Welcome to 2013!

I know every blogger worth their salt is doing a 2013 dedicated post.  Goal setting, resolutions, etc etc.  This is all well and good and I've really enjoyed reading them.  I don't have goals or resolutions so much as projects, hopes, ideals, that maybe 2013 will bring.  I am also just getting back into the swing of normal life after a very fun (and long) vacation in Chicago.  My cousin got married on December 29 so S and I spent the week prior in Chi-town with family celebrating the holidays and getting ready for the big day.  The week was full of fun, laughter, some aggravation, lots of family time, lots of pampering (including S who got her first manicure! She picked hot pink WITH an extra coat of sparkles!!  LOVE HER!), trying out an excellent new barre studio called FitGirl Studio (with locations in Evanston and Lincoln Park) and best of all, not much cooking or cleaning!  It was a great week, and I was sad it was over.  Here a few pics from my week away:

We had a beautiful white christmas.

Bridesmaids!  And bride!

I got my eyes done at the MAC counter for the rehearsal dinner. 

S in her going out outfit Friday night at Hub51- skinny jeans, hot pink lace top, and silver sparkly Toms!

As you can see I went for a dramatic look.  We all wore mismatched black dresses.   Mine was a simple sleeveless peplum, with a chignon and lots of makeup! 

The bride and grooms Ketubah- a traditional Jewish marriage contract.  

We had such a lovely time.  I'm grateful for the super fun and special memories, and even more thankful for the sweet, happy, and uneventful end to the year.  2012 was a doozy.  Honestly, looking back, I am thrilled just to have made it to the end.  I can honestly say 2012 was the most difficult, challenging, and hard years of my life.  So many struggles, so many tests of faith and will, so many obstacles and hurdles.  But I made it through, stronger and sooooo much wiser.  The knowledge I have gained this year is more than the last several combined.  I feel empowered, liberated, and lighter, now on the other side of it.  I don't know what 2013 will bring.  Hopefully more laughter and light, fun and happiness, and probably a few more lessons along the way.  I can only hope and cross my fingers that it will be gentler and kinder, but you just never know.

What I do know is that I am a changed person.  I can't go back to who I was a year ago.  This is a good thing.  I have spent so long wanting wanting wanting, wanting more, wanting to "catch up," wanting better, but when you live like that you are never ever just content with what you have.  I'll never get anywhere if I don't appreciate what is here and now.  I have to be content with my life as is.  I have to be grateful for my life as is.  No more if onlys and somedays.  This is what you got, today, this moment.    We don't know what tomorrow brings.  It might be great, it might be bad.  So love your life today.  Super cliche I know, but I guess something in me just finally clicked.  I HAVE to just love life, the way it is, in this exact moment.  I can't sit and dream about tomorrow and some idea in my head of the way things are supposed to be.  That day may never come, and it's a waste of time.  Time you could spending appreciating your life, in the present.

So I guess that is kind of a resolution.  I want to live in the present, and appreciate today.  I don't want to spend my life hoping and dreaming.  You'll never get what you want if you can't be happy in the here and now.  The endless hopes and aspirations are such a burden to me, and so much self-imposed pressure.  Always stressing and worrying and spending anxious nights wondering what is going to happen, so many things dangling above my head that are totally beyond my control.  ENOUGH!

As for more tangible goals, sorry, I've just never been one of those people.  I don't really have any fitness/body goals.  I am grateful I've found a form of exercise I love (barre classes) and thanks to a (mostly) clean and low-carb, low-glycemic, grain/gluten/sugar/starch/alcohol free diet, I don't feel my eating habits need to be overhauled or called in to question.  Did I overdo it over the wedding weekend?  Yup, sure did.  I ate poorly and paid for it, am still paying for it.  Yikes my tummy just cannot handle SAD crap anymore.  But I am back home, making bone broth for the first time and enjoying being in my own kitchen, where there are no gluten bombs, sugary treats, or other off-limit items to tempt me.

Some small things I'd like to accomplish this year would be getting out of the country to visit a new place, continuing to get a handle on my health issues, hopefully getting better control of my blood sugar, maybe a little bump in energy due to better thyroid management, making bone broth a REGULAR and ROUTINE part of my diet/day, relaxing a little bit when it comes to cleaning the house, and enjoying and appreciating my upcoming 30th birthday and 5 year wedding anniversary this summer!  That's it really.  Live in the moment.  Love today.  Make bone broth.  Stay fit, get fitter.  Potty train S.  Help MKG go gluten free for good (he is GF at home, of course.)

As for a Whole30 recap, I am going to do one eventually, but I am reluctant to for a few reasons.  The primary reason being I really did not follow it as closely as I would have liked.  Sure, all processed foods, with carageenan etc were off limits.  I had no cheese (but did have cream/butter) or legumes or peanuts at all.  I did however occasionally have some dried fruit towards the end, and once I got to the wedding weekend, all bets were off.  So really, I don't know if calling it a Whole30 is appropriate.  It was what it was.  I successfully weaned myself off artificial sweeteners, peanuts, legumes, and cheese, but have a ways to go when it comes to dried fruit.  My biggest triumph remains the unsweetened coffee.  I am still shocked I managed to swing that one.  But now the thought of putting sweetener in my coffee is repulsive.  A little cinnamon and some organic cream and I'm good to go.

Please excuse the length of this post, if you're still with me that is.  I decided that due to our travel schedule, that we'd celebrate New Years tonight (January 2nd) as a family.  I bought lobster tails and made vanilla pumpkin cupcakes, so stay tuned for recipes this week.

I hope 2013 is a kind year to you and yours.  I hope if you had troubles, in 2012 or in years past, you can leave them behind and start fresh.  I hope its a bright and light year, this year and all the years to come.  And I hope you stay grain-free with me!  XoXoGFG