Daily writing prompt

What strategies do you use to maintain your health and well-being?

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I feel that the best way to maintain your health is to have a primary care provider. This gives you the opportunity to sit down with an expert to analyze your health and to discuss your well being in detail and to come up with a plan to make it better. Not all PCP’s are equal: find someone that you can communicate, trust and relate. The main bullet points for the individual are very consistent among experts world wide – The pillars of health are the following:

• Exercise: stay active with >7000 steps per day, an active lifestyle of fun activity, little sitting, and a mixture of aerobic and resistance exercise for 150 minutes per week.
• Diet: Eat a natural food diet, akin to the Mediterranean Diet, and avoid processed foods.
• Mental health: learn how to relax, avoid screens, hang out in nature, and practice mindfullness in your own way.
• Bad habits: do not smoke, avoid alcohol, avoid overeating
• Sleep: arrange to be in bed for 7-8 hours per night, with good sleep hygiene.
• Community: stay socially connected, and work on family relationships for positive outcomes.
• Screen for the unknowns: visit your primary care for blood pressure checks, cancer checks (mammograms, colonoscopy, PSA blood test, and regular lab work); have a physical.

These are all scientifically validated ways to stay healthy. There is no magic to my formula for health maintenance. I like to keep it simple.

As a primary care provider, I can be the worst patient! So I work on my health steps and create goals and ways to stay accountable. I plan ahead for my check-ups with my PCP and dentist, as well as my eye professional. I want to practice what I preach!

Full disclosure: I’ve got my dental cleaning planned next month and my yearly physical the month after. I woke up this morning by alarm to spend an hour on exercise and my mental health. I like to use my watch and phone to help track my activity/exercise levels, and to remind me to get to bed on time. I eat the right foods, but I do struggle to avoid junk food. It tastes too good sometimes…

Finally, writing this blog is totally helpful. I feel more focused and able to verbalize my goals and to spell out what is important to be the healthy guy I want to be.

More ideas or personal thoughts? Add them to the comments. I’d love to hear from you!