Balance

My word for 2018 is BALANCE. I see BALANCE being important in many aspects of my life.


Balance work and home life

I have the advantage of being able to work from home for the most part, so this really helps to balance my work and home life.  I still need to ensure that I don’t let myself get caught up in working too late just to finish something.  I also need to make sure that I am disciplined enough to be focused and working during work hours.  There are also changes coming in January to our lives that will make BALANCING work and home life even more significant.  Thinking outside the box and redefining how home life looks and runs will be key.

Balance food – the good and the bad

Being healthy continues to be important to me.  I am a strong believer though that getting healthy is not going to happen with a quick fix or a diet, it is a lifestyle change that I need to embrace.  That makes balancing good and bad food important.  I am not willing to completely cut out any one food from my life, but am willing to BALANCE the good with the bad.

Balance training time with down time

I will be training for 2 half-marathons in 2018.  One in June and one in September.  My training plan is about 16 weeks, so training will officially start in February.  Once my mileage starts to ramp up my long runs start taking over 3 hours on a Sunday morning.  Much like balancing work and home life, I do not want my training time to take over all of my free time, so finding a BALANCE in my training schedule to still have non-training down time is essential.

I will find and create BALANCE in all aspects of my life for 2018.

I am Strong

When I selected STRONG as my word of the year for 2017, I wasn't 100% sure what STRONG would look like for me.

I want to be strong in my resolve. I want to be strong in my convictions. I want to be strong in my relationships. I want to be strong for my family and friends. I want to be mentally strong. And yes… I want to be physically strong too. 

Now that the year is coming to a close, I can say with confidence that I am STRONGER than I was when the year began.

My relationship with my Mom is STRONG.  Mom and I spent a week long vacation just the two of us in the spring that culminated in our doing a half-marathon together.  Crossing the finish line hand in hand was a great moment for both of us.

My relationship with Liam is STRONG.  Having a great open relationship with him at 15 is so important to me.  I'm glad that we can talk about anything, even if there are times that he isn't so pleased about the topic choices!

Hilary and I continue to have a STRONG relationship.  We celebrated 24 years together yesterday.  We have managed big moves, buying houses, having a kid, illnesses, career changes and pretty much everything else that life has to offer.  All of it just makes us STRONGER together.

I am mentally STRONG.  I try to challenge myself both at work and at home, to keep my mind active.  Don't get me wrong, there is a good amount of time spent on mindless pursuits as well, but I think that recharging is just as important.

I am physically STRONGER too.  I completed two half-marathons this year and many other races as part of my training.  I joined a gym to work on strength training to help keep me injury free.  I can lift heavier weights now than I could a year ago. One day soon I might even be able to do a push-up.

2017 was a great year overall.  Thank you to all my friends and family who helped me be STRONG.

STRONG

In 2017 I will be STRONG.

When I think of the word strong, my first thought always goes to “physically strong”. And I don’t think of myself as being physically strong. I need Hilary to open most jars, Liam to carry heavy things down the stairs and I couldn’t do a push up or a pull up to save my life.

But strong can mean so much more. I want to be strong in my resolve. I want to be strong in my convictions. I want to be strong in my relationships. I want to be strong for my family and friends. I want to be mentally strong. And yes… I want to be physically strong too.

In 2017 I am going to focus on being strong. I don’t know how that will look, or what the end result will be. But I do know that I will be a stronger person in the end.

Check out my previous words of the year:

2013 Do
2014 Believe
2015 Determined
2016 Healthy

I tried to be Healthy

My word of the year for 2016 was HEALTHY.  I wanted to:

• eat healthy
• improve my physical health
• have healthy relationships
• be emotionally healthy
• improve my overall mental health

2016 has been an interesting year for health in our family.  Liam and I started the year off by each having surgery on the same day, at different hospitals, down the road from each other.  Hilary’s Mum was going to come stay with us to help during that time, but she came down with a very bad flu bug hours before her flight and couldn’t make it.  Thanks to some great friends, Hilary was able to be with Liam till he was home, come back and pick me up when I was ready, get everyone’s prescriptions and settle us in for recovery.

Liam bounced back from his toe surgery within hours, and I was back on my feet in a few days.  We had hoped that this surgery would mean the  end of Liam’s toe issues, but alas, that was not to be.  The same toe became ingrown and infected again in September.  This time we were able to get him in to see a podiatrist the same week and got it cleared up lickity-split.  We are now working on preventing more ingrown nails and infections so that he doesn’t have to spend another winter in flipflops.

Hilary’s health continued to improve all year, and she just recently had her one year post-treatment check-up.  Still no cancer!  Every checkup is another victory.

So with everyone on the mend I started back running again in the spring as a way to improve my physical health.  I ran thirteen 5k races this year, including some fun ones like Not Since Moses and the Zombie Run.  I met some new people running this year and have formed some great friendships.  Having running buddies makes it so much more fun and gives me the incentive to get out the door even when I may not want to.  I was having such a great time running that I decided to sign up for my second half marathon next spring. I had a great training plan, lots of time to get ready and them WHAM…. injury.

I’ve been dealing with a bum knee for almost 3 months now.  It kept me from running at all for the first 5 weeks of my training plan, and has me back to only being able to run a couple minutes at a time.   I’m not letting that stop me though – my long runs are currently up to 8k, and if I have to run the whole half-marathon in 2 minute running chunks, then so be it.   I’m also dealing with a frozen shoulder.  While it doesn’t bother me to run, I have lost nearly 50% of my range of motion and am dealing with a constant ache and sudden acute pain if I move my arm the wrong way. I’m currently in physio for it and have an ultrasound scheduled to see if there is a tear in my rotator cuff.

So overall my physical health has had a few ups and downs in 2016.  I am eating healthier (mostly) and I feel that my mental and emotional health is at the best that it’s been in years.  That is thanks mainly to having great, healthy relationships with friends and family.

I’m glad that HEALTHY was my word for 2016.  It is an area that is important to me and one that I will continue to focus on.

---

Edited to add: after I finished writing this, but before I got it posted, I managed to hurt myself - again.  I did a SPECTACULAR swan dive in the living room after tripping on a cat toy.  I landed on my bad left side.  Other than a lovely purple bruise on my hip and a very bruised ego, I am okay.  A bit sore, but okay.

Healthy

I've been thinking of my 2016 word of the year choice for a couple of weeks now.  I was pretty sure that it was going to be HEALTHY, so it's very ironic that as I type this I can barely stand up due to a sore back.  I really need to be HEALTHY right now.  I also really need my family to be healthy, though thankfully, Hilary is on her way there!

To me being healthy encompasses many areas of my life.  I want to:

• eat healthy
• improve my physical health*
• have healthy relationships
• be emotionally healthy
• improve my overall mental health

These are all areas that I don't give enough attention to.  It's easy to get caught up in the day to day requirements of life and to let things start to slip.  So for 2016 I'm going to keep being HEALTHY at the forefront of my thoughts.

*Caveat - this one starts on January 7th after my GallBladder surgery.

I was DETERMINED

My word of the year for 2015 was DETERMINED.  I had many categories that I was determined to do well in, or improve upon.

• Laugh more
• Love more 
• Eat healthier
• Run more
• Do well at TKD
• Enjoy life to its fullest
• Have a great year

Well.  2015 turned out to be a very interesting year overall.

I certainly RAN more.  I trained for and ran my first half marathon in September.  That took a lot of determination.  Of course, I haven't really run much since then.....

I did not do as well at TKD as I had hoped, mainly because I stopped going in February.  Training for a half marathon takes up a LOT of time, and I just didn't have an extra 3 hours a week to attend classes. Or so I told myself.

I didn't really eat healthier this year.... I sorta did in the first half of the year, but have fallen so far off the wagon that I can't even see it's tire tracks any more.

BUT

I've laughed and loved and enjoyed life.  And to me, those are the 3 most important points.

2015 brought so many things with it.  A great family vacation, wonderful visits from relatives, the kid growing into a teenage and of course, the dreaded cancer and the awfulness of it's treatment. But for all it's horrors, the treatments worked and we are no longer living with cancer amongst us. That alone is letting 2015 finish out as a great year.

I think that being DETERMINED has served me well for 2015.

Determined

My one word for 2015 is DETERMINED

• I am DETERMINED to laugh more
• I am DETERMINED to love more
• I am DETERMINED to eat healthier
• I am DETERMINED to run more
• I am DETERMINED to do well at TKD
• I am DETERMINED to enjoy life to its fullest
• I am DETERMINED to have a great year

If you had to pick one word that will help to define you and guide your for next year, what word would you choose?

I did BELIEVE

I chose the word BELIEVE for 2014 and set myself some goals around it.

• I believe that I will be successful in 2014 
• I believe that I will be there as a friend and partner to Hilary 
• I believe that I will be the best parent I can be to Liam 
• I believe that I will continue to become a better runner
• I believe that I will grow my Tae Kwon Do skills 
• I believe that I will achieve my health goals

The year started out strong and I really did BELIEVE that I could do all these things. I ran my first 10k race  . I became a green belt in TaeKwon- Do  and competed in an Eastern Canadian Championship tournament . My love and friendship with Hilary continued to grow  and while parenting is one of the hardest roller coaster rides I’ve ever been on, I really do try my best. 2014 has also been a successful year in my professional life.

The area that I feel that I did not achieve in 2014 is my health goals. Somewhere around the end of summer I stopped BELIEVING in myself, and stopped trying. I stopped running, I missed more TKD classes then I attended and I stopped focusing on healthy eating. So it’s no surprise that I’m ending 2014 feeling a lot less healthy then I did when the year started.

That is part of the ups and downs of life though, so I’m not going to dwell on it and give up completely. I have started BELIEVING in myself again and I am moving on, ready to face a new year.

I’ll be picking my word for 2015 in the next few days as 2014 comes to a close. If you had to pick one word to help guide you through the new year, what would it be?

Believe

I’ve tossed around a few ideas for my word for 2014 and I have landed on BELIEVE.

• I believe that I will be successful in 2014 
• I believe that I will be there as a friend and partner to Hilary 
• I believe that I will be the best parent I can be to Liam 
• I believe that I will continue to become a better runner 
• I believe that I will grow my Tae Kwon Do skills 
• I believe that I will achieve my health goals 

I believe in me

I did DO

Last year at this time, I selected a word to aspire to for 2013.  My word was DO.  Looking back over 2013 I did DO many things that are important to me.


Things I did in Tae Kwon Do: 

1. Liam and I passed our Yellow Belt TKD tests
2. I won a Silver Medal 
3. We passed our next test for our Green Stripes

Things I learned to cook:

1. Cheese
2. Perogies
3. Yogurt
4. Meatballs
5. Gnocchi

 Things I did for me:

1. I treated myself to a French Manicure
2. I had my eyebrows waxed for the first (and probably last) time
3. I got a new tattoo
4. I learned to run and ran my first 5k race

Things I did for others:

1.  I shaved my head to raise money for Cancer Research
2. I ran in the Run for the Cure 5k race
3. I ran in the Food Run race to raise money and donations for Feed Nova Scotia
4. I started a running group

2013 was a pretty good year overall.  Now I need to come up with my word for 2014.  If you had to pick one word to aspire to for a whole year, what would it be? 

Do

I've seen lots of people around the internet pick a word that describes them or that they want to aspire to.  In fact, there is a whole website dedicated to this practice, MyOneWord.org.  I haven't read the book, or really much of the website, but I like the idea of having a word to focus on for the new year.

I have selected the word "DO", because in 2013 I will do all the things that are important to me.

If you had to pick one word for 2013 what would it be?