Goals: Make your health a priority

Months ago, we talked about our goals for the New Year at our house with our family, and in our office. One main goal was to make a move to get our health near the top of the list of our priorities every day of the week. This, of course, requires us to make a change in our lifestyles.

In order to make your health a priority, you must be willing to make a change. I don't know about you, but change is difficult at times and takes patience and persistence. You must have tenacity and believe in yourself.

Often, it is not until we are in pain that we actually stop to consider what we really should be doing for our health - whether it is our physical, mental or our emotional health. Maybe you need a vacation, or possibly you need to walk every night after work with a friend. Maybe you need to mediate and participate in yoga twice a week to learn how to unwind and stretch your sore body. Or perhaps you need to see a counselor and "let go" of the past you keep exhuming and then burying every couple of months, which is making your neck seize up on your drive to work.

Whatever it is you need to make a commitment to, do it before you are at a crisis level. Remember, all of us sometimes wait too long to make the commitment to our health and then rotator cuff surgery is the only answer for our shoulder that won't work, and those extra 35 pounds we are carrying have tweaked our knee so we can barely walk. And what about the hip pain that used to be nagging and now is so bad that it keeps us up half the night and as a result, our anxiety shoots through the roof from not sleeping?

What keeps us from taking care of ourselves until we are in a crisis of belief? Do we think we aren't important, or not worth it? Well, I am here to tell you that you are worth it, every one of you.

It doesn't matter what someone once told you. Maybe they said that you aren't an athlete and will never have muscles. Maybe they said you are lazy and not capable of discipline. It's just not true, none of it. The body and the mind are amazingly resilient and can regenerate themselves, if we choose to do the hard work of taking care of business.

So, will you choose to do that every day? Will you get down to business with your health and not let anyone get in your way? Will you love yourself enough to take care of the gift of your body so that by next year you can say, "I did it?"

Now that this year is half over, we are assessing the lifestyle changes at my office and at our house. We have had a lot of successes in our lifestyle changes, and many moments of frustration. My husband has been the greatest success so far. He has lost 28 pounds since Christmas; he just got his blood work done and he is the healthiest he has been for years.

It all happened because he decided to choose his health every day this year. He started on the myfitnesspal.com app and with this, he was able to track his food and exercise each day. He realized quickly that he was not regulating his food portions right and once he changed his portions to be in line with his activity level, he has really taken off.

This tool has made all the difference for him, and we are so excited for you to know that you can make a change if you decide to make a commitment and do it, also. He did it and so can you.

Sheree DiBiase, PT, is the owner of Lake City Physical Therapy. She and her staff can be reached in Coeur d'Alene at (208) 667-1988 and in our Spokane Valley office at (509) 891-2623 to make the lifestyle changes that can help you be healthy and well.