Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful holiday and were able to take some time off over the break. Mike was off the last 2.5 weeks of the year and I took last week off from my other part time job (I do digital marketing for financial advisors part time) and it was nice to get more family time in. Mike and I also went downtown San Diego for the night last week to celebrate my birthday and have some pretty amazing food at one of our favorite restaurants, Island Prime (ever had the popovers!? They’re to do for!). My birthday is on Christmas day so I always celebrate over the course of the week or so afterward. I also went for a nice long hike and brunch with a few friends on Saturday.
On New Year’s Day I sat down and reflected a bit on 2018. I have to admit, I’ve been kind of in denial that I’m going to have twins and be a mother of three soon. But now that I’m no more than 3 months away from meeting these babies, I’m starting to do some planning! However, we all know that you can’t REALLY plan anything when it comes to babies, let alone twins, so 2018 will certainly be a year of going with the flow. With that in mind, when thinking about what I want to achieve in 2018 I came up with a WORD first, followed by a MOTTO, then a series of GOALS.
My Word for 2018
Grace.
2018 is going to throw me a lot of curve balls. Life is going to be hard and wonderful at the same time. It’s going to be a bit of a roller coaster – the kind of roller coaster that is covered in spit up, breast milk, and tears. It’ll be beautiful and chaotic at the same time. I want to give myself grace during this time. Grace for working way fewer hours than I want or need to to help support our family. Grace for having a messy house. Grace for not being able to return to running as soon as I would like. Grace for letting Siena watch more TV than she should. Grace for maybe taking steps backward in some of my lifelong goals instead of forward. Ultimately, my biggest mission in life has been to raise a family and that’s exactly what the focus of 2018 will be. It’s just not as common to make goals around procreation and child rearing. Or at least not for the sake of this fitness blog!
My Motto for 2018
“Just Keep Swimming.”
Good ‘ol Dory got it right – you’ve got to just keep swimming. There’s going to be tough moments and the only thing I can do is to keep going. Keep my head up, stay positive, and soak it in. Just keep swimming.
My Goals for 2018
Ok so I do have SOME fitness goals for 2018. When writing out my goals I had more family and business related ones than fitness, but you know me, fitness is a huge part of my happiness so I’ve got to think about it! As of now, my plan for postpartum is to focus on 80 Day Obsession with a little bit of running when possible and then one I’m finished with it, move on to more running focus. I think that you CAN do 80 Day Obsession and run (and I’m already planning a blog post on that!) BUT I don’t think that if you have twins and a toddler you can do it all!
With that being said, here are my 2018 fitness goals:
- As soon as I’m cleared to exercise, get out for ONE run outside a week (alone or with a friend, no strollers!).
- Complete the 80 Day Obsession program as closely as possible once I’m ready, including the nutrition plan.
- Run one half marathon (probably toward the end of the year).
- Run at least one trail race (any distance).
- Give myself grace if one or none of the above happens.
Exercise makes me happy. Setting goals like these, keep me motivated and on track. Although I know I can’t plan for how 2018 will go, having goals keeps me a sane! I’ve learned to be a lot easier on myself over the last few years than I was in the past (maybe if you’ve been reading my blog for a while you’ve seen that shift!?), but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have ambitions. As I’ve said before, I still want to qualify for Boston. I’m not sure if my attempt will be in 2019 or 2020, but either way, I’ll be setting some foundation for that in 2018. How strong that foundation will be is still to be determined, but that’s life right!?
So cheers to 2018! Wishing you a wonderful and successful year ahead!
Did you set goals for 2018? What is one word you’d like to describe your year?
Wow Nicole! You’re gonna be one busy mama! My word for the year is courage. I pulled it from my mantra: Choose courage over comfort. I’m using that in all aspects of my life, from fitness to work to doing the dishes or core work instead of scrolling social media/watching TV. But I still love and repeat: There is no secret, just keep going.
My goals are time based this year instead of distance. I think that if I get in shape to run <22 min 5k, and <50 min 10k, I'll be in a good place to start running longer again, while not going crazy with time devoted to slow long running.
I deferred my Holiday Half to 2018. It'd be great if you were out there too! And Jen was talking about having a XC team. I really want to do XC this year. If we do have a team, you should join!
Good luck! I love following your journey.
Those are great goals Kari! I hope that we get to go for a run or two together in 2018 – or maybe the XC team too! So fun!
Thank you for the support and cheers to a great 2018 for both of us!
I love this, friend! I’m still working through my 2018 goals and plan. I have a lot written out in my journal in various places but need to refine and focus a bit. I’m basically just really excited for 2018! Perhaps “fearless” is my word?
That is a great word for you!!!
Your baby bump is adorbs. Sounds like you have a crazy full year ahead of you! How fun! You’ll be quite busy 🙂
Well, my 2018 word is Reality…much like Grace 😉 I think 2018 is gonna be a great adventure for you…and it will probably go much faster than you could ever imagine. Buckle up and enjoy the ride 😉
you are going to have a lot going on in 2018 but it’s all good stuff! I have not doubt you will handle it all with much “grace”
These are awesome goals! I’m interested to hear what you think of 80 day obsession!
You look so healthy and beautiful! You are doubly blessed with your twins. It sounds like you have you goals in the right order. You will have an amazing summer and the fact that you already have a little helper is just icing on the cake!
You’ve got quite the year ahead of you and Grace sounds like an ideal word! Here’s to a great 2018!!
You have an exciting year ahead of you!!! I don’t have a word picked out but less screen time at night (not doing so hot tonight on that one).
I’ve definitely got some strength training and running goals on my 2018 goal list! I’m hoping for a sub 2 half this year for sure! But, in order to do that I’m definitely going to have to step up my strength training a ton!
You have a big year ahead of you! How exciting! My goal is to focus on strength training this year. But my biggest goal is to pay of my credit cards. #getoutofdebt
Big inhale and exhale my friend. You’ve got a big year ahead of you but you’ve totally got this!
Grace is the perfect word for 2018. We fitness bloggers are all pretty intense people and sometimes we need to just cut ourselves some slack.
I think your word for 2018 is brilliant. Lord only knows what is in store for you once the twins arrive! If you can take that all in stride and hit even one of your goals you will be way ahead of the game! Wishing you the best for a healthy and quick delivery and that you are able to reach your goals next year even with all the changes!
my word is FOCUS. Last year I took a break from running so much and I really lost my mojo (and gained some pounds) because of it. I really needed to recover from overtraining (and a foot operation that I didn’t let 100% heal before…. you guessed it… I started overtraining again) and while most of my issues are cleared up (yay!) I did gain weight and feel a bit depressed from the lack of running. This year I’m going to really FOCUS on what is important to me. That means I’ll need to be a bit strict with food and keep my promises to myself regarding going to the gym and training. It will be worth it 🙂
I love your word and motto for the year! :] Best of luck to you on your goals this year!
Giving myself is a continual goal for me too. We’re always the hardest on ourselves!
Great motto for the year. How exciting to be adding to your family! It is going to be a fun, tough adventure for you! Happy 2018!
Best of luck with meeting your goals this year, especially once your babies are here. I found my solo runs during my postpartum journey to be incredibly helpful, especially for my mental health, so I’m all for your goal of getting in one solo run each week.
I love your word. Things will definitely be different once the twins arrive and it’s impossible to know exactly how that will impact your fitness. Good for you for being ready to roll with it. Good luck getting ready over the next few months.
I am loving the word of the year as Grace and the motto of Just Keep Swimming! I am doing a lot of swimming this year, so I am often saying this 🙂