2010 was quite the year for me. It was probably the single year that I have changed the most in my entire life. The year started with me going back to school in January and taking 18 hours of pre-reqs and basics towards a new degree in Nutrition. I took these school hours on top of working 40 hours a week at my old job in corporate finance. And also in addition to searching for and buying a house with my boyfriend, which we started renovating in the middle of April through June.
The spring was busy, and I was crazy. I lost touch with the established exercise routine I had made for myself in 2009. I lost touch with cooking (for the most part). I also lost touch with running and didn’t run very much during this time. I gained about 15 pounds back from where I was when 2010 began and struggled with stress frequently.
The summer came and school was much easier (thought still hard). I took only 3 hours (deciding half way through the summer semester to drop the additional 3 hours I was planning to take during July and August – uncharacteristic for me). We worked on organizing and finishing small projects around the house. The summer was easier than the spring, but still difficult. As I approached the resignation date for my job, stress at work began to build and I was very worked up over leaving my job and finishing my pretty difficult summer class.
Finally on August 13th, I left my job. My summer semester had ended on August 11th and I was finally free. I had two weeks until the Fall semester started and I thoroughly enjoyed my vacation. I spent time re-organizing the house, relaxing, running and blogging. I spent some time looking for a job, but then realized that I would wait a few months so I could get settled into a school routine before I located a part time job. In July I started running again and began training for a 10K race (a 2010 goal) that was in October.
Fall began and I started school. I only took 14 hours, but 11 were hard sciences with labs – so it was a very heavy course load for me. I continued running, though I did suffer an injury to my hip. Despite the injury I ran 8 races since leaving my job in August (six were 5K races, one 10K and a 4.2 mile race in December). I decided half way through the semester that I did not have time for a job, school and my personal life. Deciding to not get a part-time job was one of the most uncharacteristic but also best decisions I made in 2010. I also lost 10 pounds of the 15 I gained during the spring and began to feel much better about myself. My eating was much cleaner, I cooked much more frequently and I fell in love with crock pot cooking.
Life since August has been amazing (how amazing? read here). I feel like I have finally found a way to be happy and focus on the things that make me happy. I have eliminated 95% of the stress that I used to have in prior years and during the Spring and Summer. I found my way back into running, cooking and blogging – three things that I truly love.
2010 was quite the year for me. Just thinking back to everything that happened this year, I am exhausted. But I am also happy and full of hope for how amazing 2011 is going to be considering where I am in my life right now.
However, there are definitely still things that I would like to work on. I’m planning to post my 2011 goals tomorrow so we can talk about those areas in that post. For now, I’d like to reflect back on my 2010 goals (which you can find here) and see how I did this year!
2010 goals + thoughts on my progress
1. Run a 10K: This I accomplished in October, though I was partially injured and it wasn’t the race I had envisioned when I made this goal one year ago. However – I ran the race and that is all that matters. I learned that I am capable of so much more than I usually think I am when I ran this race. It wasn’t the best race of 2010, or my life, but it was one that I will never forget. You can read my re-cap here. I would love to run another 10K in 2011 and actually have my eyes on one at the end of February.
2.Take better care of my skin: This is another goal where I succeeded, though I could have done better. When I made this goal one year ago I was very lazy about washing my face at night – and I completely turned a leaf with this problem. I wash my face consistently every night of the week and maybe miss only one day a week (if that). I also am much more consistent about wearing make-up. As I said in my post last year – I wear skin clearing makeup because I have such oily skin. Wearing makeup keeps me from breaking out because of the salicylic acid in the foundation and powder I wear. My skin condition has improved drastically since I do both of these things much more often. I did not make much progress on toning or moisturizing each night – and this is something I plan to continue working on in 2011.
3. Make a 4.0 in school: Prior to coming back to school this time, I had never made a 4.0 in my life. This was a really big goal of mine for 2010. To avoid setting myself up for disappointment (another 2010 goal), I said I only aspired to make a 4.0 in one semester of the three. In reality, I made a 4.0 in the spring, the summer AND the fall. I could not be more happy. I know that there is a possibility I will not make a 4.0 in the future – but it is something I will strive for each semester I am in school from here on and I know that it is attainable – I just have to work extremely hard for it. Part of the decision to not work during the school semesters is because making a 4.0 is so important to me and I feel that it will help my chances of getting into grad school greatly if I can maintain this GPA (it is going to drastically improve my previous GPA from college the first time – which I am carrying with me unfortunately).
4. Continue my work with stress/anxiety: This was a huge undertaking for me in 2010 considering all that I put myself through in the spring and summer. But I truly learned a lesson in the spring about overloading myself and not giving myself time to do what I want to do. This is evident in the decision I made to only take 3 hours this past summer instead of 6. It’s also evident in my decision to not work while in school so I have time for my personal life, cooking and exercise. I feel like I made such incredible progress towards this goal in 2010 and I am extremely happy with this part of my life in 2010 – even if it did take me half the year to figure it truly out.
5. Become more realistic with myself about my goals: Stealing a little from the previous goal – I think I did a great job with this goal in 2010. Using the same examples from above – I think that I was able to drop some of the superwoman syndrome tendencies that I have and realize that I don’t have to do everything, I don’t have to be perfect and I really do need downtime for my own sanity and happiness. This will always be a goal in the back of my mind that I will work on because I am naturally inclined to do want to do everything and to do it perfectly. I still need to make lofty goals from time to time, but every goal I make cannot be lofty and that is the true lesson I learned in 2010.
6. Build my blog: I feel like I made really great strides with this goal, though I certainly could have done better. I am more apt to post regularly and I feel like my content has improved significantly. Mostly I feel like I have realized the voice I would like my blog to have. I’m done trying to be a three posts a day blogger where I show you everything I eat. I’m much more happy to post tips, tricks and analysis on my mission to be healthy. I’ve gained readers and making Freshly Pressed certainly was an amazing moment for me this year. I still have work to do with this goal though and I hope to continue that in 2011. There are so many things that I want to blog about, I just lack the inspiration and time to make them all happen. I’ll definitely be working on this in 2011 and I’m even considering changing my blog name – but haven’t finalized any decisions here yet.
Overall I made great progress with these goals in 2010. I intentionally made them light and vague because one year ago I had no idea the direction in which my life was headed. Now that I do, I’m working on much more specific and targeted goals for 2011 – which I will be posting tomorrow!
Did you guys reach your goals for 2010? Which goals will you be carrying into 2011 with you?
