Wrap Up!

I normally do this one on the last day of the year but I don't really need to wait this year so you get it early.

Aren't you so excited?

Looking back at January to see what I even set as goals for the year and...oh yeah, I didn't really. With the move coming up I was going to set quarterly goals. Because the year would break up so nicely. The first quarter preparing for the move, the next moving and settling in, then on to the living our lives as normal with everything all done and settled.

Ha!!

Okay, so it didn't work out that smoothly but we dealt with it, right?

I did have some overarching general goals for the year. I wanted to read 60 books, and I hit that and a few more. Though I was going to work on clearing my Kindle of owned books that keep getting bumped for new and I totally did not do that. Looks like something for 2023.

Writing, I set goals for that in only two months and hit both of those. It was a light year. I did publish the whole series I wrote when Katie came out to us but not to the world. I like that series because I think it helped other people understand a little more what was going on. I know it opened the door for people to ask me questions they might have felt uncomfortable asking other people. So I'm taking that as a big yearly win for writing. Inform, entertain, engage. Those are my writing goals. 

Fitness and weight, so this one is funny. Funny fuck you not funny ha ha. I had posted that I really wanted to lose that last 5 pounds and get really consistent with a good blend of weights and cardio. And I totally nailed it. Weight was staying in that range of comfort in my body and for my knees. I was working out 5 to 6 days a week with good balance between everything. Thinking about adding in some more flexibility work and then came November. I got sick the beginning of November and that was met by the death of a friend and then that cascaded into the worst bout of sciatica I've ever had and I've not been 100% since.  My consistency went out the window and my weight bounced back up. Just in time for the end of year round up. Ha..ha..ha... But I'm still going to take it as a win because I was there for the majority of the year and I will be there again as the sciatica is slowly getting better. Just frustrating for it to fall apart like that. 

I had set a decreased Amazon shopping goal then immediately unset it as soon as I realized that we would need so much more stuff than normal due to the move and how many stores just use Amazon as their storefront now. I need to think about that again for this year. Stores don't make it easy to go direct and Amazon is still a piece of shit so...

There weren't other main goals set. Just a general, "Hey! Let's see how this goes!" sort of vibe. So now that I've covered those bare minimum goals that were set, hey, how did the rest of the year go?

It was a little rough. 

I think this year was the first year I really felt old. Like this isn't a blip or a bump in the road, this is a full scale we are on the other side of the hill and sliding fast. It was the first year I told Brent I should probably revise my "We are Living to 100!" plan. Because for the first time I'm not sure I'm going to make it to 100. Or at least not to 100 living my best, independent life. 

It was a year full of physical breakdowns. As soon as I'd get one issue fixed another would crop up. I've had ankle issues, wrist issues, weird bleeding, the aforementioned sciatica issues. I've had hot flashes that would melt your face if you stood too close to me. I've had mornings where I just felt like I'd been hit by a bus, then a tractor trailer, then dropped from an airplane. What the fuck? 

We have a high deductible health insurance plan. For those of you that don't live in the US that means that there isn't a monthly amount taken out of Brent's check to cover our insurance, we just pay the whole bill until it reaches a certain level. Most years this works out for us quite well. We don't pay a lot for health care. This year we met that level and the past few months have been in the "You don't have to pay more, you poor thing" range. We start over on Monday, and I already have two doctor's appointments scheduled  so we might hit our targets again this year. 

The only other year we've met our high deductible was when Katie broke her ankle and had to have surgery. That's the sort of year this year has been. 

BUT...the good news is I've discovered that I know my own body pretty darn well. The chronic issues that I was hoping to fix don't look like they are fixable but I've learned some great compensating moves. (Ankle and toe issues on the same foot, fix the ankle the toe acts up, fix the toe the ankle acts up, make each work in a wonky way and it's manageable). My wrist issues flared and are now back but I honestly think I might end up cancelling that appointment. I did a little self adjustment of a few carpal bones and it seems to be getting better so... 

I also got on estrogen. The mini-pill. Just a bare hint of estrogen really. But it was enough to knock back the daytime hot flashes to zero and the nighttime ones are only a problem if I don't practice my other self care. Watch the sugar, don't drink hard alcohol, exercise. And even then it's like one a night instead of one all night. 

And here's a bonus kicker...

My food issues are fading. Estrogen gives protection from inflammation. We had soup dumplings for Christmas and it was going to be my quarterly "ouch" meal. But no ouch. So we had Godfathers and I had the barest of itch reaction to the nightshades, like so bare that if I wasn't looking for it I wouldn't have really noticed and nothing to the gluten, even though I'd had gluten just a few days before. I'm going to try some more nightshades on Saturday and see how it goes. But this is amazing right? If it sticks I'll try some chicken next. And bourbon. Oh bourbon, I've missed you. 

Now, what this means for me is that I can be less careful of what I eat. I won't have to study every label and menu like it was the meaning to life. BUT...because I know now that there is an underlying issue going on that the estrogen is protecting me from I won't go back to eating the way I used to. I'll still live mostly gluten free. I'll still really limit my nightshade intake. Chicken would be a sometimes food. But it will mean that I will be able to get a donut at the Timbers matches. I will be able to do a dinner cruise in Hawaii without eating only the lettuce from the salad. I will get a level of freedom back that I have missed terribly. 

And I will also suggest to women who are going through menopause that if they are having digestive and joint pain issues they should try an elimination diet because their estrogen was protecting them before. Though Katie put it best that food reactions due to menopause will never be studied because well, menopause and estrogen and the medical field doesn't view those as areas worthy of study. But let's hope that a more women reach the highest levels of care providers we see more studies in women's health and we start to understand estrogen a little more. But until then I will just be grateful for the push Kate gave me to actually get on it. Serious life changer.

So now with the last few days of 2022 fading quickly I'm looking at 2023. More set goals, more things around the pieces that bring me the greatest joy and sense of accomplishment. 

I hope your year has been a good one overall. I hope the painful times were met with love and support. I hope the joyful times were shared and multiplied. I thank you all for reading these blogs. It really does make me happy to share my life with you all. 

And that's a wrap on 2022. 

See you next year!