I started thinking about the goals I wanted to set for myself earlier in the week, but wanted a little bit more time to think them through. I'm currently not feeling very healthy, so I wanted to make sure I could set some to help me feel better now and through the whole year. I wanted to take all of the pillars of health (as Betty Rocker calls them) into consideration. This was particularly important after the 2021 winter holidays - my sleep schedule went to crap, I wasn't very active, and I wasn't eating very well (Christmas is a season of excess, particularly when it comes to food). I also saw some things I need to change thanks to my earlier reflection on last year's goals.
Unfortunately, my work life really started to impact my home life as well this fall. We started working weekends on a 1 in 3 rotation, which left me with a three day weekend followed by a one day weekend, so that took a toll on me for healthy eating when you only have one day off between work weeks). So any goals I set have to take that into consideration as well since it will be continuing on through 2022.
I also got hurt a few times this year. I hurt my knees a few times at work, then in December I pulled a back muscle while shovelling (we got a lot of snow all at once and my back couldn't deal with all the weight). So anything I do has to take this into account as well (needing to be careful while also strengthening my body).
So with all of that preamble, here are my goals for 2022:
1. Lose (and keep off) 20lbs by the end of the year (be under 197lbs). My weight has remained relatively stable for many, many years. But it remains too high (using yesterday's weight, which was a bit higher than normal, my BMI is 31.2). And while I know my knee trouble was thanks to work, getting rid of some excess weight will help them, too. So in my opinion, this goal is worthwhile to pursue for my health. It also encompasses things like healthy eating (and staying away from goodies in the break room, a problem that has once again cropped up for me in the last few months) and exercise (muscle will burn more calories and fats).
I have some major obstacles in my way though. As someone with diabetes, when I lose weight, it throws everything out of whack - you need less insulin and need to figure out all the changes that go along with that. And while you're figuring things out, you're often going low, which means eating more calories. It's a really viscous cycle.
So I'm hoping that 20lbs is a reasonable rate for the year, slow enough to keep up with any insulin pump adjustments that are needed along the way. It would be a bonus to get my weight even lower than what I'm aiming for, but I think 20lbs is a reasonable and realistic goal for 2022.
I considered signing up for Noom to help me with this goal, but in the end decided not to. I already know what I need to do. And I don't want to be logging everything into an app along the way. I will check in with my diabetes care team and get support from them instead.
2. Work out for 150 minutes a week - including yoga/stretching/workout videos two times per week. 150 minutes a week of exercise is a good target to aim for. But my problem has been those weeks where I'm not walking to work every day. I'd also like to build in a yoga/stretching routine because I'm not very flexible and it's good for me. So I'm hoping to build a better fitness habit without overloading myself in terms of minutes per week. This will also hopefully help me fill in the gaps for those weeks where I'm working during the weekend and can't walk to work all five days (also weeks where there's a holiday). My biggest problem will be any time that I'm off work for a full week, so I'll need to come up with a better plan for that. But at this point I don't have any full weeks off until the summer, so I have time to put a plan in place for that.
3. Spend 1 hour every week on something I've been putting off. This one is for my mental health. I have piles of magazines I plan on reading "some day," and other projects I want to get to. It's impacting my mental health because that mental list of to-dos is always there in the background, taking up space. So I want to dedicate a little bit of time each week towards clearing some of this stuff, which will hopefully give me breathing room!
Bonus fun goal: make 13 new recipes this year. I don't want to put pressure on myself to do this monthly, but it's fun trying new things. And since I tried so many new recipes last year, I'm thinking this should definitely be doable. I'll probably still look for a new recipe every month, but if I end up making new dishes a few times in one month, and not at all in another month, it's still fine. :)
As usual, I'm counting a success as doing it 80% of the year for goals 2 and 3. Goals 1 and 4 are more finite, so I need to meet them to succeed.
The pillars of health include sleep, which I know I also need to work on (particularly lately - over the last while my sleep schedule has been really thrown out of whack). But I decided not to set a goal for that right now. I'm hoping that will straighten itself out, particularly when I'm back to work after the holidays.
I also didn't want to make any commitments to posting on here once a month like last year. I didn't find it helpful (and it was honestly just adding stress whenever I realized I forgot to post). I'm hoping that taking out that obligation will just free me up to write about whatever I need to. But even if I'm not writing tons, that's okay as long as I'm working towards my goals. :)
So that is the plan for 2022. These goals feel ambitious, but doable, so wish me luck!
