Where I've been... and a new plan for FtH

Long time, lovely people. 

But a good one. A series of many good ones (and a share of challenging ones) strung together. 

This year, Tom and I have spent the better part of our time focusing on our writing career.  "But Heidi," you might ask, "if you were working on your writing, why were you not working on the blog?"  And it's a fair question. 

The answer is that while we were working on our screenwriting and my freelancing, I didn't feel like I had the time to devote to my health-and-lifestyle-and-healthy-lifestyle blog. But that was good, right? I was devoted to self-improvement of my chosen avocation.

Yes, it was good.  In many ways.  Except for the ways where my health and lifestyle and healthy lifestyle was put on the back burner along with my blog.  I didn't backslide completely, but over the past several months, it's become clear to me that if I want to keep focusing on taking care of myself, if I want to continue improving my strength and expanding my culinary skills and finding balance, I have to keep it a major priority. I have to learn to balance my writing with my self-care.

So about a month ago - when you last saw hide or hair of me, posting a photo of spa-water - I decided to make a conscious effort to juggle my scribe duties with my healthy goals.  So far it's been working.  I had gained back about 30 pounds of the 70 I lost.  I'm down 6 of those so far.

Things that I have focused on over the last eight months:

• Writing a spec episode of Modern Family.
• Holding a table reading of our Modern Family episode.
• Submitting the episode to several television fellowship programs. (We hear back between September and December.)
• Developing on a spec episode of Louie.
• Working with my freelance clients on a variety of projects
• Building my humor chops, in various ways - including watching great comedy, doing writing exercises, writing jokes, posting more on Twitter, and recently, starting a humor blog that mocks the follies of Pinterest. (Warning: it's definitely rated PG-13 for inappropriate humor.)
• Being hired to write the first season of a web series. (Underway... more on that to come!)
• Being chosen to write the book and lyrics of a mini musical (Also underway, also more to come!)
• Hosting and hanging out with my niece and nephews for three weeks this summer in an epic bid for Coolest Aunt Ever. 

Things I have added to my focus over the last month:

• Balancing meals between 1400 and 1600 calories daily 
• Menu-planning at the beginning of each week
• Grocery-shopping (and farm-market-shopping) for only the items on the menu
• Reducing any negative self-talk
• Working out at Slimmons 3 times a week (health issues being the only exceptions)
• Swimming 2-3 times a week
• Journaling every morning
• Making sure that I'm social at least once a week

What I've rediscovered over the last month is that I am absolutely capable of putting my self-care first, and when I do, the rest falls in line even better than if I were prioritizing it.  And I've also rediscovered that no person working on a healthy lifestyle is an island.  Yes, I propel myself forward.  But also... my relationship with Tom propels me forward, my trusted friends propel me forward, my community at Slimmons propels me forward, and... my blog and my blog readers propel me forward.

So here I am, blogging again.  But with adjustments.

I'm the kind of person who doesn't like to do things half-assedly.  If I'm going to write a blog, I'm going to make the entries regular, I'm going to theme the days, I'm going to edit the shit out of the photos, I'm going to make it as creative as I can. And then I'm going to burn out.

Blogging (as I did last year) takes an incredible amount of time and energy. And, if I'm going to be focusing on my self-care and my writing in equal balance, I just don't have that time and energy to devote to every entry every day.

So I'll be taking a cue from my friend David (of Keep It Up, David) and reducing (or, heh, increasing) my blog to a once-weekly event.  Some weeks, I'll try to include a recipe, or an adventure, maybe even some photos of recipes or adventures.  Some weeks I might take a picture of a particularly cute outfit.  Some weeks it'll just be me typing.  Maybe not even very much. But for right now, I'm committed to staying accountable to myself - and this blog is a great way to do that. And a great way to interact with all of you.

And... a great way to take care of me.  And to remind you all to take care of you.