Normally I do this sort of thing in January, but because of complications hosting Chris' younger brother, it just didn't happen. Then the coronavirus stuff happened, and now the future is really kind of uncertain overall. Still, you can't just sit on your hands and expect everything to work itself out neatly for you, so here's my best effort at my goals and future planning. Things may change, but that's life, and that's okay.
Typically I want my goals to be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. This year, stuff is so up in the air that I'm not sure I'm going to rigidly adhere to those excellent criteria.
I can't decide whether I succeeded here or not. On one hand, I didn't have a regular Wednesday exercise day like I'd envisioned. On the other hand, I definitely did go walking with my friend Tsushi nearly every week, and sometimes those times involved tramping through the outdoors picking wild food.
Life kind of went haywire starting around October in my personal life and in one friend circle, and I ended up being moving crew a lot for a significant amount of time. It was great exercise. On the flip side, I got the flu around that time.. which meant I got almost no exercise for a whole week.
I don't feel great about my progress on this goal, but in an effort to be kind to myself, I'm going to note that I technically achieved this... just not the way I wanted to. One of the books I read recently notes that indoor exercise, the gym, my exercise bike, etc, is not really a good environment for humans, ie: boring. So you want to do more with the outside. I'm just not sure how I feel about going for a walk in biting winter winds.
2. Finish my catching up on the MBMBaM podcast and get started on the wider range of podcasts I've already set up for myself.
I succeeded! And then promptly fell behind again! But I did branch out to new stuff. Sadly most of the blog-relevant podcasts turned out to be dead ends. Still, I've gotten to bone up on a lot of more self-care relevant things, like mythology, books, and new/interesting ideas. So, a success! At least as written. I don't know how feasible keeping up-to-date on 18 podcasts is, but that's how many I'm subscribed to.
If you have disability podcast recommendations, especially ones related to current news and issues, I'd love to hear about them.
3. Quantify the environmental downers around the house I can be susceptible to, and eliminate or treat the issues if at all possible.
This one I didn't entirely succeed at. Or to be more precise, I hit a dead end. The idea was to find stuff besides mold and the algae that messes me up, but in all honesty, we couldn't find anything. *Something* is probably messing me up and making me generate so many histamines, but it's not my diet, and it's not really my bedding either, given that I wash that once a week in hot water.
We could still shell out to re-tile the master bathroom (an area that was noted to be slightly moldy in the house inspection), and that's on the list of home repairs I'd like to have handled, but it's expensive, and the money isn't there right now.
I'm stalled on the histamine issue, too. Vitamin C doesn't seem to be doing the trick, so perhaps when I can breathe again, I'll look into trying specific herbs or other avenues. I simply haven't had the energy since about October.
4. Pick up an autism-related volunteer or paid job.
I did this! And then there didn't seem to be enough work for me, so it sort of fell through after a few months. So uh. Success? Failure? Failcess? I'd hoped to use this to get more hooked into services and people, but that didn't really happen. So probably closer to failure. I'm a little frustrated about this because I had a car and mobility, and now I don't as much, so trying to get a job at a further place would be significantly more difficult.
Strictly speaking I already have this, at least in name, but in practice I'm just not sure how much work is actually going to come from it. When the quarantine lifts, I may ask further in that organization. I may also simply look into work unrelated to autism, like the local library.
My spouse is currently furloughed from his job, which is to say his job will be waiting for him in June sometime (hopefully). Likely the local library is going to have a truly absurd number of job applications, on account of it being walking distance for a lot of folks. Still, any income's better than none. I have to think on it further, and there may be other places I could apply. Libraries tend to be comfortable, safe places to me, though, and it's literally a mile's walk from my house.
Typically I want my goals to be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. This year, stuff is so up in the air that I'm not sure I'm going to rigidly adhere to those excellent criteria.
2019's Goals:
1. Exercise at least 3 days a week, at least a half hour each session, minimum.I can't decide whether I succeeded here or not. On one hand, I didn't have a regular Wednesday exercise day like I'd envisioned. On the other hand, I definitely did go walking with my friend Tsushi nearly every week, and sometimes those times involved tramping through the outdoors picking wild food.
Life kind of went haywire starting around October in my personal life and in one friend circle, and I ended up being moving crew a lot for a significant amount of time. It was great exercise. On the flip side, I got the flu around that time.. which meant I got almost no exercise for a whole week.
I don't feel great about my progress on this goal, but in an effort to be kind to myself, I'm going to note that I technically achieved this... just not the way I wanted to. One of the books I read recently notes that indoor exercise, the gym, my exercise bike, etc, is not really a good environment for humans, ie: boring. So you want to do more with the outside. I'm just not sure how I feel about going for a walk in biting winter winds.
2. Finish my catching up on the MBMBaM podcast and get started on the wider range of podcasts I've already set up for myself.
I succeeded! And then promptly fell behind again! But I did branch out to new stuff. Sadly most of the blog-relevant podcasts turned out to be dead ends. Still, I've gotten to bone up on a lot of more self-care relevant things, like mythology, books, and new/interesting ideas. So, a success! At least as written. I don't know how feasible keeping up-to-date on 18 podcasts is, but that's how many I'm subscribed to.
If you have disability podcast recommendations, especially ones related to current news and issues, I'd love to hear about them.
3. Quantify the environmental downers around the house I can be susceptible to, and eliminate or treat the issues if at all possible.
This one I didn't entirely succeed at. Or to be more precise, I hit a dead end. The idea was to find stuff besides mold and the algae that messes me up, but in all honesty, we couldn't find anything. *Something* is probably messing me up and making me generate so many histamines, but it's not my diet, and it's not really my bedding either, given that I wash that once a week in hot water.
We could still shell out to re-tile the master bathroom (an area that was noted to be slightly moldy in the house inspection), and that's on the list of home repairs I'd like to have handled, but it's expensive, and the money isn't there right now.
I'm stalled on the histamine issue, too. Vitamin C doesn't seem to be doing the trick, so perhaps when I can breathe again, I'll look into trying specific herbs or other avenues. I simply haven't had the energy since about October.
4. Pick up an autism-related volunteer or paid job.
I did this! And then there didn't seem to be enough work for me, so it sort of fell through after a few months. So uh. Success? Failure? Failcess? I'd hoped to use this to get more hooked into services and people, but that didn't really happen. So probably closer to failure. I'm a little frustrated about this because I had a car and mobility, and now I don't as much, so trying to get a job at a further place would be significantly more difficult.
2020's goals:
1. Gather and prepare more wild food.
There's a few reasons for this. First, it helps to have an additional food supply besides the grocery store. We're not in danger of starving or running out of food money anytime soon, but stretching it as far as we can is smart. Second, having a diverse diet is good for everyone, but especially people with unsteady biological systems, like myself and other autistic people.
Third, the organisms that you come into contact with and consume in wild food can help strengthen and diversify your gut bacteria, which means less digestive issues. This is very good news for me, because I have gut issues already and have for decades.
 |
| This is a young dandelion greens salad I made a few weeks ago, with olive oil and salt. I'd like to eat more wild salads like this, but dandelions have to be picked very young or they're INCREDIBLY bitter. |
2. Pick up a volunteer or paid job.
Strictly speaking I already have this, at least in name, but in practice I'm just not sure how much work is actually going to come from it. When the quarantine lifts, I may ask further in that organization. I may also simply look into work unrelated to autism, like the local library.
My spouse is currently furloughed from his job, which is to say his job will be waiting for him in June sometime (hopefully). Likely the local library is going to have a truly absurd number of job applications, on account of it being walking distance for a lot of folks. Still, any income's better than none. I have to think on it further, and there may be other places I could apply. Libraries tend to be comfortable, safe places to me, though, and it's literally a mile's walk from my house.
3. Incorporate daily exercise into my life.
At the moment I'm not sure what this is going to look like. I have Ring Fit Adventure, which I can use on days the weather is bad. I have hiking/searching for wild food, which definitely qualifies as exercise. I have my exercise bike and Dance Dance Revolution equipment. And I have my bike. So I do have options.
What I'd like to do, I guess, is have at least 10 minutes of exercise built into every day (except Sunday). That might be as simple as using Ring Fit every day, and whatever else happens, happens. As video games go, it's kind and supportive while still being reasonably demanding, and you can absolutely work up a sweat playing it.
I tend to do best with a schedule, so that's probably my best option. And I should probably also build it into my morning routine so I have the good effects of exercise for my day, plus the accomplishment of doing that to boost my morale.
My biggest irritation with it is that I have to move the coffee table to play the game, then move it back so we can use the space normally. You'd think that wouldn't be much, but doing it day after day irritates me a lot for some reason. Makes me not want to put the effort in.
4. Survive the coronavirus/quarantine/etc.
This probably goes without needing an explanation, but the uncertainty of everything is kind of difficult for people that don't do well with change. Such as most autistic people. And myself.
I'm less worried about physical needs, like food and shelter, at the moment, and more just entirely exhausted. I'll write about why at a later point, when I'm not so emotionally overwrought about it.
At any rate, with Chris home all the time now, and my still wanting to do this blog and possibly other work, there's going to be a lot of adjustments needed.
At the moment I'm not sure what this is going to look like. I have Ring Fit Adventure, which I can use on days the weather is bad. I have hiking/searching for wild food, which definitely qualifies as exercise. I have my exercise bike and Dance Dance Revolution equipment. And I have my bike. So I do have options.
What I'd like to do, I guess, is have at least 10 minutes of exercise built into every day (except Sunday). That might be as simple as using Ring Fit every day, and whatever else happens, happens. As video games go, it's kind and supportive while still being reasonably demanding, and you can absolutely work up a sweat playing it.
I tend to do best with a schedule, so that's probably my best option. And I should probably also build it into my morning routine so I have the good effects of exercise for my day, plus the accomplishment of doing that to boost my morale.
My biggest irritation with it is that I have to move the coffee table to play the game, then move it back so we can use the space normally. You'd think that wouldn't be much, but doing it day after day irritates me a lot for some reason. Makes me not want to put the effort in.
4. Survive the coronavirus/quarantine/etc.
This probably goes without needing an explanation, but the uncertainty of everything is kind of difficult for people that don't do well with change. Such as most autistic people. And myself.
I'm less worried about physical needs, like food and shelter, at the moment, and more just entirely exhausted. I'll write about why at a later point, when I'm not so emotionally overwrought about it.
At any rate, with Chris home all the time now, and my still wanting to do this blog and possibly other work, there's going to be a lot of adjustments needed.
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