Reflection: Week 9 and 10

Week 9

During week 9 we discussed what advocacy was. We did a fun activity to understand it better. There were three groups, each had a topic relating to advocacy. My group did a short skit on what advocacy is/opposed to what is is not. I learned that helping people just out of the goodness of your heart is not advocacy but something such as standing in front of a bulldozer trying to stop it from destroying a house is advocacy.  After the activity we went over our healthy people/THOMAS  Advocacy project. I achieved my SMART goal for week 9 and was proud of myself for not giving in to drinking pop.

Week 10

This week I did pretty well with my SMART goal but I started to become more "sluggish". I decided I need to get back on track and eat healthy foods again. During class we watched the movie, "Unnatural Causes". I thought this was a very interesting movie. The movie talked about how health can be affected by your income. People living in nice neighborhoods have a higher life expectancy. The movie also talked about stress. I realized that an owner of a company may be stressed, but a janitor is more likely to be more stressed because there are other factors that go along with having a low budget.  People with low incomes may be stressed when it comes to their job,but even worse, they are stressed because they are not making enough money to support their families. An owner of a company can take a vacation to relax but for people with very low paying jobs that is the last thing they can afford to do. The stress of not being able to support your fanily and work all the time can cause high blood pressure. I thought this was a huge eye opener and would definitely recommend this video.