January ~ New Year Check-in

2025 is officially here and I am so happy to be back writing and sending out my monthly newsletters! I hope everyone had a great Holiday Season and enjoyed time with family and friends. I certainly enjoyed being back in Michigan for a few weeks and seeing friends and family. In addition to that, I put on my first ever golf fitness clinic at Paradigm Fitness in Ada. ⛳️

I am looking forward to growing this in the future and coming back this summer with more workouts and exercises for golfers, and anyone else who wants to become fitter and healthier.

Now that we are three weeks into the year, this is your check-in to ensure you are fully committed to making this the best 2025 it can be. I also hope you had time to reflect, refresh, and reset. Reflected on moments in 2024, refreshed your mind and body, and reset to crush your goals in 2025! If you haven’t, then this will be a great time to do so…

In This Newsletter:

• Reflecting on 2024 📓

• How to Set Yourself up For Success in 2025

• Dry January and Alcohol 🍻(Good or Bad?)

• My Goals for 2025✅

Reflecting on 2024

What were my biggest achievements in 2024?

• Graduating from Saginaw Valley Summa Cum Laude

• Completing 4 years of Playing College Golf

• Moving to Oklahoma

What were my biggest Challenges in 2024?

• Dealing with and understanding what was stressing me out and creating anxiety

• Deciding I didn’t want to go to Chiropractic School

• Moving away from friends and family

What am I taking into 2025?

• Courage

• Curiosity

• Ambition

• Love

• Connection

What am I leaving in 2024?

• Negative People

• Saying “Yes” to too many things that I don’t have time for and is not benefiting me or others.

  • More on this in another newsletter! (Being so busy, you’re not actually getting anything done).

• Consuming Sucralose or Artificial Sweeteners

• Drinking Alcohol Every Weekend

What are my three biggest values?

1. My Relationships (Family, Friends, Professors/ Mentors)

2. My Health (Physical & Mental)

3. My Character (How I want people to see me and know me)

What do I want to accomplish in 2025?

• Compete in multiple fitness events (more on this below)

• Continue to help and educate people about health and fitness

• Maintain a high GPA and expand my knowledge in health and fitness

• Travel

• Meet new people while maintaining relationships and creating deeper connections

Steps for Success in 2025

The questions I asked myself above are the same questions you should be asking to give yourself the best chance for success in 2025. I also recommend writing it down on paper to make it more meaningful and help you stick to it (trust me it helps). Understanding things that may have not gone your way in 2024, is exactly what you want to do to make sure it doesn’t happen again in 2025. Writing down what matters to you, and what type of person you want to show up as everyday, will only help propel you in the direction you want to go and the person you want to be.

Setting Priorities to Accomplish Goals

I didn’t have to sign up for any of these events, however I did because my goals are to stay in shape, eat healthy, and continue to challenge and push myself. I know once I complete these events, it shows me that if I put my mind to something, I will do it to the best of my ability and give my best effort. If I want to finish these races, it’s important that I take the time to make priorities for myself in my day to day life to set myself up for success.

To reach certain goals that we set, having priorities everyday, every week, and every month will help you inch one step closer to whenever the end goal is.

For example,

Making sure to eat enough food and fuel properly for workout sessions. Writing down what days of the week you will workout, and what you will be doing for the workout. Right now, I am running (5 days/week), and I like to write down (typically on Sundays) how long or how far I am running, and when and what I am working on for strength training (3 days/ week). If I stay on top of these priorities, I know it will allow me to accomplish the races and events later in the year.

For you, this could look like: having a goal to lose weight, exercise more, eat healthier, drink less. It could even be to show up everyday with more energy and confidence. All of those are great goals, but none of those goals matter unless you are creating actionable steps to accomplish them.

Dry January

At the end of December, my mom asked my dad if he wanted to do Dry January. He said yes! I was so pleased that they were going to do this together, and I didn’t think twice about joining them. My sister and her fiancé were on board too! Having people around you with similar goals can help a lot when making a big shift like this because they will support you as they go through similar scenarios (this is true for any goal you set).

With three weeks of no alcohol I personally have seen improvements in sleep, recovery, and performance. I look forward to waking up on a Saturday or Sunday feeling good and knowing it will be a productive day.

What does alcohol do to the body?

Unfortunately, alcohol is a poison. It has many negeative effects on sleep, recovery, and the ability to burn fat. Because your body is working so hard to process the alcohol and remove it from the body when you sleep, you aren’t able to fall into a deep rest and go through the cell recycing processes at night. This can cause you to wake up feeling more tired than when you went to sleep. It also reduces muscle protein synthesis (the ability for your body to create and build healthy muscle). However, having a couple drinks per week won’t do too much damage, but it’s important to be mindful about what you put into your body and if that is really serving you in the long run.

In Conclusion

This is going to be a busy but great year! My sister is getting married in 6 months, I am running my first half-marathon, I will be halfway through with my Master’s in May, I am doing another Spartan Race (10k this time), and making the necessary shifts in my lifestyle habits to ensure health and longevity. I can’t wait to see what I’ll accomplish, and what you all accomplish in 2025.

My 2025 Fitness Event Schedule

 March- Half Marathon

May- Murph

June- Triathlon

July- GR Spartan Race

November- Hyrox Dallas

If you have any questions, feel free to message me! I love talking about this stuff and offering insight in anyway I can.

Have a great rest of January, and we’ll see you next month! 😄

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