Beauty is a combination of qualities, such as shape, colour, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight. Beauty indeed is in the eye of the beholder! Many people hide behind lots of makeup every day. Many now tuck their fat bellies in girdles and instant body shapers! Many look so beautiful externally, since almost everything can be bought – hair, nails, lashes etc.; yet the environment they come out from may be so dirty and filthy.
Wellness, on the other hand, involves practicing healthy habits on a daily basis to attain better physical and mental health outcomes, so that instead of just surviving, you’re thriving. Total wellness is a combination of our daily habits. There’s a direct connection between weight and health. Weight is an indication of unwellness. It indicates the presence of a health challenge. The more weight you have, the more diseases you attract!
It’s one thing to be alive; it’s another to have the quality of life that makes life worth living and totally fulfilling.
Stress
Stress is simply the difference between where you are now and where you want to be. Consequently, there is good stress and there is bad stress. We all need healthy levels of stress in order to grow and keep improving in various life endeavours. Students, for example, go through stress in order to pass examinations.
Stress is an unhealthy level of cortisol. Adrenaline is needed for emergency situations -fight or flight. However, on an abnormal level, cortisol floods our systems. It is a very high form of energy, necessary for emergency situations like seeing a snake and running for your life!
Nowadays, right from our homes, traffic and workplaces, we are surrounded by stressful situations. People are literally secreting cortisol in traffic, especially in a city like Lagos in Nigeria. If you come home every day and all you do is shout and complain about all the things your children have not done – you notice every pin out of place; you’re always finding faults, watch it – you are stressed out. Stress makes your bedroom affairs impossible because you are never in a relaxed mood. You keep reading meanings into every comment made by your spouse. You are stressed out!
When the body releases all that cortisol, after 30 minutes and realises that there is no emergency situation, that energy is converted to fat around your vital organs – heart, liver, kidneys etc. This develops into chronic disease conditions.
Do you know that belly fat is a result of abnormal levels of cortisol in our systems? This fat doesn’t respond to diets or exercise!
Do you know people who say, they do not eat much, yet they are so fat? The more you do not eat, the more you are stressed out. And the more the cortisol, the fatter you get.
How do you know you are hungry? The brain and not the tummy tells us when we are hungry. Eating unhealthy food starves the body of vital nutrients. What you feed your body is what it craves! For instance, after eating a bowl of puff-puff, you are hungry soon after. Cravings are as a result of what you are feeding your body!
Vital nutrients feed you on a cellular level. Real foods contain amino acids which your body needs. The more junk you eat, the more cravings you have. Many people get away with putting junk food in their earlier years. Today, childhood obesity is a growing pandemic! What are you eating? The quality of your food is so important. Rice, bread, sugars etc. are the biggest culprits.
Stress causes autoimmune diseases. Anxiety, fear and worry are stress triggers. So also are workplace and home environment issues; even family relationships can be stressing. Having younger and older children can create stress for parents. Many parents want to live the lives of their children. It’s so easy to get stressed out.
Sleep is nature’s way of restoration, healing and rejuvenation. There is also the luxury of having a proper bath, soaked with bath salts and followed up with massages at least twice a week. Massages are good, as you need accupressure to release all the stress. Exercise is also helpful.
References:
Health Talk By Mrs Olamide Balogun shared via Zoom.
About the Author:
Mrs. Chima Ejimofor is the Lead Partner of Infinite Health Consult, and is available for the purchase of these Nutritional Supplements, Health Talks and Wellness Seminars. She is based in Lagos, Nigeria. Telephone/WhatsApp: 07033179632, email: infinitehealthconsult@gmail.com
