2013 goals- progress

(1) This year, I will unpack. Completely, fully, with organization. I  at my last house and there are things I missed. Some have already been freed in my new location. My landlord sucks, which can inspire back peddling, but I hope to make peace with one another and be able to stay here for at least 3 years.
THUS FAR: Continuing to work on this. My goal is 4 hours of unpacking a week. Doing fairly well with that. Have a long way to go but made a lot of progress as well.

(3) Pay off my student loan. I owe 1405.88. After interest, that might be $1465.88. A range is fairer to me than an absolute elimination. Thus, I'll say that by December 2013, I will owe no more than $310. That means I would have eliminated about 75% of that debt. I explored this topic at 43things
My pay off amount is down to $1086-- not bad for 2 months into a year. I am committed to making extra payments; so far, so good. It looks like I am ahead of my goal thus far.

(4) Own less stuff. I'm not really sure how this looks but moving (again) showed me that I have a bunch of stuff. Most ppl don't have this much; why do I? Often, packing helps me see what things to shed. This time, it did not. Before the move, I mentally established the modest goal of getting rid of 60 things in 2013 onward-- 5 things per month on average. That's a minimum. I need less. I need to get rid of more. 365 items seems like an intimidatingly large commitment but maybe not. Somewhere between 100 & 365 for 2013?
I'm at -23 according to my 43things.com blog blurbs. I haven't been great at tracking what I've gotten rid of; I'm working on that. 

(5) Get my health in better shape. There's fibromyalgia, fibromyalgia, fibromyalgia. Then there's fitness. These past 6 months have been much worse than many 6 month periods. I'm trying a new medication (Savella), been referred to aquatherapies, and am reapproaching yoga (stopping is probably one of my worse mistakes thus far). I once said that I refuse to allow fibromyalgia to steal my life. It's been gaining more ground than I prefer so this year I am changing that.'
Insurance won't pay for aquatherapies.
I take Savella as prescribed but doubt that it does much good. The timing is bad because allergen elimination decreases my pain. I have no way of knowing to what extent Savella helps.
Yoga hit a snag due to me having surgery on my hand; then I forgot to go to class.  I also acknowledge the need to increase home practice but struggle for a location. It is challenging to find the TV in the living room not in use, the space is insufficient in my bedroom, and the art room has a bunch of clean laundry and boxes in it right now that prevent that space for being used for anything. Hallway yoga? Maybe I'll do a few minutes of that. Also, I start photoshop classes this week, which will prevent me from attending the supportive yoga classes I was trying to commit to attending. 
Overall, I feel no healthier than when I started the year. I'm trying to make a health/fitness change per week. I give myself a C.

(6) Learn to eat in a way respectful to my body, particularly as it relates to delayed food sensitives
I tested positive (increased pain) to gluten. My commitment  now, is to purchase/make gluten-free when that option exists (e.g., gluten free hamburger bun over regular hamburger bun).I spend time thinking about other commitments to make once the diet is over.

(7) Do not increase the number of medications I take. Decrease my total of pills by at least one at year's end. This goal sounds mild but note that my doctor has me on 3 additional pills per day compared to what I was taking a month ago and has another on standby  Really, I think I'm trying to get off a blood pressure med, not be put back on cholesterol med, and not have Prilosec become a daily norm. More than get off of meds, I want to not increase despite being on the verge of that.
I had surprise blood work drawn last week. No threats of additional pills were said.

(8) Be a photographer/craftster for the year. Learn photoshop, Build my website (http://photosbyamy.weebly.com/). Build a kickstarter account to raise funds for a good and functional camera. Participate in 6 art fairs. Participate in photo club. Build some skills. Lets see what happens. I can put out another $700 with no or little return or I can see products move (though probably not enough to earn everything I put out in year 1 of seriousness).
I signed back in to my website and reviewed how it operates. I signed up for a photoshop class. It starts this week.

(9) Be a better steward of my money. Actually balance my checking account regularly-- track weekly/biweekly. Balance quarterly. It's enough for me.
The balancing has begun for the year. I have not updated for this week. Thus, I am behind.

(10) Lose some weight. My mom's pain increases when she gains weight. Dr. Steven Murphree once stated I would hurt less if I weighed less. Without mom's testimony it sounds silly but why not give it a try? I'll set a modest 12lb goal by my 31st (6-30-13). Shockingly (to me), I just opened my journal and learned that I've gained 25 lbs since Jan. 2010. For those of you that actually see me, do you see that 25lbs gained? Wow! SMH.
I've lost about 10lbs this year due to the elimination diet. I say "due to" but I've never lost weight on this diet before (which surprises even me). I resume regular eating in about 2 weeks so Feb/March will be the real tellers of how my weight loss goal is going. 

(11) Recycled from Jan 2012: "Put forth more effort to find a spiritual home. 24 attempts minimal." Okay, 20. Slight change from last year.
Last week, I went to City Fellowship. Today, I planned to go to New St. Luke Missionary Baptist but my hair was still wait when I woke up. If I can get it dry in 30 minutes, I'll go back to City Fellowship. 

(15) Keep A1C at or below 6.5. It's a constant goal of mine though my new doc wants it at a 6.0. I guess I can aim for 6.3  I mentioned surprise blood work. I'm not where I want to be but I'm not high enough for there to be great concern.

(16) Get my first tattoo. I wrote that for 2011 but here it is 2 years later. It's time to get some of these reoccurring items off the list.
I've actively sought out two artists. They are not returning calls and e-mails. There's another I want to talk to that actually works in a shop in a nearby city. I hope to drive over in the next few weeks. Also, I asked a co-worker to give my contact info to the artist she uses that happens to be in town right now. I really am trying to start the ink.

(18) Do some training in reading others. A microexpression online training? Read Bodytalk? Something.
I purchased Bodytalk and Body Language. I haven't read much of either but at least I have some tools to get crackin'.

(20) Evaluate these goals and my progress regularly, no less than once a quarter. Here is a conscious review....

accepting the new in life

Feb. 18- my last day in my current position :).

Feb 28th- my first day with VA.

Jan 31st- day 1 of packing, the day pictures were taken of my apartment.












I turned in my resignation today. Now, I should probably be packing instead of blogging, but here I am. Let's see how long it takes for my apartment to actually look like I'm planning to move.

They rented the house I love, love in Jackson so I'm going to skip out on Believe out Loud to go back to Jackson to view new houses. My mom is coming with. I need to call the property company to reserve a time.

Health: Ouch! But I've been quite productive this weekend despite the pain. I woke up every 2-3 hours as I slept Friday night so I got up around 7 or 8 on Saturday. I washed 4 loads, spent 2.5 hours cleaning, folded all of my waiting laundry, and ate breakfast by noon. Swoosh! I'm preparing myself to get back into yoga. I can tell several differences now that I'm "off", i.e., taken a multi-month break. (1) My breathing is more shallow and my doctor fuses at me when I go to see him due to inadequate breathing. (2) It takes more effort and concentration to breath deeply, do equal breathing, and also unequal breathing. Those exercises are no longer natural. (3) My mind won't shut up. Lately, it thinks too much about a certain someone which makes it even more difficult for me to get good rest. Before, I may have slept poorly but it wasn't because I couldn't get someone or even something off of my mind. Plus, I don't even know WHY those thoughts are there. With the yoga, my goal is to do 3 at home sessions, 30 minutes each, before I go back to class. I've done it twice for 30 minutes and lasted 20 today. I think someone going by my apartment would have thought I was receiving undesired anal sex. ouch! I don't know why it hurt so bad but eventually I gave up. In yoga, you stick your toe in the pool of pain; you don't jump in. I thought that maybe I pulled something.... In terms of my 2011 health goals, I'm doing a horrible job of working towards accomplishing them. My intention is to count my carbs and gradually drop them to a level appropriate for a diabetic. My reality is that I eat lots of high carbs food and generally forget to keep count.

I was lonely quite a bit last week. That sadness will probably come back but at this moment, I'm good. I have a new friend. We've been talking for a while on okcupid. I asked her what kind of success she's had on the site. She said she's made one friend and stupid me didn't realize she was talking about me! I followed up by asking questions about this friend. lol. Her message was a real pick me up. I'm tentatively scheduled to meet someone from there on Wednesday. I'm iffy on if I'm going to go. I think he's more about a relationship and/or sex than I am. My page clearly says I'm only recently single and don't want to get into anything now. (2) I'm leaving town in 6 weeks. What's the point? On the flip side, there's the curiosity. Cindi thinks he'll be hot because he's a body builder. I think he's a little skinny and young (25).

I've been going to church a bit this year. It feels good. Saturday, I went to Jacob's Well. It was nice. I respect what the minister is trying to do there. A few weeks before, I went to my cousin's church. Wow. Power. Also, I've been reading from a guidepost devotional several times each week. It's been a good start to the year.

Enough for now. I'm sure you're ready to stop reading if you didn't stop 100s of words ago.

Namaste.