Step Away From the Cake

 Tomorrow is the last day of 2022, which means Sunday is the first day of 2023. Without repeating myself, I love, love, love new beginnings. I've kind of already begun my new beginning, but it's okay to say Sunday is my new start. And no, there is nothing magical about Sunday, it's just a good time to say I'm going to do that now.  Anyway, yesterday I purged my clothes. And I mean purged. If it didn't fit or I hadn't worn it in a while, it was out of here. I got 2 big bags of clothes to donate. It felt good. I felt ligher when I was done. I didn't have the weight of all those old sizes that no longer fit or expectations of losing weight. All gone. It either fits and I like it or it is out of here. So I'm starting the year with a clean slate in my closet so to speak. I worked on that for a good 2-3 hours. One of the things I noticed as I was doing that was that I was eager to finish it. I can't tell you how much of my life I have spent not finishing t

I love new beginnings. Love, love, love them. A new beginning can be a new week (like in school), a new month (maybe a birthday month), a new year (yay!), or the next minute because that's what I decided will be my new beginning. In other words, any time can be a new beginning. There is no special power in a new week, or month, or year. To me it's just like a line in the sand and here is the point where XYZ changes. In my case I'm looking to get my side hustle up an running by New Year's Day. That's kind of my new beginning this year, finally, finally starting a side hustle - something I've wanted to do for years.  It is also a good time to reflect on the past year. What worked. What didn't work. What could I improve. What do I need to change. Things like that. It's also a good time to set a focus for the year. Now keeping a focus for an entire year is difficult and I'm not great at it, but if I have a focus and some goals that I want to accomplish,

 I just got an ad for Run the Year. This is a thing where you try to accumulate 2023 miles in 2023. I signed up for it a few years in a row. I never quite made the full amount because that's a lot of miles. Of course, it's only 1 mile a day and I walk at least that much everyday, but I digress. I stopped doing it last year or this year because of my knee. But now I'm fully healthy and back to walking every day and working out I think I might do it again for next year. But this email sent me on a tangent in my mind.  I am the kind of person that likes routines and habits. Yes, I know, that can turn around and bite me in the ass, I'm learning to be more flexible. But I do like autmated things so I don't have to think about them. Like it says in Atomic Habits, make things automatic and they are more likely to happen. So I like my routines. That goes for my workouts too. I like to have routines, that not only removes the thinking part from it, but then I know when it

 In my self care group this week we are to do 3 minutes of gratitude journaling daily. I do this a lot, as well as processing things through journaling, but I love this assignment so I'm going to do it.  Day 1 - 12/25/22 I am grateful for so many things but since today is Christmas I'll start with that. I'm grateful for this holiday and the family and friends we have. We spent yesterday at some good friends house. I do wish we were closer to family, but I'm still grateful that they are there. Which leads me to being grateful for the ones I have left. I can't believe how many of my family are gone, but I'm thankful for the ones I do have left and today I'm going to call them and wish them Merry Christmas. In spite of the fact that he can get on my nerves, I am very grateful for my husband. He is kind and works hard (mostly) and is just a nice person. We laugh a lot when we are together and that is always fun. I'm grateful for the animals that I've had