I feel like I should have made a New Years Resolution to share more blog posts in 2019. That just seems like it’ll stress me out though. But I do have intentions to share more this year! It’s been over a year since I have consistently shared on here and I do miss it. What’s very interesting to me is that I don’t miss recipe creation at all. Occasionally I take pictures of my food and only share them half of the time but the food blogger life in general isn’t something that I miss after a year of doing it zero times. That really solidifies the fact that my decision to step away from it was the right decision. I have thought a lot about how blogging isn’t “as big as it used to be.” But writing is something that I still enjoy and I think I’m going to keep blogging here for a long time.
So if I’m not revolving my life around food blogging then what the heck am I doing?! Well I’m embarking on a New Years Cleanse. When I tell people that I’m on a cleanse I cringe because it’s just one of those things that is so typical and overrated in January. But here I am!! And with good reason because this isn’t just any cleanse, I’m doing the Clean Program. So far I’m only on day 5 out of 21 so I’m not going to talk too much about my experience because I want to do a recap post at the end of the 21 days. I did want to share now because I’m excited and this is going to be my life for the entire month of January!
What is the Clean Program?
It’s 21 days of shakes for breakfast and dinner with a fulfilling lunch of veggies, fat, and protein. It’s ultimately an elimination diet that is easy to follow and doesn’t leave you stressed out or starving. Each meal is enhanced with supplements and a daily probiotic to reap the full benefits of detoxing and bringing your body back to balance.
I ordered it back in November and I knew that I’d be waiting until January to start because Christmas. Yes I ate all of the sugar cookies and cinnamon rolls and yes I FELT IT. I have basically been feeling it since the middle of December.
I have been really looking forward to getting Clean this month. And that’s where I’m going to leave it because I want to do a full recap post once I’m done!
In other news, I wanted to share my New Years goals and intentions. I’m a big New Years person in the aspect of loving a fresh start. I don’t go out, I don’t get drunk, I don’t stay up until midnight; basically I like to do things my way. This time around I spent the day cleaning out every single drawer and closet. I got rid of so much stuff and reorganized everything I own. It felt good! Then I wrote out a recap of 2018, made a vision board for 2019, read a book, and went to sleep! I woke up on New Years Day and wrote out my goals and intentions, did yoga, meditated, and just set up things that I wanted to put in place this year.
When setting my goals and intentions I really thought about them and tried to put things in place that I could actively work on throughout the year as well as things that I could achieve by doing them and checking off the box. I like to set goals and intentions because I think of a goal as something that can be achieved and an intention is something to actively continue to work on. For example; a goal would be to run a marathon because once you run a marathon then the goal is complete, and an intention is to become a runner because becoming a runner has no end point, it’s something that you actively do on each day, week, month, etc. to keep up the act of being a runner.
Make sense?! Good!
I like the idea of creating both because sometimes it just feels good to reach a goal, check it off, and come up with a new one. And other times it feels dang good to continuously work on bettering yourself through an intention that is set.
I personally believe that distinguishing the difference between the two is important because then you can get even clearer on the thing that you want to bring into your life. It helps to hold me accountable and feels much more aligned!
Okay. Goals and resolutions, here we go!
2019 Goals and Intentions
Run a marathon
This has been a goal of mine for probably close to 15 years. It’s so massive to me that I just keep putting it off to the point that I bought a marathon related shirt like 10 years ago that I am saving to wear once I run the actual marathon and it is still in the back of my workout clothes drawer with the tags on it. Ten years of a shirt sitting in my drawer with the tags still on it! That has to change, not just because of the shirt, because this is a goal that means a lot to me and one that I no longer want to put off. I’m doing it and I think that it is going to be a hard, rewarding, challenging, growth inducing, fun, miserable, fantastic experience. The actual marathon isn’t what has made me hesitant all these years, it’s the training process. The hours each week put into something that adds up to something will be over in a few short (okay, probably long) hours. It’s a commitment, and it’s one that I am ready to make. I’ve really been working to simplify my life to the point where I am able to make the proper space for this goal. I’m going to officially start training in March but I have already begun to start to get my ducks in a row and work on building my strength up prior to then. I’m excited. I think that I might do biweekly or monthly recaps of my training process. Stay tuned!
Read 40 books
Last year I read 36 books and I was pushing it to get them done by December 31. This year I want to challenge myself a little bit more and try for 40. I love reading and I have so many books that I want to read. Plus, I got a Kindle for Christmas so I’m set in the book department. Forty books, here I come!
Meditate 15 minutes every day
I’ve been consistently meditating for about 2 years now. I’m a 10 minute meditator through and through. I’ve tried to up it to 20 minutes (my personal goal) but I just can’t seem to be consistent with it. This year my goal is 15 minutes. An extra 5 minutes seems a lot more doable than an extra 10, even though it’s not that much different. Also, if I don’t have the time in the morning I’m allowing myself to be able to break up those minutes into multiple meditation sessions in hopes to help myself make it a more successful endeavor.
Write 1,000 words per week
Okay, 1,000 words doesn’t seem like a lot but I’ve tried to set bigger writing goals and I just can’t make it happen. Just like the 15 minutes of meditation, I’m really working on building foundations that I can grow upon in the future. If I set a higher goal that 1,000 words per week it is simply overwhelming and ends up in the resolution grave yard with so many other great intentions. So a foundation it is, something that I feel good about completing and feels good.
Try SUP yoga
I was so close to accomplishing this last year but a rainy morning was the barrier between being able to check this one off. Of course, I did wait to attempt this until the last class of the season that happened to be rained out so I definitely could have done better. But it was a good learning experience (for something I already knew, but ya know) for this year. I’ll be out there as soon as the flowers bloom and the lake is semi warm enough to potentially fall into so that I can try SUP yoga.
Go to Kennywood
For those of you that aren’t familiar with Pittsburgh, Kennywood is an amusement park. I haven’t been there since my senior year of high school. I don’t even know if I’d consider myself an amusement park person (whatever that is!) but I want to do more fun things and this seems like it would/could be a fun thing to do. Kennywood was a similar experience to SUP yoga last year. I tried for a few weekends near the end of the season and the weather just wasn’t cutting it. It looks like I’ll be busy once the weather breaks this year!
Hike Mount Washington and/or Whiteface Mountain
Self explanatory. This one will take some logistical planning because I like 10 hours away from Mount Washington and 8 hours away from Whiteface so it’s not like I can do a quick day trip. But I really want to hike Mount Washington this year. So I’m going to roll with the “where there’s a will, there’s a way” mentality on this one! And yeah, this is definitely another one of those warm summer day adventure for me!
Shenandoah National Park - Twice!
I’ve been going to Shenandoah for 4-5 years now and more recently I’ve made it multiple times per year. It’s a short 4 hours away and something that I really want to experience more of which is why I want to go at least twice in the coming year. The familiarity of it as well as the silence and beauty of the park as a whole has me captivated to the point where I feel drawn to go back again and again.
Slow down
Now for the more intentional portion of the resolutions. Slow down. Slow down. Slow down. I don’t even know how, honestly. I thought I did this last year but looking back I just transferred my busy nature from one aspect of life to another. I haven’t been the best at this yet this year, but it’s something that I am working on improving which is exactly what I expected. It’s a process and I don’t think I’ll reach an end goal. I have been a “doer” forever and I think that it will take me a long time to chill out with things. I don’t think I’ll ever be a super chill person, but I definitely think that there is room for improvements.
Simplify
I think we’re all guilty of filling our lives with things that really don’t serve us. Whether it’s because we feel like we “should” do the thing or we think that something is serving us that really isn’t, our lives are busy to an extent that I don’t want to participate in anymore. I want to really focus in on things that I align with and that I feel good about. I think that this blog post sums up what I’m trying to cultivate pretty well.
Continue to HEAL
Keep up with my detox foot baths, saunas, exercise, sleep, diet, etc. Basically, listen to my body and take steps towards healing and feeling better every. single. day. I feel heaps better than I did last year but I still have a ways to go. And this is also one fo those things where I don’t think that I’ll reach “healed.” But I do want to keep on keeping on with all of the wellness based things that I’ve added into my life over the past year.
There we go! That’s what I’m intending to bring into my life this year. I’m most excited about the marathon as it’s something that will take up a ton of my time for about half of the year. When I set these resolutions I sat down and really thought about what I want to look back and have cultivated in 2019. I know I’m super late with sharing my resolutions but I had something that I was waiting to get back to make sure that I could run the marathon this year before I shared. Obviously, I can. And even though it is late, I don’t think that it’s too late to put new practices or goals into place. You don’t have to wait until New Years to change your life. The only thing that you need to change your life is a deep desire to do so.
I hope that you’re having a great January and are sticking to those resolutions that you set on the 1st.
I’ll be back soon with a recap of the Clean Program once I finish it up and probably a post about my diet since stepping away from veganism. Maybe I’ll share some more thoughts about my marathon training and a little recap of my relationship with running.
Anything else you want to hear about?
Let me know!
Happy (belated) New Year!
xx