Embracing life – Holistically

Holistic Health is one of those concepts being thrown around these days, and a lot of people don’t necessarily understand what it’s all about.

The Institute for Holistic Health studies, defines it as being, “an approach to life that considers multi-dimensional aspects of wellness. It encourages individuals to recognize the whole person: physical, mental, emotional, social, intellectual, and spiritual.”

Now what does this mean?

Instead of seeing your health journey as the one-dimensional thought pattern, brought about by society, as ‘I only need to lose weight.’ Or ‘I have to exercise more, so I can feel better, or stress less.’ To an approach where you look at all the aspects that make up YOU!

Your relationships, sleep, eating patterns, emotional stresses and strains, what makes you tick and so much more. A Holistic Health Coach can help you navigate this. It’s hard to want to get all of these things right in one go. So this is where the guidance comes in. Feel free to contact me separately if you are struggling to keep all your ducks in a row, and are in need of some guidance🤍🤍

Now if you’re like me, scaling the internet for the latest research on the best ways to lead a consistent and positive existence, you’ve seen the lists; the tips on how to start living more healthily. Here is another one of those lists, and hopefully it will help you to gauge where it is you need to start to get on the path of Holistic Living.

Start small

It doesn’t help you to push yourself to reach your goals in record time. Nothing that comes easy is worth having. If you wanted to lose weight in a short amount of time, chances are that you’ll gain it back just as fast.

Take the harder steps, be forgiving when you don’t reach your goals fast. Be gentle. If you are out there looking for excuses, you will find them.

Make your targets achievable, for example, If you want to reduce screen time before bed, try 15 minutes, and extend the time as you progress.

Stop counting Calories

Counting calories gives us an unhealthy obsession with food, not only that, this method of weight loss is quite antiquated. The sad truth about our diet culture is the fact that we are getting so many different points of view, but that’s exactly what they are subjective statements. Going into the science behind nutrition, Harvard Medical School’s Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity specialist and assistant professor of medicine and paediatrics says, that “calorie counting is outdated.”

There are many other factors that act on our ability to lose weight, which includes our gut microbes as well as individual metabolism and lifestyle factors as well as a billion other factors. We are all uniquely made up, so following a universal diet just doesn’t make sense.

Eat your Vegetables

Yes, yes I know! But these days vegetables are very trendy. You won’t just look cool eating them, but you will feel even cooler. The Longevity Blue zones, this is where a concentrated area of people that live beyond 100 live. These countries include; Sardinia, Italy, Okinawa, Japan, Loma Linda, CA, USA, Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica, and Ikaria, Greece.

How do they live so long? Not by restricting their diets. Shocker!! But due to their genetics and the environment that has very little stressors they are able to live very long, healthy lives.

Just move

Earlier this month, I was pressing myself to get out there and run, and go for a workout and pushing myself mentally, to a point where I no longer felt the need or want to exercise. The key here is small steps. Oh man, these are the keys to life, the moves we make to reach our goals. Just move your body. Stretch for 5 minutes before you go to bed if that’s all you have. We forget how grateful we should be, just our ability to get out of bed in the morning should be something worthy of being grateful for.

You don’t have to run a half marathon in 1 week, you can simply go for a casual stroll, or do some stretches while you watch television. Make it simple, and don’t forget to do something you enjoy.

Please don’t try to do everything in one day. We are only human, and we can only do our best. Whatever that means to you! No one is perfect and no one will ever be perfect. Hold onto hope and be the best version of yourself. Motivation moment over, but seriously, be more forgiving to yourself🤍

Xoxo Dan the Wooman