Situations Arise that Make it Difficult to Achieve Goal

In addition to already being sick, last Friday (jan 16), I had to get my wisdom teeth pulled last minute due to serve pain. I couldn't do too much after the procedure or eat any solids and the only thing I had in my house I could eat was ice cream, duh duh dun. So all I ate pretty much for three days was ice cream, fruit juice and more ice cream, definitely meeting few of the healthy "RESST" goals I set. After the weekend I began to recover and record RESST indicators again and achieved all of them for the first half of the week. However, in the middle of the night on Thursday (jan 22), I woke up to my fiance's call and an hour later we were in the ER. After staying up all night, Friday morning he had an emergency appendectomy surgery. The saga continued but we were finally discharged and now resting. 

I give you this long story to make the point that many things can and do arise that challenge people's ability to stay on track with the goals of an intervention. Getting my wisdom teeth out and not having sufficient food I could eat lead me to a diet of probably over 250g sugar/day during my three day recovery. Then my fiance's crazy appendix  prevented me from sleeping for 36 hours straight. My doctor told me the only way to recover from my virus was to sleep lots, stay hydrated, eat well and take it easy, none of which I've done over the past three days because of being in the hospital and taking care of my fiance. I'm not to sure any of these "challenges to my goals" could have been prevented and, from a Program Directors point of view, it is important to understand that participants in a program or clinical trial also have to deal with LIFE :)

Goal and Plan of Action

Goal: 

So initially my 16 week goal was to do 2-3 triathlons and in the process get in better shape. However, since then I found out I have a viral infection similar to mono that I've actually had for a month now and which could last for a couple more months. This sickness is no doubt related to working myself into the ground last semester. To say the least I was way over committed and as a result was unable to take care of my mental, physical and spiritual health. Therefore my new goal has been slightly tweaked and will have two interventions. I will start out by "getting better again" and this will be achieved by sleeping 8-10 hrs/night, taking naps, abstaining from coffee and soda, drinking lots of water, taking my vitamins daily, eating healthier (more fruits and vegetables and less sugar) and not overcommitting myself.  The second intervention will be once I start to get better to continue the healthy lifestyle habits but in addition to increase my levels of exercise. The action plan below will provide a more detailed explanation.

Plan of Action: 

Overview:

Intervention 1: Week 1 - Week 16 (RESST)

Intervention 2: Week TBA - Week 16 (Exercise)

*RESST  (an acronym  to remember my goals in phase one standing for R: re-hydrate, E: eat fruits and vegetables, S: sleep, S: stay away from coffee/soda,  T: take vitamins

Details: 

Week 1 - Week 16

Re-hydrate: drink 2 liters of water a day, Eat: 5 servings of fruits/vegetables a day and eat less sugar, Sleep: 8-10 hours a night or more if not feeling well, Stay: away from coffee/soda, Take: multi-vitamin w/ iron and B-12 daily 

Week TBA - Week 16

Continue to follow and track RESST. Re-access health status and beginning Intervention 2 "getting in shape" once I feel stronger by incorporating 15-30 minute walk/jog 3 times a week. Progress will be based on how quickly I recover from feeling too weak/ill to exercise. Once I begin exercising I will revise my timeline from Week TBA to Week 16 to make sufficient progress to my final Week 16 "getting in shape goal."

Week 16: (final goal)

By week 16 my goal is to be exercising 5 days a week, a minimum of 40 minutes each day. In addition, I plan to still be following the RESST acronym and to have recovered from my illness and in the process simplified my life for better overall health.