What Can You Do in Six Months?

The title was a bit of a struggle for this post. If you read my word-vomit post the other day, you’ll know that I recently got some shit news at the doctor’s office. And while at the end of the day, it’s relatively benign, it’s still the beginning of a slippery slope health-wise. I’ll dive into all a bit more in-depth shortly. I’ve talked a bit about the beauty of starting over before on the blog, but sometimes you need a proper push. For the last handful of years, I’ve just kind of been a passenger in my life. Not really taking charge, or when I did attempt to steer things along, I’d get derailed pretty easily. Sure, some things were out of my control (uhh, pandemic times, anyone?). But I was contentedly discontent to sit there and watch my life stagnantly go by. I get six months to make some changes health-wise from my doctor before having the dreaded medication discussion. So I thought, what else can you do in six months?

Quite a bit, if you’re really motivated.

Let’s talk about health, baby!

We’ll start with the health details. I’ve mentioned before that I have the autoimmune form of hypothyroid disease, Hashimoto’s. So I see an endocrinologist a couple of times a year. This time, it had been about a year since I had seen him, and he ordered the whole kit and caboodle when it comes to blood work. Unfortunately, those numbers weren’t so great. My thyroid hormones were all kinds of out of whack, but the bigger concern for me (and my doctor) was that my cholesterol was just this side of high. The normal range for someone my age tops out at 200, and mine was sitting at 204. Since I’m just barely tipping over, the doctor agreed to give me six months to get my numbers down, without adding an additional medication to my regime.

So, how do you change those numbers? Diet and exercise! Two things I’ve been trying to improve upon for years now. My diet recently has been a little atrocious (way too much fast food and not nearly enough vegetables) and exercise has been non-existent. So, I’ve been buckling down on meal planning and prep, and I recently signed up for Intention Factor’s Posture Program. I haven’t started it yet, because of illness and 100 other excuses, but I’m looking forward to getting in the gym again ASAP.

Secondly, my doctor has suggested ways to reduce my all-around stress and anxiety. I wouldn’t say that I have an anxiety disorder (no shame if you do) but because of some physical signs (massive hair loss, skin breakouts, heart racing), he thinks it would be beneficial for me to work on getting those levels down. To help combat these I’m getting back into yoga regularly, I’ve started attempting meditation, and journaling to help get some of these hectic thoughts out of my brain.

But what else?

Getting my health more in focus isn’t the only goal for these next six months. I’m a little tired of being a passenger of my own life. And while I know that I’m not going to do a complete 180 of my life in six months, I can start laying the foundation for the life I want. I read a quote recently that I want to share here:

If you think about it, it’s totally accurate. You CAN’T be the same person. Too many things have happened between then and now. That person that you were, doesn’t exist anymore. And the whole purpose of living is to grow and evolve and learn. So I can’t go back to who I was before I became so placid in my life. But I can thank her for existing and getting me to where I am now.

So next six months will consist of me working to build the life I want. Taking an active role and setting goals along the way. Learning to be myself, in whatever form that may take. I spend a lot of time trying to be who I think people want me to be or see me to be. And I think perhaps, I’m not quite that person. Or that person they think I am is not someone I want to be. I’ll be checking in each month around the 25th with myself, and I’ll share that here with you. I took some pictures and measurements to keep track of my progress physically, but I’ll be sharing about the spiritual and mental part of my journey too.

My focus for these first 30 days is mostly on the mental side of things. Trying to get routines/schedules into place so that things are more orderly, allowing me the free time to focus on other things. My morning routine is still pretty nonexistent at the moment, but I’m working on it. I know what I want it to look like, I just have to implement it. As for my evening routine, it still needs a bit of work. The Oura ring app has guided meditations in it, so I’ve been listening to those and doing legs up the wall pose before bed. I can not yet report back any major changes from doing so, lol!

So, what could you accomplish in six months? Leave me a comment below, or shoot me an email if you need support along the way in your journey!