The past few days have made me homebound not through any fault but that of what the occasional Southwestern Pennsylvania winters provide that we have not been used to in the past few years. Some people may have not experienced this kind of weather in some time, either with the cold but the snow keeps us homebound, and I am learning how to manage my time, so I do not regress into challenging habits.

Last week I got the announcement that my employer would be closed due to lack of heating and the impending snowstorm. My family had some genuine concerns as I live independently and had been struggling with using my time wisely. What I did was make a list of the things that I could do during my time off and I am proud to say that nearly half of those things have been completed.

Some of the things that were on that list were small in nature while others took more time, and some are not done to the point where I would like them to be. The fact that I was keeping engaged to the degree that not only kept me busy but out of the kitchen and not eating excessively was another pivotal point in me turning a corner towards making an improvement to improve the time that I am at home on my own.

I knew that regardless of the lack of leaving home that I had to have as much as a routine as possible so that I did not get into the negative ways of the world by sleeping excessively or missing doses of medication, as I have learned that they are all essential for my daily living. It was important with my interoceptive skills to learn to be able to eat, drink and move around at regular intervals so that my nutritional needs were met.

With that, it was important to recognize and accept the caloric limit that my Fitbit had for the day and to stick as close as possible to it each day to keep my weight managed as possible. While I may not have been able to keep my weight as perfect as it could have been, it began to get me into a better habit of being more cognizant of my food intake and recording it in real time so that I became more aware of the need to be mindful of what I was consuming at any given time.

The weekend also had me work on things that I knew that needed addressed that hadn’t been addressed in some time for one reason or another but now provided the opportunity to evaluate things and see how to better address how they would work for me and providing a better understanding of what I am when I am well versus when I am not well. Seeing both worlds gave me the opportunity to update my Wellness Recovery Action Plan and Emergency Plan, both things that hadn’t been updated since there had been some major changes in my daily routine.

All in all, the weekend was one of the best that I had in some time. There honestly wasn’t anything that I would had regretted doing any differently because I had been the person that I knew that I needed to be and not what other people had said I needed to be. I made the best use of my time doing things that I enjoyed and those things that needed to be done for the first time in a very long time. The weather for the rest of the week looks a little warmer and wetter, so hopefully things will get back to normal.