Goals of the Month - May 2013

May is here and so is spring!!  During April I was starting to wonder if winter would ever end in Michigan :P  This month is going to be slightly different for me/us.  I am declaring this Mother's May (instead of Mother's Day...moms deserve more than just one day I think :).  I intend to give my body some rest and relaxation this month.  No parties.  No big agenda.  No planning a bunch of trips or events.  Take it easy.  I will still keep up with regular life and taking care of my family of course.  But I will stop putting myself at the bottom of my to-do list.  Here's what I have planned...only if I feel up to it :)

photo credit: deniselinn.com

1. Writing - Write articles for the Real Food and Health July/August issue and write my Grand Rapids Natural Living article.

2. Photography - keep doing what I'm doing and have fun with photo editing.

3. Healing - I actually think I've made some decent progress here.  This is my facebook post from yesterday:

 

"Gradually I'm starting to feel better about my health status. Hearing what other people's normal temps are makes me feel like mine are quite normal/good. Most say 96s/97s. I'm usually in the 97s when I check at home. Today just .1 degree away from 98! And 98.6 at the doctor yesterday. That is a FAR cry from where I was last year. My temps were literally as low as 91/92. BAD. So I have made a HUGE improvement with my metabolism and body temp. Body temp...normal.

Thyroid levels...normal.

Vitamin D levels...normal.

When I got my adrenals tested in December I was still up in the night nursing and getting up very early every day. And my cortisol levels were only a little bit elevated. So 4 months later I'm getting more sleep and almost all uninterrupted sleep (so a 7 hour stretch vs. a 3 hour stretch at a time). I have absolutely no trouble sleeping and have a ton more energy than I did earlier in the year. I don't intend to spend the money to recheck adrenals, but I'm guessing they're actually doing pretty well as long as I don't have too many stressful things going on. So, cortisol levels/adrenal function...most likely fairly normal.

That leaves me with my gut health and reproductive hormones to work on. My theory is that both of those will improve over time as I continue to get better sleep and avoid my inflammatory foods. The human body is amazing. But it also takes time.

All that to say I'm getting better! I'm on the right track.

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed when I get bogged down in the details of every little bite of food and every symptom or reaction. But when I look at the big picture I realize it's not so bad and I've actually come a long way already. My body is healing. It's just hard to see that when my most prominent/long-standing problems are the last to go away. Which makes sense. As I heal my body can undo the most recent/lightest problems first. And work its way back to the beginning. Now I just need to remember this when I'm having a rough day...or week...or few weeks.  I am getting better.  God is good!"

 

I do intend to get outside as much as possible now that it's warm to help my body continue to produce more Vitamin D and get that even higher (I'm in the healthy range now but higher would be better).

 

In April I started stretching every day.  It's amazing how much of my flexibility has returned with just a few minutes of practice each day (and having Rebecca do it with me some days...her flexibility is greatly improving too!!  And helping with her core strength/ability to sit up straight).  I've even started doing cartwheels and hand stands again!  So fun.  I would like to continue this progress and take a couple yoga classes this month.  I've already signed up for a hula hoop workshop this Friday.  I can't wait!  This will be good for my body and a part of my relaxation protocol this month.

 

 I will definitely make sleep a priority.  I can tell we've had a few nights of getting to bed just a half hour later.  I need to catch up now.

I will be very careful with diet/sensitive foods.  Eating the wrong food is another form of stress on my body that delays my progress.  No more tastes of this and that :P  It really adds up.

I will look into foods with Vitamin C.  I think I might be lacking there due to my dietary restrictions.

Even though I've been on my rotational diet for 3 months I think I will hold off on adding any foods back quite yet.  Now that I'm on the right track and getting the inflammation down I don't want to risk messing it up yet.  I'll give my body more time to stay in this state and do some good healing.

I also just finished reading The Nourished Metabolism by Elizabeth Walling.  BEST healing book I've ever read.  Seriously.  I will do a review post on it soon...once I read it again...and maybe again.

4. Homemade Food - I am gradually working on stocking my pantry with homemade goodies.  As boxes empty jars of homemade food will replace them.  I hope to do a post on it when this project is complete...whenever that might be :)

5. Relationships - First on my agenda this month is our Mommy-daughter date.  My BIL is getting married in June, and I have nothing to wear!  And Rebecca is the flower girl.  So we both need new dresses...time to shop!  I have one MomBreak meeting this month.  And Justin and I will be doing an even with our church small group.

6. Rebecca - I go back and forth about trying gluten with Rebecca again.  I do think that gluten free is beneficial for her.  But I am also curious if there will be a noticeable change if we give it to her again.  I'm still trying to decide if I want to experiment now or wait another month or so yet.


7. Crafts - No big plans here.  Just enjoy crafting with Rebecca.

8. Cakes - I need to make a cake for Abram's birthday (how can it be that my baby will be 2 years old in 9 days?!).  I haven't decided yet what I want to make.  I'll likely do another gluten free cake.  Or I could do an ice cream cake.

9. Declutter - I will continue to sort toys and clothes as time allows and hopefully give some stuff away.

10. Acceptance - I am working on accepting my body in the healing process. Even when I have big flares in inflammation, die off, etc. and feel totally uncomfortable in my skin (and my clothes!) I am trying to accept it and not worry. I know I've been here before. I know it's not permanent. I know things will calm down and I'll feel better again. This is part of my healing process and is helping me learn what my body needs. It's usually a wake up call that I've been stressing out my body too much again. When will I learn? :P

11. Service - I am hoping to get more involved in nursery cmt stuff at church soon.