My one goal for 2021.

I was listening to an old episode of With Intention back in November and Desirae's guest spoke so inspiringly about her method of breaking her big 2020 goal down into smaller, monthly goals to make it easier to achieve. I hadn't given 2021 a single thought at this point - this year has been stressful enough without dragging another into the mix - but I was intrigued. I loved this idea of having an umbrella aim for the year and introducing new challenges every few weeks to keep it interesting. I settled on HEALTH, as I haven't taken great care of my body this year. I'm sure I'm not alone in that but it's so easy to believe that everyone else is doing home workouts while you plough your way through the Lotus spread with a spoon. Alcohol, comfort food, 100 coffees each day while I worked from home; my 2020 diet hasn't been ideal. I tried running, didn't like it much. Working out in the park is fine, but gets kind of boring after a while, and isn't ideal in the winter. The gyms have been shut, and when they reopened, I was starting my teacher training which basically took up 110% of my time. And if you're thinking that this sounds like a whole load of excuses, you are absolutely correct, hence why I'm here plastering my goals all over the internet in the hope that it will keep me accountable.

The mini goals.
There have been plenty of things I've said I was going to do in order to get my health in check that I just never got round to. So, I took 15 minutes to scribble everything I could think of down (mind maps, my saviour) and came up with a whopping 21 "mini goals" for next year:

- Drink a daily smoothie
- 10k steps minimum each day
- Start taking a multivitamin
- Stick to a sleep routine
- Drink more water (a classic)
- Do a 30 day beginners yoga challenge
- Start taking a hair, skin and nails supplement
- Revamp my skincare routine
- A give the skin on my body some care, too
- Makeup bag detox
- Absolutely no caffeine
- Limit my alcohol intake to once a week
- MYO sweet treats
- MYO savoury snacks
- No crisps (eesh)
- Only eat junk/convenience food once a week
- Fresh veg/fruit with/after every meal
- No bread on weekdays
- Try one new food each week
- Workout 3 times per week
- Research gut health and probiotics.

The idea at the moment is that I'll introduce one or two of these each month, habit track them, tweak them, and then continue to incorporate them into the following month alongside my new goals. Fingers crossed, by the end of 2021, I'll be a little bit healthier overall.

So far.
I got a bit of a jump start on the list as I made it a month ago, and started adding some of the goals into my routine for December. 

Sleep routine: I used the bed time function on my phone for the first time ever, to help me get to bed at 9PM to be up at 5:30AM, and committed to sleeping with my phone on the other side of the room. This forces me to get out of bed to switch off my alarm. I am so much more productive in the morning than the evening. Staying up late just means I'll watch Netflix, whereas getting up early means I actually do things. The routine hasn't been working out over Christmas, because it is so dark until 8AM and I know I have nowhere to be (hi, tier 4). I am back to school on January 4th, so my sleep routine will be back in place from the 2nd (realistically not going to happen on NYD).

Smoothies: I began making smoothies in the evening for the following day, so that I had something tasty to get out of bed for. This went out the window after a couple of weeks because something truly horrible was happening to my stomach. Pretty sure it was just a bug I picked up from school, but I had to put all that fibre on hold for a minute. Will restart on January 1st.

Multivitamin: In terms of routine, this has been fine. However, they are huge and they taste like farm, so the experience of actually taking them is pretty terrible. I'll take the rest of this pack and then look for an alternative. (Lesson learned - do your research). Currently taking the Holland & Barrett Vegan High Strength Multivitamin and Mineral tablets and bought them because they were on offer which IS NOT very intentional.

10k steps a day: Because I've been walking to school, during term time this was pretty easy. I was hitting almost 70k most weeks. Elliot bought me a Samsung Active Watch for my birthday so I've become that person that checks their steps on the regular (years behind everyone else). During the holidays, I've been a bit of a slug, because I have an essay to write and leftovers to eat. More effort needed in the new year.

January.
My goal for January is to get back on track with these four habits to set myself up for the rest of the year. I'll write about my progress and my February goal at the end of the month (I haven't decided what it is yet). Hopefully, I'll have lots of positive things to say about my productive new life, glowing skin and improved immune system... but even if I don't, you'll hear about it.

Have a Happy New Year,
Jen xo