Better body literacy – better health

Body Literacy is a fancy way of saying that you know your body, you know what’s normal and you recognise when things become ‘not-normal’. And, I’d like to add a third important point which is – you have a really good, evidence-based standard to reference your health from, not just Instagram!

For me, body literacy is Queen. Some fairly obvious things make it useful – for example, if you know what your breasts normally feel like, you’re more likely to know when you get a lump; if you know your vagina from your vulva you can be really specific when you need to talk about it with a doctor; if you know what day of your cycle you’re on, you can start to recognise changes in your emotions, your strength or endurance. There are three things you need to have body literacy…

1. Have a normal reference point

I’m going to start with your reference point for normal. So, celebrities and Olympians are not ‘normal’, by which I mean whatever they are doing is not what Joanna Blogs should be expecting her body to do. Everybody is different and we all have vastly different levels of support, time and money and knowing a few ‘normal’ reference points is just a great place to start. Here are some of my favourites:

• Emptying bowels 1-2 times every 24 hours
• Emptying bladder 5-7 times per day
• Not leaking when you exercise
• Enjoying your exercise and having a healthy relationship with it
• Menstruating regularly if not on hormonal contraception
• Being on the right form of contraception for you
• Knowing what your breasts feel like throughout your cycle

Some of these may well be on your radar already, whilst others are not. For example, you may think that it’s normal to empty your bowels two or three times a week and that it’s normal to have to strain – that’s not normal and it’s not OK.

Being constipated puts a huge strain on your pelvic floor, it can contribute to feelings of lower back pain and it also means we’re not eliminating the toxins our body is trying to excrete. Being constipated is not normal and I could honestly write about this all day. But for now, I just want to use it as an example where we need to understand it’s not normal whilst having hope and belief that we can change.

2. Understand what your ‘normal’ is

Once you have a good standard for normal, the next step is to be able to know what your normal is. There are so many ways to observe this. Sometimes you just know – like you probably just know if you leak when you exercise. You may not be able to recall the details, but you probably do know. Or you probably just know how long your period lasts but you may not know which day of your cycle you’re on. And you probably just know what your energy levels are.

As long as you’re able to accurately recall your ‘key health indicators’ then you’re doing just fine, but there may be things you’ll want to record or monitor. This is becoming more and more popular with the prevalence of apps, wearables and smartphones and there are some fabulous ones out there. But a word of caution…

• If you’re not buying the product, you are the product – make sure you’re comfortable with how your data is being used.
• Measuring something can stress you out and, therefore, you’re less likely to do it. Evidence shows that using a sleep tracker can reduce the amount of sleep you have because you’re so worried about having enough sleep!

So, the most important thing is to work out what works for you – your intuition, a good old pen and paper or the technical stuff.

3. Know when to use your body literacy

With your newfound body literacy, you need to recognise when something isn’t right and when to make a call. That call could be as simple as making a few tweaks to your lifestyle, for example, to change the consistency of your stools, improve your bedtime routine, reduce your addiction to tech. Or that call may need the next level of intervention and some support to make that change – either through joining a group, seeing an expert or enrolling in a course. Or it may be that you’ll need to seek medical help – and remember, that is not a sign of failure! Our medical system is there to help and, the more information you can provide, the more that they can help.

The key with all this is to know your body, know when it changes and know when and where to get the help that you need. This is a cornerstone of your long-lasting health and something that I wish to pass on to all the women that I work with.