Winston Henry dancing with his daughter, Chris-Ann at their home in Harbour View.
-Winston Sill photo
Trudy Simpson, Staff Reporter
Good health is a blessing with numerous benefits for those who not only believe in it but who take concrete steps to be healthy. Below are three persons who help give truth to the Buddhist saying, "Without health, life is not life; it is only a state of langour and suffering an image of death".
Dancing for health
In 1988, while a nursing student, Winston Henry changed his life. Influenced by the subjects that he was studying, health became a priority, and so he developed a routine that would keep him healthy. Sixteen years later, the regime is still going - he exercises regularly and eats well.
Now a Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) supervisor at the Heart Foundation of Jamaica, Mr. Henry, is still taking steps to prolong his life. These days, he even takes it a step further, passing on the habit of healthy eating and exercise to the younger generation through his four-year-old daughter, Chris-Ann.
"Most evenings, my daughter and myself, we just put on some music and dance. The regular routine is to go for 45 minutes but sometimes I go for an hour," the 46-year-old told Your Health.
The 'music' is provided by a musical doll that chants exercise mantras which father and daughter follow, Your Health discovered during a visit to Mr. Henry's home last Thursday.
But that is not Mr. Henry's only form of exercise. Most mornings, Mr. Henry does brisk 45-minute walks around his community in Harbour View, east Kingston; then he does push-ups for another 15 or 20 minutes.
Another building block to his good health is healthy eating. He eats food with very little fat and salt and resists snacking.
"I am hardly ever sick. Even the common cold I don't catch," Mr. Henry said.
STOP AND SMELL THE ROSES
She looks younger than her age, and when told so, Flossie Russell burst into hearty laughter.
At 95 years old, Mrs. Russell is still very spry, maintaining for years a habit of exercising that started when she was a little girl walking to and from church and school, in Bensonton, St. Ann. It is only recently that she stopped walking the mile and a half to the Bensonton Methodist Church, where she has been a member for 82 years, actively involved in community outreach, lay preaching and the Women's League.
But despite having left a life-long habit behind, Mrs. Russell says she finds other ways to maintain her health.
"Sometimes I take exercise in my bed. I lie down on my back and lift my legs up and put them back down. I still do some of my housework and I also go around in the community and talk with the old and talk with the young and take care of the sick. It keeps me going and gives me exercise," she told Your Health last Wednesday.
Sitting on a stool at her doorway and looking out into the community while neighbours greeted her, Mrs. Russell also said that she watches her diet carefully. Over the years, she has given up several loves, among them fatty food such as beef and pork, as well as the use of salt and too much cooking oil.
One of her key ways of staying healthy is to eat regular meals with solid, nourishing but mostly boiled or steamed food. These days, meals consist of new favourites such as callaloo, yam, chicken and vegetables, which she grows herself.
She also revealed another secret to living well, it's the old cliché she stops daily to smell the roses. This is why she still sees well needing glasses only for reading purposes; argues well her mind is as sharp as a tack and why she has only two illnesses -- hypertension and glaucoma out of the myriad of illnesses that usually attack senior citizens.
HEALTH IS ABOUT
MENTAL WELL-BEING
For Yvonne Hope, a healthy lifestyle, like her belief in the principles of Rastafarianism, is a way of life.
For more than 30 years, Ms. Hope has set and followed routines, which she says helps to keep both her mind and body healthy. For her, a healthy lifestyle extends further than eating right and exercising, it's also about mental and spiritual health.
"It's not just eating healthy. It's how you think and behave. You see, when one gets with nature and starts to seek a whole spiritual awakening, you have to be careful about what you put in your body because your body is the temple of the Creator and the Creator needs a clean temple to dwell," she told Your Health.
She is a strict vegetarian, refusing to eat anything made from animals, even eggs, cheese and butter.
"Everything is 100 per cent natural. I don't use any form of processed food so no canned goods or white flour," said Ms. Hope, who operates a vegetarian restaurant, Ashanti Oasis, in Hope Gardens, St. Andrew.
She usually has regular meals, which comprise of nuts, soy and oats; natural fruit juices, grains, vegetables, peas, beans, steamed callaloo and salad. She also takes supplements occasionally.
Being a vegetarian was not always easy, she reveals. In fact, she has faced severe pressure to eat meat and other animal products such as milk over the years, especially when she was pregnant. But she proudly admits that she maintained her diet despite being exhortions from concerned doctors during her pregnancies.
"I said I am going to prove them wrong. I had vegetables. I made sure I had peas, beans, vegetables, iron tablets, molasses and nutritional yeast," Ms. Hope said. "I would beat soya in a mortar so I could get some milk for my children. In the end, things turned out fine and I was asked to speak to student doctors."
