Being healthy. What does it mean to you?
For me, health means more happy days than sick days! Being healthy means increasing my quality of life by being aware of my good and bad habits and adopting and replacing bad habits with healthier habits to reach my personal optimum health. This includes physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.
For me, health means more happy days than sick days! Being healthy means increasing my quality of life by being aware of my good and bad habits and adopting and replacing bad habits with healthier habits to reach my personal optimum health. This includes physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.
I want to PUMP YOU UP (insert bad Hans and Franz germanic accent here, sorry for the 90s SNL reference) in all sorts of healthy ways with this blog. Here's my plan:
- Teach you how to make and keep healthier habits!
- Basic lectures on body systems, but don't worry it will be awesome (easy to understand and entertaining). You know, cool anatomy and physiology facts about your brain, heart and gut. And, I won't forget the 11th system...your baby makers...I'm talking about your genitals here!
- Give an operating system manual for your body...what you need to do daily that will improve each of your body systems.
- Tell you to eat good food...like how to eat strange things like vegetables, legumes and kale without the aid of bacon (well, sometimes with some bacon, cuz YOLO...lame but fair).
- AND...I'm not talking about weight loss here...cause that is not a health goal, in my opinion. A healthy diet is a goal. If you focus on the scale, you will fail.
- And sometimes, I will focus on some common causes of chronic illness/death, like cardiovascular disease (heart attacks and strokes), diabetes (type I, II and all the variations), some types of cancers, mental health problems, etc.
AND, let me tell you why:
Did you know that 14% of the population is health literate? Meaning, that only 14% of the US population can safely navigate their health. This includes understanding systems and service available, understanding conditions or treatments, maintaining basic personal health, or pass on knowledge to their friends and family. One reason I think this is true, is that national requirements only suggest a half-semester health sciences in high school. That is three and half months to go over what took me three years of college to truly grasp. What's even sadder is that 14% I mentioned early includes health professionals, like myself.
So, this is why I'm choosing to blog about Health. And understand, I'm not a health nut. I'm a nurse, working towards a career as Family Nurse Practitioner. That means eventually, I will be that nice lady that guides you back to health at your doctor's office, urgent care or maybe just at "quick clinic" at Walmart, Walgreens or CVS. I have my own health struggles with diet, exercise and current chronic conditions! It is hard to be healthy...in fact it is a miracle to not have some genetic issue that effects health! I just want to share my knowledge and my struggles to help you.
I believe that you have the right to know how to access the best health information at home! I want to help you filter the scary searches on the internet (as we do) and teach you how to communicate with healthcare staff to get the best results for yourself and loved ones. I want you to be able to understand what is going on inside you when your health is at risk. And, most importantly, I want you to set healthy goals that you can meet. Our body is the vessel in which we must live our lives. It is important to have an owner's manual on hand. Hopefully, this will be the Cliff Notes version...
Did you know that 14% of the population is health literate? Meaning, that only 14% of the US population can safely navigate their health. This includes understanding systems and service available, understanding conditions or treatments, maintaining basic personal health, or pass on knowledge to their friends and family. One reason I think this is true, is that national requirements only suggest a half-semester health sciences in high school. That is three and half months to go over what took me three years of college to truly grasp. What's even sadder is that 14% I mentioned early includes health professionals, like myself.
So, this is why I'm choosing to blog about Health. And understand, I'm not a health nut. I'm a nurse, working towards a career as Family Nurse Practitioner. That means eventually, I will be that nice lady that guides you back to health at your doctor's office, urgent care or maybe just at "quick clinic" at Walmart, Walgreens or CVS. I have my own health struggles with diet, exercise and current chronic conditions! It is hard to be healthy...in fact it is a miracle to not have some genetic issue that effects health! I just want to share my knowledge and my struggles to help you.
I believe that you have the right to know how to access the best health information at home! I want to help you filter the scary searches on the internet (as we do) and teach you how to communicate with healthcare staff to get the best results for yourself and loved ones. I want you to be able to understand what is going on inside you when your health is at risk. And, most importantly, I want you to set healthy goals that you can meet. Our body is the vessel in which we must live our lives. It is important to have an owner's manual on hand. Hopefully, this will be the Cliff Notes version...
Reference
Maville, J. A., & Huerta, C. G. (2013). Health
promotion in nursing (3rd ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Thomson Delmar
Learning. Retrieved from
www.cafescribe.com
Stanhope, M., & Lancaster, J. (2012). Public
health nursing: Population-centered health care in the community (8th
ed.). St. Louis, Mo: Mosby Elsevier.
