January 01, 2022

My Goals for 2022


Yay for a new year! Even though today is no different than yesterday (just like when I turn from 39 to 40 later this month, I will be the same person the day before as the day after) I absolutely love what feels like a completely fresh start for the next 365 days.

As you know, I also love to set goals for the new year. Call them the cliché "New Year's Resolutions", but I can't help but feel excited about the clean slate lying in front of me--a whole year!

I wrote yesterday about the goals I made last year and whether I completed them or not. Last year was not a good year for me--at all. Not only because of the goals, but because I felt like nothing was going right. I was in a lot of pain all year long and after 10,000 tests, I still don't really have an answer other than "fibromyalgia". I've finally accepted that it's likely not going away, so I'm going to have to learn to live with it. But it really did make last year suck. 

Starting a brand new year today is exciting! It doesn't resolve a lot of issues--like the pain--but it does make me excited to work on new goals. In my new planner for 2022, there is a space to write out five main goals--long-term ones that require baby steps--so here are my goals for 2022...

1. Lose the rest of the weight I gained over the last few years. Ideally, in a perfect world, that would be to get my weight down to 130-135 pounds. But I won't really know until I get there. I'm stating my goal as 133, but I just want to feel comfortable in my body and my clothes, and I want to be able to maintain it without a constant battle. So I need to work on habits that I can maintain forever.

Interestingly, I have a new focus for my diet this year (when I say "diet" I mean a day-to-day diet, not a short-term way of eating in order to lose weight). I do plan to count calories (the only thing that's ever worked for me long-term), but I want to focus heavily on getting more fiber.

I think that adding fiber will be an alternative way of saying that I'm going to "eat healthier"--eating healthier is such a generic phrase. I don't want to quit eating my favorite foods, so I'm just going to start focusing on making my favorite meals that happen to have a lot of fiber. I have a lot of recipes that have beans and lentils and brown rice and peas; I also happen to love fruit. Eating a bunch of recipes I don't enjoy simply because they have a lot of fiber would just fail quickly, so by making foods that I already love (which just happen to have a lot of fiber), it'll be much easier.

I also want to drink 4 liters of water a day. I got out of the habit of drinking water at some point (I used to drink a ton of water) and I always feel better when I am well-hydrated. My hands feel puffy when I don't get enough water and I hate that feeling! So I'm going to try to drink a liter of water four times a day.


2. Run at least 3 miles, 3 days a week. When I got back into running earlier this year, the 3 miles, 3 days a week was working really well. Once I tried changing things up, I didn't do so well. I'd love to be able to follow a running plan with a goal, but for now this will be best for me. When I first started running way back in 2010, my "rule" was to run 3 miles, 3 days a week. It doesn't amount to much, but it's definitely more than nothing! And maybe I'll get the urge to train for something again one day.


3. Work on practicing people's love languages. If you haven't read the book 'The 5 Love Languages', I can't recommend it enough. It is life-changing and especially relationship-changing (for the better). I even bought the Love Languages book for teens for my kids to read. I know Jerry's and the kids' love languages so I've been putting them into practice as much as possible. I'm especially terrible at physical touch; to some people, hugs and kisses come so naturally. I really wish I was one of those people! I want to work on it.


4. Start moving my body first thing in the morning. My pain is the worst when I wake up in the morning, so I am usually inactive--I sit and read a book, watch TV, play a game on my phone, or something else that's unproductive until my body doesn't feel so stiff and painful. I'm hoping that by doing something active in the morning, I'll feel better faster: start laundry, prep dinner, walk Joey, run, do back stretches, etc.


5. Work on people skills. I am terrible at meeting new people or making small talk; I have horrible social anxiety. I want to work on this so that I can feel more comfortable with it. It's not exactly ideal, considering COVID has made social interactions very restricted, but I'm going to do my best when I have opportunities.



And there it is! I think these are good goals to work on throughout the whole year--not just the black and white one-and-done type goals. Today went really well! It's only one day, but I already feel good. Let's hope the rest of 2022 follows suit ;)

3 comments:

  1. When you say to some people kisses and hugs come naturally, I'm so not one of them at all. I'm a nice person, but not all touchy fealy. Something I'm noticing more and more is whenever we go anywhere, he drives the truck, and I hold our little rescue dog that loves to be out the window of the vehicle, and she makes everybody smile and laugh. On 2/5/2022 it will be 8 years since we saved her and spoil her. She's high maintenance because she needs bathing and trimming a lot, but she makes people smile and makes them happy. We saved her and she makes us happy every single day, but her barking drives us insane every day, but we love her so much anyway. Please rescue.

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  2. I'm an introvert who is usually terrible at small talk. I've been to conferences where I never uttered a word all day! But I found it's easier to have a quick conversation when standing in line, especially the grocery store. I know you hate grocery shopping, I LOVE it, but a short conversation about food has always seemed very natural to me. A quick hey that product's really good or hey how are you going to use that seems to go a long way.

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  3. The love languages are fabulous. I recommend that book to everyone. And wow do I relate to social anxiety. I can be "on" when I need to, especially if I'm talking about my books or writing or running or meditation ("my" topics) but social stuff, parties, ugh. And, you know what. I AM NOT GOING TO WORK ON THAT!! This is the year I work on strengthening the strengths I do have. I look forward to seeing how it all goes for you, especially the running and fiber. I just need to reduce the amount of sugar I'm eating. That alone would fix a lot for me, especially pain. Wheat and sugar make my arthritis flare so much. I'm so sorry they didn't find a good fix for your pain. It really sounds bad. I'm rambling. Sorry. I just enjoy your posts so much. Yours is the only blog I read every day. Happy New Year and Happy go get those goals to you!!

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