Oct 5, 2021
Tips to help African American Men Achieve Personal Wellness
Choose Wellness
Most people accrue sick time hours or personal time off hours on their job. You can use those hours to go to the doctor. It is better to use those hours to avert ailments and chronic diseases than to experience the illness or disease. Prevention is a great first step. A step beyond prevent is wellness. Wellness is attained by practicing healthy habits every day that can strengthen your physical, mental, social, and spiritual health so that your body will be at its peak of performance.
In my last post, I indicated eight tips African American men can do to become healthy. Health is defined by the World Health Organization as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” You can use those tips to move beyond just being healthy. You can customize those tips to set aspirations for achieving personal wellness. Those tips are:
Tips for the Health Warrior
· First make an appointment to see a doctor
· Discover your family health history
· Learn your health biometric numbers
· Exercise
· Eat healthy
· Get enough sleep
· Spend time with your family and friends
· Compliment your wife and children
Achieving Personal Wellness
By doing these eight tips, you can identify goals for personal wellness. You do not have to do all of them at one time. Just pick one or two tips to do. Part of wellness is developing healthy life habits. To help you get started I have included goals for each tip. You do not have to do any of these goals, you can modify them to fit you or make your own goals.
1. Make an appointment to see a doctor: This is an imperative first step. You cannot do tip number three unless you see a doctor. The doctor will perform a physical and age-appropriate health screenings.
Goal: I will schedule an appointment and visit a doctor before December 21, 2021.
2. Discover your family health history: Another important milestone is to know what diseases are common in your family. If you do not know your family health history, ask any senior female in your maternal and paternal family. You can download one of the two templates I have included by clicking on the link
https://www.familytreetemplates.net/category/4-generation
Be sure to take it with you when you go to your doctor.
Goal: I will complete the family health tree 1 week prior to my scheduled appointment.
3. Learn your health biometric numbers. Your doctor should send you a letter with your health biometric numbers within 2 weeks after your appointment. Most doctors are affiliated with a health system that has a patient portal. This is a valuable site for you. It will have all your health biometrics along with medical diagnoses, laboratory and radiology data, and prescribed medications. Also, it may have a brief synopsis and outcome of your office visits.
Goal: I will review my health biometrics after my appointment.
I will use my health biometrics to set goals for enhancing my health.
4. Exercise: Let’s just face it. As you get older you cannot lose weight without exercising. Exercising does not have to be exhausting. You can choose to do low or high impact exercises, exercise at your desk at work or in a chair at home. You can pay a membership for use of a gym. You can walk in a park in your neighborhood. Did you know that Black men who live in a neighborhood that has a park are more likely to engage in exercises such as walking and running?
Goal: I will perform mild to moderate exercise at least 150 minutes a week or strenuous exercise
90 minutes a week.
5. Eat healthy: The first step to eating healthy is increasing the number of fruits and vegetables that you eat each day. Eat one fruit as part of breakfast and a fruit and vegetable for lunch. If you eat a snack, eat one fruit. Then at supper eat a fruit and vegetable. You will have eaten six servings of fruits and vegetables for the day. If you go back for seconds, let that be a fruit or vegetable. Cut back on fried foods and fatty foods and take-outs or fast-foods. A great plan to follow is the DASH diet.
Goal: I will eat 6 -7 servings of fruits and vegetables each day.
6. Get enough sleep: Another part of aging is that you cannot stay up all night and go to work the next day like you could when you were younger. Set a time for bed that will give you six to eight hours of sleep each night.
Goal: I will go to bed at ________ P.M. each weeknight.
7. Spend time with family and friends: Nothing besides God and your health is more important than your family. Spend time with them first, especially your wife. Schedule time to be with each family member individually for child-father bonding time each month. Then socialize with friends and family members.
Goal: I will do _____________ activity with my family one day per week.
8. Compliment your wife and family: A happy wife is a happy family. Compliment your wife on her looks, dress, and activities that she performs well and not so well. Afterall, she did try.
Talk to your children and give them encouragement, compliments, and support. Expect many hugs and smiles. It will make you feel good. They will start complimenting you too. A win-win situation.
Goal: I will give my wife and children a compliment each day.
An added benefit of the last two tips is reduction in stress. There is nothing like receiving hugs and kisses along with socializing with family and friends to make you feel better.
