Prioritize your own health:
When we normally see the life of women, we can see women can prioritize everything before their health. They prioritize their kids, spouses and other significant peoples or jobs before their own health. Whereas, every woman should know that it’s really important to prioritize their own health in order for them to be really helpful to other people around them including their families and friends.
Stop thinking and talking about your work/life balance:
Women should stop thinking and talking about their work/life balance. Because what it does is, it creates expectations that at some moment you’re going to achieve perfection where you feel totally at peace because your work is balanced with your life, and everybody is so happy. And the reality is much messier… which can frustrate a woman’s mind greatly. At this stage, it becomes difficult for her to accept that there is no such thing as work/life balance. Hence, women need to embrace the imbalance of it, the messiness, the imperfection and be okay with that, that they are doing their best in every moment they’re in, to be present and fully engaged in that moment. Some days a woman can be a great MOM… some days she is a great LEADER… Some days she’s a great WIFE, other days, not so much. Women’s need to be okay with that, there should be self-empathy… self-compassion… caring for yourself… there’s also forgiving. You can’t be all those things. Let that perfection state go and just be where you are in the moment. It can be very valuable for your mental health.
Healthy diet:
A healthy diet can lead to a healthy woman. We all know that in our culture it’s not a common thing to get a healthy diet and especially enough vegetables. It’s very important for women to eat vegetables and highly recommended by nutritionists to fill a lot at least half your plate at dinner with non-starchy vegetables. That’s basically any vegetable you can think of besides, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, and peas. Those are great too but you’d include that as the carbohydrate on the plate, not as the vegetable.
Find time for yourself:
It’s very important for women to find time for themselves. “What is it that you used to do that you loved so much, that you never do anymore because you don’t have time?” whatever that is, when you figure it out, it’s not an indulgence. It’s essential to your IDENTITY… your HUMANITY… your grounding in the world… your ability to be the most effective PARTNER…PARENT…PHYSICIAN…COWORKER…COLLEAGUE that you can be. And that’s what every woman wants to be.
Bone Health:
Women should make bone health a priority. Osteoporosis is a condition of thinning bones that make people, especially women, more likely to fracture. Osteoporosis occurs in men and women, but 80% of the people with osteoporosis are women. It’s an asymptomatic condition. People don’t know that their bone density is going down. People don’t know what they’re losing bone mass. And people don’t know that they are at risk for fracture. So that would be the one thing women should don’t let their bones get weak. Don’t let their bones osteopenic or osteoporotic because those fractures that can occur can be quite disabling and sometimes life-threatening.
Three pillars of wellness:
There are three pillars of wellness. As research shows, wellness is like a pyramid, with three different pillars: eating patterns, activity patterns, and rest and relaxation patterns. And there’s tremendous synergy among them. You go for a great walk, you sleep better. You get a lousy night’s sleep; you circle the vending machines all day. Eat too much, you don’t feel like moving. Everything is connected, and you can leverage the synergy to make small improvements feel like a million bucks.
Permitting yourself to carve out that small amount of time for yourself:
For women, a lot of it is about permitting yourself, to carve out that small amount of time for yourself. A lot of women carry guilt that they’re not doing things as well as they would like. Sometimes women tend to be perfectionists and wanna be the best mother, the best wife, the best colleague that they can be. But to do that, women need to be the best self that they can be, and finding a little bit of time to do that is important.
Finding moments where you can refill:
It’s a woman’s responsibility to make sure that they are finding moments where they can refill. But everybody has a different way of doing that. Not everybody goes to yoga, not everybody has an hour to go to yoga. So what a woman can do for refilling is just even stealing the two minutes to call an old friend and laugh, to have dance parties with your children when you get home, put silly socks on to make fun of yourself. Something has to give to make things feel a little lighter and to fill you back up as you can show up the next day.
Give yourself a pass:
It all works out. It really works out. Give yourself a pass. You don’t have to do this perfectly. You just have to try and do it a little bit better than last month. There’s a research report which says that practice makes progress. Perfection is the enemy of progress. You’ve all gotten to these places in your lives because you’re really good at what you do and you put a lot of pressure on yourselves to do things right the first time. But this is a place, wellness, mindfulness, self-care, where those strategies don’t work very well. So, it’s a whole different ball game here, so that’s why there’s a special word that can be used for when you take three steps forward and two steps back. It is a WIN.
Write down:
Sometimes it’s really easy and it may sound like a basic tool, but just write it down. Write down that you are gonna spend a specific amount of time for exercise. Write down that when you go to the grocery store you’re gonna buy these 10 healthy items, and hold yourself accountable to it. And if you continue to do that after about three to four weeks, you’ll develop a consistent habit and you’ll notice when you don’t exercise. You’ll notice when you’re not putting the right foods into your cart at the grocery store.
Take better care of yourself in order to take care of others:
There is not a long line of people out there whose highest priority is your health. You are it. And your families, your children, and your coworkers are watching every move you make. And when you figure out how to take better care of yourself, those benefits accrue to everyone in your community. And you’re not fooling anybody if you’re not taking care of yourself. You can’t wing this. Your children know who you are they know what you’re choosing. So you’re not just benefiting yourself when you do that.
Follow a Mediterranean-style diet:
Women should follow a Mediterranean-style diet, because it’s rich in fruits and vegetables, plus beans, lentils, fish, nuts, and extra virgin olive oil. These are all very nutrient-rich foods that have been shown to reduce your risk of heart disease, which is the number one cause of death for women in many countries.
Exercise every day:
Probably the most important thing is to tell people to exercise every day because it’s not only important for your physical health but also your mental health.
Just try your best at what you’ve got in front of your plate:
Many younger women around us, that are having their children now and then trying to make a mark for their career. And they’re trying to do everything, and they’re always worried and they’re going to do the wrong thing. Life takes you in funny places; you can’t always second guess what you’re doing with your family and also with work. Just try your best at what you’ve got in front of your plate and then go on, because when you start to figure out, try to micromanage the future, you can’t. It’s just impossible, so I wish I had done that too, I think I would have been a lot less stressed out.
Get an annual screening mammogram:
When a woman reaches the age of 40, it’s a recommendation that you should get an annual screening mammogram.
Get a bone density:
At midlife, a lot of women are happy not to have their periods and to be in menopause. But a lot of them don’t understand that there are a lot of serious consequences to the loss of hormones. And at least one in two women has osteoporosis. And it seems like bone health is really neglected. And it’s something that you can work on every day. Take your Vitamin D, get exercise. And once your periods’ stop, get a bone density.
Get enough rest:
The best recommendation for women to take care of their health is really to get enough rest. Whether it’s in a form of taking time to sit and relax, or getting enough sleep. As women, particularly that in health care, oftentimes they worry about caring for others, and oftentimes they are not worried about taking care of themselves. So getting rest is so important to taking care of others.
Struggle with your weight:
It’s normal to struggle with your weight. This is the problem that everyone has. It’s okay to struggle with your weight. What’s not okay is to not seek help. It’s important to talk to your doctor, find a nutritionist, or find things online that could help you.
Sometimes saying no is good:
Sometimes we’re overwhelmed with too many yeses, which leads to fragmented lifestyle, feeling hurried, getting frazzled. So sometimes saying no to great opportunities and also being like the season. Some days you just, too much going on, too much darkness in your life and you say no, and another day works out better for you.
Give at least ten minutes to yourself:
It’s always a challenge and any time something new in your life changes, like having a baby, you have to refigure out where that’s going to fit. It is possible, and so something that you can take instantaneously is just taking a walk break to go get a cup of coffee. It can be as simple as ten minutes to yourself that you are giving yourself permission to reflect and enjoy a moment alone. And what you can learn by doing that is sometimes you do have to ask for help, so you can take that time, because otherwise, you might not get it if you don’t ask.
Don’t ignore your passion:
Paying attention to the important things, deciding what is worthy of your effort in life, and then focusing all of your energy on those carefully chosen passions, that’s what should be done. And guarding against being pulled in too many directions beyond what you can accomplish with confidence and a sense of fulfillment.
Exercise is very important:
It’s definite that exercise, activity, you’ve got to get some exercise in there, it does so much, it reduces stress, it calms the mind, it tunes the body, it elevates those awesome endorphins. Exercise is the way to go.
Planning is important:
Planning is important. So planning… time to prepare meals or to purchase healthy foods to prepare meals or healthy snacks, even having foods available to you if you’re not able to prepare. As opposed to having to grab things that are more convenient and may not be as nutritious.
Get at least an hour for yourself:
It’s hard to find time to take care of yourself. So most important thing is to get at least an hour to yourself, which seems like very little time, but you would able to do that at the end of the night when you put your children to bed and all the other tasks had been completed.
Avoid Sugary drinks:
Most people get way too much-added sugar in their diet. And we know that added sugar, one of the major sources is going to be sugary drinks. So it’s been advised by the doctors to not drink sugar. Instead, they should be drinking the thing that everyone knows they should be drinking in the first place, which is water. That’s what they deserve. So meanwhile we’re consuming so much added sugar that it contributes to as much as 30 pounds of weight per year. So meanwhile a lot of people struggle with obesity and overweight. So a couple of small steps to move in the right direction is really what they need to be focusing on. So often they get overwhelmed by the big picture. “Oh I have to lose all of this weight and I have to eat just right, and be perfect in all these ways.” But a couple of small steps, that’s what leads to long term behavior change.
Exercise wherever you are:
You have to exercise wherever you are. So with technology now many people have Fitbit so there’s some sort of reminders about how many steps a day that you should take, starting with that. But incorporating it into your daily routine is probably easier than saying you’re gonna set three or four days aside a week for exercise. So it’s different for everybody.