Well, it’s that time. It’s time to look back at the year that’s passed, evaluate the progress (or lack of progress) I’ve made towards my goals, and set new goals for the coming year!
This year, the focus of Project Delici8 was food. I read books about nutrition and food issues, I watched documentaries about health and the food industry, I learned a lot, I cooked a lot, I ate a lot, and it was delicious.
A big goal of mine this year was starting a “food blog” and consistently creating and sharing recipes here. I feel like I did alright with that – I posted 37 unique recipes to my blog, and I’m pretty proud of that. I know that I could have done more, but I also did a lot of other things with my time this year.
I mean, whew. What a year. 2016 was a big year for me in a lot of ways. I dealt with a lot of not-so-fun things (because that’s life) but I also made a ton of unforgettable memories.
I checked off two of my bucket list goals this year: the first when I spent a couple of nights camping in a fire lookout in August, and the second when I climbed to the summit of South Sister in September. I’m ahead of schedule for my goal to read another 100 books, and I also got a pretty good start on my quest to jump in 100 lakes.
I hiked hundreds of miles through some of the most beautiful places in the Pacific Northwest (and Hawaii!). I introduced two of my friends to backpacking. I took thousands of photographs. And I started a second website, Wildernecessity, which (while still a work in progress) is focused exclusively on nature, the outdoors, hiking, backpacking, and outdoor recreation. I wandered. I adventured. I explored.
I also cooked. A lot. I think I consciously did more cooking this year than I ever have. However, I did not cook every day this year, so I actually failed at this one of my bucket list goals, despite starting and restarting it four times when I got off track. You guys, it is SO hard to do anything every day…
But you know what? Even if you don’t achieve a goal, you can accomplish a lot by simply striving to achieve it. My longest unbroken streak of daily home cooking was 79 days. It’s easy to look at that number and think about how far from 365 it is. But it’s also important to realize that it’s so much more than I’d probably every done in the past. It’s 79 days of salads, soups, and smoothie bowls, pancakes at midnight, and brand-new recipes I’ve created. It’s 79 straight days of real, good food – food that didn’t come from the microwave or a takeout place. And despite my restarts and setbacks, I still ended up cooking for myself over 300 days this year! Maybe that’s good enough. Maybe I’ve taken away all that I could from that goal that I’ve set for myself. Or maybe I just need to try again.
2016 in Numbers
Read 19 books, 6 of which were about food, food issues, or nutrition
Published 41 blog posts, 37 of which were recipes!
Longest streak of cooking every day: 79 days
Jumped in 14 lakes
Spent 23 nights camping under the stars (10 of them while backpacking)
Hiked 253 miles on 58 hikes with 58,336 feet of total elevation gain (That’s like climbing from sea level to the summit of Mt. Everest. Twice!)
(Backpacked 126 of those miles – with 26,080 feet of elevation gain)
Apart from hiking, I spent 20 hours and 17 minutes formally exercising
Of that time, I spent 9 hour and 17 minutes practicing yoga
And I ran 38.5 miles
Okay, so I’m going to have to work on that last bit. It’s a good thing then that this year, the second year of Project Delici8, is the year of fitness. This year, I’m going to really focus on moving more, in as many different ways as possible.
I’ve made three long-term resolutions for the whole year, the first two taken straight from my bucket list. This year, I am committing to practice yoga AND to exercise every damn day. My minimum each day is 15 minutes of yoga, 15 minutes of some additional exercise that isn’t yoga (this can be anything – cardio, running, dancing, weightlifting, or bodyweight exercises) and 10,000 steps – no matter how I get them. I know from last year’s resolution (which I’m currently attempting again for the fifth time) that the real challenge is going to be finding ways to fit it in when I’m crazy busy or sick or travelling and away from home and my regular routines.
Other goals for the year: I have over a dozen fitness-related goals on my bucket list, from mastering the handstand and doing 100 consecutive pushups to participating in a scavenger hunt style race and going paddleboarding for the first time. I want to start running somewhat regularly again and finish some races in the distances I kind of skipped over when I dove into marathoning all those years ago.
I’d love to inspire others to move more and to find the way of moving that really resonates with them.
I’ve spent the last year focusing on physical health as it relates to food, diet, and nutrition, and I’m taking that a step farther this year by looking at it from the perspective of physical fitness. I’m hoping to continue publishing recipes and writing about the food issues I care about, but I’ll also be taking on some fun fitness challenges along the way.
So follow along, join in, leave a comment, and stay tuned for more… Here’s to a year of moving more, eating better, and making even more fantastic memories!
Magda lives, cooks, and blogs from beautiful Portland, Oregon. She's on a mission to actively live her manifesto with Project Delici8, an eight-year quest to fully immerse herself in the things that matter most in life.