Protein, Tattoos, and Agency, Oh my!

Or, What Worked (And What Didn’t) in 2024

I’ll admit, depending on who I am talking to, I can be convinced that New Years reflecting and resetting is the most important thing I can do, or that it’s an exercise in futility and to just live yo life, because it is all going to unfold much differently than you expected anyway, right? I’ve been on both sides of this spectrum. And would it be strange to admit I’m here, writing a year-end recap, still figuring out my relationship with big goal setting (Sign up for the triathlon again! Write 500 words every single day! Cut out refined sugar completely! Memorize Psalm 119! Finally finish the Bible Recap! All good things, all good things…) and just wanting to be the most healthy, consistent version of myself possible and to not get lost in the weeds of the details? Honestly, my energy can go either way.

Alas, a little clarity is important. When I look back on this year, there were high highs and low lows. I finished my bike riding “redemption tour” and I also had to watch YouTube videos with tears streaming out of my eyes, learning how to patch holes in the sheetrock all over the walls of our home. But I think what I am most proud of is that I kept showing up. Don’t get me wrong, there have been Moments (capital M intended). But I think as a whole, God has miraculously kept my heart soft. I don’t feel buried in bitterness over a story I didn’t choose. And as I sit on the precipice of a new year, I’m truly full of hope, not dread. I don’t doubt there are hard things ahead but I also don’t doubt there is good.

One of my favorite songs this year was Shane & Shane’s “You’ve Already Won” and these words have reoriented my heart a hundred times:

I don’t know what you’re doing
But I know what you’ve done
I’m fighting a battle
You’ve already won

I know what Jesus has done, and that’s enough: the anthem I want to carry into a new season.

That, and “Not my monkeys, not my circus,” but keep reading for more 😉

Now without further ado, here’s what worked, and what didn’t work, for me in 2024.

What Worked //

The Peloton. Y’all, are you tired of hearing me talk about the Peloton yet? Sure hope not, because my love for this bike only grows over time. I want to be clear I have zero financial partnership with Peloton. They are not giving me a dime to gush over their product (but hey, if anyone from Peloton reads this, I’m not one to turn down a good partnership opportunity!💁) I genuinely love this bike, love being able to get a sweaty workout in my own basement, love seeing progress, love Matt and Robin and Tunde, love riding with friends in different places… I could go on. But riding the Peloton has been an actual saving grace for me again this year, because hard physical work is how God wired me to metabolize pain and sadness. And I believe, more than ever, that when you keep moving, you keep moving.

And I am still moving.

Getting matching tattoos with my best friend. I can’t remember exactly when Ashlee threw the idea out there, but it never did go away and finally this summer, we made it happen. 10 out 10 recommend marking your body permanently with a friend.

Protein, protein, protein. It’s really silly how much time I spend thinking about protein every day. I texted my friends while I was traveling to Dallas last month that I had just spent $16 on beef jerky and a protein drink at the airport, which felt criminal and ridiculous but also, what else was I supposed to eat when your girl needs over 100 grams of protein every day? But my point is: the protein craze isn’t hype. It has made a big, big difference.

My favorite high-protein snacks and meals are these peanut butter protein bites, black bean brownies, African Chicken Peanut Stew, cottage cheese and wheat thins, and Barebell protein bars.

Joining Homegroup. When I was divorced last December, I tried going back to the church my ex-husband and I went to, but it was just… a lot. There were eight years worth of memories in that building; some great, really intimate memories. And I also felt like, given that I was part of a pretty small church family, no one really knew how to move forward with me and the kids when we had always been a family unit, and a very involved one. This is not to knock down my old church family; handling trauma and grief is hard on everyone. But it was clear after two or three times going back that I needed a fresh start, and my pastor blessed that decision. I took a few months and kind of floated between churches but by spring, I was feeling pretty settled in a great church, which is only seven minutes from my house. And then in September, my friend Annie invited me to join their homegroup and it has been my absolute favorite. The multi-generational meeting is really special. There’s laughter and prayer and my brokenness has been so welcomed and cared for—it was like I didn’t realize how much I missed belonging somewhere until I started to belong again.

Investing in good leggings. Listen, I know absolutely nothing about fashion but I do know leggings. Five out of seven days of the week I am in leggings. This is just who I am. I tried the Target brand and I tried Dick’s Sporting Goods brand and I tried the ones that were on sale at Nordstrom Rack. I am telling you with confidence there is not a better, more comfortable legging than the Lululemon Align leggings. There are pricey. They will also last you forever. 2024 was the year I stopped trying to make a cheaper brand work and just invested in the pair I keep wearing.

Nuuly. I promise you I’m not making a side step to fashion influencing (which is truly a laughable thought). But my friend Emily recommended Nuuly to me about a year ago and on those one or two days a week I am not in leggings, I’m probably in something I rented from Nuuly. This is how I have experimented with different jeans this year, and because I am still unclear what denim we are supposed to be wearing (Wide leg? Boot cut? What about all of us that live in a winter climate and have to regularly wear boots and get itchy when we think about how we used to wrap our boot cut jeans around our calves to squeeze them inside our Ugg boots, but then y’all just went and took skinny jeans off the table?!) and whether or not to tuck in our sweaters, renting a few items a month at Nuuly gives me the freedom to try all the things without buying all the things. And the best part for me is that it is easy to skip a few months when the budget gets extra tight or you just aren’t able to pick your pieces, but then hop back in when you want some fun options for special events. I’m giving you an affiliate link here, which will give you $30 off your first rental if you want to try it, but I have no formal partnership with Nuuly, just genuinely have loved using it.

The Cold Plunge. Team, this is a game changer. But before I tell you more, I feel like I need to set the record straight: I do not cold plunge instead of taking hot showers or baths. I’ve simply added cold plunging to my routine. My showers are hot, piping hot. I’m not some superhero crunchy mom, I promise. But the cold plunge is so, so easy and so, so good for you. I literally fill my bathtub with cold tap water—and that would probably be sufficient, as the water only needs to get down to around 50-55 degrees to get all the benefits of cold plunging—but because I am classy, I throw in an old Hello Fresh ice pack. I stay in for 10-15 minutes. I get out and feel amazing for the rest of the day. My legs are recovering better from long bike rides, and I don’t know how else to describe it other than I generally feel healthier. Read up on it, and just try it once. The first 2 minutes are awful, but you can do anything for 2 minutes.

What didn’t work in 2024 //

Riding the wave of someone else’s life. I don’t know that I’ve learned a more important lesson in the year since my divorce than this: I have agency. “Not my monkeys, not my circus” has become a mantra I speak out loud to myself darn near every week—not out of spite, but purely as a reminder that I am running my race, that I am accountable to Jesus for my heart and actions (and to take that seriously), and that obsessing over being understood by someone who, at the end of the day, you don’t understand yourself, is futile. Get off that ride, darling. Chase peace with everything you have instead.

Staying up too late watching Netflix/Hulu/Prime/Paramount+/whatever. I want to be relevant, friends. I want to be up on the latest and greatest in entertainment. I want to be able to to chime in about Nobody Wants This because apparently I’m on a small list of women who haven’t seen it yet but alas, I am too old not to honor my bedtime of 9:30pm. Don’t get me wrong, almost every single night I want to curl up in bed and start a show, zone out, feel like an adult who makes her own choices for just a few minutes but time and time again, this does not go well for me. My alarm is going to go off at 5am. There’s a 75% chance at least one child will end up in my room at some point in the night which means I have not slept uninterrupted in more than a decade. To put it bluntly: starting a show is the worst thing I can do. Because I will watch more than one episode, and my eyes will get too much blue light before bed, and 7 hours of (largely broken) sleep will turn into 5 and the bottom line is I know this is not a good decision for me but I kept flirting with it throughout the year and I must must must must be done.

Overcommitting the kids’ schedules (and thus, my schedule). I don’t know if every single/divorced parent feels this way, but I have felt such palpable pressure to make sure my kids are never sad again—or at least, as seldom as possible. And I have kinda killed myself to give them a “yes” whenever I can. But I need to learn to separate what happened to their dad and I with what are just some good, common sense parenting practices. I admit, I over-corrected as I tried to “make up” for the pain they have lived through. But for better and for worse, this divorce is part of their story now, and they will make sense of it with different connections and paradigms at different seasons in their life. I need to entrust them to Jesus ultimately much more than I try to save them with my efforts at being a perfect mom.

My hair. Y’all, it’s just not working in general. It was up in a clip 90% of the year. 2025 we are going shorter (not like short short, but collarbone maybe?). Thinking of beginning a Nutrafol regimen because is anyone else getting to 40 years old and going, “Has my hair always been this thin?”

And for good measure, a few more highlights…

Phoenix in April with my mom and kids.
Mt. Rainier exploring in July was unreal. 10/10.
Photographing so many incredible families.
This book! And this one.
Cannon’s amazing teacher and principal.
Finishing The Very Best Baseball Game. March 4, 2025 Let’s Go!!
The resilience of my kids. Forever and always my inspiration.

I’d love to hear your answers: what worked? What didn’t? What recipes did you love? What books stole your heart? What are you grateful for? Is anyone getting a tattoo in 2025? 😝

//

Make sure you read

Ashlee Gadd

's What Worked and What Didn’t recap (this was her idea, after all—she always has the good ideas around here), and check out our

COFFEE + CRUMBS

podcast episode, too!

I am endlessly grateful for you, friends. I always feel like I have not conveyed that enough. The encouragement and support of so many of you has carried me through so much: the sale of my home, across the finish line at the triathlon, through my first year as a single mom… God’s kindness is evident in the support of this readership, no doubt. I only hope and pray my stories will continue to encourage you in the next year as much as you encourage me. Sending you all of my love for a wonderful year ♥️