Changes

 A couple of weeks ago a friend of Lee-Anne's family passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. She was only sixty and passed from a heart attack with no prior health concerns. Last weekend we went to her funeral.

I wasn't particularly close to her but I did get to meet her. It was at Lee-Anne's parents 40th anniversary. We were sitting at the same table and chatted a lot. I remember being warned about her wicked sense of humour and being worried about getting roasted. But when I met her I found that she was more the type to get information on you and do "bits" like a stand-up comedian. She teased but it made you feel included and "in" on the joke, not bullied like I felt people had prepared me for.

Lee-Anne's parents were close enough to her that they read a passage from the Bible at the funeral ceremony. She was going to be invited to our wedding this September.

We're going to dedicate a spot with her picture so that she'll be with us on the day posthumously. There's a couple of other people that we'll include with that.

In other news, my boss just retired. He'd been working for our agency for thirty years. His first twenty-three were in the position I presently have, and the last seven were as a manager. As a branch of Extend-a-Family, we're a pretty small team of just seven people, so whenever there's a staff change it feels like a big shift. 

Obviously when the person leaving is the manager, that feels even more significant. We know who's taking his role though. It's the person on our team with the most seniority and we all trust her, so hopefully the transition will be smooth.

We'll still need a new employee to take the position that the new boss is leaving. Lee-Anne's joked about applying, since she recently finished a paid internship and is looking for work. I think that would be awkward.

Two weeks ago I taught a Safe Management session. Over the pandemic it was sometimes impossible to teach the course due to lockdowns so it was removed as a requirement. There were times when we were allowed to do the training, but we weren't able to generate enough interest as long as it wasn't required.

During this time, I provided some really awkward virtual trainings for the WALES team (my team) and the Summer Program, and I did one in-person session for WALES.

This was the first time back teaching the general public though. There are usually three instructors at the agency, but the two that aren't me quit during the pandemic. We hired two more people, but only one of them has had an opportunity to teach. It was for the in-person WALES session, and since she used to be on that team, the pressure was off.

Now it is required again, and the pressure was on. The other facilitator had been hired and trained nearly a year ago, and this was her first time teaching. It's almost time for her to recertify as a trainer and she just taught her first course.

It went fine. Usually we host the training once every three months, but because we have such a backlog, we need to host trainings monthly for a bit.

In other news, my Christmas gift for Lee-Anne arrived:

2022 Year In Review

2022 was a very clinical year. I reconnected with my family doctor for the first time in ten years. I got my adult ADHD diagnosis and I also learned that I had type 2 diabetes. I got started on a bunch of medication and made some pretty significant lifestyle changes, especially around diet. So far it's paid off, having made significant progress by my second meeting with my family doctor.

If the theme of 2020 was COVID, and for 2021 it was adjusting to life with Lee-Anne, 2022 was about diagnoses.

Globally, the most significant event was probably Russia invading Ukraine, which happened last February and is still ongoing now, almost a year later. I tried writing a draft for this post and when I was overviewing the war, it wound up long enough to be its own update. So I'll leave this part as is for now. I might make a specific post for it later, since it's basically already written out. I know I said I wouldn't talk on this subject, but I guess I will.

Queen Elizabeth II died. I actually didn't mention this on the blog. She ruled for 70 years and died at the age of 96. She was the longest ruling British monarch.

Otherwise, apparently I'm not the only one creeped out by the new, art-producing artificial intelligence. The general term for systems built to simulate creativity is called "generative AI" and it was released to the public in 2022.

As far as favourite posts of the year, the three updates surrounding my diagnosis, "I'm Diabetic", "My Health Journey" and "Frustration With Medical Tech" felt significant. I waited three months before going public. 

Well... This blog doesn't get enough traffic to really count as "going public", but it was when I made the information publicly available. Didn't feel like I was hiding it after those posts. You kind of have to read all three of those entries to get a full sense of the chronology and my experience. I wasn't able to condense things into one update.

But if I were going to choose a favourite post based on enjoyability, I really liked the one where I talked about my genealogy results. I had a 23AndMe test done and I learned that I am 99.3% Northwestern European with my largest chunk of blood being Scandinavian. My Dutch ancestry from the Landstreet side turned out to be from what is now modern day Germany. Unfortunately, I also found out that I have 90% less Neanderthal DNA than the average modern-day human.

2023 New Years' Resolutions

Let's go over last year's resolutions and see how I did.

Last year I resolved to:

• Make 55 blog posts between this one and my satellite blogs

In 2020 I had the goal to update 40 times, which I did with a total post count of 53. 

Last year I had the goal of updating at least 50 times, which I achieved with 54 total posts. However, some of them were to my other blogs and my main one hit a record low with only 34 updates.  

For 2022 I resolved to update 55 times, which I succeeded at with 63 updates, 35 being on this one. So I surpassed my total updates goal and improved activity on this one specifically, albeit by a single post. Of my other blogs, my recipe blog had by far the most activity with 26 updates. Otherwise I only updated my review blog twice, and didn't update my images blog even once. This means I failed a couple of my resolutions but I'll get to that later.

Going forward, I think it's reasonable to keep my total blog activity to a minimum of 55, with 35 of them being on this one.

Recipes I posted in 2022: yellow coconut curry, spinach artichoke dip, chili, beef stew, coleslaw, soda bread, Irish stew, chicken enchiladas, black bean burgers, lasagna, orange cranberry scones, roasted Brussels sprouts, apple cinnamon waffles, tzatziki, souvlaki, cornbread,  jerk chicken, pulled pork, butter chicken, crispy basa, butternut squash soup, stuffed peppers, Oreo peanut butter tarts, lentil soup, shepherd's pie, and sweet potato fries

Obviously my diabetes diagnosis rendered a bunch of those recipes irrelevant. No soda bread, lasagna, scones, or waffles for me now. I think getting my diagnosis actually motivated me to make a bunch of posts though, as I was trying to find ways to make my diet work (some of the newer recipes have diabetic friendly workarounds, like the shepherd's pie used mashed rutabaga instead of potato)

• Walk 30 km average, weekly

I was keeping track of my kilometers by recording my weekly distance on a wall calendar. It got knocked down and ripped up by the cats. I thought I'd salvaged it but apparently I lost the month of June, so I only have 47 weeks of data. But I don't think it should smudge the numbers much. I don't remember slacking in June.

In 2021 the goal was 25 km and I averaged 33.3. Last year's goal was 30 and I averaged 36.4. This year I think it's reasonable to go for an average of 35 or higher.

• Start twice-weekly body weight workout routine

Results become more disappointing for the resolutions going forward. I don't think I can properly say I made working out a habit, but I have been doing it more often. After my diabetic diagnosis I increased my effort but I'd like to form it into more of a schedule.

• Have one meat-free day per week

We were keeping track of this for awhile, but eventually it just became something we "tried to do" instead of making sure we dedicated a specific day to it. Still had a lot of tofu stirfry, three bean chili, and lentil soup.

• Read six non-work related books and post reviews to my blog for each

I only managed three. I finished my sixth book of 2021 in early 2022, so you could either say I met my 2021 goal, or you could add it to my 2022 list and I come a bit closer with four books completed. Any way you cut it, I failed this goal by a wide margin.

As far as reviewing the books I read, I just haven't been able to get into the mood. There was a time in my life when I was completely addicted to reading and I was obsessed with giving thorough reviews. It was like I didn't know how I felt about something until I externalized it. For whatever reason, I can't even make myself do it for the most part now, haha.

• Update my dream journal and be less reliant on the snooze button

The idea behind this was that I forgot my dreams when I hit the snooze button. I'd have a vivid dream, hit the snooze, doze off and forget it. I fell off of the journaling but I still got a collection of dreams and maybe I should post some of them sometime.

• Do seven paintings

I only did three paintings and none of them were good enough that I felt confident posting them. I'll show them here though

The first one is supposed to me my granddad. It's based on a photo of him during his second wedding. I did it to cope while I was in grief about his dementia. It's a decent painting of a person, but it doesn't capture his essence. He looks way too gaunt, and in the photo he appears genuinely happy while in the version I made his smile doesn't reach his eyes

The polar bear I did this year but the elephant was back in 2020. I'm just showing them as a set because the polar bear only looks okay while next to the elephant. Monochrome and cold environment vs colourful and hot environment.

The sunflower was based on one that we grew this year. The painting doesn't even look complete, but I felt discouraged.

This concludes the results of my resolutions from last year.

I succeeded at my blogging and walking goals but that's it. I think my diabetes diagnosis really distracted me from goals surrounding interests. In fact, I'm going to make the bulk of my resolutions for this coming year around health. I used to think it was kind of boring that everyone made fitness-related goals at the new year, but I get it now. It's a cliche that gyms are packed in January and empty by February, but let's try nonetheless.

Unfortunately, I'm dropping my reading, painting, and dream journaling resolutions. I don't think they're reasonable at the moment considering my health focus and my lack of success reflects this.

Let's add a few new resolutions as well, not just adjustments of previous ones. I'd like to resolve to integrate a 12-hour daily fast into my life before year's end. One of the most effective ways of fighting diabetes is through intermittent fasting. I've done 12 hour fasts for bloodwork and it isn't so bad. Times when you're asleep count, so if you generally dedicate 8 hours to sleep, you're only resisting food for four hours. Basically you just don't eat a bedtime snack. This is a pretty low bar fast, but I think it's reasonable for now.

I would like to make an additional resolution to decrease my time on screens. So, the computer, phone, TV etc. Hopefully if I can do this, I'll get back into painting and reading even if they aren't part of my resolutions.

So for 2023, I resolve to:

• Update my blogs 55 times, between this one and my satellite blogs
• Have at least 35 of my updates be on my main blog
• Walk an average of at least 35 km weekly
• Do three strength workouts per week
• Dedicate one meatless day per week
• Do 12 hour fasts daily
• Find time to dedicate to not being on screens