My bout with Bells Palsy and some other health challenges along the way really was a wake up call to value my health more. I wanted to make my health a priority. By doing so I figured not only would I feel better, but I would also be better able to serve my family and just plain enjoy life more! Being the organized person I am, my next thought was, where do I start? This is how I organized my health. I am not done organizing my health, in fact, I think it is a lifelong process. I just need a strategy that made sense and would provide me some structure to go after health goals.
Healthy living can actually be overwhelming! Where do you begin?! There's eating right, exercise, vitamins, supplements, stress management, making sure you get enough sleep, getting rid of chemicals in your personal care & household products, and the list can go on. In order to not get too overwhelmed, I have learned to just take it little by little. Even the tiniest effort will work wonders to build a new healthy you.
I start organizing by creating categories. I have split my health management into 4 categories: Nutrition, Exercise, Environment, and Stress Management. I'll explain a little about each category, then in the coming weeks dive in to each even more. I am also providing a free printable "Organizing Your Health Goals Sheet" for you to jot your "to do's" under each category. You can use this as a weekly, monthly, or annual sheet - or even use it daily if you'd like! I'm using it as a weekly goal sheet, writing one thing down in each category to implement for the week. It can be as simple as "put vitamins in a daily pill organizer" or "make annual checkup appointment." If you like to create your own printable goal sheets, http://www.dinpattern.com/ has some great free printable patterns to make your sheet fun. Here's the pattern I used: http://www.dinpattern.com/2011/10/07/iridescent/
Nutrition
Nutrition is my biggest category. I am a strong believer in good nutrition being the biggest indicator of our overall health. Nutrition is also perhaps one of the hardest changes to make since most of us have eating habits that are deeply ingrained in us. If we've been eating a certain way since childhood, eating differently can take some major effort! You may need to shop different, cook different, eat out different, and perhaps even ask others around you to respect your choices in nutrition too. Also included in this category are vitamins & supplements.
Exercise
I gotta admit, exercise is hard for me. I have 2 toddlers who keep me on my feet all day long. Sure we play, and go on walks, and I clean house and am up and about, but if I really want to make some physical changes in my life, I've got to up my exercise and do some more challenging stuff. I would absolutely love to lose the 15lbs I have left to get back to my wedding day weight! It's not my favorite, so it's no surprise that I've done more in the nutrition and other categories so far! I need a plan to exercise. Something that will be motivating, work for my schedule, be challenging, and make some amazing physical changes.
Environment
The environment category involves making the environments you are in the most the healthiest they can be. It's making sure your home and work space are providing you with adequate support and tools you need to stay healthy. It is also making sure your environments are free of harmful chemicals, clean, and pure.
Stress Management
Stress Management can also be a big category. I lumped doctor and health care provider visits into this category because it's something that needs to be regularly scheduled. Annual check ups, specialist visits, nutritionist visits, and things like massage and pedicure appointments are in this category. Also in this category are things like getting enough sleep, stress management techniques, and areas of simple living that will bring our stress levels down.
I look forward to diving deeper into each of these categories in the next few weeks!
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