As I sit here writing about this year, it feels like I didn't have much to worry about in hindsight. After all, I now feel at home more than I ever did in Chicago, I have great and supportive people around me, and I got a new job that is super exciting (and challenging). And yet I realize that accomplishing all of these things took a lot of energy. To manage my energy I made sleep and nutrition a priority (in addition to exercising regularly), and I learned a ton in the process.

Reading "Why we sleep" by neuroscientist Matthew Walker in January still impacts me today. For years I wondered why I wasn't able to perform as well or feel as good after 5-6h of sleep as so many of my peers seem to do. Well, as it turns out it's perfectly normal to require 7-9h of sleep per night. Also, sleep isn't something you can compromise and "catch-up" on, and sleep has so many incredible benefits to my brain's and body's performance. I made sleep a priority this year. 8 hours (even though I realized that my body usually requires 7.5h). Every night (with very, very few exceptions).

A couple observations from my experience:

• The most observable: I dream a lot more (and remember them). It really was a year full of dreaming!
• After sleeping enough and well, I feel like I'm much more emotionally stable and less impulsive - even in stressful and challenging situations.
• I have developed a much better understanding of my energy levels throughout the day. When I realize that I'm losing focus, I'm taking a break and re-energize with water and fresh air.
• I became aware of the impact of a bad night of sleep, not sleeping enough, or sleeping in a new environment much more than before because I know what it "should" feel like.

After years of eating mostly vegetarian, I turned full vegetarian late last year. Long story short, it didn't work for me. I was so preoccupied with thinking about what to eat and how to keep my macro-nutrients balanced that it started preoccupying my thinking all day. In August I started bringing back a little bit of meat and poultry. Is still try to live as sustainable as possible, and my diet is part of that. But instead of being dogmatic about it, I just try to do my best to eat real food, thereof mostly vegetables.

The bigger impact on my nutrition was cutting alcohol anyway. That week of not drinking turned into two, then three, then a month. I realized what great experiment this was and how I learned so much about it. It's been a full year without alcohol now (full disclosure: there was 2 very special moments this year in which I had a few sips of wine and beer - but I think we can still count 2019 as an alcohol free year.)

What I learned for myself:

• Life is so insanely intense if you're completely sober at all times. And you can get so much done with all that clarity (or lack of "foggy moments"). For example, in addition to figuring out my life at home and at work, I developed myself further as leadership coach, learned more about how our brains work, and was able to invest in some really important relationships with a clear mind.
• There is no easy way to take the "edge off" anymore. Especially with my mind racing to deal with the influences and emotions from the various challenges this year, that meant to be a lot more mindful of my energy level and how to manage relaxation. Finding the right mix of meditation, sports, and social activities became much more important.
• Without alcohol in my system, my 8h of sleep were true sleep - not the alcoholically-sedated version of it.
• On the challenging side, I had to find out how to still see my friends. So much of our social interactions happen around alcohol. And for me, being sober while others drink, usually ends in me being bored after they're three drinks in.

With all of this learned in 2019, I'm excited to see what 2020 holds.