My dad said it best….he said, “I’ll be glad to see 2016 go.” Lol.

This was a challenging year….let’s just leave it at that instead of listing all the woes this year hath wrought.

Some of my accomplishments from this past year: 1) I finally quit binge-smoking for good. I experienced some withdrawal headaches, and the memory of those headaches alone is an effective deterrent. 2) I started taking a magnesium supplement every night. This has helped me in numerous ways and I can do an entire blog entry on the benefits of magnesium in the future. 3) I got back on my daily iron, B-complex, multi-vitamin, Omega 3 supplements, and 4) I finally feel like I’m well enough to see my primary care provider and talk to her about starting to taper off my anti-depressant meds. That feels like a huge accomplishment to me. 5) I feel happy again. I feel positive and I feel capable.

My biggest priority now is continuing to change my mindset. I am focused on not lending any energy to negativity…to not let negativity have any space in my home or in my head….and if it creeps it, to make sure it doesn’t get comfortable and want to stick around. This is a big reason why I’m not making any New Year’s resolutions. I just want to focus on each day as it comes and feel good about each day as it comes to a close. I don’t want to derail my positive vibes if I “fall off” my resolution. Oh, and getting my A1c back down to a normal range is up there too with my priorities. But that will happen with the positive mindset.

I have a big puppy now. His name is Mickey and he was 1 year and 8 months when we met him. He’s a black lab, springer spaniel mix and he is beautiful. He has been a huge contributor to the positive mindset I started to build near the end of this past year. He is beyond cute. He is funny, he is sweet, he is affectionate….and we needed him as much as he needed us. We adopted him from a no-kill pet shelter in Ottawa, KS (Prairie Paws) and bringing him home in November I think was one of the best things we’ve done as a family. He keeps us active because he needs his exercise every single day, and I’ve experienced the stress relief of having him snuggle up next to me. You can literally feel the stress of the day melt away when you pet him.

My wellness journey, my seeking good health, has shown me that being healthy is indeed a journey. It’s not a destination. I’ll never be “there” when it comes to my health, because being healthy is a daily set of goals to be met. The good health is in the day-to-day…making that next best choice. And if you make the unhealthy choice, make the next choice the healthy one. Or make the choice as close to healthy as you can. Wellness does include goals…and when you reach them, you set a different goal in order to continue your journey. Wellness and health are dynamic….they are not static. They continually grow and evolve with us….with our age and with our circumstances. Being healthy is not a place to “get to”…it’s a space to live in each in every day. So I’m all about the journey….the today’s space….with my husband, my Swirlies and my Mickey at my side.