What do you do to stay healthy?

[HappyOne]

Hi, I'm new to this but keen to learn anything I can to stay healthy. I have schizophrenia. I also get anxiety. I currently take medication and have gained a stack of weight that's not budging even though I mainly eat healthy and have been walking around 7000 steps a day. I suppose I'm looking for proven suggestions on how to stay healthy mentally and physically.

[Former-Member]

Hi @HappyOne

First of all – a warm welcome to the Forums! 🙂 It is great to have you become a part of our community here. I do hope you will find it a helpful and encouraging space to participate in.

I really think health and wellness is a huge challenge for so many people in our culture, whether or not we have a diagnosis of mental illness. @HappyOne - It is great to see you are feeling motivated to eat healthy and exercise every day. I for one do not enjoy exercising (I’m not the only one, right???). I have noticed that as I get older, I need to make more and more of a genuine effort to stay healthy and well…

Recently I made the decision to practice more ‘self-compassion’ in this area of my life. That is, I try to focus less on my slip-ups and try to meditate more so on the things I am already doing well. For example, I really enjoy going for a brisk walk outside in the sunshine. It really makes me feel amazing! In the past, I used to feel like I should turn my walks into jogs, and then turn my jogs into sprints. But nowadays, I just focus on walking. By not pushing myself to constantly improve and achieve more in this area, I have noticed I am so much more consistent with my exercise regime. I don’t know if this resonates with anyone else, but for me I have found it to be immensely helpful!

Another thing I find helpful is getting enough sleep. If I wake up feeling rested, I tend to feel more motivated to exercise.

@HappyOne, SANE Australia have a number of factsheets about maintaining a healthy lifestyle while living with a mental illness. You might like to check them out in the links below:

• Healthy Living
• Mind + Body: Looking after you physical health when you have a mental illness
• Mental illness and physical health: the facts
• Smoking and mental illness
• Type 2 Diabetes and mental illness

Hopefully these factsheets can help get the ball rolling with some more ideas about how to stay healthy and well while living with a mental illness.

Again, welcome the forums @HappyOne and hope to ‘see’ you around the place! 🙂

- Mosaic

[Former-Member]

Hi @HappyOne

love your name 😄 and its nice to meet you. 

I have the same problem with medications and weight. I'm really struggling to keep the weight down since I started a new med in January and it really bothers me. But its also really hard to get out and do intentional exercise because of motivation and a body that doesnt like to cooperate physically (my knee caps dislocate without much help!).

I know there is a thread somewhere on hear called the coping box... but im not sure how to link to it? maybe one of the mds can @NikNik or @CherryBomb 😄 where lots of people put ideas that they use to help them. I like to colour in when im feeling anxious or crochet.

Hope to see you around the forums some more,

LJ

[NikNik]

Hi @HappyOne

You can find the Coping Box, which @Former-Member referred to, here

Welcome 🙂

Nik

[Former-Member]

Thanks @NikNik

[Appleblossom]

I do like your productive posting.

Mind and body do influence each other but their health is not exactly the same. What do you do to help mental or emotional sanity?

Singing helps me release feelings and exercise when I do it.

Writing helps me process thought processes.

[Bec1985]

Emotionally I try to write my feelings down I also keep a memory box so on my good days I write positive things that have happened an dates on my bad days I go to the box and read my entries this always makes me smile when I think of the happy memories. Mentally I am still trying to figure out but I think communication is very important whether if it's a partner friend relative or professional I try to at least try to express my bad thoughts I've somehow learnt to sought of go with the flow as in if I'm feeling very overwhelmed I cry my heart out so I don't break within a few days. Health wise I am not really into fitness but I tend to go for small walks daily for the fresh air I always do my makeup even if I'm just home and I shower when feeling really blah this refreshes me I also am a terrible eater and I for drink a lot of water so I substitute and have about ten cups of soup a day this gets me thru 🙂

[Appleblossom]

isnt it anazing how we come back to basics.  Soup and water .. sounds healthy to me .. so long as there are goodies in it .. I rotate about 12 favourite soups once a week to help keep us on track .. son loves soup .. and mine are chockers full of the good stuff. And the really good thing is that they are hard to muck up.