Preventive Care: 3 Ways You Can Stay on Top of Your Health as a Mom

When you’re a mom, it’s easy to get caught up in the chaos and lose sight of your health. You’re probably juggling work, household management, your kids, and a couple of other things. It can be hard to stop and think about ways you can be healthy.

This is why it’s important to have the right mindset when it comes to your health: acknowledging that being healthy requires doing some things regularly—things you can insert in your busy schedule—instead of waiting for illness to creep in. After all, it’s much easier to maintain a healthy lifestyle than spend a couple of weeks sick. As they say, prevention is better than cure.

Below are some ways you can adopt a preventive approach to your health. If you want, you can even have the whole family join in!

Preventive Care Tip 1: Visit Your Doctor Regularly

How often do you go to the doctor? I know how tempting it can be to only go when you’re sick. After all, who has time for regular check-ups? But if you’re determined to stay healthy, it’s important to schedule check-ups and consultations with your physician on a regular basis.

Personally, I go to my ‘girlie doctor’ and primary care physician at least once a year. For fun, I usually throw in the dermatologist too!

During these sessions, you can discuss what preventive medicines you can take, your vaccination options, and even possible risk factors.

If you want to be on the safer side, there are some screenings and tests you can take to identify health problems early.

Preventive Care Tip 2: Educate Yourself

One key feature of preventative care is education. It’s much easier to stay healthy when you know more about how your body works. But how do you get a hold of this information?

The most obvious solution would be to ask your doctor, but you could also go online and look for authoritative sources. But don’t go overboard. We’ve all experienced typing in a few symptoms in Google and getting a few scary medical search results in return.

You could also get support in your neighborhood. Sometimes, your local community could be the perfect place to brush up on your health literacy.

Preventive Care Tip 3: Make Some Lifestyle Changes

If you haven’t already, you should take a look at how you’re eating, sleeping, and moving, and evaluate from there. No matter how busy you are, there is a myriad of ways you can adopt a healthy lifestyle.

I know how hard this can be though. After a few hours of work or playtime with the kids, it can be so easy to just plop on the couch, watch some TV, and snack on some chips and dessert. The key here is mindfulness. While you don’t always have to be so strict with your habits, it’s important to be aware of what you need to do to stay healthy.

So instead of going for that cookie, try to make a tasty and healthy snack. Instead of hitting the snooze button, get up and do a quick workout. Instead of jumping into bed after dinner, take a leisurely stroll around your neighborhood. Don’t spend hours sitting down in front of your laptop—invest in a standing desk.

All these small changes can have a big impact on your health!