Health is wealth – diet can have an incredible impact on emotional/physical well-being.

Eating a balanced diet has many long-term benefits so is vital to understand its impact on our overall well-being.

Healthy eating can help reduce excess body weight. Green vegetables, whole fruits, healthy fats (olive oil, fish oil, nuts, and seeds), lean protein (skinless chicken breast, fish, eggs, mushrooms, tofu, and lentils), and whole grains all help lower calorie intake, increase satiety (satisfaction), and lower overall BMI.

Consuming unhealthy foods just holds you back. Maintain a balanced diet, eating everything in moderation, get in shape and feel mentally better and calmer and soldier on through life’s challenges.

Eating healthy is all about the benefits. What are you waiting for – take care of yourself!

Well-being or wellness is the condition of an individual or group of individuals.  It is a ‘state’ of comfort, healthiness, and happiness.

A high level of well-being means that in some sense the individual’s and/or group’s condition, their circumstances or factors affecting the way in which individuals live or work, is positive. Wellbeing can be higher for people who experience both positive AND negative emotions.

5 key aspects of physical health and wellness:

1. SLEEP most people need 8 hours of sleep a night to stay healthy and alert.  Maintaining a regular sleep cycle is extremely important.  Irregular or disrupted sleep cycle leave your body unprepared.  Negative symptoms (extreme fatigue, sluggishness, memory issues, emotional instability, increased sickness) are the result.
2. EATING WELL being healthy doesn’t mean going without. The body likes consistency and regularly eating healthy foods (fresh vegetables, fruits, lean meats and whole grains) provides the nutrients to support vital functions and mental well-being. Over-eating or skipping meals can upset your physical and mental health. Drinking plenty of water goes hand in hand with eating right.
3. PHYSICAL ACTIVITY while the long-term benefits of exercise are indisputable, making it a part of your daily life can be hard. The key? Find an activity that you like and you can grow into. There are hundreds of different exercise methodologies that can engage and inspire you to improve. Find out what works best for you. Team sports, walking the dog, group fitness or throwing a ball around with mates. Do what works for you.
4. HYGIENE daily practices of showering, washing hands, brushing teeth and flossing are important. Personal hygiene will keep you healthy and boost your mood, and helps to combat anxiety and depression. Putting off medical appointments out of inconvenience is not good enough. Disease prevention/intervention and early treatment is much more convenient long-term than ignoring health concerns. Get yourself sorted if you need to.
5. RELAXATION modern schedules are packed. Ambition is admirable, but scheduling time to simply relax and enjoy yourself is very important to overall health. Relaxation is important to help ease muscle tension; stress hormones can cause adrenal fatigue, you don’t need that in your life. Whether it is getting a massage, staying home with a good book or movie, or playing your favourite sport, some “me time” does everyone good. Just do it!

Taking care of your physical well-being is extremely important.

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being. Managing your health is easy, you just have to start.

Get connected with your social groups and family and friends.  Connection is very important – meet in person as much as you can and supplement your real world activities through the social networks you have at your finger tips:

• Promotion – Put yourself out there; express yourself and show support for the brand(s) you enjoy.
• Communication – instantly connect worldwide with people; make new friends; reconnect with old friends/family.
• Education – get exposed to different opinions and ideas; contribute to things with your opinion, ideas and knowledge for work or study.
• Common interest – join or build a community that is interested in the same things as you are.
• Support – Receive help with major life issues and decisions through the connections made through your social networks.
• Societal – helping with natural disasters; raising awareness of good causes; join and contribute to groups specifically focussed on improving societal ailments.

Social media exists to help users connect with friends, colleagues, family, and like-minded individuals they might never meet in person.  Like anything it has positives and negatives.

Smartphones have shifted the focus of online community building to the mobile environment. Technological improvements (in-phone cameras) have further shifted the focus to video/image. In addition to written messages, end users can now broadcast, in real time which is a revolution for connection and communication.

Human beings are social creatures and the world is driven by human interaction.  Stay connected to your people in whatever fashion works best for you.

Good emotional health leads to better physical health, prevents diseases, and makes  life more enjoyable and be happier.

Your emotions are influenced by a variety of demographic, economic, and situational factors. To disengage from emotions you have to learn to think differently.

• Decreased emotional well-being contributes to poor mental and physical health. Lower self-esteem, pessimism, emotional sensitivity, self-critical, timid, and overly worried about the future, and focused on the past all are detrimental to one’s well-being.
• Thoughts determine our feelings and these feelings generated by our thoughts release good stuff for our bodies. The body needs to continually feed off these substances to maintain this state.
• The mind and body connection is strong – mental and physical feed into each other positively and negatively.
• Feelings depend on thoughts; both determine attitude and actions and are an interpretation about what is happening in the environment.

Take the reins of your life, clean up those thoughts, master your feelings and take charge of your life. Look after yourself – there’s only one you and you’re worth all the effort