Maria Gabriella Violo
SYG 2000
March 28, 2014

Healthy Lifestyle

Nowadays, people are adapting lifestyles that other have only because it is trendy or because everyone around them behave that way. In my opinion, a person’s life style should be a decision the person takes by his or her own good. In fact, this is why I have chosen to change my lifestyle into a healthier one. It is going to be a hard challenge since now I smoke, do not do a lot of exercise, and eat unhealthy almost every day because I don’t have the time to cook at home. Therefore, I want to lose weight, and have a healthier life style because it is causing me health issues.

03/02/14
Today I went with my neighbor for a run to a park near home to start with my lifestyle change. At first I did feel so great because I had difficulty breathing and did not expect it to be such a hard work to keep up with her. That day, I ran a total of miles and I felt exhausted. I cooked, then, I went to my classes as I usually do, and what I noticed to be different that day was that my mood had changed after that run at the park. I was feeling happier with myself and also motivated with school. At first I thought it was just the run, but later on I realized that it also could be because of the social interaction I had that morning with my neighbor. In fact, cooperation, a type of social interaction where people act together to achieve something, came to my mind. At the end of the day, I was hoping the next day I would felt even better.

03/11/14 Today, I went to the gym. It has been almost two weeks since I have stopped smoking. I have gotten more friends who to run with, and I have been able to cook more than before because I am managing my time better thanks to a continuing socialization with a group of people who are reciprocates from one to another. They always care about me and encourage me to keep going to workout with them, so I can support others later.

03/15/14 I was not feeling good today. In fact, I felt really tired and I did not want to go running. However, the girls from the running group I mentioned before, where we have a matriarchy because us, women, are predominantly more women than men; therefore we make all the decisions, came to my house and took me to go running with them. Later when we were running I noticed that it was a great sunny day and it immediately changed my mind. Their positive informal sanctions also influence my mood that day. Every time I slowed my pace, they would look at me and smile, which always told me: “come on, you can do it”.

03/18/14
Do family reject me or tease in making this lifestyle change? If they do, how do I feel about this? What are their motivations?
My encouragement to continue with my life style change has been getting stronger. Today, I receive a call from my mom. She is so happy I am exercising and eating better everyday. She has been very supportive lately, which makes me have more strength to stay focus. In fact, her main reason to motivate me is to see me happier everyday with the person I have become because I have grown as a person and my asthma problems have improved. She also punished me for smoking, a violation on my religion as well as getting drunk, since she did not know until know and my response to it was just to blame my friends and make excuses, which goes alone with the neutralization theory discussed in class where violators learn to neutralize values and attitudes.

03/21/14 Lately, I have been taking pictures to compare the change of my body and attitudes towards myself. I have been comparing the pictures and I noticed a huge change on my appearance; I started to look happier, rested, and the most important one, healthier. I feel I can fit better with friends from my native country, Venezuela, where almost everyone is getting fit because of cultural trends there. I feel I can socialize better with them. Also, the media has been part of that motivation. I have listen to commercials and