Day 1,099. 211 lbs. lost
Cheers to 2019. Hell of a year, wow …where do I even start! I’m currently working on my yearly review in my 2020 Goals workbooks, and thought it would be fun to do a round-up post here as well to share with you all of how this year has been for me… life, business, and all the good stuff!
Home
I celebrated nine years in my home this year, which turns out is the longest I have lived anywhere in my life. I get my folks for about half the year, and I do enjoy very much that time I get with them. Minnesota continues to be a blessing in every way. On good days I think it’s been a magical, unexplainable journey, and on bad days, I wonder WTF I was thinking. LOL… Luckily, my days are almost always good.
What I love most about Minnesota:
the weather. I love having four seasons, although some could argue whether or not we really have a spring. Most years it goes straight from winter to summer. My fireplace is my favorite part of my home so living here offers over six months of fire burning weather.
the location. One of the best reasons to live in the Midwest? You’re less than 4 hours flight to any coast in the country.
Health
As most of you know, I had double knee replacements and Blount’s disease correction on the right. Things were much quieter this year because of it, but what a trip and a half. I am now 8 months out from surgery on the right and 16 weeks out on the left. They are both about the same in terms of recovery because the right suffered the losses of extra tendons and bone cutting due to the leg straightening. Recovery on the right has been so much more difficult than the left. I have good days and bad days with both legs. One day I will feel almost normal, and then the next day both legs will be so sore I can barely walk. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason for it, but I am learning to lean into it. The handicap parking tag attached to my rearview mirror was a pride adjustment, but I learned to love having it. Especially during the winter in subzero temperatures! 😊 Front row parking has its perks.
Stairs are getting easier, but I still need to hold onto the door jams or walls for stability. I am free walking without the use of the cane, so this has been a great milestone in terms of recovery.
I am back at CrossFit, but it does look different, and there isn’t a consistency that I would like just yet. Some weeks it’s 3 days a week, some it might be one day a week. It depends on how the legs feel. Aside from the initial three months of pain on both surgeries, this was the hardest part of my year. I wasn’t prepared for how many steps back I would take in physical ability, but again, I am learning to take it as it comes. I’m doing my very best not to compare “before” with now because it’s a brand new road that I am learning to navigate daily. I learned in the first two weeks that I was going to have to play a much larger role in my own workouts. I knew I would need to spend time looking ahead and trying to plan better at the modifications or accessories needed. I essentially took on the toughest case of my young coaching career; me! LOL.
Forty extra pounds was quite a setback, but life never said it wasn’t going to add extra plates to my barbell, so to speak. Admittedly, I went through a period after my first surgery called “self-pity.” This isn’t a lifestyle you can take a “vacation” from and not suffer some consequences. Thankfully, I’m back on track and making good strides since the 1st of December to get that extra surgery weight off. This is my initial goal for the year. Once this is complete, we’ll attack where I left off and keep plugging forward.
The Book & Online Programs
The book and online programs are still in the works. One of the downsides of the surgeries was the minor underestimation of the brain power I would have. As it turns out, most of the activities I was working on got put on a temporary hiatus as it was too difficult to get adequate clear-headed thinking time. Much of this had everything to do with the heavy narcotics! DOH! I will admit though that when I picked these back up again in December, it was from a much different place than ten months ago. I think what my body went through this last year taught me a thing or two and it was good to be able to come back to everything with a much more reflective perspective. All are active works in progress with goals to publish the book and have at least two of the programs (including the SME) up and Live.
Goals
Though I had plenty of setbacks this year, I am definitely celebrating my accomplishments. Aside from one of the three mountain goals being recovery (hello, this was huge), one very large goal was a complete brand and website overhaul, which was completed just two weeks before surgery number one! I love the new site. I can’t wait to update with new images this year.
I read a ton of books during all of my beloved downtimes, subsequently getting to add all those green checkmarks in the goal book. One of my favorite books was:
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
From someone that spent years and years in therapy, it’s deeply personal yet reveals what it means just to be human. It’s also incredibly funny and illuminates the power to transform our lives.
Wanna read it? You should. Click here!
2019 Takeaways
I am discovering the hard times can bear gold. This year was an incredible one for learning. I learned much from humility, pain can bring healing, sadness can intensify joy, and it’s okay to slow down once in a while. It reminded me that the journey I am on is not a race and it’s going to go at the exact speed God has planned for me, whatever that is. I am learning to embrace that.
My Song of 2020
Everyone needs a yearly power song. Here’s mine!
As I head proudly into 2020 I will have….
More grounding. More creativity. More self-care. More filming! More travel. More Jesus. More success to celebrate.
That all feels very good.
Lots of love,
