8 of the Best Things I Did for My Health in 2018

First Monday of 2019! Do you think it sets the tone for all Mondays? If so I hope you have an AMAZING day. I feel like a good January is such a great way to set the tone for a positive year, so I wanted to share a few things I did for my health in 2018 that you may want to incorporate into your New Year, New Me mood.

All of these things definitely changed my life for the better in 2018 and we’re (mostly) easy changes.

My word for the year last year was Wellness and I really feel that it was the theme of my life. I found out so much about my health in 2018 and researched so much, it really was such a year of change and better well being. I hope even one of these little changes could make a huge difference in your life and help you feel better, be better.

Some of these may not be specific to your exact health situation but it may be helpful for whatever you have going on in your life! I think the most important lesson or thing I did was taking charge of my health, finding a doctor who would listen to me and learning my body.

Things I did for my Health in 2018: 

1. Get a full blood panel done in January. I talked about doing this for a while but I think I was anxious about what the results may be. In January, I stop putting it off and went to my OBGYN for a full blood panel. It was one of the best things I did and the start of my bettering myself. I learned my Vitamin D was so low that I needed to be on prescription Vitamin D pills. I also learned a few other things that I will share below.
2. Finding out that I had PCOS. I also learned I had a form of insulin resistant PCOS. I wrote a little bit about it here. Learning I had PCOS was definitely the catalyst of my year and why I set out on a journey of wellness. I learned so, SO much about my body. Why I thought I was being healthy but actually wasn’t due to the way my body digests sugars and certain items. Accepted the fact I needed medicine (something I’ve always been hesitant to take). I’ve gotten a lot of questions over the year about what medicines I now take and although most are prescription I thought it would be helpful to share here to refer back to if you feel you may be in the same boat as me. 
3. Accept I need medicine along with a lifestyle change. I’ve always been weird about taking medicine unless it was 100% necessary. Since I have lived my whole life without taking medicine for PCOS, I thought why now? But I finally decided to try it. In February, I began taking Metformin (which helps with your insulin resistance), Ovasitol (this helps with hormone imbalances and I even have friends who don’t have PCOS who take this!), I also take Ritual daily vitamins (these are made for women and INCREDIBLE daily vitamins. They have 9 essential vitamins for women, are all natural and delivered to your house. I could do an entire post on these great & minty vitamins.) 
4. Learning about Keto & trying Keto, Kinda. I’m not a huge fan of the keto diet. I think it encourages a lot of processed foods and isn’t sustainable long term. Am I happy I tried it? 10000% YES! I think it really taught me a lot about my diet, helped me realize I was eating so many hidden carbs and sugars, helped me break my sweet tooth and more. I wrote a post about my experience with keto here. We’ve been doing Whole 30 and honestly, I don’t think it’s that hard minus the no alcohol part. I think we feel this way because keto changed our diets so much.  A few of the biggest benefits I saw from doing keto: I think it helped me get closer to my goal weight, I no longer need coffee creamer and enjoy black coffee and I found so many ways to manage my sweet tooth. 
5. Finding a work out plan that works for me. In March, I was a couple months into my medicine and had was starting to feel myself again. I began BBG and started seeing results. I’ve written a few posts about it here. I love BBG because it’s 3, 28-minute workouts each week for 12 weeks. They are not easy but they are easy enough that I can get them done yet I’m ALWAYS sore. They can be done at home or at a gym and go well with running a couple times a week (which I enjoy doing). I just started my second round of BBG last week! 
6. Learning balance. I learned a lot of balance in 2018. In the past, I’ve always gone very extreme and get burnt out. Which led to me spiraling down a carb-filled binge. This past year, I really try to learn balance and I think it worked. I shared 10 small ways I made myself healthier in this post. 
7. Loving my skin again! One thing that came along with my health journey was learning how to care for my skin. I need to write an updated skin post but the basics are still the same as it was in this post. 
8. Being selfish. The most important lesson I learned this year was being selfish. I am definitely a people pleaser and have a hard time saying no, but sometimes it is much needed. I realized I can’t be my best and help others if I’m not helping myself first. It’s like ‘Put your own safety mask on first before helping others.’. I learned to say No more, choose myself first and know what my body needs and when it needs rest. I have a lot more downtime now and I really enjoy it. 

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What are some ways you’re working on your health this year? I’m still keeping everything on my list above but we’re currently doing Whole 30, I’m trying celery juice (post on this soon!) and round two of BBG. You already know I will keep you in the loop on everything ha! Be sure to follow along on Instagram (@RileySitton) and let me know if you try any of these healthy changes. XO