Is Your Health A Top Priority? Episode 103

It's easy to say your health is your top priority. But what do your actions say?

How much time and energy do you spend looking after your health and the health of your family?

You set priorities and make choices in terms of your health and wellness but oftentimes you spend your time, money and energy on other things. Mostly, things that are easier but provide no value to your body.

In this episode, You will learn:

• How to set priorities.
• How to stay focused on your priorities.
• Why should you prioritise your health?
• Tools and exercises to help you stay focused on your priorities

Transcript Of Is Your Health A Top Priority

Hello, and welcome to Fit and Fabulous with me, Dr Orlena Kerek. I hope that you are feeding, fit and fabulous.

Spending Time With Kids. One Of My Priorities. 

Here in Spain, it's a four day bank holiday. My children are off school on Monday and Tuesday.  It's Monday as I record this. You can hear the dulcet tones of my children hollering in the background. They are enjoying a little bit of joint screen time as they play. 

I don't know, super Mario some other game they clearly love.  They've spent the morning reading up about it, getting all those secret moves. They are enjoying playing together. 

More Updates About Dr Orlena

More of what's happening in my world, we have moved into our tiny house and we are busy unpacking. Oh my goodness. I thought I had got rid of so much stuff and now I moved everything in and think we still have so much stuff. 

Is there possibly space for all of this stuff? I say “we” meaning my children and their toys. I don't seem to have so much stuff. 

If You Missed The Fit and Fab Summit, You Still Got The Chance To Listen To All Of The Talks.

First of all, did you enjoy Dr Orlena's Fit and Fabulous International Family Summit?

It was absolutely amazing. Wasn't it?  

I hope you managed to listen to some of those videos that were fabulous. I also hope you had short golden nuggets of this amazing stuff. The feedback was really fabulous.

If you did miss out, don't despair, because there is a lifetime ticket that you can pay $97 for access to all of the talks. 

There are a few extra goodies as well. Some people donated some products that they had including my feeding toddlers book. If that is relevant to you. You can get that from Fit and Fabulous Family Summit

Is Your Health Important To You? Let Me Know.

Today. I want to talk about what is important to you. 

I have been chatting to lots of you recently, and if you want to chat to me, I'm still offering some chat. It will be for the next few weeks. I'll tell you about that later on, towards the end of the episode, and during these chats.

I'm chatting to people who want to lead a healthy life. Perhaps they want to lose weight. Health is important to them and their family. They want to lead a healthy life and they want it to be easy and to do it without thinking about it. You're not putting in loads and loads of effort. 

Your Actions Show What's Really Important To You.

One of the things we talk about is what's stopping you from doing all of these things that you say you want to do. 

One of the things that I do is this exercise, which I will walk you through.  It's an interesting exercise. The idea behind it is to help you see what you say is important and what are you actually doing is important.

Choose Five Things That Are Important In Your Life.

When I talk to people, I say to them, okay, let's think about five things and the five things that we have.

Normally I choose them depending on the chats that I've had with them.  We'll just choose five things that are important to most people in their life. 

So let's have a think about a list of things that are important to people. 

We'll go with home, car, phone, health, and security.  Home is obviously where you live and your house, your car, your phone. These ones are quite self-explanatory. 

Your health and your security. Your security is I guess a little bit abstract. It's how secure you feel in your life. I will explain that a little bit more.

What’s At The Top Of Your Priority List?

When we first talk to people about this, most people put health as their number one priority. Then the other ones, it kind of depends. 

Some people will put their mobile phone up higher if they are working online quite a lot. It depends whether you're using your car.

Mostly, people put health number one and then the other four in various different orders.

How Much Energy And Money Do You Spend On These Five Things?

I ask them to have a little think about how much do you spend in terms of money and energy on all five of these things. 

So your home, everything that's included in your home. It could be that you own your home and you're paying a mortgage, or it could be that you're renting your home. Of course, all the bills that go into your home and all the furniture. Obviously, we need these things. 

Where Do You Spend Most Of Your Money?

Most people spend the vast majority of their money on their home. Secondly, your car. Well, your car is self-explanatory as well. How much you pay for your car?

Obviously, you need to divide that between the life of the car. If you pay a hundred thousand euros and it lasts you 10 years. Then that's costing you 10,000 per year. 

On top of that, you've got maintenance. You've got insurance, you've got road tax, depending on how that plays out in your country. Here in Spain, most of it is in our diesel or petrol. So you've got that as well. 

Your mobile phone. How much does your mobile phone cost? How much other things do you spend on your mobile phone, including all those apps? Your contract that you have every single month. 

Your security. Thinking about your security, that could be things like home insurance. It could be things like life insurance. It could be things like indemnity.  If you were to lose your job, are you guaranteed of getting some money? That's the kind of security. Lastly, your health. 

How Do You Spend On Your Health?

I go through this exercise with people. Most people can work out roughly. It doesn't have to be exactly how much money they spend on their home, their car, phone,  security, and on their health.  

Think about what do you spend on your health. So it does depend on which country you are in.  Obviously, some people need to pay for private health insurance. Other people pay their health insurance through their taxes, and some people have to pay both. 

It does depend on how much you're paying for your health or this dental treatment. 

On top of that, things like a gym membership, any physical activity that you might be doing. If you're into running, you're running equipment. If you're into cycling, you're cycling equipment.  

What Are Other Things You Spend In Terms of Your Health?

It might be supplements. Some people pay a lot of money for supplements. There are lots of doctors, particularly in the US who have big followings. They advocate people having supplements. Those supplements often cost about a hundred dollars a year.  

It might be particular foods that you have. It might be that you don't eat gluten so you're paying extra for gluten-free foods. It might be that you’re buying organic foods. Having to pay more for that than you would if you were not paying organic. 

Anything that you consider to be towards your health that you think, “I am doing this because of my family's health.”

If Health Is Your Priority, Does Your Action Support It?

When people do this exercise, it's normally a little light bulb, a little aha moment. In that, most people say that they put their health as their number one priority. 

When it comes to how much time and energy do we spend on these things, quite often, our health is not prioritised.

Your Actions Should Reflect Your Priorities Otherwise You Are Just Fooling Yourself.

Another way of thinking about this is what would somebody else say if they were looking at you.  So you might say, my family and my health are important to me. Somebody else who's looking from the outside wouldn't get to that. 

They would think that drinking wine was important to you. I'm not saying this with any judgment.  I'm just saying if somebody is looking from the outside, what are they perceiving? What are they thinking? What message are you conveying?  

This is an important question because the reality is if we're saying health is important to us and we're not doing those things, then we are tricking ourselves. 

We're saying health is important but we're not making any effort to look after ourselves and our bodies.  

Do This Exercise And See If What You Say Is Important To You Shows In What You Do. 

I like to say, it can be easy and fun. What I would ask you to do is have a little think about this exercise over the next week. Think about this, “do I say that health is important to me? Am I  really doing the things that I should be doing? 

A lot of the things that I hear people saying that they think they should be doing things.  They're like, “I would like to do more exercise, but I don't have time for it.”

Do You Find Yourself Doing Things In Contrast To What You Want To Do?

Often that manifests as sitting down in the evening. You're thinking, goodness, I really wish I'd done some more exercise, but I haven't. So I'm going to treat myself to a glass of wine or some chocolate, and I'm going to forget about it. 

Related Podcast

• Episode 94 Unknown Fact about your Brain to Help you make Healthy Changes that Stick so you can Lose Weight, get Healthy and feel Fit and Fabulous
• Episode 93 How you and your family can feel fit and fabulous without having to think about its
• Episode 77 How to Combat Frustration and Achieve Your Health Goals

You Make Poor Food Choices Because It’s Easy For You To Do

I would like to make more healthy foods for my children but I haven't managed to create that system. I often find myself buying those packaged granola bars or whatever it is that go in their lunch.

I know that they're packed with sugar, but they're pretending to be healthy. I know that it's easier for me to do that. 

Are You Stuck In Your Unhealthy Habits And Choices? Chat To Me.

Those are a couple of examples of times when you have this sort of nagging doubt. You think, "Oh, I really wish I wasn't doing this, but this is how my life is. I carry on doing this because I haven't worked out how to change that. 

If any of that sounds familiar to you, then I would love to chat to you to find out.

What it is that is holding you back? What is that stopping you from making these changes? 

Let’s Make 2021 A Year Of Amazingness In Terms Of Your Health And Wellness.

As I said, last week, 2021 is going to be the year of amazingness.   I invite you to come and create your healthy, living your healthy life. Create those systems and habits so that you can do it without thinking.

That it is easy and fun. I'm going to be doing lots more programs and exciting things. One-on-one coaching and some group coaching, which I'm hoping to get up and running.  

Hopefully February. I don't know exactly when, but so right now I'm just chatting to people. And if you'd like to chat, then email me at [email protected] 

If you're on my email list, you can just reply to one of those emails and I'll get it. I particularly work with busy mothers who find healthy living important to them. 

Get Out Of Your Unhealthy Lifestyle Rut

You're standing at this crossroads where you think, okay, I can carry on the way I am going to be. Doing this, perhaps putting on a little bit of weight every year, getting a little bit more unhealthy.  

You feel unhealthy but your lifestyle isn't supporting your long-term health goals.  There may be a family history of diabetes and you can see that the way that you're living is not helping you avoid that.

Chat To Me To Gain Clarity On What’s Important To You In Terms Of Your Health.

Busy mom who wants to take this opportunity to create healthy living for yourself. Also because healthy living for the rest of your family is important. 

You want to teach your children healthy living habits. You want them to grow up doing things healthy, living without thinking about it. 

If that sounds like you, I would love to chat to you for 20 or 30 minutes now.  Just to be clear, this isn't, “Hey, let's work together call” This is just me finding out what issues you have.  

A lot of people find it very useful to have this call. It gives them some clarity of thinking, Oh my goodness, this is the big thing that has been holding me up.

Actually, that's a really easy thing to solve. I hope that was useful. 

Questions To Ponder On. 

• What did you say is important to you? 
• What is really important to you?
• Are your actions supporting what you say? 

Have a fabulous week! I will see you again next week.

Dr Orlena's Magic Likes and Dislikes Exercise

Wouldn't it be amazing if you could dial down your cravings for certain foods?

Or increase your like for healthy foods? Wouldn't that make healthy eating so much easier?

Well, you can! In just 30 minutes.

Alea didn't like blueberries until she did the Magic Likes exercise. She was eating them and enjoying them by the end of the call!

Tory stopped eating pretzels after she did the exercise.

Find out more about Dr Orlena's Magic Likes and Dislikes Exercise.

(Psst... if you sign up for the "Overeating quiz" you can get a huge discount!)

Written By Dr Orlena 

Dr Orlena Kerek (MBChB from the University of Bristol, UK) trained as a pediatric doctor. She is now a family health coach. She helps busy mums who want to feel amazing by eating healthy food. So they can enjoy a healthy life, get back into their honeymoon shorts and teach their kids healthy habits.  All without thinking about it.

If you want a healthy family and healthy lifestyle without having to think about it. And you'd like help, book a 30-minute "Healthy Life Roadmap" call here.