I’m sharing my top 4 organic tampons today because I recently received the following message, “Totally random question… I’m due any day now with baby #3 and know from previously that I want an all cotton pad. (Sorry TMI) Do you have a brand you love or recommend for feminine products?”
2018 A Gutsy Girl Reader Survey
The 2018 A Gutsy Girl Reader Survey is here! And if you take it, you will automatically be entered to win the Beautycounter item of your choice up to $35.
Home for the Holidays
Today we are moving to our forever home….home for the holidays. It feels a little surreal.
Top 17 Things from Italy
Back from Italy and feeling totally refreshed. I have a whole week’s worth of stuff to share with you – from Italy to my Colonoscopy and Endoscopy results and some other personal things. But for today….my top 17 things from Italy.
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2018 Blog Goals
The 2018 blog goals post is the last of the end-of-year/beginning-of-year posts. But this is one you helped write.
Seriously….thank you to everyone who filled out the 2017 Reader Survey! Here are all the things you told me, and all the things I learned:
- What topic(s) do you enjoy reading about most on sarahkayhoffman.com? The top 3+ were:
- Gut Health and Healing
- General Wellness
- Adoption
- Following close behind were: everyday life, fitness and workouts, and safer skincare
- What NEW topics would you like to see? Various responses included: Chronic Illness / Autoimmune, Fitness, More gut-related blog posts, but recipe blog posts and more blog posts related to what “I’m loving lately,” or what ” I’m eating lately,” Do you Garden?, Hormones, Business, More on foster care process and tips, More specific diet recipes (AIP, low FODMAP, etc), how your habits change once your stomach issues are in control and are able to keep them in control, Journaling, How do you do a process of food elimination to find out what ails your body?, Healthy family recipes, Anything health and hormone healing!, product reviews, work-life balance, Safer cleaning products, Safer cookwear, and Life after foster care.
- Would you enjoy a series on 101-days of change? 95% of you said, “Yes.”
- What EXISTING topics would you like to see more of? Various responses included: Everyday…How you have so much energy, Faith, Adventures with kids, Home, adoption, raising kids, Natural supplements/ideas for daily detox lifestyle, Food, recipes, snapshots, More info on what owning your own online business is like, Low FODMAP combined with egg-free recipes, Family and parenting, How you manage life, true ways you struggle as a foster mom and how you overcome, Gut health and healing, low fodmap meals :), Feeding kids!, Recipes, homemade products, Fitness, food, topics on eating better for your gut, Workouts, everyday recipes – quick and easy, gut healing without taking drugs, Hormones, General Wellness, Gluten and dairy free recipe ideas, foster adoption, Raising multiple children, SIBO, Everyday life with kids, and skincare.
- Do you enjoy recipes? 93% of you said, “Yes.”
- If you enjoy recipes, what kind of recipes are you most interested in for 2018? The top 3+ were:
- Paleo
- Low-FODMAP
- Gluten Free
- Following close behind were: Instant Pot, Whole30, Vegetarian/Vegan, and sugar-free
- Are you interested in workout-related posts? If so, what types of information/content as it relates to workouts and fitness? Various responses included: General workout plans/safe workouts for joint health, etc., What is working vs. what didn’t for you, Workout plans (right touch mix of cardio/strength/yoga) to maintain proper cortisol, etc., Working out while managing IBS, Strength Training, Gut health & working out when you have tummy conditions, What are some of the workouts you do or other plans you follow? I know you just did a post on one of the plans, but do you use any others or watch youtube channels or anything like that?, Weight workouts are always great, Workout routines/schedules, Yoga, Balancing fitness/family life, Balancing cardio and strength, I am interested in workouts for people with limitations; such as, bad knees/back areas, Getting and staying motivated, Getting the most out of short workouts, WOD and form cues, Sample workouts from time to time; fitness trends and related products…., Quick workouts for new moms, How YOU workout and how to workout while healing adrenal fatigue, Cardio alternatives, Apartment-friendly workouts, The balance between balancing hormones and staying fit, Ways to get started working out in a consistent way that doesn’t get me discouraged too quickly, How did you build up to your fitness level? For those of us still sick and starting out.
So, with that, here are my 2018 blog goals.
2018 Blog Goals
- New E-Books. There are so many e-books I’d love to produce, but for this year I am only focused on getting two released: The Gutsy Girl’s Bible: an approach to healing the gut 3.0 and How to Make Bone Broth in the Instant Pot.
- Broken Links. I began doing this some in 2016 and continued doing it in 2017, but the project is still not complete because there are so many posts on my blog at this point. To date, I have published 1,546 posts, and yet there are about 500 of those that are still not on good terms with Google. My goal is to continue working on them in order to finish up the project.
- 101 Days of Blogging. The last time I did this challenge was in 2015 towards the end of the year. My intentions were good in wanting to do it in 2016 and 2017, but it never happened. The timing was never right, and I never felt like I had a good topic/theme for a 101-day series. But now I do. Now I definitely do. Change. It’s something I’m experiencing hardcore, and I’d guess you are, too, since 95% of you said you’d love a series on it. It starts this upcoming Monday, and I’ll be here on Sunday to share more about the series with you. Stay tuned! This goal will be accomplished by end of April.
- Update old posts that have value, but are buried. Because this blog has over 1,500 posts now, so many of the posts are completely buried. Many of those posts are still relevant and could have value for your life now. In fact, so many of your comments on things you’d love to see in 2018 have already been addressed, but again, they are buried. I’d like to update those posts and bring them to life again.
- Gravel Roads. I will continue working on my book, Gravel Roads. In 2017, I sort of laid out how I wanted the book to be structured. You can see it HERE. Truth be told, I have no idea when or how this will be published, but I really enjoy working on it…..the full, real and raw stories that have made up my life.
- Continue the blog’s financial growth. In her New Year’s Resolutions list this week on Facebook, a friend listed one of her resolutions to, “Unfollow those that are primarily on social media to sell me something.” (I agree with her, and am going to do the same.) I have been thinking about this so much because I never want to be that person who is “selling something,” and yet, the reality is that my blog is a part of my business and I do make money from it. I have always been transparent with you about all the ways this blog makes money, and in 2017 the ways the blog made money grew exponentially with the addition of new brand partnerships and Beautycounter namely. I have no intentions of slowing the growth down in 2018 and here’s why. The more money this blog brings in, the more I am able to give back (yes, I am currently looking for a new cause to partner with – thoughts?!) and the more content and information I am able to deliver to you – for free. I have spent hundreds and thousands of hours researching, writing, and producing content that I think will help you in some way, shape, or form. If all you ever did was consume information on my blog vs. spending a single penny with me, that would be okay. Honestly. And while I would write for free because it’s my passion, having the income to go above and beyond is that cherry on top.
- Your topics. And finally, I have all the topics you said you’d like to read about written down now on my “future content planning calendar.” My goal is to hit as many as possible and/or re-surface old posts that address the needs.
2018 is my year to Embrace Change and because I opted to not create a huge “goals” list, I truly want to spend the year writing here and creating all the things for you.
In return, all I ask is that you continue sending me requests and ideas for things you’d love to see me write about and/or create (HERE). I’d also ask that you share this blog with anyone and everyone you think might enjoy it. You can click HERE to share it on Facebook with family and friends or just send the blog link www.sarahkayhoffman.com. And finally, I’d ask that you simply enjoy this blog for anything and everything it might be to you. I have truly enjoyed getting to know more of you this past year, and am looking forward to even more in 2018.
p.s. Congrats to Carrie, who was contacted, for winning (from the 2017 Reader Survey) the Beautycounter item of her choice (up to $35 value). I should do more giveaways like this in 2018, yes?!
Xox,
SKH
2018 Personal Goals
I love, love, love setting goals. Maybe it’s my stringent Type A personality, but goals make me feel alive. That said, the 2018 personal goals I’ve set look vastly different than the 2017 personal goals I set last year.
Last year there were 14 personal goals set. From that list, the ones I accomplished were numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 (kind of because, well, the move), and 10. Additionally, there were several more unafraid/fitness goals set. From that list, the ones I accomplished were: running in general, race short distance, race 1/2 marathon (which I finally set a new PR – since 2009!), hike Yosemite – to address my fear of heights, and continue strength training. I did not do a full marathon or Spartan race, and neither are no longer goals.
This year, I’m making a list of just 8 goals because, well, change.
The changes that are happening and about to happen require me to just embrace them vs. trying to go above and beyond x’s 100 like I am normally used to doing.
2018 Personal Goals
- Help my mom and dad every single chance I can. This, besides just embracing change, is probably my number one goal. We start this upcoming Thursday. I’ll stay at my mom and dads the night before and early Thursday morning will drive them to Minneapolis so my dad can start chemo.
- Trail race in Minnesota! In the November 2017 recap, I mentioned, “I was thisclose to running a December Brazen, but my conscious got the best of me and said, “Nope. Rest. Recover. Build strength.” So instead, I researched and think I’ve found my next race. It’s on May 19, 2018 (plenty of recovery and building time!). I’d tell you where and what it is, but then I’d have to kill you. Bwahahahah.” I couldn’t share the race at the time because it’s in Minnesota, but now I can. It’s the Superior 25KM! It’s a lottery race, but January 1 I’ll be waiting to get in.
- Release The Gutsy Girl’s Bible: an approach to healing the gut 3.0 (And guess what? It’s almost done!)
- Sugar-free January. This isn’t about weight loss – believe me. I don’t believe in detoxes or stringent diets any longer (because my gut has healed immensely and I don’t need to). That said, a break from all sugar for a month, I believe, is just good practice. Don’t worry about me, though, sugar-free means I can still have white rice and coconut oil – so we’re good to go 🙂 p.s. Anyone want to join me?!
- Continue growing all aspects of my business (I had a financial goal to hit by the time I was 35. I’ll be 35 in February, and have hit it, so now I want to make a goal of hitting that number x 1.5 by the end of the year. I’m on track to pass that number up. How I’ve done it?! Almost 10 years of building and staying consistent + having a massive passion for every single thing I touch from a “work” standpoint, and several years of making my clients and everyone I do business with succeed.)
- Join the Food52 Baking Club (after January, of course – ha) I spend all my time creating recipes for clients that I have lost the art of doing it for myself and our family – for fun. I’m hoping this will help.
- Do all the Minnesota things, including, but not limited to: go to a Vikings game, go to a Wild game, watch our nieces and nephews play sports, try new restaurants – farm-to-table – in the Minneapolis area, visit and hike and/or run as many Minnesota trails as I can, snowshoe (my parents got me a pair for Christmas), summer at the lake, fish with my brother (not ice fishing, and please don’t tell him I said this because he will be far too excited), get involved in our hometown – the place we decided to settle for good, eat something I’ve never tried at the MN State Fair, network with people in the natural food industry, and CHOOSE to spend a ton of time with family and friends we have missed for 11 years.
- Travel: Italy, Northern Minnesota, Chicago, New York, Missouri, Anaheim (Expo West baby) and (maybe) Palm Springs are already in the plans.
I also want to blog, blog, blog. In addition to the usual things and topics I love sharing and helping you with – gut healing + living a healthier lifestyle and foster-to-adoption namely – there are so many “lifestyle” topics, events, and other “things” I have been tucking away that will surface.
But beyond those top 8 and blogging in general – that’s it (and yes, that’s a major cut for the goals I usually set at the New Year). There is nothing super concrete or lofty as in year’s past. There are no major fitness or food or big lifestyle goals. I am super comfortable with where I’m at and only have plans to keep doing the same things I’ve been doing the last several months – because it’s working, all of it. Consistency works. It really, truly does.
There are no lofty goals because I absolutely, positively must embrace change and I must help my children, husband, mom, dad, and JJ do the same as well.
I don’t expect that the year ahead will be predictable.
If anything, it’s going to be unpredictable, so I’m just going to roll with my 2018 personal goals one day at a time.
How about you? Did you create 2018 personal goals? If so, what are they?
Xox,
SKH