Hot mess. Does this describe you? Women are really a Swiss Army Knife with their resourcefulness and tenacious. We are the perfect human. However, we do require regular maintenance and nurturing. You must learn to Take Control of Your Health to live your best life.
In our hectic life to be more, do more and achieve more, we have forgotten to take care of ourselves. And in our hot mess of a life we have checklists.
One for shopping
one for cleaning
one for projects around the home
several for concurrent projects at work
One of those checklists should be Healthy Habits.
Creating habits, especially healthy ones are paramount to your physical, emotional, spiritual and financial well-being. Optimum wellness is achieved through a combination of healthy lifestyle behaviors and proper medical care. Your daily habits make all the difference. You can do this with a dayplanner or app to remind you and for tracking.
Few people can incorporate these simultaneously, it’s perfectly ok to start with one new (or two) for two weeks, as this is becoming a habit, like learning a new skill, as we know it takes 21 days to create a habit. As you master that habit, then move onto the next.
Self-Care & Proactive Health Care
Not surprisingly, the greatest risk factor for chronic disease is not transmittable diseases, but our own lifestyle behaviors as they have the greatest influence over our health and well-being. Be proactive in your medical care by developing a relationship with a trusted medical professional. This doesn’t mean run to the doctor for every sniffle, instead, be open to natural, holistic remedies to help your body heal itself. It is paramount to understand the issues may not need medical treatment.
Be proactive by being informed about preventative health measures and incorporating daily regimens is an important component in any lifestyle. From a healthy diet, exercise and managing stress and reducing toxic load will help you be healthy.
Reducing Toxic Load
You probably have been hearing this term lately. Toxic load refers to the volume of substances accumulated in the body and the overall burden it places on the body systems and vital organs. Toxins comes from a variety of sources such as our environment, chemicals and radiation. Chemicals can be natural or synthetic which can stress on the body. Your body has a number of passageways, in which it is directly exposed to toxins and several different mechanisms that it uses to deal with this exposure. The lungs, skin and digestive tract are the most vulnerable pathways.
We are directly exposed to toxins from the food we eat, the air we breathe and anything that comes into contact with our skin. Focus on clean, who food diet, detoxifying with regular dietary cleanse and using all-natural household, skin and hair products to support your body’s own detoxifying process. (EWG.org is a good resource)
Rest & Manage Stress
Research shows the sleep quantity and quality directly influences almost every component of our health. There is also a direct link between dysfunction in nearly every body system and sleep deficiency. Recent research suggests is has a negative influence on healthy lifestyle behaviors., especially eating healthy and exercise. Proper sleep quality and quantity and minimizing stress are important for optimum health. Sleep, like water is vital to cleansing and restoring your body’s organs.
There are numerous effective methods for managing stress from yoga and meditation to journaling, taking a creative class or starting a new hobby to exercise. Find what works for you. Explore activities that can be effective for you at different times of the day.
Exercise
Exercise doesn’t imply hitting the gym and pounding out reps and lifting weights, unless of course that’s your thing. Years of study has shown getting 30 minutes of exercise daily is the foundation for not only quality of life, but a better quality of life. Especially since you can make this a social activity as well. Regular physical activity strengthens your cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems and also your mental well-being.
The World Health Organization recommends the average adult get at least 600 metabolic equivalent minutes (METs, a metric combining both time and exercise intensity used to estimate overall energy expenditure) per week, which is the equivalent of approximately 150 minutes of brisk walking. Recent research suggests that significantly more (and more intense) activity may be necessary for the be long term health benefits. Don’t forget to stay hydrated.
Proper Nutrition
The foundation of lifelong health and vitality is how you fuel your body. A balanced, whole-food diet, complemented by the right nutritional supplements, provides your body with the essential nutrients your body needs to function at its peak. Eating healthy not only provides your body with the energy for exercise and recovery but can also help with sustaining proper rest habits and stress levels.
Minimizing or just eliminating processed foods, added sugars, and alcohol helps reduce toxins we consume also supporting our organs and functions. What you put in your body shows up on your skin too. Eating healthy doesn’t have to be expensive or difficult, it just takes a little planning.
Mental Health
Taking time to destress and address our emotions is not only smart, it helps prevent disease as well. Studies have proven that long term stress, causes inflammation which leads to chronic disease if not corrected in time. Mental health includes our emotional, psychological and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel and act as we cope with life. Mental health conditions can include depression and eating disorders to addictions and anxiety, and everyone is affected differently.
A few steps to help with stress positively include: Taking deep breathes, it sounds simple but it works. Stretching. Relaxing your muscles may help you feel less tense. Write your thoughts down in a journal. Alternately, be sure to include things you are thankful for. Meditate. Focusing the mind on a positive or neutral thought can help lower stress.
Talk to friends or family members and seek help from a professional if you need it. There is no shame in speaking with a counselor or therapist. It may also be helpful that at the end of each day to forgive yourself and anyone, or thing that may have caused you stress, so you can prevent unhealthy feelings or disease.
We’ve covered a lot here and they can all be broken down into smaller, actionable steps and healthy habits. Carve out some time to create these healthy habits for a better, happier, quality of life. Afterall, aren’t you worth it?
In Recap:
- Drink more water
- Exercise
- Meditate/yoga – to relieve stress & more
- Schedule me time, self-care
- Detox – body and home
- Check-ups, as needed, annual
- Forgive, let go negativity
Meet The Author:
Loretta Lynn is a licensed Aesthetician, with a degree in sports & fitness and communication. She is an author, essential oil junkie, believer, problem solver and marketing guru. When she isn’t holding her laptop or iphone, you can find her bike riding, camping and traveling with her best friend and soulmate, Jon, in their Airstream. Do what you love, love what you do. And take control of your health today!
FB: https://www.facebook.com/HealthEssentialsTn/
Website: https://www.lorettalynnsoils.com
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