The fight for fitness and health can be a difficult one. In most cases, even if people won’t admit it, if they’re not healthy they want to be, and for people who are healthy they want to stay that way.Many of the students at Southwest are well acquainted with the prospect of just how important being healthy can be.“I think that being healthy is good for your self-esteem, and it’s good for others to see that you’re positive about yourself, and that it reflects positively on others,” sophomore Kendall Miller said.

Being healthy does more than just express your self-respect to others.

“I think once you adapt that type of lifestyle; you’re happier ,and you feel better about yourself; it motivates you to do stuff,” sophomore Alexandra Griffith said.

Also, more than the emotional and motivational level, there is also a blunt way to go about it.

“It’s very important [to be healthy],” senior Kendall Small said “If you’re not healthy, you’re not going to live. You know you’re going to die, and you’re going to have a terrible life.”

According to a study done by Technorati Inc., decades of dietary abuse is linked with metabolic dysfunction in the brain. Diets rich in artificial fats and sugars (trans fats and high fructose corn syrup) can actually alter the architecture of brain cells, leading to poor circulation, lowered metabolism and damage to areas of the brain which control appetite regulation.

“It’s all of the junk foods, here,” junior Douglas Dowell said. “There are so much sugars and fats, and no one really takes it into account.

They just see it and eat it.

Depressed people are twice as likely to be overweight, and people who are overweight are twice as likely to become depressed, anxious or to suffer from other mental health problems, according to msnbc.com.

“I think some different reasons [that people are unhealthy today] might be because, they’re unmotivated about themselves, and they really don’t have an interest in being healthy,” Griffith said. “I feel like once unhealthy has become a habit for you it’s really hard to break.”

The unhealthy habits that some people have can be very hard to keep track of.

“I just think they don’t exercise or play any sports or anything,” Small said. “Then they start getting big you know, and they don’t see it as a problem and it just progress and gets worse.”

Now that there has been some light shed on to the reasons some people are unhealthy, there is now the matter of staying healthy and getting healthy.

“I think of my body as my machine,” Dowell said. “I’m trying to take care of it. I go to the gym every day, I don’t pay that close attention to my [eating habits], but I do pay attention to it. I stay away from fats and carbs, just high proteins and things like that, healthy foods.”

Miller says that she uses consistency by playing volleyball three to four times a week with games on Saturday and Sunday to remain healthy.

“During the winter when volleyball is over for school I work out in the fitness center,” Miller said. “I eat right. I eat a lot of fruits, not a lot of vegetables, but fruits.”

The key to being healthy is just a little bit of hard work and resisting bad habits. One could run a certain distance at least once every two days or closely watch eating habits. Students could take a weights or personal fitness class. However, most people know how to get healthy so the question is; why it is a problem in the first place, and what things could be done to prevent it as a whole.

“Either kids don’t care or they’re not informed on the health problem,” Dowell said. “Like taking it [the health class] as a freshman, you’re kind of set in your ways. Like food education and your body need to be [taught] in elementary school. It needs to be the foundation there instead of in high school.”There are many precautionary measures future generations can take in order to stay healthy.

“You can’t really force somebody to change, it’s up to them,” Small said. “Just nag them, 24/7, that’s what I did with my mom. She’s running miles now, she’s working out with me at home after school. Figure out what works best with the person; you got to know the person.”