Mental Health and Physical Health

For the last two years, health management consisted of trying to avoid getting a virus. Interventions included masking, social distancing, lots of handwashing, and vaccines. In addition, it involved managing my mental health. In addition, I have seen a rise across industries of people going on medical leave for stress and other health concerns.

I believe I do a good job of managing my mental health. For example, I meditate, journal, practice gratitude, plan mini-sabbaticals, put in the effort to have work-life boundaries, and work on being part of a creative and spiritual community. I put in the effort to pay attention to my emotions and acknowledge them. So, I think I am doing a decent job for the most part.

Physical health has been consumed with avoiding the virus, but there is much more going on in the body that has been neglected and needs tending to. This week, I went to the doctor for my physical, the first one in several years due to the pandemic. Everything was up, and not in a positive sense. Blood Pressure, Cholesterol, Blood Sugar, and Weight. This means restarting medicine and changes in my diet.

So what do I do? First, acknowledge the results and begin putting the work to bend the data back into a favorable position.

I acknowledge that there are several bad habits that I have picked up and need to quit cold turkey.

First, going to the convenience store or buying fast food on the way home from work needs to stop. I have a long commute and have tricked myself into believing that eating while driving is a way to make the trip go by faster. So my go-to is chips or french fries.

I need to substitute these items.

The next thing I need to do is to exercise more. This I have known forever. In fact, I have a gym membership, and they see my money every month, but they don’t see me. My phone sees my money every month, but my phone also sees me every day.

I don’t want to be gimmicky, it is easy to want to rush to a diet or the latest fad, but I know that as I have turned 50, I need to make overall lifestyle adjustments.

My focus on mental health can be the catalyst for better physical health. I also can apply the same strategies that I apply to my creative content creation to my efforts to improve my physical health.

One example is acknowledging paying attention to and questioning some of my eating. For example, I have wanted to go to the movies and look forward to eating popcorn more than seeing what is playing.

Another is looking forward to the food I eat while watching my favorite sporting event and feeling like it will not be fun watching without food.

I am not marginalizing food, but there is food that isn’t aiding my body even though I enjoy it. In this case, I will have to go with the data over my feelings.

My plan involves showing up each day, having small goals, and creating tiny specific habits. Create realistic, measurable goals, and avoiding extremes. I also will schedule a return trip to go back to my doctor in three months, draw the blood and see the results.

I am in a good headspace. I am not discouraged or down; I am not fighting my doctor; I am taking my medicine. So, I will sit down with my calendar to put in some days to work out and work on my meal planning.

The pandemic may be winding down, but even if we are double-vaxed and boosted or not our physical health needs to be monitored and tended to. So if you have put off that physical or check up, take some time to check in with your doctor.