Happy Anniversary - One-Year of Blogging and More to Come!

Beginning one year ago this month, I marked my debut as a blogger. I was proud to start writing about Four Steps to Wellness. The beginning of something new does not happen overnight. Learning, researching, and looking for inspiration resulted in quiet reflection, until one day the desire to share my thoughts, knowledge and experience grew into a loud inner voice, which needed to come out to change the lives of my readers for the better. :)

That moment came when I heard about another code blue emergency while waiting in a hospital lobby, one more stroke episode in a circle of friends, and one more article about the American obesity epidemic. I could not be silent any more and I felt the need to take some action toward the prevention of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.  

A healthy lifestyle is the best defense against these diseases. It can be achieved through gradual lifestyle changes and strong family and community support, which is the main focus of my blog.

A small lifestyle change is a powerful tool; it may not be noticeable at first but it produces a great result after becoming a part of our daily routine. We are a part of a big community and cannot survive by ourselves. We need each other for emotional support and for learning life lessons from one another.
Four Steps to Wellness was created to promote healthy living, which can be achieved through easy adaptive measures such as a nutritionally balanced diet, adequate physical activity, regular sleep hours, and managing daily stress.

One year later, eleven articles have been shared with a global audience of more than 2,300 people from over 35 countries! I am thankful to all of you for making this blog even more successful than I ever imagined it could be. It has truly been a wonderful and rewarding experience for me, and I hope it has been an enjoyable experience for all of you who took time out of your busy lives to read this blog and share a little of your time with me. I would like to believe that we now represent healthier and happier versions of ourselves than we were one year ago.

4 Steps 2 Wellness

My blog is a reflection of my life and my journey to wellness. My plan for wellness can be summed up in these four steps:

Exercise

Adequate physical activity helped me to maintain good posture throughout my life despite suffering from scoliosis of the spine. At the age of 10, I was diagnosed with a scoliosis double major curve. It was not a life threatening medical condition, but it was diagnosed before an adolescent growth spurt and my scoliosis could have progressed and caused damage to my internal organs and overall appearance.

My parents rejected the idea of forcing me to wear a back brace and spinal fusion surgery was last thing on their mind. They were able to find professional support. I was blessed with the guidance I had received from the physical therapist and message therapist, swimming coach, and ballet teacher.

The hardest part was the execution of this exercise program. It was my responsibility to work hard and perform physical activities daily. It was intense and I was often crying while performing these exercises. It was not easy, but it produced a great result. Nowadays, many physicians would be surprised to see a double major curve of the spine indicated on my spinal X-ray.
The best accomplishment from a well-designed exercise program is increasing our strength and improving our overall health. My blog is focusing on adequate physical activity, which benefits our health without injuries.  

Nutrition

         I am very passionate about the benefits of eating a wide variety of healthy, nutritional food. Most food provides energy; however, we have to ask ourselves whether the food we eat represents nourishment or just empty calories.

       I had a love-hate relationship with food for many years. At one point in my life, I was overweight. I was an overwhelmed college freshman who did not have time for cooking. I was very stressed and I relied on junk food and sweet treats to get me through my demanding work and studies. At that time, I felt that my weight gain was out of control. My low point was the summer of my college freshman year, when over my summer work trip I gained a full 30 pounds! It took me 5 years to lose this extra weight.

       While I was happy that I started to lose weight, I realized very soon that I was losing too much weight. My body mass index (BMI) dropped to the underweight range. Again, I was in a very stressful state of mind, so much so that I often forgot to eat meals regularly.

       Finally, I have learned about healthy eating habits while studying nutrition. I have learned to prepare more nutritionally balanced meals at home and limit frozen dinners and trips to restaurants, while avoiding fast food entirely. I felt like a brand new person, who was not dieting any more and enjoying flavorful tastes of rainbow-colorful produce.

       Food is an energy source and it is our responsibility to nourish our body with the best fuel we can consume. My blog emphasizes the importance of eating nutritionally balanced meals instead of focusing on calorie restriction alone.

Sleep

         My first year of motherhood was full of sleepless nights. I concentrated on providing the best nutrition that I could for my son and I discovered that new mothers must adapt to the sleep schedules of their babies. I chose to exclusively practice breastfeeding, without using a breast pump, bottles, or pacifier. I was able to do it but I sacrificed a lot of sleep. After 15 months, I was extremely exhausted and agitated as a result of cumulative sleep deprivation. A modified sleep schedule was a simple solution that significantly improved my quality of life. I started to feel more energized and was able to function like a normal person rather than a kind of zombie.

       Sleep is an important component of our health, but many times we do not get the consistent quality sleep that we need in our lives. My blog discusses techniques for improving sleep to improve overall health.

Reducing Stress

Managing stress is one of the most difficult parts of our lives. The good news is that there is a way to make our lives less stressful and more enjoyable.

In the fall of 2014, for the first time in my life I became depressed. I felt that I had worked so hard to reach my educational and life goals but it was taking much longer than I had anticipated. I did not enjoy my education anymore and felt burned out. I was questioning why I stopped being myself and appreciating my everyday life. I was focusing so much on only one way to attain my goals that I did not see other opportunities all around me. When I opened my mind and reduced my stress level, I saw new possibilities, which were more realistic and achievable. An exercise routine, art projects and family support healed my soul and taught me the way to lower my overall stress level.

Dancing was always my passion, so I decided to try zumba at the local gym. The participants were a diverse crowd: different age groups, ethnicities, and dancing backgrounds, but we all had one thing in common. We shared a passion for dance. During the zumba session, everyone moved like one person, everybody had fun, and there was great energy floating in the air. Zumba helped me to loosen up my inflexible body and spice up my monotonous life.

At the same time, I gave yoga a second chance. It was Vinyasa yoga, or flow yoga. This type of yoga looks like a slow motion dance because of its smooth transition between poses, which is synchronized to breathing. It was challenging for me to keep my breath calm and not rush through poses. Before taking this class, I did not understand the importance of breath control. At the end of each class, we practiced meditation. At first, I could not release my mind from my daily responsibilities and college homework. After several weeks, it became easier and I then started practicing meditation.

I began practicing visualized meditation at home. At first, I tried to do it daily for three minutes and slowly increased my time to five and ten minutes per session. Meditation helped me to learn how to focus my mind on the main task at hand. I was able to calm myself down, relax my mind and let go of my worries. 

Even with daily meditation, I still felt that something was missing to enrich my soul. I decided to try something absolutely new, so I made the decision to try drawing. I kept it simple with just a black pencil and white paper. I captured beautiful natural moments around me. Although I was never a professional ballerina, my heart and soul were always dancing to the music of my dreams. My drawings represented these dreams and my wish for harmony with nature. These drawings filled me with joy and creativity.

Close to the holiday season, I looked at my resolutions for 2014 and it seemed that nothing came true. However, I did not feel like a failure.  Instead, I found a balance between my body and mind. I was happy with my life and thankful for ongoing challenges. That Christmas was the simplest, but most special Christmas of my life. I spent the holiday with my small family: at the time, just my husband and dog. I was surrounded by my husband’s eternal love, his everyday support and constant admiration. It was our love that really saved the day and I realized just how blessed we all were.
Stressful situation are always around us but the way we react toward stress is our own responsibility, which we can learn to control. My blog gives some tips for people to reduce stress. 

In the End

These four steps (exercise, nutrition, sleep, and reducing stress) represent my personal path to wellness, which is not finished yet. I am constantly searching, learning, and sharing my knowledge with you. Good health is the foundation to a happy, balanced life. In the coming year, I am planning to write another 12 articles dedicated to these Four Steps to Wellness and I look forward to your feedback going forward!  Please share your thoughts with me. I believe that together we can build a healthier and happier community.

It has been a pleasure to share my path to wellness. Would you like to share your story with all of us?

Health, Happiness, and Harmony to You and Yours, Always!

Kay

PS I would like to thank my husband (my man of letters) for inspiring me to improve my writing skills, for encouraging me to reach for the stars and for being the sunlight to my universe…