By CATHY ANN SCHMIT
Editor’s Note: This package is the first in a two part series about college students committing to eat healthier and exercise more.
Lifestyle Management 129, a combined health and physical education course, serves not only as an incentive for New Year’s resolutions, but also allows an opportunity for a lifestyle change through the personalized health and fitness program it offers everyone who takes the class.
Health/Physical Education 129 teachers have received several visits and letters from students who finished the class, which fulfills BYU requirements, and have testified it changed their lives. The department received two thank-you letters this past semester.
Despite some controversy over making the class a requirement, it is still here. HE/PE 129 is conducted by a group of faculty members, each specializing in a specific area covered during the semester.
“It’s a matter of life and death. Lifestyle Management teaches how to have a good quality of life,” said Philip Allsen, one of the instructors of HE/PE 129.
The class focuses on teaching clear and correct principles that will result in a higher quality of life if they are implemented, said Larry Tucker and Barbara Lockhart of the Physical Education Department.
Tucker said the quality of life is a result of lifestyle — a lifestyle taught throughout the semester in hopes of having the students apply what they learn to the rest of their lives. Lockhart said HE/PE 129 offers potential for people to have a happy life.
“It helps people get where they need to be … In the long run, you will have a high mental, spiritual and physical quality of life,” said L. McKay Rollins, head instructor of HE/PE 129.
One advantage of the class is the focus it places on the individual; the fitness program is adjusted to fit the individual’s life. Lockhart said that HE/PE 129 is based on both the spiritual and physical aspects of a person’s life.
“The class helps students develop a love for the body; it helps them to celebrate the beauty of the body which is a gift from Heavenly Father,” she said.
Lockhart believes that health is a way to show Heavenly Father reverence for life. Allsen quoted a scripture, 2 Nephi 2:25, in describing what health can do for people.
“Men are that they might have joy,” he said, “you cannot have joy without your health.”
Lockhart said she is involved in a fitness program which she has been researching for twelve years. The program consists of relaxation and exercise alternated every few minutes, she said.
Rollins said he participates in a regular fitness program consisting of walking, rest and nutrition.
The instructors are not the only people who stand behind the class. Heather Ewell, from Texas, said she stayed with the program and saw definite improvement.
“It is a great class, a wonderful class,” Ewell said.
If the general education requirement for physical education is already filled, do not worry. The fitness program can be incorporated into anyone’s life anytime. For more information, call the Y-Be-Fit office at 378-4494.
