Personal Narrative: My Personal Health

Personal health is something that everyone needs to be concerned with, but not many people are. I’ve noticed that in the recent months, my personal health has not been what it used to be. I’ve only come to this conclusion after starting to track a few health aspects in my life. The aspects of my personal health that I chose to track for a month includes nutrition, physical health issues, and alcohol use. I chose to track these three specific parts of my personal health because they are the most important to me. Like most females my age, weight is very important, and trying to lose weight must be done through nutrition. Also, I have a few health issues, such as asthma, thyroid disease, and severe anxiety that I need to work on. Finally,
I thought this was an important aspect to track because physical and mental health is extremely important. Within the month that I’ve recorded information, I had some type of medical appointment four different days. The first appointment I had was at an allergy and asthma doctor, which is when I was diagnosed with asthma and given steroids, as well as two inhalers to help control it. The second was for blood work for my thyroid disease. The third and fourth were both at an urgent care center where I was diagnosed with strep throat the first time and given antibiotics, and then treated again the second time with stronger antibiotics. From tracking all of my physical and mental health issues, I’ve noticed that I am much better in managing my physical health. Throughout the whole month, I haven’t missed a day of medicine for my thyroid, I finished taking all of my medicines for asthma and strep, and used the inhalers just as I was told to do. That being said, I didn’t handle my anxiety disorder well at all this past month. In fact, I missed more school and work than I have since I was diagnosed with the disorder four months ago. Over this past month, and even before I started recording this information, I’ve let my anxiety control what I do daily and it has caused me to be
We have learned that the average American’s diet includes too much salt, refined carbohydrates and sugars, and saturated and trans fats. It is also recommended to consume more than five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. When reviewing my journal and the food that I consumed, it is obvious that a lot of the food I consume regularly contains too much sugar, refined carbohydrates, and entirely too much fat. While I do eat fruits and vegetables, there was not one day where I ate five or more servings of either. Another thing that I realized needs to be changed is that I need to consume dairy products in order to get calcium. Calcium is one of the key nutrients that are usually missing in many people’s diets. This is true for me, as I have not had a glass of milk since I was about seven or eight. I’ve always been told I need to drink milk or have some type of calcium intake, but after this class and hearing recommendations, I’ve come to realize that I really need to make more of an effort to do so. Also, the book tells us that binge drinking for women is four or more drinks at one occasion. Since, on many occasions, I’ve noticed that I drink more than four drinks in one sitting, I could be considered a binge drinker. Also, I learned that women have less of the enzymes that