Let’s Get Physical, Physical: My Health Goals for the Remainder of 2019

Who says the start of the new year is the only time to set lofty, meaningful health and fitness goals? Not I. As 2019 begins to wind down (insert “time flies when you’re getting old” sentiment here), I’ve been thinking about a few of the health goals I’ve been pursuing this year – and what I want to work on in the next few months.

1. Wear my mouthguard every night, no exceptions.

I grind my teeth at night, & it’s negatively impacting my tooth enamel, which can become a huge problem if left untreated. For years, I’ve been wearing crappy CVS-brand mouthguards – the kind you have to boil in a pot of water & fit to your mouth yourself – but they get gunky & gummy real fast. Gross.

Last week, I visited Hudec Dental’s Ohio City office, where I got professionally fitted for a mouthguard to wear at night. The fitting took less than 15 minutes from start to finish, & I’ll pick up my mouthguard at my next teeth cleaning in October. The hygienist didn’t even judge me when I asked to take a selfie in the middle of the fitting – goopy mouth and all!

2. Focus on healthy eating.

When we got home from vacation, Mike & I joined WW (formerly Weight Watchers) together in an effort to try to better our eating habits. I know there are a lot of issues with this company, & I don’t deny those – but I’ve personally found success with it in the past, not necessarily to lose weight but to better recognize & understand my eating habits & to improve my relationship with food.

I also do strangely well with the gamification of my goals, so programs like this tend to be way better for me than just, like, focus on the concept of healthy or intuitive eating.

3. Start monitoring my blood pressure at home. 

My neurologist is concerned about my recent high blood pressure, which he believes is a result of the medication I’ve been taking to manage my hypersomnia. And yet, it seems I have what’s known as “white coat syndrome” (with thanks to my friend JanetheWriter for teaching me this phrase): Every time I go into the doctor’s office to have a blood pressure reading done, I start to panic… & then, perhaps as a result, my blood pressure reading is off the charts!

The solution? I bought an at-home blood pressure reading cuff, & now I just have to get it all set up so I can start taking my own blood pressure from the comfort of home – no panic necessary. I’m going to start doing it regularly & tracking the results so I can share them with my doctor & ultimately, I hope, determine whether all is well or if I need to switch medications.

Speaking of tracking… 

Remember how I started a dental chore chart for myself earlier this year? I liked that format so much that I decided to take things a step further: I bought a cheap spiral notebook calendar (it was on sale for $3!), & I’m figuring out a format & set-up to start keeping track of my progress & success (&, fine, admittedly likely a few failures) on all things health-related – sort of like a bullet journal, or something, but just for health & wellness. (If you’ve got tips, get at me.)

As we head into fall – which means winter will be here any minute now – I’m embracing that “back to school” optimism & enthusiasm by starting anew myself. When the new year does arrive, I’ll check in with these goals, readjust, & keep on keepin’ on, as they say. Why wait until January 1st to recommit?!

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Hudec Dental. I have an ongoing partnership with Hudec Dental in exchange for the creation of original content; as always, all opinions are my own.