Start a Blog

So as you may know, or maybe you don't know, I started this blog for a language arts class. At first, I'll be honest; I wasn't very excited about it. The thought of having to write three blogs a week seemed unbearable when I could be outside or taking a nap or watching Netflix. But throughout this year I have learned a lot through blogging that I wouldn't have learned through any other way.

1. I learned how to create my own writing style. I can write the way I want, sometimes the way that I would talk in a real conversation and sometimes not. I use sarcasm because I am one of the most sarcastic people you will probably ever meet and I try to use puns if I happen to be feeling creative and genius that day. The point is, I can write however I feel like writing.

2. I learned about fitness. I know it may be a shock to you but I don't know everything there is to know about fitness. At the beginning of this year I actually knew close to nothing about fitness, other than the knowledge that I acquired through my own experiences or track and cross country. But as much as I dislike school a lot of the time, I actually love learning new things. So this was great.

3. I also motivated myself. Sometimes my blog posts that were meant to motivate others motivated myself as well. I started practicing what I preached and it really helped me as a runner. Because running is such a mental game, writing about it made me realize that I had never actually been trained in that area of fitness. I never learned how to be mentally tough. However through different blog posts and research, I really learned what mental toughness is all about. As my AP Psychology teacher would say, it's "doing your best when it matters most."

I never thought that starting a blog would be something that I would enjoy but it turned out that it advanced me both academically and physically. So what's the point here? Don't just read blogs, start a blog. You have no idea what it can do for you. It can change you as a person in the weirdest ways that you would never expect, and that's a pretty cool thing.

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The End is Near

Sadly, all great things have to come to an end. Well this year's track season wasn't really what I would call great but it still has to come to an end too, and that end is coming this week. So you probably can't tell, but I'm not exactly in love with running (honestly I don't know how anyone could be), it is just something to keep me active and it gives me something to do.
When this track season started, I'm going to be honest; I wasn't very excited for it. I honestly couldn't wait for it to end. But even with all of the struggles I faced during the season, I believe that it wasn't a total waste of my time, because I came out a better person in the end.
One of the greatest struggles I faced this season was the high expectations from my coach. A few years ago my coach had really good track and cross country teams so the last couple of years have been rough on him, considering the team he has now doesn't quite measure up to that team from years before. We all work hard and do our best during practices and meets, but it never seems good enough because he is still comparing us to those runners from 2013. It has been a lot to handle, but ultimately, it encouraged me to try that much harder and it made me a better runner. I still don't believe that our team became as good as he was hoping, but the high expectations he placed on us definitely made us all better runners, and better people in the long-run (no pun intended).
The other thing that caused this track season to be more difficult and drag on longer than usual was the injury of one of my good friends. My running buddy that I have always stuck with in the past had a hip injury early in the season, causing her to be out for the majority of the season. Without her to talk to on long-runs and complain to on fast runs, the season seemed to drag on forever. However, I did become closer with other girls on the track team because of this, so even though I was upset about my friend's injury, it ended up to be not such a bad thing for myself after all.
So even though I faced many struggles this track season, and it was more difficult than usual to push through, I am sad to say that after this week it is over. I will miss my coach's lectures that just pushed me harder and the new friends that I made along the journey. You guys are great. I'm gonna miss it.

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Love Your Differences

So this weekend was prom weekend. Although, because our prom is a senior prom instead of junior-senior, I was not lucky enough to be able to go. However I did see plenty of pictures of all of the different dresses, hairstyles, and shoes. Well, that got me thinking, just like everyone at prom had a different dress, everyone also has a different body type. And just as we compliment other's dresses while still liking our own, we should do the same thing with our bodies.
Girls (and boys) grow up in a society centered around image. We are taught that there is only one body type that matters. Seeing Victoria's Secret models and other clothing models, as well as many of the figures seen on television shows and in movies, we begin to believe that there is only one body type that is acceptable, which is so incredibly wrong. Just as we accept others' hairstyles and dresses to be beautiful because everyone's is different, we should see our body types as beautiful and unique.
Now the truth is that you will probably see someone's dress and like it better than yours, or maybe you like their hairstyle better than the one you spent 2 hours on. That is going to happen. And that is going to happen with your body too. There is always going to be someone with skinnier legs, a flatter stomach, bigger boobs or a bigger butt, there is always going to be someone that you think is prettier than you. But that shouldn't mean that you don't love yourself. So you see a girl that has a beautiful dress on, does that make you love your dress any less? It shouldn't. Just like seeing someone that you believe is prettier than you shouldn't make you love yourself any less.
This is just something to keep in mind every day. I know that I am not the greatest person for giving advice like this because just like every other teenage girl out there, I struggle with my body image too. But it is something that I am working on, and just because someone may be better than you in one way or another, just know that you will always have something else that they don't have. You may not know what it is but you have to believe that it's there.
Now you may believe that this post wasn't about health or fitness. But loving yourself is a part of mental health. And you know what they say, healthy mind, healthy body. So therefore I believe that is was about both.

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Our Health. Our Decision.

How much say should the government have in what we eat? Recently, this has been a highly controversial subject. Well, you may disagree, and I am okay with that, but I firmly believe that the government should have no control whatsoever about what we eat.
As humans, we are naturally very intelligent (well that's what I choose to believe anyway). Generally, we know what is healthy for us and what is not so good. If we choose to eat something that isn't that great for us, then that should be our decision as a free American to make. Controlling the size of drink restaurants are allowed to sell or how many fast food restaurants a community is allowed to have is taking it way too far. We are fully capable of deciding what to eat on our own.
Also, who is it hurting if we want to eat McDonald's for every meal of every day until we die of it? That's right, ourselves. Not the government or community. In the end, what we decide to eat is only hurting or helping ourselves, not anybody else. Which is why I believe that it should be up to us. We choose what we eat, we have to deal with the consequences of our choices. That is the way that it should be. How else do you learn to take care of yourself?
Another reason that I believe that it isn't right to control what we eat is because it would be unfair to businesses. Limiting what fast food businesses can sell, or limiting the amount of fast food restaurants in a community is unfair to Americans. We should have the freedom to go into whatever business we want and sell whatever we want. It isn't right for the government to limit business.
Lastly, it doesn't matter if the government tries to limit fast food restaurants and certain foods, if an individual wants to eat food that isn't healthy for them, then they will find another place to do it. If someone really wants to eat McDonald's then they are going to find a McDonald's. Whether it is one mile away or 10 miles away. Trying to limit the unhealthy food isn't going make us any healthier unless we choose to be healthier.
Ultimately, our health should be our choice. The decisions we make concerning what we make only affects ourselves, and therefore we should be the only ones to decide what we do and don't eat.

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Skinny Can Mean Fit, But it Doesn't Always

Something that has been on my mind recently is one of the major problems that we are dealing with in America right now, and that's our health. We have been taught from a young age that skinnier is better and that the skinnier you are, the healthier you are. However this is not true at all. We need to take steps to solve these issues by encouraging a healthier lifestyle for Americans, instead of a skinnier lifestyle. This starts in the education system.
I think one of the main issues is that children aren't educated about this enough in school. They learn that exercise and fruits and veggies are good for them, but that's all. They need to be taught that their health depends on a balance of so many factors. They should learn that if you don't like exercise, then you don't have to do it every day as long as you watch what you eat closely. Or vice versa, if they don't like watching their calories, then they should be getting a good amount of exercise every day. That also doesn't mean however, that if you exercise everyday then you can eat whatever you want whenever you want, it just means that you have more freedom in what you eat. Your health involves a balance.
Another thing that they should be taught is that part of that balance is genetic, but skinny doesn't always mean healthy. Some people are more prone to obesity, and some people are just naturally skinny. However, don't get that confused with some people are naturally healthy, because that is not the case at all. Often, weight and health correlate, but sometimes they do not. You could be a size 0, but if all you eat is junk food and you never work out, then you are not living a healthy lifestyle. On the other hand, if you are a size 6 or 8 and you eat healthy and workout regularly, then you should be happy with your body and accept that that is your healthy size.
Our education system needs to teach all of this to children. Health isn't just eating healthy or just getting exercise, it is a combination of both, and that is where people often go wrong. Just keep in mind that if you are eating healthy and you get regular exercise then you are good to go, don't worry about your weight.

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Clean Water, Healthy Life

Much of our tap water is contaminated by harmful chemicals, though the government claims that there is an "acceptable" amount. Can there really be an acceptable amount of toxins? Toxins are toxins. And if the water we drink from the tap is harmful to us, and drinking out of plastic bottles is harmful to the environment, then what are we supposed to do? I believe that our tap water is indeed harmful but that we shouldn't resort to drinking out of non-reusable water bottles. Instead, we should invest in a water purifier, that will clean our tap water for us, to keep both us and the environment healthy.
There are requirements set by the government that our drinking water has to meet, however I don't believe that they are strict enough. Water can only have a certain amount of toxins in it, when I believe that there should be none. I know that with pollution, it is near impossible to get our drinking water completely clear of chemicals, I get that. However then, I think it should be the government's job to clean our water. Houses should be supplied with water purifiers, we should not have to provide them for ourselves.

Ozone Purification System

Though I wish that the government took more responsibility for keeping our water clean, this is not the case. So for now, we need to take responsibility for getting the cleanest water possible. While drinking out of plastic bottles seems the most practical and easiest way to solve this problem, we need to take into account the environment. The cost it takes to make the plastic and all of the extra waste we would be creating with the extra bottles, this does not seem like the greatest idea for our environment. I suggest a purifier. Either one that you can fill and store in your fridge (like I have), or one that attaches to your faucet directly such as the Ozone Boy Water Purification System. These systems may seems pricey right now, but they will pay off in the long run, and they will be healthier for you and the environment,
So I challenge you to take the step to a healthier life with a water purifier, and to look out for the environment by not drinking out of plastic bottles.

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Is Cheerleading a Sport? (part 2)

So if you've been keeping up with my blog, which you probably haven't been, I recently wrote a post about whether or not I thought cheerleading was a sport. Well I only touched on the fact that I didn't believe that sideline cheerleading was a sport because it doesn't compete. However, I didn't get the chance to say that I strongly believe that competition cheerleading IS a sport. Please don't try to fight me on this one, I have done competition cheerleading before, so I know what it's like.
There are so many reasons why I believe that competition cheer is a sport, but let's just start with the time commitment. Competition cheer, depending on how extreme, can have 3-4 practiced a week, for 2-3 hours each. Also, on days you don't have practice there is open gym, which means a couple of hours working on stunts and tumbling. Then, when competition season starts, you spend the entire weekend at the competition. It's safe to say that these cheerleaders spend equal or more time training then every other sport.
Reason number 3 is that the skill and endurance it takes to be a competition cheerleader is intense. You have to work at it to be good, and it isn't an easy road to success. Tumbling and stunting and the dance component all take a great deal of training, you aren't just born with that kind of skill. You have to be in extremely fit to be able to tumble and do the tricks that these people do. Also, when stunting, the bases (people on the bottom of the stunt) have to have a great deal of muscle to hold a girl in the air for as long as they do and to throw and catch their flyers. Now the girl on top may seem like she has the easy job, but she too has to have a great deal of muscle and flexibility to hold her poses and keep her balance. Lastly, it takes a great amount of endurance to get through a 4 or 5 minute routine, of dancing, tumbling, and lifting/throwing people. I am a long distance runner and I remember breathing hard after my routine.
My last point is that they compete, and the judging isn't subjective. They are judged on the difficulty of their stunts and tumbling as well as the amount of facials they express. Competing is the part that really makes competition cheer a sport.
I also believe that school cheer squads that compete are considered a sport. Sideline cheer alone is not a sport, but competition cheer or competition cheer combined with sideline cheer should definitely be known and thought of as a sport.

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