Hey all!  It’s the last post of 2018.  It’s been a year and I would like do a rundown of 2018.  This post is going to be extremely personal, so if it’s something you would like to skip, I understand.  I’ll just see you in 2019!  If you want to keep reading, that is always welcome.

I ended the year with a strong workout.  Let me tell you, I didn’t want to get up to do this workout but it’s important to me to finish out the year strong.  This isn’t the time to slack off.  It’s time to start the new year off strong which means ending my year with a good workout. I definitely used my socks as motivation to get my workout done this morning.  I ran walked 3.60 miles to close out the new year.

Here is a rundown of 2018.

Running

I started off the year running a 10K because I wasn’t in good running shape. I wasn’t sure if running was going to be my thing anymore. I’ve been struggling with the physical act of running and the first half of the year, it just wasn’t something I was doing. In June, I started a streak which changed my perspective on everything. That’s when I decided to train for a marathon and things started happening. I am proud to say that I love running so much and I finished that marathon. It wasn’t always easy in the training phase with new life responsibilities, but I did the best I could. I completed my goal and feel more comfortable with running again.

I ran 800.8 miles this year.  I really just can’t believe that I made it that far considering I didn’t run very much from January – June.

Parenting

How come no one told me parenting was such a challenge?  I’m joking!  Parenting has its challenges but I am glad that I get to do it.  I’m a working mom, who takes her child to work, and sometimes it’s overwhelming.  I love being able to watch her grow and change.  She’s such a ball of energy with so much personality.  I don’t really know where she got that personality from, but she’s got it.  I love it.  She thinks that she is a wrestler and she’s got the strength to back it up.  I still have to remind her that she’s a little human and can’t climb and jump off everything. The one thing I am trying to teach my child is to love.  I want her to be loved and love others.  I’ve seen her grow and change in this area so much.  It really just warms my heart.

She says a lot of different things.  She loves to sit in boxes.  Now she’s climbing out of her crib and she’ll be ready for potty training soon.

I know I’m not doing everything right, but I’m doing it.  She’s the best thing in my life. When I look at her, I know I’m doing something worthwhile.  I just want to make sure I’m setting a great example for her.

Healthy Living

I feel like I’ve been in the best and worst shape of my life this year.  I’ve been living a very flexible lifestyle.  There are times that I could have eaten better and I vow to do better in the new year.  I didn’t blow my diet the entire year but I did have some bad weeks.  I’ve always been proud of myself for being able to snap back into my healthy routine and that’s the reason I am able to write this post right now.  I know I stumbled a few times along the way, but I’m still here setting the example.

My water intake has been ridiculous.  I know I didn’t drink enough and I need to figure out how much water I should be drinking in a day.  I need to drink more water in the morning.

I love salads.  I love salads so much that I spend $10 on salads which I need to stop doing.  That money adds up and I could be spending that money on something else if I just spent more time prepping some food at home.  I did spend a lot of 2018 eating out even when I did prep food.  I should be better about this in the future.

Travel

I love to travel and I feel like I didn’t get to do as much this year,  We did go to the Bahamas and took a week of vacation which is something that we never get to do. This was the biggest vacation we’ve gone since China and it was nice to be cut off from normal life for a while.  This was the first time I’ve ever done a cruise and really enjoyed it.  It was just a nice week of enjoyment that didn’t involve running.  That was a huge change for me!

We managed to do some small trips nearby and hit up Vegas in November.  I’m looking to see more places in 2019.

Everything else…

I wanted to work on having a more positive attitude about things in life.  I’m not completely satisfied with the journey I took this year and I will work on this into the new year.  Things like that don’t just happen overnight.  A big part of the new year will be gratitude.

Life is a balancing act and I’m proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish this year.  I balanced work life, home life, mom life, and running life pretty well.  There’s not going to be a perfect balance and I’ve learned that you can not have it all!  It’s about making the parts work together to get things moving and staying functional.  I suffered from some serious mom guilt during training but for the most part, I made it work.  I don’t think she even realized I was training.  I did put a lot of pressure of myself to do those things where she wouldn’t notice I was gone.

I don’t think I’ve been an awesome friend this year.  These things get harder as you grow older and have children.  I wish we lived closer to each other, too.  I hope those people who really know me and are close to me know how important they are in my life.  I couldn’t do life without them.

I went to a Taylor Swift concert!  I usually don’t ever make time for stuff like this but I had the best time at the concert!

I need to learn how to handle my stress better. Crying has become a huge release for me but it works.  I do feel bad about crying tears because I view that as a sign of weakness even when it isn’t.  I just know when I got stressed I would just sit by myself and let it out. That is what I needed at that time.

Blogging really hit the back burner this year when it shouldn’t.  I had time to write blogs and I didn’t out of fear of people not wanting to read what I’m writing.  The information may not have changed the world but maybe it would have helped someone get over a hump.  That’s the biggest reason why I vowed to blog until the rest of the year.  I may not have met that goal but I did get some blog posts on this blog and I’m ready for a new year of blogging and sharing.

Thank you for being a part of my 2018 and I hope you stay around for 2019!  Happy New Year!  Be safe out there if you’re going out tonight!