Health Journal: How to Create a Health Journal

Critical Reflection: The prevalence of obesity among adolescents in the United States remains alarmingly high (Rancourt et al., 2018). Obesity has been identified as an emerging epidemic considering the health risks associated with it. I try to understand the paranoia among my friends and cousin when I was overweight. However, overburdening adolescents with the pressure to lose weight only adds to their misery during their identity-development phase of life. During adolescence, the views of the society towards an individual can either break or build a person’s confidence and self-esteem. According to Perrrin et al. (2010) the stigma of overweight has worsened since 1970s. I can analyze my experience during adolescence through the lens of overweight stigma. Overweight stigma is a concept referring to the negative perceptions, beliefs and attitudes that people have towards overweight people. Puhl & Heuer (2010) argues that stigma and discrimination towards overweight and obese persons and pervasive and pose serious physical and psychological consequences on the victim. The type of stigma thrives in societies where being overweight is viewed as a failure on the side of the affected person. Instead of developing practical strategies to cope with weight gain, the society prefers stereotyping overweight persons and breaking their self-esteem. 

Weight stigma is generally ignored as a serious threat to normal growth and development among adolescents (Puhl & Heuer, 2010). There are several strategies that can be used to cope with weight gain during adolescence. Markey (2015) presented the case of a friend, Ann, who tried the Paleo diet and succeeded losing weight. In six weeks, Ann had lost fifteen pounds (Markey, 2015). Her strategy was simple: She stopped eating grains, dairy, refined sugars, and processed foods. Ann was not contented despite losing fifteen pounds in six weeks. She was forced to live a miserable life and miss out on the activities that engaged her life. She could not attend office parties or girls’ night outs. She slid into her old life and immediately gained back the pounds. Markey (2015) proposes a strategy that does not involve dieting. Every dieter has intense cravings on foods they have stopped taking. Furthermore, peoples’ dieting efforts are undermined by their preoccupation with thoughts of food. Obese children are burdened by more than weight (Brubaker, 2014). They have to cope with their internal struggles to manage the weight and the external force of being unwanted in the society. I can place my struggles and experience with weight in its rightful context. I propose that during adolescence, individuals should be granted an opportunity and environment to work on their weight without being stigmatized. Stigmatization adversely affects identity development and spills over to the person’s confidence later in life. The stereotypes associated with overweight people should equally be addressed to prevent recurrence of my case. 

Critical Reflection: Identity formation difficulty among immigrant adolescents is deeply researched topic in psychology, sociology and mental health. According to Streeck-Fischer (2015) adolescence is a period of instability caused by restructuring of personality and various biological changes ushering adulthood. The fragile process if made more difficult among immigrant children as they struggle either to retain their native heritage or adopt the culture of the new country and its society. Harassment, discrimination and stereotyping are common among immigrant youths. As an immigrant at the age of thirteen, I realized that while my age mates were progressing with their education and other major milestones in life, I had stagnated struggling to fit in the new society. Filion et al. (2018) argues that adolescence comes with new found freedom and a new sense of importance in the society. The adolescent uses different avenues to assert their position and dominance in their immediate social circles. In my case, I had very low self-esteem and self-confidence. The few times I tried presenting in class ended up in laughter due to my poor spoken English. I slowly sank into a state of pre-depression and wishing that the whole situation could be avoided. However, my teachers and peers were very supportive. They noted the challenges I was encountering and provided a healing environment. I focused more on my strengths as an avenue to bridge the gap between my drawbacks and the goals I had set. 

I fear failing in life. The pressure from my parents to succeed has been high. I thought the pressure was normal until I encountered scholarly articles exploring the subject. According to Hjeltnes et al. (2015) mindfulness can be used to cope with anxious feelings in academic performance situations. In my case, an intersection of academic performance related anxiety and the challenges of an immigrant youth weighed heavily on my back. I have several insights on coping strategies as an adolescent immigrant. I accepted that stereotyping is common and occasionally I have to meet a person who may utter a disrespectful word towards me. I learned to live with the criticism. The only way I could improve on my state was through self-acceptance. Second, I expanded my worldview through cultural competence. Instead of locking myself in my own world and excluding the new culture in Canada, I engaged in a life-long process of learning. I embrace diversity and its beauty. Today, I have friends across the board. We share our experiences and realize that diversity should not be used as a divisive tool but rather as an icing to social groups especially in college. Cultural competence can be used to improve the experience of immigrant children and youth in Canada. Considering the diverse population, cultural competence should be taught as a distinct subject since it can be applied in all fields. I reflect on my past and realize that life is a long-learning process. Living as an immigrant has shaped my world-view to accommodate more views and approaches to life. I am no longer rigid when facing situations. I also have a solid social network that share similar views on diversity and cultural competence. 

Critical Reflection: My experience as a racial minority helped me to view racial differences and diversity as a strength and not as a weakness as presented in various media. Instead of lamenting about my challenges, I decided to speak up and develop friends who helped me cope with my challenges. I am a patient person. Many times, friends take advantage of my personality and end up hurting me. That has not stopped me from making more friends and fitting in the U.S. society. Therefore, in this critical reflection, I shall reflect on my journey integrating in the U.S. society and coping with the challenges as they presented. According to Jimenez (2011) concerns still exist about immigrants’ ability to integrate into the broader society. In my case, I was torn between retaining my Greek heritage or adopting the U.S. heritage. At the end, I realized that the two can easily integrate if tackled from a point of self awareness. 

I noted the differences between the two and worked towards the process of integration. According to Okely, Weiss & Gale (2018) culture can be defined as a shared set of values, beliefs or behaviors that differentiate one society from another. As I have learned living as a racial minority and having a culture that is not common among my peers, most of the challenges racial minorities encounter are due to their own perceptions. There are times when certain people will utter negative words against me. I cannot spend much time responding to such negativities since they will only deprive my energy that should be directed towards important activities. In the process of integration, I started working on a project that would bring together several friends from different cultural backgrounds to showcase our traditional cuisines as a way of embracing diversity. The activity worked wonders. We realized that racial and cultural differences should only be used to explore different approaches to life and not as way of showcasing superiority and subjecting other people to prejudice and stereotyping. I realized that the U.S. culture is quite individualistic. I found it hard coping at first since I have been brought up in a different setting. For instance, in our family, meal time is the time everyone come together to discuss about our experiences and progress in school. Meals are given much attention and so everyone must make sure they eat at the same time with the rest of the family members. If I was to advise a person on the best way to adjust in the U.S. society as an immigrant, I would tell them to first try their local cuisines. I shared a lot with American friends who were welcoming and ready to learn about my culture. Sharing life experiences also helps in the adjustment process. It is also advisable to remain open-minded to try out new things and ideas.