As a professional in the business of health and wellness, the vast majority of your hours have been dedicated to the medical field. Medical school consisted of countless hours buried deep within textbooks and journals, your rotations consisted of time spent with patients to reduce their ails, and even today your attention likely continues to sway toward aiding others. But when do you set aside the time to tend to your own health and well-being?

Like the accountant who hates to do his or her own taxes, monitoring your own health can seem like a daunting task without the overtime pay. However, it is vital to recognize the importance of ensuring your own well-being. Without your guidance, many of the people you care for would not be able to receive the assistance they need. Maintaining your personal healthfulness doesn’t have to be a job either; it can be something as simple as making small changes to your daily habits that can have benefits that create a ripple effect throughout your lifetime.

This same realization came to Michelle Huie, founder and president of VIM & VIGR, when she moved to Missoula, Montana, from New York City. She found herself sitting for long periods of time at her new job as a pharmaceutical rep, leaving her with achy, sore legs and new questions about her own health. When she mentioned her new sedentary situation and accompanying discomfort to a physical therapist, he recommended she wear compression socks.

But Huie found that the compression industry swayed toward either athletic gear or socks geared around medical use and was unable to find any type of compression legwear that she could seamlessly incorporate into her daily lifestyle. Thus, VIM & VIGR was born as a high-quality compression legwear line with stylish designs to be worn all day, any day.

It was important to Huie to create a line of compression legwear that was not a “prescription” or task on her to-do list that she needed to remember to fulfill each day, but would still alleviate the real and painful symptoms of poor circulation. Thus, she built VIM & VIGR and the innovative compression designs as an easy way to be proactive about your health without completely changing your lifestyle.

Huie partnered with vascular surgeons and vein specialists, and has each VIM & VIGR product listed with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ensure the medical benefits of VIM & VIGR’s compression wear are as advanced as possible. VIM & VIGR utilizes integrally knit graduated compression so that each product energizes the legs by increasing the circulation of freshly oxygenated blood. VIM & VIGR’s high-quality compression legwear offers two levels of compression: 15-20 mmHg (millimeter per mercury) and 20-30 mmHg, which is a firm compression level that provides extra support if needed.

Combining advanced technology and fashionable designs, VIM & VIGR’s compression line gives people a simple way to be proactive with their health without disrupting their current lifestyle. These innovative knee-high compression socks, leg sleeves and tights help prevent swelling, alleviate achiness and heaviness, reduce and prevent spider and varicose veins, and aid in muscle recovery to allow people to put their best foot forward.

By maximizing their health and energy levels with compression socks, busy moms, nurses, office workers, travelers, and your everyday athlete improve their quality of life with less leg pain and tiredness after long days standing or sitting simply by getting dressed. This would be a wonderful suggestion for your patients, but more so an easy way for you as a medical professional to care for your own wellbeing without consuming more of your precious time.

To make sure you are always performing at your best, here is a list of five simple tips to staying healthy that you can incorporate without completely changing your lifestyle:

1. Energize your legs. If you spend most of the day on your feet, it’s easy to rationalize resting your tired legs by spending most of the evening on your couch. However, wearing compression legwear during the workday will keep your blood flowing and your legs energized, ensuring you’re able to spend your after work hours more productively. VIM & VIGR’s line of compression legwear is available in four fabric collections, including wool, cotton, nylon, and moisture-wick nylon. They also come in a range of designs and wide calf availability, making them as versatile for season as they are for body type. Prices range from $32.95 – $34.95 MSRP. VIM & VIGR also offers unisex moisture-wick nylon compression leg sleeves retailing for $24.95 MSRP and compression tights in solid opaque and argyle semi-opaque retailing for $49.95 MSRP.
2. BYO lunch. Packing your own lunch allows you to balance the nutritional content of your meal and gives you control over the portion sizes. This is something on every patient’s self-care flyer but not always top-of-mind when you have only 30 minutes before your next appointment and the fastest meal option is a burger from next door. Bringing your own meal is less expensive than eating out and allows you to save time by avoiding the lunch crowd.
3. Schedule your sleep time. According to the National Sleep Foundation, man is the only mammal that willingly delays sleep, which just so happens to be as important as diet and exercise in terms of healthiness. As a physician, working long hours can easily lead to fatigue or burnout. In order to ensure you’re achieving your optimal sleep time, typically 7-9 hours, determine when you should fall asleep and when you should wake up to get the amount of sleep you function best with. Treat it like an appointment with one of your VIP patients that you cannot break—you’ll notice the difference in your energy and innovative thinking fairly quickly.
4. Incorporate yoga/stretching into your downtime. When you have a moment to catch your breath during your busy day, take the time to meditate or do a few simple yoga moves to keep your blood circulating. Yoga pulls your focus to your breath and helps you be mindful of the moment rather than the hectic day ahead of you.
5. Get creative with your water intake. We all know that water is a crucial component to living a healthy life. If drinking eight, 8-ounce glasses of water per day ever gets to be a bit bland, try infusing the water with fresh fruits and herbs. Remember, maintaining your health doesn’t have to be a bore. These supercharged waters are a great way to stay hydrated, while also gaining additional vitamins and minerals that will only help improve your health in the long run.

Overall, the important thing is to find what works best for you and your lifestyle. Joining the popular health and fitness fad at the moment will not be sustainable for everyone, but finding easy ways to incorporate healthier habits into our schedules is something we should all have a daily prescription for.