Five Things I Loved in 2016

I have really enjoyed reflecting in my recent “5 things” posts, and looking back, this has been a pretty big year, so I want to share five of the things I loved this year.

1. Charm is healthy. It’s been just over a year of life with Charm, and our first six months together were quite a wild ride of fighting phythium.  She weighed 21 lbs when I adopted her and now weighs a healthy (albeit a bit chubby) 37 lbs, doesn’t have any weird shaved patches, and has more energy than ever.  It makes me so happy to see how healthy she is now. She gets me up at 6 am every day, loves Trader Joe’s Herbs & Spices popcorn as much as I do, and will always choose curling up with me (preferably on top of me) over her own space. I love her to pieces.
2. I bought a condo. Man, what a wild ride.  Rent in Nashville is just absurd, so since I was in the position to buy a place, I did.  Nobody tells you that buyer’s remorse is real (and normal), and I had a killer case of it after replacing the black carpets that covered the ENTIRE place and painting all the walls and trim (with my dad’s help). But now that almost all the trim is repainted, it really feels like home, and Charm and I have grown to love our little oasis.
3. I started a business. Now there are some words I never thought I would type! I had an idea for some workout shirts, and working out is a huge part of my life, so I ran with it.  My business is still a baby, but it brings me so much joy and I can’t wait to see how far I can take it. (P.S. get your tank on Etsy here! And follow The Strug Lifestyle on Facebook and Instagram!)
4. I tried out to be a barre instructor. I have loved barre since I first tried it in 2012, and it is the first post-horseback riding workout that truly worked my body and mind the way horses did.  Since then I’ve wondered what it would be like, and I pretty much fell into an opportunity to audition to be an instructor at a fantastic studio here in Nashville. I didn’t make it past the first round of cuts, but I learned a lot about what it would take to be an instructor, a lot about myself, and ultimately ended up searching out more ways to round out my fitness routine.  People always say you learn more from failure than from success and that is so true.
5. Podcasts.  My flirtation with podcasts developed into a full-grown obsession this year.  I’ve cycled through so many podcasts, and almost none of the pods I listen to now are the same as the ones I started listening to back in 2014 at the recommendation of a great grad school friend.  I still love Harvard Business Review IdeaCast, but that’s one of the few constants!  Podcasts I loved this year (and continue to love) include That’s So Retrograde, Anna Faris is Unqualified, the NPR Politics Podcast, Adulthood Made Easy (I was a guest on the 8/21/16 episode!!), Freakonomics Radio, Work Wives, How I Built This, Hidden Brain, and Girlboss Radio (I got a shoutout for my #girlbossmoment in the Alli Webb episode which was awesome to start with!)

There was a lot of craziness in our world in 2016, but I'm very grateful for where it took me and I can't wait to see what 2017 brings. Happy New Year!