Recovering from an injury can be a lengthy process. It’s not uncommon to face feelings of stress and anxiety during difficult times. However, there are ways to stay positive and keep up healthy recovery behavior as you move past a work injury. Here are a few tips for keeping your spirits up while your recover…
Healthy Recovery Behavior: Making Positive Changes
Balance your diet
Choosing the right things to eat is a major part of healthy recovery behavior. Eating the right foods will help you recover faster than eating poorly. You’ll want to try and eat foods that are rich in vitamins and protein. Vitamins (like A, B, C, and D) and other nutrients like calcium, zinc, and copper promote tissue growth and immune system strength.
Make sure you’re also eating enough food as well. As you’re recovering, you won’t need as many calories as when you were working. However, cutting your intake by too much can impede your recovery. Your body uses more energy during the early stages of injury for repairs, so make sure to still eat enough to help your body along.
Stick to the plan
After your injury, your doctor will help you come up with a treatment plan. Healthy recovery behavior means sticking to this plan even when you might want to take a day off. Stick to your physical therapy visits or at-home exercise routines. Putting them off will just make your recovery last longer than it should. Following their plan will help you recover quickly and properly.
Set recovery goals
Sometimes, it can feel like you’re stuck during your recovery. You’ll feel like you’re doing all the right things, but not seeing improvement. Writing down goals for your recovery is a good way to keep yourself motivated during your recovery. Setting realistic goals for yourself gives you something to work towards and will show you’re really making progress.
Get some rest
Being well-rested is another large part of healthy recovery behavior. Poor sleep can leave you fatigued and unfocused, causing you to not recover as well as you should be. You might be tempted to try and push yourself through your recovery, but that’ll do you more harm than good in the long run.
Keeping a positive mindset is the biggest thing when it comes to recovering from an injury. If your mind is in the right place, then you’ll recover faster than you might’ve originally expected.