Teenage Lifestyle Choices

Over the past few decades, teenagers have earned the reputation of having an unhealthy lifestyle. The amount of fast food, alcohol or lack of exercise each teenager consumes is severely harmful to ones health. The issue of obesity has increased sufficiently in adolescents. Many teenagers have become lazy and unfit. However, the teen years are generally the age in which individuals should begin and maintain healthy habits that will last a lifetime. As a result, benefiting each persons overall health. It is easy to make healthy choices:

Teenagers’ biggest problem is their eyes are bigger than their stomach. They always tend to overeat or eat too quickly. It is suggested to eat slowly and in moderate sizes. Once you have eaten, it takes twenty minutes for your stomach to feel full. Many people are unaware of this; once they are hungry they tend to binge eat. When you are hungry, the body is stating that it needs fuel. Every few hours, it burns off the food that you have eaten meaning you must continue to eat once you are hungry again. This is an indicator that your food has been put to use. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It provides your body with its first boost of the day.

Drinking eight glasses of water in a day is extremely beneficial to the body. The high level of hydration regulates the metabolism as well as purifies the body. It is also important for teenagers to exercise. It is recommended for each person to exercise three to five times a week. This also increases your strength, both mentally and physically.

It is important to maintain a healthy lifestyle!

Links to Related Articles:

http://kidshealth.org/teen/food_fitness/

http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/children/teens/prevention/285.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/treatments/healthy_living/nutrition/life_adolescence.shtml

Peer Pressure and Poor Teenage Influences

Regardless of the environment or area individuals are raised in, everyone deals with the frustrations of peer pressure at some point in their life. Evidently, peer pressure occurs most commonly in the adolescent years. It becomes a society norm to adapt to the daily influences received from friends, family or affectionate partners. These ‘influences’ often lead to teenagers making poor decisions and results in a drastic change of self character.

Peer pressure often affects the individuals that portray the personality traits of lacking confidence and maturity. The feel they must adapt to the pressures of others in order to be accepted. The use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco are often the most common forms of pressure in teenagers lives. As a result, teenagers are drinking and smoking illegally, detrimentally, affecting and putting their health at risk. Smoking is a dangerous habit for individuals to begin. However, you often see young adolescents attempting to fit in with the "cool" crowd by impressing them with their new habit. Teenagers often don't understand the concept of free will. They have the ability to speak up and say "NO!"

Not only are teens pressured into illegal substances, but many individuals feel they are forced into decisions based on other's sexual desires. Most commonly, girls are often pressured into having sexual relations with the male gender. Many teenage girls feel the need to follow through with their partner's desires in fear of losing them. This casts a poor light on themselves, as well as women as a whole, which allows men to feel dominant. Rushing into sexual reproduction too quickly can have many emotional long term affects on an individuals life. Teenager's have the whole rest of their lives ahead of them, and need to understand the ability to move at their own comfortable pace.

It is evident that the pressure's teenagers receive are often from their peers. However, many teenagers cope and adapt to the pressures portrayed by their family and parents. Teens constantly feel they are being pushed to achieve higher. Many parents are strict about their child's academic performance, group of friends and athletics. It is difficult for adolescents to deal with the stress level that is created due to the environment they are in. It is important to remember, live your life the way you want to, don't give into the pressures of society.

Links to Related Articles:

http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/friends/peer_pressure.html

http://www.thecoolspot.gov/pressures.asp

http://library.thinkquest.org/3354/Resource_Center/Virtual_Library/Peer_Pressure/peer.htm

Teenage Pregnancy

Teenage pregnancy refers to adolescent females (women who have not reached legal adulthood) becoming pregnant. The reasons for teenage pregnancy can differentiate between numerous amounts of causes. Often, girls believe they are in love and have found the perfect boy in which they want to share something special with. Some researchers also believe that youth is not properly informed of “safe sex”, whether it is condoms or birth control. There have been a few cases where the girl believes the only way her partner will stay with her is if they become impregnated. Ultimately, in several cases, once the girl becomes pregnant, their partner is at an age immaturity and unable to support them and their future infant. This forms a result in teenage girls coping with the responsibility of a baby on their own, depending on if the parents are supportive of their pregnancy.
There are three major options that teenagers have to choose from when they become pregnant. They can decide to have an abortion, which is an emotionally straining decision because they are taking an innocent life. Consequently, it is harmful to a teenager’s body, risking the chance of being unable to conceive in the future. For every one thousand women in Canada aged fifteen to nineteen the abortion rate is 22.1 and the birth rate is 22.3. The second option is to keep the baby, but jeopardize the capability of being unable to support and care for their child. The final option is to put their child up for adoption. The pro to this alternative is the child will be able to receive the support that their child deserves, whereas the con is their child will no longer be theirs, they will belong to another family who will raise them as they please. Overall, teenagers do not consider the long term effects of sexual activity.
On average, the first menstrual period for most girls begins at the age of twelve. Therefore, girls are able to become pregnant in their earlier years, depending on the age they begin sexual activity. It can be an extremely detrimental process which severely affects the rest of their lives. In order to have a successful life in modern society, teenagers must completely their high school education and pursue a degree in university or college. After having a baby, teen mothers find they are restricted to furthering themselves in their education. It is a difficult life to handle at an adolescent age, juggling between jobs to support their child, care and attention towards their child as well as their own personal lives and satisfaction. They are at a stage in life where they are still growing and learning, teenagers aren’t mentally prepared or mature enough for the responsibilities of another human being. It is a decision that cannot be made based on rashness because it is undoable once you have a child in your life.

Links Related to this Article:

http://www.4parents.gov/sexrisky/teen_preg/teen_preg.html

http://pregnancy.about.com/cs/teenpregnancy/a/teenpreg.htm

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35448556/ns/us_news-the_elkhart_project/

The Measures Teenage Girls Will Go Through To Be Noticed

It is not easy being a girl. Any female would agree with this statement. There are many societal standards and expectations that women feel they must achieve in order to gain satisfaction or attention, especially from the opposite sex. The media has a massive influence on what is “hot” and what is not. It is disappointing that the media is creating a fraudulent image of what the ideal female should resemble, ultimately affecting society as a whole.

It is a constant competition between girls to “out-look” one another. It is all about each individuals self esteem and consciousness. Girls often feel there is an image that each guy wants and will take many desperate measures to reach this goal. Whether it causes girls to become anorexic, or possibly start working out at the gym; just to form their body into the perfect skinny and fit figure. Teens have two major options in terms of weight loss. Girls tend to lean towards anorexia because they feel that it is a fast and easy way for them to just stop eating or dispose of their food through throwing up or laxatives. Boys on the other hand, generally, resort to working out; the healthier option. It is a major health risk and is considered to be a mental disorder. It is terrifying the life threatening risks girls will take.

Teenage girls endure numerous hours of pain as well, in order to become ‘beautified’. If you think about the amount of time every girl spends preparing themselves; it is ridiculous. They go through a lengthy process of getting their hair, makeup and nails done. Also, even though body hair is natural, many girls are self conscious about the amount of hair they have on their body. They have resorted to measures such as waxing, receiving electrolysis and laser hair removal treatments. It is extremely costly. Girls can easily spend hundreds of dollars on beautifying themselves each week or month. The cost of hair dressers can range between sixty to two hundred dollars; depending on the salon, length of hair, and style or dye used. In terms of hair removal, electrolysis and laser treatments range between hundreds to thousands of dollars and waxing (the non-permanent form of hair removal) can cost up to twenty dollars every two weeks. Girls can also spend hundreds of dollars on makeup and creams; foundation, eye shadow, bronzer, cover up, mascara, lipstick, acne treatments, etc. The modern images of beautiful women are often tanned. Teenage girls hate the thought of being “pasty” and white; they will attend indoor tanning salons to gain a darker, natural-looking tan. Tanning beds are known to be extremely crucial to people’s lives because it increases the chances of developing skin cancer. Knowing this, girls STILL often go tanning; they live for the moment and not the rest of their lives. This could, in the long term, be dangerous to their health, but those are the risks teenage girls will take to feel confident with themselves.

Mostly, teenage girls understand that their goal of perfection is unrealistic, unhealthy and pointless… BUT it seems no individual will ever be truly happy with their appearance. Every person displays flaws, but that is what makes us human beings; it is the natural way of life. We live in a world run by societal norms and teenage girls need to understand that no one else will accept them if they cannot simply accept themselves for who they are.


Links to similar articles:

http://http//www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7701260/#storyContinued
http://http//kidshealth.org/teen/food_fitness/problems/body_image.html
http://http//www.wikihow.com/Category:Beauty-and-Grooming-for-Girls