Staying Healthy

Yes, I’m a marriage and family therapist and yes, I’m human and yea, sometimes, I feel I need to be superhuman to keep up with my day.  The days I’m down, cold, PMS or tired are the days I realize I have superhuman powers and can accomplish a lot.  So on the days that I’m off, I rest, refuel and take care of my health.  There are some things that I do to keep myself in check and I thought I would share them with you.

Get your physical

Go to your doctor yearly.  Yes, make the appointment, get the blood work.  Even if you feel okay, it’s a good idea to get checked out.

You are what you eat

I realize that for my body, I need to eat a ton of protein to feel better.  I realized this when my 1st born was not crazy about me drinking caffeine while breastfeeding her (fyi, no feelings about bottle or breast, just sharing).  Since I couldn’t have caffeine, I had to do something to survive without sleep.  I reduced my carbs and upped my protein and was able to get through it.  Even now, I realize that the cleaner I eat, the more energy I have.  Eating clean means understanding the labels.  If there are ingredients that make no sense to you then you don’t want them in your body!

Get some sleep

Easier said than done but when you sleep, you refuel your body.  Everyone’s different.  I need about 7 hours of quality sleep in order to function at superhuman ability.  If I get less or bad sleep, I go into reserve mode throughout the day and excitedly await bedtime that night.  Enjoy your sleep.  If you have trouble turning off the day, read, take a bath, shut off the electronics and hit the hay!

Exercise

This should be a given right?   There are so many options to exercise now whether you need to be at a gym or home or maybe take a walk, swim or bike.  Get your body moving everyday for at least 30 minutes to improve your health.

Socialize

By this I mean actually getting together with people, not on social media.  Laughing is arguably one of the best stress relievers out there.  Find a great friend that makes you laugh and hang out.  Yes, I know that life is incredibly busy, but you are important and so is your health.  Enjoying yourself and having something to look forward to can be very rewarding.

Now go get healthy!

As with everything I write, I believe what I write.  I do all of these and more to stay physically healthy which leads to staying mentally healthy.  To give yourself the time to “be” and enjoy yourself knowing you’re healthy, enjoying life, sleeping, eating well and laughing I would say that your outlook on life would be pretty great!  

Enjoy, and as always, let me know how you stay healthy.  Always looking to add to my list!