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Healthy Living tips for Teens

1. Avoid fad diets. Keep junk food minimal or skip it completely. Try to keep your weight matched to your height. If you find yourself avoiding eating entirely, or bingeing and then vomiting or purging in other ways, get HELP as soon as possible. Be sure to enjoy the wonderful array of tastes and textures of nutritious unprocessed foods. We now know that the chemicals and fiber in many fruits, vegetables and whole grains help to control weight, to keep blood fats balanced, and to prevent cancer or cancer recurrence. You are what you eat- it does matter!

2. Make a decision not to smoke or chew tobacco. Who needs to smell that bad anyway...and why spend all that time in treatment just to chew or breath-in potent cancer causing agents??

3. Decide on a plan to stay physically active. Avoid excessive TV watching or computer use.

4. Brush and floss to promote healthy teeth and gums. Go for preventive dental care two times/year. Lower cost options are often available; check with your local health department.

5. Getting immunized protects you from a variety of life threatening diseases. Immunizations are sometimes free from your health department and some student health services.

6. Buckle your seat belt whenever in a car, and use helmets for biking, rollerblading, skateboarding, and horseback riding. Use sporting safety equipment as dictated by the sport or recreational activity of choice.

7. Make safe dating decisions. Never assume anything. Do not go to an isolated location with someone you barely know or anyone who might pressure you for sex.

8. Promote good mental health through a focus on positive relations with friends and family, respecting the rights and needs of others, thinking about educational and job goals during the progression through the teen years, paying attention to stress management, actively working at improving your overall social skills, and taking the opportunity to serve others in the community. Talk about your feelings. You don't have to tough it out alone. Consider counseling and/or medication for signs of anxiety and depression that do not clear-up on their own. Do not keep suicidal thoughts and feelings to yourself; let others help you.

9. Do not join a gang. Do not carry a weapon. Steer clear of youth with guns. Do not use or sell drugs. Take seriously a classmate's threat to use violence against you or anyone else; report it.

10. Do not drink illegally as a minor, and drink responsibly as an adult, if at all. Never drink and drive. Never ride in a car when the driver is under the influence of alcohol or other drugs (even prescription drugs that make a person sleepy.)

11. Learn about the normal changes of adolescence. Help your parents to find resources to understand you better.
Some resources are:
McIntire, Roger. "Teenagers and Parents: 10 Steps for a Better Relationship" 1996. Summit Crossroads Press. 3rd ed.
Ponton, Lynn. "The Romance of Risk: Why Teenagers do the Things They Do" 1997. Basic Books Division of Harper Collins.

12. Prior to becoming sexually intimate with a partner, think about the powerful emotions that accompany these relationships. Learn more about human sexuality generally, and learn how to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Do not allow yourself to be pressured into sexual contact; you're too important and there are too many risks involved with sexual activity. If you have been, or are being, forced to have sexual contact with someone, please seek help from a responsible adult.