It’s a new year and therefore, a perfect time to create some new routines! Do you need some healthy meal ideas? What about starting or improving an exercise routine? Is it time to work on your chronic health issues, including lowering your blood pressure? And do you know how to do any of these with realistic expectations?
Knox County Community Health Center is here to help you with all of these ideas and more. Did you know we can meet with you and help you create a healthier version of yourself or a family member? Our team is here to answer questions, provide guidance, and help you with your health concerns. We offer healthcare for everyone because we treat the whole you!
How can you create a new routine in 2022?
Set Realistic Expectations
Setting expectations is important and requires a lot of thought. It isn’t realistic to think you will totally change your eating habits and lose 20 pounds in a month, nor go from no exercise to running a marathon in a month. It’s also difficult to create expectations based on what someone else is doing—it must work for you, your family, and your lifestyle. Instead, create small goals and big goals to help you make healthy changes.
Small goals are specific and can be achieved in a set time frame. Maybe it’s losing five pounds in two months or fixing three healthy meals per week. It could be walking around the block three times a week and slowly increasing the time and length of the walk. The key is to write it down, tell a friend, keep a journal, post on Facebook–any place that helps you be accountable for this goal.
A bigger goal means planning for the long-term. Is it a goal of three pounds a month for the year? Is it lowering your blood pressure in six months by meeting smaller goals each month? It could be preparing healthier meals four out of seven days by the end of six months. Setting a big goal without smaller goals in between is difficult to do.
Whatever your goal is, create time to do it, write it down, and celebrate the small goal successes and progress. Hold yourself accountable and stay focused - You can do it!
Meal Preparation and Planning
- Eat more fruits and vegetables—half of your plate should be fruits and vegetables for good health. Use them as toppings for pizza, add spinach to a breakfast smoothie, use veggies in a whole-wheat tortilla wrap. The trick is to keep carrots or other kid-friendly fruits and vegetables washed and ready in the fridge so you always have a healthy grab-and-go snack.
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Plan meals to save money, time and stress—this way you’ll have everything you need and won’t be tempted to eat out. You can control portion sizes, make healthier meals and spend less money.
- Create a food budget and shop 1 time a week.
- Plan around your family’s schedule, so you know if you need a quick meal or can accommodate one that takes longer to make.
- Look at what you already have in your pantry or refrigerator that can be used for meals.
- Watch the grocery store ads for good sale items. (This is especially helpful when shopping for proteins!)
- Prepare meals on Saturday or Sunday and then reheat them during the week.
- Use a variety of foods so that everyone gets the nutrients they need.
- Involve the kids in preparing foods – they’ll be more likely to try foods they have helped make.
- Keep some foods on hand that are easy to fix, cutting down on prep time. Canned vegetables, pasta and sauce can make a filling healthy dinner choice and be ready in minutes. Another trick is to freeze leftovers from a meal you made too much of - this way you get to have that healthy meal twice, with less than half the effort!
- Meal planning made simple - For meal plan ideas, check out Eating on a Dime and Skinnytaste for ideas. MyPlate and Celebrate Your Plate are also great references for finding great ways to prepare meals and eat healthy.
For those of you needing help with your diet, especially if you’ve been diagnosed with obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or prediabetes (to name a few), we have a program that might be of interest. The Fruit & Vegetable Rx Program provides you with vouchers to use on produce each month, as well as attending individualized one-on-one program visits & sessions. Participants are selected based on a referral from a Health Center provider, and then our dietician contacts you to see if you’re interested.
Physical Fitness
You might already be working out/walking regularly/chasing kids or something else to get your heart pumping. But a new year is an exciting time to set some goals for yourself to exercise daily with intention.
Let’s get started:
- What is your current fitness level? Can you touch your toes? How far can you walk? How long does it take you to walk a mile? Can you do any pushups or jumping jacks? Do you have information from your doctor with your body mass index?
- Create a fitness program with your goals and what your routine will be. Standard exercise goals are 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity (increasing oxygen flow - gets your heart pumping) or 75 minutes of energetic aerobic (really increasing your oxygen flow - sweating, deep breaths, warm muscles) activity a week.
- Incorporate some strength training in your workout several times a week. Lift weights that tire your muscles after 12 repetitions. You can start as simple as using canned goods, and then move up to full laundry detergent bottles or paint cans.
- Take your time — be careful and cautious if you haven’t exercised before or are making significant changes to an existing exercise routine. It’s always a good idea to consult your primary care provider before substantially changing your exercise routine.
- Create time daily for exercise. Get up earlier, pick up the kids a half hour later, do family hikes, lift weights while watching TV, and more. If you want to do it, you will find the time!
- Don’t only do one exercise. Your body will get accustomed to it and you might get bored. Alternating what parts of your body are being used is a good way to keep from overusing a set of muscles or joints.
- Write a plan of exercises and when you will do them during the week. Having a checklist helps you celebrate those small wins each day to complete the exercise!
- Short bursts of activity are just as good as a longer exercise time.
- Monitor yourself — pay attention to how you feel while exercising. Change up your routine if needed. Don’t keep pushing when you start to feel off. Listen to your body. If something becomes a consistent bother, make sure to put in a call to your primary care provider.
Chronic Health/Hypertension (High Blood Pressure)
Are you feeling off your game, a bit sluggish, tired, dizzy, lightheaded, or have headaches? Don’t ignore those symptoms as they may be a sign of high blood pressure. Over time, high blood pressure (also known as hypertension) can force your heart to work harder to pump blood, which can cause part of your heart to thicken. This thickening can lead to heart attacks and heart failure. So, knowing your blood pressure, monitoring it over time and getting check-ups regularly are important ways to create a new routine for 2022.
Our providers are here to help you with your blood pressure concerns. Just call to make an appointment. After seeing you, we will determine what steps you need to take and what medication may be needed. Some causes of blood pressure are out of your complete control, (unresolved chronic conditions, family history, age, race, some medications). But we will ask you to do some monitoring and try to make these changes at home if they are affecting your blood pressure.
- Change your diet with less salt, fat
- Increase exercise
- Lose weight
- Relieve stress
- Stop smoking
- Limit alcohol
Our primary care providers can conduct tele-health appointments and you can use a blood pressure machine at home to keep track of your blood pressure. This makes the process of finding the right solution for you less of a burden. We want to help you feel better, in the most convenient ways possible.
We care about the whole you and want you to feel and be your very best! Contact one of our Health Centers by calling 740-399-8008 for an appointment.