Equipping young women professionals with young families to find fulfillment, contentment and joy as mothers and home makers without losing sight of who they are as women.

Volume 02, Issue 35: Personal Makeover IV: Physical Wellness

We all need our physique to deliver on our goals. Sometimes we take our health for granted. We don’t know how vital health is until we are on a sick bed. Has paying attention to your health been relegated to the back seat as you pursue your dreams? You are doing your future a disservice by lacking the discipline to eat healthy, keep fit, and rest.

Health is largely a product of lifestyle. Other than non-modifiable factors of genes, inborn defects, and age, health is determined by diet, exercise, rest, social, and emotional environment. Genes may load the trigger, but it is lifestyle that pulls it.

Diet is a very personal choice. As you make choices of what to eat throughout the day, keep in mind that what you eat, and how much you eat has a lasting effect on your health.

What you feed your body determines its useful life. Take care of your body and it will work for you for a long time. Consider making eating a healthy diet a lifetime goal. Though we have desires, they should not rule over us. We can exercise self-control in this area.

Exercise: The reality of life is, as most of us grow older, our metabolism will need us to partner with it to keep it going. Engage in some form of physical activity – it could be walking, swimming, working out at home or at the gym, housework, playing with your children. Do something. See what works best for you, what you will be consistent with and go for it.

Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired with how you look and feel? That is all you need to embark on a health makeover. As you do, have your priorities in the right place. The ultimate goal for eating well and working out is not to be tiny, but to become and stay healthy. You will also reap additional benefits of feeling good and up to peak performance, being strong and fit, and last but not least, looking good.

Rest: We allow ourselves little rest especially when it comes to pursuit of professional goals. Yet at the end of the chase, our professional success will be hollow without the health and key relationships to enjoy it. Know your physical limitations and take the time to rest.

Constantly being on the go adds up to high stress levels that cause the body to rebel against us. Most health problems are now being associated not just to diet but our heightened stress levels. Our bodies are pleading with us to slow down, yet many are guilty of ignoring the warning signs. Well, if you don’t listen to your body, it will still have the last say. Find ways to slow down your life. Take a moment and enjoy doing absolutely nothing every now and then.

You may think that you can’t afford to take so much time away from your duties, real or imagined. The truth of the matter is, you can’t afford not to rest. God took time to rest. Shouldn’t we follow his example and call all activity to a halt and rest? Find out what promotes rest and relaxation for you and be sure to indulge in it to restore your body.

Mentally, learn how to disconnect from your work once you leave it. Find a way to hit the off button in your mind and refuse to over-think issues. Stop and take time to think about absolutely nothing.

Lillian Chebosi