Tuesday, January 22, 2013

One Rock at a Time

I shared at the beginning of the year that I'm approaching my New Year's goals differently than some people do.  I have my seven "rocks" and goals in place for each one:

God-get closer to God (daily reading and journaling)
Health-eat for health and energy 
neck exercises to prevent migraines
Family-build a stronger marriage (date nights, read books)
save for family camp
have a clean home
Kids-spend focused time with each child
teach them to be more independent
Financial-save up fully funded emergency fund of 3-6 months of expenses
Career-attend Launch conference
take Apple One-on-One classes for new computer
write more
Personal fulfillment- Audition for Unbeatable

Instead of trying to attack all of the goals at once, I chose start with two and then once I got those two things comfortably rolling, I'd add another.  I chose to focus on my Bible reading and writing more.  I have hit a rhythm with those two habits so I felt it was time to add something else. Boy am I glad I went  that route.

Health is a really important concept to me.  When I speak to groups, I share that God is my first rock and health is my second.  That goes against what some of us are taught, especially moms.  "Our kids should be our next rock," or "Our marriage should be our next rock."  Well, it's not like I'm neglecting either of those things in order to have my health. I still take care of my kids and my husband but I know from experience that if I'm not healthy, I cannot perform my other tasks well. 

I suffer from migraines which will keep me in bed way more often than I want.  Even when I power through the pain because I have to in order to take care of my kids, I'm not the mom I want to be. I've been holding most of the headaches at bay with caffeine but it got to the point where I was creating a cycle of getting a headache, drink a latte to make it go away, get another headache, drink another latte. When I realized I was memorizing the play list at Starbucks, I knew something had to change. In less than a two month period, I went from one latte a week to almost one a day.

Before having kids, I got really healthy. I learned that eliminating refined sugars, refined carbohydrates, caffeine, and dairy worked really well for my body.  Not only did I not have a headache during that time, it really helped with my depression. 

Having a migraine this last Saturday, I decided it was time to put the health rock back into the jar.  I had one cup of black coffee hoping it would make the migraine go away, but it didn't.  That was the last coffee I have had. Also, no dairy or sugar.

People, let me tell you, the last couple of days have been hellacious!!!! Horrid pain behind my eye, in my sinuses, my neck, my shoulder, my jaw and I was shaky and thought I might throw-up. While sitting at the park watching my kids play, my husband asked if there was anything he could do and all I could do was cry. I felt like a junkie sitting on that park bench shaking and hoping to not toss my cookies. Today is better. Instead of 9 on a pain scale of 1-10, I'm at a 5 or 6.

I know it's going to get better and I'll continue to add steps to my health rock once the detox is over. My plan to take each goal one step at a time is definitely working out well.  I can't imagine trying to do anything else while going through this withdrawal period.

How are your goals going? Are you ready to take on something new or maybe you need to pick up a rock that you put down a few weeks ago?

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