Designing a System That Will Fit Your Life Nutrition and Fitness Designing a System That Will Fit Your Life

Introduction Since the mid-seventies, the prevalence of being overweight and obese in the American population has increased sharply for both adults and children*. The prevalence of obesity in 12-19 year olds has increased from 5% to 17.4% since the 1970’s*. Are we eating too much, becoming less active, or both? Statistics found on the CDC website. http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/childhood/index.htm

In order for us to understand what is going wrong, we need to figure out what we can do that is right. How can this epidemic be stopped? Is there anything you can do? The answer is YES! The path to change begins with you.

Task During this WebQuest you will discover the importance of good nutrition and an active lifestyle. Using various resources, you will take the information you learn about nutrition and fitness, and apply it to your life. You will be asked to complete the following assignments:

Create a menu that contains 3 nutritious meals a day for 7 days Create a menu that contains 3 nutritious meals a day for 7 days. The food choices in this menu must be explained and must meet the standards set forth by MyPyramid. Create an exercise plan and/or activity program for a month. The activities chosen must be justified and easily accomplished.

Process Before you begin the task of creating your menu and exercise plan you need to find out why it is important to eat healthy and exercise. Throughout this section you will be directed to several websites. You should view each site. However, it is not necessary to read the entire site. You need to make sure that you gather enough information to support your final menu and exercise plan.

Step One Print out the Nutrition Tracker and complete it prior to the next class. You may begin now and use the information from today, or wait and complete it tomorrow.

Step Two You will now visit the nurse and she will check your height and weight. Once you have this information you need to find your BMI. What does BMI mean? Explain whether you need to gain weight, lose weight, or if you are at a healthy weight.

Step Three Now that you know your BMI and what you eat on a typical day, you can evaluate your nutritional and fitness habits. Take a look at the following articles on choosing healthier foods. Recipe Tips-Breakfast Recipe Tips-Lunch and Dinner You can also get some great ideas on how to get active from the following article. Physical Activity for Everyone Using the information from your Nutritional Tracker and your BMI; complete a two paragraph summary of your current eating/exercise habits and what changes need to be made.

Step Four While you explore the new improved MyPyramid, you need to answer the following questions in your notes: What are the food groups designated in MyPyramid? Why are the bands wider at the bottom than at the top? What was added to the new pyramid? How many different pyramids are there now?

Step Five What role does fitness play in the new pyramid? Why is exercise important? Check out the following resources to answer that question. Staying Healthy Why is Exercise is wise

Step Six You are now going to organize your thoughts and ideas using an Word Document. Once you have completed this, save it.

Step Seven Now that you know what you should eat, you need to find new and different ways to add those items to your diet. During this step you will be creating your 7 day meal plan/menu. You may use the format provide, or design you own. The menu should include foods that can be easily incorporated into your diet. You must remember that dinners and/or weekend meals may have to be for your entire family. Take into consideration any dietary needs your family members may have.

Ideas In order to find recipes/food ideas to use in your plan, you may use the following resources: Family members Friends Cookbooks (at home or in the browse box) CDC Recipes Food & Nutrition Teen Health-Recipes On the Menu Zip4Tweens-Recipes The Recipe Roundup

Step Eight Look back, what is your BMI? Think about whether you need to gain, lose, or maintain your body weight. What activities do you already take part in? Is there anything you should change? Use the Activity Calculator to determine how many calories are burned during each of your activities.

Create your activity plan using the calendar provided. Your fitness plan activities should be developed with activities you will use. It is critical to explain the reasoning behind the fitness program selected and how it will help you reach and/or maintain a healthy BMI. Create your activity plan using the calendar provided. You must save the calendar in your own folder before you can design it to fit your lifestyle.

When You Finish…… Try Some of These Neat Nutrition and Fitness Games Body and Mind http://www.bam.gov/index.html Zip4Tweens-Games http://www.zip4tweens.com/games/games.html VERB-It’s what you do. http://www.verbnow.com/ Mission Nutrition http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/closet/games/mission_nutrition.html Nutrition Cafe http://www.exhibits.pacsci.org/nutrition/nutrition_cafe.html A World of Activities http://www.nutritionexplorations.org/kids/activities-main.asp SMART MOUTH http://www.cspinet.org/smartmouth/index1.html

Evaluation Tasks Poor 1 Fair 2 Good 3 Excellent 4 Score Nutritional Tracker Not complete Completed but disorganized Completed and organized, but still containing some mistakes Completed well-organized, easy to read, few or no mistakes Summary Unclear thoughts, no facts to support opinions Some facts to support opinions, but unclear Clear thoughts, facts to support opinions Clear thoughts, facts include pros and cons to support opinions Graphic Organizer None of the elements complete Few of the elements complete Many elements completed All elements completed Meal Plan Entries for 1-2 days, no facts to support food choices Entries for 3-4 days included, some facts to support food choices Entries for 5-6 days, clear information about food choices with some detail Entries for 7 days, contains detailed information about the food choices Activity Plan Contains one weeks of activities, very little information to support the choice Contains two weeks of activities, with some information to support the choice, with little detail, may not be clear Contains three weeks of activities, with clear, organized information to support the choices Contains four weeks of activities, with detailed, organized, and clear information to support the choices

Conclusion Congratulations! You have completed your Nutrition and Fitness WebQuest. Through your activities you have: Learned about proper nutrition and fitness Gained a better understanding of your eating and exercising habits Exhibited the ability to make changes if necessary