African Heritage and Health Week Featured Blog: SportyAfros.com

The month of February kicks off with African Heritage and Health Week. African Heritage and Health Week celebrates the foods, healthy cooking techniques, and physical well-being considered essential in African heritage, specifically in places such as Africa, South America, the Caribbean, and the American South.

What better way to commemorate the traditions and culture of African heritage than to adapt a healthier, nutritional, and fitness filled lifestyle?

FindaPsychologist.org searched for a blog that celebrated African heritage and health. SportyAfros.com, an innovative and unique company, provides resources for African-American women to take control of their health. According to their blog, with one of the leading obesity rates in the United States, African-American women are at serious risk, yet there are limited health and wellness resources available to address their specific needs. In a 2011 article in the New York Times, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina M. Benjamin stated that hair care is a major barrier to fitness for black women and needs to be tackled in order to effectively decrease the community’s obesity statistics.

Sporty Afros aims to break down the barriers that prevent African-American women from addressing their health by connecting the dots between hair care, exercise and nutrition. Their blog is a one-stop shop for questions, discussions, tips and answers about fitness, workout routines, nutrition, and hair care. Established in 2010, it was founded by Whitney Patterson and Alexandria Williams after constantly being asked how they maintained their curly/coily hair while sticking to a consistent workout routine. They built their mission to establish a social platform for health, fitness, and effective hair care for African-American women.

The blog includes a wide range of health-related topics. Here’s a snapshot, which offers helpful advice and tips on how to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

  1. Take Charge of Your Hunger- In this blogpost, Whitney Patterson discusses her battles with hunger and how hunger can transform into being the “beast that keeps us from sticking to a diet.” She shares her secret on how to prevent overeating and reminds her readers to “take charge of your hunger.”
  2. Four Tips to Manage Your Hectic Schedule– Whitney sympathizes with her readers that feel as though their hectic and busy schedules take over their entire life and leaves them with an overwhelming sensation of exhaustion. She offers her readers’ four tips that will help readers better manage their crazy schedules.
  3. Five Easy Gym Hairstyles For Every Texture– Alexandria Williams acknowledges the various different hair types that exist in the world and she also acknowledges the struggles involved when trying to be both functional in the gym and looking your best. In this blog post, she shares five gym hair styles suitable for a variety of hair textures.’

Both Alexandria and Whitney acknowledge how difficult it can be to stick to new goals that are built for self-improvement. In almost every blog post written, they share their own personal experiences about the struggles they’ve faced while trying to accomplish their goals.

To further motivate themselves, they each have come up with an individual mantra that they hope will help to inspire others. Whitney encourages her readers to “Keep going, keep moving, even if you’re only taking baby steps. Baby steps add up. In time, you’ll reach your goals.” Alexandria believes that if you “Solve a problem in the world with your passion and you will find your purpose.”

To truly honor African Heritage and Health Week, it is important to promote not only tips on how to become healthy but also to share messages of empowerment and motivation. Visit their blog in celebration of African Heritage and Health Week.

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Alexandria Patterson and Whitney Patterson

Alexandria and Whitney are the dynamic marketing and FitHair gurus behind SportyAfros.com. Balancing demanding positions in corporate America, they use their free time to impact the world by removing barriers that hinder black women from being active and healthy while offering practical, affordable and long-term solutions.