Healthy Habits for Black Women: Simple Ways for Black Women to Live Healthy Lifestyles
Photo Cred: Jen Jean Pierre
If you’re reading this, you’re probably like me and countless other black women, booked and busy. Black women today are CEO’s running multi-million dollar businesses, taking groundbreaking positions in the workforce, leading efforts to fight racism and social injustice, raising families, and so much more. It's no wonder that many of us struggle to take care of our health and well being first. Did you know that the top three killers of Black women are heart disease, stroke, and diabetes? (Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, 2019) This statistic is always surprising to me because we are one the most educated and smartest groups of people. So when I think of black women dying from preventable diseases I can’t help but to think why.
For me, when I think of what prevents me from taking care of myself and living a healthy lifestyle, I instantly think of me placing value on others before myself. The need to be strong and care for others before oneself is deeply rooted within black women and black culture. I’m sure we’re all guilty of this. Today, this can look like eating quick processed foods because you don’t have the time to cook, or not scheduling your annual physicals and GYN appointments because you’re too busy coordinating your family’s healthcare. For some it's being ignoring changes within our bodies or not getting adequate rest because “the grind never stops.”
Whether you’re a mother, single or married without kids, making time for oneself is no easy task. As black women, we no longer have a choice in this matter. We HAVE to prioritize our health. If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I love to workout, eat clean, and make my health a priority. For me, I understand that in order to support my husband, sons, extended family, and run a blog, I have to take care of health and well being. While this may come natural to me, I recognize that many women struggle to start or even stay consistent with prioritizing their health. Trust me, I’ve had plenty of seasons where I was uninspired to move, or times when being a full time working mother got the best of me. What I’m sharing today are simple changes women can incorporate for the long haul.
So are you ready to choose you? Are you ready to prioritize your health so you can support those who need you most? Well, keep reading.
Change Your Mindset: Your Health is a Lifestyle and Journey
Prioritizing my health works for me because I understand this is a lifestyle, not a quick fix. Let’s be clear, when I say health, I’m referring to taking care of our internal and mental health, not just weight. While there are many definitions of health, I find this to be most useful:
“health is a state of balance, an equilibrium that an individual has established within himself and between himself and his social and physical environment. ”
For instance, there are plenty of thin women who are not healthy, and full figured women in good health. Then, there can be someone who is physically in great shape, but struggling mentally with depression. My point is this, health is more than physical aesthetics; health starts from within. When we change our mindset to our health being a journey and lifestyle, we free ourselves from quick dieting, starvation, and inconsistency. Instead, you will begin to incorporate small changes and habits that last a lifetime.
An example from my own journey is sleep (yes, sleep is a part of our health). Sleep is something that I’ve struggled with and am very inconsistent with getting the appropriate amount of sleep hours. I’m not proud to share this, but up until recently I’ve survived off of three to four hours of sleep per night. While I can wake up early for workouts and go nonstop all day, I’ve realized that I don’t feel good. I’m short fused with my husband and kids, fall asleep while driving, and feel exhausted all the time. So I’ve decided to take a small step toward improving my sleep by going to bed no later than 11pm. I know I can’t immediately jump to a full 8hrs of sleep, so I’m working towards it with a goal that is realistic for me. So let’s all change our mindset about our health and work towards a lifestyle journey.
Be Real with Yourself and Set Realistic Goals
Once you’ve changed your perspective, the second step is to be real with yourself and set realistic goals. I’ll say it again BE REAL WITH YOURSELF! For me, there's no worse feeling than setting an unrealistic health or self-care goal that I KNOW I cannot achieve. Let’s go back to my sleep goal of 11pm. Now, I could have set a 10pm bed time to get a full eight hours, but in keeping real with myself, I know that I’m just cleaning up dinner and getting my house in order at 10pm. So I set an 11pm bed time to allow a full hour to check my email, work, or just relax. Now, am I getting my full eight hours? No, I’m not; but I have gone to bed on time and have been so proud of myself for doing so. My body is actually automatically waking up at 5:30am.
When being real with yourself about your health goals and priorities, consider your lifestyle. For instance, if your weekdays are really busy and you’re struggling to workout, use your weekends instead. This will give you two extra weekdays to take care of business and you will avoid being discouraged for missing a weekday workout. Do not set goals that do not align with your lifestyle. Now, I do recognize that sometimes we have to establish habits and build our goals into our lifestyles. If this is the case for you, I encourage you to take an inventory of your time, schedule, and priorities. When I was in graduate school my schedule between work and school did not allow for me to meet up with my friends as much as I liked. I missed my girl time where I would often be poured into with love, positivity and support. So one night I sat down and took an inventory of my schedule. In doing so, I realized that I actually didn’t have the time, but when I took a closer look, I had a 30 minute commute to work. Instead of listening to the radio, I began using my commute as my girl time by calling my friends and connecting during my drive. I knew realistically I couldn’t meet in-person for a night out on the town, but I knew I could be intentional with how I used my 30 free minutes during my commute.
I’m sharing my experiences to help show you how being real with yourself and understanding your lifestyle will help you set long lasting goals and habits that will have you feeling and looking better than ever.
Find What You Love and Do That
We’ve all heard the saying do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life. When it comes to our health, why should this be any different? If we do what we love when taking care of our health and well being, it won’t seem like work or even difficult to do. I’m able to workout five days a week because I actually love working out. I’ll never forget the time when I joined my husband in a 90 day P90X challenge. I hated every bit of those 90 days and working out became very difficult because I quickly realized that I don’t like doing the same videos everyday, and I don’t enjoy sharing my gym time with my husband. Long story short, I’ve never worked out with him again. LOL!! If you like group exercise, sign up for a class. If you enjoy writing, buy yourself a journal and begin to write. If you like eating carbs, cut the amount of carbs instead of doing the Keto Diet (just an example). The point is, taking care of ourselves shouldn’t feel like work. When you’re doing what you love to do, you’ll find more time in your schedule because you’re having fun or actually losing weight from the group exercise class you’re taking.
Oh, and this applies to our relationships, jobs, and family members that bring drama, stress, and leave us feeling drained resulting in things like high blood pressure or depression. Again, take inventory of your relationships, friendships, and job and consider the value or how you feel. If working 60 hours per week is literally killing you, develop a plan to find another position that is more conducive to supporting your well being. If you find that a particular family member triggers your emotional or mental well being, limit the time you spend or seek professional therapy for tools on how you can interact with that person.
Free yourself from the constraints of doing things and having relationships that you don’t love. You’re health and well being are WORTH IT.
As black women, we no longer have a choice in this matter. We HAVE to prioritize our health. We HAVE to choose ourselves first. We’re in a state of emergency for black women’s health. We all can certainly do better. As a start change your mindset, be real with yourself, and do what you love. I’m sure you’ll see long lasting improvements in your health and overall well being.