Your Health and Fitness Goals This New Year
Happy New Year to all who follow my health fitness blog. I hope in spite of the constraints due to the pandemic you are enjoying the Holidays and wish we have better year ahead of us. What are Your New Year Health and Fitness Goals?
Thank you, for being part of this journey with me to help each other live healthy and happier lives. It’s hard to believe I have been blogging for the last 6 years sharing what I have learned to enhance our not only our health but also our lives as whole. It has been satisfying for me getting positive feedback from many of you. I was even surprised that some of medical colleagues are following my blog. I remember I was in job interview when the physician commended me for doing this blog. Although I finance from my own pocket the expenses of website hosting and the plugins, I have been more than compensated from the many testimonials from many of you on how my blog have helped you and the knowledge you’ve gained.
Sources of Reliable Information
With the advent of the internet there is no shortage of health and medical advice out there, and frequently I would run across people asking about the veracity of information they have read from some of them. According to a study if you use google about only 43% of websites give accurate information. The most accurate websites are the government sponsored and has about 80% accuracy. The least accurate websites are blogs which sadly are only 40% reliable. If you are following information that are sent to you especially in this Covid-19 crisis on Facebook, Messenger, YouTube and other sources you feel will be suffocated by all the misinformation they spew out.
In regards to my blog my background being a physician has been a valuable asset and with some knowledge in statistical analysis, these has helped me in getting as accurate information as possible. I am also not sponsored by any organization promoting their products. After reading many research studies I found that many of them are sponsored by industries that benefit from results that are reported. There are obvious biases built into many of these studies.
If you are going to search for medical advice on Google, double-check the sources’ validity before acting on the advice. Websites ending in .gov or .org or .state are accurate and reputable sources. Websites of medical institutions like universities and large national medical organization like American Diabetic Association, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society to name a few are more reliable.
Setting Personal Fitness Goals
It rather is interesting that people will often set goals for themselves in the areas of Career money, weight, personal development, houses, cars and clothes. But people very seldom set goals for exactly how long they want to live and what standard of health they want to enjoy throughout their lives. They sort of take the whole issue of health and longevity for granted. The goal of the Total Fitness Medicine blog is bring to your attention that health and fitness is of paramount importance and if you don’t have these two the rest of the things you work for would be worth nothing.
The other day a friend posted the odometer reading of his Toyota Camry Car with 437,300 miles, the picture of the car’s body appeared to be still in good shape. He mentioned that he did his own maintenance on the car. To have a car last that long one has to really care for it well. It sad to say, most of us go through life taking our bodies for granted, which results in premature deterioration and ultimately to demise. One would not place diesel in gasoline car or vise-versa but many of us don’t take in account what eat or drink. The body breaks down for luck of exercise or lack of sleep. It is time to set some short and long-term goals for your health and fitness this new year. Invest time, effort and get assistance from experts to achieve your goals. Approach it in a systematic fashion with specific benchmarks and if you keep it up I am sure it will pay off big time in the long run in terms of health and well being.
Here are a few examples of goals you may adopt:
- Losing Weight
- Sticking to a Workout Regimen
- Increasing Strength and Stamina
- Increase Flexibility and balance
- Sticking to Healthy Dietary Regimen
- Improve Cardiovascular Health
- Partner with a buddy to motivate each other or with a personal trainer
The knowledge I share with you readers are just like tools to help you develop a healthy lifestyle. Like other tools they do you no good unless you use them. If you have underlying health problems remember that the right food may be one of the best medicines for you especially supplemented a good physical exercise program (ask your doctor for advice).
As we usher the coming year let us step up a notch on our personal health fitness program and share with relatives and friends the knowledge you’ve learned and the benefits that you’ve gained.
Whatever your health and fitness goals are for the New Year I would suggest the mantra: It doesn’t have to be perfect but is should be my best.
I wish you not only a Happy New Year but also healthier and fitter version of you.
