Lifelong Wellness - HLAC 1046: Jog/Walk

To satisfy the Salt Lake Community College Lifelong Wellness requirement, I took the HLAC 1046 Walking and Jogging course in the Fall semester of 2016. I originally signed up for the course believing it to be an easy "A" physical education course to fulfill my physical education requirement. However, I soon realized that I could use this class as a stress reliever and that I wanted to push myself to become better and better as the semester went on. Challenges I faced during this course were the temptation to take it slow and not push myself to run as many laps or just to walk the entire class period. How I overcame this challenge was that I found a workout buddy in the class to push me to run more and not slack off on my exercise. For this course, I will include a short reflection on my wellness journey throughout the semester.

E-Portfolio Signature Assignment

            One insight from my wellness journey over this semester would be the growth in confidence and my overall mental health that is course has afforded to me. When I began the semester, I had little to no self-confidence in regards to my physical fitness, and my mental health was at an all-time low. However, as I began to exercise more, I saw how much I was becoming more physically fit, and it raised my self-confidence in my appearance and my athletic abilities. I also noticed that as I kept exercising, I started to feel better and better in regards to my mental health, which I account to the rush of endorphins I was suddenly experiencing, and to how much fun I found jogging and walking to be.

            Another insight would be the discovery that I enjoy jogging and walking more than I thought I would during the semester. Before going through this course, I hated to exercise and honestly didn’t do very much regarding athletics, but after I had forced myself to start running more and more I found it to be fun and I enjoyed the challenge of trying to get better and better athletically. As the semester went on, this course instilled the importance of exercise and physical health into me, and I now plan to exercise regularly to keep up all the benefits I noticed appearing in my health and wellbeing.

            One last insight I noticed was how much of a stress reliever this course proved to be during the semester. Through walking and jogging, I began to let off steam in regards to how stressed and anxious I was from starting college, and from how many assignments and projects I was being assigned to do. By letting off steam in a healthy way I became less anxious and worried about whether I could get through college, and it lessened my overall stress. Through this, I also got up the courage to talk to more people and be a friendlier person overall, which lead to me finding a workout buddy to help me not become stagnant in my progress and to talk to while walking and jogging. Overall, this course has provided me with numerous benefits in my social, emotional, and physical wellbeing and I am happy I signed up for it.