Reflections from a roller coaster year
2025 in review
This is a long email. It is less polished and a bit rambly. Based on what works these days on the internets, it would have been wiser to give it a big edit, split it up into parts and send it out as separate emails etc. But when I came back to writing this newsletter, it was because I wanted to write. Writing helps me structure my thoughts, keeps me accountable, and I love the connections I have here with you, the reader. So if you are up for a long, rambly email, grab a drink and enjoy. If you want some actionable takeaways or a dot point list, then give this email a miss đ.
2025 did not turn out at all as I expected. It is so hard to know how to review this year. The loss of my dad is still looming large, and it is by far the most significant event that has happened to me since the birth of our last child back in 2009.
Traditions
Every second year, we spend Christmas in Mildura - my other two sisters who live in Melbourne travel to Mildura with their families and we all stay with our sister and her wonderful family who live in Mildura. They have plenty of space, and they hire two caravans to accommodate all the extras sleeping there.
I love traditions, and we have many around our Christmas time in Mildura. These are some of my favourites:
All ages soccer games after dinner - my dad never played, but you would never see a happier man than him, sitting outside watching all the mayhem and carry on. I donât play either, and I missed him sitting with us watching.
Games of Crib - it is known fully as Cribbage and my dad taught all four daughters to play and he taught all my kids to play too. On Christmas afternoon, my sisters and I played together. My dad was always very efficient with scoring, something that I was not great at. My sisters were always much better at it, and they filled the void from dad this year and made sure I didnât under score my hands.
Rocky road - I have been making this rocky road at Christmas since 2009. My dad absolutely loved it. I made it again, and it made me miss him, knowing he wasnât here to enjoy it.
Not only was my dad missing, but my sister in Mildura had also lost her father-in-law in May, so we were missing two people at Christmas lunch. It was a large void, but we still had a lot of fun together. My kids love the biannual Christmas trip to Mildura and the traditions they take part in. They are etching deep memories that will stay with them forever. This means a lot to me.
This year, we started our own tradition of Sunday dinners. There is an open invitation for our kids and nephews living outside the family home to come for dinner at 6:30 p.m. They donât have to say they are coming, there will always be enough food, and hopefully, if I have catered well, some food to take home too. After dinner, we share a high and low of the week, and the evening is finished off with some form of games. I love it. The older ones who have partners have started to bring them along too.
When it is someoneâs birthday, we extend the invitation out to the broader family and usually end up with between 15 - 18 people for dinner. Sometimes we are lucky and we can time a Sunday dinner when my sister and her family are visiting from Mildura and it bumps it up to over 20 of us! When we share our highs and lows of the week, we also share our favourite memory of the birthday person. The birthday person can choose the meal and the type of cake they would like. I make lolly bags featuring their favourite lollies, a nice call back to parties when they were all little. It is so much fun for all of us.
The first dinner back after my dadâs funeral, we all shared our favourite Dad/Poppy memory, and it was so beautiful to hear what the kids had to share.
Being a beginner again
Completing my Cert III and Cert IV in fitness in 2025 and starting a new career as a PT saw me at the beginner stage again, and I loved it. To be so keen to learn more about the craft, to feel so excited to get new clients, to try things and fail, to try things and see them work, to create new processes was so refreshing and re-energising.
It was also about accepting the need to start at the very first rung of a new ladder. My entry role at the first gym I was at was not my ideal role, but I knew it would be the foot in the door that I needed. When you are 53 and entering a young personâs game, you have to be realistic about where you can start. I am so grateful to the manager and the team at this gym for the opportunity they gave me, the support and encouragement and what I learnt from them. I feel so lucky to have started there and to have worked with them all.
At the start of December, I started at a different, larger gym that offers more opportunities for me, and I am so excited for what 2026 will bring with my PT career. I am still very much learning and keen to do so. Most of the podcasts I listen to, and YouTube videos I watch, are centred around absorbing as much info as I can, so I can help clients achieve their health and fitness goals. I shared some of what I have watched here. I am also planning for professional development for myself next year as well.
Being a beginner again has been a great teacher, too. For many of my clients, they are beginners at the gym, and for my predominantly female clientele, this comes with some apprehension and nervousness - feelings I have experienced this year. I am far more mindful of this and factor it into how I program their sessions.
Rebuilding my running base
(Image above is from my Fitness & Freshness section of Strava. It considers your heart rate based Relative Effort and power based Training Load to track your levels of fitness, fatigue and form over time. Not sure how accurate it is, but I am more interested in the overall trend, not a specific number etc.)
After a couple of false starts, I am finally getting some consistency back with my running. I am only running four days a week at the moment, but I am being consistent and progressing my runs. I have a long way to go, but I am starting to feel fitter. You can see the dip in fitness in July when I had my varicose veins done and another dip in October when I had a couple of days off with a really bad cold, and then my heart rate was sky high for a couple of weeks after.
My running and strength training week has looked like:
Mon - Lower body strength. Still very rehab-focused with emphasis on quad and calf strength
Tue - Running session at the track
Wed - Lower body strength. Still very rehab-focused with emphasis on quad and calf strength
Thu - Longer easy run
Fri - Upper body strength
Sat - Long run
Sun - Shorter easy run
I honestly didnât think I would still be doing two very rehab focused strength sessions a week over a year after my surgery. When I had the time off for the clots and varicose veins, I could only walk for four weeks. In that time, I lost a significant amount of my newly regained strength in my PCL (right) leg. Running when you have a strength differential of greater than 10% in your quads is a recipe for another injury, so I had to really temper my rebuild in running and work on the strength in my right quad. This has meant doing maintenance only on my left leg for single leg exercises and doing additional single leg work on my right quad.
I am really hoping that when I go back to the physio in late January, the strength differential will be less than 10% and I can dial back the rehab to maintenance exercises. When that happens, I can move strength training to Tuesdays and Thursdays, have one day completely off and add another easy run.
Reviewing my 2025 goal
2025 was the first time I revised a goal during the year. You can read more about that here. My goal was to Prioritise time under the open sky and in good company to create moments of joy and connection. As usual, I set some habits to focus on to help me achieve this goal. I will go through them one by one, assess how I went and then summarise how I think I went overall at the end.
Daily - gratitude journal
Rating - 99%
Reflection - This habit is now so ingrained in my daily routine, I donât even have to think about whether or not I will keep this habit, it is just what I do now. For me, it is such a grounding and clarifiying activity that takes me less than 5 minutes. Can highly recommend and you can read about the Journal App I use here.
Daily - eat one meal a day outside with no phone use
Rating - 75%
Reflection - If you read my review for November, this fell off a cliff in November with only a 50% success rate. December was better, but would only have been about 75%. There is a tendency in me to not take time for a proper meal break when I get busier. The reality with doing this is you end up eeking out time somewhere else because you crave the break. While I wonât set this habit again, I will hold myself to account to make sure lunch is a proper break, whether it is inside or outside.
Weekly - minimum one run or walk with friends a week
Rating - 100%
Reflection - I love catching up with people in an active way. I think you can chat in a way that is different from just sitting at a cafe etc. For the runners out there, I am sure you will be able to relate to the amazing chats you have on the weekly long run. A bonus about running over 2+ hours for my long runs now is that I can join in with the group for them, and the chats/banter/laughs you have are really something special.
Monthly - outdoor activity somewhere new with friends
Rating - 90%
Reflection - This was a great habit to choose. Being out in nature makes you realise how small you are and in some ways, how insignificant to the bigger picture. I actually take great comfort in this. When I feel overwhelmed by what is going on, it can be a real tonic to step out in nature and realise things that seem a huge deal are really not that big.
Sharing the nature of beauty with friends and family is also an amazing thing to do. The very top photo was taken by me at the World Heritage-listed Mungo National Park in NSW in late December - so stunning! And fits beautifully with the âPink Skiesâ theme that has been running through the last half of 2025 for me.
Monthly - write 3 x letters / postcards to friends or family
Rating - 90%
Reflection - I was great at this until December, where I didnât send anyone a letter. I did however, send some presents to people and give friends and family presents with some handwritten notes (more than just Merry Christmas), but technically it was a fail, hence the 90% rating. I did love doing this, but it felt a bit forced towards the end. I will still make an effort to write to people in 2026, just not on a set schedule.
Overall, how do I think I went?
If we are to average my marks above, my score is 90.8% and that feels about right. I did indeed prioritise time under the open sky and in good company to create moments of joy and connection. Amongst the sadness of 2025, there were many moments of joy within my immediate and extended family. Getting back into running and strength training allowed me to spend more time with friends this way and by focusing on doing things outside with friends, I got the calming effect of being in nature that I very much needed.
I have cried a number of times writing this very long post (thanks so much if you have made it all the way to the end!). My dadâs wry smile has popped up so many times in my mind. I am so glad for him that we went peacefully and without years of decline. That doesnât mean I donât miss him and wish he had been around for longer, but I am luckier than many, and so are my kids. They had all four grandparents for a significant part of their lives and have distinct and clear memories of them all. For that I am so very grateful.
Nic
Oh Nic, that would have been a tough Christmas for you x
What a roller coaster year indeed Nic. So hard losing a parent â¤ď¸ What a fabulous learning becoming a PT has been, and continues to be! Your clients will benefit from your knowledge and experience.