In the first chapter of My Health, there is a great amount of information given to help kick off a healthy change for any individual in the long term. This textbook is great for making you aware of what to expect when making any type of change to your lifestyle and what you can do to help yourself be able to adopt a new healthy way of living or even just implementing small healthy changes you want to have in your life or daily routine.
I loved learning from the text that gives suggestions on strategies to adopt to help ease into creating a change in your life; such as mindfulness. I think that this is huge for everyone and not just when making a change. Mindfulness can help you create a routine or relationship from yourself that you accept and love fully, that you do not need to create an outlet to run away from. Creating a change you need to be mindful that there are going to be struggles and victories and forgiving and loving yourself each step of the way to help continue to push your forward and uplift you to reach your goals.
Also, I never knew how there are six interrelated dimensions to health in wellness. There is physical health, social health, intellectual health, emotional health, spiritual health, and environmental health. Of course, reading this is seems like it would be so obvious, but I think it is easy to lose sight of all of these different dimensions or focusing too much on one or two and neglecting the others. I love learning about this and how there are so many different concepts that go into health. It is not just if you chose an apple over fries or what the number on the scale is.
Learning your relationship with these different dimensions and what you would like it to look like for you is so important and I think it helps us be more confident, healthy, happy, and motivated in life. For my healthy lifestyle change, I want to work on creating a diet more focused on clean eating. I strongly dislike the word diet since I do not believe in diets, but I will just consider this an “open diet” focused on clean eating. I have always dealt with having a sensitive stomach and being lactose intolerant, but will still not focus on what I am putting in my body. This past year I just realized I have had enough with feeling low energy and just terrible with how I felt and I am aware it is because of what I put in my body.
Lastly, for this chapter learning about setting health objectives was new to me. I know how important this can be to achieve goals and seeking what you want, but I never knew really how to or what it would like, or even what it would look like for me. These are all adjectives and goals I want for myself. Learning about how setting your health as a priority really can allow you to check off goals while also allowing you to make your own goals and what is healthy for you and makes you happy.
I have downloaded an app to start me off to help me log what I eat and will use it for when I’m out and when I get home I will log it in a journal and note how I felt after eating it. I hope to learn what foods are helping and hurting me and begin to eliminate foods. I do not want to say I will eliminate it, but be more mindful about it. For example, If I know Ice cream is going to make my body hurt I might save that for a night I am staying in or finding alternatives that make me still feel good but able to enjoy ice cream. I have attached a photo of the app I chose to download to help keep track of what I’m eating and also learn to be aware of how much food I am eating and maybe finding a healthier amount of calories for me and foods that give my body the fuel it needs to be healthy.
Samantha Lundrigan - Health & Wellness 