Friday started with walking the girls to school, walk to Chiropractor, walk back home. Went to see my doctor for my current episode of heartburn and discover this clinic has a therapist! I got back home 10am and decided not to go to the office. After some work, I dived into this book for the rest of the day. OMG!
Following the series I started, I’ll record what I am focusing at
Physical
– Running, no surprise. I am getting back into running, very slowly. My next marathon is April 2024 so I am expecting to get into training soon. I’m excited as the training cycle is what I enjoy the most about the marathon.
– Build muscle. I’m aiming 2-3 times lifting sessions per week.
– Mobility and stretching to support my running and avoid injury.
– Chiropractor. I’m back on track with this. Now I’m starting the rebuilding phase. As I am pain free, now we focus on correct the imbalances, correcting posture, getting into habit of breathing walking sitting in the right ways.
– Manage heartburn. While I believe it’s partly driven by stress, there are things I can do to avoid additional triggers such as avoiding triggering food (citrus, spice, caffeine in empty stomach, fatty food, tomato sauce), and good habit of staying upright for 2-3 hrs before laying down. Eat without distraction and stress. This is a recurrent effort.
– No screen at least an hour before sleep. I’m pretty good at it in general but need to keep it up to ensure my good sleep. Sleep is THE most important recovery tool I have.
Mental
– Meditation. I fell off the habit of daily morning meditation. Need to get back to it consistently. Ideally, another meditation after I get back from work, to switch to family time. Will try to find a sustainable practice for this.
– Therapy. I will start therapy next week. I went to therapy when I was living in the US. I found it helpful. Then we relocated to Asia and never thought it would be possible to find a good therapist as it’s not common in Asia. My doctor that saw me for heartburn told me that their clinic has an Indonesia therapist trained in the UK. I will give it a try. We could work on better manage stress and prevent anxiety attacks that happened during COVID. Although it hasn’t happened for a while, it could be triggered easily if I don’t fully resolve it.
– Get exposed to new topics for my reading, podcast, movies. They invigorates me, put daily struggles into perspective, and just for the pure joy of learning new things.
What are you focusing lately as part of selfcare?
Our New Journey 
It sounds like you are doing some really serious work — bravo. This all sounds so hard and so worthwhile.
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I am always impressed with anyone who is prioritizing health so much. I know it is important but I can never really stick to it. However I am currently doing a sugar free month (no cake, cookies, candy) and I am actually doing rather good.
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Sounds wonderful!! Love those intentions. I don’t work out but I should. I am working on my mood especially around my cycles. I need to regroup and get back on the wagon with meditation, exercise, walking, and breathing exercises. I do not like therapy- it takes wayyyy too long for me and I don;t have that kind of energy right now.
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It sounds like you have a really good plan in place.
If I am focusing on something right now then it is cutting myself some slack. There is a lot of things I want or should do but right now I can’t do it all. So I do what I keep telling my kids: “Do the best you can and don’t beat yourself up over something that worked not as well as you expected.”
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I am so sorry you’re dealing with heart-burn. It’s no fun. But I love all the things that you’re working on for better self care. I’ve been doing daily yoga for months now and I am convinced it has helped a lot with mobility and calmness.
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Working with a therapist can be so very helpful. I hope you have a great experience!
I’m working on getting back to running and strength training now that I am feeling more healthy. I had to take the last 3 weeks off since I haven’t felt well and my body really needed rest.
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A lot of mine are similar to yours- running, lifting weights, mobility and stretching, trying to get more sleep…I have to admit I’m not even trying to meditate though. I also have some digestive issues- not heartburn but other things that I’m working on.
I hope your experience with therapy is a good one! I agree, it can be very helpful.
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I also experienced increased anxiety attacks and heartburn during COVID, to the point I had to start taking meds long-term. So weird!
My self-care focus right now is on cooking healthy meals and meditation. I used to meditate several times per week and have fallen off the wagon. It made a huge difference.
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