Physical Fitness

Physical wellbeing is characterised by healthy habits and behaviours that help you achieve sufficient quality sleep, nutrition and exercise in your daily life.

Habits and goals

Instilling healthy habits can be acquired during intentional goal pursuit and require a direct cue, behaviour response and reward. Breaking unhealthy habits takes intentional effort, as does replacing behaviours with healthier ones (Gaines, 2021).

Sleep

Sleep is instrumental in emotional and cognitive processes that affect attention, compassion, empathy and memory consolidation ultimately impacting psychological wellbeing and academic performance (Alhola, & Polo-Kantola, 2007; Gerace & Rigney, 2020).

Nutrition

Nutrients play an important role in brain development, neuroplasticity and therefore cognitive functioning. Research indicates that poor nutrition is related to depressive symptoms in addition to memory and executive functioning deficits (Costello et al., 2021; Gómez-Pinilla, 2008; Spencer et al., 2017).

Exercise

School-based physical activity interventions are found to be effective in boosting physical health amongst adolescents with a contagion effect possible to proximal adults (Voll, 2012). Most effective interventions are those that encourage inclusivity of friendships, provide choice, self-monitoring opportunities and scaffolds for effective and personalised goal setting (Luna et al., 2019; Mavilidi et al., 2020).