Starting a New Year, many people make resolutions.
I found that it did not work well for me. I make plans with action steps to take, and the days and or weeks will fly by, and before I know it, it will be Christmas again!
Health is your greatest wealth! That is why Health is always a priority heading into a new year, and a goal is to live healthier.
My recommendation is as simple as putting YOU and your own health first — by being the owner of your choices this year, starting with the basics we need to survive and thrive. Oxygen, Water Nutrition, getting Enough Sleep, and Respecting the one body you get!
I saw Nick Cannon made a post on #thesplit that is so true. The greatest lesson is to take care of YOU. You can not take care of everyone else if you are sick. Most of us wait til we get the wake-up call to put ourselves first.
That was me. I got the call, and now I know I need to do better, so it doesn’t happen again. We wait until there is a sign or symptom before we take action.
Especially as Moms! We put everyone else before ourselves. Self-care It is not selfish; it is smart. It is essential! You are your biggest and best investment. I learned this the hard way. That is why I do what I do. I want others to learn from my mistakes. To know there are people out there that can help and that you are not alone.
This time of the year is a time for reflecting, a time for starting new, a time for a clean slate. We closed the past year and look forward to a new year. Why? Because we are hopeful this year will be our year, this year will be the year I…… Whatever it is you are looking forward to in the future. We make plans, and some make resolutions. Most of us feel as if this is the time to press the reset button. The future looks bright!!
Take inventory of what is working for you and what is not. Create a plan. What do you want? Make a plan and write it down. If you can’t put it into words, you don’t know. Writing is down, saying it out loud, stating your intentions. This is the way to put it out into the universe and call your shot. Control your destiny. Sure there will be bumps in the road. But when we do all these things, we take action steps to make it happen.
If you don’t have a plan and action steps on how to execute that plan, you will just watch the days go by and be in the same place next year. If you feel like you did not accomplish what you wanted last year, try this. Make this year different. Set goals, write them down, and break them down by month, by week, and with daily goals.
Set yourself up for success. It does not have to be a huge life-changing goal. If you want to eat healthier, make a plan, meal plans, and grocery lists; what days will you cook? Will you meal prep on Sunday? Will you cook every day? Will you shop once a month? Will you go once a week? Marie’s folio says everything is figureoutable. She is correct. Everything is google searchable too. There is probably a youtube video on what you want to know.
Another thing I learned the hard way. If you don’t sit down and figure out what you want, have a plan and a system to execute that plan, or you may end up with Chaos, Missed opportunities, Anger, Regret, Sadness, or even depression. The cycle repeats itself the next time there is no planning.
It’s okay not to have a plan right now.
It’s okay to follow your heart instead and do what you want to do. Sometimes breaking that monotony in life and getting out of your comfort zone can give you that sense of achievement that cannot be obtained from anything else.
Planning and execution are easy concepts to talk about, but it’s not always easy to make them happen. The main problem is that it is a real challenge to measure and manage a concept. However, once you convert concepts into behaviors, you have something you can observe, measure, and manage.
Focus provides the clarity necessary to make decisions that support your most important goals. It results in a clearly-defined pathway to success.
Keep it simple!
Things that will help you have a healthy year:
- Know when to say no: No is an answer – No need to elaborate or explain why you said no. It is a part of setting boundaries for you and your health.
- Oxygen – We start and end our life with oxygen! We take our first breath through our nose when we are born and our last one when we die.
Breathing is essential to life, as it allows the human body to obtain the energy it needs to sustain itself and its activities. How are you breathing? If you find you breathe through your mouth, get that evaluated first. Most people are unaware they are using their mouths, not their noses. It is crucial to everything else in life.
- Water – We have always been told to drink eight glasses of water a day, but do you know why? Did you know that our bodies are 75% water? All of our cells are made up of water. It is the most important thing we put into our bodies.
Not only is it important to watch what food we eat, but also as important to watch what water we drink. It’s the fuel for our body and how we are able to detoxify and deliver oxygen and nutrients to our cells while eliminating toxins that will make us sick.
- Get enough sleep – It is crucial to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep to have a healthy immune system. Sleep is when our body repairs itself. So getting up constantly in the middle of the night jeopardizes our health.
- Nutrition and Eating Right – In addition to getting enough fruits, vegetables, and whole grains throughout the day, focus on protein in the morning. Consuming excess sugar leads to cavities, insulin resistance, which is a precursor to type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. It has also been associated with cirrhosis, neuropathy, kidney disease, general inflammation, and cancer.
- Exercise Regularly – Staying physically fit improves cardiovascular and muscular health and helps fight disease. Exercising also has been shown to reduce stress and improve your overall mood.
- Start asking better questions – Get better answers. I love the saying, but it is easier said than done!
When we start a new year, we should start with how my health is. Am I healthy? What do I need to do to find out and stay that way?
This is not always high on the list of priorities unless we are in pain. When we are talking about health, our mouth should be the first place we look! Does the health of my mouth affect the health of my body?
Think about it. When you’re at the doctor, they usually check your vitals. They probably don’t look inside your mouth. If they do, they’re not trained to know everything a dentist knows: what is going on inside. Yet, your mouth could have a big impact on the rest of your body. Even if they see something suspicious in your mouth, doctors don’t usually communicate that information to your dentist.
That’s why I started The Healthy mouth movement, which raises awareness about the importance of dental health and its connection to the rest of the body.
Your mouth is a critical part of your body. You use it for drinking, eating, talking, breathing, kissing, and more. That’s a lot of stuff! It has muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves, and bones. It also has a blood supply running through it that’s connected to the rest of your body.
Can bacteria from the mouth get into the bloodstream and affect other parts of the body?
YES. According to extensive research over decades, there is a solid connection between the systems that regulate your mouth and those that manage the rest of your body. Gum disease — and any other oral infection in your mouth — can spread through your body via the bloodstream. Research shows a correlation between dental disease and cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, pre-term births, pregnancy complications, and much more.
Why doesn’t your doctor check for dental disease?
Doctors aren’t trained to identify dental issues; their view is the body at large. Or a specific symptom you are having. Traditionally, dentists specialize in taking care of the mouth, and doctors take care of the rest of the body.
This is changing as we realize the mouth-body connection is real and important.
A comprehensive dental examination requires equipment and training that doctors don’t have because they don’t need to have it. That’s why medical doctors and dentists should have close interactive relationships when it comes to information about their mutual patients’ health. It would be useful information for the doctor to know if there were dental infections entering the bloodstream, bite issues that may affect headaches, oral airway restrictions that may affect sleep, any indications of oral cancer, or any other dental diseases that affect your overall health.
Did you know that your dentist checks you for those things? Most doctors don’t realize the extent of dental examinations. What about that mysterious recurring infection? It responds to antibiotics but recurs several weeks after the antibiotic therapy ends. The dental or oral disease could be the source of the bacteria causing the infection. More than 90% of dental infections don’t present with any pain, so there’s rarely any complaint to the physician about a toothache. Until the source is removed, the infection remains.
To eliminate the infection in the mouth is to eliminate the biggest single polluter of the bloodstream.
An infection-free mouth contributes to good health and longevity. To properly treat patients, doctors also need to know about their oral health; they can do that by requesting a report from the patient’s dentist. In general, doctors don’t ask, and dentists don’t tell. It’s time for that to change.
Have a plan, and what do you need to do to execute your plan?
By working together, doctors, dentists, and hospitals can identify many diseases at the source. We can keep healthcare costs down through prevention, and that means educating our patients. Using the proper tools and routines to care for your oral health at home is so much more affordable than any hospitalization or catastrophic events such as a heart attack or stroke that poor oral hygiene could have contributed to.
Whatever your goals for the new year. You are your most important asset.
You only get one body. Healthy habits can be the difference between enjoying the year, making memories, living life to the fullest or spending our days treating symptoms.
Every end marks a new beginning. May the new year bring you peace, joy, and happiness.
Here’s to you making the most of 2023!
