November 2016 Goals

November will be a crazy work month. Given how much time being healthy takes up, I am not sure I'll be able to keep up with my every-day goal. However, I'll definitely try!!

Goals for November
Every day:

1. Get 8 hrs of sleep. 
2. Wake up early.
3. Immediately get morning exercises out of the way (push ups, splits, stretches, plank, rolling out my back, sit ups).
4.  Put on SPF.
5. Take vitamins.
6. Eat a healthy breakfast with fruits or veggies. Plan healthy lunch and pack it to go to work.
7. Meditate/quiet time/deep breathing.
8. Plan goal for day and write it down, with specific goals. 
9. Go to work and plan work for the day. 
10. Attend exercise class and/or take breaks with friends when it pops up. 
11. Drink water.
12. Leave office by 5 pm. 
13. Relax or walk 1 hour. 
14. Eat a healthy dinner, planned earlier in the day. 
15. Floss. 
16. Go to bed earlier.

Also:

1.   Go to physio once a week.
2. Try Float Tank again.
3. Fill out therapy form every week.

Other goals for November (non-health related):

1. Check in with friend: figure out what date to fly out of SF to NZ next May/June and book air travel.
2. Update my CV, LinkedIn, Twitter, blog, staff page, and Researchgate profiles for work.
3. Back up my home laptop.
4.  Find something to do for Xmas and New Year's Eve 2016.
5. Go to one meetup event where I know no one.

Therapy

As I mentioned, I started going to see a therapist and signed up for a free course for the next 12 weeks or so.

The first session was just a baseline kind of interview, to see where I'm starting from. I was pretty nervous, but determined to be open to the experience. After all, why even bother going if I'm going to hide my issues like I usually do?

The therapist was really nice. There were points where I wasn't sure exactly what she was asking me, but I tried to give an answer as best as I could. I guess it is hard to know how you feel or why you do certain things if you haven't really thought about it before.

There were several a-ha! moments in the session, already. For example, I talked mainly about how my PhD is making my life miserable. (Well, I should say that I'm allowing it to make my life miserable.) And I talked about how I am now doing this new health regime and now don't really even have time for the PhD. Somehow the therapist made me realize that I am not solving my PhD issues with this healthcare thing. All I am doing is transferring all the stress and energy I had previously put into my PhD into self-care. So, when I finally "fail" at self-care (I haven't--not yet--but of course that day will come), I will feel just as bad about myself as when I "failed" to live up to my impossible standards doing PhD stuff. A-ha, indeed. I'm just shifting my issues around, not solving them with this self-care thing.

Yikes. That's something major to chew on. Yep, this is already very, very interesting.

My PhD Has Driven Me To Therapy

Yesterday I went to my first therapy session. But before I describe that, I have to tell the odd story of how this all came about.

Therapy has been on my List forever, and in the back of my mind as something I should probably do even longer than that, but I have never followed through. I was scared. What if something is really really wrong with me? What if it unleashes stuff I don't want to deal with?! Also, I didn't know where to start. Which kind of therapist should I look for? How do you tell who is good?

The idea seemed more and more like a good one as I struggled with my PhD, however. Recently (earlier this year), a friend and I were talking about her issues and she started gushing about her therapist to me. I took this as a good place to start and got that therapist's name and contact info.

I bit the bullet and contacted the therapist via email to set up an appointment. The next hurdles emerged: timing and cost. The recommended therapist wasn't available for two months, and the fee was nearly $300 for the first session, and $200 per session after that. Yikes.

I ended up saying that I'd take a booking for the therapist in two months' time, and suggested several dates and times that I was free. She didn't get back to me to confirm a date for several weeks, so I thought she had forgotten about me or ignored my email. In the meantime, work piled up, and I had to schedule work meetings for the dates/times I suggested, and then I went on holiday for a month...so nothing happened.

While all that was going on, I went on my merry way and lived my life and made a few new friends. The new people became my FB friends and one of them posted something about free therapy sessions for people struggling with my exact issues, to test out a new course of treatment.

I, of course, jumped on that! I filled out the form and learned more about it, and lo and behold...my new friend works at the recommended therapist's clinic! He had posted the free treatment course on his FB to help his colleague get more volunteers for the project. The person in charge of the new treatment course is the student of the recommended therapist! So, very, VERY weirdly and unbeknownst to me, I befriended someone who worked at the recommended therapist's clinic at the same time as I was trying to get an appointment with her, and I now get free therapy sessions with the therapist (and her student) I had wanted in the first place!

Auckland (well, NEW ZEALAND) is super tiny. Gosh. SO. TINY.

Rock-tober Goals

Following up from my post yesterday, I have 1 main goal in October: BE HEALTHY

Basically, that means plan my days out very carefully to include lots of healthy habits that I hope to make automatic. Things like:

1.  Get 8 hrs of sleep a night. Wake up early.
2. Immediately get morning exercises out of the way (push ups, splits, stretches, plank, rolling out my back, sit ups).
3.  Put on SPF.
4. Take vitamins.
5. Eat a healthy breakfast with fruits or veggies.
6. Plan healthy lunch and pack it to go to work.
7. Meditate/quiet time. 
8. Plan goal for day. and write it down, with specific goals.
9. Go to work and plan work for the day. 
10. Attend exercise class and/or take breaks with friends when it pops up.
11. Drink water.
12. Leave office by 5 pm.
13. Relax or walk 1 hour.
14. Eat a healthy dinner, planned earlier in the day.
15. Floss.
16. Go to bed as early as possible.

Other things I have on my goal list to do in 2016/need to do in October:

1. Check Experian and Equifax credit reports from the US. Check TransUnion after October 13 2016. I can see my TransUnion and Equifax reports from NZ using Credit Karma--all is good. I used annualcreditreport.com to check TransUnion officially. I forgot to check my Experian or Equifax from the US last month...put on the list for next year!!
2. Figure out what date to fly out of SF to NZ next May/June and book air travel.
3. Cancel Qantas cc.
4. Plan Queenstown trip and book accommodation/get ideas for stuff to do there.

September Goals & Health Goal Check In: Life Makeover

My main September goal was to not stress about anything while on vacation. I did very well on that.

When I got back to NZ, I was determined to keep up the trend. Then I slipped a little bit, but I've righted myself again.

Basically, my priority is making myself a priority. I haven't done that enough in my life, apparently, because I have always taken shi* care of myself. Not sleeping correctly, not sticking to a schedule, not exercising regularly, eating whatever I wanted. And work came before anything else.

I needed to change that. As I get older, my body becomes more decrepit. Everything cracks and hurts now. I am not healthy, mentally or physically.

So I've started trying new things.

EATING BETTER/MEAL PLANNING
Earlier this year, I started meal planning on Fridays, grocery shopping on Saturdays, and cooking for the week on Sundays. I've done all but one or two weeks since about June. It's working well, and I am learning new cooking skills, trying things out, and eating much healthier.

Example: I bought 3 cans of ravioli from the grocery store in early June. Those were regularly my panic-mode dinner when I got home from work late, super-hungry, nearly on a weekly basis. Those 3 cans are still there today. Very proud!

Some things I can work on:

1. Portion control. My freezer isn't very big so I can't store anything if I don't eat up what I make each week. 
2. Wasting food. This relates to the above. Things go bad so fast, and I am only cooking for one. I don't NEED a whole loaf of bread each week, just a few slices...Not sure what to do since my freezer is teeny.
3. Meal planning takes up my whole weekend. I have no social life. Friday evenings are needed for me to search out new recipes, make my list, and check what I already have in my pantry, as well as clean out my fridge for the week. On Saturday, I am exhausted after grocery shopping and errand running. On Sundays, I spend about 3 hours cooking. If I do something else on Sundays, I run out of energy to cook and it completely screws up my week.

EXERCISING
For exercising, I'm going to an easy movement class every week, as well as doing push ups, situps, planks, and stretching every morning. I walk for an hour on some nice evenings, when I have the energy/will. I hope to ramp this up with time/summer weather. I go to the physio every week to check in on how my various sore spots/injuries are doing

SLEEPING
I'm suprisingly doing OK here after getting back from vacation. Going to bed at 1 or 2 am instead of 4 or 5 am. Not ideal, but I'll take it as I wake up around 7:30 - 10 am every day instead of 2 pm.

SOCIAL
Social: I don't have time on the weekends to socialise (see healthy eating, above), so I end up taking long lunches and tea breaks with friends during the work week. I make it my aim to say yes to everything my near and dear ask me to do with them as often as I can. Friend time is healthy. 

MENTAL HEALTH
Mental/planning: I made an appointment with a therapist finally. I also started meditating/having quiet time every morning, and listing out my big goal for the day and a plan to get me there. Every day, that goal is: BE HEALTHY. Eat ___ for bfast, X for lunch, and Y for dinner. Meditate. Do stretches. Take vitamins. Floss. Take breaks from the computer at work. Hydrate. Go to bed early. Talk to friends/family. Be kind to yourself.

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Being healthy is a full time job...and therein lies the main problem.

Basically, this all comes at the cost of working. My PhD is getting ignored because my part-time work is more urgent in the short-term, and I only have so many hours in a day/energy to get things done, what with all my socialising/healthy eating/breaks/exercise classes/sleeping. I make myself leave the office at 5 pm, no matter when I arrived at work or how many breaks I took during the day. Because: health.

But my priorities have flipped now. Normally not working 100% all the time would make me feel horribly guilty. Now? I don't care anymore. Work can no longer be allowed to come before sleeping, eating well, or exercise. I do my morning stretches and exercises as soon as I wake up so will power isn't an issue. I blocked off my workout class and a meditation class during the work day in my calendar, so no one can schedule meetings with me at those times. If something at work starts to cause me stress or anxiety, I say no to it or excuse myself from the project/task.

This strategy won't work forever, but I am hoping that as my new lifestyle becomes more of a habit, the lifestyle changes will take less energy/willpower away from me, and start giving me energy. Then I can slowly start reaping the benefits of being healthier, and hopefully, more productive at work.

Sept Budget

OK, Sept is a little crazy because I went home for 3.5 weeks. But I guess I can still do a little round up of $$:

Spent at home: about $2K USD. Half of this was for a rental house for a family wedding next year. I'm getting paid back by family members now. My portion of the $900 bill is about $150. I've now fulfilled my spending for my $2K spend on my Bank of Hawaii 50K points deal credit card. Woohoo for Hawaii points!

I took $1.5K NZD out of savings for this trip, and all of that went to my credit card bill, after being converted to USD.

The rest of the cost of the trip just came out of my NZ checking account. I had accumulated enough from paychecks to cover it.

At the end of Sept., I still have about $1K left over to save:

	Sept 2016 Budget
Category	Spent	Budgeted Amount
Rent	$900.00	$900.00
Groceries	$288.08	$430.00
Internet	$26.33	$26.33
Electricity	$0.00	$50.00
Eating Out	$76.13	$150.00
Charity	$0.00	$50.00
Cell phone	$17.00	$40.00
Medical	$0.00	$75.00
Misc	$262.69	$700.00
Savings	$500.00	$500.00
Total	$2,070.23	$2,921.33
Remainder	$1,067.08	$1,019.50

I'll put the $1,067.08 towards savings. I've decided to get LASIK. I have a great recommendation from a friend for a doc in NZ and will get a discount if she refers me. It shouldn't be more than $5000 NZD.

Some of the spending from early October is included in here, but that's OK. Just means more $$ for October!

Electricity is covered by the annual dividend payout.

All in all, a good September with family, friends, exploring a new area, and trying to enjoy life in the US before the election.