The Starting Week

The beginning of always the hardest!! I am so sorry to say that I failed in my mission!! T__T
It is so sad to say that I only jogged for 10 minutes per week. =(

I was so exhausted after the running. Even though I only have a little bit sweat=="

 It is really very exhausting and my heart was so pain>.<

Then, I did not combine the physiotherapy with jogging. After I ran for 10 minutes, I have already given up and get back to my room. After that, NOTHING!!>_<
Although I only ran for 10 minutes, but I was so exhausted for the whole day. I felt breathless for quite long. Thus, I failed to combine my physiotherapy with jogging.
Between, initially I planned to exercise twice a week but I failed to do so.=(

This is because I'm suffering with my assignments. Not to say I want to procrastinate but I really do not know why I always used lots of times to finish a little thing.
Everyday when I came back from class, I will tell myself I need to exercise later.
However, I will end up with reading the journals for the whole day but come out with nothing for my assignment or addicted in facebook. =(
Although I failed for my first week, I also won't give up!
Hope I can achieve my goal for this week and meet my commitments in the behavior change's contract !
GOOD LUCK TO MYSELF!Fighting!!=D

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My resting pulse rate: 78 per minutes
Pulse rate after up and down exercise using staircase: 177 per minutes
I switch off my light on 12.45 a.m.
I used quite lots of time to fall asleep and I felt tired on this week too=(

Baseline observation~~

This Thursday, I was exercising with my housemates as I want to do my baseline observation after I did the physiotherapy for around 10 minutes=D
She keeps laughing at me after she knew I want to use pulse rate measurement to measure my improvement.
But she also follows what I do as she also wants to strengthen her body plus keep fit. =P
(sorry to tell your secret here ;D)
We count our resting pulse rate at the hostel before we go out, my resting pulse rate was 80 per minutes.
Then, we go out for jogging ;D
Honestly I jog for only a few minutes because I felt exhausted after running. >_<
After that, I rest for a while and go to the staircase to do the up and down exercise to measure my pulse rate after exercise.
My pulse rate after exercise is 172.
After two days, which are today, I continue with my baseline observation again
The result is quite similar~
Pulse rate before exercise: 80 per minutes (which are the same as last time)
Pulse rate after exercise: 168 per minutes (can I count this as an improvement??>_<)

I still sleep quite late recently. However, I tried to sleep at around 1am.

After research~~

 Actually, after I changed the topic I only discuss with Mr. James.He advised me to try to combine exercise with sleep as my goal for this semester. 

This is because exercise can actually help to improve the quality of sleep.This is because exercise can actually help to improve the quality of sleep.This is because exercise can actually help to improve the quality of sleep.According to the CEO of the National Sleep Foundation, David Cloud (2013), exercise is actually great for sleep and it can help people to improve their sleep quality. There are more than 76% of exercisers report that their sleep quality was very good or fairly good compared to non-exercisers (National Sleep Foundation, 2013). Non-exercisers also tend to be more excessively sleepy than the people who have exercised regularly and the sleepiness was clearly interferes with many non-exercisers safety and quality of life (ScienceDaily, 2013). Poor Sleeping quality or not enough sleep is actually hazardous for our health. Lack of sleep will not only contribute to tiredness, but it also can reduce our immune system and it can increase the risk of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases (Morgenthaler, 2012). 

Since they are so many negative effects if I not get enough sleep, so I decided to stick back to my original plan, sleep before 12am but with the aid of exercise. =D

Since they are so many negative effects if I not get enough sleep, so I decided to stick back to my original plan, sleep before 12am but with the aid of exercise. =D Since they are so many negative effects if I not get enough sleep, so I decided to stick back to my original plan, sleep before 12am but with the aid of exercise. =D

Besides that, I had done some research order to make sure which kind of exercise suitable to me. According to Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre (2007), stretching and strengthening exercise for spine is the best choice for scoliosis and there are no restriction of exercise scoliosis patients. In addition, scoliosis patients' condition would not get worse if They engage in activities such as running and jogging. I also consulted my main doctor about my condition. He actually encourages me to do more exercise to strengthening my body. Thus, I can stick to my plan as doing physiotherapy which can strengthen by spine and also jogging as it is most convenient to me. >_< 

Ways to measure my improvement^o^

It is a bit aimless if you do not have the measurement to measure your improvement.
As I wish to exercise twice a week with the goal of becoming healthier and increase my stamina.

I used the pulse rate measurement as my instrument to measure my process of growing.

Mr. James was introduced us with this method of measurement in Health Psychology class last week.

According to National Emergency Medicine Association (2003), pulse rate are also known as heart rate as it is the number of times of heart beats per minute.

We can measure our pulse rate by placing our fingers on the neck or wrist.

       (adapted from superskinnyme, 2013)

In the class, Mr. James asked us to measure our resting pulse rate first, which are measure our pulse rate before exercise within 15 minutes, then we use the number to multiply by four to get the resting pulse rate. After that, we did the aerobic exercise for 3 minutes by climbing up and down of the chair. We measure the pulse rates again once we finished the aerobic exercise. Thus, I placed my fingers on my wrist again to measure the pulse rate. My pulse rate after exercise on that day is 176! But I forgot what is my resting pulse rate on that day already.>_<
So, I decided to do the baseline observation again=)

However, what is the optimal pulse rate for me??

According to American Heart Association (2013), the average resting pulse rate for normal people is 60 to 80 per minute, but it will rises with age. Most of the athletes have pulse rate in between 40 to 60 per minutes (National Emergency Medicine Association, 2003). I assumed myself as the normal people, so my target of resting pulse rate is within 60 to 80 per minutes. For the optimal heart or pulse rate, it is actually different across different ages of people. The age-predicted maximum heart rate formula can actually help us to determine our maximal heart rate. The age adjusted maximal heart rate is different for male and female too! Thus, there are two formula for male and female respectively (Articles of the Heart, 2009).
Female: 226- age = age adjusted maximal heart rate

Male    : 220- age = age adjusted maximal heart rate

For example, I am 21 years old and I am a female, so I need to subtract 21 from 226 to get my maximal physiological limit as to how fast my heart should beat per minutes.

226- 21= 205

Thus, 205 is my maximal heart rate.

Besides that, I found a webpage which can automatically help me to count my target heart rate from http://www.webmd.com/heart/target-heart-rate-20512 .
From this website, it shows that my target heart rate range of exercise is 147 to 162 beats per minute (WebMD, 2013).
On the other hand, pulse rate after different activities will differ too!
For example, pulse rate after the walk will lesser than pulse rate after jogging, and the pulse rate after running will greater then pulse rate after jogging (superskinnyme, 2013).
Thus, in order to gain the most precise result, I plan to use the same exercise to measure my pulse rate exercise, which are the up and down exercise taught by Mr. James uses the staircase. I will rest for about ten minutes after the jogging then only do the up and down exercise to make sure I get the precise data.LOL.
Hope I can achieve the target at the end of semester=)

Why I choose to exercise as my behavioral change's goal

  When Mr. James explains about this assignment which asked us to think about a behavior that we wish to change, the first thing that comes to my mind is exercise! However, I feel it is a very common topic so I rejected to make it as my goal and trying to think about the other possible behavior that I am able to change. Thus, I plan to sleep before 12am everyday.

   Nevertheless, after I tried consecutively for a few days, I found it is quite impossible for me to achieve the goal especially when I needed to burn midnight oil to complete my assignments or works before the deadline. You may think it is an excuse for me but it is extremely difficult for a student to sleep before 12am unless he or she is a superman or superwoman which can finish the works within a whole daytime without any entertainment. To be honest, I am a "slow" learner and my pace is quite slow than the others. Therefore, I actually needed more time to complete a work compared to most of my friends. Thus, it is really IMPOSSIBLE for me to sleep before 12am because most of the time I am still doing the work that need to be completed by the day at that moment. Hence, I have shifted back to my original decision.

Actually, exercise is considered more beneficial to me. This is because I have some health problem with my backbone. My spine is curved abnormally as a S shape behind the chest area which caused me prohibited to participate in excessive exercises and carry heavy things. This condition is known as scoliosis (Ullrich, 2013). I was "trained" since I was small to become weak at the sense that I'm not allowed to carry any "heavy" things although sometimes the things is not heavy to me. After some period of time, I really unable to carry "heavy" things although most of the time my friends felt they were not heavy at all. Sometimes, I will feel very uncomfortable such as heart pain, breathless and dizzy for a very long period of time and it can be extended until more than a few hours after I carried a little bit heavy things such as carrying laptop from angkasa condo to my University. By the way, my "main" doctors from Pantai Hospital in Melacca and also Changi General Hospital at Singapore also prohibited me to do excessive exercise. I faced the same problem as carry heavy things after I make some short distant sprint. I believed that I was "trained" to be slow because I cannot even walk fast or actively use my mind as I will become very headache and feeling not well after that. 

      In between, I need to do some physiotherapy which sets by the physiotherapist for my whole life in order to make my spine stronger. However, I never follow her advice even though my parents always nag me to do the physiotherapy myself. My condition became worse as I needed to wear a brace for my abdominal part last time. The brace was made from the special plastic and I need to wear it all the time except bath time. Although the brace does not restrict me to do normal activity however I felt extremely hot with it and a bit painful sometimes when its position on my body was not right. Thus, it restricted me to do any exercise and my health condition had become worse.

                                     The braces I wore, I have 2 actually =D

          Thus, I wish to use this chance to strengthen my body as well as my bone. According to Schwader (2010), exercise can actually strengthen the back, shoulders and upper back as well as the bone. Besides, the physiotherapy that set by my physiotherapist can actually prevent my condition to become worse and help to reduce curve angles in my spine while adding strength and flexibility to it as what she said. Other than doing the physiotherapy, I also plan to jog frequently. This is because I felt the physiotherapy is very boring and I was not even getting sweat after doing that. Thus, I had always given up in the middle of the section. I hope I can carry on the physiotherapy by combining with jogging. Good Luck to me. =D

Behavior Change's Contract