How much effort do you put into taking care of your body?

You’re more than the number on a scale, and being healthy is more than the absence of a disease or condition. Keeping your body healthy involves different things like being active, eating a balanced diet, sleeping well, and limiting or abstaining from alcohol, tobacco, and recreational drugs. It also means seeking out medical advice and treatment when needed. Overall, it’s about how well your body can help (or hinder) you with all the things you want to do in a day, over a week—or over a lifetime.

When your body’s unhealthy, you might feel tired, and unable to do day-to-day activities. You may be at risk of developing chronic illnesses like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and more—or you may have a chronic condition that you may need help to manage.

The health of your body affects the other health dimensions

• Body → mind: A 20-minute walk or any other exercise can increase your creativity and memory.
• Body → emotions: When your Body Mass Index (BMI) is in check, you have a lower risk of depression.
• Body → environment: Cutting back on meat consumption lowers the risk of chronic disease and reduces carbon emissions, too.
  

Improve your body’s health

Though we’re often conditioned to jump in and make drastic changes for a quick fix, tackling one habit at a time may be just what you need to start down a path of improving the health of your body. If you start small, healthy habits now, over the course of a few weeks, months—or even a year, you may be able to make significant improvements. Dive in with energy and curiosity, but know that staying healthy and happy is a long game—a lifelong game, in fact. Start small, be consistent and be patient, and make sure you acknowledge your accomplishments. Here are three things to start today to improve your body’s health:

1. Good sleep! Sleep at least 7 hours a night. To improve your sleep, try to stop using all screens one hour before bed.
2. Eat well! Eat more veggies and fruits. One easy habit is to eat fruit for all your snacks.
3. More moving! You don’t have to go to the gym to stay active. Moving more could mean going on a walk every lunch, playing tag with your kids, or dancing to your favorite tune.

The health of your body is really important, but it’s just one part of your whole health picture.

Read about all eight dimensions of health. They overlap, intertwine, and impact one another. If you’re doing well in each of these dimensions, you’ll stay healthier and happier. Also, check out Carebook’s Facebook page where we’re building a healthy, happy community. We’d love to hear your ideas and experiences.

Learn more

1. Regular exercise changes the brain to improve memory, thinking skill
2. How to eat a low-carbon, environmentally friendly diet
3. How Much Sleep Do We Really Need?
4. 10 Ways to Exercise as a Family

References

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2. Oppezzo M, Schwartz DL. Give your ideas some legs: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2014;40(4):1142–52.
3. Heisz JJ, Clark IB, Bonin K, Paolucci EM, Michalski B, Becker S, et al. The Effects of Physical Exercise and Cognitive Training on Memory and Neurotrophic Factors. J Cogn Neurosci. 2017 Nov;29(11):1895–907.
4. Jung SJ, Woo H, Cho S, Park K, Jeong S, Lee YJ, et al. Association between body size, weight change and depression: systematic review and meta-analysis. Br J Psychiatry. 2017 Jul;211(01):14–21.
5. Godfray HCJ, Aveyard P, Garnett T, Hall JW, Key TJ, Lorimer J, et al. Meat consumption, health, and the environment. Science. 2018 Jul 20;361(6399):eaam5324.
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7. Watson NF, Badr MS, Belenky G, Bliwise DL, Buxton OM, Buysse D, et al. Recommended Amount of Sleep for a Healthy Adult: A Joint Consensus Statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society. SLEEP [Internet]. 2015 Jun 1 [cited 2019 Jan 14]; Available from: https://academic.oup.com/sleep/article-lookup/doi/10.5665/sleep.4716
8. Hale L, Kirschen GW, LeBourgeois MK, Gradisar M, Garrison MM, Montgomery-Downs H, et al. Youth Screen Media Habits and Sleep. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am. 2018 Apr;27(2):229–45.