Happy New Year!!!

Reflections

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the years pass and 2017 has been no exception. As this year comes to a close, I can look back on it with fondness and positivity.

I began the year with a very significant change when I started a new job at the end of January. Since then I have joined the company as a full time employee and could not be happier with my job and the company I work for.

The happiness and fulfillment that I get from my job has inspired and motivated me to go after other long time goals outside of work. This blog has been a labor of love and a project that I am really excited to continue in the upcoming year. I am looking forward to dedicating more time to it and produce more content.

One other goal that I am proud to say I stuck with this year is incorporating fitness into my life on a consistent basis. I began the year with 21 Day Fix from team Beachbody and I am ending it with The Body Boss workout program and I am feeling really good! For the first time in a really long time, getting active will not be one of my resolutions as it is something I will continue no matter what! I view my workouts as a way to de-stress and let out my frustrations. It’s an amazing feeling to feel like I have this fitness thing down!

I turned 30 in May and celebrated with a post of 30 Things I’ve Learned in 30 Years. I was happy to be able to reflect on my past 30 years of life and this post is one that I re-read myself whenever I am needing a little pick me up!

Jake and I went on an amazing trip to Europe in September. We began our trip in Madrid, Spain and ended it in Iceland. We saw so many beautiful sights and ate all the food and drank all the wine. We got to catch up with my friend Bri at her home at a VINEYARD!!! in Bordeaux, France which was such a fun time and I got to check off a bucket list item when we took the train up to Paris to stay for a few days. The whole trip was a dream but the most magical part was when Jake got down on one knee while we were visiting the Eiffel Tower and asked me to marry him. It was such a wonderful surprise and I couldn’t be happier to be doing life with him.

Unfortunately I lost my grandma Lorna while we were on vacation and then a few weeks after that I lost my uncle suddenly. It was a really sad time for my mom’s side of the family and we will probably be feeling these losses well into the new year.

All in all, this year was good to me. Lots of great memories and I can’t wait to see what the new year has in store!

Resolutions

Last year I had a HUGE list to goals for 2017. While I was able to check quite a few off, others fell to the wayside and were forgotten. This year I am going back to basics and keeping it simple with just 4 general resolutions that encompass smaller goals beneath each category.

1. Eating Better

   Thankfully one of the goals I achieved in 2017 was being more consistent with my workout routine. I did have several bumps along the way but I am happy to say that working out will be a habit that will stick with me for the long haul. That being said I didn’t really make any progress on getting my body down to a healthier and more comfortable weight and I attribute this to only one thing…my diet. There were times during the last year when I was on point with planning and the foods I was eating but more times than not I wasn’t focusing on my diet like I should have been. So in order to nourish my body and hopefully get results, here are a few small things that I want to do this year for my eating better resolution.

   1. Incorporate meal planning into my weekly routine. I’ll be using tips from my meal planning post. I also want to get Jake more involved and have him help with the planning.
   2. Incorporate meal prep on Sundays. I used to think that the weak link in my day was dinner but over the last year I discovered that really it is breakfast and lunch. There have been weeks where I have eaten out for lunch all 5 days and usually when I eat out it isn’t the healthiest of choices. In the spirit of my next resolution and this one I am going to make a real effort to make time every Sunday to prepare some breakfasts and lunches for the week ahead.
   3. Back in November, I tried a whole foods plant-based diet for a week. I felt really good once the week was finished and would like to incorporate more of these types of meals into my lifestyle. I want to do at least two meatless meals per week and then for one week every month make all of my lunches plant-based. In an effort to get organized for this I have picked up my bullet journal again and will be using this to plan every week. I will be doing a whole post about my attempt at a bullet journal later in the month!

2. Savings

   At the end of 2017 I refinanced my student loans and now what used to be 3 separate payments is one easy payment that comes out of one account automatically every month. I am on the path to paying this amount off in about 5 years. Looking at my finances now I feel I am in a good position to really build up my savings this year.

   1. Jake and I are planning a wedding for the end of 2018 and while we are both really committed to planning on a budget, money still needs to be saved for this so I am going to try my best to save for this very special occasion. 🙂
   2. I also would like to build my savings back up to $4000 by the end of 2018. All wedding money aside I still want this amount in my savings on Dec 31, 2018 at 11:59:59.
   3. In order to save more we have to also focus on paying down more debt as well. I let my credit card balance go back up while on vacation and I really just want to pay this balance off in the next year. Hopefully with all of my meal planning above I will be able to accomplish this task!

3. Blogging/Career

   Starting a blog back in March of 2017 was one of the best decisions I made last year. I have loved coming up with content for this space. While I became less consistent with posting towards the end of 2017, I am committing to posting on a consistent basis in 2018. To accomplish this I want to incorporate the following:

   1. Designate time to work a few nights during the week. It is so easy for me to come home and veg out after I cook dinner but time is a valuable thing and so is this blog so I am going to make more of an effort to dedicate more of my free time to this space.
   2. When I began this blog I was posting 3 times a week but that quickly became too difficult to keep up with everything else I wanted to focus on in my personal life. This year I am going to begin with posts every Sunday and the occasional Wednesday. For me it isn’t about creating content for the sake of having content up. I want to be creating content that I am proud of and that people may enjoy reading.
   3. Designate time to work on photography and taking photos for content.
   4. Focus on developing more of a social media following organically. At the moment my two main platforms are Facebook and Instagram but I am thinking about expanding to not only Twitter but possibly…YouTube. We’ll see what happens!

4. Self Care

   Last but not least is self care. I worked hard last year to build up confidence and body positivity. I still have a long way to go. I want to make it a point to take care of myself this year both physically and mentally.

   1. Create a simple skincare routine for mornings and evenings. My skin is pretty good. I get the occasional small breakout here and there especially if I eat a lot of sugar. I think there is something to taking care of your skin though. It’s not just about cleansing it anymore, it is about reducing the signs of aging as as someone who just entered their 30’s this is definitely something I would like to focus more on in my self-care routine.
   2. Introduce new healthy habits and work on eliminating bad habits…namely biting my nails. I have added another habit tracker to my bullet journal for January and it will be cool to see these habits tracked.
   3. More reading. One of my goals last year was to read a book a month. While I didn’t read one in September, I did read more than 12 books in 2017 and this is all thanks to a lovely invention called the audiobook! I got really tired of listening to the radio and audiobooks have been so wonderful to listen to on my work commutes. While I do consider this reading (others may not), I really miss reading from an actual book. I started a book last year and haven’t gotten very far in it. Not because it is not a good book but I just haven’t really made the time to actually sit down and read. My goal is to try and read for 30 minutes before bed each night.
   4. Continue working on my self esteem but journaling and different workbooks I have discovered through blogs I read. I feel like this is something that I will revisit year after year as I always want to continue developing as a person and learning to be kinder to myself.
   5. I spoke about the delights of unplugging a few nights a week earlier this year. Unfortunately, I didn’t really continue this trend as the year went on and as I read back over this post, I am reminded of why I want to do it in the first place. My goal is to unplug at least 2 nights during the week and possibly one weekend day or maybe even one whole weekend per month.

What are some of your New Years Resolutions?