Your health is the most important thing in your life, next to your faith. At least it should be. Unfortunately, we tend to let life get in the way of our self-care. When you have so many responsibilities to take care, visiting a gym or getting a checkup is usually at the bottom of the list.

So what’s wrong with that? You feel fine, right?

Just because you feel fine, doesn’t mean you can’t feel even better. Trust me, not taking care of yourself will lead you down a long road towards chronic illnesses like Diabetes, Kidney Disease, Heart Disease, even cancer.  I felt fine until one day my kidneys failed out of the blue. More on that story later, but today, almost 7 years later, I’ve received a kidney transplant (yay!) but I’m still susceptible to any and every cough and sneeze that comes in my direction. Every time I leave my home with a mask on in the winter, I can’t help but chastise myself for not keeping up with my workouts when I was younger.

It was a long 7 years to get here, and if I didn’t/don’t manage my life well, I’d probably still be on dialysis. Managing your time is only one aspect of it, though. You should know what your body needs and then make plans to achieve it. For instance, if you want to lose weight, you can’t just write down “lose weight” and then wait for it to happen. You have to create an actionable plan that will get you where you want to be in the timeframe you want. Yes, that is the very definition of a goal.

A planner can help you set your goals, if that’s your desire, or maintain records of the things you need to do to manage your health. Physical checkups, dental appointments, eye appointments, personal training sessions, dietician consultations, and more all need to be scheduled into your life somewhere.

I don’t want to overwhelm you, but I do want to leave you with a few things to think about.

• What are your healthcare goals?
• Do you workout regularly? If so, do you need to take it up a notch?
• Are you managing an illness? If so, are you struggling with it?
• What steps can you take today towards getting healthier?

We’ll get more into how you can use your planner to track your health. In the meantime, if you haven’t had a checkup in over 6 months, I highly suggest you get a physical as soon as possible.

You got this!