My friend Jeremy and I have long been each other’s accountability buddies. We check in frequently to see how we’re doing on our goals, how we’re keeping up with life. We’re just there for each other and it’s really beautiful.

Recently he introduced me to Memories by Meyers, particularly her journaling prompts. I’m finding them very helpful, so I am going to share mine here.

Today’s prompt is “Three small goals for January.” I had already been considering this, so it’s good timing!

Add more vegetables and fiber into my diet. Being diabetic, and being the primary care giver of a diabetic, means I spend a lot of time thinking about the food I eat and how it impacts my health. A few months ago, I started following Liam/The Plant Slant over on YouTube. He’s really helped me heal my relationship with food and how I think about eating. His philosophy is that you should add to your diet, not take away. I have been doing that for a while now, and the results are quite noticeable. Both my brother and I have seen marked improvements on our blood tests results, and we’ve significantly lowered our A1C s. My goal in January is to continue this and also explore other changes I can make.

Write more, doomscroll less. This is a big one for me. I suffer from Seasonal Effective Disorder (SAD), on top of generalized depression, and I have the bad habit of wallowing in my misery instead of doing something about it. My goal for January is to write when I’m feeling depressed instead of scrolling through endless posts about the many ways the world is going to shit. So far, I’m doing well on this goal.

Be more present in the lives of my loved ones. This kinda goes along with my second goal, as my depression also causes me to hide. This has certainly impacted some of my relationships, and I really don’t like that. Everyone is suffering now, and we all need friends. And I need to be a better friend, partner, sister, aunt, daughter, etc. For me, as an extrovert, there is more healing in community than spending all day in bed ignoring the world. I mean, yeah, days in bed can be great once in a while, but I don’t find them healthy for me as a daily routine.