What is the first thing you should do when starting your journey towards better health?
Well for me the first thing I would suggest is you that you make an honest assessment of yourself and where you want to be from here and then what you’re willing to do to get there. This could be a good old dose of self-assessment and honesty on your own behalf or it might involve going to see a health practitioner and getting your bloodwork, blood pressure, BMI etc… checked to see where you’re at.
My Self Assessment
When I self assessed myself, I decided the two problems in my life I could benefit most by fixing was my booze intake, and my lack of an exercise regimen. Yours could be different and that’s cool. I had worked physical jobs most of my life and always managed to get incidental exercise that way but the last few years had done more administrative work and not replaced the exercise I naturally got. In regards to the booze, I was never a full-blown alcoholic and could function without it, but I never really had to either. For me booze had always worked well, I’d always had a good time, never crashed a car or had drink driving charges, booze had never caused a relationship breakdown, or never caused me to get a performance report at work. So why change? I’m approaching 50 I could feel some level of depression kick in, I don’t recover from the drinking the same as I used to and the beer belly was getting a little out of control. I’d started to feel more lethargic than before just had to be real with myself and say “I need to get this sorted out, before long lasting health issues do arise“. Honestly, I like a beer and I’m probably never going to stop, but I definitely needed to slow things down a bit.
Are there other things in my life I could improve on? Definitely. I’ve just highlighted these as the issues that need to sort out first. And Hey? I can always re-assess from there.
Things you might ask yourself
Where are you at now? Are you overweight? Are you morbidly obese or just carrying a few extra kilo’s? Or is your weight not really the most pressing issue you’re facing? Your answers to this (and the other questions) will determine where the next step to go is?
How are your sleeping patterns? Do you get enough sleep or are you staying up all night and constantly running on empty all day?
How is your diet? Do you have a varied diet or are you living off fast food or carbs? This can be tricky as you might not know how bad your diet really is. Maybe try keeping a record of what you’re eating across the course of the month. This should give you a clear picture.
Do you have addiction issues? This could be drug usage, alcohol misuse or over use, caffiene abuse (this seems to be more common than you’d think, especially with energy drinks) are you consuming a lot of sugar or soft drinks everyday? What about smoking or vaping?
Document your progress
when I first started my journey and decided what I wanted to change, I kept a diary of how many drinks per day I was consuming (my vice is alcohol) and how many reps or weights I was doing in my regular work outs. What I found out which was more alarming than the amount of drinks I was consuming was the fact I virtually never had a day without alcohol. I didn’t realise how far the situation had gotten in regards to this. In regards to the weights I started off easy but I could see that gradually the amount of weights and reps I was doing (without killing myself) had doubled and even tripled over the course of a few months and this was actually a really positive feeling for me as I had documented progress.
By documenting my intake and efforts I could see actual progress and feel myself pick up physically and mentally as the effects of daily drinking began to negate themselves and the other effects of regular weight sessions also kicked in. I felt my sleep routines getting better, my mental clarity improved and my general well being lifted a lot.
I know this site is focused on vitamins and supplements, but we also have to look at a wholistic approach to well being. In regards to vitamins, when i decided to start looking after myself a little better, I started taking vitamin B, C, D, and fish oil tablets. Humans can’t store vitamin C, so that was a no brainer to start taking. By taking vitamins B, D and fish oil, I’m preserving the reasonable health I did have and generally covering the major bases. Well the major bases in my life anyway. But regardless of what vitamins I take, The key part to starting YOUR health journey is “assessing where you’re at now, and assessing what you’re willing to do to improve the situation”.
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