Lifestyle Choices and a Plan Part I: Identifying Ares in My Current Lifestyle That Need Improvement so That I Can Get Back to a Healthy Path

Three areas to make improvements in my current lifestyle are: 1) the area of exercise, 2) the area of diet, and 3) the area of commitment to spirituality. Each of these areas is important in and of itself—but together they form a holistic approach to physical, mental and spiritual health that I feel, if embraced, can lead to the flourishing of health and positivity in my own life—which I would then expect to be able to transfer to the patients I serve. The more that one is satisfied and happy in one’s own life, the more likely that person is to provide quality care to one’s patients (Laschinger, 2008). Additionally, it has been well established that physical exercise and diet and two of the major cornerstones or foundations of a healthy lifestyle (Claas & Arnett, 2016; Cobb-Clark, Kassenboehmer & Schurer, 2014).

In the field of health psychology, which is what I seek to enter into, the areas of focus include the mental, emotional and social factors that impact a person’s health and wellness. By taking care of my own areas of health, I feel that I would best be in a position to help others, particularly the elderly population, address their own health issues. However, to care for others, I first have to care for myself—and that means addressing my own physical and psychological needs.

Exercise

I am often quite busy in my life and as such I know how important it is to get enough rest so that I am revitalized to meet the demands of my very demanding schedule. It is also important to maintain a good schedule for physical exercise. I have a gym membership that I only rarely take advantage of and I would like to make my gym visits more of a regular part of my life. This will be discussed as part of my plan to get more into physical shape in the next session. Exercise helps with making rest feel more like rest. I find, for example, that if I try to relax after a very busy day it is difficult to do so. My mind continues to run over all the things I need to do for the week and even if I want to get to bed early I have a difficult time falling asleep. This is where exercise comes into play. I have found in my own experience that if I just get a brief workout in before I call it a day, I can relax when I get home and sleep easier. Exercise helps to put the body at rest, especially if a lot of tension builds up in the body over the course of a day or week—and yet, unfortunately, I find that I don’t do it enough, so that is why this is an area for me that I want to focus on.

Diet

I also want to focus on the area of diet. A healthy diet is so important when it comes to feeling good and having enough energy to get through the day. I tend to find that I look for quick fixes sometimes—instead of planning a well-thought-out meal for the day or a series of meals for the week, I will instead get fast food because it is quick and convenient. Too many Big Macs later and I feel out of shape, exhausted and sluggish. I don’t want this type of habit to become a main characteristic of my lifestyle so I want to start preparing a better diet for myself. A healthy diet can go a long way in establishing one’s strength and wellness (Muros, Cofre-Bolados, Arriscado, Zurita & Knox, 2017). I will have more to say about diet in the next section.

Meditation

Finally, another area that I want to focus on is spirituality. Religion and spirituality have always been in the background of my life in some way or another, but when I become really busy this area tends to disappear into the backdrop and I can feel that my center is sliding. To maintain one’s center there has to be a kind of mental toughness that one develops over time. Spirituality and religion have helped me in the past to overcome obstacles and succeed in a variety of challenges. As I look forward to accomplishing this latest challenge of mine, I want to reaffirm my commitment...

I have gotten bogged down by too many other cares and concerns. For example, in my family there is a lot happening—I have family members that are in need of care, and there are always the random financial issues that have to be addressed that typically add stress to life and distract from the things that help us maintain a path of health. To deal with issues, my family tends to try to find quick fix solutions.
For instance, to cope with stress, we might just turn on a movie at the end of the night. This is an easy response but not necessarily the right one: it is just an easy way to check out for a few hours. I feel that instead of checking out in this manner, it is more important to “check in,” so to speak—i.e., to take stock of one’s mental, physical and spiritual health by taking some personal time to assess what one is eating, whether one is getting enough exercise, and how one’s spiritual life is coming along. All of these areas are good for the mind and body, and that is why I want to spend more time bringing them back in as a major source of support in my life. After all, there is only so much pizza and cola one can eat while watching Netflix before one starts to realize that this is not the pathway to health.

My Motivation

My motivation to get back to a pathway of health is this: I want to achieve my nursing goal of obtaining a Master of Science degree in Health Psychology so that I can serve the elderly population. Having taken care of my parents over the years, I realize how important it is to serve this population: when they do not receive the right kind of care they can become withdrawn, isolated and depressed. Health psychology helps to address the issues of this underserved population by focusing on mental, behavioral and physical health issues that pertain to the elderly patient.

I reason that if I am going to be someone who helps bring health and wellness to others, I first have to ensure that I am bringing it to myself. That is my major motivation in this endeavor. I am inspired by my experiences in assisting my parents and I want to continue to hold that as my inspiration because whenever I think about that time it always makes me grateful that I have my health and was able to provide care for them. But if I lose my health, I am not going to be of any use to anyone. That thought alone makes me want to get off the couch and onto the treadmill, make out a meal plan, and do a 15-minute meditation in the morning to start my day off right.

To summarize, the areas I want to focus on are increasing my physical exercise to at least 3 times per week; plan a healthy diet so that I am no longer stopping for a quick drive-thru meal at a fast food restaurant, and spend time concentrating on spirituality so that I have the mental agility and confidence to be self-actualizing. I feel that these three areas are important to focus on to ensure the continuation of my success in my career. I now need to develop a plan to help me address the needs I have identified with respect to these areas.

Part II: My Plan to Address These Lifestyle Areas and Get Back to More Healthy Living

The Three-Part Process

My plan to address these three areas will consist of 1) meditating in the morning to get my spiritual life in order; 2) preparing a meal plan for each week so as to avoid fast food and an unhealthy diet; and 3) exercising three nights per week at the gym for a half-hour.

Henderson and Ellison (2015) show that spirituality can help individuals improve their mental health. Meditation can be a good way to reduce stress and to help people improve their focus. Deep breathing and self-soothing helps to improve cognition and release tension from the body. But more importantly, by practicing these exercises…