Self-Healing Update

A few months ago, I wrote about my struggles with worsening anxiety and depression, serious fatigue, digestive problems (lots of bloating) dehydration, trouble waking up in the morning, and just generally not being comfortable in my body. I wrote a post outlining my plan to heal. Now, I'm going to discuss if I was able to stick to my plan, and if so, how it helped me... I'll do so item by item. Because ya girl's organized. 

I must say, after a few months of doing these practices to the best of my ability, I do feel almost completely better. So let's jump into it.

1. Prioritizing my self care on a daily basis. This was by far the hardest one. Sometimes I just wanted to stay in bed and do nothing, you know? That's the depression in me. But most of the time, I was able to push myself out of bed and treat myself to a warm shower, a hot coffee, a good book, a pastry from a local coffee shop, some gentle yoga.
2. Weekly therapy. SO HELPFUL. My therapist (who's a gym rat) was able to work with me to create a nourishing and stress-free exercise plan, and I am so grateful for that. We also worked through my anxiety and a few emotional blockages that I had been struggling with. It really is true that emotional blockages can create physical ones (constipation, fatigue, etc.)
3. Speaking with a nutritionist and a doctor, and getting proper diagnoses and medication. Ugh, so I was SUPER vitamin B12 deficient (I blame being vegetarian and not taking supplements) very vitamin D deficient (thanks, MASSACHUSETTS WINTER) have a slightly under-active thyroid, and I was also struggling with anemia. According to one of the blood tests, there was a good amount of inflammation in my body, though the test didn't say where.  Naturally, my doctor's and my minds went straight to my endometriosis, which is inflammatory. Seriously though, these VITAMIN DEFICIENCIES are KILLER. Taking B12 sublingually, iron, and vitamin D as soon as I wake up in the morning have been ABSOLUTELY KEY.
4. Cutting back on red meat, grain and sugar consumption. Ok, so I failed at this because it was the holidays. I definitely ate a lot of pie and drank wine. Also, I've been eating more red meat instead of less, and actually finding that it helps with my energy/iron deficiency problems. My old diet was seriously lacking protein.
5. Focusing my diet on nourishing plant and animal-based foods instead of just plants. Yes, I did do this. And so far it's going well. Since the holidays have ended, I've been eating sort of Paleo-style, with a moderate amount of fat and heavy protein. I'm eating a lot of veggies, a lot of chicken and ground beef, a good amount of cheese, avocado, eggs and coconut milk, very few grain products, and almost no sugar. I've been substituting with erythritol, stevia, and other sugar subs that don't spike insulin.
6. Stop hitting snooze. Yeah, I didn't do this. I still hit snooze every day. I really should stop.
7. Going to the gym/making space for daily movement! YES, I did this!! I normally hate working out, but I am DOING IT and my body is loving it. I've been doing a combination of HIIT, basic cardio, yoga, dance, spinning, and weight lifting. I've found that mixing it up is key for me because I get bored very easily.
8. Creating a productive morning routine. Ok, this is still in the works. Being in the last semester of my thesis means I REALLY have to buckle down and get work done, and what better time than the morning to do so? But I am really not a morning person, so I'm working to change that about myself. It's
9. Giving myself a water goal (again.) I've been pretty good about this the past week or so, but before that...I sucked at it.
10. Taking my vitamins. See goal #4... I'm doing pretty well with this! I could stand to take an extra probiotic and biotin though.

So all in all, my goals are slowly but surely coming to fruition. What I really need to focus on in these next few weeks is my morning routine. Plans really soothe my soul, so I need to make a strict morning schedule that I can actually stick to. This will be instrumental in these last few months of my thesis.