Self reflection is a great tool to assess your life in so many different areas. Have you ever used it to gain a better insight into your health and well-being? Here are 5 questions to rate your health and use as a tool to check in with yourself. Take notes because by the end of this blog you will be able to identify where your health is thriving and where it’s only just surviving.
Question 1
How are you?
This may seem way too simple to be relevant, but while we are always asking others how they are going we often forget to check in with ourselves. So how are you really? We want to skip past the automatic response of “good” or “alright” and dig a little deeper here. Maybe you’ll discover that you’re tired or unhappy or maybe you’re feeling the best you have in a long time. Either way this is a very insightful place to begin when checking in on your health.
Question 2
What is your energy level out of 10?
If our scale is 1 is feeling flatter than a pancake and 10 is bouncing off the walls, where does your energy levels fit into this? It’s important to note that everyone has off days, but we want to assess this based on a typical day for you. If your energy is rated under 6, try to assess why this may be and what you could do to improve it. For example, you may only get 5 hours of sleep every night, can you prioritise more sleep to help increase your energy? If you feel like your energy levels are high, that’s great! What is it that contributes to you feeling this way? Make sure to prioritise adding more of that into your daily life!
Question 3
How does your body feel?
Now we aren’t talking about the texture of your skin here or whether your tummy is firm or soft but more so the feelings of functionality. For example, does your body feel sore constantly, or do you regularly get headaches? Maybe your body feels strong and capable or perhaps it clicks and cracks at every turn. Thinking about its physical functionality is a great way to assess if what you are doing to look after your physical health is working or if you could use a few tweaks.
Question 4
What do you eat in a day?
As the age old saying goes “you are what you eat”, so what are you? Writing out a physical food diary is a great way to have a birds eye view of your nutrition habits. Some things to consider are, whether you’re having enough of the good things like water, fruit and vegetables. Are you eating too little or too much? Are you balancing your meals and getting in those macronutrients of protein, good fats and carbohydrates? Are the treats that you’re eating actually treats or have they become a daily staple? What we eat really does play a huge role in our body’s health and functioning.
Question 5
What does your daily lifestyle consist of?
In particular, how often do you move your body and get outside? With living such busy lives, exercise and time outdoors can take a backseat for many people. Living in the era of working from home too, it’s quite easy to be sedentary without even realising. Exercise and time outside are so important for both our physical and emotional well-being and do need to be prioritised! The general rule is 30 minutes of physical activity a day to boost your health and well-being. Have a lifestyle audit and assess whether or not you are giving your body the fresh air and movement it deserves.
Where to from here? Now that you’ve established a better understanding of where your health and well-being is at, what can you do to improve it? Go back through the notes from each question and make a plan of adding in the things you are lacking or prioritising the things that are working well. Never be afraid to seek help when needed. Contacting a nutritionist is a great place to begin for the support, guidance and knowledge to get your health back on track today!