2017 Resolutions

It’s already September. I try to evaluate progress on New Year’s resolutions a couple times a year so here we go…

1. Start every day with Christ (daily scripture, prayer) // reading the bible in a year. I’ve been following a plan for the last 8 months and I’d recommend doing this to anybody.
2. Love myself better & more // I’m a work in progress. I’ve struggled for years with Body Dysmorphic Disorder. While this year has been significantly better than the few before it, I still fail. & that’s ok.
3. Nurture relationship with Chad (date nights, be intentional) // we regularly double date so that we’re getting QT while spending time with people we love. We make it a point to walk the dogs together, eat dinner together (even if it’s only one of us eating!), and say NO to things so that we don’t over-schedule our lives.
4. Cut weight to 130 // halfway there. Not counting macros, not obsessing about caloric intake, and not logging every single thing I eat in an app has been freeing. Gave me anxiety for months after doing it for years.. but am over that hill and IT. IS. STELLAR.
5. Develop & maintain a healthy relationship with food // see above #crushingit
6. Drink 1 gallon of water a day // totally doing this
7. Read 30 books (like actual paper in my hands books) // I’m about halfway to this goal as well! I’ve read 16 books this year. Took me like three months to get this started (April-ish) and now I’m on a roll.
8. Take better care of skin // I take my makeup off and use hydrating lotion on my face *most* nights which is more than I’d done the last 30 years.
9. Learn Ableton Live // done.
10. Run 1/2 marathon // guys I really did try. Got about halfway through Dam 2 Dam and got sick. Long distance running is not my thing. If it’s your thing, go you. I celebrate that for/about you. I’ll celebrate you while I lift heavy things and while I’m not doing cardio because #ijustcant.

I feel really good about where I’m at so far this year. I feel empowered, successful, and in awe of the things that my heart and mind have been capable of over the last 8 months.

UPDATE 1/8/18: I ended up reading 22 books (separate post on them and my favorites in case you’re looking for new reading material). I weight 135, 5lbs away from my goal BUT have a great relationship with food and no longer have to track in any capacity. Feel great about 2017 and am excited to grow in 2018.

How To Be Here

Just finished reading Rob Bell‘s book, How To Be Here. In 3 days. One reason for the quick read is that it was an easy read! Thank you, Rob Bell. But more than that it was ridiculously engaging. No matter who you are, how your life is going, if you really enjoy your occupation or not, if you feel super satisfied with your life or otherwise, you have GOT to read this book. It’s that good. I’ll read it again and again.

A couple main takeaways for me:

1. Take a Sabbath. But like ACTUALLY take one. Get off your phone. Don’t have a to-do list. Make it a day that’s really a Sabbath and not just one that you’re not working at your “job”. Don’t check emails. Check OUT. I’ve had my phone on DND all day and it has been wonderful to actually be checked out. No social media. Minimal texting (I texted my husband because he’s my husband and he was grocery shopping). No email checking work OR personal. Guys. Seriously. So great. We go a million miles a minute all the time and so often that gives us little time to process things that have happened throughout the week. Slow down and rest. #selflove
2. Try new things. That thing you’ve wanted to do for years. That thing that always comes up in your thoughts. That thing that tugs at your heart. That thing you stand for. That thing you think “if only I could do ___”. That thing where you’re like “what if…”. It might work out and it might not. We take a risk when we try something new.. and we also take a risk WHEN WE DON’T! The risk when we don’t try? You might miss out on that thing. You might settle.
3. Be present. Check out the below excerpt right out of the book. How often do you go out to eat and see this all around you? A couple, both phones on the table. A group, each trying to document every detail of the afternoon via social media. Be present with the people you’re choosing to spend time with. If you don’t want to be present, don’t be there.

“You sit down to eat with a friend and she puts her phone on the table between the two of you with the screen facing up. Without saying anything verbally, she has just communicated to you that even though she is here, with you at the lunch, about to order food, if that phone rings and that screen lights up, she will be with you, but not be with you. Here but not here. In that moment as she glances down at the screen she will be making a decision about whether to answer or not.

This extraordinary technology that makes it possible for us to connect with someone on the other side of the world also disconnects us from the person on the other side of the table.

To live with rhythm requires that you be intentional about what you’re doing and when you’re doing it.

If you’re with a person, then be with him, be with her.

… If you’re having lunch and talking, then be there. Put your cell phone away.”

This book is a gem. Enjoy.