1. Living a Healthy Life
American Family
Chapter 1
Learning Objective: Students will define
health and wellness, analyze what affects health
and wellness, and identify what an individual,
family, and community can do to positively
impact health and wellness.

2. Complete this statement:
• When you have good health, you…

3. Your Health
• Health:
▫ the combination of physical, mental/emotional,
and social well being
• A person’s health is always changing; it moves
along a continuum.

4. Where do you fall on the health continuum?

5. Your Wellness
• Wellness:
▫ an overall state of well-being; total health
▫ It comes from a way of living each day that
includes making decisions and practicing
behaviors that are based on sound health
knowledge and healthful attitudes.
▫ It is on ongoing, lifelong commitment.

6. Promoting Your Health
• Lifestyle Factors:
▫ Experts have identified 10 habits that affect
people’s overall health, happiness, and longevity.
• What are they?
▫ In groups of 2-3 people, brainstorm what you
think to be the 10 lifestyle factors. (HINT: One is
getting 8-10 hours of sleep each night)

7. What affects your health?
• Lifestyle Factors
1. 8-10 hours of sleep a night
2. Start with a healthy breakfast
3. Eat a variety of nutritious foods
4. Be physically active for 20 minutes a day (3x or more a
week)
5. Maintain a healthy weight
6. Avoid tobacco, alcohol, drugs
7. Abstaining from sexual activity
8. Managing stress
9. Maintaining positive relationships
10. Practicing safe behaviors to prevent injuries

8. Wellness and Prevention
• A key to wellness is PREVENTION:
▫ Practicing health and safety habits to remain free
of disease and injury
• Health education:
▫ Providing of accurate health information to help
people make healthy choices

9. Health is a Nation Wide Goal
• Healthy People 2020:
▫ A nationwide health promotion and disease
prevention plan designed to serve as a guide for
improving the health of all people in the United
States.
▫ 2 main goals
1. to increase quality and years of healthy life
2. Remove health differences that result from factors
such as gender, race, education, disability, and
location.

10. Becoming Health Literate
• Health literacy:
▫ A person’s capacity to learn about and understand
basic health information and services and use
these resources to promote his or her health and
wellness.
• To be health literate you need to be a…
▫ critical thinker
▫ responsible and productive citizen
▫ self-directed learner
▫ effective communicator.

11. The Health Triangle
• DRAW IT!
• How can
something
physical, affect
the other sides
of the triangle?

12. The Health Triangle
• Group Activity:
▫ In small groups, create a health triangle with
words and pictures to illustrate healthful
behaviors of all three sides of the triangle.
▫ Flip the triangle over and create another version
with words and pictures to illustrate unhealthful
behaviors.

13. What influences your health?
• Heredity
• Environment
• Culture
• Attitude
• Behavior
• Media
• Technology
• How can each of these things
influence your health, good or
bad?

14. Your Behavior and Reducing Health Risks
• Risk Behaviors: actions that can potentially
threaten your health or the health of others.
• Cumulative Risks: related risks that increase in
effect with each added risk.
▫ Example: smoking
▫ The more you participate in, the more likely you are to see
consequences.
• Abstinence: avoiding harmful behaviors.
▫ How does health improve by being abstinent?

15. YRBSS
• Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System
• Measures six categories of risky behaviors in
youth
• Conducted by the CDC (Center for Disease
Control)

16. Reflection
• Evaluate your day based on the health triangle.
1. Draw a health triangle
2. Give two examples of your recent behaviors for each
side of the triangle.
3. Where they positive or negative behaviors? (identify
with a – or +)
• Evaluate where you are on the health continuum.
1. Draw a health continuum.
2. Place yourself on that continuum where you think you
OVERALL fit, not just based on recent behaviors.
3. Explain WHY you placed yourself where you did.