Good Morning!!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
How did you ring in the new year?? I didn’t have big plans or anything, so I just came home, ate some homemade pizza with the folks and called it good. I was asleep by 10:00 and got nearly 9 hours of sleep last night!! I can’t tell you how good that felt!
I got up buzzing around….washing clothes, cleaning the bathroom, the kitchen. I will finally take my little Christmas tree down in my bedroom today. I don’t know about you, but I am ready to get back to some sort of normalcy. Ah, I love routine. 
Well, with certain things that is.
I am pretty excited about this post. Why? Today starts the first day of the 31 Days of the Hate-Loss Challenge. This year my goal is to lose the self loathing. I can’t tell you the thoughts that run through my head a day. They’re small, but they do add up. When I say small, I mean sometimes I don’t even have intentions of the negative thought, I just go there. Don’t worry, I don’t think about not being here, but struggling with my weight over the years has led to a struggle with self-worth.
So it ends here.
31 Days of Gratitude:
Thank you so much Ellen for putting this on! Ellen blogs over at Fat Girl Wearing Thin.
For the entire month of January I will concentrate on saying positive things instead of negative. The first thing that I am going to do is to create a Gratitude Jar. At the end of each day I will write down a moment of gratitude and slip it into the jar. Each morning I can reflect on the day before and the day ahead.
I am so thankful that Ellen is putting on this challenge. I wanted to do something really different this year. I didn’t want to set some outlandish goals or challenges that I might not be able to meet (and then feel guilty about not meeting them).
The beauty of my life (and everyone’s) is that God smiles when he looks down on me. He loves me. Somehow I had come up with this morbid thought that when He looked at me he would just say, “what a disappointment". This isn’t so! Even in my most chaotic state, I am beautiful to Him. Do I mess up? Yes I do, but it’s Grace that covers me.
Definition of Grace: Grace is God’s unmerited favor. It is kindness from God we don’t deserve. There is nothing we have done, nor can ever do to earn this favor. It is a gift from God. Grace is divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration (rebirth) or sanctification; a virtue coming from God; a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine favor.
Each week, every Thursday, we will meet back at Ellen’s blog to talk about how the challenge is going.
I hope you will join me.
Workout:
For my new year workout I did a 25 minute cardio circuit before work and then a 2 mile run when I got home.
I hope you have a great day!
Hello! My name is Brandi and this is a blog about my journey in fitness, my faith, and life. I love learning new ways to make healthier choices and I love sharing those ideas with others. I know that my journey isn't going to look like everyone else's, but that is ok with me. I hope you enjoy your visit! 
I spent the night on my parent’s couch with my family after we all went to the movies! Pretty great and relaxing night!
Sounds like a great night!! Oh, and loved the chocolate wasted bowl!
..i went to a movie (Les Mis) in the afternoon, then rang in the new year in my PJs on the phone with my mom lol
ive been super sick the past few days – so it was a really calm (but drama-free!) new years eve 
wishing you all the best in 2013!!
Now that sounds like a great night too! Did you like Les Mis?? Have a super day!
It was really good! A little long – but maybe it just seemed like that because I was sick lol
Happy New Year, love!! This is a FABULOUS way to start off 2013, and I can’t wait to see how this works
You deserve to see yourself as the rest of us see you…a beautiful, capable, loving, amazing woman with the world at her feet <3
Thank you so much Caitlin! I am looking forward to the New Year!
I’m like you – an early night on New Year’s Eve is perfect
I want to take my tree down too but Mr Bite doesn’t so we’re waiting another day or so! It feels like Christmas should be tidied away!
Happy New Year again and this 31-day challenge is awesome
Brandi, I can’t tell you how excited I am that you are a part of this. Sometimes it takes people working together on the same thing to really help us through times of self-loathing. It’s an easy thing to say negative things about ourselves when we’re with our friends, but when you have a group of people working together to BETTER themselves, it can really be a powerful, life changing event. That is my hope for our challenge this month. Looking forward to reading your updates and getting to know you better
xo
I really am excited about this.
It’s such a great reminder that we are not alone and thay we really do need each other.