2015, Bring It!

One of the great benefits to having a blog is being able to go back through your year, just as you would in a journal I suppose. You can see where you shined, see where you were a bit dull, see what fun things you did, reflect on your reflecting, and of course, see what you would like to do different the following year.

I read, I Welcome You, 2014 last night, and it was a great reminder for me of how successful I was in my health in 2013 and what I did to get there, but it also reminded me that 2013 was one of those years that I was ready to put on the shelf for reasons that had nothing to do with my health.

2014 has been a difficult year for me with my weight going up, and accepting how I truly struggle with the food demons, but so many other aspects of my life were really great!

Here is a recap and a few Highlights of 2014.

January

After feeling the physical affects of the Holiday drinks and eats last January, a friend suggested that I try going Gluten Free and Dairy Free with her for 21 days, so I did. At the end of the 21 days, I felt great! It made me much more aware of how many foods had gluten in them, and it also made me aware of just how much diary I was eating! I was also experiencing some aches and pains as well, and the gluten free, dairy free diet, seemed to help my body feel better as a whole!

I tried after that to pay more attention to gluten, although I was not gluten free by any means, and I tried to pay more attention to how often I was eating dairy and how it made me feel.

You can read my blog post,  Gluten Free, Dairy Free, to see how I felt after trying it out last year.

February

Our daughter, Kate, gave birth to our fourth grandchild, Baby Charlotte. I was actually in the delivery room and got to watch that little angel come into the world!

Mike and I took a great trip to Mexico with friends.

I wrote a blog post, 100 Random Things About Me, and realized I’m kinda weird.

 March

My daughter, Tess, and I were deep into our Couch to 5K training for The Color Run that we were going to be participating in in Dallas in April, so I decided to sign up for a race with a friend in Kansas City, and see just how well my training was working for me. I did the 4 Mile St. Paddy’s Day run with a friend and I averaged a 12 minute Mile (some walking). Not too shabby for a girl that’s never run before!

April 

I had the privilege of Baby Sitting Charlotte Monday through Friday for the entire month of April!

Tess and I RAN the entire Color Run 5K in Dallas and we were extremely proud of ourselves!

I actually ended up running TWO other 5K’s in April as well!

As much as I would like to say I was feeling AWESOME about myself, I was struggling a lot with the 10 pounds that I had gained since the Holidays and our Vacation to Mexico. I was obsessing about failing. In all of my reflecting, I decided to attend a few OA meetings. I wrote two post about my feelings on OA (Over Eater’s Anonymous).

Overeater’s Anonymous, Part I

Overeater’s Anonymous, Part II

May

One of my goals for the year was to get involved in the Big Brother Big Sister Organization. I filled out all of the paper work early in the year, and by May, I was matched up with my Little Sis, Samone. You can read all about our first meeting HERE! Becoming involved in this organization was one of the best decisions I’ve made in a long time!

Mike and I celebrated our 15th Anniversary with an awesome Wine Trip with friends to Napa Valley!

I decided to start going to Yoga classes and I am so glad that I did.

June and July

I really do love my doggie, Tucker, but he has been a lot of work for the three years that we have had him. I finally hired a trainer. Tucker has a great attitude and disposition, but he was never been properly house trained before coming to live with us when he was 1 1/2. It was becoming more and more of a problem.

I wrote this post, My Top Five Favorite Breakfast, and they are ALL still my favorite!

I wrote an update to my OA post. Overeater’s Anonymous, Update. 

August

August was a fairly quiet month, (according to my blog post), but I enjoyed a long weekend at the lake with some friends, and I went to Dallas for a long weekend to celebrate my daughters 23rd birthday! 

September

September was much more exciting than August. I took an awesome trip with some old friends. You can read my blog post, Beach House, Girlfriends for all of the details. I am hoping it was the first annual of many more Girlfriend Trips to the Beach House!

Thanks to Instagram, I’ve discovered an awesome support group of healthy eaters and people that like to exercise and challenge each other. After following one particular person that challenged herself to Run 100 Miles in August, I decided to challenge myself to walk 100 miles in the month of September, and I succeeded!

October

The month literally flew by with all of the Kansas City Royals Baseball excitement! It really was a great month to live in Kansas City!

Our son Jake, and his wife Jordan, bought their first home!

After going through TWO Dog Trainers and lots of Trials and Errors, Tucker is now in a crate anytime that we are not home, and he still shakes each and every time that I put him in it. I feel so bad for him that he has such anxiety about it, but I love not coming home to poop or pee on my carpet!

The crate at night was NOT working because he would just cry, then bark, then howl, so believe it or not, Tucker now sleeps on a five foot leash, attached to me, on our bed. This is not a joke. Hey, it’s working, and again, no poop or pee on my carpet.

I was having some kind of Quinoa craziness, so I came up with 10 different ways that I like to eat it and put them all together in this blog post, Quinoa Bowls!

As full and as exciting as the month was, I found time to redecorate The Master Bedroom, and I LOVE it!

November

November is my birthday month and I am a firm believer of celebrating your birthday all month long. 

I took a short and unexpected trip with a girlfriend to Scottsdale, Arizona the first week in November, and I had the Best Day Ever! We stayed at the Omni, and there is where I met Heather. I adored Heather right from the start! She works at the gym at the Omni. She was my guide for an awesome hike up Camelback Mountain, and for many reasons, that will be a day that will stick out in my mind for a really long time thanks to her! 

Our Daugher, Anne, had been discussing opening her own salon with her coworker, Becca. They decided to go for it, and after lots of hard work and planning, they opened up in November! I am so very proud of her! Check out her Facebook Page! The Beauty Room

December

Our son Jake and our daughter in law, Jordan went to Ecuador this year to make a video for amputee’s that are in need of prosthetics, but can not afford them. They have a friend, Pat, that now lives in Ecuador and works for a non profit organization that is trying to help as many amputee’s as possible obtain prosthetics. Jake and Jordan filmed, produced and released this video, Movilidad, this weekend. I encourage you to watch it! They did an amazing job!

All four of our children are in a really good place in their lives right now, and as parents, I can’t think of a better feeling than knowing that your children are happy.

Probably my most read blog post, and certainly the post that I had the most comments on since I began blogging, was this post,  I Don’t Have a Weight Problem, I Have a Food Problem.

I still don’t have it all figured out. I’ll always be a work in progress. I will continue to aim at making myself a better person.

 

Here’s Looking into 2015!

I felt so great last year at the end of January, that I am going No Gluten, No Dairy again for a full month.

This is a full list of what I am cutting out for the month of January.

Gluten

Dairy

Sugar

Artificial Sweeteners

Red Meat

Corn

Soy

Alcohol

This sounds drastic for me, I know. But right now my body feels like a junk drawer, and I need to clean out the junk. I cleaned out the fridge and the pantry, and filled them with good things. I want to do the same thing for my body. I’m not giving these things up forever, but I like a challenge, and what better time to clean out the junk drawer, than January 1st!

I’m looking forward to blogging about this experience! (Besides, how boring would this blog be if i didn’t try new things once in a while?)

I have thought long and hard about my lifestyle and my love of socializing with food and drinks (alcohol)  and how it can often get in the way of my goals. I’ve stopped drinking for short periods of time, and it has proven to be successful in working through plateaus for me. As difficult as I always think that it will be, I am always surprised at how it really isn’t that big of a deal. The most difficult part of not drinking is actually just thinking about a social event and the anticipation of not drinking at it. Once I’m there, the no drinking typically isn’t that big of a deal. Then when its all over, I feel so proud of myself, it’s completely worth it. It’s kinda like Peanut M&M’s for me I guess. If I just don’t put them in my mouth, I’m good. But the taste of one, just makes me want more. But the drinking is worse, because after three glasses of wine, I begin to make poor food choices.

Okay, all of that being said, I’ve played with a lot of ideas for a Socializing Plan for 2015. I have come to a decision that I think is very realistic for me. For ONE YEAR, I will choose one event per month that I will drink at. At the end of the year, I know it will feel so good to be able to say that I only drank 12 days of the entire year. (I’ve drank 12 days out of the last 15!)

I’ve already gone over the calendar in my head and I know that the summer will be difficult with lake trips and neighborhood driveway get togethers, the Fall will be tough with football and fire pits, and the holiday months will be tough with parties and socializing, but I just keep thinking about how good I will feel about myself after one full year of limiting what I drink. I’m not cutting myself off entirely, I’m just making a choice that will ultimately affect my overall health, and isn’t that what this is all about anyhow?

This is What I Will Accomplish in 2015

1. I  Will Choose One Occasion Per Month for Social Drinking
2. I will go no more than two days in a row without some sort of exercise. (unless I’m sick)
3. I will track every single day for the entire year. No matter what. I’ll track if I eat 26 points, I’ll track if I eat 76 points.
4. I will RUN in a minimum of six 5K’s

These next two have nothing to do with my health, and I haven’t committed to them yet, but I have thought about both of them for the last two years, and am seriously considering….

1. Painting One Full Wall in the Basement with Chalkboard Paint for the Grandkids to draw on! (and me!)
2. Take Piano Lessons (my grandma’s piano just sits in our living room, and I feel that it needs some love)

This is going to be one very interesting year!

Mike says that he is super excited about all of the money that we’ll save with me not drinking!! Yep. He really said that! I failed to mention that I’ll likely spend all of that money in therapy! Wine drinking with girl friends is really good therapy!!

What Do You Plan to Accomplish in 2015?

“love the life you live, live the life you love”