Can you believe it’s the end of the year already? These last few months since I moved to Sacramento have really flown by for me. This past month I have looked back on a pretty rough year, but I made it through and things are going relatively well. Now that January is almost here it’s time for reflection (yuck) and trying to figure out how to make things different or better. Here is to this year’s 2016 – New Year, New Resolutions.

Self reflection can be difficult sometimes, especially when the year was more difficult than you anticipated – but you never really anticipate it do you. Moving to DC was a learning experience to say the least. Moving away was definitely another one – unsure how it’s going to play out here in Sac, but I’m here for now. And after leaving a very tough money situation-pretty much not having any money and also having quite a few emergencies pop up and having to shell out too much money, I had to decided whether the lack of quality of life was worth staying. And it really wasn’t, and since I have an amazing family I was able to move across the country and have a place to stay. Another issue with the move was spending so much money to do it, and not necessarily having it pan out for the best…yet, hopefully. I unfortunately don’t have a position that allows a subsidy to help with a move, so it was all out of pocket. How I was able to actually save it up and do the move I still don’t know, but now it’s time to save money back up, and have some monetary breathing room again. Another self-reflection that I regret is not starting to run/train until October. I mean, it’s a half marathon. 13 miles all at one time is not something you should start 3 months before the race. 4 maybe, but not 3. I had so much time while DC to be able to get mileage in but I wasted that time. But I got the miles in, and yes I am psyching myself out right now but I will complete it. That is my only goal. Complete it. There is obviously good things that happened – a family that welcomes with open arms, affording to take a vacation before starting a new job, a vacation at Christmas, affording to fly back across the country for a race, my awesome oldest nephew turning 10 and being able to surprise him with my making it to him for his birthday, my mom coming through surgery with flying colors and succeeding like a champ! I also learned that I am a very strong person. Having deep money troubles, feeling like your drowning and being able to claw yourself out and hold it all together alone is something to be very proud of.

This year I want my resolutions to mean more. Not just randomly chosen ones, even though they truly help at the time – actually writing down what I spent money on last February – some of them were just throw-aways – Elimination Diet in November and December (classic eating-too-much-and-not-restraining-yourself months). This year I want to set small goals and faithfully do them. Whether those goals scare the crap out of me or make me grow as a person, I want to genuinely complete something. Show that I was able to step out of my comfort zone and say Woohoo I actually did that. Don’t get me wrong, training for and running my half marathon next week is a huge accomplishment, it is, but it seems normal to me. Not risky. Just something I told myself to sign up for because I needed a fitness focus. Not because I truly wanted to do one. Now – I do truly want to train for a full marathon, but that final outcome would be a year away. That’s long term training.

So how do I figure out what goals to set? Well Pinterest is an amazing thing. You type in New Year’s Resolutions Ideas and tons of things pop up. There are monthly exercise challenges, which I did throughout 2014; 52 week book challenge; the weekly money saving challenge; kindness challenge; 12 new monthly healthy habits challenge; an organized home challenge; an ultimate food challenge; general ideas of what to start doing more of – you name it, and Pinterest has it. Well I found the one that I want to follow. It only has 9 goals but they are really good ones. One I know for sure will be easy and is a super-good one (visit a new place which is Orlando for the half), but there are some toughies on there. I mean do something risky? Most people look at my life and think that moving back and forth across the country is risky but to me it’s not. So I really have to put some thought into these to actually get the most out of each goal. But at least it will be interesting…and a little scary!

Now for the important stuff:

Weight & Inches
Total: 4lbs, 0in

Get some Pinterest motivation here – Better Your Body