Happy Blog-aversary to Me!

Welp, it's here.  I cannot believe it's been a year since I started this thing.  I know I've said some variation of that phrase far too much in my last few posts, but it's completely true.  I cannot believe how fast time has gone.  As promised, I'm going to do a recap and look at where I was then vs. where I am now with regard to the three goals I had a year ago today.

1. Lose weight and get healthy

I have definitely gone back and forth on this goal, but I think for the time being (and hopefully far into the future) I'm doing well.  My specific goals were these:

• To eat better (cutting out almost all fast food, soda, and junk food)
• To get more (or any) exercise
• To be more informed about the things I'm putting in my body

I'll start with the pros: I have not had soda in over a year.  I don't remember exactly when the last time I had soda was (I want to say it was on the leg of my flight to Europe) but I have stuck to my guns with this one.  I know how many calories are in a can of soda and I've just decided that it's not worth it.  There's nothing good about any of it, so I don't drink it at all - no exceptions for mixers with alcohol or even for something like a root beer float.  It's been incredibly challenging at times, but as time has passed it has gotten easier.  People act like giving up soda is a crazy challenge and impossible to do, and I want to laugh.  Is it hard? Absolutely.  Is it the dramatic, life-altering event that people seem to think it is? Definitely not.  It's so worth it.  I don't even want to think about the calories that I was wasting on sugary drinks.

As far as fast food and junk food, I feel like I've done better with those.  Aside from my being a Runza-holic (which I have seriously toned down in the last couple of months) I have made big progress here.  The last two months have been HUGE in this regard.  Matt and I have seriously limited the amount we've been eating out.  We've been very good at sticking to a menu (or at least improvising with what we have when we just haven't felt like eating what was planned).  As far as junk food, it isn't something we really have in our house and definitely not something we purchase often.  We had a stressful day this past week and kind of vegged out that night with ice cream and all sorts of crazy stuff, but typically I don't eat it.

I've also been pretty consistent with exercise - at least lately (excluding this past week).  The last week was an off week for me, but I will be back at the gym next week and working out with a passion.  I don't like it when the number on the scale goes up, so I am really motivated right now.  With Matthew getting a personal trainer, we are both more motivated than ever.

The cons:  The biggest thing I haven't done that I really wanted to was learn more about what I'm putting in my body.  I had plans to basically go through a food label and learn what each item was, what my daily intake of that particular item should be based on my caloric intake and I have yet to do it.  That will be goal number one for the coming months.  I hope to learn enough that I can formulate a diet for Matthew and myself that really conforms to our goals.

2. Learn fluent German

This goal is pretty straight forward.  I think that I was setting myself up for failure here based on the fact that there was no way I was going to learn fluent German in a year without living in a German speaking country.  I have made huge strides in learning German and I know a lot, but I am not close to being fluent.  I'm still kind of uncomfortable actually speaking the language, but I've (sort of) gotten over my fear of writing in German to native speakers.  With the big trip to Austria next year, I have a timeline and several goals still to accomplish.  I want to finish Rosetta Stone and work on really memorizing the genders of nouns as well as the prepositions and pronouns.  German is an incredibly complex language.  Some days I feel like I've got it down pat and the next day I just want to rip my hair out because I feel like I'll never understand it all.  The fact that I have people who are so willing to help me has made all the difference.

3. Move back home

Woohoo!  Total success here.  Not only did we move to Omaha, we bought a house.  Matthew and I have a conversation at least once a week about how happy we are that we moved here.  We both have jobs we really like with great schedules.  I can happily check this one off the list.

I have some pretty clear goals as far as fitness and German go, and I'm adding one more to the list for the next 12 months: financial fitness.  I'll save the details of this one for another blog post, but when I started this blog I wanted to become a better person and there are so many ways that I can better myself and that Matthew and I can better ourselves as a couple that I don't want to just give up now.

My last goal for this coming year is to write 52 blog posts - one every week.  Maybe I'll fit it into my schedule and have a set day for blogging, but I doubt it.  I like spontaneity.  This way, I can really hold myself accountable and I don't end up with 20 posts that start with "I know it's been awhile, but..."

I want to end with a picture comparison - I haven't lost a ton of weight in the last year (~15 pounds) but here are pictures of me then and now:

Me last year inside an Austrian tank (this may have been the highlight of my life)

Me earlier this week with my favorite food of all time, a Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cake

I still have a long way to go, but comparing these two pictures makes me feel like there has been progress made and motivates me to keep going.

Ich freue mich sehr auf das nächste Jahr! (I'm very excited for the next year!)

Tschüss!