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 09, Issue 41: A Proactive Approach to Health (Part IV)

As we come to the conclusion of this series, let’s consider a few more ways of taking care of ourselves proactively, rather than waiting for health issues to arise. And as I keep repeating, we are talking about things that relate to lifestyle. I reiterate again that if we can take care of those things proactively, we can reduce our risk of a lot of health issues down the road. This is no doubt a much better approach than waiting for ourselves to get sick and then starting to take care of ourselves.

So far, we have talked about practicing safe sun exposure, consistently eating a healthy diet and intentionally moving our bodies and investing in our mental health. Let’s wrap up with a few more aspect of health to be proactive about in taking care of our health and investing in our future well being.

5. Drinking water

Have you noticed that God gave us water wells, not soda, juice or coffee wells? That should tell us how important water is to our health. Drinking enough water in the right way is part of practicing good nutrition. Water plays a vital role in keeping our bodies healthy. Water helps to cleanse the colon, release toxins from the body, boost our immune systems, raise our metabolism, aids in digesting food faster and more efficiently. Water keeps our internal organs healthy and balances our body fluids.

6. Health Check Up

Having regular whole body health check ups is not a luxury when you know it's much easier to prevent a medical condition or address one at its onset than at an advanced stage. Have a whole body health check up once a year and keep a record of the results for comparison. If the check up reveals issues to be addressed, diligently follow through the corrective actions to get back in shape.

Small daily actions. If you are overwhelmed with something, break it down into smaller manageable chunks. Don't wait to be a little heavier than you ought to before you incorporate physical activity and good nutrition in your diet. Don't wait to have aches to go for a health check up.

Prevention is always better than cure. It's so much easier and enjoyable to exercise to keep fit and healthy than it is to exercise to lose excess weight. It's so much harder and frustrating to get rid of belly fat once the layer has accumulated and made itself comfortable in your midsection. It's much easier to avoid getting it in the first place through proper nutrition and exercise. It's much harder to repair years of cumulative sun damage than it is to practice safe sun exposure.

That said, it's never too late to get started on a corrective action plan. Granted, it's much harder, but it's certainly doable. So, don't let anything stop you from starting to proactively take care of your health.

For His Glory,

Lillian Chebosi