Last December, I did a 12-day countdown to January 1st to celebrate my accomplishments of the year. This year, I am starting today and with a single post. There is no reason for me to wait to share my success (and failures) and a “fresh start” does not need to happen on January 1st. Every day is an opportunity for a new beginning, and so today I am closing out what I’ve done thus far.
The latter half of the year greatly outweighed the former half. In July I served on my first jury and I have never felt so proud of my civic service. In August we announced to our parents that we were planning to get married next summer and in September we officially got engaged! In October I ran a half marathon, in November I wrote a novel, and now here we are in December and despite being suckered down by a lack of time and a surplus of stress, I am getting back into my health and fitness goals.
This is obviously the failure art of the post. I have let myself go, so to speak. I am incredibly out of shape and I feel it. I do not drink enough water and my skin shows it. I don’t take 10,000 steps in a single day for several streaks of time that were far too long. What I have managed to do, however, is stay committed to healthy eating. As a result, now that I see the light at the end of the tunnel, I know that all I have to do is continue to keep up my habits in the kitchen and increase my activity and I will be well on my way.
I have been told countless times to count my blessings often, and I have not been able to make that habit stick quite yet. What I will say right now is that counting my blessings has made me realize how well off I am, even when things might seem bleak. I am not perfect, and there are things in my life that are outside of my control that make living harder. However, I am capable of doing so much and I do do so much, so I really cannot sit here and complain about anything.
Understanding that January is to be nothing more than a continuation fo all the amazing things that I have accomplished in 2017 and the strong habits hat I built makes it so much easier to go through today, even though I’m home, aiming to reach my step and calorie goals. There is absolutely no reason for me to start tomorrow when I can do it today.
She’s Got a Whole PhD 