"My ultimate goal for this semester is actually a bit more general, and applies to all my classes, not just English. My struggle with my health has made it very difficult for me to keep up in school, and this semester I will make a determined effort to use every possible tool available to me (that includes not cheating on my stupid diet that I hate, I'll even exercise if my doctors say I have to *shudder*) to maintain my health so I can avoid falling behind."
Besides my chronic hiccups (which I really can't do anything myself for), I've also been struggling with my blood sugar (which, luckily, I actually do have some control over). When I was eating a normal diet (which really wasn't that unhealthy), I continually suffered from energy crashes which my doctors and I finally figured out were associated with carbohydrates. I went low-carb about four months ago, but it was only about two and a half months ago that I went radically low-carb. At first I only cut out the obvious carbs, like bread, cereal, potatoes, candy, etc. and allowed myself a limited amount of "treats," like a quarter of a muffin if that's what my family was having for breakfast, and bittersweet chocolate for dessert. It helped, but it wasn't enough.
Two and a half months ago I cut out almost ALL carbs: in addition to everything I cut out before, my new diet dictated no fruit, no dairy, and absolutely no cheating lest I relapse. To my surprise, the change not only prevented crashes after meals, but also allowed me to actually wake up in the morning without the assistance of coffee. I had felt like a zombie every morning for literally years, so as sad as this sounds, suddenly feeling "good" came to me as a shock.
However, sticking to the diet was a challenge. It was terrible at first — each morning I jealously eyed my mom's orange while I ate carrots, and every evening I fled the table after dinner so I wouldn't have to see the dessert the rest of my family enjoyed. It got easier over time, though. You can get used to almost anything if you try hard enough. The one time I decided I couldn't take it anymore and started eating fruit again, my condition got worse immediately, so I'm no longer seriously tempted to eat anything forbidden.
Even if I can't do much to ameliorate my main illness, I'm glad I can at least do SOMETHING to improve my health. So, maintaining my diet is one of the things I plan to do this semester to avoid falling behind in my classes because of my health. I'm also taking some new medicine, which I'm hoping will improve my energy and ability to keep up in school. Hopefully, 2014 will be a good year for me.
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