I recently had a chance to be featured in the Boston Voyager “Trailblazer” series. The goal of their series is to shift media portrayals of women, which they feel have been too one-dimensional and to highlight and celebrate female role models and build community.

They’d gotten my name from Jackie Hempel, whose interview I loved for the way she encourages us to see the good and to “find lovely” amidst and perhaps even from life’s challenges. She has a beautiful perspective, and reading her story made me see her beautiful design work in a whole new light.

Now, here’s the thing. As kind as Jackie was to sneak them my name without telling me, I am not actually a Trailblazer. I’m more of a Trail-jogger. I slowly follow Trailblazers with a giant, surprised grin to find myself on the same path. (Maybe that’s why they introduce me as “the inspiring” rather than “Trailblazer”.)

But I couldn’t turn down an opportunity to talk about the things that matter to me most, like the Wellesley Mothers Forum, Sustainable Wellesley, plant-based eating, and running and being comfortable being a novice athlete.

It was also rewarding to sit down and think about my life as a story. What is my story? What is my narrative? Who am I? When Jackie sent them my name, did they think they were going to hear from a novice athlete, or a blogger, or an environmentalist? Sitting down and tying it all together, I realize how many of my accomplishments I owe to that dark period in my life when I was home with postpartum depression trying to care for two children under the age of one and a half.

I had to change, and it led me on a journey that I’m mildly surprised sounds half-decent in that Trailblazer article. I’ve accomplished enough to fill a few paragraphs with things that would have intimidated me (ok, scared me senseless) if I’d seen them on a to-do list a decade ago.

I would encourage anyone to sit down and write their own story as though it were going to be published. Take those interview questions and write about yourself as though someone else thinks you’re a Trailblazer. Writing about yourself brings what you’re most proud of and what matters to you most into sharp perspective. It helps me think about what I want going forward and makes me feel a little better about not having a traditional career.

Thanks to Boston Voyager for featuring women’s stories. I’ve found the series inspirational, from Jackie’s beautiful focus on perspective to reading about vegan food truck owner Stephanie Kirkpatrick.

You can read about me in Boston Voyager here: http://bostonvoyager.com/interview/conversations-inspiring-kelly-caiazzo/

This was my favorite archived photo I pulled out for the article. 

And below – making progress!

Last night I filled out the form for our fitness reimbursement from our insurance company. We can get up to $150 back per family per calendar year. That’s not insubstantial!

It’s worth seeing if your health insurance or employer offers a similar reimbursement; many do as a commitment to preventative health care. Exercise decreases our risk of costing them money, so incentivizing it may benefit them in the long run.

Not a member of a club? Maybe knowing you can get reimbursed will help you add a membership to your budget. As much as I love exercising outdoors, being in New England makes it hard (and potentially slippery and unsafe) this time of year.

January can be a great time to join because many clubs offer New Year’s incentives like $0 initiations and bargain monthly agreements. Just be careful to read the fine print; you’ll want to know if you’re making a monthly or annual commitment, how much notice you need to cancel your membership, whether you can freeze it for travel or medical reasons (and how much notice and documentation you’ll need), and what’s included. Is childcare extra? Do you need to pay an additional access fee for that outdoor pool in the summer?

Speaking of membership fees, another way to add to your health budget is to audit your other monthly subscriptions. No longer watching House of Cards? Maybe it’s time to cancel Netflix. Are you still paying access fees for Sittercity even though you connected with a babysitter months ago? What about that quarterly magazine that still shows up because of auto-renew but never gets read?

Auto-renewing subscriptions are insidious and they add up. An audit of my own subscriptions revealed a few services that I didn’t even remember I had.

Whether it’s picmonkey, lynda.com, or three digital news outlets when you only read one, combing through your credit card statements to find services you no longer find valuable could yield some extra cash to put into savings or invest in your health.

Download the PDF e-book

Download the Printable Booklet Version

Have a love/hate relationship with your New Year’s Resolutions?

I can help!

Download my free e-book designed to help you make great fitness goals for 2018 and meet them. I’ve taken the best advice from this blog and turning it into a downloadable workbook that will help you apply it to your own life.

In Form a Fitness Game Plan I walk you through forming a thoughtful goal, making time for fitness, and coming up with a plan for success.

The included worksheets will help you to create your own custom plan for fitness success in 2018.

This e-book is designed to help anyone, whether you’re hoping to get moving consistently for the first time or are interested in tackling a new race distance.

Informed by research in motivation and habit formation and inspired by my own experiences, this workbook will help you take the great advice out there and turn it into an actionable personalized strategy for success!

I hope you’ll enjoy using it as much as I’ve enjoyed creating it.

Like what you see? Come to my workshop on the same topic at the Wellesley Wellness Retreat on Saturday, January 28th! In my 35-minute afternoon workshop, I’ll walk you through this workbook, answer questions, and prove bonus tips influenced by the psychology of motivation and habit formation.