This month, We’re heading into the final stretch of the year, and now is the perfect time to pause and check in on your 2025 goals. Too often, we set big intentions in January and then let them slip as life gets busy.
Below I include reflection and questions you can do to remind yourself why you set them in the first place and how we can make sure our goals don’t always take a back seat to others.
I’m sharing this calendar preview to keep us on track! If you like this format, drop me a line and let me know! Let’s chat 👸🏾
How Are Your 2025 Goals Going?
Some of my 2025 Goals
- 🏀 Attend a WNBA game
- 🥄 Improve my Home Cooking Skills
- 👟 8-10k steps daily
- 🥘 Teach Classes in the Community on the African Heritage Diet
- 🛳️ Have a Family Vacation
- 💤 Improve my Sleep Hygiene
- 📓 Write Whispers Book 2
- 📚 Read many Books
- ⚕️ Reach my Target A1c Goal
- 💼 Log intentional hours Professionally
- 🙋🏾♂️ Help my Son start High School well
- 🏡 Open our First AirBnB!
Let’s Check In
Checking in on your goals can be super simple. I know many content creators will sell you a ton of stuff for reflection, I simply want you to answer 3 Questions:
- What are my 2025 goals?
- What Did I Do to Progress Them?
- What Can I Do Over 30 Days to Hit the finish line on at least one (or one more)?
Example Goal Check-In: Write Whispers Book 2
- One of my goals for 2025 was to write Whispers Book 2 (topic is still secret 🤫)
- I Did Not Progress on this Goal. I had many derailments and life be “lifin”.
- Over the next 30 days I can
- Schedule future time off from work to dedicate to writing
- Put that time on the family calendar so they know it’s something really important to me
- Set a writing place that will be more conducive to focus and is distraction free.
- Make a promise to myself to protect that time.
📚 Books of the Month: Let’s Read!
For this month’s books, I first recommend checking them out at the library for Free! Can we talk about the joy of that?!?!? I LOVE the library and check out many many books a month. 🏃🏽♀️ Start with your library!
A sparkling debut mystery set on the South Side of Chicago, featuring the quick-witted, unforgettable Savvy Summers, proprietor of a soul food café.
When Savvy Summers first opened Essie’s soul food café, she never expected her customer-favorite sweet potato pie to become the center of a murder investigation. But when Grandy Jaspers, the 75-year-old neighborhood womanizer, drops dead at table two, she suddenly has more to worry about than just maintaining Essie’s reputation for the finest soul food in the Chicagoland area.
I just LOVE 🧡 cozy mysteries. This has become one of my favorite book genres this year. I picked this book up while shopping at a hometown bookstore. I love finding new authors to read while browsing. This seems very promising, I’ll surely let you know how it goes!
This celebrated classic collection of heritage recipes and anecdotes features more than two hundred mouthwatering African American dishes with pictorial accounts, personal vignettes, and poetry tracing the abundant history of the renowned Tuskegee Institute of Alabama.
Stepping back into the Teaching Kitchen this month means I have to ensure all that I teach is culturally responsive to the people that attend our classes. Recognizing the dearth of African Heritage cuisine is super important. Along with, connecting it to how we eat to support chronic conditions.
👉🏾 One goal for the month is to try 2 recipes from this cookbook the “JD” way. Subbing some ingredients (like white sugar) for ones I enjoy more (coconut sugar!). Wish me luck! 🍀
The Rainbow Diet by Dr. Deanna Minich invites readers to “eat the rainbow” by incorporating colorful whole foods that nourish both body and mind. Each color represents different benefits — from grounding red foods to heart-healthy greens — and the book blends nutrition science with holistic wisdom. With recipes, supplement guidance, and practical tips, it shows how a vibrant, color-based approach to eating can support physical health, emotional balance, and overall well-being.
I’ve heard it more than I care to count “color your diet”. That phrase was not very meaningful until I took a digestion class recently and learned all about gut health! I want to learn more about each whole food color and how it helps our nourishment. Clearly, some research for future posts!
👟 This Month’s Wellness Challenge
Let’s goooo! We still have good weather to get those steps in! Particularly if your occupation requires you to sit for long periods, tracking step count is even more important! Check out this post on the hazards of occupational sitting.
Ways to get in more Steps:
- Walk the dog daily
- Have a walking meeting with a friend or at work
- Do laps — walk around the house during TV commercials or while on the phone.
- Chores with movement — vacuuming, sweeping, and folding laundry while walking back and forth all count.
- Stair stepping — if you have stairs, use them a few extra times a day.
- Dance breaks — put on music you love and dance it out for 5–10 minutes.
- Active routines — pace while brushing your teeth, waiting for water to boil, or during short breaks.
📝 What’s Coming to the Blog this Month:
A few fun posts are coming up! I’m excited to meet the season! 🍂
- 🥣 The Super Soupmaker!!
- Piping hot soup from scratch ingredients, in 18 minutes? Enough said…. I have gifted this device a couple times I love it that much! Homemade soups are perfect for fall flavors and quick weeknight meals. Stay tuned for recipes and tips on how I use it to keep nourishing food simple.
- 🌊 Porous Boundaries
- Porous boundaries happen when we have trouble saying no, share too much too soon, or let others’ emotions and needs take priority over our own. One of my most popular posts was about protecting your peace. I’ll build on that post in this one.
- 🧠 When Does Digestion Begin?
- Digestion actually begins the moment you smell your food—your body releases saliva and enzymes that prepare it to break down nutrients. That’s why cooking at home is so powerful! I’ll dive deep into this topic.
- ☂️ Grief, Let it Cook
- Many of you may not know, I lost a very dear friend around this time last year to a tragic accident. I still continue to grieve her loss, experiencing this powerful emotion over time. It’s taken me 9 months to have the courage to write this post and I think I’m there.
Friends I have so much fun writing this blog, and it truly gives me joy and supports my health! Grab a cuppa and let’s Fall in!
🙋🏾♀️ ANNOUNCEMENT!
WE’RE WORKING ON SOMETHING GREAT! This opportunity will be shared with subscribers only. If you know someone that is not subscribed encourage them to do so as they won’t want to miss this event. It truly will be a gift to those that have been on this journey with me. 🙏🏾
If you are enjoying the blog and would love to know how to keep our movement going please share! Encourage others to subscribe so we can keep building community!
Stay well,
💛 J