Health and Wellness

Better Physical and Mental Health for a New Year

Read Time

9 Minutes

Written by

Team Curative

Published

Jan 10, 2025

The new year is a time for a new start, but change can happen at any time of the year. Getting healthier is a worthy goal; you can take preventive measures to support your physical and mental health outcomes. Your health journey is yours to create and is unique to you. Here are tips to help you map out what better health looks like for you.

Part 1: Tend to your physical health

Good habits to support physical health make a noticeable difference in quality of life in the long and short term. Consider regular exercise, a healthy

diet, and breaking bad habits as you start your journey toward better physical health this year. Here’s how.

Get regular exercise

Start by walking 20 minutes daily, every day, for one week, and watch for a change in how you feel. Regular physical activity is an essential part of preventive care. Exercise can help promote a longer life. But it also allows you to experience day-to-day benefits, including higher energy levels, better sleep, and even better moods. Experts suggest that physical activity and exercise can help you better manage and even avoid common health conditions, including:

Stroke
Metabolic syndrome
High blood pressure
Type 2 diabetes
Depression
Anxiety
Many types of cancer
Arthritis
Falls

The best ways to fit physical exercise into your life depend on your present state of health, range of ability, and current daily activity levels. What staying active means will change as your health needs change and as you age.

In the meantime, it’s always a good idea to start with where you are right now and to consider what exercise activities are the most fun for you. While walking daily for a week is a great place to start, think about activities you love and add them to your monthly exercise plan.

Do you like to dance? Join a class.
Do you like to be in the water? Visit the local community pool regularly.
Do you like to explore nature? The hiking trails and greenspaces in your area await you.
Do you love playing team sports? Joining a local league.

Starting with the fun factor to fit exercise into your daily life helps to make it a habit. No gym membership is required. Injecting a little fun in your life while you build up your strength and endurance over time is a great long-term strategy, too.

Experts point out that as you age, you will experience a reduction in muscle mass and a decrease in overall strength. Active preventive care, like resistance training, works against that and can also help you protect your joints and bones and maintain better overall coordination and balance. Preventive care reduces the chances of falls when you get older.

Eat a healthy diet

Good nutrition provides the fuel you need to become stronger and more energetic. Among many other benefits of a healthier diet, one of the biggest is better heart health. High-fiber diets help improve blood cholesterol levels and lower the risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.

Some of the dietary strategies that help promote better heart health include:

Include fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in your daily diet
Replace red meat with fish, poultry, beans, nuts, and other protein sources
Decrease salt. Specifically, restrict sodium intake to 2300 mg per day and, ideally, 1500 mg daily
Add foods high in potassium, magnesium, and calcium

Break unhealthy routines and habits

Getting healthier means examining your daily habits more closely. From there, you can take preventive care measures to adjust, alter, or remove them completely if necessary. Some counterproductive or even harmful habits to good health include:

Smoking
Sitting – more than eight hours per day is considered sedentary. Ideally, sit for fewer than four hours per day.
Skipping regular check-ups
Avoiding self-care, like a proper sleep routine
Being in a rut without new cognitive challenges

You might not think about these habits very often. But sometimes, they’re the hardest to break. Being aware of them is a good first step. Taking action is the right second step.

Get sufficient sleep

Too little sleep negatively affects your health and overall quality of life. High stress levels, dietary factors, smoking, and excessive alcohol consumption are among the reasons for poor sleeping patterns. Regular exercise and a better diet will help. Here are some other ways to get a consistently good night’s sleep:

Be predictable. Make going to sleep a ritual. Take a bath. Read a calming book. Listen to a bedtime playlist. Do anything repeatable, predictable, and consistent that only happens at bedtime to tell your brain it’s time to visit dreamland.
Be time-sensitive. Go to bed at the same time every night and set an alarm to wake up at the same time in the morning.
Be exclusive. Reserve your bedroom for sleep. If you take naps, make them short so that you build up your “sleep debt” without paying too much of it off during the day.
Be un-caffeinated. Limit your caffeine intake to two servings daily, and make noon the cutoff point.

Minimize substance use

Drinking in moderation can be a part of a healthy lifestyle. Experts define moderation as one drink or less per day for women and two drinks or less for men. But alcohol and other substances often go along with counterproductive habits to good health. Compounding multiple harmful habits can affect you in increasingly serious ways later in life.

Awareness of your intake and reducing or eliminating it is a cornerstone of preventive care. Drinking less helps you to avoid illnesses, including liver and heart disease, stroke, digestive problems, and a weaker immune system. Minimizing alcohol also has positive mental health effects that help you avoid the worst of the negative ones that excessive drinking can lead to, such as withdrawing from loved ones, risky behavior, and even self-harm.

young employee with positive mental health

Part 2: Tend to your mental health

Awareness of your habits and forming new and better ones helps you maintain a healthy body for life. Self-awareness also benefits mental well-being. Here are some key mental health practices to consider.

Pay attention.

Being mindful is all about experiencing and appreciating your life right where you are in the moment. This mantra isn’t just philosophical. It can be a form of therapy. Studies suggest that mindfulness practices improve quality of life and can reduce mental health symptoms such as the effects of PTSD, eating disorders, and addiction.

Stay connected.

Human beings thrive when part of a supportive community. We don’t thrive when we are isolated. One study determined that good relationships are the key difference between very happy and less happy people. It also found a link between loneliness and high blood pressure and between being included in a strong community and a longer life span.

Set boundaries.

Setting boundaries is about showing others how to treat you by defining what’s most comfortable for you in situations and relationships. You get to say “yes” or “no” because it’s your right as a person seeking to live a healthier life. Protecting yourself this way helps you avoid negative physical and mental consequences regarding stress and burnout.

Curative promotes preventive care for members

Curative promotes the concept of overall wellness — that your physical well-being and your mental health are connected. Members can access $0 therapy from therapists, psychiatrists, and psychologists in the Provider Search. Members can also tap into remote therapy through our partnerships with Teladoc and Televero.*

Curative members are encouraged to complete a Baseline Visit every year. During the visit, members work with their Care Navigator to tailor an individualized, preventive care plan and identify areas of opportunity and potential problems from the plan's start. You also have the option of meeting with a Curative clinician during your visit. Although this clinician is not your PCP, your Care Navigator can help you find PCPs in your area or share information about Curative Primary Care if you live in a qualifying state.

The Baseline Visit is a judgment-free space where you can make accurate plans to pursue your health aspirations. With a focus on preventive health and access to robust support, this year is the year to improve your long-term health.

About Curative

Curative is a health plan employees love for its affordability, engagement, and simplicity. With $0 copays and deductibles, members can get the care they need when they need it without the financial burden. Imagine — a health plan that delivers better health without hurting your wallet.

Are you ready to find out more? Learn how Curative promotes preventive care for members.

Every Curative member can continue to qualify for the $0 deductible or copay for covered services from providers listed on Provider Search and preferred prescriptions by completing a Baseline Visit in the first 120 days of the plan’s effective date.

*Members in Texas and Florida can access virtual therapy through Televero, and all members outside of Texas can access virtual therapy through Teledoc.

To see all disclaimers, please view here.

Resources

“Exercise: 7 Benefits of Regular Physical Activity” (2023, August 26), https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/exercise/art-20048389

“Benefits of Physical Activity” (2024, April 24), https://www.cdc.gov/physical-activity-basics/benefits/index.html

Crichton-Stuart, C. (November 25, 2024) “What Are the Benefits of Eating Healthy: Heart Health Better Mood, and More”, https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322268

“Alcohol Use and Your Health” (n.d), https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/about-alcohol-use/index.html

“Mindfulness for Your Health” (June 2021), https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2021/06/mindfulness-your-health

“Connect with Others” (n.d), https://www.mhanational.org/connect-others