It’s MAY and it feels like this is going to be a big month for growth in the health and wellness realm for me. My main goal since I have moved back home from college has been to dig myself out of the pit of despair I fell into over the course of my last year or so of school. After four months I finally feel like I’m back up at ground level and I’m ready to keep moving forward. Here’s what we’re shooting for this month:
1. Consistent sleep routine
My psychiatrist (shout out Jamie) always asks me if I’m sleeping enough. And technically I am, but the way I’m getting it done is certainly falling short of being ideal. Currently, I’m falling asleep around 11, on average, and waking up between 7:30 and 8:30. Time-wise, this is not a problem. In terms of my schedule, this is highly problematic. I need to leave the house for work at 8:30, so waking up at that time is… not conducive to a calm and prepared start to my day. So the goal for May (which I was not able to accomplish today for the first day of this month, but that’s okay) is to have lights out at 10:00pm, and be awake and ready to face the day at 7:00am. I’m planning to accomplish this by changing my alarm to take my medicine to 9:00pm, and I will take my melatonin at that time too (on days that I take it). Bedtime, I have found, is difficult for me to change to an earlier time, but even more difficult is waking up in the morning. I may ask my mom to knock on my door to wake me up at the same time as my sister so I can be up at 6:30. We’ll see. I’ll keep you posted.
2. Some kind of movement every day
I have gone far too long without moving my body. I sit a lot at work, and with everything else I have been wanting to do with my free time, I haven’t given myself the opportunity to move my body in the ways that it needs. I haven’t been to the gym in months, nor do I feel quite ready to go back. Recently I have started walking again; in neighborhoods and at the lake. This weekend I’m planning to go to a yoga class. It feels so good to move, even just in lighter, low impact ways. One day I will get back into more intense exercise, but I also just got my bellybutton re-pierced, so I want to be mindful of that. But step by step, a little bit at a time, I will work up to more vigorous movement and I will become stronger and fitter and healthier.
3. Focus on whole foods
It’s reallyyyyyy easy to slack on eating nourishing foods. Processed and packaged foods are so much easier to grab and often taste a lot better than the alternative. I am not planning to restrict myself in any way (except that I’m planning to avoid buying coffee and donuts this month while I’m at work), but instead focusing on balancing my intake of nutrient dense and calorie dense foods. I have a huge sweet tooth and I won’t deny that, but the goal here is to place more of an emphasis on increasing the amount of truly nourishing foods that I’m consuming. This mainly comes into play in the morning and at night. When I wake up late, I don’t have time to make myself a hearty breakfast or coffee, so I’ll get a latte and a donut from next door, or I won’t eat anything at all, which is not working for me. Since I’ll be getting up earlier anyway, I’ll have time to make a real meal for myself. Today I had scrambled eggs and strawberries, which was still on the lighter side, but it was a good start. As a result of my eating habits early in the day, I could be doing better at night too. Because I didn’t eat enough early in the day, I end up eating far too much at the end of the day, which often looks like a big binge in my bed. No more of that. Snacks are surely allowed, but I will work to reach for whole foods first, like fruits and vegetables, or nuts, and I will portion out my snacks instead of bringing a whole sleeve of Ritz crackers upstairs with me.
I was going to try to come up with more goals for the month of May, but I think these are a solid Big 3 that will cause a lot of positive change for me this month. No sense getting caught up in a bunch of little things that don’t really matter when I could focus on the three things that matter most. I will post updates throughout the month to check in and share how these goals are going!!
Comments