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The Wheel of Health, the core of health coaching, gives you seven areas to explore when you’re designing your own health plan. When they’re humming, they provide the balance to let you do anything you can dream up:
• Your body craves strength, flexibility, endurance, and restoration and it tells you when you’ve let any of them slide. Creaky, anyone? Find the right mix of movement, exercise and rest for your body. Focus on balance, the joy of movement, and the importance of rest and sleep.
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• Nourish, strengthen and energize your body and mind with the foods you eat and drink. An integrative approach to nutrition includes developing healthy eating habits, eating food that sustain your health and fit your lifestyle, selecting dietary supplements that support your health goals, and regulating body irritants like caffeine, alcohol, nicotine.
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• Your surroundings can nurture your physical, emotional and spiritual health. Explore ways of creating a safe, healthy environment at home and at work. This may include tackling organization, creating a nurturing space that enlivens each of the senses, or addressing toxic exposures, safety, noise and other irritants.
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• Having a balance of personal growth and professional development goals are key to maintaining a fluid work-life balance. Take a deeper look at how your balance of personal, professional and financial goals is supporting your health and wellness, particularly if you’re riding a transition, milestone or tipping point in life.
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• Supportive relationships with your family, friends, co-workers, and colleagues can have a dramatic beneficial effect on your health. Look at your relationships honestly to see where you’re getting support and where you’re not. Think about how to communicate these needs effectively to those around you.
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• A deep understanding of the purpose and meaning of your life provides the juice. Explore where you really make a difference in your life, and where your contributions mean the most to you. Think about any spiritual practices that resonate with your values and help you find a deeper meaning of your experience.
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• Strengthen the connection between the mind and body to achieve unprecedented success in your goals. Techniques like breathing practices, meditation, muscle relaxation and guided imagery to help you tune into your body. They’ve been shown to activate the body’s automatic healing response and reduce the harmful effects of stress.
Last time I visited my own health design, I was starting the Hormone Bootcamp with Dr. Natasha Turner. It’s a fantastic program and I would highly recommend it. Her new book just released, Hormone Diet Supercharged, which gives you the information to do the same program at home.
Doing the program brought a couple of things to my attention really quickly: your endocrine system – hormones like insulin, cortisol, melatonin, thyroxine and the more well known sexier ones – have a huge effect on how your day goes; and patience, understanding your limitations, and planning are keys to really achieving your behavior goals. Can you hear the frustration of real-life learning?
The plan for the next three months is to start where I am with exercise and integrate it in baby steps. Mindfulness around eating is also on the menu – see how I hit two with one stone! With Easter coming up, I’m going to spend a little time thinking about spirituality and what it means in my daily life. Oh, and practice patience!