Tracking your wellness habits can be difficult, especially when there’s 12 of them! So I’ve devised a habit tracker for blood pressure control to help you stay organized!

With the 12 wellness habits I formed in 2021 to lower my blood pressure, there’s a lot going on. I used the rule of three a lot. So most of those habits were implemented three days a week. Multiply that by twelve, carry the 1, contemplate the Discrete Math class I had to take in college, and … it’s a lot.

By the end of the year, I decided I needed a system to easily incorporate these things into my life. In a sustainable way. Because if it’s not easy, I’m not going to keep doing it. So I needed to make this as simple as possible. For my own sanity. 

So I created my own habit tracker.

I’ve used habit trackers in the past. I love the method of physically checking things off or filling in a box. So I created my own tracker at the end of last year to help me stay on track. I printed this out to put in my planner and have been using it since. But along the way, I’ve come up with improvements to make the tracker better and easier to use. I’ve implemented those changes in the tracker PDF.

Refocusing on Wellness Habits

Each habit is highlighted in red in the month that habit is emphasized. Let me explain.

In 2021, I created these habits. So in January of that year, all I focused on was creating the habit of practicing yoga three times per week. None of these other habits existed in my life yet. In February, I cut sugar out of my diet and I also continued to practice yoga three times per week.

So this  year, the plan is to refocus on those habits each month to make sure that I continue to solidify them in my life. 

I didn’t actually refocus on yoga in January. Excuses forthcoming: I was busy putting this YouTube channel together and getting my novel ready to send to agents, and you know – life. However, I did track some other things, which are easier things to implement in my life. But I didn’t focus on the one goal I needed to focus on. And as a result, my blood pressure increased. 

In February, I focused more on cutting sugar out of our lives. But again I didn’t go hard on that either. And again, my blood pressure increased.

Now, a couple caveats there. I had some issues with my blood pressure monitor in January and February and had to order a new one from the VA. And that took some time to arrive. Normally I take three blood pressure readings every Monday morning. That way, for each month I have at least four weeks of readings I can average. That helps to get a more accurate sense of what is going on in my veins.

Because tracking became difficult in these two months, I fell out of the habit of taking my blood pressure readings every week so the readings I have for January and February are just one reading per month. So I don’t consider those as accurate, because there’s less data to average in that time frame and because the data itself might be questionable given the quality assurance issues I was having with the monitor. 

But the data I do have indicated an increase in my blood pressure. Now, this increase was not horrible, I’m still well below where I was in 2019, before starting this program. But it’s important to note that at least.

Sugar Increases My Heart Rate

One thing I will say that’s interesting is after focusing again on eliminating sugar from my diet in February, my heart rate again fell notably, which aligns with the results I saw in February 2021 when I first cut out sugar out of my diet.

So there might actually be a correlation there, between my heart rate and my sugar intake. I couldn’t verify this with scientific studies, but a 2015 by Penn State points to a correlation between an elevated heart rate and an increased risk for diabetes. So, that’s interesting too.

I’ve broken down my habit tracker into the weeks of the year. I’ve also added a section to record your blood pressure. I do this once a week, Monday morning, before I do anything else, before I make coffee, before I even walk down the stairs, I take my blood pressure reading. I take three readings and average those together. And that is the reading I record. What I do actually is take a picture of the readings with my phone and then when I get to my computer I average those out and record the reading in a google spreadsheet. But it occurred to me that it might be nice to have the visual on the tracker as well. Just so you can see your progress in real time.

So let’s go through these habit by habit.

In January, the goal is to practice yoga three times per week. That’s highlighted in red here so I know that is the habit I’m meant to focus on. But at the same time, I’m trying to work all these other things into my life. But the main goal is to make sure the highlighted goal is accomplished. We all need something to shoot for right? And it’s great to have these small goals.

In February, we’re cutting out sugar, so I don’t have a tracker for that. But I’ll link to my Surviving without Sugar post so you can get involved in that if you’d like to.

In March we’re focusing on meditating. So, this week, as you can see, I’ve managed to meditate three times. If you recall from my habits videos, this is a hard one for me because taking a minute – or ten minutes – to turn off my brain is difficult. But that’s exactly why it’s important to practice this in my life.

The Importance of Refocusing on Habits

This week, when I refocused on this goal, I remembered what it felt like last year when i first started meditating. It is really so relaxing. I used the Harmony app this week (not sponsored) and what I like about it is the hypnosis piece that comes with it. I think because I have such a hard time with it, this extra piece helps me to actually get deep into the meditation. To sink into it.

In fact, all of the meditations on the Harmony app have a “with wake-up” version and a “without wake-up” version, because sometimes you go into the hypnosis/meditative state and you fall asleep. I never use the “with wake-up” version, even if it’s in the middle of the workday because my problem is not coming out of the meditation, my problem is getting into the meditation. And I feel like if my body need that five minute nap, I am not going to deny her. And when this happens, I’m so refreshed afterwards. It’s such a good, restful feeling.

And I somehow forgot about that over the past year. Because I’ve done mediations, but I haven’t really been forcing myself into it. This week, whether I thought I had time or not, I focused on making time for these meditations. And I’m so glad I did. It was much needed.

In June, mid-way through the process, we take a break. So, nothing is highlighted for June.

I also want to point out that I’ve added B6 to the Magnesium habit. I’ll link to a study below that points out that adding B6 to your Magnesium supplementation makes the magnesium more bio-available. Which is just a fancy way of saying your body absorbs it better, so it doesn’t flush out of your system as quickly, and you’re able to enjoy the benefits of the magnesium more readily. 

I generally take magnesium and b6 and/or potassium before bed at night, so that has become an easy habit to implement, which is why you see I’ve been able to do those pretty easily throughout the first two months of the year.