Prioritizing Your Wellness

Happy National Wellness Month! You might be wondering what exactly wellness is. To craft habits that improve your wellbeing is the act of pursuing behaviors that better your physical and mental health so that you thrive, not just survive. This is the art of living well. If you have fallen off any fitness or health goals, this is a prime opportunity to dust yourself off and get right back at it. If you are unsure what to prioritize right now, check out the topics below and pick a place to start your wellness journey.

Drink more water: This may seem like a simple one, but it is estimated that almost half of Americans are not consuming enough water (~47%). Do not just assume the eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day is your optimal goal. The ideal amount differs from person to person depending on several factors such as if someone sweats heavily, lives or works in a humid environment, and/or routinely exercises. Eight 8-ounce glasses are a good place to start; however, it is better to pay attention to your thirst drive and the color of your urine. If you find that you feel thirsty or your urine is dark even after drinking eight 8-ounce glasses, you should increase your water intake beyond this goal. Here is an article on ways to help increase the amount of water you drink: Tips for drinking more water - Mayo Clinic Health System. (Please note that if you have orders from your doctor to drink a limited amount of water secondary to a health condition, you should follow those instructions.)

Balancing your meals: What we eat, when we eat, and how often we eat matter. Balancing meals for some might be a focus of balancing between how often you eat out and how often you cook at home. Eating a home cooked meal is more beneficial in two primary ways. It costs less, and it is much healthier. Sometimes coming up with meals to fix can be tedious. Consider EatingWell: Healthy Recipes, Healthy Eating, Cooking Light Recipes | MyRecipes, and Whisk - The Ultimate Cooking App to help add variety to what you cook if you like exploring recipes. Balancing meals for others might mean increasing the variety of foods on the plate. In general, we, Americans, consume too many carbohydrates (carbs). To create a balanced plate of food, one can use the glycemic index. Consuming more low glycemic index foods can decrease your overall consumption of carbs and aid in eating a bigger variety of foods. Greens, green beans, broccoli, carrots, most fruits, kidney beans and chickpeas are just several examples of foods low on the glycemic scale. Here is a great article (Low-glycemic index diet: What's behind the claims? - Mayo Clinic) by the Mayo Clinic on what does glycemic index mean and why it is important.

Feed on positivity: With information a simple click away, it is easy to binge on all that is wrong with the world while the beauty of it seems to fade to the background. Consider doing something daily that feeds your mind and heart goodness. This could be simply developing a daily mantra to reflect on throughout your day or starting a daily devotional to empower you first thing in the morning. I AM MANTRA (@iam.mantra) is a great source if you need help getting started. Guided meditations like those available on FitOn (fitonapp.com) can both feed your positivity and relax you. Do not forget about the beauty of nature that is around us. There is more and more evidence emerging on how time in nature can nurture our thoughts and emotions. Take a walk or hike amongst the trees and streams away from the screens of your day to day. Lastly, the feel-good that you get from doing good can leave positivity in your wake. Volunteering or doing something nice for someone else is one way to feed on positivity, but also give positivity to others.

Moving more: A lot of jobs are sedentary, and chronic sitting is a detriment to our health. The first step to combating the negative effects of sitting all day can be getting up from the desk and moving every hour on the hour if possible. This can be however active you want it. Consider walking around the office or marching in place for 5 minutes, dance it out for the duration of your favorite song, a fast stretch/yoga routine, or knock out a quick HIIT workout. Here are two articles with ideas to help increase your movement in your day to day grind: How to Move More Anytime Anywhere | American Heart Association and 20 Sneaky Ways to Move More (Even on Your Busiest Days) - FitOn (fitonapp.com). Remember, it is recommended to get at least 30 minutes of increased physical activity on most days of the week. Structured exercise gets the heart rate up, creates muscle, and burns fat cells. This all in all increases your endurance and ability to burn calories. Consider planning a structured sweat session in your day that works with your schedule or incorporate it in bit size increments throughout your day (i.e., 15-minute Samsung Health/YouTube/FitOn morning circuit workout and 15-minute lunch power walk).

Check up with your health care provider: Getting a yearly check up is essential to whatever wellness goals you set. Without a check in with your health care provider, you run the risk that your efforts are derailed by the worsening of a silent medical condition progressing to a permanent change in your health. Medical conditions such as Hypertension (i.e., high blood pressure) and Diabetes have minimal to no symptoms when they are first developing. A lot of times, people with these conditions can feel fine until they do not. By that point, the conditions are typically well advanced. Having your blood pressure screened at your office visit can provide plenty of information for you and your provider. Screening lab work can detect whether your body is having difficulty processing the carb and sugars it is receiving from your diet. Catching conditions such as these early can limit their sequelae with appropriate interventions. Also, during your check up, the provider can let you know if you are due for any preventative health screenings such as colon cancer screening or breast cancer screening. If you need help kicking old habits that are not serving your wellness goals any good like smoking, your provider can talk to you about options to aid in this venture. In need of a primary care provider and live in the Greater Huntsville area, check us out at Optimum Health Primary Care.

All in all, no matter where you decide to start, just get going on making your health and wellbeing a priority. Any new habit takes time, repetition, and being intentional. Yes, you may have a bad day about consistency, but being intentional about continuing despite these imperfect attempts reduces how long you are outside of the new habit. Good luck and live well.