Review of last year / December Goals / Goals for January

Last year was not the easiest of years. I had torn my ACL in my right knee a week before Halloween of 2019. I went through some rehab and then had my ACL replaced in February. I will say that it's probably one of the most painful surgeries I've been through and I've had 9 surgeries in my life. I started physical therapy about a week or two after surgery. Just as I was getting ready to go back to the YMCA to use the pool, the pandemic hit and everything went on lockdown. I continued with physical therapy for several months until they felt like my knee / leg were healed to the point where I wasn't going to benefit from therapy anymore. I could have really benefited from using the pool while I was healing but having a compromised immune system I didn't feel comfortable going back to the Y even though they were limiting how many people could be there by requiring everyone to make an appointment.

Towards the ends of spring we did get some recumbent tricycles this summer but we got a little bored with the same routes. We meant to get a rack to put on the back of the vehicle but we never did. We were a little paranoid to spend too much money with so many people's jobs ending. I did shed a little bit of weight over the summer though.

Just as my knee was almost completely healed I partially tore my knew ACL and bruised the bone. I'm still going through physiotherapy and am getting close to being done with it. However, after my orthopedic surgeon diagnosed that I had partially torn my new ACL I told him about the pain I'd been having in my other knee. When we lived in Missouri I had been exercising when my left knee went in the opposite direction of my leg. I thought I had torn the meniscus but I didn't trust the doctor's there to do surgery and I didn't have the money to pay what my insurance wouldn't pay. So, I never had it checked. My orthopedic surgeon here had an MRI done on it. He said that the ACL was completely torn and there was a vertical tear in the meniscus. I was supposed to have ACL replacement surgery in November a week before Thanksgiving but the Covid numbers here were so high I decided to postpone my surgery 'til February. The numbers are kind of high again so I'm debating to postpone the surgery again.

With all of the ups and downs of this past year and dealing with pain I gained weight and I'm at my highest weight ever. A friend of mine from junior high and high school has been working with her cousin whom is a nutrition, health and fitness coach. I talked with him and decided to work with him to try to get this extra weight off. He's not cheap by any means but in just 1 week of just a little bit of nutrition coaching I shed a 1/2 lb. While that isn't a lot it's better than seeing the scale numbers go up. I took measurements and pictures at the beginning of this journey with him so that I can track my progress that way as well.

For December, the only goals I had was to not gain more weight and to hopefully shed some.

January Goals

Coaching: Do the 4 tasks that are assigned to me each day from my coach.

Habits: Do a 5-minute action each day. This is just one of the things I picked up from my coach.

1. Based on what you know of yourself, pick ONE improvement you want to make.

2. Break that ONE improvement down into a very, very, very small and simple chunk.
A chunk you can do in 5–10 minutes, today. That chunk is your "5-minute action".

3. Do ONE small "5-minute action".

4.Then tick off your habit.

I can pick a different action every day, or try the same one.
Either way, this will help me practice changing something daily.

Weight: I'd really like to shed at least a few pounds this month.