This exercise asks you to do a careful assessment of your sleep, exercise, eating, and drinking patterns and honestly determine whether each component contributes positively to your physical well-being and fitness. If not, the second phase of this exercise is to establish a realistic change plan.

Part I: Taking Stock

Keep a health behavior log on a daily basis for 2 weeks to observe patterns in your health behaviors. Keep the diary under four headings:

• Sleep
• Exercise
• Eating
• Drinking (include use of legal and illegal drugs).

It is crucial that you be honest with yourself. Establish a time each day perhaps bedtime to record your health behavior for the day. Or, keep this data on your PDA, Blackberry, or laptop computer and make entries in real-time.

Sleep: record what time you went to sleep and what time you woke up, whether you slept soundly or had disturbed sleep, whether you experienced worrisome thoughts or nightmares, and how rested and calm you felt in the morning.

Exercise: record the type of exercise you engaged in, for how long, and how you felt physically and psychologically after exercising.

Eating: record both frequency and quantity of eating patterns, whether planned or impulsive; healthy vs. junk foods; and whether you enjoy the eating experience or feel negative or embarrassed about it. Eating is probably the hardest to record because by its nature eating is a more frequent behavior. Canadian health care mall

Alcohol and drugs: record your drinking and drug use. Be aware of the context— do you drink alone or socially? What are the internal or external factors that contribute to drinking too much? Is your drinking out of control? How do you feel at the time and after drinking?

Review your data with your partner or a trusted friend. What does this reveal about your physical well-being and sense of fitness? Of the four areas, which is the healthiest for you? Which is the most problematic?

If all four areas enhance your physical body and fitness, congratulations. What do you need to do in the coming years to maintain this level of physical well-being? Remaining physically fit is valuable in itself as well as contributing to a healthy sexual body.

Part II: Improving Your Health

If there are one or more areas that are problematic, how can you institute a change plan? We strongly suggest beginning the change process by scheduling a general physical examination with your medical doctor. A crucial sexual health strategy is to develop a comfortable doctor–patient relationship with a trusted physician. It’s easier to talk candidly, especially about sex, if your doctor is not a stranger. Show the physician your sleep, exercise, eating, and drinking log. The physician will probably do blood tests and other diagnostic procedures and be able to provide you with an objective evaluation of your physical health along with suggestions about health behaviors.

The next step is to change your problematic health habits. Be realistic. If problems are severe or chronic, a self-help approach will not be enough. You would be wise to seek interventions with a behavioral medicine specialist or a therapist with a mind–body approach. In utilizing cognitive and behavioral change strategies, use all the necessary resources you need to successfully address the problem and attain meaningful change. These can include your partner, friends, clergy, psychologist, books, or trusted Web sites.