Since lockdown, many of us have taken more notice of our health and wellness. In fact, internet searches for the term ‘wellness’ have gone through the roof! So, what is wellness and why is it important?
First off, when people talk about this word, what they are usually referring to is ‘wellbeing’ – and there is a difference. Wellness is usually thought of as a lack of disease. This is mainly because modern healthcare focuses mainly on diagnosing (mostly physical) illnesses or identifying risk factors for major diseases and providing medication or other therapies. So basically, health professionals won’t intervene until something that they can diagnose, or measure is going wrong, and until that time, you are ‘well’. Interestingly, the World Health Organization (WHO) defines health and wellness as “a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”., So you can see that the WHO identifies ‘wellbeing’ as part of their definition of wellness. However, most definitions look at these words the other way around. Wellbeing includes the concept of physical wellness (no disease) but also, according to various writers, thinkers and scientists, having mental, emotional, spiritual and social wellness.
So, wellness is an obvious concept, as we don’t want disease or illness. Wellbeing is a bit broader and more complicated. You can be perfectly healthy in a physical sense but you may have anxiety, excess stress, or feel unfulfilled – in fact, most people probably suffer from one or more of these for many different reasons. Besides those already mentioned, your environment, financial, intellectual and/or occupational status may cause any of these emotions and thus, cause your wellbeing to be compromised.
So, what can we do about our wellness and how can we optimise it?
Well, wellness coaches (yes, they exist and there are thousands of them) will evaluate your physical, mental and emotional state, look at what parts of your life are not optimised and causing stress and then formulate a plan that addresses all of these aspects of your life. So they’re kind of like a personal trainer, nutritionist and psychologist, all rolled into one. Of course, it can take many, many years of study, training and experience to be good at any one of these, so if you’re thinking about hiring a wellness coach, bear that in mind! However, one thing all of these professions need is the ability to change people’s habits, substituting bad habits with good ones. As a result, each day, the client is engaging in more constructive activities and fewer detrimental ones, which will improve those aspects which contribute to your wellbeing.
Of course, all of this has been considered in the design of The 1:1 Diet. Each Consultant is trained to be more than just a personal weight loss coach. Within the Steps that guide the progression of our diet, we have four “key stages”, and the content of these stages is founded upon the most effective behaviour-change research. It is all designed to consider people’s physical, emotional and psychological relationship with food, along with their social and environmental circumstances and to ingrain the habits that make that relationship a healthy and sustainable one, which will certainly contribute to their wellness.
The amazing Consultants are there to be your very own cheerer-onners and personally support you throughout your weight-loss journey. You don’t get support like that anywhere else!