2018

I'm not typically big on reflections, but I saw a post today that made me think about what I accomplished this past year and where some of my challenges were. I've been thinking about it all morning, so I wanted to write down some of my thoughts.  2018 was a huge year for Eric and me! We both started new jobs, explored the world, and spent a lot of time together. 2018 was the year for us - we didn't have school as a distraction, so we were really able to dedicate a lot of our time to each other. It was the best. We also had some significant challenges. Here are some of our successes and challenges:

Successes

• I set out on a path this year to get control of my health and fitness.  2015-2017 were filled with full-time work and graduate school, and not a lot of time for health and fitness. I totally let everything slide and gained a significant amount of weight - turns out eating Chick-Fil-A on my way to school twice a week will do that do you. 2018 was the year to change that! One of my college friends is a Beachbody coach, so I reached out to her to see if she could help me out. She started me on a year of fitness. I can honestly say that the only days I missed working out this past year were when we were on vacation and on Christmas Day. Aside from that, I worked out every single day - and even sometimes on vacation. I also started eating super clean using portion-fix containers. It's completely changed the way Eric and I both look at food. I've lost 40 lbs. and gained significant muscle. It's been a huge life change for us and I can't imagine it any other way. We have so much more energy and I've learned to use exercise as an outlet for my emotions in a healthy way. 
• I was promoted to Sr. Manager of Implementation at the very end of this year! I'm so excited about the new challenges this will bring, including a significant amount of travel. I feel so blessed to have found success at my company! It truly feels like home. 
• Eric and I explored the world. We visited 6 new countries and learned so much along the way. I love traveling with Eric because we set out with a plan, but we are both flexible enough to change our plans as we go. We had originally planned Europe for June, but we just couldn't get the dates to work out. We pivoted and instead visited  China in May (which wasn't really even on the radar), and then moved Europe to September. These trips have given us additional confidence to explore other countries next year! 

Challenges

• Eric was laid off from his job in June. Although his total time unemployed was only 2 days, the unknown was scary. However, we used that time to evaluate our priorities and determine what type of job would fit Eric best. Fortunately, he was able to find a new job that was even better in very little time. We learned how powerful his Ernst and Young network is. And we felt incredibly blessed and grateful that we both worked - we knew we could survive unemployment for a long time if we needed to because of my job. Fortunately, we didn't have to. 
• We had a snafu with our flights to Japan that took quite a bit of time to resolve. Fortunately, the resolution ended up being better than our original flights. That being said - it added a significant amount of stress to Q4. 

I'm very much looking forward to 2019! I have a few goals I would like to accomplish next year. 

1. Read 12 books or one/per month. This isn't a lot compared to Eric's massive output, however, audiobooks are challenging for me, so I read most books with a physical paper copy. I enjoy reading and I would like to do it more. 

2. Maintain the health and fitness habits that I developed in 2018. This year could be challenging with the amount of work travel I will have on my plate, however, I developed healthy habits this past year when I eat out and I've mastered the art of working out in hotel rooms or hotel gyms. 

3. Listen to more podcasts on my way to work instead of music all the time. There are a lot of really interesting podcasts out there and I would like to explore more of them. 

Overall, 2018 was a great year for our little family and I can't wait to see what 2019 has in store!