When most of us are waking up to the annoying sound of our alarm clocks, 18-year-old WHS senior Samir Jahic is clocking out after a 8-hour shift as a security guard. As he sits in first hour coping with his grueling headaches, he anxiously awaits the moment that he can go home and rest.

Samir’s weekly sleep routine is about 2-3 hours of sleep after school each day before he heads out to work.

Samir confesses that he never catches up on sleep, but has found ways around his feelings of exhaustion.

“My mom makes good meals and I have adjusted to cold showers,” he said.

Like Samir, teenagers ignore their bodies cry for proper nutrition and sleep. We tell ourselves “this is the last day that I will eat those melt in your mouth chocolate chip cookies that are so popular at lunch.”

Or teenagers decide to go out for pizza at 8 p.m. with friends on a school night. Not that having a social life is bad, but eventually teenagers crash.

The result of this so called “crash” can be fatigue, illness, or maybe even an emotional breakdown.This doesn’t mean that if you break up with your spouse you can blame it on improper nutrition or lack of sleep (sounds a lot easier though!).

According to Health South nutritionist Faith Kube, excercise is the most effective energy booster.

“ Teens don’t realize that sustained energy helps the body function efficiently,” said Kube. By saying this, she means that it is better for teens to have a constant high energy level that is natural instead of an energy boost caused by a supplement.

If exercise is the number one factor in an energized lifestyle then athletes have a major advantage.

Senior Amy Boyer is an all-around athlete, participating in cross country, basketball and track. Aside from the fact that she only gets 3-5 hours of sleep a night, she also takes AP classes.

“To stay healthy I eat fruit and pasta,” said Boyer. “Pasta is great if you need carbs!”

Boyer said that she makes an effort to stay healthy to keep in peak condition for her rigorous sports schedule.

“Before a major sports meet, I eat a peanut butter sandwich for extra energy, and listen to fast music,” said Boyer

Staying healthy and fit is a number one priority of the WHS physical educacion program. The district physical education program has recently been awarded a $1.5 mllion grant.

Girls’ physical education coach, Wendy Seaman said, “The grant is a major asset to the program because it allows us to do things that we could not do otherwise.”

With new funding comes new inspiration. Students are now encouraged to learn about cardio and muscular endurance.

Seaman’s classes reflect this new change. Not only do they learn sports like badminton and swim, they monitor their individual fitness progress. RAMS really are charging towards new hights