Title: Explore factors that influence wellness and lifestyle practices across the lifespan.
Course: Nutrition and Wellness (19253-18) > Section: Understanding Wellness

Exploration should include

- defining the term lifestyle
- explaining the intellectual, psychological, emotional, cultural (ethnicity, family traditions/values), social (peer pressure), and spiritual influences on lifestyle behaviors
- explaining choices that influence wellness, such as diet, meal patterns, exercise, rest and sleep, use of harmful substances, other risk behaviors, attitude, environment, gender, age, finances
- explaining choices that contribute to wellness
- identifying the stages and the nutritional needs of each stage across the lifespan
- explaining the importance of variety and balance in food choices
- explaining the relationship between food preparation and healthy food choices
- identifying governmental, economic (media/advertising), and technological influences on food choices and other nutrition practices
- explaining the amount of sleep, quality of sleep, and sleep patterns important to peak performance
- defining the term substance abuse
- identifying substances often abused by teens (e.g., alcohol, steroids, tobacco, caffeine, laxatives, inhalants, prescription medication, street drugs, energy or performance enhancers such as creatine)
- determining effects that each substance listed above can have on the body and/or mind
- identifying substance abuse prevention and rehabilitation strategies
- explaining the relationship between risk or unsafe behaviors (e.g., not using seatbelt, speeding, multitasking while driving, excessive exposure to sun, regular exposure to loud music, and alcohol and other substance abuse) and wellness
- explaining the relationship between financial health and physical and mental wellness (i.e., the effects of economic resources on one’s quality of nutrition, health care, sleep, stress level, and chronic disease prevention).

Process/Skill Questions:

Thinking

- Why should we be concerned with our lifestyle choices?
- What factors may influence our lifestyle choices?
- What are the consequences of making healthy choices for physical wellness?
- What are some characteristics of physical, emotional, social, financial, vocational, mental, and spiritual wellness?

Communication

- What communication skills do we need to analyze factors that contribute to wellness?
- Where do we acquire our attitudes and beliefs about wellness and about lifestyle?
- How does the media affect our ideas and choices about wellness and lifestyle?

Leadership

- How can leaders help others to identify choices that contribute to wellness?
- What areas of wellness are most important to your idea of personal success?
- How are the wellness choices you make today similar to or different from those you will make five years from now? Twenty years from now?

Management

- What are your current levels of exercise?
- What steps can you take to increase exercise?
- What happens when no exercise is involved?
- Are you pleased with your present level of wellness? Why, or why not?
- What information and resources do you need to improve your present level of wellness?
- What steps should we take to evaluate our lifestyle choices?

Teacher Resource:

- University of Utah Center for Student Wellness