Confession time: I am a complete Grinch.

My automatic response to a Christmas song is to roll my eyes in the most dramatic fashion; I can’t even help it.

Christmas movies somehow bring out the opposite of holiday cheer (apart from Love Actually, because who doesn’t love a good romance movie?).

I am that girl who shops on Christmas Eve and still gets angry at how busy town is. This year I decided to do something a little different. I decided to try to get into the holiday spirit and guess what? I am actually loving the process.

Don’t ask me to go carolling with you just yet, but baby steps right?

Confession number two: When I first started working out, I was absolutely terrified. I cried when my best friend asked me to join her for a run.

I kicked and screamed the whole way and somehow along this journey I ended up doing this for a living.

If anybody had asked me a few years ago if I would be working in a gym, I would have laughed. Some days I feel defeated, or like a fraud, but again this is a process. Baby steps.

I say this because the stories we tell ourselves don’t define us. I am still terrified of gyms but I found my tribe, a gym that worked for me.

I still have a mini panic attack when I try something new. I still hate the idea of being bad at whatever it is I am trying, but I no longer allow that fear to stop me from just doing it.

New Year’s Resolutions are just around the corner and I am a sucker for a fresh start.

Take time to reflect on the past year.

What made you proud this year?

What do you wish you had started?

What did you wish you had finished? What made you most afraid and how can you take baby steps to overcome these fears?

I still am a Grinch but I am learning to appreciate the sparkle of Hamilton lit up with Christmas lights at night.

I am still terrified of gyms, but every day I make the choice to not be afraid, to value the body that I have been gifted with.

I choose to take little steps daily to be a person I can be proud of.