new year, clean eating & new goals

Last year was like living inside a tornado. Every time I thought I would escape that spinning vortex I would get sucked right back in. I couldn’t seem to balance my life. I went back to work after taking two years off, I had continued weight loss goals, my husband left his job at UPS after eight years to take a job where he now works from home and travels less, our daughter began her first year of preschool, I seemed to be working more, the house in my eyes was always a disaster, the kids would cry if I told them I had to work, we were eating out more, I was working out less, my blog was forgotten, friends would inquire why I was always MIA and I beat myself up a lot, mentally not physically of course!

 But out of all that so-called “bad”, which wasn’t really bad at all, we became happier as a family. We managed to pay off my car, my debt will be completely gone in a few short months, Jim’s car will be paid off in a few months, student loans are starting to dwindle (not mine, that will take a lifetime), I went gluten-free in September, I managed my 2012 weight loss of thirty pounds and added nine additional pounds lost in 2013. While my social life might have sucked a little (okay, a lot!) we had to make sacrifices in 2013.

2014 is already looking brighter. On New Year’s Day it felt like that looming aftermath of that tornado’s dust had cleared. We have several family goals set, we started cleaning out closets, ridding our house of unneeded toys and food. I had never felt so good going into the New Year (despite the on-going cold we’ve all had).

Sixteen days ago we started a challenge as a family, this challenge is to follow The 30 Clean program. I’ve already been gluten-free for four months so following a clean eating plan just seemed like a great thing to do for the New Year. Along with the program I am challenging myself to take 15 classes at TDM. This might be the most challenging part of the 30-days since I had a rough ending to ’13 with my knee and illnesses.

I cannot wait to see what 2014 brings.

And, because a post isn’t a post without pics I leave you with a few family pictures of one of our two sessions.