The Year of Health: January

I’m not sure if I’m actually going to do an update every month, I sure didn’t during The Year of Order, but given this is the month when the theme is supposed to be established, I figure some sort of proof of work is necessary.

Diet

The goal of smaller portions and fewer snacks has… not really happened. Rather, I’ve ended up trying to pivot to healthier foods and snacks.

More of what I cook now has vegetables in it. The microwave meals that are a staple for work lunches in our household have, for me at least, been replaced by Slimming World alternatives. Snacks are more often yogurt and cream cheese rather than cakes and biscuits.

I cut out regular caffeine about a week and a half before the new year and… that was rough.

In the first fortnight after doing that, there were some days when I just slept at every opportunity. Lie-in in the morning, nap over lunch, back to bed immediately after work, an early night after a brief waking period for dinner. There were days when the hours I was at work were basically the only hours I spent awake, such was the degree of my lethargy.

The situation has improved a fair bit since then, and I can once again make it through the day without a drip of that good, good energy juice. It’s had the side-effect of caffeine actually being somewhat effective again, too, rather than a thing passively consumed every day.

I’ve made some vague attempts to lower the amount of sugar and salt in the things I eat, but given this was never something I measured in the first place, I don’t have a benchmark for where that’s at. I’m eating fewer instant noodles, so maybe that’s something.

Exercise

I’m happy to report that exercise has been more hits than misses, so far.

I’ve settled into a routine of trying to do half an hour of cycling-without-going-anywhere four days a week, going on a decently long walk of at least a couple of miles two days a week, and having one day where I just don’t do nuffin.

Cycling has been a mix of Apple Fitness+ workouts (gotta use that subscription for something, right?) and just doing it while watching TV or in a work meeting.

The workouts are more intense, involving a lot of rapidly changing speed and resistance, but this means that I actually have to focus on what I’m doing, which in turn makes it harder to slot them into my normal day.

The walking has been a mixed bag. I used to go on long walks during the Covid lockdowns, but have since fallen out of the practice. I quite like having the excuse to see new bits of Bristol again.

The downside has been the pain. Pretty much all of my resting days so far have been after walking days, because walking five to eight miles without stopping is something my feet and legs apparently disagree with.

Mental health

Medical anxiety started the year exceptionally high, relaxed a little, spiked again, and is now back to being more relaxed.

Other stuff has been okay, though with the decaffeinated lethargy also came a marked drop in social energy, so I’ve not been too chatty this last month either.

Medical stuff

My blood pressure is still very high, but it seems to have fallen quite a lot from the measurement made before Christmas.

I’ve seen the doctor about being tested for sleep apnea, with the initial questions already pointing to a very high likelihood of it being the case. They consider it quite likely that apnea is a contributing factor to my high blood pressure, so there’s the chance of dealing with both at once.

With this, I’m now awaiting:

• bloodwork to see how HRT treatment is going.
• a follow-up appointment about medicating high blood pressure.
• a referral to a speech therapist.
• a referral to laser hair removal.
• a referral to a sleep study.
• a potential referral to a dermatologist.

That’s a spicy medical meatball of stuff. Goddamn.

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