Make Your Health A Priority, Always!

If anything that the pandemic has taught me is that you need to make your health a priority.

When I say health, I refer to your physical (beautiful body) that you have to travel this world. Health is more than looking healthy.

It’s about feeling healthy! No one wants to go through life where they are constantly in pain. This will not only make you feel bad but can impact your mental wellbeing as well, and we don’t want that!

What is considered healthy?

In my opinion, being healthy is a lifestyle…a healthy lifestyle (yall see what I did there). It is more than just a phase but something I try to adhere to every single day.

This means having a healthy diet. A healthy diet doesn’t mean that it has to be strict. It is essential to have balanced meals; the correct portion of fats, proteins, sugars…you know the rest. It is important not to restrict yourself and treat yourself once in a while.

I am a vegetarian/vegan, and I have been for a few years now. I say vegetarian/vegan because I am a flip-flopper; I want to be a vegan 100%, and other days, I’d opt for vegetarian meals. Regardless of the meal I decide to have, it is nutritious and delicious—healthy food= healthy body.

Your body is your temple so make sure you take care of it.

If you would like to check to see if you have a healthy body/body weight, you can check your BMI. Body mass index (BMI) is calculated using your weight and height to identify a healthy weight.

According to my BMI of 25.4, I am overweight! Now, I work out every day; I am very active and maintain a healthy lifestyle overall. Although BMI can be helpful to identify how much you may need to lose (potentially), it doesn’t account for major muscle mass!

Hence, do not rely on this calculator alone but use it as a guide if you need to.

Aside from eating healthy, how can we check that our bodies are healthy?

This can be checked easily… are you experiencing physical pain and/or discomfort? In your day to day lives, are you comfortable and free from pain as little or as extreme as it may be.

My health journey

Around the age of 14/15, I began to experience some pain. By this age, I started my period; however, this pain happened regardless of whether I was on my period or not. The pain felt like an extreme cramp in my stomach which felt more painful than a period cramp at times. Sometimes, the pain was so intense that I had to stop whatever activity I was doing and bend down.

As the pain continued for some time, I went to the doctor to discuss my symptoms. Verbatim, I was told that it was ‘growing pain’, whatever that means. So I learnt to deal with the pain for the next few years. I then returned to the doctor, and they downplayed my symptoms once again and told me to take paracetamol for the pain.

Side note: I am (now) the type of person that would rather deal with the pain instead of relying on painkillers which may have built up my pain tolerance.

I then moved 3 hours away to university around the age of 18. The pain was still raging.

I decided to transfer my GP (General practitioner) to Birmingham, where I lived for most of the following 4 years. This time, I was referred to the gynaecology department, which was new. I explained my symptoms once again, and I was given Co-codamol to cope with the pain.

Co-codamol is much stronger than paracetamol, and boy, oh boy, I did not enjoy taking it. As I was young and dumb, I mixed alcohol with the medication. ***DO NOT TRY THIS, PLEASE****

How silly was I?!

After a while, I decided that I did not want to continue taking the medication as it made me quite nauseous and dizzy. For what felt like the 100th time, I returned to the doctor and continued to stress my symptoms, and I had a pap smear to see what was going on.

A pap smear involves collecting cells from the cervix, uterus and vagina. The aim of it is to see if there are any cancerous and pre-cancerous cells. In most cases, a pap smear is offered to young women who have had sex which I had not at the time. It was painful!

Thank God my mum was there because YIKES! The results came back fine, but I also recommended that I have an ultrasound as well—all clear.

Once I had finished university, I was still coping with the pain, so I had several ultrasounds and another pap smear. It turns out that I had a cyst and a fibroid on my ovaries. The cyst was about 3x4cm big!

I was given the mini pill to reduce the cyst size, which was non-cancerous, thank God. I knew something was going on, but due to my age, I believe I was overlooked. It took a while, but we got there.

Why it is important to go to GP

Regardless of what element you may be facing, big or small, please mention it to your doctor. They are there to listen and provide care. In my experience, I found that it may work in your favour to embellish your symptoms. I don’t recommend lying, but when it comes to your health, do push for treatment and/or a referral to a specialist. If I wasn’t as persistent, I do not think I would have been referred to as my age played against me.

Pap smears are usually offered to women aged 21+, which I wasn’t at the time.

We only have one body, so listen to it.

Recently, I watched an interview by Demi- a former love island cast. Demi talked about her experience with the health system and how it was also was not taken seriously until she continuously pushed to be taken seriously. Now, she has cancer and thankfully, it was spotted early, but it shows that there are holes in our health service. Click the link below to watch the video.