This first month of 2016 flew by! I can’t believe it’s almost mid-February. 2016 has started off really well. January was consumed with working on the guest bathroom, some dates, taking control of my fitness, the first snow day of winter, and much more. I feel like I am a body in motion again. A body in motion stays in motion, and that is exactly what I where I want to be.

I’ve loved working on the guest bathroom. It’s been the perfect project inside for the cold winter days we’ve had in January. I tiled the bathroom floor, which I talked about, here. Then over the snow-day weekend I was able to get A LOT of painting done, and posted about that, here. This past weekend I put all the stuff back up on the walls, new mirror, towel bars, etc. and will have the final bathroom update later this week. But here’s a sneak peak:

As far as the 48 first dates challenge of 2016 that I talked about here, I am up to 2 so far. Technically 2 behind since it averages out to 4 a month, but ehhhhh it’s an ebb and flow. Some weeks it’s a flood and others it’s a drought. I was going out with one guy pretty frequently but that’s fizzled. But no biggie, it was pretty mutual.

I wrote about my fitness thoughts and struggles a couple of times in 2015. You can read about them here, here, and here. January was my first full month back at Crossfit after taking a break in late 2015. I’ve committed to only going to twice a week and I’ve stuck with it. It’s provided a good balance and I’ve also stuck with lifting “lighter” weight. Inside it kills me to go pick and use the 15 pound training bar (instead of the 33 pound women’s bar) for some lifts. BUT, I haven’t once compromised on this, which is a huge accomplishment for me mentally. I’m also A LOT happier with Crossfit and have decreased some of my bulkiness that I was getting from lifting really heavy weight. I’ve been running more (thanks to my 1000 mile goal) and even went swimming once in January. I really want to get back in the pool.

I’ve wanted to lose some weight for a while now. I spent most of 2015 at almost my highest weight, ever. But I couldn’t get under 140 pounds. (I’ve written posts about this before but haven’t been able to actually put out into the world my actual weight, but f*ck it. I want to be real). I know my 140+ weight is composed of a lot of muscle, but for a girl that rounds up to 5’3”, it’s a little too much. I’m happy to report that not only am I under 140 now, I’m closer to 135 than 140. My goal is under 130. The first step in making progress on a goal is to tell someone. Previously, only one person was in the know. So world, here’s my goal!

I also conquered a fear in January. I haven’t done rope climbs since the competition I did in October. It was a disaster when it came to the rope climbs. The ropes were A LOT shorter than the ones at my gym and I couldn’t get high enough up on the rope to have enough excess to rap around my leg for stability. I only got one and could not get the second one for my team to move forward. I pretty much had a melt-down afterwards. But one of the workouts at the gym had rope climbs in January. I got 3.5 that day (2.5 in the WOD) before my legs where shaking and couldn’t go any further. I got back on the that horse…….

This year has started off better than any expectations I had. I feel ALIVE. I was looking back at my first post for 2016 where I talked about wanting to be Fearless, this year. I re-read one of the quotes I posted:

I feel like this is EXACTLY how January was for me. I did some “art” (more to come on that in the bathroom update this week), went on some dates (love), spent time with family, did some new things at work, and lived a lot in between. Yes there were times I was scared and unsure, but I didn’t let it stop me.

On a side noted, I’ve been listening to a lot of new music this past month. Some of my favs are: Maren Morris’s My Church, Dierks Bentley’s Somewhere on a Beach, Rascal Flatt’s I Like the Sound of That, Frankie Ballard’s It all started with a Beer, Tim McGraw’s Humble and Kind, and so many more. There’s lots in store for February 2016, but you’ll have to wait for the rest of the details later in the month. How’s your 2016 started!? Because mine’s been