I tend to approach the new year that way, too. My overall goal for the year is to improve my health, and that starts with acting with intent (my word for the year). A lot of what I have been doing in the last few months is reactionary; I feel bad, so I do this, or this takes me by surprise, so I do that. This year, I'm trying to move more with intention and purpose, all in the effort to stop the worsening of my fibromyalgia or at least slow the progression of my disease.
To start, I have to be bluntly honest with myself: I am disabled, and I am worse in January 2019 than I was in 2018 or in 2016 when I went on medical leave. My average pain level has been creeping up so that, now, a six is a really good day, and good days don't come often enough. It is easy for me, after years of practice, to deny and ignore my pain levels, and while it's okay for me to do that for short periods to get something done, say, it isn't good for me to stay in that denial for long.
So, my annual overarching goal is simple: I need to either maintain or improve, even just a little. The time for researching and trying little changes (or even big changes for a month) is over. I know some of the things that work for me, and it is time to implement them with intention.
To do this, I've broken my objectives down into monthly units (see, teacher) that build on each other.
- January: Morning and evening routines.
- I have gotten into bad habits of not going to bed doing everything I should do to make sleep easier and better for me, and my morning routine is shot. This one has been difficult with worsening pain due to a flu shot1 right before Christmas, but I am improving and shall keep moving forward, day by day.
- February: Water.
- Over the fall, I stopped drinking as much water as I need, and while my kidney numbers in December were normal for the first time in ages (yayayayay!!!), I can tell that I'm not getting enough water for my kidney. So, my first objective is to see if my daily water intake goal is accurate (I'm thinking it might be low), and then my main objective for February is to drink enough water daily.
- March: Movement
- Starting in March, we hope, we will have a lot more to do in the yard and garden. I hope to have a seed propagation set-up going by then as well as the beginnings of the gardens. To be able to do that, I have to move (more than just the usual chores and walking at home) every day and get my body more willing to do the necessary garden work. That means daily yoga. While I've been trying to do this, I have not been doing it regularly with intention, so that's March's goal with the idea that I'll start working on it before then.
- April: Survive and Maintain Forward Progress
- To be honest, April is always a tough month for my fibro. I have an appointment with a neurologist then (regarding the flu shot thing), so there's that, but it's also about the weather. April is usually quite the rainy, stormy month here in Michigan, and that means pain.
- May: Diet and Lifestyle Check
- By May, I've often slipped into bad habits for me (due to rising pain levels from the weather), so May is for making sure I'm following my morning and evening routines, drinking enough water, moving with intention daily, and not hiding in denial. It's a month for solidifying good habits, not bad ones.
- June: Garden and Herbs
- I've dabbled in herbalism here and there over the years, but I've decided to get serious about it. I'm currently studying as much as I can, and while I'll start foraging for herbs before June, much of what I need for my stores either will need to be planted by June or start harvesting by then. I will also start drinking nettle tea daily to see if it helps with the pain, as some sources say it might.
- July: Lose weight
- My goal is to lose weight before July, but July is a good time to stop and evaluate what works and doesn't work for me. For years, I found that I had to take in fewer than 1300 calories per day in order to lose weight, but I think that number has changed. I track everything I eat, and by July, I should have enough solid data to re-evaluate my caloric intake goal and lose weight more effectively.
- August: Survive and Maintain
- August is another tough month for me. My asthma gets worse, the gardens need more work, the kids start getting busy again, and my husband always ends up working more hours. My hope is that I will have my new, better habits ingrained by then, but it will definitely be a test.
- September: Put Up All the Herbs and Veggies
- Most of my culinary herbs need to be put up in September, but that's hard due to kids back at school and such. My goal is to put up more this year and also put up all the medicinal herbs. Get the dried herbs into tinctures and oils, get the tomatoes canned, get it all done. In the last few years, I really haven't done enough here, so it's a major goal.
- October: Diet
- Before the holidays hit, I want to make sure that I'm eating my best diet so that it's a solid habit. I've already implemented monthly meal planning (works better for us than weekly, go figure), but I want to make sure that, by the end of October, I'm eating the most optimal diet for me.
- November and December: Survive and Maintain
- November is a rough month, weather-wise, here in Michigan, and then there's the extra stress of holidays and family whatever in December. My goal is to keep doing what I've found works every day and not to let any of my habits slip.
- At the end of December, I want to be able to figure out what helps me maintain my fibromyalgia levels and be able to point to solid changes that have worked.
These are my fibromyalgia goals. I also have monthly goals for my knitting and crafts and personal goals for my herbalism. The new templates in Evernote have been very helpful in this regard, and if you haven't checked those out, please do. Evernote is one of the ways I've been surviving all of this--quick place to write things down, good way to not lose anything important my fibro fog might forget.
Today is a snow day for the kids, but I have physical therapy for the flu shot thing. Time to implement my morning routine!
1 In December, I got a flu shot finally after much discussion with my doctor, and it was different from the injection on. I can taste injections and IV drugs, and this one tasted really odd for a flu shot with almost a floral taste in the back of my mouth instead of the rotten metallic egg taste. The day after the shot, I started having serious trouble walking and almost fell several times. My grip strength in my hands is worse, my arms are weaker, and my legs don't work right still. That said, I am slowly improving, but it's definitely been scary. Physical therapy seems to help a little, as do my own exercises at home. We'll see if I'm better by April or not.↩
