IN a few days, we will be celebrating the New Year. There is something about the New Year that is exciting; it’s the sense of starting  a new page.
I have noticed though that, celebrations are mostly on the day before and on the day itself, but not after. In that sense, January is very similar to Monday; it is the time no one really likes.
You will notice how subdued people are on Mondays, compared to how vibrant they seem to be on Fridays.
So, New Year’s Day is the only one in January that is liked. The rest of the month is no fun at all, it is way too long.
That is when the bills start rolling in, just at the wrong time. After the fervent celebrations, the partying over Christmas and New Year has depleted the bank account, and then the bills come in thick and fast.
For most people, January is when they get into debts and survive on borrowing.
It is often the time, when school fees are due, house rentals, car insurance bills, road tax bills, on and on. Many people promise to plan better the next year, so that they don’t get so stressed out and into so many debts.
Often in all the excitement and challenges that follow January, we do not have enough time to raise our head above all the problems and plan for the year. Even among those of us that are organised enough to plan or make resolutions, probably none of us will plan for our health or that of our family for the year.
The reasoning probably is that, if we take care of our finances then that will take care of our health needs.
It is clear that those who plan for health live longer and have more financial success.
So let us think about planning for our health so that we can live longer and be more financially successful.
1. How can I plan for better health for 2016?
2. What health risk may I face in 2016?
3. How can I reduce my health risk in 2016?

1. How can I plan for better health in 2016?
There are many ways to do it. Probably the best is to set some simple measurable health targets. If you say simply I resolve to be healthier this year, you will not know if you will have achieved your targets or not. You need one figure that will give a numerical assessment of health.
The Body Mass Index (BMI) does this for you. You just need to measure your weight in Kilogrammes and divided that by your height in metres squared (multiply your height by itself).
If the figure or ratio you get is between 18 and 25, then you are healthy. If not , like most of us, you have got some work to do. If your BMI says 36, your target could be to reduce it to 32 or so, by the end of the year.
If perhaps all the calculations are a bit stressful and you have no liking for numbers, then alternatively, you can measure your waist and use this as a target. For men, it should be below 100 cm and for women it should be below 90cm.
Measure the line just above the waist line, with an ordinary measuring tape. For instance, if you measure 110cm, you may set your target as a reduction of 2cm to 108 if you are a man or, 88cm if you are a woman by the end of 2016.
Make your goals SMART. That is simple, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound. This will be familiar language to many in the business circles.
This will encourage you to keep your resolutions. It has been shown that the amount of fat you have around your waist is a sensitive measure of your health risks, particularly for diseases of lifestyle, such as diabetes (Sugar Disease), hypertension (BP), kidney disease and cancer.
First, what are some specific things you can resolve to do this year which can help you reduce that waist line? The following are a couple of suggestions:
I.  Exercise.
Exercise daily for at least 15 minutes. Simple exercises, like brisk walking, every evening are easy to do. Try walking in your street every evening. For the exercise to be effective, you must walk fast enough that your pulse is over 100 beats per minute or you become slightly out of breath. I would discourage running. It wears out the joints.
II. Diet.
Reduce the amount of carbohydrates that you take. That means bread, cakes, rice, potatoes and nshima. Take more vegetables, fruits and lean meat.
Eat good fats only. This means fats from plants. Eat a lot of fish. Roast or grill most of your food.
III. Habits.
Smoking and drinking: If you smoke, reduce the number of cigarettes you take. Minimise alcohol intake and take no more than one glass of wine or bottle of beer per day.
Sexual habits; abstain, be faithful, use a condom and be circumcised.
IV. Supplements.
If you are over 40 years old, take low dose aspirin 75mg tablets once daily. Take one tablet of Omega 3 fats daily. These are good fats and will clean your blood vessels and keep blood flowing smoothly through the body. This will keep you both young and healthy.
Secondly, what health risks may I face in 2016?
If you are very observant you will have noticed that, one of the biggest areas of development in Zambia, has been the shopping malls.
There are shopping malls coming up all over the place.
What does this mean?
Well, Zambia has been reclassified from a low income to a middle income country. This means we are moving to more Western lifestyles, and are at an increased risk of developing the diseases of lifestyle.
When I was a young doctor back in the 1990s, it was unheard of to have an indigenous Zambian patient come into hospital with a heart attack or a stroke.
Over the last two decades, there has been an increase in the volume of people coming in to hospital with these illnesses. This is due to the changes in our eating habits, drinking, smoking and other life style changes.
You need only look at the number of cars on the road to see, that we are walking much less than we used to a couple of years ago.
In addition, we are still faced with the diseases of developing countries, diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and HIV infections are still very prevalent in Zambia.
Therefore, we are all doubly at risk, both from our own diseases and the disease we are importing along with the shopping malls we are building.
In addition, we are all getting older. We are living longer than we used to. So this means we are more prone to diseases of ageing as well, such as cancers, high blood pressure, kidney disease, diabetes, joint diseases and so on.
Of course there is also the increase in industries around us, the number of mining activities and mining towns have increased remarkably over the last ten years.
This means that the level of environmental pollution has also increased along with it, the risk of occupational and environmental diseases.
You need only take a critical look at our rivers and streams.
Take a look at the Kafue River in Kafue, or the Kafubu River in Ndola, and you will see that these rivers are getting choked by weeds. These are all signs of the amount of pollutant effluent that is being deposited into these rivers.
Metaphorically symbolic of how our own health is being choked by the environmental pollutants around us. So our health risks in 2016, will come from our life style and habits, as well as the infections and environmental pollution around us.
Thirdly, how can I reduce my health risk for 2016?
There is nothing as persuasive as misfortune.
A couple of years ago, a friend of mine had the misfortune to take care of his father who had suffered a stroke. When he recounts the events you feel the experience with him.
His voice quivers with emotion when he describes lifting his father, feeding him and nursing
him. His father lived for a couple of years unable to walk or talk. He promised himself that he should never burden his children with such an experience. The result is that, he requires very little convincing when it comes to making healthy choices.
He takes regular supplements, exercises daily, eats healthy and leads scheduled family exercises
weekly. His attitude towards health was completely changed by the experience.
Some of the many other resolutions we make are a question of choice and preference. However the health resolutions are a matter of life and death.
There are two things that can help us with our determination to be healthier and these are a change of attitude and a change of life style. Our attitude to life is often tainted by our experience of life.
Many of us when we are young and deceived by the energy, enthusiasm and the apparent invincibility of youth. We have a go at life with a vengeance to enjoy the best that life can offer, however as the years go on, life bites back.
The enthusiasm of youth is overtaken by the sobriety brought by loss, the sorrow of misfortune and the scars of life. If we are fortunate we are tempered by these experiences and become cautious in our affairs.
If we are lucky, we learn early the virtue of having a positive attitude towards our health.
Women fare better because nature brings them to this conclusion much earlier than men, perhaps because of this, they generally tend to live longer.
If we chose to do one health activity a day that will be a start. It may be as simple as climbing the stairs at your office once a day or eating some fruits for lunch.
Decide this year to do one healthy thing each day and you will become healthier at the end of the year.