National Women’s Health Week (NWHW) is from May 12-May 18 and is coordinated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health, and Her Campus is a national partner! NWHW’s mission is to bring together communities, businesses, government, and health organizations in an effort to promote women’s health and its importance. The goal of the week is to bring women’s attention to their health and make it a priority. After a long year of college, collegiettes especially need to make sure we are taking care of our bodies.
Along with Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Olympic Fencing Gold Medalist Sada Jacobson, HC founders Stephanie Kaplan, Windsor Hanger, and Annie Wang are NWHW Ambassadors for this year. Their goal is to encourage all collegiettes to get involved with this push for awareness of women’s health: “We are thrilled to be National Women’s Health Week Ambassadors so we can share the importance of women’s health with our network of over 1.4 million college women. These women are living on their own for the first time, and are developing the healthy habits now that will stick with them for the rest of their lives. We are happy to help them make those smart choices starting today.”
How can you observe National Women’s Health Week? It’s easy! There are 5 desired goals of the week:
1. Visit a health care professional to get preventative screenings and regular check ups. Scheduling doctor’s appointments while at school is nearly impossible with classes and extracurricular activites. Make it a priority to schedule the necessary appointments first thing when you get home for the summer so you don’t have to worry about it.
2. Get active. Especially because the weather is nice and summer is coming, this week is a perfect time to start exercising outside! Pledge to take a run or walk with a friend outside or kick a soccerball around for an hour each day.
3. Eat healthy. With the summer sunshine comes summer fruits and veggies! Who doesn’t love a slice of watermelon on a hot day? Fill up your grocery basket with fresh grapes, apples, blueberries, zucchini, arugula, and avocado.
4. Pay attention to mental health, including stress and sleep management. Finals season is over! The all-nighters definitely need to be put away until they’re needed again. With the decrease of school work should come the increase of sleep.
5. Avoid unhealthy and risky behaviors. Risky behavior includes texting while driving. That text can wait, and so can the picture mid-traffic jam on the highway.
WOMAN Challenge
The Office on Women’s Health provides the chance for anyone to participate in the WOMAN Challenge. For this challenge, women all over the country create an account on the President’s Challenge website where they can log their physical activity and health eating. You have the opportunity to set nutrition goals for yourself and are rewarded points when you reach the goals. This program is designed so women can compare their progress and have accountability for their goals.
NWHW Events
You can find events to attend during this week in any state around the country. Events range from educational seminars, webinars, poster displays, and tweetchats. You can find an event near you here. Also, the Office for Women’s Health encourages women to register an event with NWHW. You can do so on their website.
We hope you’ll join HC in celebrating National Women’s Health Week this week!