5 Steps toward Better Health

Do you spend time some days feeling vaguely guilty or anxious about your health but just can’t move ahead with what to do? Here are five areas for you to consider to help you get started.  Even reading this article is a step in the right direction! 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: Be brave and find out – learn about your current health status instead of not knowing, worrying and considering the worst possible outcome. 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 successful and gaining more peace of mind about your health concerns.
Begin with the first step!

1. Obtain Baselines and learn about your 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. Set goals for improving your health; contact and work with your medical doctor/health care provider for medical direction; work with your psychologist or coach for motivation and support.  
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 (or lack of), 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   

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. 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.

5. Improve Your Quality of Life with rest, play and recreation

What are you doing now for rest, recreation, play, relaxation?  What do you do for fun?  Write out your list of your current status and then list things you really have loved to do in the past but have let slip. Begin by giving yourself even a few minutes a day to do a favorite activity.

Keep track of your progress – use an app or a journal or your google calendar. Write yourself reminders and congratulate yourself when you have success in taking even the smallest steps toward better health.