9 tips to protect physical health

With the New Year upon us, many of us are thinking about our physical health and what we can do to better protect it. If you want to start doing more to get healthy and stay that way, there are many different approaches. Today, let’s talk about some of the most important tips to live healthily and sustainably going forward.

There’s no single right way to get healthy and look after your physical well-being, but there are some core concepts and principles that can help you out. If you want to go into more depth, be sure to consult with your doctor to create a tailored plan of action that’s likely to work for you.

Stick to a long-term plan

First of all, it’s important to understand that the approach you take has to be long-term. If you cut corners and don’t stick to a clear plan, you’re going to run into issues sooner or later.

Short-term thinking is never what you want when it comes to your health and well-being. So, once you put a plan in place for how to look after your health, it’s important to consider how to sustain that plan over time.

Don’t overwhelm yourself with over-the-top restrictions and short-term expectations

If you put plans in place to protect your physical health that is mostly about restricting yourself and setting short-term goals, you’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself. That’s going to make personal failure far more likely over the long term; that’s obviously not what you want to happen.

Overwhelming yourself with extreme diet restrictions and putting in many hours of exercise per day might not be sustainable for you. Of course, reducing calories and exercising are important, but they’re things that need to be done in a realistic way to be sustainable.

Make an effort to move each day

For the good of your physical health, you need to make it a top priority of yours to be active and move a little each and every day. That might seem simple, but when you’re sitting at a desk all day, it’s easy to do very little real exercise from one day to the next.

It’s in your best interests, though, to find the time to be active. You could walk on a work break, for example. Or, take the time to do part of your commute on foot or on the bike.

Another idea is to start and end the day with a short jog. Which exercise you choose to do is up to you.

To protect your physical health, actively seek support

If you feel like you’re not coping very well alone, there’s certainly nothing wrong with seeking support and making sure that you get the help you need when you’re struggling.

Your doctor should be there to support you with any medical issues you might experience. And, if you’re struggling to strike the right balance with your diet, it’s a good idea to speak to a dietician about this problem. They have the knowledge and experience to be able to offer you dietary support that fits your lifestyle.

Make your social time active time too

If you want to be more active but struggle to find enough time to do so, try making your social time into active time. Maybe you have a friend who also wants to be a little more active, so why not make the time you spend socially finding ways to get moving together.

It can be a nice way to do something positive together. Plus, you can feel good about doing something even more productive with the time you spend together.

Protect your physical health tip: Stop viewing mistakes as signs of total failure

When you do something that doesn’t fit with the health plan, like binge eating late at night, try not to beat yourself up over it. Instead, take a step back and see what went wrong.

You might be self-sabotaging. But what you shouldn’t do is view every single mistake as a sign of total failure because that’s no good for you or your long-term goals.

Instead, acknowledge that a mistake was made, identify why it happened, and do your best to get back on track now. Also, develop a coping strategy in case you feel the temptation to overeat or avoid exercise in the near future.

Give your body the sleep it needs

Your body needs plenty of sleep each night. You need to provide it with that or run the risk of causing health problems for yourself later on down the line.

Be sure to try and head to bed at a reasonable time each evening. Also, put in place things that’ll help you sleep through the night without interruptions.

What types of “things”? The right light-blocking curtains, comfortable pillows, and a supportive mattress will help you to sleep through the whole night.

Get the right medical coverage to protect your physical health

Ensure you have the right kind of medical coverage in place to protect your health to the max going forward. Good medicaid planning is important if you want to make sure that you have maximal coverage from your insurance provider.

Explore the options and find the insurance solution that’s going to work best for you. Doing this research now means you won’t have regrets later when it’s too late to change the situation already.

Don’t overlook the importance of mental health too

I’ve been talking a lot about physical health here. But, it’s important to recognize that mental and physical health link closely with one another. That statement isn’t one to overlook or ignore.

Mental health is vital to your overall well-being. To truly be physically fit, you also need to be looking after your mental health. You can’t achieve success and good health in one area without taking care of the other one too.

A few last words

Protecting your health over the long term is something to work on in the ways discussed above. It’s a process and takes time, so be patient with yourself if it takes a while to see results.

Finally, put in the time and effort you put into getting this right today. That will make it easier to live healthily and sustainably going forward. So, start with some of the ideas discussed here and take things from there.