​To be honest, 2019 wasn’t a great year for me.  I struggled with motivation to exercise and suffered from numerous injuries which put me out of action.  I also re-gained weight after losing 26 kg last year.  I’m really hoping that 2020 is better.  To help prevent injuries, we are taking wwoofers more regularly to stay with us and help around the garden, which seems to be the root cause of all of my injuries.

Here is a list of my goals for next year.

Career
I am aiming to forge a new career path for myself and ultimately generate my own income stream.  This is a long term goal.  I have a few ideas on how I am going to achieve this and will update you as things progress.  I’m keen on developing Anita’s Garden and creating a bespoke gardening business.  I already have my first project.  I will be assisting my former boss who lives in London remotely, with his large garden.  I’m keen to remain active during the New Zealand winter period and seeking projects in the Northern Hemisphere is one way to ensure that this happens.  Before I take on paid work, though, I need to ensure that it is possible to help people remotely.  As I assist him with his garden, I will provide reports on my blog.

In the Circle
I plan to continue developing In the Circle, my online lifestyle magazine in blog format.  This encompasses Anita’s Garden, the original gardening blog which In the Circle grew from.  If you would like to contribute to my blog or want me to feature you or a project, please get in touch with me at anitakundu.nz@gmail.com

Garden
I intend to maintain the garden that I currently have.  I will be replacing one rose which died (the first rose I have lost since I started gardening in 2012)

Health and fitness
One of my main goals for 2020 (and indeed the coming decade) is to continue on my health and fitness journey.  Despite its ups and downs, I’m in it for the long haul.  This includes healthy eating and tracking my calorie intake with the app My Fitness Pal.  For exercise, I intend to continue going to Les Mills Howick as it’s a great gym.  I now see my personal trainer every six weeks for a programme update and weigh-in as it was too much seeing her once a week and weighing every week.  I also plan to continue running and swimming, which are covered separately below.

Running
I want to continue running, focussing on 10k.  I hope to join the second half of the YMCA 10k Summer Series at the Auckland Domain.  If I’m well (ie I don’t have a relapse) and I’m able to get a place, I’d love to do the Motutapu 10k off-road race in March, but we’ll see if I’m fit enough to handle it.  My old boss at Bell Gully who used to be an avid runner as well told me that it’s tough.  I’m a bit upset that I missed the first half of the YMCA 10k Summer Series, which began in October this year, but you can’t look back.  I’d also like to enter the Sri Chinmoy 10k races held at the Auckland Domain during winter to keep me fit.  I’m still chasing Maureen, one of the instructors at Les Mills Howick who also does them and hope to one day beat her!

Swimming
​I’d like to continue swimming recreationally at the local pools year round.  My goal during summer is to go to the pools every day in the evening, if possible, for a 45 minute swim.

​It’s hard to believe that not only is this year drawing to a close, but also the 2010s.  I’m going to be turning 40 next year.  Yikes!  Here’s a summary of major life events during my 30s. 
​

• In 2010, I returned home to New Zealand after living and working in England and France for five and a half years
• Soon after that, I had a psychotic episode out of the blue and in 2013 I was diagnosed with schizophrenia
• Over the past decade, I have also been battling with depression
• My condition impacted on my ability to work, but from 2015 to 2016, I managed to return briefly to practising law at Bell Gully in Auckland
• My father passed away in June 2012 after having a stroke
• Soon after, I started gardening, on a small scale at first when I planted an oriental lily called Hot Spot in dad’s memory.  Over the past seven years, I have developed our garden and created an urban homestead with vegetables, fruit trees, herbs and flowers, making us almost self-sufficient
• I started a gardening blog called Anita’s Garden in 2017 and that developed into In the Circle, an online lifestyle magazine in blog format covering a range of topics, such as health, fitness careers, fashion and beauty and of course gardening
• In 2017, I established a boutique gardening business.  I ran a plant nursery from home, held workshops to educate the public about gardening, conducted tours of our garden and started writing weekly gardening newsletters, which I am still doing today
• In 2015, we adopted a stray cat in our neighbourhood who had made a home for herself in our garden.  She is a tortoiseshell and we named her Ginger.  She is absolutely lovely!
• I have really struggled with my weight over the past decade due to the side-effects of anti-psychotic drugs which make you prone to gaining weight
• In February 2016, I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.  This was in large part due to the excessive weight gain I had when I went back on my medication so I could work at Bell Gully
• After a decade of long distance running in my 20s, which I started while I was at university, I switched to middle distance running (10k) when I turned 30 and have never looked back.  Despite the ups and downs with my weight, I have continued to run over the past decade and also entered into a number of 10k races, including the YMCA 10k Summer Series, which I participated in last year.
• After a long time, I started swimming again at the local pools.  I did competitive swimming as a child and always competed in swimming sports while at school, but hadn’t swum in ages.  I am really enjoying it and hope to do a lot more of it in the future
• I fell out with my best friend after she went behind my back and set me up on a date with a guy without asking me first.  I was so upset with her that I didn’t speak to her for two years.  Recently, I reached out to her and told her that I forgive her and asked if she wanted to be friends again but I never heard from her.  Inspite of this, I’m really glad I did this because it brought closure to the hurt I had been feeling from what she had done to me.  I have moved on and so has she.

I’m quite proud of myself as I feel I have a lot to show for the past ten years.  They were certainly not without their challenges.  Here’s to another good ten years!