New you OR same you?

Happy middle of January everyone!!! How is everyone doing this very early part of 2018? Have you stuck to the goals you have made? Or have you already moved them to the noooo column of your life?? In one of my most recent post, I talked about how this year I was not going to set any resolutions but how I did want to set goals for myself. In my opinion, goals are something you are always striving for – not something like a resolutions that if and when I fail (because let’s be honest, I am a big spastic from time to time) I am going to feel discouraged and stop altogether.  Well, I am happy to report I am still going strong and REALLY REALLY loving my new goals.

As a quick recap my goals for 2018 were:

• No-Spend January
• Collect memories NOT materials
• Travel to a new place EVERY month
• Focus on Wellness
• Stay consistent

Now I wanted to dive into each of my goals and explain to you HOW and WHY I am crushing these goals. Goal number 1: No spend January — This one definitely posed to be a lot harder than I was expecting. Not because of me wanting to buy dumb shit, but because a few of my other goals involved getting out of my house, which equals money. HOWEVER, in sticking with my mindset, I decided to get rid of a ton of things around my house I no longer needed. –> I had over 400 random hangers laying around I did not need anymore, SOLD them. Clothes I don’t like anymore –> SOLD them. Decorative items I have been moving from house to house, JUST IN CASE, I need them again, SOLD! Just those three categories helped me make over $200 in one day!!!! *Sidebar —  Facebook marketplace is where it is at people! I have been able to purge so much shit just by posting it. A big tip is you must price it to sell. Do not try and post things for a crazy amount of money; you just want them gone, not to pay for your child’s future college fund. Everything I put on there is pennies on the dollar but guess what, it was all gone within twenty-four hours.* Okayyy and back to my point, I was then able to use that money I just earned to do things I wanted to do. I kept all of my money in the bank and was still able to make some new memories.

Enter — Goal number 2: collect memories, not materials. Now for this one, I thought long and hard about it. What could I do to help build memories and do cool things without the typical “shopping date” where you black out and come home with more than you could ever imagine. I went back on Facebook (yes I know a lot of Facebook talk but hey, it is obviously never going anywhere might as well use it to our advantage) but this time to the events section. Started looking up cool events happening around my town in the next few days; I found a free yoga class at a local museum, a semi-pro local basketball game, James and the Giant Peach at a local theater and my personal favorite a FREE Michigan State University Hockey game. Each of these things would allow me to get out of my house, for free or a very minimal cost, support my community and try something new. I am planning on doing all of them, but for this weekend a friend and I are going to the hockey game.

Goal number 3: Travel to a new place each month. While this goal and goal number two go hand in hand I wanted to push it a step further and do something outside of my zip code. Next month I have trips planned to the Smokey Mountains with two of my very best friends and our families, New York City for a bucket list trip and then rounding it out with a trip to Chicago on St Patrick’s day to celebrate another fantastic friend’s dirty thirty. With all of those trips coming up and still being in No-spend January I wanted to do something closer to home and then BAM, Shaine and I got invited to celebrate a friend’s birthday in their new home in northern Michigan. HOW FREAKIN PERFECT RIGHT? Wegot to celebrate we friends, get a weekend away but still manage to pack food and eat at home so we could save money. It was a match made in goal heaven. We headed up Friday night after Shaine got out of work and man oh man did we hit the ground running. From the moment we walked through the door it was filled with laughter, beer, board games, shots, cards, moonshine, food and oh more booze. (For Shaine, damn Whole30 prevented me from participating, but man did I feel great in the morning;). Saturday we all woke up, most feeling a little under the weather but headed out for breakfast, and drinks at a distillery. It was gorgeous up there. SO MUCH SNOW. Like it never stopped snowing the entire weekend we were there, but the best part of that area is no one lets the weather slow them down. We all put on our gigantic puffer coats, our boots and off we went. It was nice to live the simple life and not care about if your shoes match your outfit or not because it didn’t matter. You had to wear them to stay warm. Honestly, I think that is a way of life I could get on board with. I love the simple, no frills but extremely fulfilling lifestyle that Northern Michigan is known for.

Goal number 4: Focus on Wellness. To be honest, this was the one goal I was most worried about, especially for January. This month I wanted to focus on my digestion and to do this I decided I needed to do the Whole30 for the entire month of January. For those of you who are not familiar with the Whole30, in very lamest terms is a cleanse that resets your digestion by removing foods many people have intolerances too. Foods like wheat, gluten, legumes, sugar, dairy, alcohol, caffeine and any other artificial ingredients are all removed from your diet for 30 straight days. Once the 30 days are over then, you slowly start to add those different food categories back into your diet and pay attention to how your body reacts from each of those foods. You are probably asking yourself, what the HELL can you even eat? Or can you even eat? And the answer is you can. You just have to make everything from scratch. Since starting this Whole30, 17 days ago, I have learned a lot about myself. I have learned I do surprisingly like a lot of foods I thought I didn’t, I have learned I am a really good cook when I put effort into it and lastly how much better I feel since doing it. Once I have finished, I am going to do an entire blog post about my experience why doing whole thirty and what suggestions I have for you all if this is something you are interested in. — However there was another huge piece to wellness I was focusing on this month, and it was to be less in my head about trying to get pregnant. For months I have been tracking my cycle, planning the days we just HAD to have sex, choose when I could or could not drink just in case we did convince. I was crazy, everything revolved around that app on my phone, and I was tired of it. I just wanted to focus on living, focus on feeling better at that moment and when and if it does happen just be thankful. And I am happy to report I have done just that. I am looking into the future and planning vacations not taking into account WHAT IF we get pregnant or if we will have an infant. And guess what? IT FEELS DAMN GOOD, to just do that. Not worry so much about who is on Facebook announcing their pregnancy, just knowing my time will come when and if it is supposed to. And while this may only last a few more months before I slip down that slippery slow of trying to convince, I just love this time right now.

And goal number 5: Staying Consistent. This goal is going okay. In many areas (Whole30, living in the moment, traveling) I have succeeded but in other areas working out, blogging I am only meeting it, not exceeding it but that is okay. That might be for the best to focus on a few things and once those become second nature to me, then focus on adding in the others. I decided early on in my Whole30 that I wanted to not work out while on it. Not because you are not supposed to, but I am such an evidence-based persona I wanted to see what healthy eating alone did to help me physically and mentally. Once I have completed it and have stuck with my healthy eating habits, I will then add in exercise to prove to myself you get the best realize when you add the two together. As for blogging, I am now back to school, so I have one more thing on my plate but have carved out an hour a week to sit down and write. A time to help me reflect on the week and help me realize what I want to share with you all. This website may be called a blog because of the platform I am using, but it is very similar to an online diary. I want to look back and remember what I was doing each week. Keep those memories close.

Enough about me, how are you all doing? Did you guys set goals? Resolutions? Have you stuck with them or veered away? I would love to hear how you all are doing.