Staying fit for the new school year

We all know that climbing stairs or sprinting across campus to get to class can leave even the most in shape person breathless. When you are carrying two textbooks and a laptop while trying to talk to friends, navigating the hallways is often more difficult than it should be. Being active and eating well is the most important way to stay fit and healthy, and make climbing those stairs easier.

Being fit can not only help the struggle of stairs at Sierra Canyon, but also everyday day stress can be relieved by keeping a good regimen of nutrition and fitness.

“Being physically fit also increases energy, which increases the production in the classroom, which increases their academics. When you add nutrition into the picture now you are complete,” P.E. Coach Kristy Walker said.

School is full of people with busy schedules that causes students and teachers forget to take care of themselves. Lack of sleep and eating too much junk food from the snack shack are two of the major keys to healthy that students are missing. Also, eating no food is a problem as well.

“Everyone around here gets really busy and when you don’t eat or when you don’t eat well your blood sugar is low, and you spend more energy trying to concentrate and focus. As you get stress your body starts to have impact on itself like corticales and such,” Director of Student Learning and Wellness Dr. Gary Mallare said.

There are easy ways to take care of yourself. Most people don’t need a complete lifestyle makeover, just a few tweaks here and there should improve health in one way or another.

“Get the basic things in, sleep, eating right, and drinking water are the foundation. Then schedule in when you are going to exercise for 20-30 minutes four times a week at least so you are staying active,” Mallare said.

Being fit and healthy is not hard work despite what the common conception is. That is what the middle school P.E. teachers are striving to teach to their students.

“You can get physically fit through a lot of fun games, you don’t have to go out and run and lift weights, you can ride a bike, or play a game of ultimate frisbee or go and play a pickup basketball game or pick up soccer game to get fit. Anything you have an interest in you can go out and get fit that way,” Walker said.

Everyone can work on being more fit, but fitness and health is not based on weight and athleticism. What is more important is to let keeping your body healthy and allowing yourself to feel good on a day-to-day basis.

“I think those kids [who are not athletes] could use some more fitness time and maybe it’s just an understanding that you can make fitness fun, that it doesn’t have to be something that’s not fun and painful. I think it’s a misunderstanding of not being educated on the body and the health and how much physical activity improves health in every aspect,” Walker said.

For the athletes on campus, getting active might be the easy part, but the nutrition is what is lacking for the athletes. There is no point for an athlete to work out for hours upon hours if it is ruined by eating junk. Balance is very important for achieving the body’s full potential.

“We [the school] are inherently fit because we have such strong sport programs but not fit in the sense of eat healthy, get your rest, having a balance. It’s the prototypical school that is goal oriented instead of the whole process of looking at the student as a whole,” Mallare said.

Mallare is explaining that athletes should be focusing not only on practicing to reach their goals during the game, but also should be trying to be the healthiest and most fit athlete as a whole. Not only does this apply to athletes, if you are trying to lose weight, do not do it to look good, do it to feel good and be healthy.

Getting Active

1. Have fun!

Working out doesn’t need to be work, find an activity that makes it enjoyable! Swim some laps, go for a hike, play some racquetball. Another way to have fun with your workout is to challenge yourself. Set goals for yourself and make it a game on whether or not you can surpass them.

2. Stay committed!

Find a regimen that works for you and stick to it. If you are an early bird go for a morning run, if you are a night owl, work out before you do your homework to give you some extra endorphins to get through your work.

3. Find a partner!

If you get a workout buddy or even a group of friends who want to take on the challenge of working out makes it less miserable and more fun to exercise.

Benefits:

Not only do you drop weight when you are working out, you also help the chemistry in your body. By getting your blood pumping, it will deliver nutrients all around your body and flush toxins and poisons as well. Your skin will clear up because of the enhanced blood flow and our bones will become stronger which will keep them from becoming frail.

Eating right

1. Eat good meals!

Make sure to get in your fresh foods and plenty of fruits and veggies. It’s important not to skip meals, and eat too much food that isn’t good for your body. Don’t eat huge meals but give your body the nutrients and fuel it needs. The more veggies you eat the more nutrients you get without having to supplement with vitamins. The vitamins that teens need either by food or supplements are Vitamin A, to help with acne, and Vitamin B, to help with stress.

2. Drink Water

Water is the best thing that you can put into your body! The more you drink the better you will feel and the better your body will run. After all, our bodies are 60 percent water.

Detox water is incredibly important to keep you and your body healthy and hydrated. For some added flavor, which tastes good and is good for you, just drop some lemon or cucumber into your water. Detox water helps keep your metabolism running throughout the day without adding calories to your diet. You should be drinking half of your body’s weight in ounces every day.