2015 Recap, Updates and Looking Forward

So, hi there! I feel like this is the first time I'm coming up for air since September. I have so much I want to share with you all and catch you up on. The last time I really had a moment to sit down and write a blog-blog instead of a recipe for you all was back in October  where I told you all about my business's shift to a focus on content creation. Looking back through the year, and forward as we approach January, is one of my favorite things to do. I really love streamlining my life and business. I like to figure out ways to add more of the positive and less of the negative. But I think this is the first time since I started the blog that I honestly cannot remember everything that's happened this year.

On that note, I do remember Christmas is in a few days so happy holidays. And FYI for the first time in MONTHS we will taking a short breather before the new year. That being said, for the first time I think since I started this blog in 2011, I'm taking the week off from blogging. Okay, onwards.... 

Now I know that there are a ton of people that have issues sharing their honest goals and thoughts about their business or professional life. Everyone gets skittish sharing their goals or dreams for fear of looking like an idiot of they fall short or it doesn't happen. And I get that. One of my least favorite feelings is feeling judged. But one of my out list things for this year was stop internalizing judgement or feeling like I 'have to' do things the way other people do them. So below in each category, I'm being totally honest because that's how I rolled in 2015. No 'perfect blogger facade'. 

Read my 2014 recap here.

Read my 2013 recap here. 

Healthfully Ever After

• The biggest update of all is how Healthfully Ever After has expanded with new specialties. This fall my husband Chris and I decided to be this business full time together. Chris has been hard at work helping make HEA happen for YEARS, but this was the year we finally realized we had grown so much, I couldn't do this alone with him only available after his 9-5. So we accepted the fact that this could happen and these past several months have been by far the most profitable, and amazing contract months ever. When I talk about the specialty, HEA has become a content creation shop. Read more about Chris, and what we do as a team on the new about page. No picture yet, and he'll be damned if I get him in front of a camera. 
• Started a YouTube channel. I had been wanting to do this for years, and early this year I finally got it started. We post once or twice a week (except these past two weeks). It's a weird feeling, starting another platform at '0' followers, and it's definitely a work in progress but we love videography and the opportunities it brings to show food in a new way. 
• Wrote a second e-book and have a third one done...we've just been so busy we haven't had the time to upload it!!! 
• Continue to be in my Georgetown studio. LOVE IT THERE. 
• Partnered with JRINK in DC for a line of beverages. 
• Finally hired accountants, set up a structured financial system and all of the nitty gritty not fun stuff about a business. 
• Started long term client relationships I LOVE. L-O-V-E. 
• Grew our commercial/brand photography with companies like Chandon and Almond Breeze. 
• Did my first tv interview (CNN). Also did a ton of cool features this year which you can see on the press page. 
• Made Washingtonian's best of list.
• And I can't even talk about the biggest one of all just yet! 

Life in General

• We bought another new car. At the start of the year Chris's job had him driving ALL OVER, so it only made sense for him to drive our Prius C (a hybrid). But that meant I literally could not run any errands while I was at home working because 'his' car is a huge, huge truck that I am uncomfortable with and possibly incapable of driving. So we decided to get a Jeep Patriot High Altitude and could not be happier with the purchase. She has leather, heated seats and a sun roof and I love her. 
• Chopped down that MF-ing mulberry tree in our back yard. You will only understand this struggle if you too have lived next to a mulberry tree.
• Our 16 year old hound dog passed away. He had a great life and we miss him lots. Sometimes I still turn to feed him part of what I'm eating. We still have our bouncy wonderful cats. We love our felines, or as we occasionally call them because we work on the business from home: our 'employ-fees'. More recently we call them the 'studio audience' as they sit and watch us lined up on the couch when photographing/filming. They are far judgy-ier and harder to please than the average studio audience. 
• I conquered my fear of flying. I never talk about this. I always want to seem like I have my shit together, but honestly I really struggled with major flight anxiety for about 5 years. 2015 was the year I basically said 'enough of this bullshit' because it was massively inconvenient and just plain annoying. So I worked with a hypnotherapist and she was AMAZING. And you bet your ass I got on that plane and was totally fine. If you're in the DC area and want her name, I'm more than happy to give it to you. 
• Work on the house restoration continues... just slowly. We're thankful to have SO MUCH business that we don't really have time to work on the house. Again, it's a good 'problem' but January's focus will be doing the master bedroom. In the spring we redid the home office.
• Decided we needed to enjoy more restaurants. See them here in the DC dining series. 

Nutrition and Dietetics 

• Began my term as president elect of the Virginia Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. That's basically the professional organization for all dietitians in the state of Virginia. 
• Spoke AGAIN at the Food and Nutrition annual conference in Nashville, TN. That's the big national conference for dietitians (we're talking like 10,000 attendees). Speaking two years in a row never happens so I am SO lucky that the Academy asked me to present again! This year's talk was so, so well received. I can't believe some of you guys waited an hour after the talk to stand in line and talk to me!!! Thank you! 
• I was named one of Unilever's agents of change at that conference: 1 of 10 dietitians across the country.
• I'm still finishing up my last year as Director of PR and marketing for Nutrition Entrepreneurs Dietetic Practice Group. 
• And on that note I realized I reached my maximum volunteer threshold. My friends all say that I'm the busiest person they know. And yes, I am busy, but not in a 'I like to be busy for the sake of doing something' way. Only in a highly productive, things I actually enjoy doing kind of way. It just so happened there was a LOT of that in 2015. Which is the best 'problem' ever.  I think this is the first year I've ever openly felt overwhelmed. Sitting on two executive boards this year for nutrition governing bodies has been too much sometimes. So for those of you who are like "OMG how do you do it all?!", I don't. And I definitely may have miscalculated my ability to have that much volunteering in my life while running a business. Again, just being totally honest!

Wishing you all an amazing holiday season and new year. I'm so grateful I get to do what I love and this year has just been one of the best yet. In the coming weeks I think I'll be putting up more organization/life goals things to get ready for the new year! Maybe how we organize our projects/content for the business or my 2015 ultimate favorite products....but first, relaxation.

Let me know in the comments if you did a year recap or what your goals are for the new year- big or small!