Advisory Board meeting.  Our facilitators had done this activity before and were excited to see what would happen.  Half of us ended up going to the West poster and the other half was at the East.  It was interesting to see that we are on polar opposites of working style.  My fellow people in the West pay a lot of attention to the fine details, whereas the Easterners look at the big picture.  

     The second time I did this activity, there were new people in the West.  I noticed that checklists and writing everything down is a big deal to them.  It is not so with me.  Although I do look at the fine details and need to know just about everything before I start, I do not have the patience or organization to make out lists.  I think I might be a mix of West and North: a Northwest.  When we met up with some Westerners from another class, I observed that some of their answers were different than mine.  They seemed to be more compassionate and Southernly, where I said that Southerners were hardest to work with.  Then I thought maybe within each direction there are sub-directions: i.e. Northwest and Southwest.   

     I really loathe personality tests, and the one we took last year was brutal.  The Myers Brigg test was not so bad.  I felt the questions were more relevant and easier to answer due to their only being two choices: yes and no.  At the end, my acronym was INTJ which meant nothing to me at first.  After reading into it, I discovered that it is The Mastermind; so basically I'm a genius.  I found out that only 2% of the population is this personality type and only 1% of women are a part of The Mastermind.  From that I concluded that I am pretty rare too.  While reading the description of my personality type, I was completely in awe of how perfectly it described me.  It said I was a perfectionist which is very true.           

    Though others may think these activities are just to pass the time and don't appreciate the information they discovered, I see the value in these activities.  It is always beneficial to gain knowledge about yourself so you can improve yourself.  I am excited to start this new school year having made self discoveries that will use to improve my character.

Blog Contributor: Haley Mills
{WSOI Sophomore, Student Advisor}