July 24th celebrates International Self-Care Day. Self-care is about taking care of yourself, and making choices that help your physical and mental health, like eating healthy, getting enough sleep and exercising. The date chosen for International Self-Care Day (7/24) is a reminder that self-care is important to lifelong health, and its benefits are experienced 7 days a week, and 24 hours a day. Self-care behaviours have the most impact when we focus on making small changes over long periods of time rather than a drastic change all at once. Self-care is especially important for individuals with diabetes. Practicing daily self-care can help prevent long-term complications and ease the burden of diabetes in your every day life.
Ways of Practicing Self-Care
Gentle Nutrition
This method of self-care is about enjoying food and its nutrition from a place of self-care, and not self-control. You can engage in gentle nutrition by eating and finding foods that are balanced and that make you and your body feel good. Drinking plenty of water to stay hydrated is also important. Meal planning and preparation are great self-care activities, ensuring that you have nutritious meals and foods available when you need them. Check out Minimalist Baker for some quick and easy recipe inspiration: Recipes
Joyful Movement
It has been clinically proven that participating in daily physical activity helps reduce stress. With an aim of 150 minutes of aerobic exercise per week, find an enjoyable activity and begin at a relaxed rhythm, increasing progressively until you meet your goal. Simple aerobic activities like walking, practicing yoga, jumping rope, etc are exercises that you can participate in to care for yourself. Physical activity can be completed in 10 minute bouts or more and all add up to the 150 minute weekly goal. It’s also helpful to choose an activity you enjoy and/or include family or friends when possible. For more information on physical activity: Click Here
Sleep Hygiene
Developing a consistent sleeping routine can have benefits to overall health and is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. To improve your sleep routine, try relaxing activities like meditating, reading a book, breathing exercises, limiting computer or phone use, and setting a time to wake up and go to bed consistently. For more information on sleep: Click Here
This method of self-care is about enjoying food and its nutrition from a place of self-care, and not self-control. You can engage in gentle nutrition by eating and finding foods that are balanced and that make you and your body feel good. Drinking plenty of water to stay hydrated is also important. Meal planning and preparation are great self-care activities, ensuring that you have nutritious meals and foods available when you need them. Check out Minimalist Baker for some quick and easy recipe inspiration: Recipes
