Hey Beauties!
It’s January 30th, just 2 days before the New Year and what a year it’s been! Now it’s that weird time in between Christmas and starting a new year so I get it, no one is sure what day it is haha! Normally, people set out resolutions or goals heading into a new year but fail to keep them so I’m here to share some of my tips on how to do that as well as share some of what’s helped us through the years in a few areas, specifically health and finances!
I used to be hardcore for new years resolutions and very serious about them! I haven’t drank pop for almost 10 years and that started as a resolution that’s blossomed into a lifestyle! Pop used to be an issue for me, I would drink 3+ cans a day and I decided I didn’t want to live like that so I cut it out! I also quit eating chips for 3 years then started again out of choice, I’ll enjoy chips and salsa or guac but I rarely eat them and won’t sit and eat an entire bag like I used to! A few other simple things I’ve set and also kept are, brushing my teeth morning and night every day, taking my makeup off Every night no matter what and doing my skincare routine, and I could go on haha. Those are a few of the main resolutions I can think of right now, they’re all so engrained in what I do they’re just habits now! I’ve always used resolutions to help better my health and overall life and I believe they really can help you if you have the right mindset and perspective going in so hope this post will help you in some way!
The last few years I’ve really focused less on the resolutions and more on goals or main focuses for the year! Some of our main focuses & goals are in these few categories: our faith, marriage, health, finances, personal growth and our jobs & businesses.
Below are my top 5 tips on how to keep your resolutions &/or goals
- Write your goals or resolutions down, it just does something when putting it on paper, almost like finalizing them, makes a big difference!
- Make the decision you’re going to stick to it and do it! This will help you gain confidence and prove to yourself you do what you say you’re going to do.
- Change your daily habits, this is HUGE! Whether it be establishing new presets like reaching for a water or sparkling water instead of “that drink” (that was what I used when I gave up pop) to making time in your calendar to workout, read, etc. even if you “don’t feel like it.”
- Evaluate your association. Who are you surrounding yourself with? Are they going to help you get closer to your goal or suck you back into that bad habit (most people are trying to get rid of bad habits or start good habits). For instance, my husband quit smoking, cold turkey, about 6 years ago so he stopped hanging out in environments where there would be smoking or hanging out with people that smoked because he knew at the beginning, if he put himself in that situation that he wouldn’t be able to keep that promise he made to himself, so he decided not to make that an option. Who you surround yourself with is so important, I could go on this for so long!
- Tell someone! Accountability is so important and a serious game changer. For example, a workout buddy, or when you want to drink or binge watch netflix instead of doing what you need to do, instead call your friend, reach for a book or go for a walk, etc. And don’t buy it, if you desire to stop drinking pop, drinking alcohol, binge eating ice cream, chips, etc, don’t buy it, that’s just asking for failure, don’t do that to yourself!
Finances
This is probably one of the most important things to gain control over, your finances! It’s not the most fun thing to be on a budget but it’s extremely important. The new year is the perfect time to evaluate your finances and move forward from there! My husband and I became debt free (outside of our house) over 3 years ago! We have mentors in our life that gave us insight on how to budget properly a few years ago and we decided to get very serious and disciplined about it and we’re very thankful for that! Below are a few budgeting tips and things we do to take control of our finances.
Budgeting Tips
- Take inventory of what you’ve been spending your money on (past 3 months is a great place to start) and decide from there on what you’re going to change. When we first did our budget we realized how much we actually spent on eating out and it was embarrassing haha so we cut that down a lot. You don’t really know what you’re spending your money on until you really trace it back.
- Write out your fixed and variable expenses, also totals of what comes in and what goes out on a monthly basis. We use an excel document which has our usual bills, dates of those, variable expenses and what’s coming in. I evaluate this every time we get paid so I make sure we tithe first, get the bills paid and go from there.
- Utilizing envelopes or separate bank accounts. At first we would use cash envelopes for the money we allocated to variable expenses like gas, groceries, entertainment and personal budgets and once that money in the envelope was gone that was it. Now we use separate bank accounts for our spending, so we have an account specifically for necessities (includes bills), entertainment, groceries & gas, and a personal budget. By doing these things, it allows us to allocate a specific amount of money per category therefore we know exactly where our money is going instead of just spending from one account and losing track.
- Focus on what you want most vs what you want right now, this results in a happier, less stressed life and healthy spending habits.
- Get a savings account and use it! We have a specific percentage of our income go to our savings and investing accounts automatically from our checks before we even see the money in our account to make sure it happens and after we follow our budget we allocate the rest of the leftover money to our savings.
What healthy spending means to me is focusing on spending money where I can see a return, experience something or if it’s clothing, I buy staple pieces that I can wear for awhile and style multiple ways! Not keeping up with the jones’. Do what you need to do for your financial future and you’ll thank yourself for it! I had and do still have a personal budget dedicated to anything I want to buy for myself whether that be starbucks, clothes, makeup, hair care, etc. I do set higher priced items as rewards for goals out of a personal standard, but we try very hard to stay within our budget and reward ourselves higher prices things when we’ve earned them!
Health
Years ago I would set goals revolving around my weight and what size jeans I wore. I’ve worked out since I was in middle school and when I got into high school I quickly developed a slight eating disorder and an unhealthy workout schedule that lasted until I got to college. I had a horrible self image so I would set unhealthy resolutions and although I had good intentions my mindset going in was very unhealthy, so I got unhealthy results. When I started to focus on wanting to be the healthiest me, working out for the right reasons, got rid of my scale (literally threw it away) I started to feel better and started to get in the best shape of my life! I’ve continued to feel better about my body, in better shape and am happier with how I feel and look overall!
Health Goal Tips
- Decide what type of workouts you enjoy doing or would like to start enjoy doing! Whether that be getting a gym membership or a membership at a smaller studio, of course working out at home is always an option, but you know yourself better than anyone so choose something you know you can discipline yourself to do and start there.
- Focus on feeling the best and healthiest you, not the weight, not the thigh gap, not the pants size.. focus on your health!
- Decide when and where you’re going to be working out ahead of time and put it in your schedule. Also an accountability partner is very helpful in this category as well, whether that be a friend that you can workout with, getting a personal trainer or developing friendships with those who go to the same gym, same workout class, etc.
- I personally don’t meal prep, but I go grocery shopping with an intention and choose to make healthy meals (in my opinion) and not buying crap. I like to snack so I’ll also buy healthier snack options.
- Don’t slip into the valley of comparison. This really applies to everything! You are on your own journey and there’s no reason to compare yourself to someone else! Instead when you notice comparison creeping in, combat it with positive affirmations about yourself!
Whatever you decide you want to accomplish, add in/ remove/ replace going into 2021 you can do it, I full heartedly believe in that truth and I hope this post helps you!
If you have any questions or would like to talk at all, feel free to leave a comment or send me an email or dm!
xoxo,
Brandy