With spring finally upon us it means that fruit and veggies are in season and it’s safe to exercise outside. With that in mind, Amanda Larrabee, Dylan Bouchard and David McDermott presented at University Day about the importance of being healthy and how to get started in this new season.
Amanda Larrabee started by discussing the importance of mental health. Being healthy mentally is good for you all around, the audience learned. Larrabee discussed the negative effects that stress can have on a person, including anxiety attacks, headaches, lower sex drive and insomnia. She also stressed the importance of sleep and how a lack of sleep is linked to depression and obesity. Some great tips on how to get good sleep and lower your stress levels followed. Yoga, aromatherapy and meditation are all great ways to calm down and get good sleep. “To better yourself you have to look inward… look at those negativities and make them positives,” Larrabee said to anyone trying to become more mentally healthy.
Bouchard then began speaking about nutrition. He had visuals set up so that the audience could see how much sugar is in everyday foods. He had a bag of how much sugar was in the product next to the actual product. He gave a description on how to properly read food labels and explained how certain foods kept us fuller more quickly by putting different types of bread in bowls of orange juice to see which “digested” the most quickly. “Roughly 70 percent of Americans are obese… All these illnesses plague the country and can be fixed with diet,” he said, encouraging people to eat healthily. He explained that people should be eating nutrient dense meals, not calorie dense ones.
David McDermott wrapped up by talking about fitness, hitting key points such as when you’re doing cardio be sure to be diverse with your speeds. He also spoke about making sure you gradually ease yourself back into exercising after the long winter. He made sure to tell the audience how mental health, nutrition and fitness all work together to keep you healthy. Audience member Alex Kimball, a biology major here at UMPI, enjoyed the presentation. “I felt that the presentation was very informative and down to earth. It was fun and interactive,” Kimball said.
Hopefully these three presenters encouraged their audience to make healthier choices: to better their mental health, diet and physical activity this spring. It may be hard to break old unhealthy habits, but there are huge benefits. All three presenters gave some excellent advice that could be worth trying out.
