The Pursuit of Healthy Habits, How to Attain and Maintain Your Positive Wellness Changes

A habit is defined as a regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up. Our habits determine who we are, how we live, and the consequences we experience, good or bad. Animals are bound to their instincts, or typically fixed patterns, whereas humans are bound to our habits. If we are bound to habits, they might as well be good habits! Developing good health and wellness habits is often the difference between being in good health or succumbing to disease. Permanent positive health behavior change must be our goal but what is this and how do we get there? It starts with forming new and healthier habits. A zebra will always be a zebra.

Optimally, health and wellness change will be proactive and implemented before a disease state such as diabetes is diagnosed or a complication such as a heart attack is experienced. Maintaining a healthy weight, abstaining from tobacco and alcohol abuse, and lowering your stress levels are important initial steps to be taken. Establishing healthy routines related to these therapeutic lifestyle changes will increase your likelihood of successfully developing permanent health behavior change that may prevent, control, and possibly even reverse disease. Great initial steps towards this change are to eat (or drink as in a high protein shake) breakfast every morning, drink 64 ounces of water every day, and refrain from being sedentary by establishing and working to maintain a daily steps goal of 5000 or greater. 

A routine is defined as a sequence of actions regularly followed. It's the daily set of actions you perform over and over. With time, this regular sequence of actions becomes a regular tendency or practice which is, as we know, a habit. Habits can be good, bad, or in between but they all stem from routines. The great thing is that by establishing and adhering to new healthy routines you can change habits. You develop the habit of saving and investing money by regularly saving and investing money instead of spending it on clothes and shoes. You get into the habit of eating breakfast, drinking more water, and moving more by doing these things on a regular basis. We must be committed to health behavior change and healthy habits because who wants to be a zebra? 

Author

Sean Bannister, PA-C Sean is a Physician Assistant and a retired US Army officer with over 30 years of clinical medicine and leadership experience. He earned his Master of Business Administration degree from The George Washington University and a Master of Physician Assistant Studies degree from the University of Nebraska Medical Center with an emphasis on Family, Cardiovascular, and Thoracic medicine. He also has over 15-years experience as a cardiovascular surgery PA and certifications as a health coach and personal fitness trainer. While in the military Sean served as the senior healthcare provider and administrator for multiple medical and urgent care clinics and was the director of a military Physician Assistant Training Program. He has performed duties as an Emergency Medicine and Trauma Physician Assistant in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Sean has also served as the director of workplace wellness programs, weight loss programs, and preventive health initiatives to keep people healthier, happier, and more productive.