What is dimension of wellness?
It’s something more than just lack of sickness or having a healthy body….
It’s definitely not just some products to make you feel good or be physically fit……
It’s to do with how you achieve your full potentials.
It’s self-directed and is an ever evolving process of change and growth in your life.
It’s also a philosophy of life. It’s recognizing the fact that your health means more than just lack of illness or having a healthy body.
Wellness has 6 dimensions – physical; emotional; spiritual; intellectual; social and environmental.
When you attain these 6 dimensions (each one is equally vital in the pursuit of optimum wellness), you’re considered whole or complete……
1. Physical Wellness
Exercise, eat well and generally leading a healthy lifestyle are the keys to physical wellness.
Making these right choices about exercise, diet and lifestyle will affect how you feel tomorrow and the quality of your life.
You might want to gauge whether you operate in the realm of physical wellness by these parameters:
-Eat a balanced, nutritious diet that’s rich in vitamins and minerals; good fats; lean protein; complex carbohydrates and fiber
-Cardio exercise 3-4 times per week to benefit your heart and to improve/maintain your health
-Get enough sleep
-Seek medical help when sick
-Take relaxation breaks daily to relax and de-stress
-If sexually active, use effective birth control method and take steps to minimize risk of sexually transmitted diseases
2. Emotional Wellness
This is your ability to handle your emotions in a positive and constructive manner, to maintain them in a healthy state.
How you manage your feelings and behaviors; how you recognize your own limitations; how well you cope with stress; how well you express your feeling outwardly and your level of optimism, self-confidence, satisfying relationship, joy and happiness, are major building blocks for your emotional well being.
3. Spiritual Wellness
This doesn’t mean you’re religious. Rather it’s your quest to find meaning and purpose to your life and also be tolerant of the beliefs of others.
Your faith (in religion), values, beliefs, principles and morals define your spirituality.
And the inner quality of being compassionate; loving; forgiving and joyful will help you enjoy your spiritual health.
4. Intellectual Wellness
You’ve an active mind; receptive to new ideas; think critically; seeks out new challenges; stretch and challenge your minds with intellectual and creative pursuits; being creative, curious and motivated to master new skills.
These are the critical success factors to attain this dimension of wellness.
5. Social Wellness
This is how you contribute to your environment and community and how you build and cultivate better living spaces and social networks.
Basically, you’ve satisfying relationships; support networks; you participate and contribute to your community and pick up good communication skills and establish social closeness and intimacy.
6. Environmental Wellness
This dimension sees you leading a lifestyle that’s respectful to your environment to minimize the harm you do to it.
You practice healthy measures aim to improve the standard of living and quality of life in your community.
You treasure earth’s natural resources; conserve energy, buy organic food and products and appreciate what nature offers.
We have been told that we must eat a certain amount of fiber with our meals because it is ‘good for us’. Most of us have been led to believe that this is because fiber promotes bowel motions and prevents us from suffering from constipation. It is also good for our digestive system. But how true is this, and just what are the real benefits of fiber in our diet?
First of what, what is fiber? Sure, we know there must be fiber in food such as cabbage, beans and celery because we can see it. But is all fiber actually fibrous? Of course not, so let’s first have a close look at what dietary fiber actually is.
Fiber is composed of these parts of a plant that are broken down by the action of enzymes in our digestive juices in the upper parts of our intestinal tract. Some fiber can be digested by the bacteria in our lower intestine, and some is not. So where does fiber come from? By that definition, fiber can be any part of your food, not only the stringy bits, and by definition are of vegetable origin.
Water insoluble fibers increase fecal bulk. That’s the stringy stuff in celery and string beans. It is also contained in cellulose materials, lignin, wheat bran, whole grains and most vegetables. These have the effect of increasing the efficiency of the peristaltic movement of the intestine on the passage of chyme (the creamy fluid that exits the stomach into the duodenum) through your system.
The liquid and nutrients are progressively removed, and the fiber maintains the bulk needed for peristalsis to work properly. Peristalsis is the rhythmic movement of the intestine that forces your food right from your stomach to your rectum. It is also the basis of some forms of industrial pump that operate on the same principle. Without fiber this pump would be inefficient.
Soluble fiber includes the gum and pectin that are obtained from plant cells. They swell up the chyme, and slow down its rate of travel through the gastrointestinal system, although they have no effect on fecal bulk. Specific examples are oat bran, fruit and most vegetables (all plants contain both). A peach, for example, consists of a skin which is insoluble fiber, and the juicy pulp beneath it which is predominantly soluble fiber.
Although a distinction is made between dietary and crude fiber, they both have their part to play. The term ‘fiber’ is a wide one and it cannot be said that fiber as a whole imparts a specific health benefit. The benefits of fiber are a combination of those imparted by the full range of types of fiber and their sources that are contained in the human diet, both crude and dietary, soluble and insoluble.
So what specifically are these benefits, other than just the generalization that they are ‘good for your intestinal health’? As you likely know, it is the fiber in your diet that binds your feces together into a solid, rather than leaving it as a mobile liquid. Although around 75% of feces are liquid, the bulk of the rest is fiber, bacteria and undigested food.
Since insoluble fiber makes feces bulkier and softer it can help treat constipation, where the stool has an excess of solid content. Any substance that absorbs water and swells can help with this condition. The same is true of hemorrhoids and a condition of the wall of the intestine known as diverticulosis. Once the inflammation has subsided, a high soluble fiber diet can help prevent a recurrence.
If you want to lose weight, a fiber diet can make you feel full without the calories, since fiber is calorie-free. There is also the fact that high fiber foods have to be chewed longer before they can be swallowed, and so you are liable to eat less in the same time. However, if you are determined, all that means is that you will have to lunch longer to get the same weight gain!
There is little doubt that a fiber-rich diet contributes significantly to intestinal health, and that if the correct amount of fiber is not taken then problems such as constipation, diarrhea, diverticulosis and a lack of absorption of nutrients will occur. The peristaltic pumping motion of the whole gastrointestinal tract, from the top of the throat to the anus, is dependent on solids rather than liquids. While a semi-liquid fecal consistency will pass through your body, it will take the bulk of the nutrition extracted from your food with it. It is fiber that is needed to bulk it up and to enable the liquid to be extracted through the intestinal wall and the fibrous solid to pass on through the colon to the anus.
There are other benefits of a diet high in fiber, though they generally depend on the type of fiber. Take cholesterol, for example. High LDL blood cholesterol levels are associated with atherosclerosis, and the consequent risk of heart disease and strokes, due to the oxidation of the LDL by free radicals. When the HDL lipids carry cholesterol back to the liver, it is destroyed by the action of bile acids. Since water soluble fiber binds bile acids, it figures that some types of fiber can promote the excretion of cholesterol from the body. The fiber most effective in achieving this comes from rolled oats and also pectin.
It has also been claimed that dietary fiber might be effective in preventing cancer of the colon. The theory is that bowel cancer is caused by toxins in the feces and if the fecal matter is expelled from the body quickly, the toxins will have less time to act. Fiber promotes the expulsion of the contents of the colon. This has not been confirmed, however.
What has been confirmed is that your bowel can collect mucoid plaque that sticks to mainly your colon, and is an ideal environment for parasites and yeast infections. The National Fiber Council has stated that most people do not eat enough fiber, and the average requirement is 38g a day for men and 25g a day for women.
The pancreas is a small gland found in the abdomen just a little below the breast and very close to the stomach. It produces enzymes and hormones which helps break down foods we eat. One of the most known hormones it produces is insulin.
The pancreas produces enzymes that continue the process of breaking down foods, which begins in the stomach. The pancreas also produces hormones, most recognizes is insulin, which controls the balance of glucose between the blood and the rest of the body. Thanks to the pancreas, the body can use the sugars and store the fats, which are essential for health.
The stomach empties already partially digested food and liquid into the duodenum and it is here that it mixes with the secretions from the pancreas. All of this sounds rather technical, but what I want to stress here is that this is the very reason we have been told to chew, chew our foods really good and not to eat right before going to bed. It really makes this little organ work even harder
The pancreas is an amazingly efficient, self-regulating organ, far cleverer than any computer ever invented. Day in, day out throughout a lifetime, a healthy pancreas produces exactly the right chemicals at the right times in the right quantities for digesting the food we eat. Isn’t this the most amazing thing. We just eat our foods, and my intention for you is that it is healthy foods, and this little powerhouse takes care of digesting them just right for us. So every time you put that junk food and greasy unhealthy food in your mouth just think how this little organ is going to be working so hard to make the best of it for you.
This is how the pancreas does it work; the pancreas begins its biggest job by secreting from its exocrine tissue the clear, watery, alkaline juice containing enzymes that help break down food into molecules small enough to be absorbed by the intestine.
Most of the time, the pancreas is a wonderfully self-functioning organ. Like any of our organs, it can malfunction. If it fails to produce sufficient digestive enzymes and food is poorly absorbed, weight loss and/or diarrhea can result. The greatest risk is of diabetes if too little insulin is produced the result in diabetes. This raises the level of glucose in the blood, and increases the risk of a number of problems throughout the body. Once again I want to empress healthy eating is the biggest clue to a healthy body.
Pancreatitis is the disease of the pancreas, which is the inflammation of the pancreas. This is caused by the blockage of a gallstone in one of the ducts of the pancreas. Again all of this can be avoided with diet and generally taking care of our bodies. Smoking and drinking can aggravate the pancreas and bring on this disease and this disease is more prevalent in men than women. It can also lead to cancer, which is more common in people with diabetes. So the best cure is to be aware of what we eat, how we eat and when we eat. Be responsible in the care of our bodies.
I highly recommend health and wellness coaching
Health and Wellness Coaching is a brand new concept for some people as it was for me up until 3 years ago. I had been in the public health field for about six years and was introduced to it by someone who was a coach, who guided me through a nutrition program, for a health issue that improved and disappeared by learning how to change my eating habits. was very happy with my results and decided to become a health and wellness coach myself.
A good health and wellness coach provides the experience, knowledge and guidance to someone to improve their health through good nutrition and lifestyle changes. To be effective, they must also answer many questions related to the program they are coaching someone through and give support and encouragement to those who need a little help with major changes they are experiencing in their lives while becoming healthier.
To be effective, they must also answer many questions related to the program they are coaching someone through and give support and encouragement to those who need a little help with major changes they are experiencing in their lives while becoming healthier.
- People who have health conditions and want to achieve better health with great nutrition, more exercise and by lowering their stress. They gain more strength and energy, their immune systems improve and their visits to their doctor sureprise them because generally they yield numbers that are more in the healthy range!
· Someone who needs support and advice when trying to lose weight and needs to learn the types of foods that replace body fat with lean tissue and muscle. They also learn how to increase energy levels and cut food cravings. When they change their eating habits, they gain muscle, their clothes fit looser and they are excited to continue with their new program because they see results!
· Families and children who’s eating habits are headed in the wrong direction and they need to turn to a healthier lifestyle. Children learn at a young age to eat healthier and get more exercise, which is especially beneficial because they will keep these new habits as they grow into adulthood.
People who are healthy already and might be into athletics who want more energy and endurance. They also experience an increase in muscle mass, a decrease in body fat and a heightened feeling of wellness.
Would you benefit from health and wellness coaching?
If you are someone who wants a better quality of life by improving their health and wants to learn how to grocery shop and prepare healthier meals, you may benefit from coaching. If you are ready to learn the basics of nutrition and make the necessary changes to be your healthiest, you will find a coach to be very helpful and motivating.
I would recommend coaching if they are someone you can work with, trust and learn from. They should be in touch with you regularly and be available when you have concerns and need solutions. Most importantly they should successfuly be helping you reach your health goals.
