Blood Pressure and Smart Goals

Who hasn’t heard the phrase “Don’t bite off more than you can chew?” I know it’s been a staple in my vernac­ular for as long as I can remember. If you’ve ever visit­ed me in clinic, you have likely heard me talk about set­ting small goals to achieve big results. I love having these conversations with patients because it takes a big idea and makes it tangible, and dare I say, easy.

If the thought of sitting down and writing or designing structured goals makes you cringe, read on! Goals don’t have to be scary; they don’t even have to be big, but they should always be SMART.

SMART goals take your big ideas and structure them into an organized form that makes them palatable. So, let’s set you up for success with a quick tutorial on SMART goal setting.

S = SPECIFIC: This is an easy first step. What is the goal you want to achieve?

M = MEASURABLE: How can you track your progress toward hitting your goal?

A = ATTAINABLE: If it isn’t attainable, why do it? Make it attainable to make it successful!

R = RELEVANT: How will achieving this goal help you in your life journey?

T = TIMELY: When do you want/need to achieve your desired result?

Sticking to this structure really does make it simple and easy to follow when building your own health and wellness goals. Now let’s put this into practice.

Let’s say you come into my office for elevated blood pressure (BP). Your BP in the office is 157 /84 and while we aren’t ready to jump to a diag­
nosis of hypertension, it needs some attention.
We know that a stable BP of 130/80 reduces
all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, so yes,
it’s an important part of your health journey. Together, we decide to work on some life­
style changes before we jump on the BP
med bandwagon. So, let’s put SMART
into practice:

S: My goal is to get my systolic (top number) blood pres­sure down to 130 and my diastolic (bottom number) down to 80.

M: I will track my progress by taking my blood pressure at home everyday at 10AM and write it down in my blood pressure journal to review with my provider at my fol­low-up visit.

A: I will achieve my goal by doing the following:

1. I will replace table salt with fresh lime when cooking my meals.
2. I will reduce my wine intake to one four ounce pour two nights each week.
3. I will take a 30-minute evening walk each night after dinner (when it cools off).
4. I will reduce my caffeine consumption to one bever­age daily.

R: This goal helps me because it will minimize the number of medications I have to take each day, reduce my cardio­vascular event risk, and I will feel amazing!!

T: I will complete and achieve this goal by my sister’s wed­ding on November 19th (choosing an occasion that is tied to a specific date can be more motivating than just picking a random date).

See how easy that is? The beauty of these goals is that you can customize them to your specific needs. You can take goals that seem HUGE and break them off into bite-sized goals that are realistic and manageable in your day-to-day life. Never underestimate the power of small goals. Each
step adds up to one huge victory! Your health and well­ness journey is a race not a sprint, so lace up those sneakers and get ready to succeed, I’ll be right behind you cheering you to the finish line!!!