2025 Ins & Outs

Me when I realize I haven’t shared a blog post in two months…oops.

In full transparency, I have been avoiding writing/sharing this post. I guess I have been feeling somewhat discouraged about the interaction my blog gets, and therefore do not always feel very ~compelled~ to share new posts. I am trying to remind myself that I am playing the long game here, and I am V E R Y grateful for my friends and family that do read my blog.

I also know I am not alone in this feeling, and that so many other people relate to my feelings of inadequacy especially in the world of creative content. If this is you, I feel you. Keep working and it will all pay off it eventually!

P.S. if anyone knows how to make a blog blow up and get one million billion readers and all of them are nice and no one is a hater, lmk. I will hire you! And pay you in baked goods!

Anyways, new year’s resolutions seem to be getting some #hate and “ins and outs” appear to be on trend so that’s what we’re doing here folks. Per my sister, I am not chronically online nearly enough to know what’s on trend or what’s really “in” and “out.” Instead, I will be sharing some habits and goals I’d like to implement and achieve, and things I’d like to see become more prevalent in my life in 2025. On the contrary, I’ll also share some things I would graciously (and begrudgingly) wave goodbye to.

Without further ado, what’s IN for me this year:

Physical Health

• Sleep. It’s just soooooooo good. My dad called me the other day and I told him I slept in until 10am and he responded, “Wow! Good for you!” And he was so right. It’s important for mental clarity, physical recovery after training, brain health, and so much more. Bring on the sleep in 2025.
• Strength training. Oh, the gym, what a love-hate relationship we have. There are so many benefits of strength training that I’ll spare you the list, but I’ve recently been choosing to view strength training from these two perspectives: #1 longevity & #2 it feels good to be strong. Shifting how I view the gym has made me way more inclined to make it there in the first place.
• Stretching and mobility work before the aforementioned strength training. If I can spend an hour throwing around some dumbbells, I can spare 10 minutes for a few warmup stretches.
• Walking <3 I will always be a ride or die girly for a walk. Solo, with a friend, with a pet. No matter the setting or the year a walk will always be in.

Mental Health

• Sustainability. A word often associated with the environment yet it has viable application to our mental health as well. Finding ways to sustain our wellbeing and alter our behaviors when these needs aren’t being met are crucial to sustaining good mental health. Finding ways to sustain my relationships, my habits, and my mental health is super in for me this year. What this looks like for me:
  • Journaling, finding time to rest & reset, moving slowly/rushing less, setting boundaries in my relationships, saying “no” to plans…
• Spending intentional time alone. It allows me to recharge and prevents me from spreading my grumpiness onto others. Being alone permits creativity, boredom, insight, reflection…etc. It can be hard to learn how to be/spend time alone, especially for my extroverted friends – but I encourage you to try. Get some inspo here!
• Journaling. Everyone knows by now that I am a huge advocate for journaling, and it will certainly be a part of my 2025 as I navigate more life changes and feelings. I love my journals and they provide me with a safe space to process everything going on in my brain. Grid Lined journals are my absolute favorite style of journal.

Food

• Eating with the seasons. This is something that will certainly take practice, but it’s an effort that I would like to be more conscious of this year. Don’t get me wrong, I do fully believe that as long as you eat produce who really gives a damn if you eat what’s in season. BUT I am also a firm believer that the freshness and quality of what you consume can alter your affinity for certain foods! Check out what’s in season here.
• Eating whole foods. People have been saying this for so long but I have to say, I get it. As I’ve started to pay more attention to how I feel after eating certain foods, I can notice a difference between whole foods and more processed foods. It’s unfortunate that so many of our options are ultra-processed foods, but an effort to eat more whole foods definitely makes a difference in my energy levels and physical wellness.
• Cravings. A couple years ago, during the peak of my tarnished relationship with food, I lost any sense of cravings. In hindsight, they were probably still there, but I chose to ignore them and couldn’t understand how other people experienced such an extreme craving for something that they felt they had to have it. Throughout my journey to rebuild my relationship with food and body image, I have learned to welcome cravings with open arms and take them as a sign of progress. Recently my cravings have been pizza, an occasional bag of salt and vinegar chips, and always a piece of dark chocolate.
• Homemade bread. Once you master a good loaf, you’ll be baking bread every week. This is the loaf my family likes to make: No Knead Yeast Bread. Top it with some cinnamon honey butter and you’ll never look back. Thank me later.

Art/Creativity/Miscellaneous

• Exploring new genres, artists, mediums, etc. I’d really like to consume a broader range of creative content this year (quality not necessarily quantity). For example, I’d like to challenge myself to read new literary genres that I might not usually pick up. I avoided Shark Heart by Emily Habeck for so long because I didn’t think I would be into the science fiction-ess of it, but it was easily one of my favorite 2024 reads. This exploration will hopefully lead to discovering new artists, music, tv shows, movies, poetry…you get the point.
• Picking up new skills. My first plan for the new year is to take a pottery class! I have been wanting to enroll in one for so long and plan to start February-ish. After six weeks I hope to have learned new skills and continue making pottery! Ideas I have for creative projects/new skills following this year include: learning how to hand sew and with a sewing machine, practicing Spanish, up-cycling, learning how to read music, content creation, and writing poetry/fiction stories. Learning new skills is IN ASF for 2025.
• Sustainability (again) but this time for the environment. I’ve been on the anti-plastic bag wave for so long that I am happy to report it has become a habit. Moving forward, I’d like to further practice sustainable efforts by reducing other forms of plastic use (Ziploc, saranwrap, straws), using bar soap, reusable/refillable hygiene products from a refill store, composting, thrifting/buying items second hand, shopping sustainable companies, and reducing my use of paper towels. I’ve learned that effort is more realistic than perfection when it comes to sustainability, so that’s what I’m practicing this year!
• Planning & Hosting. One of, if not the biggest, things I miss about college is the proximity. All of my friends were in this perfect 10 mile radius of each other, but now were separated across the state and country and I miss them dearly. Once I have my own space, I’d really like to begin hosting again. I love welcoming people into my space and can’t wait to be able to do that again.

Honestly, I don’t really have a lot of things that are “out” for me this year. Which hopefully is a good thing, as I’d rather make additions to my life instead of try to remove a bunch of stuff. Anyways…

If you have made it this far, thank you for reading! I am hoping to produce more content and find ways to increase engagement with my blog in the new year. I just created a twitter account, @thoughtsbykat, to promote my blog on another platform!

Cheers to us all simply trying our best in 2025, and not feeling overwhelmed that we need to make grand changes to our lives because we flipped the calendar page. If you have resolutions or ins/outs for 2025, please share them with me in the comments!

All the best,

Kat