Why every day should be your World Health Day

Most of you will know that I am in the middle of a health and fitness journey.

My life currently goes like this:

Gym, gym, work, work, work, chicken, rice, brocolli, water, gym, run, swim, sleep, banana, gym, work, work, gym and so on and so on.

When I’m not at the gym or doing meal prep for the week, I’m reading articles on what the best exercises are or chatting to my mates about what they are eating this week.

This sounds obsessive and in some ways it it, BUT when people say to you that fitness and being healthy isn’t about a diet it’s a LIFESTYLE they are not kidding.

Before I started my lifestyle change I was smoking 15 a day, my exercise was walking to McDonalds or dancing in a club once a week and the only vegetables I ate were on a pizza.  I had spots, my hair didn’t grow and I was slightly overweight and pretty miserable.  I also thought that I was normal and all the great looking fitness people jogging by me in bright colours and eating brown rice and brocolli for lunch were mental and needed to get a life.

What I didn’t realise was that they were getting a life; a healthy, longer, better looking, better feeling life and it was me that was missing out.  Always tired, always grumpy; I swang from mood to mood and hated getting dressed or going out and everything was an effort.  I rewarded myself with food or drink, made a bad day better with food or drink and would look at myself in the mirror and feel awful.

I’m also a sarcastic little blighter and was quite negative about anything and everything.  I didn’t exercise because I thought unless you went crazy with it, it didn’t work so why bother?  I ate what I wanted because I wasn’t going to live my life being miserable,  nibbling on a lettuce leaf just to be thin.

I was looking at it all wrong and it wasn’t until my boyfriend commented on how many sick days I had taken since he had met me, or my friends didn’t say anything when I moaned about my weight ( and trust me, they usually have plenty to say) that I realised, it isn’t about being skinny and eating salad.

It’s about so much more than that.  It’s about being healthy and happy.  It’s about giving your body a break from the alcohol and the takeaways and it’s about realising that LIFE isn’t just about parties and eating in restaurants; because if you have no quality of life from a health point of view, none of the rest matters.

Eating healthy and taking an hour a day to focus on what my body needs, what it has evolved over millions of years to need and be amazing at is NOTHING.  Jeez, I spend longer than an hour on getting ready for a night out, why is it so difficult to put that time into doing something that will impact every area of my life and ultimately, hopefully, make it longer and more fulfilling?

The answer is it isn’t hard, some of us either don’t want to or don’t yet understand how important it is.

Every day of your life should be YOUR World Health Day as every day of your life you spend in your body.

It’s what takes you to work.

Let’s you play with your kids, nephews, friends.

It’s what comes with you on holiday.

It’s what lets you hug your loved ones and make love to your partner.

I have learned to love my body in every way.  From the way  it looks right through to the more important,way that it feels and makes me feel.

We get ONE body in this life.  It’s YOURS and yours alone and it is up to YOU to look after it as best you can so that you can LIVE YOUR LIFE TO THE FULL!

So, today, WORLD HEALTH DAY, make the choice to invest in your health!

Read more about World Health Day here

Join the discussion on Twitter at #worldhealthday