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New Year, Same Me

On January 9, 2018

New year, New me? I’ve been seeing a lot of this sentiment around the internet so far this year, & I have some serious issues with it. Resolutions go hand in hand with ringing in the new year, but I’ve personally never been a huge fan. I’m even less fond of this idea that there’s something wrong with last year’s version of myself. In fact, it makes me a little bit angry that it seems to be trending this year.

Let’s be clear: Goals are great, striving to be a better version of yourself is great, putting a plan to reach your dreams in place is great. If you think you need a whole new you this year though, I’m concerned. I don’t believe for a second there aren’t lessons to be learned & things to cherish about 2017 you.

I spent the first week of January really thinking about what I wanted to do this year, where I wanted to be at this time next year, & from there, set some intentions. I’m over the whole resolution thing right now. We’re going with 2018 intentions. Deal with it.

I bought a new Bullet Journal & put them on the very first page, front & center.

1. Move Daily

Movement is such an integral piece of the puzzle for me, even if it just means getting out for a walk with Odin. It gives me a chance to clear my head, look at things from a different perspective, & get away from life’s many distractions. I always feel better when I’m making this a priority. I’ve kicked off this year with a 4080 running challenge, & I’m on track to complete my 40 km in 2 weeks. It’s been a great way to make running a habit right out of the gate, & a fantastic reminder that going for a run is as simple as lacing up my shoes & heading out the door.

2. Get More Sleep

I’m such a night owl, & notorious for staying up well past 11. I’m especially bad for doing this when N is away. I’ve changed my phone settings to dim the light. I’ve got a bunch of books I want to get through. I’m going to stop pushing that bedtime back.

3. Write Often

This is usually a theme for me. I love writing & journaling, & I so appreciate when I give myself the time to do both. I want to blog more – I have a lot of great ideas to share on here. & I’ve got a better BuJo layout this year for more sporadic journaling. I started using in in SF, & it worked really well, so I’m hoping to carry this forward.

4. Practice Patience

I am not an overly patient person. I’m passionate & opinionated, & generally quick to speak my mind. Impatience is not my favourite quality, so I’d like to work on that this year. Be kinder to people, take a breath before I speak my mind, let it go.

& that’s it. I’m keeping it simple this year with just four goals. Same old me, focused on a few new things. What do you think of New Year’s Resolutions? Do you have any goals, big or small, for this year?

2017 Resolutions

By whoalansi

On January 24, 2017

In Personal

You can’t walk into a gym or fitness class this month without it becoming immediately apparent that it’s January.While I personally stand by the fact that the best time to make change is when you’re ready to do so I also tend to recommit to my goals in the new year. Like a brand new notebook, a fresh outlook on your goals is just what I need sometimes.

Now I realize most people posted their resolutions much earlier in January, but well, I didn’t. Clearly. I’m not even sure why. Oh well. I figure this is better late than never, as I have been working on a few different things behind the scenes & I’d like to share how that’s going.

One of the biggest changes to my goals setting this year is the added element of tracking. I’ve kept a bullet journal for a few years now, & it’s constantly evolving. The tracking aspect is something I started with my latest journal, & I really love it. I’m finding it keeps me more accountable to my goals because I’m so much more aware of where I need to reevaluate. This is such a good example of why I think change needs to happen as soon as you feel you need it. I started this fresh journal, with tracking goals a couple months ago, instead of waiting for the new year.

I’ve set up my BuJo to document on a weekly basis. I find tracking within a shorter time frame much easier. I like the idea of a monthly tracker, however, so far I don’t find it really works. We’ll see how that goes over the course of this year. I’m interested to see what changes. I’m sure both my method & my actual goals will evolve, & that’s what I love most about this style of journal: the flexibility.

Currently, my weekly goals are mostly health-related. I’m trying to drink more water, get some kind of fitness in several times a week, eat well, walk daily, & get to sleep before 11 pm. In addition, I’m trying to be more aware of what I spend on a weekly basis. I find it easier to hold myself accountable this way, so I’m tracking that too. We have a big trip coming up this year, & I’d like to have some extra spending money tucked away.

So that’s where I stand on New Years Resolutions this year. I’m taking a little more active role in what I’d like to accomplish, & hoping it continues to work well for me!

What do you think of New Years Resolutions? Do you have any goals, big or small, for this year?

Happy New Year

By whoalansi

On January 7, 2016

In Personal

Happy New Year!

It’s been a while since I did in of these. I didn’t even really realize that I skipped 2015. This past year is full of great memories, but in a lot of ways I think I got off track too. I’ve always been a planner, but I let that go a bit. In some ways, I think it was good for me, but in others I don’t.

While I think of myself as very goal-oriented, I’ve also mentioned my hesitancy to post my New Year’s resolutions. I still prefer to make changes & set goals throughout the year, as I see fit, but I’d also like to take this opportunity to reflect on the past year & make a plan for the coming one.

1. Make our house our home. We’ve started this a little bit with some new furniture & hanging photos, but there is so much I want to do to make our house ours. I think it has a lot of potential & we can do a lot with the spaces. I want to start by painting our bedroom & adding a door to the walk in closet. There are a lot of 80s-style valances everywhere, so I’d also like to remove those & then paint the main floor walls white. I think both those things will go a long way to making it feel more like ours.

2. Recommit to eating 80% paleo. We still eat paleo most of the time, but we’ve fallen a bit further away from it over the last year & ate out more than I’d like. N is heading up North so he won’t have a lot of choice about what he eats, but I plan to make it a priority for myself at home.

3. Run at least 3x a week. I’ve been running at lunch lately with a coworker & I can already feel an improvement. I’m registered for the Seawheeze Half Marathon in August. Getting into the running habit early never hurts! We started last month & it’s been great to have someone to get me out there when I may not be feeling it.

4. Work on mobility twice a week. I am not flexible at all, which makes some gymnastics skills pretty difficult. I’d love to improve my back flexibility so I can one day do walkovers & my shoulders are pretty tight from years of swimming & sitting at a desk all day.

5. Blog every week. I am so hit or miss with blogging. I always have good intentions, but I also have a pretty busy schedule & a full time job. I try not to be too hard on myself, but I think one post a week is pretty reasonable. I can do this!

6. Choose Happiness. I said this in 2014 too, but I think it’s a good one (& something I still need to work on). It’s so easy to get caught up in the negative, over-react to a situation, or just feel down about life in general. There are so many external factors that I have no control over, so here’s to focusing on the one that I can control: how I react. & I’m going to try to choose to be happy.

I find the key to my success usually lies in consistency. Everything comes a lot easier if you’re consistently striving for it. Suddenly, it just becomes part of your everyday. So while that’s a pretty vague “resolution”, I also want to keep that in mind. It goes both ways so while it’s easy to slip back into bad habits, it’s also easy to create good ones.

Do you like making New Year’s resolutions? What are you working on this year?

Happy Birthday, dear friend

By whoalansi

On January 25, 2014

In Uncategorized

In an effort to make better use of my dSLR, I brought it out with me the other night for a friend’s birthday. I’m always a little nervous to bring it with me to a bar, but I’m trying to let go of that. What’s the point of having a camera if you’re too afraid to bring it out?

These pictures aren’t great. I was mostly playing. The bar was dimly lit & people were having too much fun to sit still for me. None-the-less, it was fun to play a little bit & the night itself was a lot of fun.

Happy Birthday, Kelli.

New Year

By whoalansi

On January 9, 2014

In Uncategorized

I’ve been kind of putting this post off. Last year, I had it out in December. I was all prepared for 2013. I had my shit together last year, guys. This year, though. This year kind of snuck up on me. One minute, my wonderful boyfriend was down on one knee, asking me to marry him, & the next I swear it was New Years Eve. I swear that’s exactly how it happened.

I’ve said before that I believe in setting goals when you realize they need to be set instead of waiting for something like the New Year to take action. & I still believe that if I need to change something, that change should happen as soon as I realize it. That’s definitely something I try to live by, but like I said last year, it’s nice to look back on last year & decide what to do better this one.

Last year, I attempted to:

I can’t say I was entirely successful with any of these except maybe number three. We really don’t eat grains very often anymore. I’d say we’re usually 80% grain-free, 20% eat whatever we want. It’s a good balance, if you ask me, & something I’d like to continue. I’m still often very hard on myself when we do slip up, but I want to put it in writing: we did well, friends.

I wasn’t entirely unsuccessful with the other goals. There were months where I really did follow our budget better. & overall I think I’ve cut my shopping spending a lot. There were also times when we opted to have friends over instead of going out. I think we made an overall improvement there too. & there were times when I chose to be more appreciative & tolerant. That one is probably the biggest one I need to work on though. I promise to try, N. I promise.

With that in mind, here are my 2014 New Years Resolutions. (drum roll, please).

I think these are four challenging, but very achievable goals for me this year.

I generally try to be more specific with goals, but I made an exception with the first one. I think we’ve got a pretty good handle on our health (of course, as I write this I’m a bit sniffly). We weren’t sick often this year & when I was I could usually pinpoint why. Fitness Friday is still going strong & I’ve been making workouts, in & out of the gym, a priority. I’m not going to a CrossFit box like I would like to be, but I’m still making strides when it comes to my Fitness goals & that’s a good place to be. (I will master a handstand this year. It’s coming!)

This second goal probably seems odd to those who know me or follow my instagram. I do take a lot of photos. But I want to be more conscious of the photos I’m taking & make a better effort to use my DSLR. I’m trying to shoot primarily with my 35 mm lens. I like it so much better than my kit lens. I want to try to take more photos with it & not fall back on my zoom lens just because it’s easier. It’s time to challenge myself a bit with photography.

I’ve blogged way more this year than any other year & I couldn’t be happier about that, but I haven’t been actually, physically writing. Whenever I’ve lived abroad or travelled, I’ve kept a journal & writing in it – the physical act of writing things down – has always been very therapeutic for me. I’d like to get back to that. (& I’m starting today – my journal is currently in my purse!). Instead of mindlessly checking Facebook or Twitter in my downtime, I’d like to get back to writing.

This last one is a big one for me, & I think it’s a good one for this year. Too often I get pessimistic & over dramatic & let things bother me. I forget that this is a choice I make & that I can choose happiness instead. I’ve let myself forget to choose to be happy too often. I’ve let myself get carried away by the negative what-ifs & that’s not the person I want to be. As much as I’d like to be able to control every little aspect of my life, I can’t. There is so much that I cannot control. But, I can control how I react to things. & I can choose to be happy. This is largely inspired by the fact that we’re planning a wedding & wedding planning is notoriously stressful. This essay was another huge inspiration (thank you for that, Natalie. I don’t even know you for real, but thank you). I’m going to make this one happen.

So let’s go, 2014. Bring it on. I’m so ready for all the wonderful things you have in store for me.

Photo by 3haus Photographics

Run Run Run

By whoalansi

On January 7, 2013

In Uncategorized

One of my goals this year is to get faster at shorter distances, namely 5 km and 10 km. I’ve only run 5 km for training so I’ve never really pushed myself. Speed work is so important though, so I’m making an effort to be faster.

I went for a 5 km run at lunch today. I wasn’t expecting it to be very fast, but it felt good. I didn’t really pay attention to my watch until I hit 2 km in 10:05. I never run 2 km in less than eleven minutes. And it felt good, really good. I did a bit of a double take, I was so surprised. So I decided to consciously try and keep it up for the rest of my run. At 3 km, I was right at fifteen minutes. Holding that 5:00/km, I kept an eye on my watch and by 4 km, I was breathing hard. I came in under twenty minutes. All I had to do was hold on for one more kilometre and I’d reach a goal I hadn’t expected to attain until much later this year. I mean, it’s January 7. I only set these goals a week ago! I just tried to keep my feet moving quickly and stopped my watch at 5 km: 24:46. My first time running 5 km in under 25 minutes. Walking back to the office, I was pretty much grinning from ear to ear.

And doing a little happy dance.

New Year

By whoalansi

On December 31, 2012

In Uncategorized

Resolutions. I haven’t been big on the whole making-a-list-of-things-I-want-to-do-better-this-year thing recently. I think if I need to change something or do better, it should start as soon as I realize a change needs to happen.

I really do like goals. That’s probably an understatement. I love goals and I set them often.

A perfect example: Nathan and I decided to do a month long paleo challenge November 15. It wasn’t the best time of year to decide to do this and we definitely cheated a lot, but my reasoning was that there was never going to be an ideal time to do it. There’s always something going on and it’s never going to be easy. So we just did it the best that we could. It worked out well for us (especially me) and I’ve been feeling great and getting lots of compliments that I look great so I’m glad we did it.

That said, sometimes it’s nice to look back on the year and decide what you want to do better next year. So here’s my list:

1. Follow our budget better.
We moved out in July and we haven’t saved much money since. We had lots of stuff to buy and neither of us makes a ton of money so it put a damper on saving for a place of our own. I’d like to get back on track with this. We do a lot of things right: bring a lunch of work every day, drink terrible office coffee instead of stopping at Starbucks, and avoid paying for parking ever. We also have a big weakness for delicious food, nights out with friends, and shopping and that needs to slow down significantly. Which brings me to my second resolution:
2. Have friends over more often.
We like entertaining and we like having drinks and playing games. I love our place and definitely want to make more of an effort to have people over instead of going out. 2 birds, 1 stone.
3. Eat grains on rare occasions.
Our month of paleo taught me a lot about how food makes me feel, and especially about how grains and gluten make me feel. I still LOVE bread and will never say I’m giving something up forever, but it needs to be a treat for me. I feel so great when I’m eating good food and fueling my body properly. Don’t worry, I’m not going to go too nuts about this whole gluten thing though.
4. Be more tolerant and appreciative
I have it pretty good when it comes to boyfriends. N mostly puts up with my neuroses and my need for our house to be clean and organized. He helps me out a lot with grocery shopping and vacuuming and taking out the garbage. He listens when I’m acting like a crazy person and always tries to be helpful and supportive. I need to be more appreciative of this and I definitely need to be more tolerant of the imperfections in our lives.

So there we go. Some goals for the year! I obviously have some other more short terms goals (get back to be being able to do 25 pushups ina row and run 5 km under 27:00…ok actually try to run a 5 km for time not training), but these are my four solid yearlong goals.

I should also probably add blog more to the list. I had good intentions of blogging about Croatia, Vegas, and Christmas. I’ll get to a couple of these in the New Year.

Come on 2013!

WHOA lansi

francophile, oenophile, logophile, turophile

Tag: resolutions

New Year, Same Me

1. Move Daily

2. Get More Sleep

3. Write Often

4. Practice Patience

2017 Resolutions

Happy New Year

Happy Birthday, dear friend

Run Run Run

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