John Snow and New Year's Resolutions

All my clothes are from Target and my booties are from the mall, 2 years ago - I forget where.

I felt very "Game of Thrones" in this cloak.

Like I had just made a kill and threw the pelt around my neck, or that I was layering up for the long journey ahead in the freezing tundra like John Snow. I found this sweater-thing at Target (no shock there). I like wearing throws like this in the winter because I get hot easily and with this I'm not committed to keeping a sweater on all day. I have a short sleeved t-shirt on under this for when the inevitable happens... I burn up, beads of sweat start forming on my upper lip and I want to murder everything moving because I am fkng overheating. < typical >

Anyway...

Welcome to 2016, Mamacitas!!!

We are in a brand new year. I just love that. If you've been reading this blog for a while you know that I dig new chapters, resolutions, challenges, goals and new beginnings. I truly believe that any day you are fortunate enough to wake up in the morning is a chance to make a new ending, craft a new story or create a new life for yourself. Any day will work, but there is something really special about a new calendar year. I know it sounds cheesy, but it can be the beginning of anything you want and THAT is encouraging.

I love new years and I love resolutions. I hear a lot of people talking shit about those who take on resolutions (especially resolutions about health and wellness)... like all of the comments about the gym being packed. Bitching because the bench press is taken by a newbie.  I hate that shit. Shut up. Instead of acting like you're better than someone else because you've been committed to something for longer than they have, how about supporting them in what is never an easy task... changing their lives. I love when the gym is packed.  I love when people are hopeful, inspired and motivated. Smile at someone, say hello. And if you can't bring yourself to do that... at least don't be a dick, man. Life is hard enough.

Speaking of a new year... 

I'm going to make some changes from last year.

Don't get me wrong... I had a great year. I learned a ton, accomplished almost everything I had set out to do the January before, and I even started a new business. I felt very accomplished, but you know that else I felt???????

EXHAUSTED.

Really, really friggin' tired.
(And although there is some annoying meme going around FB that says that people w/o children don't know what tired is.... I strongly disagree. I was fking exhausted.)

So tired that I found myself preoccupied by exhaustion. I felt it all of the time. Every.Day.

It's my own fault. I have a tendency to go from 0 to 100 real quick << real fkng quick>>.

Last year I...

• Took 100 Pure Barre classes
• Completed my Nutrition Program and became a Certified Health Coach
• Started a new teaching job at Synergy Yoga
• Taught Pilates and PiYo
• Got certified to teach and then taught P90X
• I taught private Pilates lessons that forced me to set my alarm for 4:10AM on some work days
• I worked my full time job in Corporate America
• I started my own Rodan + Fields skincare business

Some days I would teach a private lesson at 5am, drive home to get ready for work, work from 8:30am to 5:00pm, teach a Pilates group at 5:30, then drive 20 minutes to teach a bootcamp at 6:30pm FOLLOWED by a Pilates class that finished at 8:45pm getting me home and starting dinner at 9:15pm. THEN after dinner, at  9:45PM I would start working my Rodan + Fields business. My day started before 5AM and ended after 9PM.

A 9AM-5PM job is enough, but a 5AM to 9PM!?!?!?!?! Shhhhhiiiiiittttttt?!

Now, I'm not saying that was my schedule everyday, but I am saying that I cannot go another year with a similar schedule. That fact has forced me to take a long, hard look at what I want  (and don't want) out of the next 12 months.

I'm going to work on balance. Balancing my personal health/personal relationships/my corporate job/my R+F business/teaching and having a social life. Sometimes you need to step back, stop and reevaluate. Hustle is great, but too much of a good thing can bite you in the ass.

This year I am going to make more time to relax... read... go on dates with my Manfriend... share meals with my girlfriends... go home to visit my family in NY and have them come to Charlotte... stroll aimlessly around town on a Saturday afternoon in the summer... do my laundry before it's a pile so high that it stands eye level and stares back at me.. be a student in more classes and teach a little less.

I'm still going to work my ass off (because I have some monster goals to meet before I am 40) but I am going to do it in a way that doesn't leave me strung out and miserable.

Focus and Balance are my words for 2016. What are yours?