Factors That Drive Our Food Choices

Everyday we have to make a choice.  Should be go to the gym or stay home and sit on the couch watching t.v.?  Do you cook tonight or go out to eat?  There are health and wellness programs out there that are designed to help you make the right choices.  "These seven dimension of wellness show us how the concept of wellness can go beyond the absence of disease.  Wellness incorporates factors such as adequate fitness, proper nutrition, stress management, disease prevention, spirituality, not smoking or abusing drugs, personal safety regular physical examinations, health education, and environmental support" (Hoeger,W. & Hoeger,S., 2012).  These dimensions include: physical, emotional, mental, social, environmental, occupational, and spiritual wellness.  All of these dimensions can drive our food choices.  Let me give you an example: Let us say that you choose to hang around friends that never get off the couch and just sit around and play video games.  By choosing to sit on your butt and play video games, you are choosing to not workout.  When you do not get physical exercise then you will not be in very good shape.  This affects not only your physical well-being but it also affects your emotional well-being because when people are overweight, then they have a tendency to not feel good about themselves.  When you do not feel good about yourself, then you might start to stay home more and start avoiding your friends and family.  This affects your social, mental, and spiritual wellness.  Avoiding others and making unhealthy lifestyle choices is not good because you can start to go in a downward spiral.  Your environment begins to change because maybe when you were once outgoing, now you are just sitting at home, alone, playing video games.  When our dimensions of wellness are not in tune with each other, we can start to make really poor food choices and start to make ourselves think that we do not care about the way we look or feel. 

Reference:

Hoeger, W. K., & Hoeger, S. A. (2012). Principles and Labs for Fitness & Wellness (11th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.