I’m taking a little break in writing about action planning. My goals are more or less staying the same right now and I’m probably more focused on dealing with the stress at home than working on new goals.

Please feel free to post your own action planning or goals post.

Greetings and Salutations. How is everyone this week?

I find myself at kind of a crossroads. My eating and exercise goals, while not perfect, are at a sort of background place. It doesn’t mean they can’t be improved upon or there’s nothing to work on, particularly that ol’ mindful eating thing (as I type and eat dinner), but it does mean that I’m not feeling really focused on new changes at the moment.

Maintaining change is important too, I suppose. Also, fine tuning changes such as I still am kind of lazy on non-rehab days. I am dealing with extra stress with Mom right now and probably I need to just stay with keeping up with the changes I’ve made for a little while.

Diabetes goals – well, I’m off insulin well before my predicted date of the end of May. I started having hard to deal with lows, particularly after exercise. So, I stopped insulin last week and my fasting and postprandial numbers have stayed nicely steady – in fact I don’t see much of a difference at all, including those pesky lows after exercise.

When “low” is in the low-70s, I have never particularly worried about fast acting sugars. Generally, anything I eat will bring my sugar back up to a more reasonable for me range. That strategy no longer works. It takes extra time for the food to get through the pouch so I can continue falling for some time after eating. I’ve bought some hard candy to keep in the car and am trying that for the time being. I suppose if I continue to have issues I’ll buy some juice boxes. Does anyone know how those fair in a hot car in the summer? They won’t do me a lot of good if they go rancid out there.

So how are you guys in your goals? I know Eve was feeling pretty down and frustrated last week. What can we do to give you a lift? How is TDW? You’ve been making good progress. Are you still getting out more? How’s the new exercise machine working out?

Good morning! How is everyone today? Ready for working hard on goals?

Me either.

It’s been fairly chaotic around here, or at least it feels that way. With increased stress comes increased desire to eat and decreased ability to resist impulses. So, my additional goal for this week is to implement different coping mechanisms when I feel the impulse to overeat. I have some good success with that until late night, as usual, so that is where most of my energy will be focused.

Rehab and my diet in general are going well. Interestingly, I need to add more fat back into my food plan and that’s hard to do now that I’m accustomed to the plan. Turns out I’m getting around half the fat that the program recommends (which is just fascinating!) and that could be part of some digestive issues. Fats can help you feel full longer so that doesn’t sound like such a bad thing.

I’m making progress in rehab and am being active at least two other days most weeks. I want to be more consistent in activity on non-rehab days.

Oh, and of course there’s still the mindful eating issue. I think it’s important but apparently it’s not something I’m willing to focus on right now. I’m still trying to pay more attention to sensations when I’m eating certain things but not doing the mindful eating thing overall. That’s okay for now. One step at a time.

And an update on my diabetes goals, my fasting sugars are in the 90s and I’m taking 6u of levemir at night. I think I’ll be through with the insulin by the end of May at the latest. I’m taking so little probably I could stop right now but I’d rather keep stepping it down.

And I was doing so well!

This weekend was really chaotic here at Chez Zaz. Mom has been having a lot of problems including hallucinating on the medication they gave her for pain. So, it’s been high stress around here. My eating goal exploded on Saturday – I really need some new coping skills. It’s curious, too, that I was seriously physically hungry. I suppose the mind finds a way to get what it wants.

Otherwise, exercise and eating are going pretty well. I lost 3 pounds this week after having been stuck for several weeks. My blood sugar is going down further with my diet being a little more strict and I’m continuing to reduce the insulin. I’d like to get off of it entirely as it can lead to weight gain or, apparently, less weight loss. Besides, I got up at 65 the other morning. So, with Dr. Endo’s permission I’m continuing to step it down. Now only on 8 units at night, surely that will disappear soon.

How have you two been doing? It was good to see Eve back but sorry there is so much stress going on at your house. I haven’t had a chance to talk with TDW much lately. How are you doing?

Even later I am!

It’s been a strange week here and I will write about it soon. How has everyone else (Eve? TDW?) done this week? Are your goals going well? Changes? New goals?

At least it’s still Monday this week! That’s an improvement. Do I need to set a goal to get my action planning post up by Monday morning? Or maybe move goal setting day to Tuesday…

So, how have y’all been this week? How are those goals working out? Is there more that we can do to help each other with out goals? Ideas?

It’s been a pretty good week at Chez Zaz. Going to rehab has really helped my exercise goal. I still need to work on being more active on the days that I don’t go to rehab. That’s my focus this week – it can be hard to pry myself off my chair when no one is expecting me to make funny faces on the recumbent bike. Good news there, I can make the pedals go all the way around now. I noticed when I was walking my laps that my heel is close to touching the floor. It’d be nice if I could get it all the way and I guess we will see. There may be a water aerobics class in Berryville. I’ll be looking into that when I’m further along in rehab. That’d be great to work out without stressing my joints too much.

My eating goals have been pretty good this week. I had one day that I fell off the rails late at night and I don’t know what was different about that night. Still, it is an improvement and I am letting it be in the past. The next time I feel those temptations when I’m tired and in pain, I will try diverting myself. If I feel like I can’t stay in bed, maybe I’ll sign onto Runescape for a while and kill some monsters.

My blood sugars are a little higher with the med changes. I’m not overly happy, though they are still in the “acceptable” range. I have tweaked the insulin up a little and want to see how that feels a couple days before talking to Dr. G&P.

We’ll just pretend it’s Monday, right. If I were really evil I would back-date this to yesterday morning. What? You didn’t see it?

Time to review last week’s goals and set new ones for this week. How are you doing? What do you want to change?

I think it’s maybe time to review our goals in general. Are we making progress or running into roadblocks? If there are roadblocks – what can we do to find a way around them? Do we need to reconsider what the actual goal is?

As for me, my exercise goal improved greatly by the addition of rehab. As I suspected, it is really helpful for me to have someone actually expecting me to show up. I am going three days per week and trying to do something – anything on at least three other days. That may have been a little high in expectations but I’m keeping it another week. I’m giving myself credit for minimal effort on off days but I’m going to be expecting more of myself soon. It’s important to keep moving and I’ve made some progress despite my reluctance to exercise in general. I walked into the doctor’s office today for the first time for my three-month checkup. I have a nifty new pink walker that everyone admired greatly. It gives me options and I like options. I’m adding “go to the library” to my weekly goals as well. It’s an activity and I should be able to navigate our tiny library with the walker. The chair would have been truly annoying.

My eating goals also improved this week. I’m continuing to keep the same goals as I am making progress. Slow, but progress all the same. I am mostly serving myself smaller portions as stopping when I’m full is still hard for me. I do feel full faster and I’m snacking less. My worst time is 2:00 AM if I’m not sleeping and in a lot of pain. I don’t know quite what to do about that. It turns out – according to the program social worker – that pain is related to certain food cravings. I need to bring the information in from the car and also try to find some sources. So far, simple searching is not finding me what I need to convince me this is true. At any rate, maybe I should eat vegetables at 2:00 AM? That just doesn’t sound nearly as satisfying as a mini bagel, does it?

It’s that time again, time to review last week’s goals and set new goals for this week. How’d you do?

In writing your action plan, be sure it includes

what you are going to do,
how much you are going to do,
when you are going to do it, and
how many days a week you are going to do it.

It’s Monday again and time to review last week’s goals and set this week’s goals!

In writing your action plan, be sure it includes

what you are going to do,
how much you are going to do,
when you are going to do it, and
how many days a week you are going to do it.

One of my favorite blogs is The Happiness Project. While I don’t agree with everything Gretchen has to say, she always provides me with food for thought.

In this post last month, she writes about keeping your New Year’s Resolution. She has some really good tips and let’s face it, they apply to all of our goal setting.

(paraphrasing)

1. Be specific. That’s what we’re talking about in our action plans – be as specific as possible. I still find that challenging. I’m not a scheduler by nature. So, I tend to think this is a “know thyself” area. Be as specific as you can be, leave room to make it work for you.

2. Write it down. Writing it down makes a big difference to me. We’ve been using an action plan from Stanford University. It doesn’t work for you? Make whatever changes you need to make it meaningful for you! (plus, since only TDW is playing along these days, I’m not going to keep reposting the form. Click on “Action Planning” in the blog categories list to see all the posts about this topic.)

3. Review your goal constantly. Does it “slip your mind”? I suspect I actively try to forget I’ve got an exercise goal. The more it’s right there in front of you, reminding you to follow through, the better. Just do it in a positive way. I’m in total disagreement with those who do things like stick a picture of a pig on the fridge. That’s not a positive goal, that’s constant negative self messages. Still, I guess, whatever works for you!

4. Hold yourself accountable. Tell other people about your goal, join or form a like-minded group, sit down at the end of each day or week or month and tally how well you did on your goal. That’s part of why I’m writing about it here – making it public. I have everyone who reads these blogs both cheering for me and holding me accountable to do what I’ve said I’m going to do.

5. Think big. Maybe you need a big change. Just because your goal isn’t something that can be accomplished in a week doesn’t mean you don’t include it on your list. Allow yourself to imagine really big changes – then break them into smaller steps for actual action planning.

6. Think small. “Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that only radical change can make a difference.” Remember the power of the gradual. When you do one small thing every day it grows to be a big thing.

7. Ask for help. Why do so many of us refuse to ask for help? It’s okay not to be able to do everything on your own! Plus, don’t forget that helping others often helps you. So, look for ways to help other people achieve their goals as well.

8. Consider making only positive resolutions. Are you someone who sets “improvement” goals and then feels terrible because you not only have you failed at forcing yourself to do something really hard – but you needed improving in the first place? Consider reframing your goal to view the change more positively. Instead of setting a goal to lose weight, maybe you need a goal to learn healthy eating strategies or gourmet low-fat cooking. Losing weight is hard and has a lot of negative feelings attached to it. Learning about healthy eating or learning new cooking techniques sounds like it might be fun!

9. Consider giving up a resolution. “If you keep making and breaking a resolution, consider whether you should relinquish it entirely. Put your energy toward changes that are both realistic and helpful.” You know, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Maybe it’s time to let go of a goal. Maybe you need to remake it into a more realistic goal or change the goal entirely. I could keep setting the goal to go to the gym every day for the rest of my life and I can pretty much guarantee I am never going to achieve it. So, find the plan that is right for you.

10. Set a deadline. Vague goals are hard to meet. If you have a goal of getting your taxes done on time, you know you have until April 15th in the US. What if there was no deadline? Would you ever finish your taxes?

12. Don’t give up if something interferes with your deadline. Be flexible. If you have some health issues getting in the way of your exercise goal – don’t beat yourself up about it. Readjust your goal and get back to work. If you see that interruption as a failure, you are less likely to want to go back to work on the goal.

13. “The perfect is the enemy of the good.” -Voltaire Remember, we are talking about building on success, not setting yourself up for failure. Another quote I like in this area is, “Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing.” -Harriet Braiker

So what other strategies would you add that help you keep your goals or resolutions?