2018 Holiday Gift Guide for Buying Me Presents

Tis the season for every blog & website you know to start posting a 2018 Holiday Gift Guide for the _______ in your life. Let's be real, though; odds are if you're reading a _______ blog featuring nifty ________ products to buy, YOU are probably the ________ in your life.

Fear not, though; out of the goodness of my heart, I've found a few minutes to put together this handy dandy 2018 Holiday Gift Guide for Buying Me Presents. You're welcome.

Real talk, though; if you've been reading for a little while, you know that this has been my Year of No Shopping, which has had a number of different benefits. One of them is that having a general policy of not buying stuff has cleared away the consumerist noise in my head & helped me clarify whether I really truly want something for good reasons, or am just falling prey to #shinythings syndrome. A lot of times I find that after a few weeks or months, the infatuation passes and stuff I thought I wanted no longer seems all that appealing, while with a tiny percentage of things, I realize that nope, this is something that I really would value and use regularly in ways that truly improve my quality of life. So, here are some of those things!

(Oh, & before you ask -- these are not affiliate links. It's literally just stuff I personally want.)

Catching Up: Life Since RNR San Jose...

Okay, you get ONE full length post. I started it about a month ago, but everything in it is still true, so...

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The weather here in San Francisco has suddenly gone quite autumnal lately. Up until a couple of weeks ago things were warm and bright and summery; then the time changed and suddenly everything got dark and rainy and cold.

The view two blocks away. SF looking moody & brooding

My early evening runs are not done 100% in darkness yet, but enough to warrant breaking out the reflective vest.

On the other hand, running in the dark does have its perks.

What I Did (And Did Not Do) In November

I told you I would write an actual running-related post soon!

THINGS I DID DO:

• Run a non-zero amount! In general, things are trending in the right direction. If you'll recall, I'd decided to wait until my leg felt absolutely, 100% normal again before I tried starting the run-walk progression. That happened in early November, and I am now perilously close to running for AN ENTIRE HALF HOUR WITHOUT STOPPING. Everything feels great, and I haven't any pain or discomfort with any activities.
  
  The universal symbol for "some running happened." My blog is safe for another year. #b-roll

• Climb all the rocks! Well; climb some of the rocks. Well; fake rocks. Enough that I felt justified in buying my own gear (because rental shoes, ew).
  
  Thank you, REI coupons! I would post a picture of me actually rock climbing, but a) it's kind of a choice between getting pics from your buddy or not dying, and b) sorry, I was busy actually doing stuff and not documenting it for the internet.

  I still have yet to make it all the way up a 10a, but I'm getting closer every time.

• Read all the books! Nothing new to see here, I suppose. I'll do a Quarter 4 books post in January.
  
  No restraint. None.

• Win NaNoWriMo! I have a feeling this crowd probably knows all about it already, but November is National Novel Writing Month, and if you so choose you can even make yourself an official account on the official website and track your progress with a nifty little graph.
  
  AW YISSSSS

• Give my insurance a workout. On November 10, I went to see the foot & ankle doctor at UCSF that I saw after CIM 2012 when I had tendinitis in my left foot. I wasn't totally sure she was the right person to see since I don't actually have an acute injury or pain in my foot, but I have always had problems with that left foot, and I am pretty sure that trying to correct them is what led to a string of really disheartening injuries dating back to early 2013.

  Something I've learned about the entire medical/PT/training/coaching/whatever-industrial complex is that most professionals are really good at their specialty, but almost no one has expertise in looking at a big-picture situation that involves a range of different areas. So, I credit the foot doctor with hearing me on this and not siding with resident #1 & saying, "Well, your foot seems fine to me, come back when you have a real problem."

  Instead, she made two recommendations:
  

• Get a Skeletal Health consult! because when a young, otherwise healthy person has multiple stress fractures, they want to be sure they rule out any hormonal, metabolic, or autoimmune issues. I was all for this, because then I don't have to wonder about it. Basically this means getting examined by/chatting with an ortho & a rheumatology specialist about all your family/medical history, lifestyle, diet, medications, etc. etc. My preliminary labs showed everything normal except low phosphorus, which I've had before, so that might be a thing. I'm supposed to get some follow-up tests for that & also a DEXA (bone density) scan in a few weeks & then follow up with the SH clinic in January.

  The other good thing is that I was there when my alleged stress fracture was right in the window in terms of healing to be detectable on an x-ray. So they took some and confirmed that yes, I had definitely had some kind of bone stress injury and it appears to be on the mend. This is good not only because of the mending but also because it will go in my medical records as an Actual Thing that Happened, vs. a note like "patient googling the internet again."

• Schedule another ride on the PT pony! Foot doc also wants a PT to look at my left foot/arch situation. While I'm not excited about another $500 copay, I'm willing to do a lot to improve my chances of fixing this problem once and for all. (Since this particular copay resets every Jan. 1 and automatically meets my entire deductible for the year, I'm obviously waiting to start PT until 2016.)

• Sleep. I've been taking it seriously, y'all. Not seriously enough, I'm sure, but moreso than usual. There's a huge link between sleep and healing, so I've been doing my best not to short-change it. This is one of those times where I am so, so thankful for the amount of flexibility in my job around working from home when I need to, because sometimes the only place I can find to recoup that time is my two hours a day of commuting.

THINGS I DID NOT DO:

• Strength train enough. Some, but barely. Like, forty-five minutes a week on average. I am not actually sure that is better than nothing. But maybe? Since I normally do this early in the morning before work, it's been another casualty of Operation Get Them Zzzzzz's. Once I get through the holidays & a bunch of upcoming work travel, I'm planning to renew my vows with the weight room in January.

• Eat particularly well. I mean not terrible, but not awesome either (which, combined with my low training volume lately, may have something to do with why my pants are feeling a bit snug). It's cool. New Year's is just around the corner. Besides, we all know that attempting to shore up your nutrition issues right before the holidays is basically a complete waste of time. Again, see ya in January, any kind of reasonable meal planning.

My sister kept making these cream cheese pumpkin bars while I was home for Thanksgiving WHICH OF COURSE MEANT I HAD TO KEEP EATING THEM, because family.

So there ya go. What have you been up to?