list of goals in a bullet journal

2021 – The year of building better habits

I love a good planner, last year I had The Happiness Planner’s daily planner and loved it! Being out of work this year I couldn’t justify buying that again but found a comparable one on Amazon and have everything broken down into yearly, quarterly, monthly, and weekly goals. I think maybe I like the planning more than the actual doing, but never mind that…

In December we bought a treadmill. We loved having one before and used it until the motor went and after most of a year of being stuck at home and eating more junk and drinking more alcohol than usual we needed to start making healthier choices. It arrived just before Christmas and we have both been using it regularly ever since.

New habits

January was focused on job stuff, eating healthier, and exercising consistently. Hubby is doing Couch to 5K and doing really good with the running. I was running, but when I pulled a muscle it was agony and I haven’t gone back to it properly yet. I have been doing a lot of incline training which is really helping my stamina when we go walking outside – every direction is hills!

Throughout January I made the following changes:

  • Followed a 30 Day Yoga practice and did it nearly every day.
  • Worked out at least 3 times a week, either on the treadmill or something else (yoga not included).
  • Cut down on takeaways. I think we had two over the whole month.
  • Ate less meat. A couple of meals a week were veggie or vegan.
  • Started logging food in My Fitness Pal again so I can keep track of calorie deficits.
  • Cut down on alcohol. I had 6 glasses of wine the whole of January (compared to at least one glass every single day during the summer).
  • Overall just ate healthier, us both being home and getting food delivered rather than going out to the shop means we aren’t tempted to buy things we fancy and we stick to what we have at home.
Supplements again?!

Boxing day sales online meant I could get new supplements that a nutritionist I follow highlighted specifically to help with PCOS and I started taking everything properly to see if they would make a difference.

So my current supplement routine looks like this:

  • CBD Oil
  • Vitamin D-3
  • Inositol (AM and PM)
  • L-Carnitine
  • Omega 3s
  • St John’s Wort
  • Vitamin B Complex

The St John’s Wort is for mood (Vitamin D helps with this too!). Inositol, carnitine, Vitamin D should all help with insulin resistance. I am now taking the proper dosage of Inositol (2-3mg a day) and carnitine consistently. I’ll be tracking how I feel on the supplements over a few months and seeing how they make me feel overall.

So how did January go?

In January I’ve consistently lost weight each week, not just a big number at the start and then tapering off. This is consistently between 1-3lbs a week I’m losing.

For comparison… When I was seeing my doctor every month to help me lose weight I was losing on average 4lbs a month. When I was on metformin that the fertility specialist gave me I lost a stone (14lbs) in about 6 weeks. It’s worth mentioning during that 6 weeks I was also following the Blood Sugar Diet and only eating around 800-1000 calories a day.

But right now, doing consistent exercise so I burn more calories, eating healthier the vast majority of the time, and taking these supplements I’ve lost weight consistently and not fast enough to be worried about it not being healthy. I also lost 7 inches in the 6 weeks from New Year’s to last week.

In terms of calories, I’m logging everything and I have days where I am on track and have a deficit and I have days where I’m slightly over, or way over depending on my level of activity for the day. I’m consistently eating less calories than I was before and making an effort to not go overboard except when we plan to splurge.

Other side effects

These aren’t really side effects, but the positive effects of the changes I’ve made so far that I’ve noticed.

My average resting heart rate has come down nearly 20bpm. It’s still probably considered high but, for me, that’s a massive win. It spiked on Sunday and I realised we had shared a bottle of prosecco Saturday night. It’s back down to what it was before that now.

I can do the very hilly 5K route we walk in just under an hour now, instead of nearly 90 minutes.

I’m a little bit more flexible, thanks to the yoga. A lot of the moves are easier to do, and I know with continued practice I’ll continue getting better and be able to do more.

I’m more energetic and getting more done during the day (we’ll see how that changes when I start work!).

And now, with my work space upstairs in one of the spare bedrooms, I’ll definitely be hitting my climb 10 floors each day goal on my Garmin (and getting more steps in as a result).

February habits

The habit I’m trying to build in February is adding meditation to my routine. Maybe as part of my yoga practice? I’ll find a place for it to sit in my new schedule when I have it worked out and then build on it.

What habits are you trying to build? Let me know in the comments!