Health awareness calendar

I spent a bit of time during the past couple of weeks creating what I want to be the most comprehensive health awareness calendar in the wellness industry.

Before I get into a few things that struck me as I was creating it, let me first tell you why the heck I attempted this feat, and how it can benefit you. (HINT: It can be a key component to creating your wellness blog editorial calendar). 🙂

1 – Why a health awareness calendar is gold for your wellness blog

Having a blog for your online wellness biz is simply a necessity. I cited SO many facts and figures why you need a wellness blog last week. And honestly, building your business on a social media platform is risky as hell. Facebook can randomly ban you from boosting/advertising, and Instagram changes their algorithm, and you’re left with NO REACH.

So, if the “money is in the (email) list,” then how do you grow it?

With consistent, high-quality content that lets people get to know, like, and trust you.

And, even though you share your content on social media far and wide, it *kinda* needs a permanent home.

That home is your wellness blog.

So, you (wisely) have a blog.  Maybe it’s got regular high-quality content. Maybe it’s freaking amazing.

Whether you’re new to blogging, or seasoned & strategic, having a health awareness calendar can help you.

Here’s how you use the health (and food) awareness calendar:

When you’re planning your blog/vlog/podcast content, refer to the latest version of this calendar and see if there are awareness dates in your niche, or that inspire you to create content on that topic.

• Help people with mood issues? Prepare something for International Day of Happiness and/or World Laughter Day;

• Hate diets? Get behind No Diet Day;

• Love hummus? Create an epic recipe to share on International Hummus Day;

• Have a sugar-free cookbook? Promote it during Sugar Free September.

What is a health awareness calendar ?

It’s just that: A calendar listing health awareness months, weeks, and days. For this one, I also threw in a bunch of food dates, and even some environmental awareness days too. More on how to grab it below.

Sometimes the roadblock to consistent quality content is just knowing which topic to dive into. We all have health challenges that are near to our hearts, and causes we believe in. Why would we not use these special awareness dates to strategically inspire some blog content?

Plus, by sharing these health and environmental causes, and foods/environmental causes that are important to us, we can let our audience get to know us better (and like us, and trust us).

Not to mention that sometimes we’d like to ride the wave of a larger, more well-established day (that may get some press or have the hashtag picked up).

And THIS is what this calendar can help you get:

• Topic ideas and inspo;

• Opportunity to set yourself apart and champion a cause near to your heart;

• Ride the social media wave of a well-known cause or popular food.

Having a calendar of health and food dates relating to your niche is one thing that can help you make a solid content strategy for your wellness blog.

Having a “big picture” content strategy and editorial calendar are key! Here are some other resources that can help you with that.

• What is content strategy? How will it help my wellness business?
• Proof content strategy works. Here’s what it did for me.
• You need these before you create your content strategy.
• Content Strategy Example: Plan 5 weeks of blog content in under 20 minutes.
• How to make your blog support your business.

2 – Health awareness calendar information is scattered All. Over. the. Freaking. Internet.

I combed SO many websites to put together this comprehensive calendar! Websites including the United Nations, Health Canada, Wikipedia, etc.

Not only that, I found that several of the health awareness dates posted on these sites didn’t even have a proper link or reference to that actual date. Sometimes the links were to a home page with NO mention of the awareness date, or even to a “404 Not Found” page! Argh!

Needless to say, I only included heath awareness dates that I could find some sort of website or official press release to confirm that they’re true. #credibility

And I have about 300 entries so far (and every single one has a link to the reference)!

I even tried to trace who created and are hosting these dates, as well as the associated hashtags.

As I mentioned, I want to make it the most comprehensive health awareness calendar in the wellness industry.

3 – My birthday is on World Toilet Day

And I’m glad it is (even though I had not known that until this week)!

Here’s why:

Poop is *kinda* important for nutritionists

Nutrition plays a key role in health, including gastrointestinal health! Constipation, diarrhea, and other poo problems can be helped or hindered directly (like DIRECTLY!) by what we eat! Talking to a nutritionist about fibre and water may be a wise investment.

Disclaimer: Serious medical issues, including serious poo issues, require a doctor!

But if you want to eat better to have better poop? Chat with a nutritionist!

Here’s a cool resource for you: Have you ever wondered if your poop is normal? Here’s the Bristol Stool Form Scale (from the University of Bristol) where you can see for yourself. #ismypoopnormal

You’re welcome! 😉

Have you visited a waste water treatment plant?

Back when I was a Chemical Engineering Technology student, I actually had the (smelly) pleasure of visiting Peel Region’s Waste Water Facility (in Mississauga, the city just west of Toronto).

We here in most of Canada and the developed countries are very lucky that at least some of our raw sewage (i.e. untreated toilet and sink waste) gets treated before it goes back into the environment. That “environment” is often our source of drinking water. I for one, am very thankful to live near the Great Lakes where we can safely drink treated water from our taps, and even swim on many days in the summer (check here for whether your Toronto-area beach is safe to swim). This is partly possible because our sewage is treated before it’s returned to the lake.

So the fact that we have indoor toilets, and many of the cities treat their wastewater, is something I am grateful for. Unfortunately, many, many people in the world do not even have these basic facilities. Think about menstruating girls and women!

Hence, the whole reason for World Toilet Day.

Improper sewage treatment is deadly

There are serious life-or-death health implications of NOT having a toilet! And UN Water created World Toilet Day to highlight the global sanitation crisis.

From the UN website I learned that more than half of the people on earth do NOT have an effective household toilet!

World Toilet Day is about inspiring action to tackle the global sanitation crisis. Today, 4.5 billion people live without a household toilet that safely disposes of their waste.(ref)

Here’s a short (0:47) video from the UN Water YouTube channel highlighting the problem:

And when they say “mayhem” (at 0:40) this is what they’re talking about(ref):

1.8 billion people use an unimproved source of drinking water with no protection against contamination from faeces.

Combined with safe water and good hygiene, improved sanitation could prevent around 842,000 deaths each year.

And those people died! Imagine how many more got terribly sick and luckily survived!

And the more people who are sick with diarrheal diseases without proper sanitation, the more widespread these become.

#WorldToiletDay

Public health and preventing communicable diseases is very important (to me)

Let me tell you my favourite story from my third year epidemiology class.

It was about Dr. John Snow.

NOTE: The topics of public health and preventing communicable diseases light me up! My favourite scientists of all time were all public health and infection control geniuses like:

• Ignasz Semmelweis (mid-1800s – recognized and championed hand washing to prevent childbed fever);
• John Snow (story below); and,
• Sheela Bazrur (2003 SARS outbreak here in Toronto).

I hope you LOVE this story as much as I do. 🙂

John Snow was a physician and epidemiologist back in the 1800s in London, England. He’s famous for being THE doctor requested by Queen Victoria to give her anesthesia for childbirth. And this was successful in that it was done both safely and effectively.

And here’s the epidemiology story I learned about:

Back in the 1800s (and earlier), epidemics, infant mortality, and suffering (and death) from nutrient deficiencies were pretty common.

WAY more common than in recent history in most of the world.

At that time there was little to no knowledge of germs or nutrients.

#thanksscience

John Snow studied patterns of outbreaks, mapping them out and using statistics to try to figure out the source of the outbreaks. In 1849 he officially discounted the idea that cholera was spread by “noxious air,” which was one of the hypotheses at the time.

A few years later, in 1854 there was a cholera outbreak on Broad Street (now Broadwick Street). The technology at the time couldn’t prove that the danger was due to the water pump which was located just 3 feet away from an old cesspit of fecal waste.

In studying the pattern of the spread of the cholera infection he ordered that the handle on that water pump be disabled.

In the meantime, people had been moving away from the epidemic area, so the epidemic had been slowing down. His recommendation to remove the handle is officially credited as ending the cholera outbreak.

Now, there is a water-pump shaped memorial in John Snow’s honour on Broadwick Street. 🙂

And on that note, since many of us don’t need to worry about drinking our raw sewage, we still need to wash our hands properly to prevent spread of communicable diseases. Here are some handy instructions how to properly wash your hands.

I am grateful that my house has several toilets, sewage treatment, and indoor plumbing with safe drinking water. #WorldToiletDay

4 – Health awareness calendar

You can grab this calendar, and all future updates for just CAD$27.

It’s a free bonus for all my Content Calendar Coaching clients

I hope it helps you to be inspired with topics to create content about for your wellness blog.

Conclusion

Aligning some of your content with established health, food, or environmental awareness days can help you build your “know, like, and trust” factor, help you champion a cause you believe in, and help you ride the wave of publicity for already established dates in your wellness niche.

P.S. Here’s the link to the health and food awareness dates calendar again.

Signing off and toasting: To aligning blog content with health, food, and environmental awareness days.

Over to you

What do you think? Do you get stuck on what content to create from time to time? Would knowing which health, food, and environmental awareness days are coming up help you?

Is there a health-, food-, or enviromental-awareness day on your birthday?

I’d love to know (in the comments below)!