What A Difference A Year Can Make

One week ago today, I turned 26. Just a few days before that, I'd found the photo that was taken at my 25th birthday party. I hate the photo. Seeing myself when the server handed it over was truly embarrassing. It was one of those moments when you realize how much weight you've gained. I remember how I felt getting ready for that dinner, not even knowing that all of my friends were planning on surprising me. I'd practically been in tears. I felt like I had nothing nice to wear that fit my body. My confidence was close to an all time low.

Left: January 20, 2013
Right: January 20, 2014

Circle back, 365 days later and I am 100% healthier. I've been CrossFitting for almost 7 months and eat a much more clean and whole diet than any other time in my life. I've repaired friendships that I'd been damaging due to my own insecurity. I'm on the road to being financially free and my relationship with my significant other is built on love, trust, and respect. 

While I'm not looking forward to being another year closer to 30, I am excited for the progress I know I can make between now and my next birthday. 

2014 Goals

2013 has held loads of change for me. While it has been the only year since high school that I haven't had multiple jobs (hooray for only one W-2!), much has changed in my personal life. After breaking free from a terrible relationship, I found myself growing and changing in ways that I find amazing. I found CrossFit not too long after that breakup, which catapulted my life down a new and healthy path. I'd always been interested in healthy food and being fit, but my commitment to those interests had been a roller coaster of highs and lows. Finding my physical strength gave me the confidence to make improvements in other areas of my life, which I talk a little bit about below. Goals 1-5 are areas that I want to begin/continue improving on that relate to the way I treat myself, others, and my future, behavioral goals, if you will. Goals 6-10 are fitness goals that I can work towards in the gym.

1. Eliminate debt: because, duh. So many doors would be open to me if I didn't have those extra bills hanging over my head each month. With the exception of a car payment, I'm going to attempt to pay off as much debt as I can this year.
2. Fill out the FAFSA: If I'm even considering going back to school, which I very well may be, I'll need to have this done.
3. Get more sleep: at least 7 hours a night. This means I'm going to have to go to bed earlier, and if I want to start working out in the mornings as well as in the evenings, I'll have to go to be even earlier! 
4. Cut out negative self-talk and negative thoughts towards others: How awesome would the world be if we quit thinking the worst of ourselves and others? I'm starting with myself on this one and making a big effort to stop harsh and judgmental thoughts.
5. Volunteer: In 2013, I was given $100 by my company to donate to a charity of my choice. I chose Girls on the Run because I really get their purpose.  As a girl that often felt inferior growing up, I would have loved the chance to have encouraging female coaches and friends who were all working towards a goal (and achieving it!). I want to do more with Girls on the Run in 2014.
6. Run a half-marathon
7. Muscle-up
8. 150lb Front Squat/175lb Back Squat
9. 150lb Clean & Jerk
10. 115lb Snatch

Here's to a Healthy and Happy 2014!

Spring Cleaning

My apartment is a mess! You'd think that after traveling for a month, everything would be untouched and in order, but no. For that to be true, I would have had to leave it in some sort of order, which I did not. My work schedule is always a whirlwind right before I travel, so I end up packing in a rush and everything gets pulled out.

This Saturday is devoted to getting things back in order, and I mean more than my apartment. Granted, it's the most obvious mess, but I'm also going back to the gym for the first time in almost two months to try to get my body ready for summer. I've been working on refreshing my wardrobe for spring, although I've been doing a lot more shopping than closet-purging, so there's a lot of build up right now. I haven't had time to cuddle with my darling bunny rabbit in so long either and I've missed her. She needs to get out for some exercise, but the apartment is too messy. Here I am, back full circle to the fact that my apartment is a mess.

I've had so little time to myself lately, between work and my ex-boyfriend, that I feel like there is a lot that had slipped through the cracks. I'm looking forward to having the time to maintain order around here, even if it does mean going through the weirdness of a breakup. I know I will be better off in the long run and that my stress levels will be way down in the future if I can balance my "me-time" with everything else in life a little better. If there's one thing that I learned from that relationship, it's that I need to stick up for my "me-time" and if a guy doesn't get that, he's not for me.