For this project, you will create a personal wellness plan for healthy eating, exercise, and physical activity, personal hygiene, and proper sleep. Your plan will include actions you feel are best suited to help you achieve personal goals that you set

In previous lessons, you learned about your muscles, hearts, and lungs. You know that it takes a healthy diet and the right amount of physical activity to keep your muscles strong and limber, your heart powerful, and your lungs efficient. In future lessons, you will examine the importance of personal hygiene and proper sleep.

As you work through the remaining lessons in this unit, use what you learn to develop your own personal wellness plan based on your own goals. Your plan must include action steps based on the current guidelines you will learn about in each of these categories:

• Healthy diet, based on personal goals about calorie intake and expenditure, and obtaining proper nutrients.
• Exercise and physical activity, based on personal fitness goals and the standards for fitness for one of your age and gender.
• Personal hygiene, in relation to practicing good personal hygiene habits.
• Sleep, based on guidelines for someone your age.
• Do you want to maintain your current body weight? If so, consume the recommended daily allowance of calories for someone your age and gender.
• Do you want to lose weight? If so, consume fewer than the recommended daily allowance of calories.
• Do you want to gain weight? If so, consumer more calories.
• How many total calories should I consume each day?
• How much of my diet should be protein, fats, carbohydrates, and fiber. What foods are the healthiest options for obtaining those nutrients?
• What vitamins and minerals do I need each day? What foods are the healthiest ways of getting them?
• How much water should I drink each day?
• Do you want to improve your aerobic fitness?
• Is core strength where you need the most improvement?
• Would you like to increase your upper-body strength?
• Do you hope to become more flexible?
• How many minutes should I exercise each day?
• How quickly should I be able to run, or walk, a mile?
• How many abdominal curls should I be able to do in one minute?
• How many pull-ups or improvised pull-ups should I be able to do?
• Maybe you were too busy after lunch and you forgot to brush your teeth.
• Maybe you were too tired after a long day and decided not to shower even though you really needed a shower.
• Maybe you forgot to do the laundry.
• Maybe you woke up too late and didn’t have time to wash your hair.
• Maybe you simply don’t like flossing.
• Bathing or showering once a day, and after strenuous exercise.
• Brushing your teeth at least twice a day and preferably after every meal.
• Flossing your teeth at least twice a day and preferably after every meal.
• Washing your hair with soap or shampoo at least every other day.
• Washing your hands with soap regularly throughout the day, and always after using the bathroom.
• Wearing clean, laundered clothing that is well maintained.
• Covering your mouth when you sneeze or cough.
• Maintain a regular sleep schedule. You should try to go to bed and wake up at about the same time each day. This will help you fall asleep faster and rise feeling refreshed.
• Get enough sleep each night. Most teenagers need about nine hours of sleep per night. According to sleep experts, only about 15 percent of young people get the amount of sleep their bodies need.
• Avoid oversleeping on weekends. It may feel beneficial to “catch up” on sleep over the weekend, but sleeping in until noon on a Saturday can interrupt your sleep schedule, making it harder to fall asleep during the week.
• Take short naps in the afternoon. An afternoon nap of 15–20 minutes can help you recharge and may actually help you fall asleep faster at night.
• Turn off all electronic devices, especially your phone. Electronic interruptions prevent you from getting the deep, sustained sleep that you need to be healthy.

After creating your plan, you will then objectively record your results and practices concerning each category for a specific period. As the unit progresses, you will learn the ideal targets and guidelines for each category. As you learn about each topic, develop your personal wellness plan as a way to bridge the gap between your results in each category and the recommended guidelines.

You will submit your plan and your results by using the Graded Assignment document at the end of this unit.

Before moving forward to develop your personal wellness plan, decide on some personal goals in each category of your plan.

HEALTHY DIET

To inform the goals you set to maintain a healthy diet, use the information provided online by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). These two government organizations use the latest scientific findings to establish daily nutrition allowances for everything from total calories to individual vitamins and minerals. The recommendations change based on age, gender, and level of physical activity.

First, decide how many calories you need each day.

As you know, a healthy diet is about far more than simply the number of calories one consumes. The FDA and USDA also include guidelines regarding the types of food one should eat, and the number of nutrients one needs each day.

Use the USDA’s “Choose My Plate” online feature to determine what healthy eating means for you. To determine the actions you should take in your personal wellness plan, consider these questions:

Use the answers to these questions along with the goals you have set for yourself to devise your personal wellness plan. As the unit progresses, keep track of how well you do and note your results. Record how well you do at achieving the recommended levels.

EXERCISE AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

As you know, there are many types of physical activities to help you stay strong and healthy. Maybe you like a game of pickup basketball, which is great for aerobic fitness and all-around strength. Or perhaps you prefer gymnastics and tumbling, which focus on muscular strength, especially in the core. Maybe you are into a traditional workout routine that includes pushups, pull-ups, and other exercises that strengthen the upper body. Perhaps yoga is your thing because you like to improve your flexibility, balance, and muscle tone.

Consider the goals you want to set for yourself when it comes to your daily exercise routine.

Go online to find the standards for physical strength and fitness as set for young adults of your age and gender by the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition (PCSFN) or the Presidential Youth Fitness Program (PYFP). To determine the actions you should take in your personal wellness plan, consider these questions:

Use the answers to these questions along with the goals you have set for yourself to devise your personal wellness plan. As the unit progresses, keep track of how well you do and note your results. Record how well you do at achieving the recommended levels.

PERSONAL HYGIENE

Unlike diet and exercise, everybody should have the same personal hygiene goals. That does not mean that those goals are always easy to keep.

Whatever the excuse, missing the basics of personal hygiene can lead to problems, from awkward social encounters to actual disease.

As you learn about personal hygiene during this unit, develop your own personal wellness plan to ensure that you are practicing good hygiene habits.

Consider these good personal hygiene habits as you create your wellness plan:

Include these good personal hygiene habits in your personal wellness plan. As the unit progresses, keep track of how well you do in practicing them and record your results.

SLEEP

Sleep is so important to personal wellness, especially for teenagers and young adults. Yet very few young people get the sleep they need. Not only do teens not sleep enough, but texts, tweets, alerts, and social media updates often interrupt the sleep they do get.

In future lessons you will learn about the benefits of getting enough good sleep and the consequences of not getting enough.

What sleep goals should you set for yourself?

Include good sleep habits in your personal wellness plan. As the unit progresses, keep track of how well you do in practicing them and record your results

MY PERSONAL WELLNESS PLAN

Complete the following assignment.

(Maximum Score:30 points)

• Use the space below to insert the personal wellness plan you created, along with your results.