Welcome to OurHealth Blog

OurHealth Blog is an exciting forum for expressing ideas, feelings, and reactions to things that affect our health. As a community, this exchange can be exciting, enlightening, and refreshing. For those who are new to blogging, kind of like me, don't be intimidated. It's kind of like writing in a diary when you were younger. Or, a journal, if you're all grown and sexy now. And, commenting is similar to when you're watching your guilty pleasure talk show or reality show and you have your own 2 cents that you want to contribute. Well, go for it! Just have have fun with it. It's healthy like an apple a day thing.

Consider A Food Journal?

So my co-workers and I started reading this book called Simple Steps. Each week, the book provides simple steps to achieving life's biggest little challenges, like drinking 8 glasses of water a day, walking 20 minutes, organizing your closet, daily planning, etc. Today, I read it and it talked about how we should journal what we eat for a lot of reasons: (1) we'll only eat when we're hungry, (2) we'll know what foods make us feel certain ways, (3) we'll know what moods make us want to eat certain foods, (4) we may actually change our eating habits. This just seems so logical and reasonable, I think I'll do it. At least starting Wednesday because my mind will be focused on school tomorrow and then I'll report back next week and let you guys know how it went. You should try it, too. Just keep a little notepad on you, so you can keep track of everything, including those 1 Oreo you ate before bed, or those 20 gold fish you ate while waiting for your clothes to dry, or the carrots you ate while reading your favorite book, or the Starbucks you drank while on your way to work. Whatever it is, I'll be curious to know how it changed your thinking and I'll let you know what it did to mine. Who has time to journal? I know. After all, you barely had time to read my blog, but hey you'll never know unless you never try.

Ads, Ads, and More Ads

With the new year here and January almost out, many resolutions are in process. But, it seems like this year, advertising is giving it their all to make sure these resolutions last. Especially, the resolutions that include getting in shape, losing weight, and feeling great. I don't know if it's just me (because I'd like to lose a few pounds), but I'm noticing all of the advertisements in the market for physical activity and eating healthy these days.
For example, commercials are filled with ads from gyms like Bally's and 24 Hour Fitness. They advertise membership at reduced costs for a limited time only, so act now. Yesterday, I received a coupon in the mail inviting me to the gym for 1 month on them or I could bring a guest if I am already a member of the club. This past weekend, I was driving and a Macy's commercial advertised a 3-day sale. I turned the radio up a little to catch the details and their sale that weekend was on work out clothes. I never thought of Macy's as the place to get my work out gear. But, hey, they probably didn't either, but now they're obviously on to something. And, I can’t forget Subway. The infamous Jared is still making the big bucks this year off of his endorsements. This month, Subway is advertising the black forest ham sandwich with apples and water. If you get the 6 inch sandwich, it's low in grams of fat, and only $2.99. It seems like this year, no stone is being left unturned by the advertising agencies. But, all of these ads reinforce the idea of how we are surrounded by health communication day in and day out.
It seems like the cultural transmission this year includes the never ending battle to lose weight and getting or staying physically active. While the CDC's 50 years video did touch on many health topics, they didn't touch much on exercise or weight loss. But, as someone blogged earlier, obesity will be one of the challenges society will face over the next 50 years. As public health students, one of goals should be to communicate the issues to the masses on any platform available and mobilize the community towards a better tomorrow – okay maybe I’m on political debate overload. But, advertising agencies are doing a great job selling a product and entertaining us for the most part. The fitness industry appreciates it as their profits have increased ten fold thanks to the news and advertisements. (I'll provide a dollar figure on that.) Nevertheless, health communication is a way people can access messages and gain knowledge that can empower them to make informed decisions about their health, wellbeing, mind, body, and lifestyle.
As Bandura theorizes, environment and personal factors affect change and I think the power of health communication empowers people with some degree of self-efficacy just through knowledge and examples alone. "Like hey, if they can do it, I know what I need to get it done now, and I can do it to" type of attitude. So, whether it was in class with the CDC video, on TV, or on the radio, it's evident that health communication is that flowing river, constantly changing, and reaching new people in new ways everyday. I mean just think about how we can apply health communication to the web…but that's a whole other blog. :) Stay tuned and I'll see you next week.