Healthy
Living: Nathan Chapleau

It’s that time of year again- track season. Time to work off all the chub acquired over the winter. Students work tirelessly for hours upon hours every afternoon. One such athlete is Nathan Chapleau (10). Although he “doesn’t like (track) at all,” Chapleau works hard to “stay in shape.” Much like Nike, Chapleau’s advice to the world is “just do it” and live an active life. Chapleau lives an incredibly healthy lifestyle, which made him the perfect candidate for a small experiment.

On Monday, March 16, I asked Chapleau to eat nothing but healthy food for the next five days straight; he I also asked him to record his weight and what he ate. As a result of his exercise and healthy eating, he stayed a healthy weight of 146-148 pounds for the five days. He felt energized and attentive. Chapleau said eating healthy makes it, “easier to concentrate in school throughout the day.” He also said eating unhealthy foods makes him feel, “tired and lazy and just not engaged.” Jett Gonzales (11) agreed with Chapleau when he said, “I feel better after eating healthy because I’m not upset by greasy food.”

Having a healthy lifestyle, like Chapleau’s, is very appealing but may also seem like hard work. Susan Livingston, Food Service Director of Portage Public Schools, said, “The key is balance.” Livingston went on to say that it is ok to eat unhealthy foods at times, but not “every day, every meal.” She said trying new foods is vital for a long, healthy life.

Chapleau is a kind, well-loved student, and this may be a result of his lack of exhaustion thanks to his healthy eating. By following in his footsteps, one may also live a healthy energetic lifestyle and maybe even become a successful athlete.

Unhealthy eating: Nic Prowse

The battle of junk food and nutritious food is finally put to the test with our Portage Northern Huskie candidates, Nic Prowse (10) and Nathan Chapleau (10). The plan behind the diet experiment is selecting one student to eat junk food for 5 days and one student to eat healthy food for 5 days (no cheating!).

On Monday, March 16, 2015, Prowse fearlessly volunteered to eat junk food for a duration of five days. This is possibly the easiest diet with the simplest instructions: weigh yourself throughout the five days and record the food you eat. Now I know what most people are thinking, the student assigned to the junk food diet has to be the luckiest student out of the experiment. However, Prowse learns about the consequences caused by unhealthy eating habits but also finds some positives about junk food.

After the five day junk food diet ended, he was happy to go back to his normal diet, but he revealed two reasons why he would miss the junk food experience. One reason was the freedom of the diet, “I just ate whatever I wanted but specified only to junk food,” said Prowse. With the expansion of the food industry, the problem won’t be finding junk food but what junk food to eat out of the large assortment. The ultimate reason why Prowse will miss the junk food diet is because of the deliciousness, and trust me, most people agree that junk food has flavors healthier alternatives cannot even come close to producing. “The only positive [contribute] about junk food is that it tastes good,” said Prowse.

Even with the positives on junk food, there are negatives that tip the scale towards unhealthy consequences. “Junk food is more of a negativity because there’s so many cons of junk food like gaining weight. If you do eat a lot [of junk food] you can feel sluggish and depressed, and even hungrier, so when you eat you overindulge,” said Prowse. Even Prowse experienced the side effect of weight gain, starting at the weight of 147 and ending at a weight of 149.6. Sadly, even with these listed side effects, there are people that eat junk food everyday throughout their lives. If people want to continue eating excessive junk food, there are ways to maintain your health but it requires time and energy. “I wouldn’t advise people to eat like this every single day of their lives, but I guess eating like that is okay if you have a lot of exercise,” said Prowse.

Overall, junk food may taste better than healthier snacks, but when it comes to the pros and cons, the cons outweigh the pros and leaves hungry high schoolers with one piece of advice: “You have to be in the best shape you can be to feel as good as you want to be,” said Prowse.