A Year in Review: Blogiversary

It’s my Blog’s Birthday! Well, I am not sure of the exact date that I started my blog, or the day when I actually started telling people about it, but I know that it was some time at the end of December/ early January. So, I am going to give it an arbitrary date and just say that my official start date to this Blog was December 30th.

This past year has been a big year for me with starting a blog (and all of the other social media that goes with it), graduating from college, going vegan, starting dental school, and running a half marathon PR. I think it is fun to look back on the year and see everything that I have done and places that I have been. I love reading other blogger’s year in reviews so I decided to hop on that bandwagon!

Let’s start at the beginning

My first posts on this blog happened in January of 2015. I posted my first recipes including a Dark Chocolate Almond Butter recipe. I also posted a fun interval Treadmill Workout that I still use today!

In February I began a Whole 30 that finished up in March. I tracked my food and thoughts on the diet throughout, which is really interesting to read now that I have switched to a Vegan diet. This diet challenge did open my eyes up to how many products have added sugar in them. I think it is so funny reading back on my Whole 30 Week 1 Recap and how much energy I thought I had. Yikes. I have so much more energy nowadays from eating a high volume of plant food. I did eat some Vegan meals while on the Whole 30 though like this one below!

By the time March rolled around, I was getting antsy to finish my undergrad degree. I had already committed to attend Dental school back in December, and motivation was running low. So what did I do? Sign up to run a marathon of course! I celebrated my 22nd birthday by running 17 miles and prepping for a big Autism Speaks Walk. I luckily got to celebrate for real a couple of days later with my sister & best friend at my school’s senior bar crawl. There was a BDUB’s nearby, so we made a mid-bar crawl stop for some food.

In March I also got to review Jessica’s Granola which is hands down the best Gluten Free granola that I have ever had. Jessica’s granola definitely kept me fueled during my marathon training.

Check out those chunks!

April was the month of reviews as I got to review NAKD BARS , NUUN, and FITSNACK . I also became an official Fitsnack ambassador! While there were lots of healthy tastings during April, it was also the month that I got injured and had to learn how to Deal with Injury . This meant no marathon for me and forced rest.

When May finally rolled around, I was more than ready to graduate. My injury was slowly healing and I was ready to get back into exercising at the time of graduation. I went home for my last summer before starting Dental school which is a year round program. I spent my summer working at Lifetime Fitness and creating healthy recipes like the family favorite Mexican Quinoa Salad .

I spent most of my days over the summer at Lifetime Fitness and would put in 10+ hours a day there between exercising and working. I got to take so many fun classes like Barbell strength, Zumba, Vinyasa yoga, TCX, and RIPPED to the core. I got so much stronger over the course of the summer and really increased my muscular endurance.

I really loved the zen vibes and dim light in the yoga studio at Lifetime.

In July I posted a WIAW on a full day of Vegan eats. Little did I know at the time that I would quickly adopt of fully Vegan diet after that (within a week or so).

There were many happenings in August this year. The month started off with my full transition to Veganism, and a Nashville Trip to visit my older sister. We saw Tim McGraw, ate Vegan food, hiked, went wine tasting, and partied it up Walmart style.

At the concert!

Far Eastland Bowl from Wild Cow!

People of Walmart party!

Oh, but that is not all that August brought with it. I also started Dental School! We had a few days of orientation followed by a white coat ceremony in which my classmates and I were welcomed into the profession.

School was in full swing in September- while i was busy crushing my exams, I also decided to go public on my Reasons for Going Vegan

Dental school brought with it a lot of work, and lots of sitting due to the constant studying. I found a solution for that with the Fitdesk! I put it together myself and did a whole Fitdesk Review to share more about how to stay healthy when you have a sedentary job/ are a student.

November began amazingly as I ran a Half Marathon on November 1st as part of the Inaugural Milwaukee Running Festival. You can read about how I placed 5th in my division, got a 5 minute PR, and smashed my goal with a 1:37:05 finish by reading my RACE RECAP !

Fist bumping as I was coming into the finish – #noshame.

November also included eating more Mexican food than I ever have in my entire life due to the creation of my DIY Mexican Burrito Bowl

I also finally got a short break from school for Thanksgiving and got to hangout with my family for a couple days and do a little cooking.

I made vegan cornbread, kale salad, and roasted balsamic veggies- so. flipping. good.

December came out of nowhere and finals hit me like a brick. I hunkered down with my studying and had a couple of guest posts including A Total Burpee Ball blitz Workout and a post on How to Get more Involved in the Running Community . I also created a couple of delicious Christmas Cookie recipes including Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Oat Cookies and GF-Vegan Gingerbread Men .

So tell me: what was the best part of your year? Did we have any similar milestones/ events? Did you run any races this year? What was your best recipe that you created?? Let me know in the comments & share links to your favorite posts/recipes because I would love to read them!!