Nurse's Guide to Fitness and Nutrition

As a teenager, the growth and change you’re going through can be overwhelming at times. Your body and your mind develop more every single day. It’s important to keep your body fit, develop positive habits, eat nutritious foods, and practice good hygiene daily, especially while your body is growing. By learning how to take care of your body now, you can ensure that you’ll live a long, healthy life.

Health and Wellness

Being healthy requires doing a little more than just eating less junk food; in fact, there are several different things that we can do every day to improve our mental and physical health. It may seem like some work, but your body and your mind will thank you for properly nurturing and taking care of it every day, which will lead to awesome benefits like a strong body, blemish-free skin, and more confidence. The point is that the more you take care of yourself, the better you will feel.

What are some things we can do to be healthier? Start by taking a multivitamin daily to ensure that you’re receiving all of the nutrients your body requires to work efficiently. In grocery stores, more and more boxed, canned, and processed foods are showing up on the shelves as convenience items, which can save time to prepare but lack a lot of the nutrients that we require that are found naturally in healthy whole foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes.

In addition to getting your vitamins, be sure to drink plenty of water throughout the day. Doctors recommend drinking about eight glasses a day. An easy way to tell if you’re properly hydrated is to look at the color of your urine after using the bathroom. When your body is properly hydrated, the color should be a very light yellow color, almost clear. However, if your urine is a dark, almost orange color, that’s a good sign that your body is dehydrated and needs some more water. Some students find it to be difficult to get enough water in during the day, but a simple way to stay hydrated is to ditch the soda, energy drinks, and sugary sports drinks and replace them with water. It’s also a great idea to bring a water bottle to school to use throughout the day.

Sleep and exercise are also extremely important to your health. It’s best to get about eight to nine hours of sleep every night so that you wake up feeling refreshed and ready to take on the day. It’s essential to get enough rest at night because while you’re sleeping, your body is working hard to repair itself.

Fitness for Pre-teens and Teenagers

One of the best ways to take care of your body and reduce stress is to exercise every day. Instead of sitting on the couch watching TV or playing video games after school, choose to get some exercise outside. Going for a walk, running around, riding your bike, stretching, and playing sports are all excellent ways to move your body and get your heart pumping. Try to choose an activity that includes some kind of aerobic activity, which makes you breathe harder and increases your heart rate. This is important because daily aerobic exercise does amazing things for your body, including increasing your fitness level, making you stronger, helping your heart and lungs to work better, and burning off fat. Some fun exercise activities you can do include basketball, dancing, or swimming. It’s also a great idea to try walking or riding your bike to school or to a friend’s house (with your parents’ knowledge and permission) instead of getting a ride. At school and in other public places, like the mall, use the stairs instead of taking escalators or elevators.

Remember that it’s important to warm up before any exercise to get your muscles ready to move and help protect against injuries. You can achieve this by doing some light stretching as an easy warm-up, which helps make muscles and joints more flexible. It’s also helpful to your body to stretch out again after exercise so you can cool down and relax the muscles from the workout. Remember, whatever exercise you do, it should be something fun that you enjoy doing! Try to set some simple fitness goals and keep track of your progress so you can see how much you’ve helped your body over time. Doing this can make you feel proud of what you’ve accomplished.

Food and Nutrition

Nutrition is a major component to health. The food you eat is also what fuels your entire body during the day, helps you to heal cuts or bruises quickly, and provides energy that your brain needs to think and function. For this reason, it’s important that you eat three healthy meals a day, which should include at least four servings of fruits and five servings of vegetables. Reduce junk and fast foods and limit or completely get rid of soft drinks.

It’s important to focus on your overall diet rather than specific foods. To do this, try to eat as many whole, minimally processed and packaged foods as possible, which are the foods that are as close to their natural form as possible. The more often you eat these whole foods, the easier it will be for your body to get the calcium, vitamins, minerals, unsaturated fats, complex carbohydrates, and protein it needs to function, grow, maintain healthy skin and hair, support the heart, muscles, and digestive system, provide energy, and repair damaged tissues. Many doctors claim that breakfast is the most important meal of the day because it boosts your metabolism and gives you fuel for the morning, so make sure not to skip it, and try replacing cereal and pastries with healthier options like fresh fruit, oatmeal, or yogurt.

Your Incredible Body

Healthy habits help all of the parts of your body to function properly. Your brain, which works like a complex computer, tells all of the other systems in your body what to do and when to do it. It controls the circulatory system, which includes your heart and blood, delivers nutrients to your organs, keeps your body clean, and removes built-up toxins. The average human heart beats more than three billion times in an average lifespan! And did you know that your blood has the same amount of salt in it as the ocean?

Your bones give your body structure and provide strength, while the muscles around them are what move the body. In fact, the human body has more than 600 muscles and only around 200 bones, with the smallest bone in your body being one that’s in your ears. Taking care of this amazing body that you have and developing good health habits is one of the most important ways to keep you healthy and happy for life.