A Stream of Thoughts

This weekend was unintentionally busy one for me. I had to work on Saturday and some on Monday as well which ate into relaxing time.  It all seems like a blur; a “three day weekend” ending suddenly as I face work again tomorrow. I have been preoccupied and distracted. Since I have not had a chance to actively pursue my goals, I feel as if they are slipping away into the land of unfulfilled resolutions. I need to regain focus again! Its only the 20th of January! From now on, I am going to hold myself accountable on a weekly basis! I will continuously review my goals so I can gauge what need more focus and so that I can remember what I am supposed to be doing. Naturally, some goals get more attention. With a review, I can balance my focus on all areas including the one’s I am most likely to forget.

With that, here’s my update. If its not listed, no progress has been made!

Finances:

1. Emergency fund – $192
2. No spending days for January – 5
3. Open a college savings account for our son – I started but the application wants his social security number which I have to find.
4. Get our retirement accounts in order – I made a list of them, found the account logins and added them to my Mint.com account. Now at least I can monitor them with the rest of my accounts.

Health

1. High blood pressure – I’ve stopped taking my medication and have managed to keep the levels in the pre-hypertension range. I still have a way to go, but I feel much better!
2. Exercise – I work out about 2-3 times a week now between yoga, Zumba and Pilates at a local yoga studio. Its been a lot of fun to start back moving my body.

As you can see, there are a lot missing work on goals. However, I am glad that I have started making some changes! Hopefully as the weeks roll on, I will find more balance in what I am striving for!

Off My Meds!

Since being diagnosed with high blood pressure, I believe I have done a pretty good job of lowering it. The first thing I did was stop drinking coffee and switching to black tea. I thought this would be difficult since I have been drinking it religiously since the age of 16. My doctor said that for some individuals, coffee make the heart rate increase (which is how it wakes you up) and that it remains high for some. The first thing I would do in the morning (almost even before opening my eyes) make a cup of coffee. Now that I drink tea, I find myself having my tea as the last thing I do before leaving the house. I have tried for years to switch to tea, but never really could do it. Part of my success I believe is that I finally found a tea I like drinking! TAZO’s (aka Starbucks) Awake English Breakfast tea is rich and flavorful! My goal is to switch to green tea (which has lower caffeine than black), then to white and finally land on herbal. But I have yet to find a green tea that doesn’t taste like grass to me. Any suggestions on great green teas?

I have been trying to eat more fruits and veggies and drink more water. I haven’t been as good at this, but I figure small steps. I have an app on my phone that sends me messages about drinking water throughout the day. That’s helped a little. I usually have a banana as a part of my breakfast and an apple at work for lunch. And that’s about all the fruit I get. My goal is 4 servings, so I need to add a serving to lunch and dinner. Vegetables is worse. I try to get a serving in at lunch and dinner, but I usually don’t! I really want to get a juicer and start making smoothies as a better way of getting them down. But until I can finance that dream, I need to pull out my blender and get to work!

As far as exercising goes, this is a category have I have improved from doing nothing (and being proud of it) to actually looking forward to working out. I found a groupon online for the cutest yoga studio back in late December. I made it a goal to workout everyday I was off work for winter break and have been going about 3-4 a week since.  I have been doing a mixture of pilates, yoga and zumba whenever I have a moment away from the kids. I am in awe of people who’s bodies can do amazing things. Just this evening, I went to a gentle yoga class and the grandmother who was teaching it was so flexible! (she really is a grandmother – her licences plate was yoginana). Amazing! Now, I have a few non-weight related goals including being able to do crow’s pose by December!

Every day, I test my pressure twice and promise myself I’ll take my medication if the monitor said I was in the stage 1 range (140-159/90-99). Now that I exercise and eat/drink better, it’s consistently in the pre-hypertension range (aka normal high). If I continue, I am hoping to get in normal range by the time my next check in February.  Finger’s crossed!

When Life Gives You Lemons, Take em!

I woke up this morning with a horrible sore throat and extremely sore. I blamed the soreness on doing Yin Yoga the day before as well as zumba. My husband was suspicious of my self-diagnosis and made me some herbal tea to soothe my weary body. “Too bad we don’t have any lemons,” he commented as he handed the mug to me.  As the day progressed, my symptoms worsened. After attending two meetings that I couldn’t miss, I relented and left work. On my way out, I noticed some beautiful lemons in the break room my coworker was giving away! I have never been so excited about lemons. Now I am laying in my bed sipping herbal tea infused with lemons! (If I wasn’t also playing referee between my children, it would actually be relaxing) In other news, my son is also sick with strep and a nasty skin infection which was revealed at an unexpected doctor’s visit ($15 copay). The husband headed to Target for all kinds of antibiotics, skin creams and cold medicines (~$32). The kind of things emergency funds are great for. Oh, if we only had one!

Healthy is wealthy

The day after Thanksgiving, I developed a pounding headache that would not seem to lessen with rest or simple over-the-counter medication. (I spent the previous day relaxing with my immediate family, so I could not blame annoying relatives or work stress.) Every day that followed, I would wake up with my head hurting. I tried increasing my iron intake and water consumption with no improvement to my condition. I would come home from work with enough energy to feed the kids and head to sofa to watch my children being occupied by the TV. The final straw occurred as I was at work with my head resting on my desk trying to explain a process to one of my coworkers. After spouting gibberish to her, she asked, “Why aren’t you going to see a doctor?” I informed her of my hatred of doctors and that it had been years since I visited one. She listened to my excuses and replied, “You need to go!”

I reluctantly called the last primary care physician I visited expected to be told that my file had been closed and that she was not taking any new patients. Fortunately for me, the receptionist looked up my information and had me scheduled for an appointment the next morning. During the visit, the doctor asked about my blood pressure and shared great information on the effects of hypertension on the body including fatigue and headaches. She gave me two choices: 1) Eat better, drink water and monitor blood pressure for two months to see if it returns to normal levels but I would have exercise or 2) Start on medication. Thinking of my busy life of work and motherhood, I figured I did not have time to exercise so I opted for the medication. Within two days of taking it, my headache was gone and my energy levels increase.

So, why the health goals? Honestly, I am 36 years old. I really don’t want to be taking on a daily basis already! I also am horrible at remember to take it. This is something I clearly can correct which will result in my living a longer, healthier life. My goals in the health category are all steps recommended to reduce high blood pressure (minus flossing, but that’s a whole other thing). I am not sure how I am going to keep track of my progress with this. If there are any great apps or website for this, I’d love to hear about it!