Notes from Friday Night Club: Health and Wellness

Welcome to ELC Friday Night Club.  My wife and I currently lead Friday Night Club in Kiev and teach English at the English Language Center.

We created this website to cover some of the topics that we speak about during our Friday Night Clubs.  If you are interested in improving your English language skills, then Friday Night Club is a good place to speak with others and learn about a variety of topics.

Our most recent topic is about Health and Wellness.  Below are the class notes for this topic.

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Health and Wellness (March 20, 2015)

The act of being healthy has become very popular in the United States.  Many people are interested in improving their diet and exercising more.  The internet is part of the reason for this.  For example, there are many cooking websites on the internet as well as blogs about being healthy.  Yoga has also become very popular in the United States.  People want to take control of their own health so that they rely less on doctors and medicine.

Discussion Topics:

Have you noticed that people here in Ukraine are trying to be healthier as well?
What are some ways that you try to improve your health and stay healthy?

New Start: A Way To Improve Health

One type of health message in the United States is called “New Start” and it is an acronym for various ways of maintaining good health and improving one’s quality of life.  

Nutrition - Nutrition is about food and drink.  The things that we consume (put in our bodies).  For good health, we should take the time to think about what we eat.  Fruits and vegetables are the most beneficial things that we can eat.  Whole grains and legumes are also important.  Foods such as dairy (cheese and other milk products) and meat should be limited and can even be omitted completely for maximum health benefits.

Exercise - Exercising and using your body is very important.  It is good to walk, run, lift weights, and practice stretching and even yoga.  Those who exercise are far more healthy than those who live a sedentary lifestyle.  (Sedentary means sitting or not moving).

Water - Water is by far the best thing we can drink.  We should aim to drink 8 glasses of water a day.  This is around 2 liters.  

Sunlight - Spending time outside and getting sunlight is a good way to get vitamin D and stay healthy.  Sunlight is shown to improve mood and increase a person's happiness.  It is good to be outside and in nature.

Temperance - This means not eating and drinking things that are bad for you.  Things like sweet foods, cakes, and sugary drinks are best limited.  For the best health possible, alcohol should be avoided.  This is hard for many people, but has amazing results for those who follow it.

Air - Air should be clean and natural.  Getting fresh air is a great way to stay healthy.  Spending time outdoors and in parks and in the forest, or on a beach, is a very good way to get fresh air.

Rest - It is important to get around 8 hours a night, but not too little and not too much.  We take one day a week to rest, which we call the Sabbath, which is based on the teaching of the Bible.  During this day we do not take part in everyday life but enjoy nature and fellowship with friends and worship.  If you would like to read more about the Sabbath, visit Sabbathtruth.com.

Trust in God - Having a solid faith is important about life.  This helps alleviate stress and rids the mind of needless worry.  Prayer has been proven to help with healing and decreasing stress.  Even the act of reading the Bible has helped people take their mind off of life’s problems. 

Sources:

If you liked the topic of our study, please click the below links.  The second link shows a good video about living longer and groups of people around the world who live the longest.  The first link is about New Start and shows some videos about the topics that we discussed tonight.

New Start (with videos in English about the various topics)
Living Longer - National Geographic video on Longevity