Great Harbor Cay, Bahamas May 2017
Can't believe I haven't blogged since before Christmas! The second half of December and beginning of January have gone by way too fast but I had a great holiday and am ready to kick start the best year ever! Honestly 2017 was a weird transitional year for me and this season of post-grad life has me feeling in limbo with my career. Despite all that weirdness, 2017 hosted some amazing memories like getting to celebrate one of my bestie's engagement and another's college graduation, starting a job at my current dream workplace (Brevard Zoo), as well as lots of traveling: DC twice, the Bahamas, North Carolina, and (my favorite) NYC!! Like I said earlier, I really enjoyed Christmas this year as my sister was home for almost a month and I got to have lot's of family and bestie time the week between Christmas and New Years since I was off. I also found out my best friend Ariel is officially moving back to the area from Tallahassee this summer and that was really just one of the best Christmas presents ever haha!
{sequin tank: Free People, fur jacket: Target, jeans: American Eagle, booties: Old Navy, hoops: Francesca's}
Annual New Year's Eve downtown with my ladies! I felt like J.lo with my hair curled, hoops, and fur coat ... which I loved haha.
Ah now onto some of my goals for 2018! Sorry this post is going to be rambly, but I'm feeling really inspired this year so let's just roll with it :)
When I was an angsty little teenager, I thought New Years resolutions were so stupid. What makes January 1st any different than any other day of the year? Well, nothing really BUT how amazing is it that as a society most of us accept the new year as a clean slate. It all became about perspective for me: if you believe you can start over and be a better person in the new year, it's possible! My freshman year of college, my amazingly motivated and inspiring future-roommate Claire and I would have long lunches and study sessions where we ended up just talking all about our goals for the future and how we planned to get there. These are some of my absolute favorite memories from college because friendships that build you up should be celebrated! Anyway, one of her suggestions to me was to create a vision board. Claire told me Oprah makes vision boards religiously, and if it works for Oprah it'll work for other boss b*tches like us!! I could probably go back and find photos of my very first vision board, but I've been making them every year since. Manifestation is power, putting what you want into the universe and visualizing it every day WILL help you achieve goals. Call me a hippy or whatever you want, but I truly believe it. Here's a really small example, but two years ago I put a photo of the "Believe in Nashville" mural on my vision board with 0 plans whatsoever to go and at the end of the year, I looked back at my vision board and bam one of my best friends had moved to Nashville that year and I visited her in October! Moral of the story, I love vision boards and below is my vision board for 2018. Everybody's vision board will look different and you can literally put anything on it, but I typically print pictures and some phrases from pinterest and glue them in somewhat organized sections on a small poster-board.
After I make my vision board, I usually sit down with a pen and paper to start physically writing out my goals for the year. I usually have categories of goals like fitness, career, and travel for example. I try to stick to more specific goals, but sometimes they get broad and that's okay. I thought I'd share with you all some of my goals for 2018 and how those resolutions are going so far! Gotta keep me accountable :)
Fitness Goals
Last year, I lost about 20 lbs following the weight watchers program. I am so so proud of my progress and plan to continue using weight watchers in 2018. I find it's the most flexible diet ever and it really works when you don't cheat yourself. I have a goal weight in mind, but I know that to me it's more about how I'm feeling. I want to feel confident and healthy in my body because that's what's most important.
In addition to continuing weight watchers, I want to make a conscious effort to eat more whole and healthy foods that will fuel my body. Lately, I have become absolutely obsessed with Sarah's Day on youtube. She is an Australian fitness vlogger who eats a mainly paleo based diet. I really feel my best when I stay away from dairy and gluten and have been eating like this for the past two weeks. I'd love to post a what I eat in a day in the future, but I'd like to add that I'd consider my new diet "paleo-ish." I'll eat a little bit of cheese in moderation once in a while and rice and beans if I need to feel full (healthy carbs ladies)!
My beautiful and full "paleo-ish" cart from Aldi! I have been making so many yummy and clean recipes lately and can't wait to share some at the end of the month in a recipes post. Thank the lord for SkinnyTaste and all of Pinterest for that matter!
Acai from one of my favorite places in Melbourne Beach plus some ginger kombucha #AntiInflammatoryLife
Detox Kale Chicken Soup I made around new years. So delicious! Will share recipe soon.
Another aspect of fitness I want to improve on in the new year is exercising more. Even though I was losing weight last year, I wasn't serious about working out in conjunction with eating well. At the end of December, I rejoined the gym and have been enjoying cardio and weight training as well as some fun classes my gym offers. My goal for this month is to have an intense workout at least 3 times a week. That doesn't sound like a lot, but I want to stay realistic at first and I'm not including long walks or anything like that which I do frequently. I also hope to improve my balance and get better about stretching to prevent injury by setting a goal to do yoga at least once a week. I've been hitting these fitness goals and more so far in the new year and already feel so much stronger!
Sustainability Goals
On of my biggest goals for 2018 is to reduce my waste! A waste-free lifestyle is a huge commitment, but I'm a firm believer that every little bit helps and is a step towards progress. Some of my more specific plans for this goal are to reduce plastic waste by keeping reusable bags in my car to use at the grocery store (always seem to forget them), not purchasing disposable water bottles (I always carry a reusable one with me), and skipping plastic straws by carrying a reusable aluminum one in my purse. I've also created a simple compost bin in my backyard to reduce the amount of vegetable and paper waste I'm throwing away! I love my new compost bin and am so excited when I tell people about it haha.
Another one of my goals is to grow some of my own vegetables and foods in a home garden! The city recently built a community garden down the street and it inspired me so much seeing how many beautiful vegetables they were growing in the Florida sun. I plan to work on this in the upcoming months but I'll definitely be sure to share how the boxes turn out and everything I'm growing! I also made a rain barrel last month I plan to use to water my garden so pretty pumped about that as well. Sorry I'm such an environmental nerd, can't really help it when you go to college to learn this stuff!
Beautiful photo of decaying plant matter in my compost bin haha!
I have some more personal career and life goals I won't share, but I'm really excited about some of those as well. Like I said, I'm really feeling motivated and inspired this year. I'm choosing to have an amazing year! What are some of your New Year's resolutions and how are they going so far?
via Pinterest