A Year of Transition

It’s funny, in some ways 2009 was a huge year for me, yet I can’t exactly tell you what I was actually doing.  If I had to label it in one word I would say it was transitional.  Allow me to rewind a bit. 

I didn’t have many readers last year (who am I kidding, with my current posting schedule, I don’t have many readers right now, either).  So if you’re interested in my older posts, here’s a mini-recap of my Transitional 2009:

January:

Matthew and I had just returned from our first visit to California as a married couple, and our belated Honeymoon to Hawaii.  In my first post of the new year, I wrote that I was struggling with jetlag and homesickness, and proclaimed that I was “not feeling too hot about my body.”  (For the record, I would gladly trade bodies with my former self nowadays, as I’ve had about a 9-pound weight gain since that entry.)

I digress.

I also wrote:  “I am not usually big on New Year’s resolutions, but moving back to California is definitely at the top of our goal list this year.  On a smaller scale, I do have some personal goals that I hope to achieve.  They range from very specific (eliminate diet soda and cut down on artificial sweeteners and red meat), to more general (worry less!).”

Moving back to California:  Check.  Flew from London to San Francisco on November 30.

Eliminating diet soda:  Ha. Ha. Ha.

Cut down on artificial sweeteners:  Had a good run for a few months without them.  Reunited with Splenda a few months ago, and now I am back to addicted.

Worry less:  I have come to accept perpetual worry as part of my genetic programming.

By the end of the month I felt inspired to run, and the blog was in full-fledge, food-diary format.

February:

We bought a new camera (Nikon D60) and I began posting my calorie counts on the blog.  This was met with mixed feedback!

I rambled about height, was interviewed by Caitlin, and celebrated Valentine’s Day as a married couple with a Great Pasta Dough Experiment.

I also signed up for my first (and only, to date) race: The Bristol 10K.  I began my training schedule 11 weeks before the race.

March:

I traveled home solo to California for a three-week visit.  I celebrated one-year of blogging, spent my 24th birthday with my mama, and running was finally starting to become easier.

April:

I returned home from my California trip and celebrated my birthday with The Hubs.  Sealed the deal on an awesome birthday when I got my first Le Cruset.

I came clean about some food struggles, went on my first big-girl bike ride, and experienced my very first sports-related “injury.”

May:

I proudly ran the Bristol 10K with a time of 59:51 and tried to begin to eat intuitively.

I believe this is also around the time when I stopped religiously blogging my daily food intake.

June:

I tried my hand at a video post, and Matthew and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary in Italy. 

July:

I got a juicer!  See my first juicing adventure on video here.

There was also more rambling about  “getting real,” and a cheesy, completely irrelevant post on how Matthew and I met.

August:

Matthew attended his visa interview at the US Embassy in London!  Me?  I just took a fitness assessment.

September:

September marked two years of living in the UK!  Matthew ran his first half marathon, and I bitched bemoaned my 10-lb weight gain.

October:

I made a last-minute visit home to California, and came back to the UK just in time to meet up with new friend Deb in Bath.

Big news came when Matthew received his US Visa toward the end of the month!

November:

My mom and step-sister visited England and we ate our way around Britain. 

Soon after Matthew and I learned that we would be moving to the US by the end of the month!  We had our last hurrah in London, celebrating Matthew’s 30th birthday with friends and a multi-course meal.

We celebrated a chaotic Thanksgiving and flew to California permanently at the end of the month!

December:

Nothing, yet everything, has happened this month.  While I have spent most of my time at home visiting family and friends, I have also been kept very busy with the tasks and trials of settling in (without actually settling in!). 

The first week of December was made interesting with an entire week of eating out of the house, and my return back to my hometown was brightened by a blogger meet-up with Melissa of Trying to Heal.

We celebrated a big family Christmas in California, and rejoiced in finding a lovely little apartment to call home in 2010.

At the start of 2009, Matthew and I agreed that if we got nothing else done this year, it would still be a successful year if we got his visa and made it to the US.  That alone was the major goal of 2009.  Along the way, I was privileged to be able to travel, blog, run, and get to know myself.  My eating habits have evolved and changed, and slowly I have made peace with my new “happy weight.”  We did it, and hey, we had fun along the way!

Did you accomplish any major goals in 2009?

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