You guys, I am so excited. Last week, after nearly a year mulling over what I want to do with my life, I took a big step. I sent Greg a message in the morning saying that I was thinking about a nutrition course. After a few clarifying texts, he was totally on board and by the evening I had enrolled in the Nutritional Therapy Practitioner program through the Nutritional Therapy Association.

The books continue to arrive…

I don’t know what this means for me long term yet, but the idea that maybe I can turn my fascination with traditional nutrition into more than just an interest is huge. Being able to cultivate a passion with a class series like this, possibly making a career out of it, and helping people along the way is just something I never thought I could do. But for whatever reason on Thursday morning I asked myself “why can’t I?”.  What or who is stopping me other than my own fear of not being able to do it? No one. So here I go…

The certification is both a large monetary and time commitment and I’m not taking that lightly. I’m thankful Greg is so supportive – there’s several other places we could use a couple thousand dollars right now. I also know that my free time is fairly limited and I’ll have to make some changes to get the most out of this opportunity over the next nine months. The estimated work load is about 15-20 hours per week, with three 3 or 4 day weekends in person over the nine months. Phew. Guess I won’t be playing on Facebook anymore. And this means goodbye, Pinterest.

I wanted to set myself up with a solid foundation for making this a priority. I came up with a list of how I use my time right now and how I think I can cut back to make time for class and studying. Work and sleep aren’t really options and family time with G+A is a priority, so I’ll be making some changes in other areas.

+ Blogging – I think I blogged almost every day in January, but that will definitely be changing. My only goal here is to continue with my Monday menu posts (yes, I missed this Monday. Super Bowl and out of town guests, plus trying to get ahead in course work). This will keep me accountable to setting aside time to make sure we eat real food. Trying to avoid the irony of starting a nutritional therapy course and then eating fast food because I don’t make time to cook. It will also be a great way to share what I’m learning and get experience with honing and conveying my message. Hopefully I’ll have time to share house projects and crafts as I complete them because I find it so much fun to use this other side of my brain I just started to explore.

+ The house – I really want our house to be more of a home this year and I don’t see why I can’t make good progress. Unlike last year, when I bought stuff that fit and now we hate it (yes, we’re talking about you, coffee table), I’ve taken a much different approach. One room at a time and being very deliberate as to what I bring into our home. I will slowly work through my office to-do list and once it’s done pick the next room to work on.

What my desk looks like most nights before I go to bed.

+ Barre3 – I’ve been consistently going five days a week as I had set out to do and I love it. I had planned a whole post, but I’ll say I’m feeling toner without my boding hurting all the time like it did with running and CrossFit. The ladies (and few gentleman) at my studio are great and I love the instructors. I’m thinking of keeping my MWF 6:00am class, dropping my Tuesday evening class, and hopefully making it to one session over the weekend. Right now it seems reasonable, but I’ll continue to evaluate.

+ Project Life – After setting myself up for weekly again this year, I really think it makes sense for me to move to a monthly version, with the goal being just one spread per month. If at the end of the year all I have are 12 spreads I will be super happy. Recently, my fave blogger Elise posted about how she is tackling PL this year and shared her album for January. I loved it and immediately wanted to switch but told myself I started weekly and should stick with it. Now that I need to free up time, I’m totally going monthly. I imagine some months will have more than others and I look forward to not having to make something out of nothing on weeks that I have three crappy iPhone photos.

+ One Little Word – If there is one thing I want to stick with this year it is OLW. The January “homework” took just a few hours to sit and do but I thought about it all month. I really don’t think there’s a way I would have ended up signing up for this course and taking this step if I hadn’t spent the first month of the year actively focusing on the positive. I can’t wait to see where else “cheer” takes me in 2014. I also highly recommend signing up for it yourself and seeing what happens.

Slalom hoodies are proven to enhance learning. And the glass of wine was to celebrate the best day I’ve had in a long time; I won’t be making a habit of studying with it.

+ General crafting – My knitting, sewing, and whatever else I come up with will likely be focused on projects for whatever room of the house I’m currently working on. This course is only 9 months so I’m hoping it doesn’t knock me too far off my 35×35 sewing project goal, but we’ll see.

+ Cooking Through Well Fed 2 – Like the house, I plan to keep making progress on cooking through the book, it will just be more slowly than I had thought. Week night meals are probably going to be more simple, like taco salads, pork chops, etc.

Well, that’s my exciting news! Our first class meeting is a conference call tonight and I’ve already jumped ahead on my homework for the week.