Off Track

Happy Lunar New Year's Eve, my friends! I'm writing this on a stomach stuffed with dumplings, yet the balmy 60 degree weather today gave no indication that we're only a few days into February.

I don't have any relevant 2019 pictures and I'm missing Jake, so here's a picture of a "snack" we made for him once.

Anyways, how have these first few weeks of 2019 been for you? Personally, I've been...not thriving. Physically, I've gotten sick three times in the past month, and my skin is in this constant state of inflammation (probably because my consumption of junk food has been kinda out of control, let's be real). Speaking of which, I've completely fallen off my healthy eating train, and a new surge of love for peanut butter and chocolate has sprung up. We all have our weaknesses, I suppose.

If anything that I'm saying is at all mildly relatable, fear not! Tomorrow's the start of another new year (by the lunar calendar), so I encourage you to form some new resolutions or get back on track with some old ones with me.

Disclaimer: The goals I'm setting aren't all one-year ones, but rather weekly or monthly resolutions to make my progress more quantifiable.

That being said, here are a few (of the many) problems I want to fix:

1. Curbing my Snack Tooth (like a sweet tooth...but for snacks)

Putting more emphasis on eating real foods, not the processed stuff. To implement this, I'm actually going to stop intermittent fasting! I tried it out for about five months, but I found that I always had an eclectic assortment of snacks in the afternoon to make up for my missed breakfast. Also, I miss my breakfast foods way too much. Once I get back in my pattern of eating three square meals a day (instead of three protein bars), I might take it back again. For now, I need to gain some self-control without overly depriving myself.

2. Less Screen Time, More Book Time

Sure, I know this semester is all about letting yourself go a bit, but is refreshing my Instagram feed every hour really the best way to go about it? The best version of me knows that I'd rather read a book without having homework hanging over my head, so let's quantify this to an hour max of social media (i.e. Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube) a day.

3. Doing Computer-Related Homework Last

I recently broke my computer by spilling water on it, so this blog post was completely written by hand before being typed on my dad's computer (fun fact!). Because of that unfortunate instance though, I've realized that computers are immensely distracting, not mention a big portion of the space on my desk. So, here's to opening my computer only when it absolutely needs to be done.

There are so many things to be done nowadays that I can hardly believe I predicted this semester to be "boring", but I'm ready to take them off. Even if senioritis may come and go, the self-improvement grind never stops.

Best of luck,

Ellie

P.S,

I'm so excited to announce that I'm joining Body Banter, a community where people can share their stories and thoughts about body image, as a columnist. I'll probably add a link somewhere on here where you can read my articles, so stay tuned for that!