4 Ways To Reset Your Health In 2022
How to get back on track with your wellness goals
Can you believe we've reached the last month of summer already?! Does anyone else feel like they haven't done half the things they envisioned doing when lockdown came to an end? My past few months have been spent in a cycle of long work weeks and weekends that seem to flash by in an instant. So for this last month of summer, I'm determined to make time for the things that truly make me feel my best, starting with a health reset! There's something about this time of the year that always makes me want to live my healthiest, most productive life. As we start to wind down for summer and head towards autumn, I think there's no better time to start getting serious about our wellness goals. Wellness itself can seem like a bit of a buzzword but what I love about it is that it encompasses a holistic approach to healthy living; mental, physical and spiritual all rolled into one. So here's how I'm resetting my health this summer and preparing for a new season ahead.
More home cooked meals
One of my favourite Youtubers, Sam Ozkural, talks often about the idea that eating home cooked meals is one of the healthiest ways you can eat, regardless of what is on your plate. I am a firm believer in this myself for a few reasons. When you cook your own food, you can control exactly what goes into it. Choosing organic, fresh ingredients, using less oil, salt, sugar etc can make even the most indulgent meals just that much healthier. I am a huge fan of 'fakeaways' for this reason; takeaway meals that you can cook yourself at home. Not only do you get to cure that 'junk food' craving, you can also save yourself the extra calories (and money) while skipping out on the not-so-healthy extra ingredients. If you're not that comfortable in the kitchen, or hate meals that take forever to cook, I definitely recommend looking for one-pot recipes. They're usually done in under 30 mins and don't require the fuss of multiple pots and pans to bring the full dish together. I bought my first ever cookbook: Foolproof One Pot by Alan Rosenthal while in Oliver Bonas this week and honestly cannot wait to try some of the recipes in there! But if cookbooks aren't your thing, I honestly can't recommend Skillshare enough. I'm obsessed with Italian food so I love any class on there that can help me make my favourite pasta dishes in an easy but authentic way.
Tracking supplement intake
With the sun seemingly missing in action lately, I'm turning elsewhere for my daily dose of Vitamin D! No but seriously, while I'd love to say my diet is flawless and gives me all the nutrients I need, I'd be lying. Busy work weeks and lazy weekends often mean we don't give ourselves everything we need to function properly. With health being such an important topic lately due to everything that has happened this past year, I think it's important to give ourselves the best chance possible. Our bodies have such great healing power when properly fuelled, so this month I want to get consistent with taking my supplements as well as choosing foods high in vitamins that boost immunity.
Getting back into the gym
I'll be honest, I have never really been a gym girl. I was doing home workouts way before lockdown was a thing and never really saw myself joining one until a few months ago. I signed up in the hopes it would be the start of a new fitness journey and instead found myself in hospital for over a week, facing the threat of kidney failure due to a workout gone wrong. This isn't to scare anyone, I'm perfectly fine now and honestly it has only pushed me to want this health reset even more. It was a wake up call that made me realise, the older I get, the less I can rely on muscle memory and 'being active when I was younger' - excuses I regularly used to justify a lack of motivation to exercise. It was also a huge reminder to stay hydrated. Not in the aesthetically pleasing, cute, 'glass of lemon water' way but rather chugging 2-3 litres a day to avoid going back on an IV drip for days. I am so grateful to be healthy and now that I'm returning to the gym again, I'm determined to do it right and at my own pace.
Re-establishing boundaries
One word comes to mind when I think about a lack of defined boundaries - burnout. I recently spoke on Instagram about how easy it is to feel like there's no time for ourselves, especially on those evenings after work where the hours suddenly seem to fly by. If you're feeling this way more often than not, it may be time to implement some new rules and a better post-work routine. One of the ways I've begun to do this for myself is by leaving on time from work everyday and stopping the habit of working unnecessary unpaid overtime. As women of colour, it is nothing new, feeling that we constantly have to prove ourselves by working harder than everyone else. However this mindset often stems from fear and impostor syndrome and rarely ever garners the appreciation we hope for. So I'm not doing it anymore and I encourage you to do the same. While it isn't realistically possible for all of us to reject 'capitalism', quit our jobs and live our best lives overnight*, we also don't have to give our entire souls to jobs that would replace us in a heartbeat.
*I believe we all can at a time that is right for us and with the right steps in place (savings, investments, a game plan etc.)
