This is a chapter that I really did not know a lot until I started reading it and I think it is something that people should be more aware of since we are talking about earth and our existence. The first topic that caught my eye was overpopulation. I once heard a friend of mine who was a biology teacher say that he didn’t want to have kids because there were too many people in the world already, and I guess he was right. This is something that I never thought about but according to this chapter based on our resources and the way that we are also contaminating the world it makes it impossible to survive in 100 years. I think the most surprising of this overpopulation was when the chapter mentions how we would need to planets to meet the demand by 2030 which is literally in ten years.

The second interesting topic that is actually related with overpopulation was the recommendations on how to decrease the number of birth and it all comes to education. More than ever, there is a lot of unprotected sex and pregnancy in teenagers. However, if high schools take a bigger responsibility in educating kids about sex and the cautions that we should take to avoid not only pregnancy but also sexual transmitted diseases. I also found interested how educated woman are more likely to have less kids. I think even though most people want to have kids because they like the idea of creating and taking care of a person, a lot of people, especially those with lower education and economic status have more than one kid by accident, this is why most third world countries have 5+ families while wealthier and more educated family have one or maybe two kids.

The last thing I really liked and I think I will try to follow as much as I can is the “Skills for Behavior Change”. I think there was a lot of things that I never even noticed until I read it like the packaging on the food. I think bringing my own reusable bag and being a better planner when it comes to food shopping it is an awesome idea. I think sometimes we go food shopping without a list and buy things just because and end it up putting it in the trash which it is just a waste of money as well as resources. Even though I will more likely won’t follow the cleaning strategies of avoiding caustic cleanser, I think it is really interesting how even those things can affect our environment.

Violence is a really interesting topic but also hard to understand for me. Some people abuse others and show their power with violence. Some people abuse other because of some psychological trauma that they might’ve seen or being part of. However, it is just really hard for me to understand why someone would ever want to hurt, abuse or denigrate someone and not having any remorse and feel good about it. Violence in high school and college campuses has been really “popular” on the past couple of years. I found really interesting how according to this chapter, this type of violence is actually increasing. I think it is really sad and unfortunate that someone feels the need to kill kids and young adults.

The second thing that caught my eye was the factors contributing violence. I think community factors and societal factors were the ones that caught my eye the most. I think because for most of us, we went to public high schools, I went to a vocational school which means that there were kids from all different towns. Unlike regular public schools were most kids that are in that school are from the same town, usually similar economic status, my school was from 5-6 different towns. This means that we all had different economic status and even raise since some towns are often more predominant on a raise than others. My point with this is that we never really knew what was going on in anyone’s house and sometimes some kids had abusive fathers and that is all they saw. As well as culture, I think this plays a really important role because for some cultures or nationalities, the man will always be the bread provider and the boss of the house. In some cases this might mean that the father could psychologically or even psychically abuse the mother and it would be consider normal because that was part of our norms. Because this is what kids saw and consider normal or maybe just traumatized the kid, they could carry on this trauma or set of events and use it against their partner or child.

Social Networking Safety was a really good summary of all the precautions that we should take when posting on social media or meeting someone. I actually liked this a lot because just a couple of weeks ago, I was going through my Facebook and I noticed that some of the things that I posted years ago were simply not appropriate and actually embarrassing for me right now. I think when we are teenagers, we think that we know it all and that the things we post might be funny or just how we feel. However, years later all I can think about is what if someone from work sees it or if I go for a job interview and they see these kid of posts. Another safety was changing our password constantly. I think we all have so much information and our phones and computers that it is important that we maintain our privacy and make sure that we don’t share our passwords with anyone.

I think this chapter was a good refresh about violence and what are the causes of it as well as the different types of violence, especially since people our age are more prompt to be in some kind of abuse. I think when we are in college we tend to be a little more open, become adults and make our own decisions. However, in college we also experience domestic and sexual abuse as well as harassment and it is important to remember that we have to speak up, talk to authorities and most importantly remember our self-worth.

The first thing that caught my eye in this chapter was Antibiotic resistance since it is something that has never crossed my mind. The fact that at least 70% of antibiotics produced are ingested by animals and fish that we consume it is crazy. I always knew that the reason why organic food is better is because it doesn’t have hormones, but I never though that the meat and fish we eat has also antibiotics as well as hormones. Unfortunately, even though organic food is a much better food with more quality, it is also more expensive and for some people who can barely make the needs or have a big family, organic food might not be an option.

Sexually transmitted infections is something that I think it is not teach enough. I think this is something that has to talked about in middle school, high school as well as college. Sometimes people think that it is their parents responsibility to talk to their kids about it. However, some parents might not do it because they think it is awkward or because they still think that their kids are not having any sexual activities which is their first mistake. My mom never really sat and talked to me about it, all I knew was for what I read or when I went get my birth control for the first time and my doctor talked to me about STDs and pregnancy. Even though all the tips that this chapter recommends, I already know them, I am not so sure that I knew them before I had sex for the first time and that is how I could’ve get an STD.

I think the last interesting topic was for me, even though is a general one is all the types of sexual transmitted diseases that existed. There are some of them that are really popular and that we all know like syphilis, herpes and gonorrhea. However, I actually didn’t know what some diseases like trichomoniasis or pubic lice. I think STD’s is a really complex and interesting topic because there are so many ways and so many sexual transmitted diseases and sometimes when we are younger we forget to be more careful and not trust just someone’s word when they say that they do not have any STD. I think that is definitely the most important advice that I learn from this chapter is that after reading all these diseases and how they can be transmitted by any sexual contact, it is important to be aware, precautions and safe. Since I just ended a relationship long couple of months ago, I think it was a really important refresher of how dangerous sex can be and when I think the time is right and I am willing to start another relationship, I need to remember that being precautions can go a really long way.

This chapter was definitely important and interesting to me because in my dad side of the family, almost all my family suffers from heart problems. Just a week ago, my grandfather’s brother died from a heart attack, my grandfather had a small heart attack just last year as well as other heart problems that almost killed him and my dad takes medications for his heart and asthma problems. Most of my uncles from my dad’s side that have died was due to a coronary heart disease or a heart attack. This is something that I have always been aware but also another factor of why this is so common in my family other than heredity, it is also their life styles. My grandfather was a smoker for decades until he had the heart attack and had to get an open heart surgery. I think what caught my eye about this topic was how bad cholesterol (LDC) as well as fat increase your chances of suffering from any cardiovascular disease. Because I know how sad and scary is to see someone have a heart attack and since it is something that runs in my family, I have always opted not only on exercising but also cutting off the amount of meat and processed food I put in my body since this is definitely a big factor of lots of diseases.

I think the most interesting and surprising topic for me was the risks of cancer. I don’t know why I always thought that cancer could be hereditary and in some cases environmental. However, I was really surprised when some of the risks of cancer were alcohol and stress. Even though I know alcohol is not the best thing for our bodies, I just never assumed that it could cause cancer. Also, stress, I think this is the most scaring thing for me because even though stress is considered something ” we can control”, I think this is not necessarily the case. Some people have very stressful jobs that they have to keep to pay their bills as well as a lot of personal and familiar issues that we can not control. Stress is not something that simply goes away after meditation or yoga or herbs, it is something that controls our minds and also affects our bodies in so many different ways and I would argue that this is something uncontrollable and it is also unfortunate that can give you cancer.

One other thing that caught my eye was skin cancer. I never really paid attention when people used to say to wear sunscreen. I am from Dominican Republic so I am naturally “tan” which means I have never burned and I can easily tan in like an hour. Until now I never wear sunscreen because I was always like ” I don’t need it, I don’t burn, I tan super easy” but after reading this chapter I noticed that I am definitely being super ignorant and because I don’t burn it doesn’t mean that the sun won’t affect me and that I can also get skin cancer. Even though it is easier to get skin cancer when you have a lighter skin, doesn’t mean that if you are not Caucasian you are immune to skin cancer.

I think this chapter relates to my muscle building and healthier eating because all this diseases have a couple of things in common but one of them is our healthy eating and exercising. I think that even though I don’t usually eat a lot of meat and food with bad cholesterol, I think now I will definitely see it a little different when I do eat it, especially since cardiovascular disease runs in my family.

This topic is probably one of the most interesting and also hard to do in our lives. We all have woken up one day, and for some of us, especially women, wake up every day and feel uncomfortable about their bodies. For me, this would bring me so many insecurities. I can’t even count the amount of times that I cried or got so mad at myself because my body wasn’t perfect. Even now after working out, I still have my downs and technically my body weight is perfect with my height. However, in my eyes is not perfect. It is really easy to say “if you are not happy with your weight or your body, do something about it” however, this is also a mental game, and if you are not emotionally stable and have the commitment and discipline needed, you will not achieve your goals.

The first thing that caught my eye in this chapter was obesity since it is such a huge problem in the United States. The major are because it is more accessible to get unhealthy food and also because it is cheaper. We have so many fast food everywhere and it would take us a second to order while we are sitting in our cars and spend 5 dollars for a “savers menu” from McDonald. However, if we want something healthier, 1- it is much more expensive than McDonald or any other fast food and they are also more scarce than fast food. This is why poor people are often the ones who suffer from obesity because unfortunately, when you do not have money and have kids to feed, you can’t really worry about how many calories they are eating, your major concern is that they do not go to bed starving.

Another topic that brought my attention that actually worked for me really well was working out with a partner. At the beginning when I moved here I didn’t really have much motivation to work out, but then I met a friend and we started working out together. I think like the chapter mentions, it is very important to stay motivated and focus, as well as being around people who are also as committed and motivated as you. For me, having someone who cared as much as me about her image and was committed to maintain her body weight and exercise frequently was definitely the right push for me when I needed it.

Anorexia was definitely something really shocking and sad to know more about. The fact that someone could go through starvation and malnutrition is just so unfortunately. Also the fact that the full recovery is only from 44 to 76 percent in a long term is really disappointing. Anorexia comes from multiple different reasons, but it all concludes with not accepting yourself and having a low self-esteem. This is really unfortunate because it is all because all the things that we hear since we are kids about the perfect body, the perfect imagine and what is considered hot or not hot. When we are kids, we are innocent, we find all skin colors, body weights and shapes good. Until we see social media, we hear our parents, friends, famous people, and we see a partner of what is social acceptable and what is simply not “attractive” and this is when we start doubting ourselves and questioning if we are pretty enough or skinny enough. It is obviously not what it is the healthiest but what is the best looking.

This week I worked out at home, I totally forgot to take a decent picture for the class, so the picture is not the best but I got a good workout and I was sweating a lot!.

With the quarantine going on, it is a lot harder for me to concentrate on my diet and working out. Because I live in Myrtle Beach, SC, my gym was officially opened until yesterday so I was working out normally until today when it was supposed to be my first workout at home and it was a failure. This chapter was really interesting because there is so much stuff that I been doing that is probably not the best and because I am home all day and I don’t get to be as busy as I was when I was working and working out, I tend to eat a lot. However, I liked how this chapter talked about how the best way to stop eating as much was to just keep yourself busy. I actually thought that it would be having smaller meals because that is what I was doing but I think when I do that I actually end it up eating more because I am like “it is just a couple of hundred calories” and they just add up to more than I should consume.

The second interesting thing I found in this chapter was how our plates should look like when we eat. Half vegetables and fruits and the other half being protein and grains.

I feel like that was something I knew but I just never really paid attention it. I think for the most part I do good, but I do not eat as much vegetables as I am supposed to. For me nutrition has been a huge challenge because even though I feel like I am giving my 120% percent at the gym, my body is taking a really long time to show the results comparing to other people. This can be so overwhelming for me because sometimes I just want to quit because the process is so long. But like the chapter mentions, having a good body is 80/20. Meaning nutrition is that 80% and no matter how much I work out if I do not eat the right things, my body would take longer.

I think the last interesting fact for me was how important understanding the labels are. I usually read all the labels and check for sugar, sodium, protein as well as calories. Usually I do not pay attention to any other category. I think it is really important that we all understand what we are consuming and how this can affect our bodies. For instance, I never really cared about cholesterol but then I noticed that the amount of bacon I was eating was definitely excessive, especially because of how much cholesterol and saturated fat has. Because I was only focusing on the calories and the protein, I thought that bacon was just fine for me and my diet since I was looking to eat as much protein as possible, however, that is probably my first mistake on my diet. This week I am hoping that I can workout at home and probably lower my calories intake since my workouts won’t be as intense as if I am at the gym.

The past couple of months has definitely been tough for me because all the personal stuff that has been going on in my life and all the adjustments that has happened in the past two months. Unfortunately, the one thing that has been there for me is alcohol. Every time I was feeling down or lonely, I decided to drink and even though it feels good at the moment and it helps me stress less about what is going on in my head, it is only for a short term. Because of the way that I been drinking and would definitely consider myself engaging in binge drinking. Actually, when I read about it, I was like “yup, that definitely me right now”. It is scary and surprising how much damage can happen from binge drinking, it really makes me thing if this is worth doing. Fortunately, in the past couple of days and since the corona virus, I been focusing on myself and working on my emotions instead of drinking to avoid facing the problem. I been also being back to working out consistency and because I know how bad alcohol is, I been reducing them so I can actually see the progress of my workouts and my meals.

The second topic that really called my attention was that an extra 150 calories in alcohol a day would increase your weight by 12 pounds in a year. When I was reading this I was like “150 calories is literally nothing” but a woman going from 140 to 152 would definitely be noticeable, especially since it is literally just fat. I think this is why we see how so many college students gain weight so easily. I moved to South Carolina a little over 8 months ago and I meet this group of friends who have their own apartment and go out from Thursday to Sunday every week. When I saw their pictures from a year or two or three years ago, you can see that every year they gain more and more weight to the point where they went from weighting 140-150 to probably being closed to 200 pounds. There is a lot that goes on not staying at home when you go to college and like the chapter mentions, peer pressure and stress is definitely key of why college students can drink excessively. I always thought that the reason why college students usually gain weight is because they don’t work out as often and the college food is not the healthiest. However, after reading this chapter and thinking about it a little more deeply, everyone who goes to college walks a lot, or at least I did when I had all my classes on campus and even though the eating can sometimes not be the best, alcohol is straight up empty calories. There is not one nutrient that alcohol gives to our bodies but calories making it really easily to gain weight.

The last thing that I found interesting in the chapter was how to avoid or decrease our intake in alcohol. I think that having juice or water in between is a smart idea to just reduce how much and fast we drink. I think what often happens is that we drink so much and so fast that we get wasted easily. Another really interesting fact for me that actually really works was not keeping alcohol at home unless I am actually going to drink it that day. I moved out of my boyfriend’s house over a month ago. We always had alcohol and we used to drink a beer or two at night sometimes. However, when I moved out and had alcohol in my apartment, because I was sad and overwhelmed, I was drinking a whole bottle of wine, something that I did not do as his house even if I had the alcohol because I was able to control myself and think about all the calories and the consequences of drinking would do in my body, I was really not interested on drinking so much because it would ruin my muscle gain progress. However, when I felt down, I did not care, I was drinking and just regretting the next day. So i decided that the best way to avoid this was to not have alcohol at home, because even if I really wanted it one night, I was most likely not going to go out of my house to get alcohol. Also, comparing the calories of drinking vs eating something else that I liked helped me weight if alcohol was worth it or not.

I think this week I started with a fresh start, focusing on my goals and what I want to accomplish by this summer. I know I had my bad times and alcohol definitely the first thing I thought to do to make me feel better, this week I decided to focus and maintain my goals, as well as taking it one day at a time and understand the “why” I will do something and “why” I should not do it. I really liked this chapter and I think it had a lot of interesting information and it also came at the right time for me.

Chapter 6 is a really interesting chapter because sometimes when we think about addiction, the first thing that comes to our heads is drugs. Because it is something easier to measure and because only recently we noticed that people can be addicted to shopping, sex, social media, working out, in other words, everything. The first interesting topic for me was addiction to social media. At the beginning of the chapter it says at at least 9% of students agreed that social media affected their school performance. Which I consider that is a huge understatement because how many times have we procrastinated or did not finish a school assignment because we were so caught up with social media. Couple of months ago I was so addicted to social media and Instagram that it made me insecure about myself and my body. I would compare myself with other or not feel attractive or good enough so I decided to delete Instagram for a couple of months until I felt better. Now I feel like after a couple of months of trying to find something else to do and focusing on myself, I do not care anymore. I think everything is a working process and we all have a journey and time work on our goals.

The second interesting topic to me was exercise addiction. Because I stopped working out regularly for the past couple of weeks, I been feeling weak and struggling lifting the weight that I was lifting before. I would get so mad and frustrated that I would literally cry after the gym because I felt like I wasn’t doing this right and I ruined what I have been working so hard for months. Maybe it is not an addiction yet, but it is definitely an unhealthy behavior. Working out for me should be something that relaxes me, makes me feel better and more comfortable. And when I go to the gym and feel insecure or weak because I can’t do something, it really takes one of the purpose of why I go to the gym which is to feel better about myself and be proud of my accomplishments. One example was yesterday, I tried to dead lift 225lbs and I was so focused on just lifting it that I did not worry about the shape of my body or if I was lifting it right, I just wanted to lift it regardless if it was the right way or not. Of course, because I wasn’t thinking straight, I had my back in the wrong position and now I pulled a muscle, once again.

The last topic that stoke to me was the reasons why people become addictive to something. I think some people really have addictive personalities and after they start something it is hard for them to stop. However, I also think that your past has a lot to do with it as well as to fit in. It is really interesting how there is not an specific raise, economic status or gender that is more likely to be addicted to something than others, it is simply the circumstances. Sometimes people think that when famous people are addicts or die from overdose which happens really often in young famous singers and actors like Juice Money, most of the time is not because they have a lot of money or because they are popular but because they have so much pressure that they just don’t show it off on social media, pressure to fit in, and all the things that they went through to get where they are to make them become addicts, just like Demi Lovato. It is simply hard for an famous and important influence to admit that they are addicts and that they need help without disappointing fans or even ruining their careers.

This chapter was really interesting because there was so much to learn from. The first interesting topic that caught my eye was all the different types of methods to prevent pregnancy. I have personally had a couple of different birth controls, some of them worked and some of them didn’t. I wish I was more aware and knowledgeable of all the types of methods that are out there. In the past couple of months I decided to stop taking my pill because I felt like I needed a break and I actually think that it helped me with my workouts. I felt like my body felt better and I just felt healthier. Unfortunately, I am more scared of getting pregnant than how my body felt so I just went back to take the pill again.

The second topic was pregnancy and everything that comes when you are pregnant like depression. Since I was younger I have always thought that I did not wanted to have kids because I am stress of losing confidence and be insecure about gaining weight and having stretch marks all over my body. However, I think that if I keep staying positive and confident on working out and staying consistent, I think I could keep the body that I want it. I also think that it is sad that I am more worried about how my body would look and not about bringing my baby to live. This is why I think that I am not prepared at all to have a baby because you have to first be confident in yourself and have the self esteem to be happy and confident after the baby is born.

The last topic that I found interesting was abortion. I personally think that people should have the right to decide if they want to a child or not. Even though there is a lot of methods to avoid pregnancy, there is a lot of people who do not have enough knowledge or are in a third world country. Also, some people might not be able to afford to take care a kid. I think it should be legal in all states to have an abortion at the first semester but after that I think that it should be illegal.