I can't quite believe 2016 is drawing to a close: how quickly has this awful year flown by?! It may have been the year that brought us Brexit (ugh) and Trump (double ugh) but it's not been all bad - Leo finally won his Oscar for starters! From everything I've been reading at the moment, I don't think anyone will be sad to see the back of 2016 and to be honest I have to agree. In many ways I feel like I've lost twelve months as personally they've gone by with very little fanfare or achievement. Aside from a couple of pretty spectacular trips including America for my best friend's wedding, I don't feel like I've done anything particularly notable in 2016. I feel like I've been running at a million miles per hour and barrelling through life giving 110% from January 1st 2016, but I've been going nowhere particularly exciting, if anywhere at all, and I've been too busy or stressed out to pause for a breath at any point throughout the year. Thank goodness for my August adventures because on the whole 2016 has been pretty mundane and - dare I say it - forgettable.
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While my New Year's resolutions for 2016 have been largely ignored (oops) I have made progress on a couple of fronts, most importantly my health. In terms of mental health I feel infinitely stronger than I did a year ago, and I've learnt more about myself, my limits, and my character than I thought I would. However, my main number one priority was finalising my skin surgery, and while I may have rearranged it a few times I'm really proud of the fact that I actually followed through and successfully made it out the other side. My recovery seems to have stepped up a notch this week too, as I've managed to remove one of my two remaining dressings, my skin's no longer quite so scaly and my posture has significantly improved from a fortnight ago. I'm sleeping really badly at the moment and my face is a spotty mess but that's nothing more than a reaction to too much dairy (read: celebrations and chocolate biscuits) so I know it'll clear up extremely quickly once some normality is restored in the next few days. Also, my left boob still has a gaping hole at the bottom, but now feels much safer as while it's still raw it finally looks like the slightest nudge won't rip open my chest and expose my ribcage... Yay for healing skin!
As my track record with resolutions in January is so appalling I didn't want to set myself any or put any pressure on myself to start anything on Sunday. I figured the best way to tackle any changes would be to casually start them as soon as possible so that by January I'm merely cementing a habit rather than trying to create a new one.
Exercise is basically off limits but I wanted to start walking instead so at least I'm doing something, and on Christmas Eve I joined my dad for his 6am walk and have done each morning since... If he'd have gone at his usual speed I would have been jogging to match his pace but he's slowed considerably for me and what started out as a barley brisker than usual half hour stroll has developed into an hour almost-power walk. I don't want to push myself too quickly but Dad has unbeknownst to me devised routes that increase in length each time and I've coped pretty well with all of them. My incisions have been giving me no pain at all, my breathing is better and the only real issue is that it's been so cold I've had to wear a hat. I hate hats. A couple of times Dad's carried on and done a longer walk without me (he normally does between 7-13 miles) so walking back down my country lane on my own in the dark with no-one but the creepy milkman for company and creaking trees is a tad frightening but hopefully it's making me toughen up too!
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My average step count has increased each week since my op so I'm now setting myself mini interim targets before working up to 10,000 steps a day. I'm aiming for 5,000 each day this week and have already smashed the last 2 days so I think it bodes well! Alongside increasing my steps I'm going to be decreasing my snacky food intake in the hope that I'm able to get back on the straight and narrow. I'm already a little sick of chocolate (literally: I constantly feel sick in the afternoon now) so that shouldn't be too difficult.
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As it stands, I'm ending 2016 in a much better place than at the start, and while I may not have physically done much over the year I like to think I've still managed to lay the groundwork for a fabulous 2017. There's nothing holding me back now, so bring it on!
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