Tag: goals

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Helping Patients with their New Resolutions or Goals

It was recently reported that 45% of all Americans still makeNew Year resolutions but many people now call them goals. If you are luckyenough, many of your patients will make resolutions and with the re-new commitmentto change you can be there for them to help them make those changes.  Helping patients with their resolution forgoals can help you reach the medical goals you have set for your patients.

In my blog New year, new you, I talk about why we makeresolutions for the new year. For patients who deal with chronic illness the NewYear offers a chance to start again to get their illness under control.  As it becomes increasingly clear to patientsthat we have a finite amount of time and we need to make the most out of it. Likemany of Americans, the most popular resolutions are to lose weight andexercising more.

Help them set goals

The first step is setting health goals that are realistic and obtainable, choose one to two goals  Having too many goals can make it hard to keep track of them, and to focus your energy. Once you set two to three goals, break them into smaller steps that will be easier to do on a weekly and daily increments.  Losing weight, you want to make sure to do it the right way and make your focus to become healthy. Small changes can add up and make a big difference, so start small with changes you know you can stick with.

Inactivity is the new smoking, not being active can lead to shorter life expectancy. Don’t forget to exercise as it is one of the best things you can do to keep you healthy. There are many apps for your smart phone that you can use. There are also apps that can help you exercise such as the 7-minute workout. Whatever your goals, the most important thing is to get started.

Help your patients focus their goals into realistic and obtainable goals. Help them by making them accountable to follow though with their goals by checking progress at every visit. Use motivational interviewing to help them keep motivated and help them celebrate achieving small goals.

Often as Health professionals, we point out what is wrong but fail to notice and celebrate small achievements. Help patients problem solve obstacles by brainstorming how they can get their goals done. Help by giving concrete samples of how they could get a goal done but let them choose their own solution to try.

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Even a little bit of movement matters

The take-home message from a mountain of data is that less sitting and more exercise is the goal, and even a little bit of improvement helps. For those who have a desk job, taking short movement breaks throughout the day is protective.

Scientific evidence strongly suggests that the more time a person spends sitting, the higher their risk of death from any cause. Multiple large studies and high-quality data analyses show that regardless of age or health issues, the hours we spend in our office chairs, cars, or on the sofa watching television can literally kill us.

A well-conducted study published in July 2016 in The Lancet looked at a massive amount of data from 16 large studies and including over a million subjects. What they found was that 60 to 75 minutes of moderate physical activity (The CDC has published a table describing many activities ) like walking to work, walking the dog, riding a stationary bike, line dancing, golf or softball, doubles tennis, or coaching sports eliminates the risk of death related to sitting, even from sitting for more than eight hours per day.

Can’t get in an hour of these types of activities per day? Just 25 minutes of moderate activity is somewhat protective, even for people who sit for eight or more hours per day. Other studies have suggested that exercise can be broken up and spread out throughout the day and still be beneficial. One study found that even hourly breaks of light activity decreased measurable damage to our arteries.

Time spent sitting was analyzed separately from time spent sitting and watching television. TV time is associated with even greater risk of death, and exercise was not as protective. Even more than an hour per day of moderate activity did not eliminate the risks associated with five or more hours per day of zoning in front of the tube. Why the extra negative effect of TV watching? The authors hypothesize that people are more likely to get up and walk around at work than they are while watching TV. In addition, people tend to watch TV in the evening after eating dinner, which may have negative effects on our blood sugars and fat metabolism. Or, perhaps people are prompted to snack on unhealthy foods during those commercials breaks. Watching large number of hours of television? Consider an exercise bike or a treadmill, place it in front of the screen.

Whether it’s sitting in an office chair or watching TV, those who get less than five minutes of moderate activity per day fare the worst, and the longer they sit, the higher their risk of death from any cause – be it heart disease or cancer.

For more information see: exercise recommendations for patients with diabetes.