New Year's Calm Resolutions

Any and all resolutions I have made this year are for my mental and physical health.

For a few years now, my mother and nephew have been in and out of the hospital. One for three different cancers that are all potentially hereditary, and the other for a random genetic combination. My mother has become overly concerned, to the point of a ‘helicopter mom’, when it comes to her children and grandchildren’s health. When I had my bio-metric exam, it showed that I was in danger of becoming pre-diabetic. In roughly 6 months, I managed to drop forty-five pounds, but I still very much have a ways to go.

These past 2 years have made working out rather difficult. Gyms were closed, work out partners were placed in quarantine, and moral was depleted. It became easier to just be lazy. I was fortunate that I have a husband who can’t sit still, and three big dogs who have to be exercised or they become destructive. I also had a job that was considered essential, so I was never really in a lockdown. I thought at the time that made me one of the few fortunate ones. I did not realize the toll it had taken on my mental health until it was almost too late.

My physical resolution is to get back to walking. My husband and the dogs love to hike and climb. So we plan to stay close to the house in winter, because I hate being cold, but I also have a treadmill. During the day I will be walk at elevated inclines for an hour five days a week. When my husband arrives home from his work, we will walk close to a mile with our three boys. Being on the treadmill will allow me time for two other activities. I can either watch something on the television, a show or a movie, that way I am not putting my full attention to a specific walking goal. I’m simply walking. The one mile with my family allows me to be with my family and outdoors, breathing in fresh air. All of these activities lead to one of my mental health goals, which is a hot shower.

A hot shower allows for reflection, but I have found it also helps me with creative thoughts. It’s like when a person sleeps and uses nature videos. Some thing about the water and the hot steam opens my mind to various possibilities. I also have shower steamers that help with stress, breathing, and relax muscles to assist sleeping.

For my mental health, there is also my sleep routine. I have always followed my maternal grandmother and my mother in sleep patterns. Last to fall asleep and first to rise. My dogs don’t really allow for a stereotypical lie-in, so sleeping past 9 in the morning almost never happens. Knowing that, I would like to be asleep by midnight. So my husband and I have cups of hot sleepy time tea around 8 or 830 at night. He typically goes to bed around 930, because his day starts anywhere from 3 in the morning to 5 in the morning, depending on the dogs’ bladders. However, I have found that if I lay down in the dark and listen to music, any kind, then I am usually asleep by midnight. I’ll wake at 3 when he feeds our animals, but it’s usually long enough to turn off the music, remove my ear pods, and then fall back to sleep.

For both my physical and mental health, I will be cutting back on sugars and alcohol. I already don’t put sugar in my coffee, and I limit how many soda beverages I drink in a year. But I have found that I also have desire to drink to the point of being incapacitated. I love the way Noom encourages and educates individual’s way of fitness. They tell people that there are no bad foods, but there are foods to be in moderation. Which is something that is constantly heard but never shown. They show individual’s what they mean. They also give different examples for every type of meal. And they do not make any one feel like they are failures. I plan to follow some of these food choices, while maintaining the ones that I enjoy.

Overall I plan to enjoy my hobbies while learning some new ones.