I have mixed feelings about making New Year’s resolutions, especially since (like most people) I have my fair share of over-reaching, never-achieved resolutions in my past, along with the pangs of guilt that come with “failure.”

That said, there is something about the changing of the calendar that offers a chance to pause, reflect, and make firm plans to do things that have already been kicking around in the back of my mind. That’s why I like to set some New Year’s intentions.
My life has been in a state of constant flux since I decided to go back to school 5 1/2 years ago. Venturing into the foreign-to-me world of science, applying to grad school, starting grad school, landing my Seattle Times column, completing a long internship, defending my thesis and graduating, getting laid off from my job right before Christmas last year, studying for and passing my RD exam, launching a new website, looking for a new job in a new field. It’s been deeply rewarding, but it’s been…a lot.
With 2015 just peeking around the corner, I’m in a busy, but good place. I love working at Northwest Natural Health, with its excellent naturopathic physicians and support staff. It’s hard work building my practice within their practice, but it’s been very fulfilling and I know it will become even more so. I have several classes and speaking engagements lined up for the first quarter of the new year, and am excited to have just been appointed to the Washington State Prostate Cancer Coalition‘s advisory board.
I’ve been thinking quite a lot about where I want to go and what I want to do professionally in 2015. Some of those thoughts naturally involve this blog, both in terms of content and time investment. Since I began this blog, I have attempted to blog Monday-Friday. There are times when I have fallen far short of that goal (i.e., occasionally disappearing for weeks at a time while I was in school), and many more weeks with three or four posts. This makes me feel a bit guilty, yet I have deeply resisted allowing myself to formally set a less-demanding post schedule.

I think 2015 is the year where I finally grant myself that permission. The reasons for this are many:

  • I’m not a pro blogger, so this blog doesn’t directly contribute to my income (yes, I have a few ads now, but that will hopefully pay for hosting and domain registration). 
  • As I build my nutrition counseling practice, I’m taking a closer looks at activities that aren’t helping me pay my mortgage or my student loans. 
  • I plan to do more paid freelance nutrition writing. Since time is a finite resource (alas), more time writing for pay necessitates less time writing not for pay. This also relates to my personal resolutions for 2015 (see tomorrow’s post).
  • I’m at a point where I need to spend more time reading and absorbing new information and ideas, in order to continue to be creatively inspired to produce new articles, columns and posts. I can feel the imbalance in my information world.
So my plan is to commit to posting Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Some weeks, I will post more often, if the writing spirit moves me (or if I end up with a super-long post that needs to be split into multiple posts).

But I’ve been thinking about more than just how often I will post…I’ve been thinking about what I will post!

  • My number one priority is more food content. I wrote more about food and cooking in the early days of the blog…when I was cooking more. I find that I’m still in grad-school mode, functioning on autopilot to put meals on the table that, while healthy and tasty, aren’t quite worth writing about. I’m ready to start spending more time playing in the kitchen (more on that tomorrow, too).
  • My second priority is more substantive content. Posting less often should allow me to put adequate thought into each and every post. There have been some weeks where I’ve been writing and posting on the fly, which isn’t (my) ideal.
  • My third priority is to develop more varied content, including videos and podcasts. I also want to do more with Instagram and my Nutrition By Carrie Facebook page.

I have lots of ideas for what I want to do with this blog in 2015, but before I finalize my plans, I’d like some input from you, my readers. I’ve put together a quick 10-question survey that will help me learn a little bit more about where you as it relates to food and nutrition. You can access the survey here!