Self-care goals

My second domain for 2026 goals is Self-Care. (See my first domain, Health, here.)

In hindsight, my domains are pretty loose this year! Ha. I’m not sure some of these would traditionally fit in a “self-care” category, but they all are things that basically just directly benefit me, so…. that’s what I went with. 🙂

Self-Care

Main Goals:

1. Read the Bible 3x/ week and go to church 26 times this year.

In my 2025 recap I mentioned wanting to reawaken my spiritual life this year, however that looks. I bought The Bible Recap this fall (credit to Elisabeth for suggestion) and have been veeeery slowly working through it. Sometimes I literally read just 1 chapter, but I read from my old “study Bible” (that has additional explanation/commentary) AND I’ve been taking notes. The process has been very analogue, very slow, very thoughtful, very deliberate, very peaceful and very delightful (on the days I do it).

2. Be consistent with seasonal, monthly and weekly planning in 2026!

I read Best Laid Plans in December (squeal, LOVED!) and although I’ve always done certain aspects of this type of planning, it’s not been comprehensive lately. I truly believe that Sarah’s methods work though, so I really want to go all in on it this year! Having her book as a guide and reference makes this SO much easier. It’s definitely one of those things where the real payoffs come after some sustained consistency. I’ve already completed annual/ Q1/January sessions, and have added future planning sessions to my calendar. I am committed to sticking with it!

3. Floss teeth and wash face nightly.

Flossing was on my goals list in 2020 and I became so consistent with it that it had become second nature for several years! SOMEHOW I magically fell off the floss train in 2025, though. I actually can’t even tell you why! This year, it’s making a permanent comeback.

I also can get lazy about washing my face before bed when I’m just toooooo tiiiiiiiiireeeeeeed to do one more thing…. I definitely want to make this a NIGHTLY habit, though. Nothing elaborate- my current routine is literally just wash my face and moisturize.

(I just keep reminding myself of the very possibly made up statistic that an aesthetician told me once: “Women who don’t wash their face nightly have skin that ages 8x faster than those who do.”) 😳 8x?!?!

Bonus Self-Care Goals:

1. Buy ONE (specific, deliberate) item per month. I have a good list of not-urgent-but-important things that either need replacing (a new swimsuit for the hot tub! mine is all stretched out and saggy and frankly looks ridiculous…) or upgrading (a couple long sleeved athletic tops, new volleyball shoes (currently wearing ~6 year old running shoes for that…), some old/worn tees + sweaters, etc.

I’d like to do this thoughtfully and in a measured way, instead of neglecting it and then suddenly ending up going on a big shopping spree or something!

First up for January- I have a gift card from my sister for Lululemon! Going to either go for a long sleeved top, I think, or another pair of leggings… TBD.

2. Go to a vein consult (?) A very superficial goal, but I’ve had this spider vein on my lower leg- just to the left of my shin, in a very visible spot, that seems to be…. spreading. When I turned 30 I woke up one day and suddenly had a HUGE spider vein explosion on my thigh that looked like a jagged line drawn across my thigh! I had sclerotherapy done on it and it helped immensely. I’d like to look into getting this other area treated. I know this is a losing battle (I have tons of spider veins in ankle/ inner foot area that are likely not going anywhere!) but this big one I think could be reduced.

3. Walk in this one particular city park that I’ve never walked the trails in!

4. Walk to the new coffee shop by my house to work (or read or blog) one day.

5. Track how often I wake up in the middle of the night + hit my bedtime.

I’m doing this on my digital habit tracker; I fill it out first thing in the morning. I do wear my Apple watch to bed, but I’m not always 100% on keeping it charged, so the data there can be unreliable.

What I really want is to see, at a glance, HOW OFTEN and WHEN I’m waking up in the night (and specifically, when I have trouble falling back to sleep).

I feel like I go in spurts where I sleep really poorly, and other times it’s no issue. I’d like to examine it and see if I can figure out any trends.

Here’s January 1-12:

• Green= very good sleep! no discernable wake ups
• Yellow= a noticeable wakeup, but I fell back to sleep quickly
• Red= a “bad” night. Woke up and was awake for a long stretch before sleeping again OR woke up extremely early (and unable to ever fall back to sleep)

I’m also adding comments about what time I woke up/ what happened. (Was I hot? Was there a wind storm? Did I drink a bunch of caffeine close to bedtime? Or did I just wake up for no apparent reason.)

For bedtime, I’m noting if I hit my ‘bedtime’ or not, and why. (Note: bedtime is not a ‘major goal’ right now (hence a lot of red there currently- that, and the weekend with my parents here), but it’s always something I want to keep an eye on, especially the reasons!)

6. Restore habit tracking spreadsheet.

I’d fallen away from my digital habit tracker in 2025, and wasn’t really tracking habits at all for a while. It’s not a big deal, but I just find it fun. I like having the objective data, too. (Many times we “feel like” we do things either a lot or a little, which may or may not be actually true. I like having the real data!!)

Here’s my current list, with the reminder that I DON’T HAVE TO DO ALL OF THESE THINGS DAILY! Even the “Daily” section is just meant to be “daily-ish”. When I sit down at my desk in the morning, I take 30 seconds and mark off anything I did the previous day. Easy peasy.

I like being able to easily see how I’m doing on goals that have a broader time frame. For example, my goal to read the Bible 3x/ week. This view makes it easy to see: in the purple section (which =1 week), are there 3x?? If not, and it’s already Saturday, time to hop to it.

I also like tallying up my totals for the month on things I do more sporadically but want to do fairly consistently (how many times did I fully clean out my email inbox? how many times did I check in on our Monarch expenses?), and for some, like my Protein or Fruit/Veg goal, I just list a number there (how many meals or snacks included a hearty protein dose or a fruit/veg?).

I list the books I’m currently reading at the bottom, and mark an X if I read the book that day (even 5 min counts!). This helps to see if I’m stalling on a book… maybe it’s time to abandon?

(I’m always hesitant to share stuff like this because I feel like some people might think it’s neurotic? But it’s really so easy and I’m so relaxed about it… I don’t actually care about hitting all of the targets, honestly. It’s really just data, but data can be useful in identifying trends and making changes, if one so desires!)

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That’s all for now! I’ll be back with my remaining two goals domains (Fun/Family and Household) hopefully soon.

*Quick real time update: I am hanging in there with my post-viral rib/ chest pain. It has been pretty brutal. Coughing feels like a knife stabbing into my side. I went to the doctor Friday and they did a chest x-ray which apparently showed no rib fracture. They basically said, alternate Ibuprofen and Tylenol and take cough syrup as needed….Hoping it starts to get better soon. I’ve been putting heating pads on it often which feels nice in the moment but isn’t really making it go away. It’s putting a real damper on my new year’s energy + wanting to get back to my exercise routines!!

Oh, and the chest x-ray also showed that I apparently have BORDERLINE OSTEOPENIA which what the heck, I’m only 42 and have strength trained for years!!! 😩 I actually brought up a Dexa scan during my appointment, even before seeing the x-ray results, because I’ve had 2 finger fractures in the last couple years + I thought, if my rib is broken now, too, what is the DEAL with my bones?! Are they just crumbling apart or what?! Based on this x-ray read showing borderline osteopenia (even though no rib fracture), she responded that we should definitely proceed with the Dexa, so I’ll be interested to get that done and see the results.

Anyway, I’m off to go drink a glass of milk (lol). Have a great week, all. 💕

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful that pain medications exist.