ESSAY IDEA

The topic I chose was the one my group came up with, "Even when people know they're putting their lives a risk, why do they continue eating?" Now I liked this one because it was more open, like there doesn't seem to be a short amount of answers to this. That type of writing always bring many different ideas and it would help me, as well as all of us, to know many possible reasons for this topic. Think about it, this is an open question having a wide variety of answers and there are around 30-40 students in our class alone. This gives us a chance at 30-40 different possible answers and with that we can all learn something new. That's how i think it would help.

VOCABULARY: FALL #2

obesity- the condition of being grossly fat or overweight
The problem of obesity is starting to affect children too.
accumulate- gather together or acquire an increasing number or quality of
Investigators have yet to accumulate enough evidence to solve their case.
mass- a coherent, typically large body of matter with no definite shape
An ectomorph typically needs to gain mass.
disease- a disorder of structure or function in a human, animal, or plant
There are many types of disease that can affect our heart or other important parts of our body.
diet- kinds of food a person, animal, or community habitually eats
Being a vegetarian is one form of a diet.
prevalence- the fact or condition of being prevalent; commonness
There is a prevalence of obesity in adults.
stigma- a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person
Being a non reader carries a social stigma.
prevent (able)- keep something from happening or arising
Actions must be taken to prevent further accidents in the community.
adolescent- a young person in the process of developing from a child into an adult
The mans best years were his adolescent years.
cardiovascular- medicine of or relating to the heart and blood vessels.
The relationship between vad and ad is highlighted by their risk of cardiovascular.
excessive- more than is necessary, normal, or desirable
He was drinking excessive amounts of wine today.
mechanism- a system of parts working together in a machine
The gun man injured his leg in the turret mechanism
sedentary- a person tending to spend much time seated; somewhat inactive
People that are sedentary might be at risk of becoming obese
predispose- make someone liable or inclined to a specified attitude, action, or condition
Lack of exercise may predispose an individual to high blood pressure.
syndrome- a group of symptoms that consistently occur together or a condition characterized by a set of associated symptoms
A rare syndrome in which the production of white blood cells is damaged.

PROSE & CONS: OBESITY

     The typical stereotype given to Americans is that they are all overweight. With their greasy fast food and laziness to do anything physical. Well this is true, this is not the case for all Americans but it is true for a pretty big portion of them. This is no laughing matter, obesity has become a big problem (no pun intended) over the years and is getting worse as time goes by. There are two sides to every story however, in this case one speaks louder than the other. Obesity has those two sides of its story, many people suffer with it and are trying to keep themselves healthy while others also have it but don’t seem to care that they do.

     To begin with obesity is a problem trying to be resolved, at least to those that want the help there is to offer. Dr. Greger mentioned many ways to help people in being healthier and able to live longer. There is only one problem with that, when it comes down to it they are but mere suggestions. People won’t act on them unless they know they have someone there, someone they can talk to about their problem and find ways to help them. This is what http://www.eatingdisorderprogram.net does, they call out to these kids and adults that have eating disorders and helps them get what they want, help. This is a program that has help many, many people and is waiting to help more. Unlike Dr. Greger this program actually reaches out to try to help those that really need it, Dr. Greger only gives the guidelines everyone needs to live healthier. Even with all this help that is offered many people still won’t take it. What I would assume the reason is is because it’s so much easier to not be active and just sit back with a drink in one hand and the television remote in the other. Yes people won’t care if it isn’t the right choice it is just so much easier to do. There are many people that don’t even think obesity causes a health risk, http://yourlife.usatoday.com/fitness-food/diet-nutrition/story/2011-10-22/Many-dont-believe-their-obesity-poses-health-risks/50856820/1 in this article it is said that many people believe they aren’t at risk of anything due to their weight. There are some that believe that if they were at risk then their doctors would tell them when it is time to lose weight, this is a bad thing. People can’t always count on their doctor for everything, but through their minds they’ll think “Oh, there is nothing to worry about. My doctor hasn’t told me anything so I should be fine.” This is how obesity is seen as a pro, people will believe that they are fine until told so by a doctor and by the pure fact that not exercising is the easy way out they simply won’t try to get better.

   
     Now the other side of this story is the one that makes the most sense to me and probably a great majority of other people. Obesity IS more a bad thing than a good thing. The fact that some can see it as a ‘good’ thing is bad, it just means they gave up on trying. They don’t understand that even if their doctors don’t tell them anything they should still be aware of the dangers they could have coming to them. Things like heart problems, this is one of the leading sources of death according to Dr. Greger. Now aside from this people could also suffer with diabetes, cancers, strokes, metabolic syndrome, etc. These are terrible results especially considering how much easier it has gotten to help prevent these problems. http://www.fitday.com, this website is full of articles to help people stay fit in very simple ways. The things they list are incredibly easy, for example one of the steps is simply eating breakfast. When they say it is the most important meal of the day they mean it. Can you imagine what person wouldn’t follow at least the little steps to get better? Things like eating breakfast are baby steps to becoming healthier and potentially saving yourself from diseases. After seeing that it helps you I would imagine that these people will want to take the next step and get in even better than they are. This is how obesity can be seen as bad but potentially become a good thing. By seeing all the problems obesity can cause someone people will start to see the error of their ways and want to change. The first step is admitting you have a problem, but you won’t see the problem until you see others that have it too.

     In conclusion I would say yes obesity is a choice people make. They will always continue to say that they aren’t in any danger unless told so by a doctor, this is their choice to believe that. However others tend to see the error of their ways and make the choice to try to get better. They want to become healthier and choose to go through the struggle of exercising and eating better. It isn’t an easy thing to do but with enough determination they can pull through. Everything in life is a choice, it just depends on the road you pick to go on.

TEXT ANALYSIS #1

• over 100,000 people are killed by prescription drug side effects, medical mistakes, and 'health' care. 
• doctors may be killing us more than helping us
• too much exercise can have a negative effect on you, you over train your body
• men have a 50% chance getting a heart disease
• according to the lecture heart disease is a choice 
• overall to live a longer, healthy life you need to do simple exercise and eat right

This video was one that I won't soon forget. Dr. Greger really knows what he is talking about, showing us all his research and telling us that we choose to have a heart disease. That there is what stuck with me, we have a choice in that category? How exactly? As it turns out it is true, we ourselves can prevent heart disease. As we have heard since we were kids eat right and be active. Although we can not do too much exercise, too much of it can have a negative effect on our bodies. This is great advise especially for men considering we have a 50% chance of getting this heart disease. So this lecture was meant to tell us the truth about how to have a healthy life, in a nutshell it is to eat healthy, avoid getting sick in the first place, and do simple exercise without over working your body. By following these guidelines we can all live a longer, healthier life.

THIS IS PHAT!

http://www.naturalnews.com/041116_hamburgers_fast_food_meat_content.html

"Is sacrificing your health on the altar of convenience really worth it?" In this article I learned more than I needed to. As it turns out amongst 8 fast food burgers (all from different places) there is an average of only 12.1% of actual meat in the burgers. The majority of these burgers is water, but the harmful part is all the unexpected tissue, bacteria, and ammonia. With all this it shows how harmful fast food can be, but there will be times when it is necessary to have fast food. Having fast food a few times a month is not that bad for you but having it frequently can lead to things as bad as breathing problems or even death. These are more harmful than some may have realized.

VOCABULARY: FALL #1

Expository- intended to explain or describe something
There is such thing as formal expository prose.
Composition- the way in which a whole or mixture is made up
Within a high school, there are many social compositions.
Assuage- make an unpleasant feeling less intense
The results assuaged the fear of flunking
Decadence- moral or cultural decline as characterized by excessive indulgence in pleasure or luxury
The man, along with his friends, denounced Western decadence
Hackneyed- of a phrase or idea lacking significance through having been overused
Everybody nowadays knows some of the hackneyed old sayings.
Coalition- an alliance for combined action
The Democrats were able to govern in coalition with 3 other parties.
Transcend- be or go beyond the range or limits of something abstract, typically a conceptual field or division.
Throughout time there were always many issues transcending party politics.
Meritorious- deserving reward or praise
A trophy is an example of a reward for meritorious
Lurid- very vivid in color
The shirt he wore yesterday was lurid.
Petulant- (of a person or their manner) childishly sulky or bad-tempered
At times everyone can be moody and petulant.

REFLECTIONS ON WEEK 1

Question 1
The one factor I believe will affect my participation and learning is just my own laziness. I believe that at some point throughout the year I will start to slack off on my work and get behind.

Question 2
The only experience I could think of was back in 8th grade during my history class I was playing a game that had to do with memorizing people, places, etc. Then when I was trying to remember I said out loud, "I can't remember his name," then my teacher said to not say that. He told us about how our verbal actions and mental actions connect, so by saying you can't remember it you don't remember it. This taught me how to actually remember small things like that, if I studied and actually know the answer I can remember it as long as I don't tell myself I can't. This has helped a lot.

Question 3
What I am most excited about for this year is just this new way of learning, I really want to see if this learning method will help me or confuse me. I'm so use to sitting in front of a book and spending hours reading it in order to comprehend and just be able to explain what's happening in the book. Now in this class textbooks and other books are rarely used and I would want to see how this works out for me.

5 GO-TO SOURCES FOR GOOD NONFICTION

These are my 5 go-to sources for nonfiction:

1. http://www.teenink.com/nonfiction/
2. https://www.byliner.com/
3. Local Library (this one is pretty obvious)
4. Kindle
5. Also to find one from a friend, happens more often than people think

A TRULY INTERESTING PIECE OF NON-FICTION

http://www.usnews.com/education/high-schools/articles/2012/09/17/high-school-students-need-to-think-not-memorize
The link above shows an article I read back in 2012 when it first came out. This article shows this new way of learning a high school in Pennsylvania is doing and that it is actually working for students there. I decided to use this because when I thought of it it brought me back to our new open source learning that we are doing for this class. I found this interesting because these are two different ways of learning and both seem to be working as expected. If interested the link will send you straight to the article written in the US news.

WHAT IS EXPOSITORY COMPOSITION?

Expository Composition, when this is searched up on Google you find many links leading to things like expository writing or expository essays. When they are actually looked into we can learn that expository essays have the purpose of explaining a topic in a logical and straightforward manner. Now based off of that what I think expository composition is is learning how to write like this. Learning how to get straight to the point in essays by being able to comprehend the main points of the topic and using that information in a way that gives the reader the main points of your topic faster but still give plenty of information. That's what I think expository composition is.

MY BIG QUESTION

I've read most of these posts and I have to say there are many good questions here. My big question is what is trust? It plays a role no matter who or where you are but what is the trust between people? How can you earn peoples trust? This question seems to have an easy answer but it can have tens or hundreds of results when you try figure it out. That's why this is my big question

IT'S ALL LATIN TO ME

The quote "dimidium facti qui coepit habet: sapere aude, incipe" translates to "who has begun has half done: dare to be wise, begin". In a nutshell what I think it is trying to say is that taking that first step towards something is only half the battle, being able to stick with it and finish at the top is the other half. That's how it is trying to describe this course, to stay in this class means seeing it through until the end with the same amount of effort you started with.