I decided to challenge myself in August as there were a few things I wanted to work on as I recovered from my operation. I was not quite at normal but not as fragile as I was in the early weeks. So, I declared a social media hiatus (with some reasonable limits as I couldn’t just let my Facebook peeps go to the wolves, or rather, trolls). And some goals.
The goals were
- To avoid social media (no more fatigue scrolling)
- Create more
- Get into nature as much as mid Winter allowed
- Increase strength post op
- Eat more protein
I felt like I did rather well!
Avoid Social Media
I wasn’t super strict. I just cut out the scrolling and dropped the amount of time I checked in on my Facebook groups significantly. It was a wonderful break. But it was more about what I did instead…
Create
I published a journal that had been on my mind for months. A combination of two of my best journals – The Paced Planning Journal and the Daily Health Log. It’s called Get On Top Of Your Life. And I’m in love with it.
And FIVE new worksheets on my Etsy store. Symptom trackers, gratitude log and affirmations for chronic illness thrivers.
In addition to YouTube videos and blog posts, of course!
Get Into Nature
Given that it’s mid-Winter in New Zealand, I wanted to set a challenge for me to keep getting into nature as the weather allowed. Some days this was simply standing on my steps taking some deep breaths between rainfalls. Early in my recovery it was slow walking across my patio. Listening to the Tui, seeing the greenery, breathing fresh air are all good things.
Increase Strength
I feel like I regained my baseline steps fairly easily. But I also found that I needed to stay there for some time. Prior to surgery I was doing around 6000 steps plus an additional walk many days of the week. At six weeks post op, the second week of August, I realised I needed to pull back on the walk as the daily steps in the house were taxing my fatigue as it was. One can’t do much less with four small children. Thankfully my heart rate was no longer skyrocketing from harmless exertion.
I made a point of getting onto the floor for table top, cat and cow, superman balancing for deep abdominal work and some mobilising stretching. I also resumed pelvic floor work – focusing on movements with the breath and the relaxation portion of kegels.
More Protein
I made a conscious effort to eat more protein. Protein is excellent for healing and I’ve got a lot to do. This was fairly easy – but only after I’d gotten the kids to school. Breakfast is a difficult time of the day. But for the most part I did well with increased protein.
August Challenge Summary
This wasn’t a super strict challenge. Heck, my goals were not SMART. Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic or time-bound. Well, they were time-bound, realistic and achievable. They just weren’t specific and measurable. But I wanted flexibility. And that’s what I go.
I love working on micro habits, things that we CAN do despite busy lives with variable symptoms. I share more about 30 Micro Habits for Health in this post if you’re curious about your own challenge.
