Personal Project Commented [1]: Acceptable for submission

The ultimate goal for this project is to achieve a healthy lifestyle for teens

Johnetta Sarkorh

North Mecklenburg High School 2016-2017

Carpano

Word Count: 2601

Table of Contents
Investigation and Planning.Pg. 1-2

Taking Action...Pg. 2-4

Reflecting.Pg. 4-7

Appendices..Pg. 8-11

Works Cited.Pg. 12

Investigation and Planning

 In modern society many teenagers think that living healthy does not apply to them at the

moment, that everything they eat can burn off, but is that true? As a High School student

beginning to step into the real world it is important to know the meaning of healthy living and

the start of living healthy is eating healthy. A healthy diet is the key to being fit. It is unlike any

diet. You will feel so pure, balanced, and alert. It even prevents many health issues. A healthy

diet is the basis for a well-functioning body. Food is the source of energy for all of our bodily

functions and directly affects how our bodies and minds function in every stage of life. Eating

healthy at any age is really important. It is important because health is always needed to live a

long life and whatever that is consumed while aging will affect you in the future. Adolescence is

a big time of growth for children and teenagers, both for physical and mental development.

Healthy eating is essential for teens because of their enhanced nutritional needs. In order for

teens to set their body up for success in the future they must be able to start healthy eating as a

part of their everyday life. Articles say that teenagers tend to focus on the short-term, immediate

results of their actions, there are long-term benefits of learning good nutrition habits, leading an

active lifestyle and having a healthy body image(Harris) (Appendix C).

During this journey of the project there was a goal applied to achieve a personal goal as

student to help many teenagers in guiding them into healthy eating. Eating healthy, being active,

and feeling good about yourself are the key ingredients to having a healthy lifestyle. As a teen it

was important to introduce these ideas to teenagers as to start doing these things as soon as

possible. In order for a person to be healthy and stay healthy, they have to exercise daily, eat the

right kinds of food, stay clean, and that person would be able to feel good about themselves in

the inside and outside. Self confidence starts from within. Being able to promote self confidence

to teens is most important while theyre in their transition stage because adolescence is the time
many teens start to doubt themselves in everything that they try to do. The ultimate goal was to

design the concept that teens should not worry about weight or how their appearance may look

because they already feel beautiful inside just by staying healthy. Without leading a healthy

lifestyle teens can run into many long-term problems that can hugely affect their lives. One of

the most common problems adults face is cardiovascular disease, or CVD. There are several

things you can do as a teenager to decrease your risk of CVD later in life. Research published in

the journal "Preventive Medicine," shows that a higher percentage of body fat during your early

teenage years may be an important indicator of how high your risk of cardiovascular disease will

be as an adult. The study also suggests that healthy lifestyle habits such as daily physical activity

during your teenage years indicated good adult health. Hence, a healthy lifestyle in your teenage

years is important for lifelong health(Harris) (Appendix B).

Healthy living is a very important topic that influenced what was planned and set out for

the project because as a teenager especially to a teenage female outside is very important to

young ladies and even when many females say that they do not care what people think of them

thats not true, all females care about what society thinks of them. As females were young it was

stored inside of their heads that they had to look a certain way to be accepted by the rest of

society. So when it comes to healthy living as a female and a young adult this project will

advocate for it for all teenagers to know that they can have positive self-esteem about

themselves. They can be able to do or achieve anything that comes into the their way without

having negative thoughts about themselves or the people around them. When a person is healthy,

that person would be able to do or achieve anything in his or her own way. As a teen it is

important to attain this mind set when stepping out into the world of your career. Healthy living

as a teen can determine what positive or negative decisions that you may make.
Taking Action

The product for this Personal Project is a handmade booklet with information and ways to

have a healthy lifestyle as a teen. Within the booklet there are recipes that can be used for

healthy eating and there are also exercises that can be done by teens in their everyday life to help

them feel positive about themselves and everything that they look forward to accomplishing. The

product criteria that was established was to be able to completely reflect what I was able to

accomplish throughout my project and also a booklet that I know will be able to help the teens

around me giving them a good, healthy long life filled with many great decisions. The visuals

that will be put into the presentation will be that of what the booklet includes recipes, health

information, exercises, and even motivational quotes that can be used by teens to encourage them

to attain a healthy lifestyle.

There were many things that inspired this project one being that as a High School student

I interact with other teens. I know what most of them eat and how they move and their day to day

life and what I have noticed is that many of the choices that my peers make are not good healthy

decisions. As a teen I know that exercising and healthy eating are needed to improve us as

people. Rejecting to take care of these responsibilities can harm our bodies not only physically

but mentally. To me as a young adult eating healthy and working out are extremely important to

me because it gives me drive, keeps me motivated, and brings me happiness. Being able to take

care of our bodies can provide us with a higher self-confidence because we enjoy the way we

look and are proud of what one accomplished. I know that taking care of yourself provides an air

of confidence, which makes you more likely to succeed in the workforce and in relationships. I

also know that as a teen refusing to pursue a healthy lifestyle can put you in a bad mood because

of reflections on our body images and the sluggish gross feeling from not eating well or
exercising. From personal experience, when I dont exercise or eat healthy I feel self-conscious

about my figure and lose that confidence about myself that was once there. Physical Education

and Health was able to encourage me into doing this project to furthermore educate teens on a

healthy living and how they should continue this lifestyle throughout their lives to achieve a

good way of life.

In order to achieve making my product I had to execute several steps to make sure my

product was able to come to life. First and foremost I had to get the basic research information of

my topic. Knowing what I was doing was key to being able to know overall what I was doing.

Second I had to put all of my information together, both my prior knowledge and the knowledge

I attain during research. Third I had to figure out the design of my booklet of information for

healthy living for teens. After figuring out the cover and templet for my booklet (Appendix A), I

had to organize all of the information that was going into the booklet. Then I started putting the

booklet together. First I had to cut out squares of copy paper the same length and width

(Appendix A). Then I had to punch three holes and thread them together. After threading them

together I had to glue both the front and back covers to the papers creating the booklet

(Appendix A). Once done with the actually booklet I had to fill it with the information that I

found and also the testimonies of my peers who tried the healthy lifestyle and had great results

while doing it. One of the testimonies said I had a great experience trying the healthy lifestyle.

I believe that Johnetta influencing me to get into a healthy living has enabled me to have a

different outlook on how I make decisions health wise (Jaida Rorie). Having this information on

the results of healthy living was valuable to project and I used it to incorporate it into my

research.

Reflecting
 In order to complete my project I had to know what was meant by the word healthy

which is having or indicating good health in your body or mind. Being healthy is everything

dealing with you in body and mind. In body, the person could be strong and healthy. In mind, the

person has a feeling of goodness and achievement towards themselves. When a person is healthy,

that person would be able to do or achieve anything in his or her own way. Being able to find the

information necessary for my project was simple. I had to research the topic of teens and healthy

living and gather much information from many websites and testimonies from teens.

The design of my product was very well put together. In the make of the of the product I

put much time into creating it and making sure it clearly reflected my goal that I set out to

accomplish. Hand making my booklet was able to showcase the other skills I was able to acquire

while researching on another topic. My product took a good amount of time in construction and

in the time it was thought of. I cam across some obstacles and some success while in the process

of this project one success being that I was effectively able to get feedback from teens on how

healthy living changed their lives. Another success was that I was victoriously able to create a

book guide for teens to use for a healthy lifestyle. Having these success was able to mask all of

the challenges that I went through with this project. One challenge was that I had to change three

times how my product was executed making it difficult to come out with a final product. I was

able to overcome this challenge by finally carrying out a good design for my booklet in a great

amount of time and having my product to show for it.

All in all the only way for product to be successful I have to use it to achieve my overall

message of teen health. Making the booklet is easy but getting all teens to use it is the hard part.

When it comes to health most teenagers take the information given to them in one ear and throw

it out he other.
 The overall reason for this product is to get the message out there to help teenagers in

their present lifestyle and in their future lifestyle. The Booklet of a Healthy Teen Guide can

show teens the steps to take of how to live their lives healthier and can also determine how they

go on throughout their day to day lives. My plan on getting the word out there was to at least

influence one person because having such a great impact on one person can influence others to

follow the trend, advertisement by mouth through teens is one of the best ways to go. Another

way I will promote my booklet that supports healthy teen living is through social media. On

social media there are a lot of trends that just under a second million people can decide to start

following. On Instagram there are a lot of post that many see with the caption of body goals,

well while advocating for healthy teen living I plan on taking the term of body goals to another

level. In an Australian study, published in the "Journal of Youth and Adolescence," teenage boys

and girls were shown to have different ideas about weight loss and body image; girls favored

weight loss and boys favored weight gain. These ideas might stem from unrealistic media

images, athletic ideals or a lack of health knowledge (Harris). I do not want teens to just focus on

the physical level of being healthy, I want teens to also acquire the mental level of a healthy

lifestyle which affects how you think about yourself and other people around you in your

environment.

The interaction that my project was able to go in depth to was Identities and

Relationships which can be described as: being able to explore the beliefs and values; identity;

personal, physical, mental, spiritual and social health; human relationships including families,

friends, communities and cultures; what it means to be human. This global context best described

what my project was set out to achieve. In this project the main focus within this global context

was personal, physical, mental, social and spiritual health and how I could teach teens to achieve
it by having a healthy lifestyle. These five parts of health is what helps a teen achieve healthy

living.

As a learner I have grown in regards to the IB profiles. In the process of the project I was

able to further enhance some of my IB profile skills that will help me furthermore in life. One of

the skills I was able to build upon was being knowledgeable in which I was able to develop and

use my conceptual understanding of things and explore knowledge across a range of disciplines.

I was able to engage with issues, think and engage in ideas that have a local and global impact.

The issue of teen health was something that I wanted to look upon and after all of this research I

have learned good reasons why I should start healthy living as a teen. When we eat healthy, we

will physically feel good. Mentally we will have more energy to do the things that matter. When

we are both globally conscious and personally healthy in our eating choices, we are contribute to

the overall goodness of our planet. Eating healthy as a teen, is not about losing your ability to

enjoy indulgences. It is a big matter of gaining so many things that will affect you for the rest of

your life.
 Appendix A

Please Refer to pictures shown in folder.

 Appendix B

The number one leading cause of death in the United States is a heart disease
 Appendix C

Starting a healthy living can cause dramatic changes that help you later on in life

Works Cited
Harris, Nadia. Why is a healthy lifestyle important for teenagers. The Nest. n.d. Web. 29

December 2016. <http://woman.thenest.com/healthy-lifestyle-important-teenagers-

3043.html>

Zehr, Michelle. A healthy lifestyle for teens. Leaf Group. Livestrong. 04 July 2015. Web. 02

January 2017. <http://www.livestrong.com/article/377585-a-healthy-lifestyle-for-teens/>

Zant, John. Healthy teen living. Santa Barbara independent, inc. Independent. 19 January

2011. Web. 20 December 2016. <http://www.independent.com/news/2011/jan/19/healthy-

teen-living/>

Brown, Delainey. Healthy teen living. The Growl. Medium. 10 October 2016. Web. 04

January 2017. <https://medium.com/thegrowl/healthy-teen-living-

f1c6c3c125ef#.6nkv1ucwu>

Rorie, Jaida. Healthy Teen Guide. cited from booklet. 29 December 2016. Booklet. 05

January 2017.