Social media, the news, and the Internet can negatively influence our teen girls. The media, including popular teen superstars, inundates parents and teens with all types of images. Teens feel the peer pressure of trying to look like the celebrities that society deems as beautiful. However, teen girls have multiple resources to counter this negative influence. Teens can avoid much of this negative peer pressure by developing healthy habits ASAP.
If you are looking for healthy habits for teens, focus on what you want to accomplish. Your teen should make the commitment of setting goals as she develops healthy habits. However, she should not try to implement everything that she reads. One expert suggests that it is okay to begin with only implementing a few goals and adding more at a later time. You can more easily develop healthy habits if you begin by taking small steps.
According to doctors and other experts from John Hopkins University, teen girls should develop healthy habits in three main areas: social-emotional, nutritional and general wellness. Each of these areas can be broken down further into several habits for healthy living. While these lists are not exhaustive, they summarize steps that your teen can take.
Social-Emotional Health
For optimal social-emotional health, the American Academy of Pediatrics and several other mainline advocacy groups promote having a few close friends — friends that you trust and who will be honest enough to let you know when you are hurting yourself. Other important habits to develop include: setting short- and long-term goals, learning to accept constructive criticism, standing up for yourself and taking a break from social media. Finally, you should accept yourself — flaws, strengths and weaknesses — and not cave in to the intense pressure to look or act a certain way.
Nutritional Habits
Teens often overlook obvious nutritional health habits that can improve her life. Healthy nutritional habits help provide balance in a teen’s life and don’t just benefit her looks. Experts often recommend implementing two common habits: drinking water and eliminating or reducing the intake of sugary drinks. A few more nutritional habits for optimal health include: learn to love — or at least eat — your veggies, have breakfast, eliminate processed foods, add more whole foods to your diet, cook more at home and eat out less.
General Wellness
Perhaps the most difficult area to describe, general wellness overlaps somewhat with the other two areas. Take a common sense approach to your overall health, including the following key habits:
- Do not skip gynecological appointments,
- Protect your skin by moisturizing and avoiding sunburns,
- Learn to say “no,”
- Get enough sleep daily,
- Limit your screen time,
- Keep debt at a minimum,
- Medicate responsibly,
- Observe safety rules in all situations,
- Avoid smoking and prolonged exposure to smoke and
- Exercise in moderation.
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Eric Allred was born and raised in Rigby, Idaho. He grew up on a family farm where he learned the value of work. He graduated from Rigby High School and attended Rick’s College, now known as BYU-Idaho. He received his bachelor’s degree in journalism from Utah State University, received a master’s degree in organizational behavior and human relations from the University of Phoenix and a second master’s degree in marital and family therapy from Phillips Graduate Institute. Eric has been involved in Rotary and was president of a local Rotary Club. He enjoys being with his family and doing outdoor activities such as fly fishing.
Chase was very fortunate to start in this industry as a struggling 17 year old kid looking for a mentor and something to be passionate about. Wilderness therapy was Chase’s first stop in this industry and was truly a transcendental experience for him. Chase has an enormous love for this line of work and the power that it has in creating change in everyone involved. Chase’s biggest belief is the power a mentor, strong, healthy relationships, and accountability can have on anyone, especially youth. Taking a very relational approach to his work, Chase has always been very relatable to the students he works with. Being able to understand and relate to a vast variety of the same struggles as a lot of the students he works with has been able to help him continue to grow, learn, and teach. Chase believes that with great rapport and trust, he can use his experience to continue to coach and train new staff, and has the ability to find those staff with the passion for this industry, and help them grow. His love and passion can be felt the moment you talk with Chase about this industry and he passes that on to others he works with. In his spare time you will find Chase cheering for the Eagles, Yankees, and Mavericks, hanging out with his brother, learning more about Eastern Psychology, and continuing to grow and learn.