I don’t know about you but when I hear the words “getting healthy” it makes me think of complex nutrition plans with terminology only a scientist could understand, “detoxes” involving fruit infused water, and people slaving on a cross trainer for hours in the gym.
To be honest that doesn’t fill me with inspiration and I doubt it does to you too. Not only that but these regimes are aimed at younger people who are already relatively healthy.
They certainly don’t consider that you may be chronically fatigued, have aches and pains all over or that you could have undiagnosed digestive issues and hormonal imbalances.
Health has become over complicated and yet it shouldn’t be.
I’m going to simplify health in this article so much so that you can go out and begin improving your health right away. I’m aiming this article at people who are as unhealthy and unfit as they could be because if they can do something, you can too.
So what does being healthy really mean?
According to the World Health Organisation “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
So to be healthy it is simply not enough to not be ill and not be injured. To experience the real definition of health you need to feel great physically, not just free of injury but feel energetic with ease of movement. You need to feel good mentally, with an ability to cope with the stresses thrown at you and see life in a positive way. Lastly to have a good social environment, with people around you (even if it’s only one or two people) who you can communicate with and rely on for support in some way.
I see health as a state which we are constantly trying to build on. Each component needs to be worked on constantly.
Right now you may look at the above statements and think that it is unachievable. You may have suffered limb amputation from the effects of type 2 diabetes which has led to severe depression and social anxiety and a sense of isolation.
You may be a single mum bringing up two kids worried about making ends meet and putting them first at the expense of your own fitness and enjoyment of life.
It doesn’t matter who you are or what your state of health is right now. The aim is not to achieve perfection any time soon. There’s always something small that can be done to take the first step. It’s about taking the situation you are in now and starting from there.
Where do you start with improving your health?
The first thing to know is that to get healthy you don’t need to starve yourself on a diet. If you’re overweight, weight loss should not be your focus. Weight loss will happen naturally as a side effect of improving your health.
Your body is an amazing machine, despite what you think of it and what state it is in right now it has the potential to do great things if you let it. Right now you may think of your body as a rusty old machine or the ruins of what was once a great building.
But in order to start rebuilding your body you need to start giving it some building blocks.
STEP 1- Supply quality building blocks. Nutrition
The building blocks of your body comes from food. Real food.
Nutrition can get too complicated too quickly. There is no best diet, apart from the one that works for you to get you feeling better.
So to begin with forget about things like protein, fats and carbohydrates, that’s irrelevant right now. Instead focus on adding in more natural foods across a spectrum of colours (see the picture). Try to eat the colours of the rainbow, at first aim to get all the colours in throughout the week.
For example add a handful of blueberries (purple) in on day 1, some peas (green) on day 2, some mushrooms (white/brown) on day 3, on day 4 add some carrots (yellow/orange), then on day 5 add some tomatoes (red) and keep going through this cycle.
It almost becomes like a game, especially if you have kids. Eventually as this becomes easier just add more colour in each day with the aim of eating all the colours every day.
As you focus on adding in the colour you are adding in a whole bunch of nutrients, minerals and vitamins as well as increasing your natural fibre, all of which will start giving your body the fuel it needs to do the jobs it wants to do.
STEP 2- Move More (Exercise)
Don’t worry, you don’t have to go to the gym or do anything too strenuous.
There’s always something you can do no matter what your physical ability or condition is. All you need to do is move. Move your arms, move your legs. Stand up, walk around, sit down, repeat. Go for a walk, climb some stairs, just get some fresh air.
Movement gets blood moving around your body, it gets your muscles fired up and it gets you breathing more.
As you move around you start sweating which is one of the ways your body removes toxins. Not only that but as you’re moving around you start to breathe faster and deeper which is also another way your body removes waste products from your body.
Another great way to get out and move more is to find someone to go with you. This is good because it means you have company and can chat with someone which makes the time go quicker. It also makes it easier to do something and not put it off until later.
STEP 3- Drink More
Everyone knows they should drink more water but for some people it can be a real chore. One of the issues is that they put too much pressure on drinking too much.
Water is important because it increases the removal of toxins from the body. The more toxins you have coming out the healthier you will become. Not only that but water aids in the function of just about every process in your body including your brain.
Rather than aiming for 8 glasses a day, just aim on drinking 1 more than normal. So if you don’t drink any water in a day, just have 1 glass per day either first thing in the morning or just before you go to bed.
Eventually this will become part of a routine at which point you can add a second glass of water. Over time you just build in an additional glass to the day.
If you want to create a game out of it, aim to drink more water each day until your urine becomes light straw coloured. Should it becomes more yellow, drink more or it it becomes clear, you’ve done well.
STEP 4- Sleep
Many of our clients don’t even realise that they’re not getting enough sleep or the sleep they are getting is just not good quality sleep.
Not only do they not realise these things but they also think that there’s nothing wrong with the sleep they are getting. To them it’s normal to wake up still feeling tired. They just tell us that they are “night owls”.
Sleep is incredibly important for your physical health and your mental health and having poor sleep will disrupt your natural hormone patterns making it harder for you to feel good.
We recommend you should be in bed with your lights off by 10:00pm.
Now for some of you that might seem impossible because you’re going to bed at 12/1am and suddenly switching to 10:00pm will just mean you’re lying in bed for hours struggling to fall asleep.
Well all you need to do is start getting to bed 15 minutes earlier each week. This small and subtle change will go unnoticed by you and your body until eventually you are able to manage 10:00pm.
Trust me, you’ll feel much better for it!
Let’s go.
That will do for now. There’s plenty in there to begin getting on with. As you follow the future blogs you’ll pick up more and more nuggets of wisdom which you can build upon.
For now though, work on the basics. Increase your vegetable intake, drink more water, move more and get to bed earlier.
If you need more support with a health issue then do get in touch with us. We will be able to assess your current situation and then recommend to you a plan of action.
Call us on 0203 356 7060 or email us at info@precisionwellbeing.co.uk