Hi everyone, I am really sorry I haven't added anything on in a while. I have been really busy with school work and I was also working on other things for this health challenge. On February 17th I taught a group of 12 and 13 year old girls about eating healthily and exercising properly. I also learned a lot that same night. I invited guest speaker Lois Brown, author of the stress management book Be Still, to speak to us on healthy sleeping habits as well as stress management. I thought she covered the subject very well. The girls we taught, as well as myself, really thought it was important and worth while for this guest speaker to explain how to get the most out of your sleep.

Something interesting we all learned was that relaxation is the key to your best night of sleep. You can be awake and still be making the chemicals your body needs and typically makes while you sleep. Once or twice every month you will not have a very good night of sleep. We learned you shouldn't stress about not getting enough sleep. You just need to relax in order to make those needed chemicals. All of the girls and I thought we could do better on our sleeping habits. I hope you would like to continue(from my last post) to try and do this with me.
It was found by Drexel University that 80% of all the students tested got less than eight hours of sleep a school night. Wow, what do you think the percentage could be for weekends? Even though relaxing will help, we still need the right amount of sleep for our bodies(usually 8hrs.)

Lastly, our guest speaker talked to us on stress. This tied in with not getting enough sleep, but there were a couple of different things we learned. Stress can be very damaging on your health and it makes you lose focus. There are many simple things you can do to help relieve your stress. One of the most commonly well know is to take deep breaths. This does help and is a good way to relieve your stress right before a test or something hard you have to do. Lois also went through some adrenaline relieving exercises. These were really good and all of the girls I talked to said it made a difference. We tightened up different muscles at different times and then relieved the adrenaline with a long sigh. Then we would take a series of big breaths in and out.
All around us we have ways to help improve our health. I really enjoyed teaching and talking with these girls. I will once again start to write regular entries about this health challenge.

Thank you for following!