Health Goal 1

Final Project: Discovering An Application For My Health Goal

California State University Channel Islands

Health 302: Introduction To Healthcare Informatics

Spring 2020
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Final Project: Discovering An Application For My Health Goal

Ever since I was in Elementary I never really cared what people thought about me. Once

I entered Middle School, it was a whole nother level of caring. I realized that young teenagers

cared so much about their physical appearance to the point where they would eat “healthy”. For

them eating healthy was not eating at all in order to get the body that they wanted. Eventually, it

got to me and I too had problems loving myself. I was always insecure about my body because

as a teenager I was too skinny. This insecurity followed me up until high school and I would try

to do anything to gain weight, but nothing worked. It was not until my senior year in highschool

when all of a sudden I gained weight, but somehow the weight made me feel insecure. That

insecurity was different from my past insecurity. My insecurity this time was the way my body

drastically changed, it was how fast it happened that I did not have time to process and love my

new body. That new unsureness now had to follow me up to college just like the previous, but

for this one I made sure not to affect me and my academics like it did in high school.

In my first year in college, I learned how to cope with my insecurities and learn from my

past experiences. I started to work on my body and my mindset because I had to do something

about my internal and external problems. My first year was a huge eye opener because I realized

that I not only needed to work on the way I viewed myself but I also realized that the way I was

handling my insecurities was not right. In order to lose weight I would find any excuse not to eat,

for example, I had classes from morning until night and that was an excuse for myself not to eat.

It took me a while to realize that what I called a “good technique” was a mistake and that “good

technique” was very unhealthy for myself. It was not only affecting my well being but it was

affecting my academics. That summer, I started practicing good techniques such as eating
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healthy and working out. Eating healthy and working out has made me feel great about myself

and seeing results from that physically is even better.

Many people want to be healthy mentally and physically, but often not many of them

know how to begin. When choosing a mobile health application I wanted the application to

benefit my main goal, which is to become a healthier person, mentally and physically. I wanted

to improve my habits and since I was already eating somewhat healthy and going to the gym I

thought about an application where I can track my daily diet. I chose MyFitnessPal because not

only is it free but it tracks my exercise and diet. After using this app for a month I learned that

you can also input the amount of water that you drink. It also counts the amount of steps that you

walk in a day which I found fascinating and you can also connect a step tracker to MyFitnessPal.

For example, if I had an apple watch that counted my daily steps I would be able to connect it to

the app. I would strongly recommend this application to someone that is willing to put the time

and effort into tracking their dietary, exercise and water intake.

MyFitnessPal has opened up new habits for myself. Using this app was a huge eye opener

because I was not aware of the amount of water I was drinking in a day. According to Mayo

Clinic, the amount of fluid intake that women have to take is 2.7 liters which is 11.5 cups a day

(Mayo Clinic n.d). I was only consuming about 5 cups a day and after I found out the amount of

water I had to consume I started to make it a goal for myself to drink at least 21 oz bottle of

water three times a day. Logging the amount of water and my diet was fairly accessible, it only

took a couple seconds from my time to log everything that I have consumed. Logging my

exercise the first time took a while because I had to search the different workouts that I was
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doing a day but after time the app had saved my workouts and the amount of time that I was

working out making it easy to log them.

Using MyFitnessPal made me change some eating habits that I had, making it easy to

become healthier as a person. Thanks to tracking the amount of food I was eating, I learned alot

about my diet and since MyFitnessPal breaks everything that I was intaking, from macros,

nutrients to calories, it made it easier to change the way I ate. I was eating foods that had no iron,

which did not surprise me since I had low iron deficiency since I was 5 years old. I decided to eat

more foods that had iron, for example lentils which are high in nutrients. I am now at average

when it comes to iron, and I would like to continue to eat more foods that are high in iron.

Another thing I learned about my diet was the amount of calcium I was intaking which is good

because it helps bones and teeth stay strong as you age. According to HelpGuide, obtaining

enough calcium in the diet is important not only for children and teens but also important for

young adults since the building bone mass continues up to the mid 20s (HelpGuide 2020).

When it comes to MyFitnessPal, I would contemplate continuing using this app because

it has changed my eating habits and opened my eyes to the amount of water that I am drinking. I

never really used an app where I have to track my diet and water intake, but I have really enjoyed

doing it. What I really like about this app is that I get the chance to see exactly what I eat in a

day. I like that this app breaks down everything that I eat and lets me know the amount of

vitamins, proteins and fats that I am consuming. I also like that this app provides me with

workout videos in case I want to try a new workout. The only thing that I did not like about this

app is that I can not go back to the previous day to logg what I ate, that is something that I would

change about this app because sometimes I find myself busy and forget to log what I ate in a day,
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therefore going back to the day and logging it would be easier and beneficial as my results would

be accurate. Other than that it is a great app and I will continue using it for my own health and

well-being. It takes a strong woman to change their dietary journey and I know I can be a strong

woman. I need to continue learning how to love my body the way that it is and understand that

bodies change overtime.

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References

Calcium and Bone Health. (2020, February 16). Retrieved from

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/calcium-and-bone-health.htm

Free Calorie Counter, Diet & Exercise Journal. (n.d.). Retrieved May 06, 2020, from

https://www.myfitnesspal.com/welcome/learn_more

Water: How much should you drink every day? (2017, September 06). Retrieved from

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/water/

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