What are your Health Goals?

 

Most of us know at least a little about goals. Setting a goal is one of the simplest and most basic success tools – it means to pick a target to aim at, a result you would like to happen, and then make a plan to work toward it. Setting goals is how almost all successful people create their success, in every chosen field of endeavor.

But while most set goals in business or personal accomplishment like sports or achieving a certain rank or status, few realize that it’s also important to set goals about your health. The lifestyle choices and decisions you make are so much easier and more compelling when you have a target to aim at, which gives you a reason to persist and follow through, and setting health goals will concentrate your energy to improve your chances at better health.

Some health goals are goals of safety – for example, if you want to travel safely in your car and avoid unnecessary injury, you would wear your seatbelt. Yes, it’s a law, but if you have a goal to be as safe as possible in your car, then no one has to insist that you wear a seatbelt – it’s an action step you would take to achieve the goal.

Or, you can choose a goal of a slimmer figure or clean, healthy lungs. You would then have to select some new behavior patterns, perhaps in eating, exercise and self discipline, to move yourself to lose weight or stop smoking.
See how this works? When the goal is clear and meaningful, the natural tendency is to act to make it happen, and that’s one of the main reasons setting goals is so important – it guides you toward naturally good decisions and behaviors, supportive of what you want to accomplish.

Interestingly, you can also set goals around positive health practices, like deciding to improve your diet, starting a regular exercise or meditation practice, or coming in for regular chiropractic care. These goals are not only to avoid pain and illness -- they are designed to increase health and wellness, for a longer and better life.

You could set a goal of better posture, or a better attitude while doing chores you don’t really enjoy. You could aim at more patience with your children (or your parents). You could work toward improving your strength, balance or your wind and lung capacity by walking or running regularly.

You could set a goal to learn a martial art like karate or a sport like tennis. You could pick an ideal weight and combine proper diet, exercise and coaching to get there. You could aim at better mobility and flexibility by practicing yoga.

You could set a goal to clean up your nutrition, and reduce or eliminate unhealthy food and drink habits, like sugary soft drinks, excessive coffee, or chips and candy.

You could set a goal to assemble a team of expert health and wellness advisors, and research the best providers in your area and develop relationships with them.

So what are your health goals? To avoid pain? To improve your quality of life? To live as long as possible and be as healthy as possible? Learning to eat fresh wholesome natural foods, get enough rest, reduce your stress and keep your body tuned up and ready to go with exercise and chiropractic care are habits that will take you toward a healthier life.

Set your health goals and take your best actions to get there, and you can be a healthier you.

Too Little...Too Late

They say that hindsight is 20/20, which means that after things happen it’s obvious what decisions you should have made along the way, but too often the opportunity has by then been missed.

So it goes too often with our health – we may be lulled into a false sense of security by the lack of overt symptoms, only to discover that our poor choices have painted us into a corner, requiring a huge effort to get out of it, if we even can.
Sad, and ironic, since the commitment necessary to stay healthy is usually a reasonable one – moderate eating and exercise, staying positive and reducing stress, getting enough rest and keeping our bodies tuned up with some basic maintenance care can go a long way toward producing good health and avoiding preventable illnesses and conditions.
Your doctor of chiropractic is specially trained in lifestyle science, and can advise you on some of the fundamentals of good health. You’ll be surprised how easy it can be, especially once you develop some momentum around these simple and profoundly beneficial habits.
If you wait too long, you could suffer the consequences – doing too little, too late is common in our world, but you don’t have to become an unfortunate statistic if you just make a few good decisions and stick to them.

Ask your chiropractor how you can improve your quality of life and avoid health problems – the result will be a longer, healthier life for you and your family.

You Look Great!

Who wouldn’t want to hear those words? In our culture, looking good is highly valued, and we spend a significant chunk of our fortunes on grooming, clothing, jewelry and other adornments that improve the way we are perceived by those around us.

Yet, you’ve heard the expression “you can’t tell a book by its cover” – appearing good on the outside doesn’t mean that everything is working properly on the inside. In fact, sometimes health problems are sneaky and insidious, without any noticeable symptoms.

Blood pressure can creep upwards, wear and tear can erode the joints, and any number of subtle changes can occur that at first create no pain or obvious malfunction. There are really only two things you can do to help yourself.

First, you can choose the very best lifestyle habits available. Eat well. Reduce your stress. Exercise appropriately. Avoid unnecessary injury. Minimize toxicity by reading labels and staying away from excessive chemicals in your food.

Second, you can consult experts on body function and lifestyle design, building a wellness team with the services you prefer – nutritionist, personal trainer, life coach, massage therapist or body worker, and of course your doctor of chiropractic, who can help you coordinate the use of professionals like these and others.

There’s an old story about a young man and his mentor, walking and contemplating, when the student, looking up at the heavens, exclaimed, “I cannot believe that the ancient peoples of the world were so stupid as to think that the sun rotated around the earth!”

The old man looked up as well, and remarked, “Does it look any different to the two of us down here?”
The young man realized that his understanding of the earth rotating around the sun was from his previous knowledge, and that the sky really did look like the sun was revolving the earth – he could see how people were duped by the appearance of it.

And so are we sometimes misled when we hear people say, “You look great” – it may be true, but you’ll still need to take the responsibility of developing good health habits and building a team of professionals to help you get healthy and stay healthy, so you work as great on the inside as you look on the outside!

“Begin with The End in Mind”

Recently we lost one of our foremost authors and success teachers, Stephen Covey. Covey wrote the landmark personal growth book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” regarded by many as the greatest business and self-development book of all time.

His second habit to build a great life is to “begin with the end in mind” – in other words, to be clear on the vision of what you’d like to accomplish.

This enormously powerful tool is used on the path to “personal leadership”. It supports you in becoming more determined to lead yourself to a successful outcome regardless of your starting place. It invites you to get very clear about what you want and fortifies you to address any obstacles that may interfere.

This is more than simply managing the circumstances of your life -- it’s more about doing whatever it takes to get that desired goal.

As a chiropractic patient you have the opportunity to apply this habit, by imagining what you want your ultimate health and wellness to look like. What would a life of wellness be like? What would being healthy be like? Beginning with the end in mind will clarify your decision-making and help you get there the fastest and best way possible.

Keep your eye on your target and do whatever it takes to get to the end you have in mind – that’s how the most successful people do it, and you can too.

Back To School Tips

As the new school year kicks into high gear, there are many little pointers that can make the experience safer and more beneficial for all concerned. Let‘s look at a few of these back-to-school tips:

1. Plan effectively. Develop a routine where you take a few minutes the night before and decide what you will need to take with you the next day. Lay out clothing so those decisions are already made when you wake up. Get up early enough to avoid rushing. You won’t forget things, and you won’t be scrambling to keep from being late. Leaving just a few minutes early saves back considerable stress.

2. Look both ways before crossing the street. Unlike England, where there are actually directions on the ground asking you to look left and right before you cross, we have to take responsibility to instruct our children to carefully observe the road before walking across it, especially at busy intersections.. Most of us remember our parents directing us to “look both ways” – it’s a tradition that continues to make sense and protect against unnecessary danger.

3. Watch out for the weight and size of back packs. Kids these days often load up their back packs with books, study materials, and other kid stuff. Test the weight of your child’s back pack – it is common that children struggle with overstuffed back packs and risk injury, so take the responsibility to monitor this often-overlooked hazard. A back pack should be no more than ten per cent of the child’s body weight – more than that creates the potential for spinal damage.

4. Pace yourself on homework. Many students are very efficient with their homework, others not so much. Help your child develop a rhythm where the homework is done properly and at a reasonable pace. Help him or her organize so there is a game plan for completing all assignments without undue stress or hassle. If your child resists doing homework, make the case that people do homework throughout their lives, and that this is not only required for the course of study they are taking, but also as basic life training they will benefit from going forward.

5. Develop checkpoints along the way. Many children have challenges dealing with one or more of their subjects, finding others easier for them. If you help them break down their assignments into smaller pieces, they may seem less overwhelming to them, and your child will become more enthusiastic about taking small but certain steps in the direction of better understanding. We ask a lot of our students intellectually, and few are gifted in every subject – give them a helping hand in those that are less natural for them by creating little milestones that mark partial success, instead of making them complete everything before they get any gratification.
6. Kill the monster while it’s small. This expression means that we need to notice problems and issues early, so they don’t snowball into much bigger problems before they are addressed. Missing a single homework may not be the biggest deal in the world, but if a child realizes he or she can get away with it, then there will be more misses and before you know it, a bad habit has developed. Squash that tendency early in the process, by observing the results and consistency your child creates, and encourage a willingness to maintain that standard. Again, this is important life training that transcends the value of the particular subject matter – it’s a way to generate good work habits which will lead to success in any endeavor they choose.
Some students find school easy to handle, others do not – but it’s no indicator of intelligence overall, just a way to measure some of the key elements of education. Every child has his or her own unique positive qualities – help your child learn by following a few simple guidelines, and the process will be less painful and more productive. Happy learning!

 

“CAREFUL, NOW”

If you’ve ever watched your favorite sports team play without one of their star players because of injury, you know about the frustration they must feel when they go out onto the field of battle undermanned or short-staffed.

Often the player is sitting on the bench, and looks okay to you – but the team doctors’ evaluation says that this player is not fit to play at this time, no matter how he or she might look on the outside, or even how they feel. The doctor knows to look for certain signs and details that make the player ready or not ready to perform, especially when re-injury would extend the disability and cost the team even more time without that player. Going back too soon might create an even bigger problem, and it’s the doctor’s responsibility to make that judgment call, to tell the player, “Careful, now!”

At times, your Doctor of Chiropractic may also ask you to refrain from certain activities. In the beginning of your care (for many injuries and in certain situations), you would readily agree to the wisdom of “not doing” and “not participating” in such activities.

But then, when the miraculous healing process begins, and you start to feel much better, you may begin to wonder if the doctor is being overcautious. Doesn’t the doctor understand that you have to … have to what? You fill in the blank. When you are feeling better, your nature is to want to return to your normal daily activities and habits … but it may be premature to do so.

Your doctor of chiropractic knows how to deliver your program of care, and how to advise you on what you need to do, and not do. This is why you have chosen to work with this particular doctor. Your chiropractor is an expert, and you greatly benefit from his or her experience in situations like yours. If you go back to “normal” activities too soon, worse injuries are possible. And, too often the re-injury complicates the recovery, sometimes making it tougher to get well.

So, if your chiropractor asks you to refrain from doing things that you may feel ready to do, please follow the doctor’s recommendations – when your chiropractor tells you to be “Careful, now,” it is probably good advice you should strongly consider following.

Healthy Summer Eating

Healthy Summertime Recipes

Here are some delicious, nutritious dishes you can include in your summertime menu:

Jalapeno-Lime Corn on the Cob (Courtesy of Rachel Ray)

Ingredients:

               1 stick butter                                    1 teaspoon sweet paprika

               1 lime, juiced and zested              1 clove garlic

               1 small jalapeno, seeded              1 slice bread, of any kind

               6 ears corn on the cob, husked    Coarse salt

Directions:

Combine butter, lime, jalapeno, garlic and paprika in food processor and pulse process until smooth. Place on waxed paper or plastic and roll. Place in freezer until ready to serve. Cook corn by boiling, steaming or grilling. Cut disks of butter and rub onto corn, nesting the butter in a slice of bread to apply it to the hot corn. Season ears with salt (and fight over the hot buttered bread slice!)

Asparagus, Artichoke and Mushroom Saute with Tarragon Vinaigrette

(courtesy of Giada De Laurentis)

Ingredients:

Vegetable Saute:

2 tablespoons olive oil          1 bunch asparagus (1 pound), sliced into 3-inch pieces

1 large shallot, sliced            8 ounces mushrooms, sliced

1 clove garlic, minced         1 (8-ounce) package frozen artichoke hearts, thawed

1/2 teaspoon salt                  1/2 pint teardrop tomatoes, halved

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Tarragon Vinaigrette:

6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon leaves

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions For the Vegetable Saute:

Warm the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the shallot and the garlic and cook until tender, about 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook until golden, about 5 minutes. Add the asparagus and artichokes and cook until the asparagus is tender, about 5 more minutes. Turn off the heat and add the tomatoes, salt and pepper and reserve.

Directions For the Tarragon Vinaigrette:

Page 2 :: Healthy Summertime Recipes

Combine the oil, vinegar, tarragon, salt and pepper in a glass screw-top jar. Seal the jar and shake vigorously to mix the vinaigrette. Toss the vegetables with the vinaigrette and serve.