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Good health is important for everyone and most of us are always looking for ways to better our health but sometimes it can be difficult especially if you can’t do a lot for yourself. Some people take excellent care of their health and still struggle with their health because even if you are doing everything right you still can’t change your disability, but a vast majority of people can make drastic improvement by making a few small changes. . When you are disabled, it can be even more stressful because a lot of disabled people live in poverty and can’t afford to buy organic like an abled person with a full-time job might be able to but that is okay because there are a lot of simple things you can do that won’t cost you any money. You can’t always change your health, but you can develop good healthy habits to improve your overall health and be the healthiest you possibly can because the healthier you are the more likely you will be for beating the flu without hospitalization. In this post, I am going to talk about a few simple things that you can incorporate in your life to improve yourself. .
Monitor your caffeine intake– I will drink tea later in the day for an afternoon pick me up but nothing can replace my morning coffee. There is nothing wrong with having a cup or two of coffee in the morning and by no means am I telling you to completely cut out coffee because I wouldn’t even do that but sometimes it’s more than a cup or two of coffee and people are drinking large unhealthy amounts. . Coffee has some health benefits but if you drink too much caffeine it can be harmful to your health and cause dehydration, anxiety, insomnia, fast heart rate, and so many other health concerns. You don’t have to completely give up coffee because caffeine is fine in moderation but you should know how much you are consuming because you can become dependent which is difficult to come out of. In my late teen years to early twenties, I had what you’d call a caffeine addiction that eventually have to put to an end because it was causing my heart rate to elevate at random times and negatively impacting my health which you can’t always undo once you do the damage.
Drink black coffee- There is nothing wrong with putting a little sugar in your coffee because it makes coffee taste better and I sometimes do that but if you are drinking multiple cups of coffee all those calories from creamer add up. I started drinking black coffee a few years ago because my stoma does not like sugar and I was tired of dealing with hours of stoma issues every single morning. If I am craving sugar which I sometimes do because I am human but most of the time I am drinking it black to save a few extra calories. If you are used to putting a lot of sugar in your coffee it’s not going to be easy to transition to not using anything at all but reducing how much sugar you are using in beverages instead of going cold turkey can improve your health dramatically and you can work your way up to not using anything if you would like. When I first started drinking black coffee I hated it but as time went on I got used to it and now I prefer black coffee.
Exercise as much as you can. When you live with chronic pain or disabiltiy exercise is hard and not always an option because sometimes it’s impossible or worsens certain medical conditions. There is no exercise routine that is suitable for everyone becuase it depends on your fitness level and what your disability limits. Some disabled people are not going to be able to exercise because their disability limits that and that is okay but many people can and don’t. When you have chronic pain exercise can be difficult because exercise can sometimes trigger pain but what a lot of people don’t understand is that if you are able to exercise sometimes you make pain worse by not doing it. There are days when my migraine symptoms are flaring and I don’t exercise but most days I try to incorporate some movement even if it doesn’t seem like much because although movement can trigger pain it can also help when you are doing the right kind. Move your body as much as you can but exercise isn’t just for people who can do it easily and people with pain can also benefit because sometimes more pain is trigged when we let our bodies get weak. You don’t need a gym membership to start moving your body because there are a lot of option that you can do at home without equipment and won’t cost you anything. Exercise can help improve your brain health, manage your weight, strengthen your bones, and strengthen your immune system so you don’t get sick as easily. Why wouldn’t you want to move your body?
Know what you’re putting in your body– Some people cannot exercise because their disability makes it impossible and sometimes you have no choice but to focus on food.. In a perfect world where money was not an issue we’d all go organic but unfornately that is not the world we live in and not everyone can afford to stock their entire fridge with organic food ask you don’t have to. There is nothing wrong with occasionally eating something that is processed and sometimes when you are disabled it is your only choice often but if you can try to not eat meals that are highly processed often because it can cause gastrointestinal problems and many other health concerns. Know what you are putting into your body and don’t trust everything that says it’s organic to be healthy because not everything is and if you were to look at the ingredients in some of the foods you eat you may notice that there is nothing organic about it. Be mindful of what you are putting in your body and if you can eat more vegetables instead of going for your fifth pre-packaged meal do that because the less processed your food is the more it will benefit your health.
Don’t smoke– I am not a smoker because I have known people who have smoked and gotten cancer and I don’t say that to scare anyone but it’s a true fact. Some people who smoke on a regular basis will never get a horrible disease such as cancer but it does increase your risk and make you more likely than someone who has never some. I know that quitting smoking cannot be easy but just my doing that one thing can make you save a lot of money and improve your health. There are a lot of things such as a nicotine patch and support group that can help someone quit someone which I highly encourage you look into because once you get yourself ill from your smoking habit you can’t undo it.
Get regular physicals -.As a disabled person, I have no choice but to get yearly physicals because my insurance requires and if I didn’t I’d lose my benefits. Some people cannot afford to go to the doctor often but it is always surprising to me when I hear of abled-bodied people not getting regular physicals until and it’s too late because the damage is already done. I have a very strong immune system and only get sick once every couple of years but even if my insurance did not require regular physicals I’d still want to get them because your doctor can check your overall health and diagnose medical conditions that may not be presenting symptoms while it’s still treatable. Preventative care sometimes is a bit tedious but it’s the best way to improve your health and prevent diseases that you can’t cure. Get regular physicals even if you feel healthy because there are a lot of medical conditions that present no symptoms until it becomes severe because you are a walking heart attack and if a yearly physical could quite literally save your life.
Limit your time on social media- Social media is great for disabled people because sometimes it’s difficult to find friends and the Internet often can help you find people who are in a similar situation that you can connect to. Social media can be toxic for some people because there are a lot of trolls on the Internet that will say horrible things that they would never say in real life but I would not agree that it’s always toxic.. If your social media does not have a lot of trolls it’s probably perfectly healthy to stay on Instagram and it might be beneficial for your mental health but if you have a lot of haters it might be helpful to occasionally unplug. Social media is not real-life but a lot of people act like it is and are even more rude in the comment section than they would ever be in real life and it’s okay to unfollow people on social media or block them completely to improve your mental health because high levels of stress is not good for anyone.
Get an air purifier– Many people with chronic illnesses get sick a lot because some medical conditions naturally have very weak immune systems and you can’t change that. If you have a disability that naturally makes your immune system weak there are things you can do to lessen the likelihood of a flare but you can’t totally prevent illness. In December to help cycle out all the unclean air I was breathing and have noticed some changes in my migraine frequency. An air purifier can be very expensive and not affordable for some disabled people and some air purifiers are cheaper than others but if you can’t afford it might help prevent some illnesses because sometimes we get sick from breathing unclean air.
Take your medication– Society is always telling disabled people that their medication is what is making them sick and if we’d stop taking our medication we would cure ourselves. My medication is not the problem but it’s the solution and it’s because of my medication that I am healthy and if you are not someone’s doctor you should never advise them to not take their meds. As a disabled person, I sometimes forget to take my medication like most people would but a vast majority of the time I remember to take it because when skip too many medication doses I often will have more flare and not feel great. If someone is telling you to stop taking your meds that is not your doctor do not listen to them because you are prescribed certain medications for a reason and if it was truly harmful these meds would not exist.
Good health is important for everyone but sometimes we aren’t motivated to do what it takes to better ourselves because sometimes people think it’s too expensive. Health can most certainly be very expensive, but it doesn’t have to be sometimes you can make improvements by just looking at your life and evaluating what bad habits you have that you could stop. These are only a few things that you could start doing today that would benefit your health and there is so much that you could do that won’t break the bank. Good healthy habits will not necessarily cure a disability or chronic illness, but it can make you have less flares and who would want that? You can improve yourself without telling yourself that you will never eat sugar again or it being super complicated and sometimes it’s the simple things that do the most good. How do you improve your health while remaining on a budget?
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