Each month I send out a subscriber-only newsletter. In it, I like to share more personal tidbits of my life. It’s a more intimate setting for me and it might be my favorite piece of writing each month.

The newsletter is segmented into feeding your body, mind, and spirit.

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In the spirit of the newsletter, I thought I’d approach my 2018 from a body, mind, and spirit perspective.

Spoiler alert: There’s good and bad to all of them. I never claimed I was balanced … I just strive for it.

Body

Let’s state the obvious: I’m certainly not getting any younger. The numbers on my birthday cake keep going up. Actually, I baked my own cake this year (thanks, Mom, for the Instant Pot bundt pan!) and didn’t use candles. Good thing; I’m pretty sure I didn’t have 44 extras lying around.

The numbers don’t bother me all that much. As my friend says, my face is falling to the ground. THAT bothers me. This recent post sums up one way in which I’m lamenting my age.

I’m also acutely aware that my body does not need as much food and fuel as it used to. Some of that is a change in my exercise patterns; some of it is age. Earlier this year my online friend, Heather at New Creation Fitness introduced me to Dr. Jade Teta, an expert in women’s hormones and metabolism (introduced in the online way, not literally). His wisdom has helped me recalibrate my portion sizes and relationship between food and exercise. Follow him on Instagram @jadeteta for thought-provoking posts on health. This post of Heather’s was a true catalyst of change for me.

This year has offered me a deeper appreciation for working out in a variety of ways. My body does not want to be solely challenged by running or weights. Doing so has helped reduce my injuries. My musculoskeletal system simply feels better. The exception is some feet issues I had due to incorrect shoes. (Perhaps I should have reread this post I wrote on choosing the right shoes.)

The beginning of the year marked one fitness goal: try one new-to-me workout per month. If I were grading this goal, my score would be an 83%. I failed in August and November, earning me 10/12… or 83%. Blame traveling, birthdays, holidays, and lack of planning ahead.

You can read about all my 2018 fitness experiments here.

Perhaps I should declare a favorite experience, but that’s so hard to do. Each class was unique and challenged my body in different ways. I’m so glad I challenged myself in this way. It solidified my belief that we all need to find our own favorite way to move our body.

Mind

In May, I began the most challenging mental test I’ve had since college: studying for my NASM Certified Personal Trainer exam. It’s been 21 years since I’ve been tested that comprehensively. The next five months were spent entrenched in my NASM manual. My knowledge increased and I’ve enjoyed applying that in my classes and to clients. I’m not gonna lie, though: I’m REALLY glad that’s over with.

The more difficult aspect has been keeping my mind free. What do I mean by that? It took me years to be freed from the chains of obsessive eating and exercising. I’m thankful for God’s mercy and deliverance from that. The problem? This is what I now do:

• • Speak about faith-based body image,

• • Train clients,

• • Teach classes,

• • Write about health and fitness,

• • Develop appropriate content for supporting this ministry,

• • Interact with other health-minded people on social media, and

• Am pretty much entrenched in all things health.

I love doing this and I’m confident it’s where God wants me. I just need to get my head out of HEALTH more and into other things in this world.

Spirit

Without a doubt, my spiritual highlight this year has been putting together a 14-day body-image based devotional. When I say “putting together,” I really mean just allowing God to direct my fingers as they typed out the words. After completing the project, I printed off every single one and lined them on my kitchen table. Tears dotted some of the pages. I needed those words just as much as others do. It’s like they were written to myself.

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Somehow, after the devotionals were launched and I entered into summer, I lost my intimate time with God. Morning quiet time still occurred; daily scriptures still texted to my children. Yet I failed to truly SIT and BE with my Creator.

When Words Fail study guide by Proverbs 31 Ministries helped pull me back in. Then at the beginning of this month I dug into She Reads Truth’s Advent – Until the Son of God Appears. I wish my spiritual wisdom was good enough to study on my own, but it’s not.

Finally, for the first time in eight years, I’m not leading a bible study. God had been whispering to me to take a step back for a while. In typical Amy fashion, I ignored Him for a while until finally obeying. The group is in excellent hands with our new leader and I know He has great plans for it.

What’s the plan for 2019?

I don’t really know. Don’t tell this to Michael Hyatt, the productivity and efficiency guru. Not planning my year, quarters, and months is somewhat freeing right now. It also allows me to focus on my primary job – being a wife and mother.

With my oldest in high school, I’m realizing now is not the time for me to launch full-throttle into book writing and more speaking and more marketing and more, more, more.

I just want to BE.

And ENJOY.

Maybe that’s my plan for 2019. Be and enjoy.

What’s your plan?