Confessions Of An Anti-shopaholic

I've never been a shopper. Even as a teenager, I would rarely get the urge to spend the day at the mall shopping for clothes. I wanted to look like everyone else, but had little motivation to do the work to get me there. This attitude has carried into my adult life, though now I have a lack of time and money to use as a crutch. 

Recently, however, I've noticed that though I have plenty of clothes, I am lacking in quality and versatility. I have few basic pieces to help me craft cute, age appropriate outfits. 

Real life story: I had a job interview this

summer and only two possible outfits. Neither was very appropriate but it was more so than the rest of my collection. I had to wear tights and boots with a skirt in the middle of July. I was fine inside, but the interviews ended up being outside and I was dying. I vowed then to get a workable interview outfit, but have yet to do so. 

I've been following Chelsea Fagan on Instagram, who has adopted a "neutral life" attitude in her closet. She wears nothing but neutral colors. For her it says sophistication and versatility. While I think having a strictly neutral palette is rather boring, I think her outlook and way of changing her wardrobe is to be admired. 

I need to take my wardrobe to the next level. I need to create a goal, and find an inspiration closet. I need to stop picking up mismatched cheaply made pieces, and start to create an adult wardrobe for my adult life. 

It will be a slow process, as I still have the whole too little time and too little funds issue, but I'm excited to get started on this. It will be especially exciting as I have been getting back into the groove of working out, and my body is changing in all the best ways. I'm looking forward to finding pieces which flatter my figure and my wallet.

Stay tuned! 

H. 

Have the Most Productive Day

With the hours I have at work, I get Monday's off. I chose this for myself for two reasons. 1. I hate the feeling I get on Sunday night, that the inevitable Monday is closing in, and 2. I was hoping to be more productive on Monday, vs. Friday. (I still have a partial day on Fridays, so you know it's a win-win)

I have LOVED being able to avoid the impending Monday feeling, but the productivity aspect was thrown to the wind when I realized I could do everything I wanted to. I usually choose doing a whole lotta notta. 

Today was a wonderful exception to that. 

I woke up this morning about 9 am (still enough wonderful time to sleep in), looked around at my clean room (Which I cleaned on Saturday ...go me!) and tried to figure out what I was going to do with myself all day. My apartment has recently suffered a loss of internet, so netflix, and random internet surfing was out of the question. At first I thought this was a bummer, but then I realized I finally had the motivation to get out and moving.  

Rather than lingering in bed and wasting the day, I took a shower, and got dressed in real clothes, and did my hair. Then, I made myself breakfast, and grabbed my backpack. Armed with a lunch, and supplies to keep me busy all day, I left for the library. 

All day I've been writing researching for various books I'm writing. It's amazing to me how much writing I can accomplish when I force myself to sit down, and just do it. I wrote FOUR CHAPTERS of a book I've been procrastinating, and outlined another book. Sure, the writing is probably terrible, and I will need to revise like crazy, but I got it out, and I am so impressed with myself right now. I can't remember the last time I had a day like this, and it isn't over. I still have three hours at the library, and then gym time. Yay for productivity! 

Until Next time, 

H. 

*Disclaimer: This post was written in a flash of procrastination, but you know I still owned today, so I'll get over it. 

Incentive

This whole cycle of working out, vs not working out is tiring. It's a pain to figure out when to start up again, and it's a pain to get back into the habit of working on myself. Today, on my bus ride into work, I began thinking of all the ways I shortcut myself and end up losing....or in this case gaining in all the wrong ways.

1. Eating out.
This is my biggest road block. It's so much easier than making the food myself, and more often than not it tastes really good too. There are two problems I see with this. First, eating out packs on the calories. There is always WAY more salt, oil, and sugar...along with a plethora of other unrecognizable substances....stuffed into the food at restaurants. Second, the money lost on a meal out. Kman and I grabbed Pad Thai while out and about, $14 dollars for us to share a plate of Pad Thai and some spring rolls. $14 for a SHARED meal...imagine if we had been hungrier and needed more food. It's a problem I have, and I know it.

2. Being a Night Owl.
My average bedtime is 11:30 or so. I don't have to be into work until 9, so it's usually not an issue....unless I want to work out before I go. Dragging my lazy butt out of bed at 6 in the morning, after being up until almost midnight is near impossible. If I would just go to bed an hour or two earlier, I would have time to make it to the gym before I catch my bus.

3. Procrastination
"The gym will be there after work, I'll go then."
Yeah right. The gym will be there. But I won't be. I'll get off work, and realize it's dark, so I'll want to go home and curl up with a cup of tea and Netflix instead of getting dressed in my gym clothes and making the 5 minute walk to the gym. Then, I rationalize and tel myself that I will get up in the morning...but then I don't get to sleep until midnight, and so ensues the vicious cycle of procrastination.

4. Netflix, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter Cookie Jam, and All Other Means of Distraction
(It's a long list)
If I could count the number of Saturdays high-jacked by any or all of these distractions, I would get even more depressed. I waste my time on so many of these things, it's ridiculous. When i wake up, one of the fist things I do is check Facebook. Why? Well, something must have happened in the 7 hours I was asleep, right? No. I'm just a lazy bum. If I were to jump start my day and get out of bed, and right into my gym clothes, the rest of my day would probably be 10x more productive. But, I let myself get distracted and then I don't get anything done. It's a problem.

So there is my list. I know there are more out there, but I either can't remember them, or I am ashamed to admit them right now. After I brainstormed this list, I decided the helpful next step would be to find ways around these roadblocks I have. So, I found incentive. Other than the real, and very rewarding incentive of actually being healthy, I needed something else (Yeah, I'm selfish too.) So here it is:

BOOKS.

Every month I will keep a running tally of points. I'll be able to earn points for working out, eating at home rather than out, and getting to bed on time. At the end of the month, if I have enough tally's I will have earned an afternoon in a bookstore. I can buy something based on the number of points I have. I plan on using all of the money I will be saving from eating out, so it's a win-win.