Wellness recommendation challenge
VICTORIA ARTALE: 2 DAYS
I started the GLC’s wellness challenge thinking I’d be lucky to last just one day. Despite what I thought, I surprised myself by making it through two days.
The recommended nine hours of sleep were the hardest part for me. Going to bed Sunday night was easy since I had nothing to stay up for. On Monday, however, I had to take a nap to hit exactly nine hours while still having time to study and do my homework.
When it came to exercise and going outside, I had no problem. Running every day was already a part of my daily routine, and I usually go stretch outside afterward. Overall, the recommended amount of exercise was not hard to obtain.
I also found socializing relatively easy, I FaceTimed with my friends and even went to a small family gathering (with masks of course). Adding to that, I was able to go to an outdoor yoga class where I had a little more social interaction and relaxation. If it wasn’t for the amount of hours I was supposed to sleep each night, I think I could have lasted a week doing this challenge.
NATASHA CHANG: 4 DAYS
Given my sleep schedule, or lack thereof, I went into the challenge bracing myself for the worst. Prior to this challenge, I had routines that weren’t compatible with the requirements of the challenge. In spite of this, I’m quite proud of the four days that I completed following all of the recommendations.
Due to my procrastinating tendencies, I had already developed a habit of waking up an hour or two before class to finish homework I didn’t get to the night before. However, to get myself into a more productive mindset, I added some stretches to my routine to warm myself up for the day.
Thanks to my lack of impulse control, my laptop and work supplies were all already stationed downstairs near the kitchen, far away from the comforts of my bedroom. I usually have to grab some stationery and books from the supply shed at least once a day, which allows me to soak up some vitamin D.
As someone who needs social interaction, Discord has been a godsend. Albeit a bit distracting during class, the friends I’ve made online have kept my social skills intact.
Staying away from electronics, however, proved to be quite the challenge, and in the end, my downfall.
Since we’re practically forced to be on our devices for school all day, and my only means of entertainment are online, it was a miracle that I made it through even a day without being on my electronics for an hour, let alone managing to take a break four days in a row.
LYNDON KANEKO: 7 DAYS
Coming into the challenge, I thought that some of the goals were a little bit ambitious, and later found out that the guidelines were somewhat deceptive in their difficulty. While I managed to last the whole week, there were some legitimate challenges.
Finding the will to wake up thirty minutes before class was the worst part of my mornings. I’m a fast eater, so I find that allocating thirty minutes of my time before class to just eat and get ready was unnecessary.
Although I managed to sleep nine hours a day, I think that it was still too much. As someone who sleeps two hours before school and three hours after, I felt that sleeping for almost half the day was absurd.
The exercise portion of the guidelines were genuinely helpful. They were fast, easy and helped relieve the knots in my joints. I found that walking around my room in between classes also helped me wake up.
The schedule seemed designed more for adults than teenagers as I prefer to live inconsistently, changing my schedule on a whim rather than conforming to a strict guideline.
After following these guidelines for a week, I felt that most of these genuinely helped improve my quality of life. Altering my schedule to fit the guidelines was not particularly hard, receiving more complaints from my peers than me. But, the hardest part, in my opinion, was finding the motivation to stay consistent with the schedule and see things through to the end.
EDWARD KIM: 7 DAYS
After following the GLC recommendation challenge for a full week, I noticed that it yielded weaker benefits than I expected. Instead of helping me relax, the wellness suggestions put more strain on me.
The main factors that caused this tension was the required nine hours of sleep along with waking up well before class started. Because I have a zero period, I went to bed around 9:30 p.m. This was difficult to manage consistently, and a period of sleep around seven to eight hours seems more realistic. Waking up 30 minutes before class was helpful, but the time period seemed too long, as 10-15 minutes was usually sufficient for me to wash my face, brush my teeth and eat a snack before class.
Stretching and moving around between classes made me feel more relaxed and helped me loosen up. I combined taking walks around my neighborhood with the task of spending time away from electronics, which made for a dreary walk.
Out of all the suggestions, I think the ones related to socializing were most helpful, as spending time talking with your friends is refreshing and quite pleasant during this quarantine. Overall, some recommendations were ineffective and might have contributed to more stress, such as the unrealistic amount of sleep, but there were some decent ones at the same time such as socialization.
KELSEY WU: 7 DAYS
Even though I made it through the entire week of this supposed “wellness” challenge, I have to say a large toll has been taken on both my mental and physical health. For something that was supposed to make me feel more relaxed and joyful, I instead found myself more stressed out as I had to completely alter my schedule. I found that the only way to both meet all the requirements and be in bed by 10 pm was to make several GLC tips count as one. For example, my afternoon walks counted as my exercise, time in the sun and time away from the screen. The greatest challenge I found was making time to do those five minute mindful exercises, which really didn’t help my stress levels since all it did was just take up my studying time.
On the flip side, I found that taking time away from electronics everyday and using it to exercise greatly improved my overall mood and positivity. I can definitely see myself keeping that in my daily routine and even making it an actual habit. But to be honest, it wouldn’t be a lie to say there were times when I would be ready for bed and suddenly realize that I had forgotten to call a friend, or do my third mindfulness exercise. While implementing some of these recommendations can help improve your quality of life, I would not recommend adding them all to your schedule. Trust me, it’ll be more painful than helpful.
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