Personalized Nutrition and Exercise Plan

Personalized Nutrition and Exercise Plan

Sci 241

December 5, 2010

Personalized Nutrition and Exercise Plan

The United States is facing a growing trend in regard to obesity with this growing trend comes the health issues that are associated with individuals who are obese or even just overweight. Some of these risks associated with weight issues include; heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States; doctors try to educate people about the importance of healthy eating along with emphasis on exercise habits to reduce weight and lower the risk of health problems (CDC, 2009).

Individuals including myself need to take the incentive to closely examine and monitor their dietary intake and amount of exercise they perform each day. Once the problem causing issues are discovered, then a diet and exercise plan needs to be implemented. When putting a diet and exercise plan in place this will help ensure that the individual is taking care of his or her health and reducing the chances of being diagnosed with one of the diseases associated with being overweight or obese.

Obesity is measured by the body mass index, better known as the BMI. A BMI of 25 to 29.9 is a healthy range to be in, a BMI of 25 to 29.9 is labeled as overweight, while anything 30 or over is considered obese. Therefore, individuals need to take the proper steps to stay within the safe BMI range of 18.5 to 24.9, to meet this range we need to implement a healthy diet and exercise plan (USA.Gov, 2010).

Identification of Health/Nutrition Problems

Cardiovascular disease or better known as heart disease is an issues that I am greatly concerned about, mostly because it runs within my family history. My father has had six bypass heart surgeries so far, and unfortunately I personally suffer from tears in my aortic and meiotic valves along with super-taka-cardiac. I have had one heart surgery during this surgery the cardiologist had to go in and burn portions of my heart in order to scar my heart up to help it beat regularly reducing the fast pace my heart was beating. The downside is that the surgery was unsuccessful.

I am currently 40 pounds overweight and am working on losing these excess pounds. Along with being overweight, developing heart issues, I am also hypoglycemic this means that I have a condition that causes me to have low blood sugar. The side effects of hypoglycemic are closely related to being diabetic. With being hypoglycemic I cannot eat three regular meals a day I have to eat at least six small meals a day and cannot go more than two to three hours without eating. I also have to take in higher amounts of protein than normal individuals so each of the six meals that I consume I must include protein with each of them (eHow, 2010). I will have to focus not only on weight loss and exercise I must also set a plan that will keep my blood sugar at a safe and constant level.

Four Nutritional or Physical Goals

My four nutritional and physical goals are to implement more fruits and vegetables within my diet along with milk and protein. After reviewing my dietary diary I have come to the realization that I am lacking these important parts of the food group in my daily diet.

I also am going to accomplish exercising on a daily bases. The exercise assignment done previously in class showed that I am getting adequate amount of exercise, but I need to do more cardiovascular and strength building exercise these areas I personally believe that I am lacking.

Actions to Take to Meet Goals

When changing the way I eat and adding exercise into my daily life the first action I need to take and decided to take was to visit my family physician. Anytime anyone decides to start a new way of eating and/or exercise ritual a physician needs to be seen to ensure that no complications will arise with changing a person's diet or exercise level. Even people who believe they are completely healthy need to see their family doctor first.

After visiting my physician and receiving advice on my diet because of the issue of my hypoglycemia and help choosing proper exercises to do for my heart and strength building I am off and running. I have started indoor exercise with working out with exercise DVD's, which includes mild aerobics, walking three miles a day , and implementing different exercises while doing my walking DVD, along with palates DVD. I am also following diet that my doctor had suggested.

I exercise with these videos twice daily for 20 minutes this will help build my muscles and cardiovascular system. When starting exercise I need to have the mind set with the realization that exercise is an ongoing process, and keeping a positive attitude about the new way of life.

Each day I eat some kind of fruit with each of my meals, along with a protein bar, and vegetables usually raw vegetables, along with a cup of milk. I am also adding more water and lessening my consumption of Mountain Dew. The process is moving slowly but progress is being made to become healthy and live an active lifestyle. These steps and many others will have to be taken to achieve my overall goals.

Anticipated Set Back and Solutions

One main setback is motivation, maintaining mental positivity to keep active and eating healthy is sometimes a hard thing to continue doing. Motivation plays a large role of keeping people committed to meet their goals. Another setback is frustration, not seeing noticeable results as quickly as I would like. This can cause not only myself but others to become discouraged and give up on changing their diet and exercise routine.

For each obstacle mentioned and others that may transpire, I will use the encouraging words of my family, friends, and physician. I will also avoid the scales to keep frustration levels down. Losing weight is important but the main focus must be first on implementing a healthy lifestyle. To help me avoid unhealthy snacks I will keep a variety of fruits, raw vegetables, and water on hand.