All during August, National Wellness Month focuses on self-care, managing stress and promoting healthy routines. Create wholesome habits in your lifestyle all month long and see how much better you feel!
Research has shown self-care helps manage stress and promotes happiness. Whether you challenge yourself to a new yoga pose or try a different spa treatment, make a small change and impact your health in positive ways.
There are numerous ways to make those small changes, too.
Increase your water intake.
Add more fruits and veggies to your meals.
Monitor your sleep and make adjustments for better sleep habits
Join a yoga, walking, or aerobics class.
Learn to meditate.
These small steps can lead to many more healthy habits in your lifestyle.
Live Love Spa founded National Wellness Month in 2018 to foster community, connection, and commerce in the Wellness industry. The initiative inspires consumers to focus on wellness and provides a platform for wellness companies to highlight their services and benefits.
Every August, let’s amplify the message of healthy living, celebrate those providing amazing self-care solutions, and inspire others to create new healthy habits.
Proclaim “I choose wellness” with a photo and post on social media.
Visit http://www.wellnessmonth.com for a calendar of daily challenges for small ways you can choose to be well each day. Because we believe that small, daily acts of self-care lead to a lifetime of wellness.
June bursts onto the scene as a month brimming with sunshine, longer days, and endless opportunities to celebrate.
As the official gateway to summer, June brings longer days, blooming gardens, and the perfect excuse to trade our busy schedules for a little bit of fun. While we often think of June for weddings and school letting out. This month is packed with quirky holidays and heartfelt observances designed to help us savor the season. So, grab a glass of iced tea, put your feet up, and let’s dive into why this month deserves to be celebrated.
Fun facts abound: June beetles make their appearance, and no other month starts on the same weekday as June in quite the same way. Flag Day honors patriotism in the U.S., while outdoor activities beckon everyone to get moving.
National Months in June encourage meaningful awareness alongside the fun.
With something for everyone turn ordinary dates into mini-festivals. Try National Say Something Nice Day, National Go Barefoot Day. Don’t forget to include National Hug Your Cat Day, National Cheese Day, Flag Day on the 14th, and National Go Fishing Day on the 18th. From National Game Show Day to celebrations honoring ice cream, donuts, and more, there’s truly something for every interest and personality.
June shines for sports enthusiasts too, with NBA Finals, Stanley Cup playoffs, baseball in full swing, and the NBA Draft.
Famous June birthdays—from Marilyn Monroe and Paul McCartney to Michael Phelps and Elon Musk—add star power.
Zodiac signs Gemini and Cancer add a touch of curiosity and emotional depth, while birth flowers like the rose and honeysuckle, along with stones such as pearl, alexandrite, and moonstone, celebrate love, devotion, and generosity.
This June, embrace the spirit of “Just Enjoy.” Whether you’re marking personal milestones, joining community events, or simply taking time to appreciate longer evenings and blooming gardens, the month offers countless ways to create memories. Gather with friends, try new recipes tied to food-themed days, explore nature, or reflect on what brings you joy. Here’s to making June unforgettable—happy celebrating!
National Blood Pressure Education Month in May provides awareness regarding hypertension.
Many people don’t even know they have high blood pressure. Symptoms of hypertension often go unnoticed and if left uncontrolled the risk of heart problems such as stroke or heart attack increase.
It’s important to know your numbers. When blood pressure is measured, the upper number (systolic pressure) measures the pressure in your arteries when your heart beats. The lower number (diastolic pressure) measures the pressure between heartbeats. For most people, a normal blood pressure is less than 120/80.
HISTORY
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention created National High Blood Pressure Education Month, and it is recognized by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
During May, have your blood pressure checked. You can either schedule an appointment with your primary care physician or visit a local pharmacy that does blood pressure readings. If your blood pressure is elevated, it may be time for a physical. Some medications increase blood pressure. Lifestyle can be a factor, too.
Every year in May, Global Employee Health and Fitness Month aims to improve the health of the global workforce. Through initiatives and helpful programs, the campaign encourages employers to engage their employees in healthful activities. It also provides a variety of wellness and fitness programs to complement already existing programs. Employers with wellness programs have healthier employees who are more productive. Wellness programs reduce overall healthcare costs and reduce illness and injury.
Employees who participate in wellness programs have lower stress levels, better overall health, and improved confidence, too. Challenge employees to pair up with partners to take the stairs or go for a walk on their lunch break. Take stretch breaks and eat healthy meals. Make sure to get plenty of rest and track your exercise, too. Join the movement and encourage others to join you.
GLOBAL EMPLOYEE HEALTH AND FITNESS MONTH
The National Association for Health and Fitness launched the observance in 1989 to encourage employers to invest in their employees’ health. Each year the campaign has grown from a national observance to a now global event.
Employers can participate by offering wellness programs and incentives to employees who participate. Create challenges and opportunities to encourage employees to be physically active and focus on their health. Employees, encourage your employer to join the movement. Other ways to participate include:
Invite other co-workers to join you for a walk on your lunch break
Choose the farthest parking space or walk to work
Take the stairs
Use a standing desk
Participate in desk exercises
Use #EmployeeHealthAndFitnessMonth to share on social media.
National Fasting February reminds us that our metabolic health underlies many of the diseases that we associate with aging, from diabetes to cancer to Alzheimer’s disease. Regularly switching from burning sugars to burning stored fats can reduce our risk of metabolic disorders such as diabetes and other conditions of aging.
February is a month for transforming new health resolutions into healthy habits and lifestyles. Since 1964, February has been American Heart Month to help raise awareness of preventable risk factors of cardiovascular disease including obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Diet heavily influences many of these risk factors. But there is a growing consensus among healthcare professionals that a healthy diet depends not just on what we eat but also when we eat.
National Fasting February celebrates the benefits of intermittent fasting on metabolic health. Practicing intermittent fasting is as simple as changing the timing of your meals. It gives your body at least a 10-12 hour break from metabolizing sugar every night.
Intermittent fasting does not require any change in the content of your diet, but rather merely a shift in the timing of your food and sweetened beverage intake. Regularly refraining from consuming any calories for just 10-12 or more hours can increase levels of brain-fueling ketones. It also:
Science-backed ways to practice fasting for metabolic health include:
Time-restricted eating: 10-16 hours of overnight fasting every day or several days per week
Alternate day fasting: Eating fewer than 500 calories every other day
The 5:2 diet: Two consecutive or non-consecutive days per week of eating fewer than 500 calories
NATIONAL FASTING FEBRUARY HISTORY
Intermittent fasting was developed as an alternative to calorie restriction interventions for studies of human aging and chronic disease prevention. Calorie restriction has long been considered by researchers to be a gold standard in prolonging lifespan in many animal species. But calorie restriction, which in humans typically involves eating fewer than 1,200 calories per day, is incredibly difficult for humans to practice. Researchers including Dr. Valter Longo, Dr. Mark Mattson, and Dr. Satchidananda Panda, and others are now finding that intermittent fasting may be just as effective or even more effective than calorie restriction in terms of delaying and preventing diseases of aging.
Fasting for 12-16 hours and exercising while fasted are safe practices for most individuals, except for pregnant women and individuals diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. However, you should consult your primary care physician to make sure that you don’t have a health condition for which fasting is contraindicated.
Prolonged fasting or going more than 24-36 hours without calories is the subject of early clinical trials. However, it isn’t necessary to glean the metabolic health benefits of fasting. You should drink plenty of water while fasting. You may need to supplement your water with a blend of electrolytes if you are practicing prolonged fasting. Zero-calorie beverages (unsweetened tea and coffee) will also not break your fast. You can consume artificially sweetened beverages while fasting in a pinch, but your gut microbes can break down some artificial sweeteners, and these sweeteners tend to increase your sweet cravings.
Intermittent fasting will not turn an unhealthy diet into a healthy one. You should try to eat a balanced diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables when you aren’t fasting. It’s also best practice to break a fast with a relatively low glycemic index (low carbohydrate) meal to avoid spiking your blood sugar.
Visit lifeapps.io/fasting-february/ to learn more about how to participate in National Fasting February and to read about the health benefits of intermittent fasting.
Choose a fasting schedule that works best for you. Practice it all month long. Intermittent fasting is not a fad diet, but rather a lifestyle for metabolic health. If you’ve never fasted before, start with time-restricted eating. This involves fasting for at least 10-12 hours every night, ideally starting in the early evenings. Don’t worry if you can’t make it to 12 hours at first – work up slowly. Throughout the month, you may work your way up to a 16-hour or an occasional 24-hour fast.
Download the LIFE Fasting Tracker app to track your fasts. Create a fasting Circle, invite family members or join a public LIFE Circle to fast in a supportive social environment.
Share your experiences with intermittent fasting and post photos of how you break your fasts on social media with the hashtag #NationalFastingFebruary.
If you are an experienced faster or looking to achieve weight loss, you may try practicing alternate day fasting or a 5:2 weekly fasting schedule this month.
About Life Fasting Tracker
The LIFE Fasting Tracker app was created by LifeOmic, a precision health software company headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. LifeOmic works with healthcare providers and academic institutions, including the Indiana School of Medicine, to power precision medicine and personalized treatments for cancer and other diseases using ultra-secure cloud technologies. LifeOmic’s LIFE apps provide the missing link to patient engagement in precision healthcare.
The LIFE Fasting Tracker app, free to download for both iOS and Android, is the easiest and most social way to fast. Launched in late 2018, the app makes it easy and fun to harness lifestyle changes to improve metabolic health. With the app, you can track your progress on any fasting schedule, see when you start burning fats for fuel, and intuitively log how you are feeling. You can share your fasts and give and receive encouragement within custom Circles of people you care about, from friends to coworkers to healthcare providers. Join hundreds of thousands of users in their journey to better health.
