Daily Life, Family

2014: A Review of my Resolutions

Every year I like to review my resolutions and what I accomplished. I didn’t make many goals for 2014 because 2013 wasn’t a really good year for me, and I mainly wanted to focus on having a happy and successful 2014 with attainable goals. I think I achieved that. Let’s see how I did:

1. Continue on my path with healthy eating and exercise to achieve my first major goal weight — wedding weight.

I solidly achieved this one and came out of 2014 feeling much stronger and more fit! In May, I discovered Orangetheory Fitness, and quickly began an obsession! I like to work out there 2-4 times per week. I also cooked a lot in the beginning of last year, but after getting extremely busy and having trouble maintaining a schedule, I discovered Fresh Meal Plan thanks to a friend of mine.  Now I have healthy meals delivered to keep me covered for Monday – Friday, and we cook on the weekends. Adrian also gets his healthy fresh meals delivered to work, and he is already doing great with his mission to get healthier, too.

As for returning to wedding weight…. that didn’t happen, but that’s okay, Despite my healthy eating and exercise, I found that I stopped losing weight completely by summertime, which is why I decided to start Orangetheory – I thought I needed a huge change in my workout habits to kick start my metabolism. If you have wondered why I stopped posting my fitness updates, this is why. I became very frustrated when I was doing the right things, and instead of losing weight, I actually started gaining it back. I was also having a few other symptoms that had me puzzled.

After seeing the doctor, I learned that I have a VERY common medical issue called PCOS.  I learned that many of my friends deal with the exact same thing – crazy that it affects so many women! I have probably had this issue for a long time, but I didn’t have most of the “classic” symptoms, so it never came up. Well, I am now feeling a bit better and more energetic, and I’m losing weight once again. I even made a personal record in this year’s Tamarac Turkey Trot 5K, which is AWESOME! So, I am on track  and very excited about continuing my journey to better fitness, health, and wellness this year.

School #hanukkah party with Z!
With Zachary last December at my LOWEST weight – I am only 10lb away from being back there again!

2. Take a family portrait in front of our house, in the driveway, with our dachshund, Maya in the picture.

Yes, thank God, we did this, thanks to my amazing friend Jamie. I had put this off for well over a year and a half. Then, Maya became very sick. Jamie came over to our house at a moment’s notice to take photos of our family just a few days before Maya passed away. They are even more special to me now that we are moving to Georgia this year. All five of us, in front of the house that our family grew up in. I will treasure these photos forever and ever and ever.

3. Design and print the next in our series of family yearbooks. I still have to do 2011, 2012, and 2013, plus books for our vacations to the Southwest, San Francisco, Alaska, and Vermont/the Northeast.

I am very sad to say that this did not happen – the past couple years have just been way too busy, and I haven’t had time. Additionally, this year, I still had to take care of albums from my last couple of wedding clients, so I didn’t get to work on anything for myself. I did make a little Mosaic book from one of our family zoo visits, which is totally cute, so at least I have something to show! Hopefully I’ll be able to get at least one of our books done. It’s very hard to keep up with each year as time goes on, when you don’t stay on top of it.

4. Read 50 books this year.

I read 25, which is still great! I really enjoyed all of the books I read this year.

5. Be better.

In some ways, I was better, and in some ways, I wasn’t. I definitely know what I have to work on and change. Overall, I’m happy with my progress. I will continue with my quest for GROWTH in 2015!

6. Do something creative other than photography that makes me happy.

So, my non-photography creative plan for 2014 was to write a novel. HAHA. That did not happen. I did START writing the novel, but in true-to-me-fashion, I didn’t finish. I still want to write a novel, but I have no idea when that’s going to happen. I did start selling Jamberry Nails (contact me if you’d like to have a Facebook party!) and Young Living Essential Oils on the side, which is sort-of creative, and super fun, so I think I did fulfill this resolution even though I didn’t get to write my book.

7. Have an adventure!

I think we had several good adventures as a family! We hit up the zoo a couple times, which we’d never done before. I got to meet Clyde Butcher, one of my photo idols! We traveled in the summer and winter to Georgia and Tennessee, and took the kids hiking in Gatlinburg at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which was awesome (and I just realized I never blogged those photos, oops)! We also had an incredible weekend at the Westin Diplomat with the boys and my parents. My BFF Amy and I took a girls trip to the Keys and swum with dolphins (also forgot to blog those, whoops). Zachary started kindergarten. Adrian and I celebrated 10 years of marriage!

Also, quite an adventure on its own, we survived 9 months without my parents around, after they made their big move to Georgia in March. Happily, we will be joining them in Summer 2015!

#pictapgo_app #happy little #hikers! #brothers #greatsmokymountains #gatlinburg #trail #green #fun #kids #tennesee #nationalparks
The boys enjoying Great Smoky Mountains National Park

While 2014 was a very busy year, there were soooooo many wonderful and fun moments! I think we learned a lot and have a lot to look forward to in the future. I am so excited for what’s to come!

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