New Year’s Resolutions 2015

Well hello 2015! I know I’ve already written a post wishing you all a Happy New Year, but I actually wrote that last year and scheduled it, so technically this is the first post I’ve written in 2015; HOW EXCITING.  I have to confess, I’m quite pleased it’s all over so I can get back to work and allow normality to resume.  I did enjoy my time off, which consisted mostly of hanging with Teddy and watching films, but so much is going to happen for Teddy and I this year that I’ve been very keen to get cracking! On that note, just a quick one from me today as I have to get my car in for an MOT (let the glamour commence) so I thought I’d share with you my 10 resolutions for the year of 2015.  I’ve put together 10, but as long as I manage around 5, I’ll be happy:

1.  Learn to do an Eyeliner Flick

I’ll start with one of the more light-hearted ones.  This is something that continues to elude me as I can just about get one eye right, but it all goes a bit wrong when I try to level up the other one and I end up looking like I’ve suffered some sort of stroke.  Any tips would be more than welcome please!

2.  Continue Making Healthier Choices

Last year I started to reformulate my diet – for the first time ever – to include a considerably healthier approach to eating.  I’ve made a few little tweaks that have had a real impact, such as the green smoothies and overnight oats, so I’ll continue to keep to this for 5 out of 7 days a week – the weekend I’m free to eat whatever.  I’m also testing out a theory on taking care of my tummy; I’m doing whatever I can to keep it in good nick with the theory that if my tummy is in good working order, the rest of my body should follow suit.

3.  Keep Skincare to a Minimum

Out of all of my NYRs this is probably going to be the hardest, as I do love me some skincare.  However, what I’d like to do is try and keep the amount of products I use to a minimum (apart from masks, let’s not be silly) in my daily routine as otherwise I think I can often overload my skin which results in dry, angry, spotty skin that nobody wants.  As I said, it’s going to be tricky, so we shall see.

4.  Get a Medium or Deep Peel

I have a lot of pigmentation on my skin that I think makes it look a lot worse than it is – often I’ll be down to one or two spots and my skin will be generally clear, but you won’t be able to tell due to all the pigmentation – so I’d like to do something drastic to try and reduce this problem.  A medium or deep peel comes with downtime, so when I have one done I will be sure to photograph all the goriness and share it with you…you’re welcome.

5.  Style My Hair More Regularly

Again, this is a bit of a simple one but I have noticed I feel a lot more confident when I’ve put a bit of effort into my hair style.  I recently had a great cut and colour (more on that soon) which has made styling it relatively easy, plus I’m back in love with my Babyliss Big Hair so really it’s just a case of putting aside 20 minutes or so after each hair wash.

6.  Deal with Anxiety and Start Meditation Again

I’ve suffered from bouts of pretty extreme anxiety all of my adult life, and the only thing that ever ‘cured’ it was Transcendental Meditation – a practice I would recommend to anyone suffering from similar issues as it truly is fantastic; read my post on it here – but to be honest I haven’t used it on a daily basis for years as I haven’t really needed to, until recently.  Having Teddy to worry about as well as the cancer scare has reawakened all my previous anxiety issues and resulted in me feeling generally quite highly strung, especially just before bed.  Therefore I’d like to take up TM again, which is going to prove tricky since you need 20 minutes twice a day and I’m lucky if I can persuade Teddy to stay still for 20 seconds, but I will give it a go.

7.  Take Better Care of my Hands and Cuticles 

Talk about one extreme to another! My hands get so much abuse from various factors such as playing with Teddy and chasing him around, being on crutches, washing-up bottles and generally not being cared for as well as they could, so I’m hoping to try and address that.  I did manage to get into some great habits last year of oiling my cuticles and creaming my hands before bed, but it didn’t stick for some reason, so I’m going to try again.

8.  Cut Down on Sugar and Milk

I’m actually not doing too bad at this so hopefully I’ll make even more progress.  I have a terrible sweet tooth so I’m going to try some various sweeteners to see if I can find one I like the taste of – I’ll report back – and I’d also like to cut right down on milk, which I actually only have in my coffee, but I do drink a lot of coffee.

9.  Get into Better Sleeping Habits

This obviously correlates with my anxiety issues, but I hope to try and go to bed at a regular time and fall asleep more easily, rather than see that time before bed as a good time to worry about absolutely everything that could go wrong with everything that relates to Teddy and I…Not Ideal.  I’m hoping if I start using TM regularly this will make a difference, plus I’m going to start using the This Works pillow spray and see if that helps too – again, I’ll report back.

10.  Be Happy

I realise this sounds like a bit of a cop-out, but it’s actually one I will tend to as eagerly as the others.  I do believe you have to work at being happy (same with confidence) and for it to work, you need to take a certain level of control, rather than just hoping it’ll happen.  I am happy and this is because I focus on the amazing things in my life whilst not paying much attention to the things it’s missing.  I feel people who focus on what they don’t have are making themselves more miserable than necessary; obviously that’s a big, sweeping statement, but hopefully you know what I mean!

A very Happy New Year and I hope 2015 is your most amazing year yet xx