I Totally Crushed My 2018 Goals and I’m Amazed

For some reason, I actually wrote two posts last year about New Year’s resolutions:

I felt that the first blog post of the new year should spend a little time reflecting on the past year and maybe take a look at just what I have accomplished with those New Years Resolutions.

My Top Seven New Years Resolutions for 2018 and 2018 is My Year to tackle My Health Prepare to Be Amazed

My biggest goal of 2018 was to work on my health. Considering that I am down 50 pounds, off diabetes medication and have significantly reduced my blood pressure medication I’d say I completely crushed that goal.  Especially considering that I have never in the last 20 years managed to lose 25 pounds never mind 50.

I feel great, I have more energy and can run almost faster than my 11 year old son.

I may not have crushed every goal on my list – my office is still unorganized and chaotic and my studio isn’t cleared out yet but we’re making baby steps in the house and I am still hopeful for this year. *crossing fingers and toes*

However, I have made huge strides in my efforts to be more present with my children, taking time to engage with them about their day and to yell less and listen more. I have been gradually getting rid of stuff we don’t use anymore. It was especially satisfying to let go of some of those clothes that no longer fit me.

What I was not expecting at the start of the new year was that we would make the difficult decision to liquidate and close down our video store in the summer. If you’ve ever had to close a business you will know how emotionally and physically draining this process is.

We also decided to put the younger two back into regular school and stop homeschooling. While my son was doing well my younger daughter was resisting all of my efforts to get her to learn. She needed structure and accountability of someone who isn’t her mom.

Also, with our high functioning ASD daughter entering the “grad years”, a lot of my time and focus has been needed helping her planning and implementing her school year.

So we’ve had a few challenging changes. Basically, from July to December we have been on a constant emotional roller-coaster. Closing the store was very difficult and left us little time to do summer activities with the kids. When September arrived the kids were back in school and school routines with firm schedules and navigating new friend circles.

Changes, even good ones, can sometimes be difficult to adjust to and can be particularly difficult for kids with autism. It’s often only looking back at the negative behavior of a child that you realize that it could be related to all of the changes happening in the home at the time. Closing the store, losing an EA and getting a new one, adjusting to new courses all resulted in a huge emotional upheaval that’s lasted for months.

So it’s with little wonder that we seemed to close 2018 in a somewhat somber and less than hopeful frame of mind.

As I was reflecting on how tough the last few months had been I realized that I had allowed it to completely negate all the positive feelings I had been experiencing up to June. It was like that part of the year hadn’t even existed.

I had to remind myself of what I had accomplished and that it was amazing truly amazing and something to be proud of.

I lost 50 POUNDS, dropped 3 sizes and get off 90% of my meds. For the first time in years, I was excited to be able to buy new clothes and the first time I tried on clothes in a non-plus-size store and needed smaller size, I cried.

I am freaking proud of myself.

So while the year may not have ended off strong and I’m feeling a little blue still, I know that tomorrow is another day, 2019 is another year and we just keep moving forward.

How about you? Did you crush any of your 2018 goals?