This time of year always brings out the introspection in everyone with year end wrap ups, I feel it’s healthy to look back and see how things are going. I’ll admit, my first draft of this post was a lot more pessimistic than the final version.

While it’s easy to jump on the “2016 was horrible” bandwagon, I’ve always tried my best to have positive energy and an optimistic outlook on this wellness journey.

2016 Wrap Up in a Nutshell

2016 had a lot of ups and downs, and in the end many things seemingly stayed the same. I started the year coming off a low. Between Sept and Dec of 2015, I only went to the gym 8 times, and I didn’t even bother writing down the progress in my workout log.

My progress remained pretty consistent until I was laid off in April. After that, I kept up the workouts for a month before I started slipping. I made a quick rebound when training for the Bears 5k, but then tapered back down when starting physical therapy to finally address the chronic Achilles pain.

Things were looking up until I went on my overseas trip and got sick. Looking at the log, it’s pretty insane how much strength I lost during that time.

After much frustration, Hot Chocolate training pulled me out of the funk which led to the highlight of the year of PR’ing my 5k with jogging nonstop! Afterward the residuals of my overseas trip led to another break, which led to a slight resurgence of the Achilles issue.

From there, it’s was sort of a crawl/flail to the finish line of the year. Although I do have reason to be optimistic toward the future.

Looking at the Stats

This is the part that really gets me bummed.

From my first weigh-in of the year to my last weigh-in, there was only a 1.5 lb difference. There were little waves of fluctuation, with my lowest weight occurring in mid-November being 5.8 lb down from the beginning of the year. The holiday season and the aforementioned Achilles/Antibiotics 1-2 punch got me good.

Strength wise, I’ve gained some strength since the beginning of the year. It’s only up one set of dumbbells, but I’m happy with that. It’s a notch below when I was at my strongest, but considering how everything went down, I’ll take it.

Cardio is where I can hang my hat. My base pace is a half a mile faster, my push pace is 0.5-1 mph faster, and my all out speed is on average 1 mph faster than the beginning of the year. Not to mention improvements in endurance.

When it comes to running and treadmill work, I can honestly say that right now I’m performing the best I have in my entire life!

Things That Went Well

Let’s continue that positivity high by talking about my successes of the year and things that give me great hope and determination moving forward.

• Hot Chocolate. Need I say any more. I still have a hard time believing that I ran the entire way. If you told me to run a 5k right now, I would hestitate not knowing if I could do it. But then I remember, I DID DO IT!
• Physical Therapy. I’m proud of myself for taking the steps forward to correct the ongoing Achilles issue. I realized I needed some help, and didn’t realize how much help I needed
  • I learned about my genetics, and how it was affecting my form
  • Corrections to my running form have made running easier and much more controlled. So I feel much more confident when running
  • Getting rid of the pain also gets rid of the small tinge of fear of serious injury that’s constantly in the back of my head.
  • I’m realizing other things (namely lifting my heels when squatting, which I’ve done my entire life) are tied to the same issues that caused the Achilles. Weak & still calf muscles, lack of flexibility in ankle and hips. Realizing this and correcting the form has made my squats much more effective, which will only improve from here.
• Yoga. My dabbling in yoga made me realize that I actually enjoy it. That’s going to be up there on my list of things I want to do moving forward. Especially realizing the flexibility issues from the previous bullet point.
• Support System. From small words of encouragement, to my buddy driving down from Michigan to run Hot Chocolate with me. I’m honored and blessed to have such a great support system, and I appreciate it much more than I show.

Things That Need Improvement

• My Handling of Stress. While I’ve dealt with loss of employment and jumping into the inconsistent nature of freelance life, I haven’t handled the stress in the most healthy of ways. This was probably the biggest cause to slip-ups in nutrition.
• Dependence on Results. Piggybacking off handling stress, I often find myself being emotionally affected by whether the scale says the number I like, whether the job goes through or gets postponed, even socially if plans fall through. I set too arbitrary and high expectations and beat myself up or get depressed when it doesn’t go according to plan.
• Treating the Symptom, Not the Disease. While training hard and tightening up nutrition are incredibly important. Many of my favorite YouTube personalities like Obese to Beast and Fat Meets Fire have said: if you’re not happy when you’re big, that’s not going to go away when you’re skinny.
  • Confidence issues, social anxieties, and other things that may have stemmed from being big your entire life unfortunately won’t disappear long with the fat.
  • I feel that those things are more than side effects, but are actually things holding me back from succeeding. Both career wise and health wise.

Non Health/Fitness Goals

As I proved two years ago during the weight loss challenge, when things are consistent and I can make a schedule: I have the means and motivation to do this. Health & Fitness wise, the plan forward isn’t brain surgery.

Nutrition wise: cook for myself, eat whole foods, more veggies, but perhaps take things not as drastically at first so it’ll be more sustainable.

Training wise: stay consistent, maybe sign up for another 5k, maybe even a longer race toward the end of the year if I’m so inclined.

The new goal is an adjustment to offset my current work situation. When working freelance, there are times when I literally don’t leave my apartment for a week aside from a trip to the gym or groceries. Days can go by when I don’t even speak out loud.

While I very much consider myself an introvert at heart, we are all social creatures and having that in-person on a personal level is extremely important to our well being.

The new goal is simple: stay social. Do something social and NOT WORK RELATED twice a month. Sometimes, when business is slow, it may be difficult financially to go out drinking or have dinners, but those are all excuses. There’s plenty of inexpensive options and no reason not to get out there.

Staying social will only help me remain confident in social situations and networking events and is a large aspect of my life I’ve put on hold for a while since becoming career/health focused.

It’s time to stop pigeonholing myself as the comic relief, the underdog, the sidekick. While I do take pride in surprising people with my abilities, it’s time to push forward and let my true form shine.

Here’s to the new year, may health and happiness prevail for all, cheers!