Reflection: Factors and Lifestyle Choices Affecting Personal Health, Fitness and Well-being

Factors and lifestyle choices affecting my personal health, fitness and wellbeing

The major factors which are affecting my personal health, fitness and wellbeing at the moment are unhealthy diet and excessive addiction towards social media. Both these are lifestyle choices and these are affecting my health, fitness and wellbeing in a negative manner. I would like to discuss these in detail in this part of the assignment;

Unhealthy diet

Lately I have developed an unhealthy eating pattern and it is highly harmful for my personal wellbeing. I am eating fast foods more than once a week and I can feel that this lifestyle choice is affecting my memory. I have realized that I cannot easily memorize the regular things. I have also started gaining weight due to this habit of mine and I am certain that I am moving towards obesity (Langrial, et al. 2012). I am also realizing that my craving towards fast food is increasing at a rapid rate and even though I am trying to control this habit, it is becoming uncontrollable and is getting out of my hands.

Excessive addiction towards social media

I have also become highly addicted towards social platforms like Facebook and Instagram. As a result, I have become anxious. I feel that even without any critical reason, I become anxious and often emotional. I always feel the urge to stay online even though I have a lot of important things to do. I have also developed the Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) syndrome and due to this syndrome I feel that I am always missing out on the social media updates of others. It is not that I am communicating with others all the time via social media. However, I always feel like I should stay online so that no essential updates are overlooked by me (Langrial, et al. 2012). I also believe that I have started developing many unrealistic expectations from others which I would not do previously. My excess attraction towards social media has also been the reason why my actual social interaction has decreased to a large extent. This is because my life is now revolving around virtual aspects and I am being unable to spend time with my family members, friends and other close relatives. I have also developed unhealthy sleep patterns as I don’t stay awake till late night without any significant purpose.

Strategies to adopt for self-care

To resolve the above mentioned issues, I have decided to adopt certain major strategies. Those strategies are as follows;

In order to ensure that I shift towards a healthy diet regime, I will adopt the following strategies;

• I would try my best to eliminate fast food from my daily diet. However, I understand it very well that it would not be possible overnight. I understand that I would require to take small steps towards making this strategy successful. I have decided to balance my diet in the initial stage. For example, if I am having fast food one day, then I will eat fruits the other day (Sarriera, et al. 2012). I have also decided to drink green tea as I have heard that it is great for detoxing. I would also try to decrease the frequency of in-taking fast food. From thrice a week, I will reduce it to once a week.
• Additionally, I have also decided to adopt exercise. I understand that by doing exercises regularly, I can easily increase my level of fitness. If I am unable to get time for exercise, then I will ensure that I walk for 1-2 Km. every day. That would also be a positive step towards wellbeing.

In order to reduce my addiction towards social media, I will adopt the following strategies;

• The first strategy which will be effective for reducing my social media attraction is to turn off notifications. I am primarily addicted towards Facebook and Instagram. Hence, I would make sure that I keep the notifications of these two platforms off for the whole day. I will specify a particular time within the day when I will check these two social platforms to see the latest notifications. The time duration for this will be 30 minutes a day.
• I have decided to start practicing my old hobbies. As a child I used to do painting. However, as I started growing up, I could not continue this hobby due to educational pressures (Sarriera, et al. 2012). To reduce my social media addiction, I have decided to restart painting. I am hopeful that this hobby will help me in gaining a lot of mental satisfaction and happiness.
• I have also decided to spend more time with my parents and friends. Spending more time with them will help me in learning about their lives. I am sure that interaction with my loved ones will help me in staying motivated.

Relationship between personal health and wellbeing and professional responsibilities

Personal health and wellbeing of an individual are closely related to each other. For example, in my case, it can be observed that certain life choices of mine have affected my mental health and wellbeing. Due to unhealthy eating patterns, I am losing memory and gaining weight. Being a student, it is largely important for me that I keep track of my study schedule, assignment deadlines examination dates etc. However, due to excess eating of fast food, I am being unable to keep track of these aspects (Mahoney and Cano, 2014). I am frequently forgetting essential things and these are affecting my academic life in a negative manner. I am also afraid that if I keep continuing this unhealthy eating pattern, I may cause critical harms to my career. Additionally, unhealthy eating is causing me overweight. For a student like me, it is largely essential that I stay active and overweight will increase idleness within me and I will not be able to do the regular things which other students of my age do. Therefore, I will not be able to perform my responsibilities successfully. In my professional life too this particular life choice will become a problem as I will not be able to do my responsibilities effectively.

The second life choice of mine is excessive addiction towards social media. I have felt that this life choice has caused me anxiety, depression, unhealthy sleeping habits etc. Hence, these are the signs of an extremely morbid lifestyle. A student like me should be happy and active, but due to this social media addiction, I am not being able to stay motivated (Reis et al. 2018). In my professional life too this life choice is expected to leave a negative impact. I will not be able to do my responsibilities successfully as my focus will always be towards social media and what others are updating.

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Hence, from my personal experiences, I can successfully state that personal health and wellbeing is maintaining a direct relationship with personal professional responsibilities. An individual who is physically fit and at a mentally stable stage, it would be easier to perform his personal responsibilities successfully. However, for an individual, who is physically unfit, who is at a poor mental condition, who is always anxious and depressed, it will be very much difficult to fulfill professional responsibilities successfully. Therefore, it is largely essential to maintain proper balance between personal health and professional responsibilities.

Wellness Action Plan

References

• Braunstein-Bercovitz, H., Frish-Burstein, S. and Benjamin, B.A., 2012. The role of personal resources in work–family conflict: Implications for young mothers' well-being. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 80(2), pp.317-325.
• Langrial, S., Lehto, T., Oinas-Kukkonen, H., Harjumaa, M. and Karppinen, P., 2012, July. Native Mobile Applications For Personal Well-Being: A Persuasive Systems Design Evaluation. In PACIS (p. 93).
• Mahoney, A. and Cano, A., 2014. Introduction to the special section on religion and spirituality in family life: Pathways between relational spirituality, family relationships and personal well-being. Journal of Family Psychology, 28(6), p.735.
• Reis, H.T., Sheldon, K.M., Gable, S.L., Roscoe, J. and Ryan, R.M., 2018. Daily well-being: The role of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. In Relationships, Well-Being and Behaviour (pp. 317-349). Routledge.
• Sarriera, J.C., Abs, D., Casas, F. and Bedin, L.M., 2012. Relations between media, perceived social support and personal well-being in adolescence. Social indicators research, 106(3), pp.545-561.