IN THIS ISSUE
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New Year…New You
Helpful Hints to Keep Your Best Intentions Alive
Five Habits for Staying Productive in the Dreariest Months of the Year
Prioritize Self-Care to Improve Your Mood
Help Your Child Fall In Love with Reading
Fight the Trend Away from Books
Heart Healthy Recipes
Chicken Stew & Zesty Tomato Soup
New Year…New You
By Holly B. Perzy, MD, MMM, FAAP, FACP, Internal Medicine-Pediatric Physician, Vice President, Care Delivery, MetroHealth, Executive Director, Skyway, Associate Professor, Internal Medicine, CWRU, Associate Professor, Pediatrics, CWRU
Everyone starts off the New Year with the best of intentions…gym memberships increase, diets begin, desks are decluttered, but then what happens? The best intentions seem to wane over time…Valentine’s Day comes and there are less cars in the gym parking lots, less attention to calories and the desk will already have piles of papers. Well, how do you break that cycle? Having a commitment to truly a New Year and creating a Renewed You.
Some helpful hints to keep your best intentions alive:
1. Set realistic goals
2. Remember a habit takes time to form
3. Hold yourself accountable
4. Celebrate success and continue through failure
5. Be true to yourself—create a Renewed You…
First, setting realistic goals is critical. Your goals need to be meaningful to you. If not, it will be difficult to prioritize the goal within your life. Also, your goals should be simple…the more complex you make your goals, the harder they will be to achieve. Establishing a measurable outcome, with success points along the way, will make it easier to achieve and enable you to see progress along your journey. Everyone needs positive reinforcement to continue.
Second, continuation and perseverance are key. A habit is not formed in a day, likely not even 21 days as some say. Maybe 6 weeks, maybe 6 months? There is debate and range in the scientific literature as to howtruly long it takes to form a habit. I think that is because it depends on the habit, you, and how important that habit is for you. For example, exercising 3 times a week may be easier to become habit if you are already exercising once a week. The key point is that you need to give yourself enough time to achieve the habit and have realistic expectations. However, in our society today, we want things at our fingertips, right now. To stick to your intentions, you must keep going, be patient and take the time to form a habit.
Third, you must find ways to hold yourself accountable. Setting success points along the way, having an accountability buddy, sharing your journey with others and being truthful with yourself are all keys to being accountable. I like to say no one enjoys standing naked in front of a mirror, but that is when you see your real self. You can-not succeed unless you are truthful with yourself. Accountability is vital to achieving your intentions.
The fourth point is celebrating those successes. Unfortunately, you won’t always be successful and that is when it is so easy to give up. Working with your accountability buddy and reaching deep down, you can persevere through those rough patches. Everything seems shiny and easy when setting the goal, but then life happens. This is the most critical part to success—being able to navigate those rough patches and continue to have your sights on your end goal.
Lastly, being able to do all of this…Set realistic goals with success points along the way, having patience that a habit will take time to form, knowing you will have ups and downs but holding yourself accountable for both your successes and failures will lead you to really be true to yourself, true to meeting your goals and true to being on a successful journey to a renewed you. Easy…no; Achievable…yes!!! I wish you the happiest, healthiest New Year and success on Your Journey to a Renewed You!!!
Download a Goal Worksheet to Capture Your Plan with more Tips on Readiness to Change.
Five Tips for Staying Productive in the Dreariest Months of the Year
With “wintry mix” in the forecast and the holidays behind you, the cold, dark weeks until springtime can be a slog. Now’s the time to prioritize self-care.
Winter still has a lot more cold and darkness left to give.
The good news? Getting intentional about how you spend your time can make a major difference in your day-to-day mood—including during one of the chilliest times of the
year. Here are a few habits for practicing self-care between now and the first signs of spring.
1. Set a Feel-Good Goal
We all get really good at being tough on ourselves when the new year hits. See the article “A New Year, New You” for steps for success.
2. Feel Grateful for Something Every Day
This time of year it’s easy to fall back into your day-to-day routines, forgetting to notice the everyday magic around you. A daily gratitude habit is strongly correlated with increased happiness and overall well-being, not to mention
with strengthening your relationships. For the next month or two, write in a daily gratitude journal, or reflect on a good moment before you go to bed.
3. Let Go of Something
Disorganization actually fuels stress. Keeping too much clutter around can sap your focus, cost you time (and therefore money) looking for what you need, and incentivize procrastination. Why wait for Spring? Get a head start
on spring cleaning and purge your physical and emotional closet. (And if reorganizing your entire workspace is too daunting, start one desk drawer at a time.)
4. Find a Creative Outlet
As creatures of habit, it can be easy to fall in routines where we only do things we have to each day. But creativity helps us to better live in the present moment, see things from a different perspective, and problem-solve. This month, actively prioritize something that allows you to express yourself creatively by writing or drawing. If you don’t see yourself as creative, try something you enjoy like cooking, dancing or doodling, try experimenting with outlets that bring that left brain to life.
5. Bundle Up and Get Outside
With below-freezing temperatures, going outside might feel like something to avoid. But spending time in nature (even at its wintriest has major cognitive and emotional upsides. So bundle up and go for a brisk walk or hike. Commit to stepping outside for at least 15 minutes a day. So serve yourself a dose of self-care this winter. You deserve it.
Excerpted from Marah Lidey and Naomi Hira-bayashi, cofounders and co-CEOs of Shine.
Heart Healthy Recipes
Chicken Stew
Save leftovers for lunch the next day. Click here.
Zesty Tomato Soup
This quick-cooking dish can be a side or light main meal. Click here.
News to Know…
TAKE A VIRTUAL TOUR OF OUR NEW HOSPITAL
www.metrohealth.org/transformation/transformation-blog/take-a-virtual-tour-of-our-new-hospital
New MetroHealth Locations:
Medina Health Center offers primary care services for all patients aged 16 and older with walk-in visits in the morning, and scheduled appointments in the afternoon weekdays. The provider Anthony Petruzzi, PA-C, who has been a family medicine provider for more than 25 years, is very involved in the Medina community and looks forward to caring for patients at 111 W. Reagan Parkway, near Target and Regal Cinema, exit 22 off I-71 South. Visit metrohealth.org/medina
for more information.
Broadview Heights Sports Medicine and Physical Therapy
Whether you need physical therapy to recover from an illness or injury, or treatment for an overuse injury or injury to the bones, muscles, joints or limbs playing the sport you love, we have highly trained physical therapists and a sports medicine doctor for you and your family. Provider Dr. Heather Rainey, a sports medicine specialist, and a team of physical therapists will provide care at 1 Eagle Valley Court in the same building as the Cleveland Sports Institute. Visit metrohealth.org/locations/broadview-heights-sports-med.
U.S. New and World Report Names Prentiss Center Among Best Nursing Homes
The Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Center for Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation was named to the U.S. News Best Nursing Homes list for 2018-19. Only 736 of the 15,000 facilities that were evaluated received high performing rankings in both Short-Stay Rehabilitation and best Overall Nursing Home on data collected about care, safety, health inspections and staffing.
Help Your Child Fall In Love With Reading
By Laura Shefner, MD, Pediatrician, MetroHealth, practicing at Beachwood and Parma; Dr. Shefner writes about pediatric care for the Cleveland Jewish News
I recently attended a multicultural panel discussing some of the biggest challenges our region faces. One panelist mentioned something that has stuck with me for weeks.
He discussed the high prevalence of illiteracy in Greater Cleveland.
This stood out to me because growing up in Beachwood, I was sheltered from the reality of how serious this problem still is. Literacy has a profound and lifelong impact on a person’s ability to succeed in society. Parents have the
obligation to nurture – and keep nurturing – their children’s reading skills, starting as early as possible.
In the age of video games, television and tablets, there is a growing trend away from books as early as during infancy.
Fight this trend. Read the tips for encouraging lifelong reading for each child’s age group. See the tips here.