Looking Back at January: Wins, Challenges, and What I'm Proud Of

Hi, it’s Diana from Healthy Seniors.

If you’ve followed Healthy Seniors, you probably know that every month in 2025 I chose a different challenge or focus for the month — for example, in January I wanted to walk 10,000 steps per day, and in May my focus was to drink more water. Those monthly challenges taught me so much about intentional living and showing up for myself — especially when I felt stuck and had to find what’s flowing. By the way, I managed to write the article about Gladys’s book — hope you enjoyed it!

It was really good to have that moment to stop and reflect on what I wanted to do for the month, then at the end of the month reflect on what happened and what went well or less well. It’s the kind of accountability that keeps you on track, and I really encourage you to try it.

This year, I’m choosing something different.

In December, I set my intentions for 2026 — you can read them here. Now, a month later, it feels good to check back and see if I’m on track with what I wrote there. Not in a rigid, checklist kind of way, but just to notice where I’m showing up and where life is happening.

Every month, I want to take a moment to celebrate the month that’s ending — to go over my wins, things that challenged me, and things I’m proud of. Not to judge myself or see where I fell short, but simply to pause and acknowledge what happened. To see myself clearly.

If you like this exercise, please do it for yourself too. You’ll see how powerful it is to recognize your own progress, even when the days feel like they’re just blurring together.

Here’s how my January went:

My Wins

I moved my body every week. I’m doing this online, following Caroline Girvan’s YouTube videos, and honestly, it feels good to keep showing up for myself this way. Some weeks are easier than others, but I’m doing it — and that matters.

Lots of work happened — the good kind. I wrote an article about nutrition that turned out to be very popular. The response was so strong that the team and I worked hard to create a nutrition guide right away (it should be launched by next week). To give you some context, we usually launch one digital guide per month, and there’s a queue because we work 2-3 months ahead on each guide. This nutrition guide? It cut the line. That’s how much it felt like the right thing to do, and I’m proud we made it happen quickly.

I started a 9-month professional certification to become a coach. I know firsthand how useful the coaching process was for me. The thing I’ve noticed — with myself and with everyone else — is that we don’t lack information. We lack clarity. We don’t know how or where to start, or we convince ourselves we can’t do it. That’s where a coach can help. Coaching isn’t about giving advice or telling you what to do. It’s a process that helps you get clear on what you want, what’s getting in the way, and what options you’re not seeing. A coach asks the right questions, reflects patterns back to you, and helps you build solutions using the resources you already have — in a way that works for your real life.

I went to bed earlier, with a book. In December, there was a lot of Netflix in the evening, which affected my sleep. Nowadays, at 21:00-21:30, I’m in bed with a book, and I manage to read about one hour per night. The result? My sleep is much better, and I've already read 5 books in January. 💪

What I’m Proud Of

My daughter turned 14. Watching her grow into the woman she’s becoming fills me with so much pride. She’s thoughtful, strong, and so entirely herself. I love getting to witness it.

I became a Substack bestseller. It’s incredibly rewarding to see that the work I’m putting out there is helping people — that you see value in it. That you’re here. Thank you for that. It still feels surreal, honestly. And with that comes a real sense of responsibility — the trust you place in me by reading, sharing, and applying what I write means I need to show up and keep delivering work that truly helps.

My Challenges

My parents are going through a bathroom remodeling process. It started as changing the bathtub to a walk-in shower, but we decided to also work on the floor. Which meant everything in the bathroom — and then beyond — had to be moved. My parents spent the entire month of December working on this, decluttering and preparing so everything would be ready when the workers came in January.

This is a big challenge because my parents will turn 80 this year, and they need help. Real, hands-on help. This means planning everything, helping them declutter and move all the things, and buying all the construction materials. The salespeople at the DIY store are beginning to know us — we’re there every other night because there’s always something else that the workers need.

Going through this process with them showed me so much about what aging in place actually looks like in real life — the details, the decisions, the emotional weight of it all. This is actually how the decluttering guide we just launched came to be. And based on everything we’re learning, I plan to update the Aging in Place guide too. Sometimes challenges turn into clarity, and then into something that helps others too.

The other challenge was a bit unexpected. Remember I mentioned reading in bed every night? Well, here's what I didn't mention: for a couple of nights, I couldn't understand why I had migraines and couldn't rest properly. My eyes felt strained, and I kept thinking maybe I was just tired. Then, almost on a whim, I tested my husband's glasses — and suddenly everything clicked into focus. Literally. I need glasses to read. I was expecting this to happen eventually, but I didn't expect it to happen so suddenly, almost overnight. It felt like one day I was fine, and the next day I wasn't. That took a bit of adjustment — not just practically, but emotionally too. It's one of those small markers of aging that catches you off guard, even when you know it's coming. But now I have my own reading glasses, and I'm back to enjoying my evening reading without the headaches.

So that was January. A full month. A good month. Not perfect, but real.

I hope you’ll take a moment to reflect on your own January too. What were your wins? What challenged you? What are you proud of?

You might be surprised at how much you’ve actually done — even if it didn’t feel like much in the moment.