What is Your 2024 Health Goal?

Bring in the New Year with a renewed commitment to achieving a health goal. Start with small strides and keep building to attain your goal. Common goals are exercise, daily stretching, smoking cessation and weight loss. Other important goals can be mind-body-spirit related — such as meditation, yoga, consciously reducing stress, daily gratitude, journaling and mental fitness.

Weight-loss goals can be frustrating. If you need some help, consider the Medical Center’s FitMed Weight & Lifestyle Management Program. This program can help you achieve your goals of permanent weight loss. An individualized plan is developed that assists you in making those lifestyle changes with necessary tools that both keep you accountable at home and help you maintain that new “set point.”

People who struggle with weight have impaired metabolic pathways that cause a decrease in their basal metabolic rate. They often experience disordered sensations of hunger and diminished feelings of fullness. As a result, those who try to lose weight often experience challenging and overwhelming resistance and subsequent weight regain. This is due to the adaptations made by the body in an effort to return to a new, higher weight “set point.”

Daily or weekly exercise objectives are often sidelined by competing “to-do” priorities. The Medical Center’s Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine Department offers a solution to this challenge by assisting you in establishing a well-organized exercise routine. Our team of skilled therapists is dedicated to collaborating with you to enhance muscle strength and improve overall balance. Recognizing that falls pose a significant risk — particularly for individuals aged 65 and above — our program aims to reduce this leading cause of injury through targeted interventions and tailored exercise regimens.

Mark your calendar for the first lecture in the 2024 Medical Center Lecture Series, when Cleveland Clinic will present “Atrial Fibrillation: Implications and Therapeutic Options” on the evening of Jan. 9.