Body, Soul, and Spirit are the make up of each individual person. Each aspect of a persons being needs a particular form of care. What we all need is similar however it varies in terms of physical, emotional, and mental make up. This blog post is focused on the body. The body is your physique; the form, size and make up of your person. There are five areas of care when it comes to your body: eating, drinking, exercise, sleep/rest, going to see medical professionals.
EATING-We tend to eat things that taste good and feed the stomach but not the body. Did you know it is possible to feed the stomach and still starve the body? We do it everyday. If you tend to eat primarily carbs and meat and rarely eat fruits and vegetables, guilty. If you eat at a fast food joint more than four times a week, guilty. If you eat foods and vegetables primarily non-organic (genetically modifiedFoods), guilty. If you do most of your grocery shopping down the aisles and not on thr permeates, guilty. In other words the American diet. During the ten minutes I studied nursing I took organic chemistry. It is the study of the bodies processing on a cellular level. I learned no matter what we ingest it all gets broken down into molecules which are combined with others to feed the cells. The body needs certain molecules which only comes from plants in order to process certain foods. In addition plants tend to contain at a cellular level not only the nutrients we need but the enzyme the body needs to properly absorb the nutrients. So, what I am saying is your Mama was right you need to eat your veggies. Organic, local and fresh is best. Organic frozen is next. Organic canned. If you can not eat organic local fresh or frozen is your best choice. Red meat is all that bad, but grass fed beef is less likely yo have hormones. The same is true of free range poultry.
DRINKING-Water intake is most important here. The average person should drink half their body weight in ounces every day. They used to say eight, eight ounce glasses. But, that was when the average woman weighed between 120 &130 pounds. Now that weight varies so much this is the standard. You can drink other things as well coffee, tea, juices are better than soda, fruit punches or kook-aid. You can cut down on juice by doing half water half juice. If you are going to drink diet soda try Zevia it is made with stevia a natural sugar substitute. It is available in most health food stores and many Kroger's carry it.
EXERCISE- there are three typesofexercise you should incorporate in your routine you can alternate getting them in 30 minutes a day. Cardiovascular this includes walking, running, swimming, bike riding, skating and aerobic classes. Muscle Stregnthening which includes weight training isometrics, and body building. And finally stretching,. This includes yoga, Pilates, ballet exercises, and general stretching. For people who have trouble with body movement I recommend T-Tapp a form of exercise which encompasses all of the above.
SLEEP/REST-we Americans also fail to get enough rest. The average adult needs ten hours of rest a day. This includes eight hours of sleep and two hours of rest. Please note I said needs not gets. Many people tend to think sleep is a waste of time. But, in fact our bodies are working hard on the cellular level as we are in sleep mode. While awake our bodies, do not do the self-maintaining it needs to keep the body running at peak effiency. It is too busy in wake mode keeping us conscious, thinking processing information etc. When we sleep the body, finishes processing our food and deliver needed nutrients to the cell. Disposes of red and white blood cells which are not needed and produce new ones. Creates new hormones for the body to use. Gets rid of old skin and hair cells. Grows new skin and bone as needed. It fights off illness to prevent us from gettingsick, cleanses organs like the gall bladder, kidneys, and liver. Along with a whole host of other things which would take up pages which OI do not have. Let me just say sleep is important. There is a blog piece I wrote earlier this year on how teens are greatly influenced by their parents sleep habits. I note this because I want to reinforce the fact-children live what they see modeled. If you want your children to have good sleeping habits do what you want them to do!Rest-take time to just relax and be quiet sometime during the day and insist your children do too. I suggest a quiet half hour after everyone gets home. No video games or electronics. Just activities like reading coloring, looking at magazines napping, daydreaming etc.
Mental Health-Mental wellness comes from focusing on the positive. In these times that is easier said than done. I think we start by choosing to limit our news intake to no more than 1 hour per day. This will give us enough time to know what is happening without it overloading us. Then choose to think about and do things that mmake you happy and content. Focus on getting your work done and get satisfaction from what you are doing. Spend time engaging in your favorite hobby or start a new one. Play gtames with your kids. Watch some comedies. Have long phone, skype, or FB chats with family and friends. FStart a gratitude jornal. Chosse to be as positive as possible!
MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS-this is an easy one. I am just going to say it. Go! Doctor, dentist, eye doctor, ENT, etc
Self-care is one of the things children catch from observing their parents. We rarely talk about taking care of ourselves or not. We just do or don't. For the sake of your kids do. Children deserve to have healthy, happy parents.
Believe in Parenting
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