Choosing Health, Wealth and Happiness
I read a lot of non-fiction books and blogs related to medicine, to health, to disease and mostly to nutrition. This helps me to learn about this important topic and to stay on top of my health. The more I read and learn, the more convinced I am that all chronic disease including auto-immune disease are directly linked to diet and lifestyle. I am not saying that diet alone is responsible for causing disease but it is a driver and one that is easily modified to better mange health.
In my hometown there is a medical practice next door to a dialysis center next door to a wound clinic. It is like one stop shopping for people who suffer from diabetes. In the early stages of this chronic disease, people take medicine and check their blood sugar. As it progresses, it gets much more complicated and can result in wounds that won’t heal, amputation of body parts, loss of sight. It increases the risk for stroke, heart disease, kidney disease and nerve damage. People with advanced diabetes get a lot of expensive treatments that address their symptoms but none that address a cure.
Writing annual goals is a great way to ensure you are living life according to your own terms. Living life in a way that is meaningful to you. Living a life that keeps you on your own personal path. Sharing my goals with you keeps me accountable and on my path of health, wealth and happiness. I also secretly hope to inspire you to strategize your own life by figuring out what is really important to you, how you want to live and developing a path to get there.
As always, I categorize my goals into 3 sections titled health, wealth and happiness. Here are my 2020 goals. You can read about what is most important to me on my Start Here Page.
I work as an Occupational Therapist and have been in the field for 20 years. I have worked in a hospital, in an outpatient clinic and in several nursing homes. I have met a ton of interesting people who have faced some difficult health challenges. When I was a kid, Mother Fran thought I should be a nurse. I always laughed at the notion and reminded her that I fainted at the sight of a lot of blood. Maybe I should have listened to her! When I look at job opportunities, the positions that are of interest to me often require an RN degree. I have no desire to go back to school but if I did, nursing school would be on interest. Like Occupational Therapists, they work in a wide variety of settings and with many different populations of people.
It is that time of year again when we decide we need to eat better, exercise more, sleep longer, spend more time with loved ones; to be healthier, be a better person, and be happier.
On January 1st, many of us made one or more resolutions to improve our health, wealth and happiness. Now it is the middle of January and I would venture that at least 50% of these have been abandoned, forgotten or put off for another time. I gave up on making New Year’s Resolutions several years ago.
In my last post, I wrote about having company over for the holidays and cooking several dinners for up to 6 people. Whenever I talk about cooking, people naturally want to know what I made, how it turned out and if I winged it or followed a recipe. So this post will answer those nagging questions!
In a recent post titled Don’t Be a Stranger, I wrote about my being a bit more complex than I tend to admit to others or accept for myself. I usually think (and write) about how I like to wing it. This applies to certain areas of my life like cooking. In other areas though I keep a pretty rigid schedule and this keeps me on top of my work life and helps to ensure I remember to have a social life and some fun in my week. Interestingly enough the ability to be flexible helps me with winging it and scheduling it. Not simple at all!
