Health and Physical Education are some of the most important things you can learn about in and out of school. Taking care of health is important. In this article you will learn about food to avoid,why physical education is such an important class, ways to stay active, and what the benefits of a healthy lifestyle are.
You should stay active for 30 minutes to an hour every day. 30 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous activity 2-3 times per week is recommended, according to Google AI. Some things you can do outside of school to stay active include walking, jogging, going to the gym, and some sort of personal workout. It’s important to take care of your health and yourself because having good physical and mental health leads to increased energy, less stress and anxiety, and just a better overall quality of life.
Foods you should avoid to stay healthy are any foods that are high in cholesterol, fats, candy, soda, snack foods, and saturated fats high in salt. Some foods you should include in a healthy diet are fruits, vegetables, proteins, whole grains, healthy fats, lean proteins, and low fat dairy products. Whole grains are brown rice, quinoa, oats, and whole wheat bread. Healthy fats are found in avocados, nuts, seeds, and olive oil. Lean proteins are fish, poultry, eggs, beans, lentils, nuts, and seeds. Low fat dairy products are milk, yogurt, and cheese
You should also drink water. The U.S. National Academics of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine determined about 15.5 cups (3.7 liters) of fluids a day for men. About 11.5 cups (2.7 liters) of fluids a day for women are recommended..
One of the most important jobs at the school is teaching physical education. Mr. Tesak is a physical education teacher at New Hartford High describes his experience: “I’m going into my 19th year as a teacher and it’s my 9th year teaching physical education for the other 10 I was teaching health education.’’
Mr. Tesak believes physical education is such an important class because, “It’s a movement class and it’s not a typical class. Students are able to move around which helps increase physical health, overall fitness levels, and overall cardiovascular levels.”
Mr. Tesak believes it’s important to take care of our health because we only get one chance in life and one body so we need to take care of our body. He recommends what we put in our body and making the right decisions with the body we have– and not engaging in risk behaviors that are going to put our body at risk.
“My top goals are to make sure the students are safe and have fun moving around and engaging in many types of physical activities,” Mr. Tesak said. “Also to be exposed to many different games and activities that they can do later on throughout their life.”
Mr. Tesak loves sports and loves activities that involve movement so being able to teach the students of New Hartford High School and engage in those activities with students is a lot of fun.
Xavier Obernesser, a junior at New Hartford Senior High, said physical education is important to him because when he has Physical Education they teach weight lifting to improve strength. Xavier plays hockey and lacrosse outside of school which helps keep him stay active. Xavier thinks sports are a great way to stay active because they are a good workout, increase your physical health, and are an amazing way to interact with people and make new friends.
Xavier thinks it’s important to take care of our health because when you take care of your physical health it positively impacts your mental health. Xavier stays active for 6 to 7 hours a day whether it’s sports or other activities. Xavier thinks you should avoid any foods that are greasy and keep a balanced diet to stay healthy.
Mr. Pope is a Physical Education teacher who has been teaching at New Hartford Senior High for 34 years. He has a lot of valuable experience to share with students–some of our teachers and even parents have had Mr. Pope as their PE teacher. Mr. Pope believes that PE is important because most people do not get enough activity in their daily routines.
“ Most people take about 2000-3000 steps a day which is about half a half a mile. Movement/Activity is very important to our overall health and well being,” Mr. Pope said. “PE gives us a chance to introduce a number of activities in hopes that you will choose to live an active lifestyle.”
Mr. Pope’s top goals with PE class are to expose students to a wide range of physical activities, from team sports to lifetime activities. Hopefully, this will serve as an opportunity to enjoy and a desire to have more activity in their lives.
“It is important to take care of our health because we only have one life and one body so we should do our best to take care of it,” Mr. Pope said.“We work and /or go to school for a large portion of our day. Taking care of our bodies will not only allow us to do what we NEED to do, but also have enough energy/motivation to do the things we WANT to do in our spare time.”
Mr. Pope loves his job because he likes being able to work with young people to improve their lives.
“When I was deciding on whether or not to go into teaching, a teacher of mine said that ‘it keeps you young’. I always remembered that and it is true! It’s great to be around so much excitement, positivity and socialization all day long,” Mr. Pope said.
Mr. Pope also loves the activity of his job.
“ Although I don’t participate in all the activities, working this job gets me at least my basic activity levels,” Mr. Pope said. “I get at least 10,000 steps on most work days, and many days I am over 15,000 when you add in coaching. Not a lot of jobs can offer you that.”
Mr. Pope thinks we should increase our physical activity to keep us healthy throughout our lives.
“ I think we should all try to get more activity in our life for starters,” he said. “Activity makes our minds and body operate and feel better.”
Students should also pay attention to nutrition.
“ We should take a good look at what we eat,” Mr. Pope said. “We should try to eat things that are low fat, low sugar , non processed, and free of dyes and chemicals. Many companies are trying to addict us for life with processed foods. I believe that if you start with these two, you will start to feel better and in turn want to do more in terms of activity and eating better. It’s not about feeling bad or feeling shame about anything, it’s about your health and well being!”
Hopefully this article was able to show you the importance of a PE, taking care of yourself and health,foods to avoid, ways to stay active outside of school and work to live a happy healthy life that you will enjoy.
