As the year comes to a close, I am blown away by all that’s happened in just a years time. It’s been a crazy, long, hard, and over all exciting year. It was a huge year for Unbound Wellness which is honestly still in it’s baby stages as a business, and I’m excited to share those developments with you!

But before I get into all of that, I wanted to let you know that a lot of this couldn’t be possible without you and your support. Thank you for reading my blog, trying my recipes, following along on Instagram, listening to the podcast, and more. I’m so grateful for your friendship and support!

Now, let’s get on with what happened this year…

2017 Year in Review

What Happened for Unbound Wellness…

 

Traffic to UnboundWellness.com increased by 724%

Yep. Seven hundred and twenty four percent increase from 2016 to 2017. Holy moly.

My main goal for Unbound Wellness in 2017 was to just grow. More eyes, more lovely readers enjoying my recipes, and more interaction and engagement. I wanted to spread my message further, and zeroed in on putting tons of effort into growing.

I shared 69 recipes new recipes!

If you’re wondering how I increased my traffic in 2017, this is one of the top 3 answers for sure. I put a ton of time, effort, and research into stepping up my recipe development game this year, and I’ve been beyond thrilled to see how much it’s paid off! Recipe development, food photography, and sharing my recipes online brings me such an immense amount of joy!

I released the 30 Day Gut Healing Diet Plan & Guide and have been blown away by how popular it’s been

January 1st, 2017 was when the 30 Day Gut Healing Diet Plan & Guide hit the world wide web! As someone who has gone through their fairshare of gut issues, I created the guide because it was something that I wish would have existed when I started this journey.

This e-book has 30 days of gut healing meals with photos of each day to make it super easy to follow, exclusive recipes, and more.

You will definitely be seeing more things like this from me in the future!

I hit over 10k followers on Instagram

Coming from a background of working professionally in social media, I know that numbers don’t always mean much. Buying followers and spending all of your time on social media can be pretty pointless. However, getting to 10k followers on Instagram actually unlocks some extra features, and I’ve really loved growing my community! I was around 1k followers in January of 2017, and I’m at 10.7k in December. You can follow me here.

I got to speak at Paleo f(X)

This was a huge check off my bucket list! Speaking is one of my biggest passions, and the opportunity to talk business at Paleo f(X) was incredible!! I talked about growing your email list, which is something that I plan to focus on a lot more myself in 2018.

Anne and I launched the Unbound Healing Podcast

Having my own podcast has been a dream of mine for years. When I met Anne Marie Garland of Grassfed Salsa, I felt like that could become a reality! Anne has dealt with autoimmune issues herself and is a nutritionist that is AIP minded. Anne I are so aligned on so many things, and she really fills in on the gaps that I lack! She’s become such a dear friend that I respect so much, and I appreciate the heck out of her.

We started the Unbound Healing Podcast for others who are dealing with autoimmune and chronic illness issues, and we share how to manage those issues with diet, lifestyle, and more. You can subscribe on both iTunes and stitcher!!

The Most Popular Posts on Unbound Wellness in 2017…

 

1. Sweet Potato Chicken Poppers

The sweet potato chicken popper has over 230k repins on pinterest, and I get tagged on Instagram in pictures of you guys making this one almost daily!! <3

2. Baked Veggie Nuggets

I like nuggets, okay?! And apparently you guys do too!! These Veggie Nuggets are one of my all time favorites!

3. How I Reversed Hashimoto’s

A real talk blog post of how I got my Hashimoto’s under control with diet, lifestyle, gut health, and more.

 

What Happened in My Personal Life

 

I left my full-time job.

This was huge. I was able to leave my full-time job to pursue other opportunities like freelancing, and working on my business last January. It hasn’t been easy, but it’s been beyond worth it! You can read more about my transition here.

I made some big steps forward in my own health journey

This year was all about focusing on Mercury detoxification after I learned that I was super toxic later in 2016. I wound up bringing down my levels significantly, and making some other strides. You can read all about that, and how I did it, here.

I got to travel quite a bit

Though Daniel and I really didn’t take any big vacations, we did a lot of smaller trips, work trips, and weekend trips. In 2017 I got to go to Austin 3 times total… 2 for work and 1 for fun (read one of my recaps here), Vegas for work, Key West and Orlando as a piggy back on Daniels work trip, Port Aransas as a family trip, DC as a friend reunion, and New York as another family trip and reunion (recap here). Working for myself has definetly allowed me to be a lot more flexible to work from wherever, and travel more!

My husband and I found a new home church.

Daniel and I have been looking for a church where we both feel at home since we’ve been married! We were always driving way too far to churches we used to go to in the past, and could never really find one near us that we felt at home at. When we bought out house in 2016, we jumped around for months before we decided to try a church close to our house in about the late winter of 2017. It’s a church that we both love and really feel at home at, and I’m so grateful to feel more grounded with it!!

 

What I Was Really Into in 2017…

 

Vintage clothing

I started getting into vintage when I was a kid. I always loved old music and that slowly started to transition into fashion when I got into my teens. I would always frequent thrift stores and search online for fun vintage inspired looks, but honestly, it’s hard to really develop a strong personal style when you’re a teen!

My stye got pretty sterile to fit the office environment when I hit my 20’s, and it was only when I left my full time office job that was I was able to indulge my love for vintage again. Vintage doesn’t have to be expensive or hard to find, and it’s a lot more sustainable ethically speaking. I’m going to be doing a whole blog post on my tips and my whole collection, but here are some of my favorite finds of 2017…

This 1970’s maxi dress.

Photography by Karla Janneth, and dress from Vintage Tex.

This 1960’s jumper dress… it’s all one piece! 

Photography by Karla Janneth, and dress from Ally Hoot Vintage.

This 80’s barbie dream jumper. 

Photo by my husband, jumper from The Kissing Tree. 

Recipe development

If you couldn’t tell from all of the recipes I put out there this year, I’m really into recipe development. I’m constantly researching online and in books, and am brainstorming new ideas and flavor combinations. It’s the perfect mix of all of the creative things that I love like cooking, photography, editing, food styling, and the creative thinking needed for actually coming up with grain free, dairy free, egg free, nightshade free recipes that taste good!

My Favorite Murder Podcast

Working for yourself gets lonely. Even though I’m fairly introverted, I miss being around people. One of the ways I get past this is listening to podcasts. But honestly, listening to just health podcasts wears me out. I feel like I’m constantly in work mode and just can’t shut my brain off. I needed more entertaining podcasts and a fun community to get into.

I found My Favorite Murder around the spring of 2017. As a person who is has always been into true crime, I thought it sounded interesting. MFM is a huge podcast with a flourishing fan base, and I was immediately hooked. It’s a true crime/comedy podcast (…but not together… you have to listen to really get it) and the hosts are so relatable and fun, it feels like they’re my new coworkers! I even dragged Daniel to their live show in Dallas, and would honestly do it again.

Give it a listen… at your own risk if you scare easily!

 

What’s coming in 2018…

 

Baby “conversations”

Daniel and I will be married for 4 year this January, and we’re moving closer and closer towards adding to our family. We know that there’s no way to ever be truly ready, but we want to be as prepared as we can. There are a lot of conversations to be had and decisions to be made for us as a couple, and we’re excited to start having them this year!

Tons more recipes

Trust me, I am not slowing down with pumping out recipes! I’m currently planned out through March of 2018 as we speak.

More on gut health, more podcasts, more vintage, and hopefully more on faith too!

I’ll be sharing more content on all of the things I’ve already been sharing, and will hopefully adding more into the mix on things like vintage, and faith.

A huge announcement soooon

Don’t worry… you’re not going to miss this one!

 

Thank you all again for all of your support, love, and friendship over the last year. It’s been an absolute dream to do what I love and share it with you. Happy New Year, and I’ll see you lots more in 2018!!