This week is all about what it takes to make it to the next rung of my goal ladder. It's eerily like sprinting towards the finish line after jogging a long marathon. There's a lot to be done and I plan on seeing it through.
The primary areas that I haven't succeeded in this month are mental exercises, reading and meditating. I've found these easy to push aside for things like work and dieting. This week, I've scheduled in extra time specifically to those areas. I should be able to finish my book by Saturday if I stick to it. I'll be meditating every other day to make up for not having touched it the past few weeks. I'll also be increasing memorization and memory games this week. If I can stick to the schedule, I'll have no problems marking those items at 100% on my final check-in.
As I mentioned in my last journal, I've been unable to weigh myself this past week. I'm looking forward to Wednesday when I can find out where I am on my diet and adjust accordingly. This may mean adding in extra exercise hours or cutting down my calories a bit to make sure I hit my goal. I ate out only once on a night where my husband worked until 10 PM. As he's the chef of the house, that put us in a tight spot for food. When I ordered, I cut back so significantly on what I would typically get that I still stayed within my diet. I'm pretty proud of that. Otherwise, I've been staying on top of my salads and have been tracking my meals with MyFitnessPal.com. I wasn't supposed to be tracking my meals until around March, but I decided to start it early in hopes of hitting my goal weight for this month right on time.
Tomorrow I need to call to my doctor's office to find out how much my thyroid lab work is without insurance and how long it takes to process. Depending on his answer, I could be getting it as soon as the last week of January. I'm hoping I can push it as close to the 18th of February as I can. That day marks the last of my levothyroxine. I'll also need to ask how often I'll need my lab work done. I know the last time I was there, they were thinking of every three to six months. That'll tell me how many times I'll have to go to fulfill my goal of keeping up with my blood work.
More or less, here's a quick list summary of the above. Think of it as a to do list for this week.
- Meditate every other day.
- Finish my current book.
- Use my memory phone application every day.
Weigh myself on Wednesday. Weighed early and under weekly goal!Adjust my diet and exercise accordingly. No need.Call my doctor's office about my thyroid tests. Around $40. Results in the next day.
Also, as we see the first day of February next week, I'm starting to look forward to goals I have specifically for that month. Here's a list of things I need to do sometime before January 31st to prepare for February's goals:
- Decide on a theme for my personal illustrations.
- Sketch out thumbnails for my personal illustrations.
- Sit down with my husband and our bank accounts to analyze our budget.
Divide February's home organization goal of the office into four smaller chores for each week.- Get two clear water bottles so I can mark the hours of the day on them to ensure 8 glasses of water a day in February.
Get a jar to put money in for each pound lost.- Get some loose ones to put in the jar for each pound lost.
- Select a new book to read.
- Plan out February date night.
Busy busy. With that, I think I'm going to bed and getting some rest. I'm going to need to energy if I'm going to make this sprint towards the finish line of my January goals!
I only get thyroid lab work done once a year, unless the dosage gets changed. Have you asked about payment options? Doctors offices are sometimes willing to take payment plans or partially reduce the amount due. Try letting your actual doctor know that you don't have insurance. I've had specialists in the past waive my visits when I had issues with insurance.
ReplyDeleteI was technically still in the testing phase when I lost insurance, so I don't know if they'll set me to once a year. You've been very lucky with payments. Doctors around here aren't so understanding. I went for three years without health insurance and was never once offered any kind of payment plan, reduced amount or fee waiver. I was just expected to pay up.
DeleteI guess it helped to have a PPO insurance beforehand where I could pick and choose to stay with a specialist that I liked, one who cared and listened. They're not always easy to find, especially with no insurance and less practices offering free consultations these days. You usually have to ask the billing center for a payment plan/reduced amount. Hopefully your tests won't be too expensive out of pocket!
Delete