Making Changes for the Better: 5 Tips!

When you consider your health in the New Year, what changes do you want to make for the better?  Below are five broad areas for you to consider. When wanting to set goals and make changes, most people spend a great deal of psychological and emotional energy at the pre-contemplation and contemplation stage. They know they want to move ahead, but they struggle with identifying and creating a plan.  The first step in overcoming this barrier is to IDENTIFY what it is you want to change.  For many, a great place to start is with the Number One area listed below. You can then find success in achieving goals summarized in the items Two through Five. Even though it might sound simplistic, once you move ahead and begin with discovery and identification of your current status, you have accomplished a big step in becoming healthier and happier in 2011.

1. Obtain Baselines and learn about my health status.
This involves moving past denial and includes learning all you can about your physical health. It involves a visit to your primary care or other physician to establish medical measures and baselines on your health status and includes weight, BMI, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and other tests determined by your physician.  This should also include identifying your family risk factors, identifying your social support needs, identifying your psychological challenges, identifying the stressors in your life and your coping challenges and style.

2. Achieve Improved Medical Measures and Outcomes. 
Once you know your health status and baselines, including BMI, weight, cholesterol, blood pressure readings, etc., you can now move toward establishing goals for improvement where needed.  This may include lowering your cholesterol, lowering your blood pressure, reducing your risk of stroke or cardiac illness, reducing familial risk factors.

3. Improve Levels of Exercise and Fitness
If you are like most people, your intention is to make exercise and fitness a priority, but the busyness of your life gets in the way.  Identify your exercise routines and activities, including how many days, minutes and type of exercise you are currently completing.   Keep an exercise and activity diary for 2-4 weeks. One you have a numerical count of what you actually do during the week, you can then decide on areas of improvement. This might include any or one of the following:  getting more exercise, getting regular exercise, doing aerobic activities, joining a yoga class, achieving a good fitness level,  increasing strength, increasing endurance, increasing flexibility, increasing energy levels.

4. Make Better Eating and Nutrition Choices
This might include eating smaller portions, eating out less frequently, eating less fast food, learning more about nutrition, eating more freshly prepared foods and meals. This also includes beginning with establishing your current eating lifestyle. Keep a food diary and include what you eat, when you eat, where you eat. Include when you feel hungry and what you are doing.   Once you have done this discovery process, you will be able to establish clearer and more doable goals in this area.

5. Improve Your Quality of Life
This might include learning new cognitive and behavioral strategies for coping with stress, taking small and healthy risks, reaching out to others, practicing authenticity, and using meditation and prayer to release your worries and achieve a sense of well-being.