New Years Resolutions

I'm sure everyone is super sick of hearing this by now but Happy New Year once again!! A new year means out with the old ways and in with the new ones. Growing up, I was never that person to make a real resolution and stick to it for a full year. As a small child I would always pick outrageous and wild things that I could never even try to reach, so by my teen years, I just didn't even bother making them. Last year though I decided to change that and I made a resolution to start working out. There was a new program going around social media that had caught my eye, it's called BBG by Kayla Itsines and the focus is on gaining muscle and getting strong rather than losing weight and getting skinny. I didn't want to start paying for something until I knew that I would be actually committing myself to it though.

So, I spent the first six months of the year trying to come up with my own little program using what I had available to me already like the mountains for hiking, my neighborhood for walking, and the mini gym my apartment had. After getting to the point where I felt like I wanted to see more results and maybe even somewhat faster. I finally decided to start paying for the at-home workout app with this BBG program because I still didn't feel like going to a bigger gym with trainers. I'm now at the point where I am doing three resistance workouts (legs, arms, abs), three Low-Intensity Steady State cardio activities, and one High-Intensity Interval Training each week at my house and the gym my new apartment has (which is a bit nicer than my last, bonus!).

I'm really proud of myself for sticking to my goal from last year and excited to work toward my new ones this year! It's been about two weeks, so I can already tell you where I'm at with them, it really takes about that long to figure out if it's honestly going to happen for me or not. Some people say they'll give themselves into February but if it hasn't become a habit after two weeks, then it's just not happening right now and I'll have to try again at a later time. For this year, I wanted to start working on my skincare, eating healthier, drinking more water and living more in the moment which for me means less planning and more spontaneity. 

Skincare has never really been a huge concern for me, I don't have any acne or other tough problems to worry about; however, my skin is extremely dry and it's recently been getting worse. Coming from the desert, you can never keep up on your water supply so of course, that affects skin drastically. Now, moving into the cold with a higher humidity because of the constant rain, I'm feeling a whole new level of dryness. So I went to see some professionals, dermatologist recommended, to get help. My night-time routine has always been make-up remover, cream cleanser, moisturizer with an exfoliant about 2-3 times a week in the shower. Luckily the new routine I've been given doesn't differ too much, I just have to add these serums in before my moisturizer and do it twice a day instead of once (that means I actually have to get ready in the mornings now ugh). I really do see myself following through with this goal though because it directly effects how my makeup lays on my face. This has become more important to me as I finally start to build up a collection of good makeup, and it's nice to have more than just one look.

As for eating healthier, this is so hard for me, I have the worst sweet tooth ever!! I haven't completely stopped eating my sweets, but I have been eating more proteins, fruits, and veggies to fill myself up and snack less. I also made myself a list of when different fruits and vegetables are in season, that when I'm at the grocery store I can make sure to pick up the good ones. I've even read that many people will freeze them to have them for year round which sounds like a good idea to me! One bad fruit and I swear I don't touch them again for too long, it's really such a bad habit. I would consider water also part of being healthy and so far this isn't too hard, but in the following months once I'm not mentally thinking about it as often I'm not sure if it'll last. Hoping that if I can keep the mental aspect of reminding myself up for at least two months, maybe it can become a real unconscious habit. This is really so hard to ensure though.

My last goal is to just be more spontaneous, I constantly have so much planned that I don't have time to just live for what is going on around me. I want to be able to stop at more of the unexpected places I see and things I run into along the way of my other adventures. 2018 is the year that I have time.

Those are my resolutions for this year, so time to put in some work.

I hope all your resolutions are going well too!

xoxo,

Andrea Aloren