2017 Monthly Goal Check In: March

Well, I skipped doing a monthly goal check in last month because of my health scare. No news to report there, but tomorrow I finally have my appointment with the neurologist to piece together all my wonky test results… so tomorrow’s basically judgment day! I’ll let you know what I find out. In the meantime, how about I get back on track with a progress check in on my 2017 goals?

My morning routine is still going strong, and I haven’t missed a day yet! (Though there have been a few days where, due to whatever city I was in / being out of habit, I forgot to do my exercises until later in the day.) For the month of March, I did 10 plyo pushups (trying to work up to hand clapping pushups), but oddly enough I found that it built less strength than when I was doing one-legged pushups… so I’m going back to that for April. I’m still doing 20 lunges and 30 plank leg lifts, though, and the whole routine of all three of those takes only about 90 seconds – so there’s no excuse to skip it. I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by how my core strength has improved this year, with just this one little routine to mix things up! Small changes for the win.

Walking for five minutes every night has also been an easy habit to keep. I generally just march in place while I’m flossing, brushing my teeth, washing my face, and getting ready for bed. Marching in place while washing my face isn’t the easiest, but it’s doable, and my whole bedtime routine is about 5-6 minutes so I still get enough walking even if I have to take a break for a few seconds. This has become completely habitual – no matter where in the country I’m sleeping, I’m used to setting a timer and doing my steps before bed. I like this routine and definitely recommend it too! It’s an easy way to get a few more steps in for the day.

My goal to read 100 books got a little bit waylaid thanks to Tim Ferriss’ Tools of Titans, which is a long and rambling book that took me forever to finish. I kept either not reading at all, or putting it down and picking up other stuff instead! But I finally finished reading it on Saturday, so now it’s on to more captivating books. I am devouring Eric Ripert’s 32 Yolks right now, and when I finish that tonight, I’ll be three books ahead of schedule for the year with 28 total completed. Woo hoo!

Next goal: ski 10 days this season. I took a fabulous trip to Steamboat Springs with friends a few weeks ago, and that brought me up to eight days so far… so just two more to go! I’m hoping to get another one in within the next week or so, but not sure if I’ll hit #10 or not. And I’m not totally sure I care, either! I’m still trying to decide on a pass for next year, given that my move to Colorado still hasn’t turned into a snow bunny who wants to go up to the mountains every weekend. There’s too much to do right in town!

Volunteering twice a month is a goal that I didn’t meet for March (I only volunteered once), but I’m hoping to make up for that in April. The last week of the month, I had one volunteer shift cleaning up a town park get canceled a few hours before, and with my travel/work schedule the last few days of the month, I just wasn’t able to make something else happen. Yesterday, though, I interviewed for a neat volunteer position as a living history demonstrator with Boulder County Parks & Open Space, and I found out today that I was accepted to the program! I’m pretty excited about that opportunity, though it won’t kick off with training till May. In the meantime, I’m trying to get some shifts in at Denver Rescue Mission, which is currently my favorite place to volunteer.

Finally, I’ve been having a lot of fun cooking more and sharing my results on Instagram. (You can follow me here.) The Instagram Stories feature has been a great way for me to share banal things like each meal I cook, or more personal thoughts and jokes that I don’t necessarily want sticking around forever. Of course anyone can see it, or could screenshot things, so it’s not like I’m sharing anything actually inappropriate… but I feel more comfortable sharing some of the more quotidian things on there without judgment.

On the subject of sharing: I came across a fascinating article in the New York Times today, Whom Do You Tell When You’re Sick? Give it a read, but the gist is that people have varying desires for privacy when they’re sick – some want to tell not a soul, and some post on social media (like I do). With the brain issues I’ve been trying to get diagnosed, not only have people been incredibly supportive, but I’ve learned a lot from various connections. My friend Laura introduced me to a friend of hers who suffered two strokes and no one believed her because she was young and healthy, and she’s been kind enough to email back and forth with me and help me figure out what things to research and what questions to ask my doctors. And one of my friends in New York is engaged to a neurologist, and he even got on the phone with me to discuss! On a variety of fronts, I’m realizing that one of my personal values is transparency, and hoping that sharing what I’m going through, the good and the bad, will not only help me find answers but may also help others going through something similar.

So with that…. bedtime before my neurology appointment tomorrow! I’m trying to be upbeat but am honestly pretty nervous about this one based on the abnormal EEG results I got back. From what Dr. Google can tell me, “sharp waves in the parieto-occipital region” aren’t a good thing… but we’ll see what the actual doctor has to say. Fingers crossed!