The Effects Of Exercise On College Students

Being overweight, eating poorly, and not exercising are becoming an epidemic in America, especially among college students. Most of the research on it states the same things, however the first research article I found speaks more to the behavior and its current affects on college students’ health. A slew of doctors and Jesse S. Morrell wrote an article about “Risk Factors Among College Men and Women” in relationship to obesity. The opening of this article stated that “an estimated 300,000 deaths each year are attributable to obesity… and young adults have experienced dramatic increases in obesity rates,” (Morrell, 2012, pg. 82). This statistic is what really got the research going and helped the researchers focus specifically on college-aged individuals. Upon diving into their research, the authors found more alarming statistics and related diseases. This included a recognizable relationship between obesity in young people and chronic disease risk, especially diabetes and cardiovascular disease (Morrell, 2012, pg. 82). In fact, CVD was the second leading cause of death in the US in that college-age group showing that our generation is at a greater risk for health problems than ever before due to our lack of exercise and healthy diets. Researchers then took to college campuses to examine students and their habits and provide risk assessments to promote healthier lifestyles and hopefully decrease the probability of CVD and DM through the metabolic syndrome system,

This general awareness resulted in about 17% of the U.S. population becoming more enthusiastically committed to fitness activities, with 63% recognizing the importance of fitness activities and 25% of whom actually attending health fitness clubs. Also, a recent survey showed that 37% of exercisers were motivated by the desire to control weight. Consciousness about body image and the desire to reduce stress and meet new people also had an impact on the health club phenomenon.

The majority of people will decide to change their health behavior throughout their lifetime. The reasons for the change might be quite different from individual to individual. Some may be motivated to take action after experiencing a life threatening illness, while others are proactive and change their health behavior to decrease the risks of developing a potential disease. However, even if the reasons for the change are valid and well understood, there is a great possibility that one will not follow set goals long term. Stacy Carter, an assistant of professor and an author of the Social Validity Manual, expresses her opinion about people implementing a scientifically proven health behavior change treatment in their routine, “if it's something that is going to cause them a lot of effort, or is difficult to implement, then they probably are not going to use it for long” (Cranford, 2011). Use number superscript 1

Adhering to my health behavior change ended up being much more difficult than I thought it would end up being. I wanted to change my behavioral by going to the gym more often, more than three hours a week, and on a weekly basis. In the first week, I started off poorly and did not end up going to the gym once. The second week of my plan is when I was finally started to go to the gym and taking my plan seriously. I was available to meet my goal and spent three and a half hours at the gym that week. By week three, I only went for 2 hours that week at the gym.

This behavior change project has become a huge part of my everyday life. I lost sight of how important staying in shape affects my overall mental state along with my physical well-being. Having a life that consists of so many activities such as going to school, working, and maintaining a full and happy relationship with the people I care about is hard to balance with just making time for myself. That is why keeping this three day a week workout regime over the past five weeks has been so important; it made me realize that I can make time to focus on just working on myself, and in turn, improve all other aspects of my life. Realizing of course that there are many people in this world that have real life health problems that they seek professional help for. These changes in their lives require a system or a theory that must be applied to develop a strategic an organized way to regulate or change their behavior.

“Being aware of the common exercise barriers among college-age students is critical to the understanding of the underlying reasons why some individuals are sedentary.” A college environment comes with its own unique challenges to maintaining a consistent exercise regime. There are multiple aspects of life that students are required to make time for, such as school, work, friends and family. The increasing pressure to excel academically can push students to neglect their physical fitness.

The behavior change that I chose was to drink more water every day. Furthermore, my more specific goal was to drink eight glasses per day. My long-term goal by the end of the behavior change project was to drink eight glasses a day, because that is the recommended amount that a healthy human being should drink. I set short-term goals to help make my behavior change easier to accomplish. My short-term goals were to drink two glasses of water per day by the end of week one, four glasses of water per day by the end of week two, and six glasses of water per day by the end of week three. When going through this behavior change project, I personally discovered that there are not only many benefits from this behavior change, but also many barriers.

My health goal was to change my eating habits. I chose this goal because I have a bad habit of not eating as well as I should. Although I usually do not eat fast food, I eat a lot of carbs. I was raised in an Italian family so macaroni and pizza are my two worst enemies. I figured that if I used this project to get rid of my bad eating habits, I would have an easier time eating healthy after this class ends. Before starting the project I realized that there will be challenges, but this project was not meant to be simple. If behavior change was simple, then anyone would be able to change behavior whenever they wanted to.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2014), only 21% of Americans are sufficiently physically active according to the guidelines set forth in 2008. Thus, living a sedentary lifestyle has become an epidemic, and one that is not without consequence. The CDC (2014) further states that one’s risk for heart disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, stroke, depression, some cancers, and early death is noticeably higher for those living a sedentary lifestyle. Certainly, then, promoting physical activity is a simple intervention providers should practice to prommote overall health and prevent or delay the onset of disease. A motivational interview was conducted with Cherish Brown, a 22-year-old

A new year, a fresh start, an opportunity to overhaul the habits we fall into. Year after year, folks reevaluate their lives and desire a change in how they about their day. Some decide to change their diets and eat healthier, while others decide make it to gym more frequently. Whatever the person’s attempted alteration may be, the common theme that everyone experiences a process of change. Along with this attempt at change, individuals making the change will often be challenged to return back to old habits. Although persistence shines for some, others will fall back into old habits once they experience the trade-off to abandoning a habit. Simply denoted as behavioral change, this process by which an individual

This past summer, I realized that I was getting a lot more exercise compared to the school year. Aside from the occasional basketball, volleyball, or run, I do not have a set schedule or exercise regularly. As a result, I found the Behavioral Change Project the perfect opportunity to set the goal for myself of being more physically fit by exercising daily. To do so, I aimed to either play sports (basketball or volleyball) for at least 1 hour or run at least 1 mile (which includes 5 minutes of stretching beforehand) as my daily exercise. Having the objectives established beforehand made it clear to me what I needed to do to reach my goal. I also wrote down goal-facilitating behaviors (planning to run with others, to work and study effectively

The behavior I have chosen to do my modification program on is increasing the amount of time I work out every time I go to the gym until I reach my target goal. My target goal is to work out for an hour and half every time I go to the gym in the morning. When I go to the gym I will be taking a stop watch to time the amount of time I work out to verify that I reached my goal as well as mark my calendar every day that I go stating how long I worked out for. To make sure I was committed to the goal I wrote down six reasons/benefits of making this behavior change that are both short term and long term. They are feeling better about myself throughout the day, getting to wear the dress I want to be able to fit by my birthday on July 24th, increasing my endurance for marathons, improving my mood, sleeping better, also something to enjoy doing with my husband. There are many more but these are the ones I placed on my bathroom mirror, on my desk lamp at work, on my dashboard in my car, the table next to my front door that holds my gym bag and shoes, on my fridge and in my husband’s truck in case he drives. I also let my husband know my goal and also invited him to come with me so he could monitor that I am actually sticking with my plan daily. I also had stated the table next to the door holds my gym bag and shoes so if I was to walk outside I automatically see them there taunting me to take them and go to the gym. I also put a reminder on my phone each day of my goal and why it

College life is a time full of fun, friends, activities, classes, and homework. All of these activities however, add up to a busy life style. Being busy is not in itself harmful but when the busyness becomes so great that it turns into stress, problems start to arise. The formation of stress leads to many unhealthy trends, such as lack of sleep, loss of immunity to disease, and a change in personality traits. How then can stress in the busy lives of college students be reduced? The answer is a simple one that has long been known; exercise relieves stress. Colleges across the country need to implement a program of required exercise classes to promote the well being of students.

Weight loss resolutions, though common among New Year’s resolvers, are notoriously hard to maintain. According to a nationwide survey, 51% of adults reported a desire to lose weight last year but only half as many were seriously working toward that goal (Gallup, 2013). One study found that among 135 college students who had made one or more New Year’s resolution(s), nearly 40% resolved to lose weight yet all were unsuccessful (Marlatt and Kaplan, 1972). Given the amount of effort and dedication required to achieve and maintain weight loss, it is not surprising that it remains merely a good intention for so many who are not yet willing or able to make such a change. Fortunately, decades of research from the likes of Albert Bandura and B. F. Skinner have led to the development of principles and strategies that, when employed in everyday life, can effectively manipulate behavior and increase the likelihood of successful behavior change.

When I came to college I never knew how difficult it would be to exercise on a regular basis. I was a high school athlete who had always found physical activity important and figured that would continue during my college career, but I was mistaken. I quickly became overwhelmed, and my time at the gym was quickly cut out of the schedule. I gained weight like most college students and looking back now I realized I had irregular eating habits, extreme levels of stress, and lack of sleep which is typical in most college students. When thinking of a personal self-care activity I found that exercise helped improve all of these problems in some way. When I realized exercise was the personal self-care