Happy New Year! It’s time to make resolutions for ourselves. Here’s what I had in mind:

1. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

The women in my family recycle. Everyone has a recycling bin in their garage to toss plastic, paper, and glass. Me? I’ve moved in and out of tiny apartments for years and I don’t have the space to have a bin designated for recyclables. Believe it or not, it really bums me out! Watching people use an excessive amount of paper towels hurts my heart. I literally think to myself, “the trees!!!”

With my current routine,  I go to the grocery store and mall A LOT. Steve Madden provides you with a reusable bag every time you purchase a pair of shoes. Quite a few of my shoes are from Steve Madden, so as you can imagine, I’ve built up a collection of reusable bags. I use them for everything! Rather than getting a plastic bag from every store I shop at (even though it looks cool), I place all my purchases in one reusable bag. I’ve also learned to keep a couple bags in my car for groceries (1 reusable bag fits ~3 plastic bags worth of groceries). In either of these situations, it feels SO good to know I’m doing my part in taking care of Earth.

What can I do in 2018? I’d love to use less plastic from water bottles and water gallons. I only drink water, but I’m a little picky and I refuse to drink tap water. For a while now, I’ve been drinking a lot less water than I should be drinking because I don’t know what to do with my water bottles since I don’t have a bin at home. It’s a terrible situation to be in and I’m tired of it, so I have a plan. I’ve decided to dust off my water cooler, change the filter, and have two 3 gallon jugs in rotation to keep my hydrated. I really think this will quench my thirst!

UPDATE: (Jan. 2019) Well, I never dusted off that water cooler and never cleaned out the filter. This was the probably the biggest flop for me this year! I ended up getting a Brita filter and I refill it every other day. I carry around a stainless steel water bottle to reduce plastic consumption. I’m proud to say that I only purchased about a half dozen water bottles this year! I don’t drink Starbucks or order sodas from drive thru’s, so my to-go consumption was also fairly low. I’m proud of this!

2. Set a Schedule

In 2017, I set out to “have the most active year of my life” and I did it! How did I do it? I used a flexible definition. I didn’t tell myself lose X amount of inches, workout X amount of days, or anything of the sort. Since I was 17 I’ve had 3 month periods where I am dedicated to the gym, but then go back to being a couch potato, and I flip flop like that. In 2017, I said no more of that! Whether it was walking, running, or weight training, I wanted to be active and I stuck to it. I am not in the best shape I’ve ever been in, but that’s not what I was aiming for in 2017 and I’m ok with that.

What can I do in 2018? I’d be happy to run 3 half marathons this year! The passionate runner in me wants to do more, but I need to be realistic with my schedule. Fitness is important to me, and I plan to reach this goal by being consistent with myself. Writing down gym dates with myself is nice, but my planner isn’t always on me and it’s easy to overbook myself when I’m having a conversation with someone. Creating a calendar invite using iCal on my iPhone might be the kind of reminder I need to show up for my run (or Orange Theory!).

UPDATE: (Jan. 2019) I failed this one pretty miserably. I PR’d in my first half marathon of the year with a time of 1:41 (more on this day here). In my mind, I still had 2 races to go, and I was certain 2018 would be year I run a sub 1:40. Big ole NOPE. I started yoga in July to cross-train my runs, but I liked yoga much more than I thought I would and my running fell off to the side. I only ran one more half marathon and it was physically and mentally exhausting due to my unpreparedness.

3. Be a Better Friend

Of my resolutions, I know this one will be the hardest. Between school, personal goals, family, and spending time with the SO, it’s so easy to let friendships slip up. I broke up with a friend recently and it made me want to be a better friend to the gals that are supportive and care about me.

What can I do in 2018? Conversations via text quickly go stale, so I hope to call up my friends more often. Every time I call a friend, it’s been way too long since our last conversation and I insist on getting caught up on all the time we haven’t talked. I’d like to have more frequent conversations for shorter periods, and feel like I’m part of my friends’ lives, listening to stories as they develop rather than listening to everything at a later time. I just think life things will always come up and it will only get harder to create and maintain friendships. I’m making this a priority this year to take special care of the connections I have right now.

UPDATE: (Jan. 2019) Me and people just didn’t work out in 2018. I lost two friends this year for no specific reasons other than miscommunication and lack of caring. I’m not big on “one door closes, another door opens,” but the big man upstairs came through for me. He blessed me with two new friendships in 2018. I couldn’t be happier! Me and Prashi had quite the heated arguments in 2018 too, but we survived and settled our beef (or lack thereof!) for 2019.

Can you relate to any of my resolutions? Above all, I’d just like to be healthy and happy! Let’s make it an incredible year, ya’ll!