Month: December 2018

Hours from Now…

Posted on by maljoylove

The countdown begins to 2019! I started off the last day of the year on the right foot… literally! I had a great start to my morning. I woke up at 4:30 AM, washed my face and drank some water before heading to the gym for a fantastic workout. Leg day with all new resistance bands (courtesy of my holiday list), followed by a round of Couch-to-5K. When I got home, I took a nice refreshing shower and thought about flat-ironing my hair, but it was still too wet. I may keep it the way it is now for New Year’s Eve later, since Aaron likes it when it’s curly-waves, but I also may straighten it so I don’t have to straighten my hair the night before work. I had a healthier breakfast, egg salad on Ezekiel bread. I was able to stretch and meditate before I got on the computer for my work day! Feels good.

The extra prep in the morning made for some great clarity. I want to set some realistic resolutions for New Years. I want to work hard and look back on 2019, this time next year, and think “Yes. I did that.” I feel like I didn’t do so many of the ones from 2018 that I set, or at the very least, didn’t do the ones I completed much justice. I’m going to change that in 2019.

I want to do seven resolutions. If I can accomplish, legitimately accomplish seven big things in 2019, that will feel like I’ve lived a good year.

MY SEVEN RESOLUTIONS FOR 2019

  • Do an unassisted pull-up. I can do assisted pull-ups, and push then pull myself up, but I want to be able to do one pull-up where I just grab the handles and lift myself to the bar.
  • Do a handstand. This one works on TWO levels (I’m such a multi-tasker, wow, be impressed!). I want to have the strength to lift myself above the ground and the balance to keep my body upright that way. Balance and strength. That’s the overall motif of 2019, I think!
  • Make mindfulness a regular practice. Whether it’s expressing gratitude, breathing when I’m panicked, or taking the time to meditate, I want to be more conscious of my self in my surroundings.
  • Make style changes. I feel like the way I dress says “I’m here.” No longer. I want to have a look for myself. This time next year, when I walk out of my house, I want the way I dress to say, “I have ARRIVED.”
  • Do something new. I can’t think of an exciting new food I tried this year, or done something that made me feel truly invigorated by stepping out of my comfort zone. I don’t know if it’ll be as quick as eating the spiciest food on the menu, or playing paint-ball, but I want to push myself to the limits and do something weird and different.
  • Take a Career Step. I love my job now, but I want to see some legitimate progress. I want to participate in a huge project. I want to complete an assignment that will have an impact. I want my work to make my coworkers’ lives easier.
  • Go stargazing. I feel like this year I’m going to find myself at home among the planets. In 2018, I fell in love with cotton candy skies at sunrise. Let’s see what 2019 holds.

I have this wild thought. I always resolve to lose weight, read more, and I feel like I never accomplish it the way I want, or however much I want. This year, I’m going to absolve myself of making a weight loss or reading commitment. Granted, I’m still going to live a healthy lifestyle and read books, but I want to start the year off with positive energy, and manifest that throughout the year. Maybe without trying I’ll read a hundred books this year.

I want to feel bliss in the new year. I feel like a lot of my life is actions comprised on a need to “survive.” By “survive,” I mean “participate in society.” I need to go to my job to make money to pay off my student debt. I need to work hard and eat the right things and make the right choices so that I can have things later that I enjoy, so I can rest easy in forty years. I feel like that weight is crushing and maybe, just maybe, I can lighten the load by adding more things to my life that make me happy. It feels so pretentious to say “follow my bliss” or “chase happiness,” but I want to wake up in 2019 and smile and think “Wow, it’s a beautiful day to be alive.” I would love to have only good days, but I do a good job now of thinking about the balance between good and bad days. I appreciate the good days more when I think about the bad days, and I’m grateful for the bad days to make the good days that much better.

Happiness, starshine and sunlight. I meant to write sunshine and starlight, but I think it goes both ways, right? Cheers to 2019!

Morning Routine – An Update

Posted on by maljoylove

It is 2:04 PM on Thursday, December 27. I got up at 6 AM, as scheduled, and completed a morning routine! Let’s go over it step-by-step:

HAVE 1/2 LITER OF WATER.
Mission Accomplished! I had to chug it a little, but the point was to drink it all. I managed to, between 6:50 and 8AM. I’m terrible at drinking water, and it will probably always be a New Years’ Resolution. I can always drink more!

STRETCH/YOGA.
Completed! Did a simple flow to wake up my lil’ muscles. It felt very good to just move. I want to up my flexibility. I want to do a handstand dangit! New Years’ Resolution number 2, I guess? This time it took me about 15 minutes.

MEDITATE.
Yes! Swear on my life: Meditation Minis is a LIFESAVER. In less than ten minutes I got my zen on and approached my morning with absolute clari-T. It was all about breathing in confidence, breathing out self doubt. At some point, I began seeing a blue dusting of galaxies in my brain (my mind’s eye? I’m no spiritual guru, I’m just trying to be), and decided blue would be my color for today. I changed into a shirt with blue on it and put on a blue zip-up hoodie. I am not great at turning off my brain. Gosh, I’m so brilliant and smart, I never stop thinking! Just kidding.

JOURNAL
Done and done, but only a little bit! I got an Elephant Journal for Christmas, so I went in and put two affirmations and labeled the calendar months. For me, it’s about writing SOMETHING, whether it’s a reflection, a poem, or even something simple like a to-do list. Five to ten minutes a day, and I’m set!

COMPLETE A SKIN ROUTINE
I am JUST now starting to take care of my skin. I’m lucky that my skin isn’t terrible, but I have acne scars and hormonal acne that flares once a month, not noticeably to anyone but me probably. Along with that, I see these older celebrities, former models, who all say the same thing: take care of your skin NOW. So serums and eye creams for me! It didn’t take me as long as I think it does when I’m rushing through the morning. It really comes down to the evening skin routine, when I want to exfoliate AND do a mask. Morning skin routine is easy (breezy, beautiful… Trader Joe’s tea tree oil cleanser!).

READ
Yes, finally! Currently reading Michelle Obama’s book, “Becoming.” You can really hear her voice come through in this memoir! I only just started the book, but I’m recognizing where she come from and how different her upbringing was from mine. At the same time, I can see our similarities, too. Is it no coincidence that awesome ladies tend to have awesome mothers?

PREPARE A HEALTHY BREAKFAST
Ish? My breakfast was prepared in good time. I had a breakfast sandwich with one fried egg and some Cabot cheddar on Genesis bread. It was fine, except I added way more Earth Balance than I should have. I need to find healthier breakfasts that are low carb, filling, and low-calorie that are plant based. I need to eat more plants and detox from the holiday fun, ASAP.

EAT A HEALTHY BREAKFAST
I felt no sense of rush eating my sandwich. Deep breaths, well paced, even browsed Pinterest between bites! It was totally doable.

Overall, I got logged into my computer at 8:03. My biggest downfall, I think, was the fact that I cleaned up after myself while browsing my phone. It always comes down to my phone! I browse Twitter and Instagram FIRST thing every morning, and before I know it, my 5AM wakeup turns into a 5:20 RUSH into gym clothes. I was able to restore my old iPhone to partial usage. I think that now I’m going to use that as my alarm clock, and put my actual phone in a charger by the door. That way, it’s the last thing I see before I start my morning at the gym! That’ll help me save time in my morning “primping” too, if I plug it back in by the door so I can only grab it on my way out to the office.

This morning was missing:
20 minute drive to work
45 minute hair and makeup
25 minute drive to and from the gym
90 minute workout

If I take out the three minutes of phone usage (give or take), and add in that extra time needed to have a true, established morning routine, you get: a five hour morning routine. Which means, if I start at 8 AM, I gotta wake up at 3 AM.

I mean, that’s insane, right? I know some of the most brilliant people wake up at 4 AM, and Mark Wahlberg wakes up at 2:45 AM, but come on, people! I got eight hours of sleep last night and I still fell asleep at my desk today! Where on this list can I make compromises?

WATER. That doesn’t take time.
STRETCH/YOGA.That took me, total, about 15 minutes. I can shave off five minutes there.
MEDITATE. I can keep this to ten minutes.
JOURNAL. Ten minutes here. That’s all I need, but I’ll give myself fifteen for that “ONE MORE THING” thought.
SKIN ROUTINE. This doesn’t take more than five minutes. There’s no need to compromise five minutes for long term rewards.
READ. I probably don’t need to read AND journal in the morning. Getting to work and being my own inspiration should be all I need. I’ll leave reading to being a post-work (or lunch break) activity. That way, I won’t be too entrapped by a schedule. I’m not good at reading one chapter at a time, anyway!
PREPARE A HEALTHY BREAKFAST.This should not take me more than twenty minutes.
EAT A HEALTHY BREAKFAST. This should be fifteen minutes, MAX.

Altogether, that morning routine is 10+10+10+5+35= An hour and ten minutes. With the original time, that’s a four hour, ten minute morning routine. A 3:50 wake-up time. YIKES. I guess I can try that for a month. But wow, so don’t want to.

On a more positive note, my meditation this morning got me to think about the colors I want to be prominent in my future. I want lighter shades of blue, and pastels. Maybe it’s time I give yellow a fair shot, too! I feel like my aesthetic has been very New York chic… as in, I wear black too much. I need a little more color in my life. It’s time to be bold… in very light, friendly colors.

Post-Holiday Plans

Posted on by maljoylove

You know how when you’re in theatre production (or you’re a parent, or you’re just really into crafts… or all three), you just know that glitter that tracks into your house will just appear regularly for the rest of time? That’s how I feel about holiday candy wrappers. I don’t really know why they’re appearing so frequently across my house, and yet, there’s one at the foot of my computer as we speak. I didn’t even bring one in here!

My favorite holiday commercial!

If anything, this is just the symbol that the Christmas holiday is at an end. I’m back at my work desk, headphones on, and gearing up for the backup of post-holiday tasks. I acted with a bit of strategy last night. While my family was watching “Die Hard,” the ultimate Christmas movie (hot dogs are sandwiches, end of conversation), I grabbed my work laptop and cleared out my assignment queue. To the sounds of Bruce Willis jumping through windows and saving lives without putting on a pair of freaking shoes, I cancelled nonsense tasks, completed quick tasks, and sent complex tasks to the advanced team. As a result, today has been quiet to a degree. I’m sure I would have been a bit more stressed had I not done that!

Courtesy of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. NBC welcomes you home.

My typical morning routine is to wake up a bit after four, go to the gym, come back for a shower, do my hair and makeup for the day, and drive to work to be there by 8am. That said, my routine is an imperfect one. I want to maximize my time spent. My workouts should be more efficient. Usually only my hair or only my makeup looks okay, not both. My look is “presentable,” but I want to get that “put together” aesthetic. I end up rushing my way through breakfast, and getting to work a few minutes late. No one seems to notice or care, but I do.

Along with that, I want to ADD more to my morning. I want to make time for meditation/affirmations, morning pages, yoga, maybe even reading something during breakfast. I’m all for multi-tasking! At the same time, I wake up at 4 AM already. I’m sleepy. I need more sleep. More than that, I want to WAKE UP the right way! I want to have a big glass of water, HYDRATE right from the start. I definitely don’t do that now!

That said, we’re five days out from 2019. Now is the time to plan. How am I going to start my 2019 on the right foot, set a precedent of possibility? I want something sustainable, but something that makes me happy. I wish I didn’t have to exercise, because I think I could wake up at 6 AM and get everything done before I have to leave for work at 7:35.

An idea has been hatched! I will skip the gym tomorrow morning, but wake up at 6 AM. With my 6 AM wake-up, I will:

  • Have 1/2 liter of water
  • Stretch/Yoga
  • Meditate
  • Journal
  • Complete a Skin Routine
  • Read
  • Prepare a healthy breakfast
  • Eat a healthy breakfast

That’s not including my workout, shower, nor hair nor makeup routine. Two hours of morning mindful mindset. I will post my results! I want a head start on my 2019. What better goal than to start the year with a new game plan that already has a few kinks adjusted? Challenge accepted!

Season’s Greetings

Posted on by maljoylove

It’s the Thursday before Christmas, and the house is about ready to receive guests. My fiance’s family will be arriving in a few hours and staying through the 26th. The house has been cleaned and a lovely festive flower arrangement sits on our coffee table… next to an animated “kids” book style edition of “Die Hard”. As a treat for the future in-laws, I made my favorite treat: apple cider donuts! They were made gluten-free, since my almost-father-in-law is gluten sensitive and my future brother-in-law has Celiac Disease. What it lacks in gluten it makes up for in taste! Now my whole house smells like apple cake. I know, apple is typically a Thanksgiving flavor, but I had apple pie at Christmas too when I was a kid. There’s no bad time for apple desserts, if you ask me!

Recipe Courtesy of Smashed Peas and Carrots. Get it here!

I made a dozen, but the dough consistency made them all split slightly. One doughnut fell down fighting in a perfect half. I decided we would split it, as a taste test. And golly, was it delicious!

I’m spending time with other family at a wedding this weekend out of town, but my flight gets me home Sunday (before Christmas Eve)! I hope I get to watch “Love Actually” or something on my flight tomorrow. It’d be arduous to watch EVERY favorite Christmas movie Monday and Tuesday.

Growing up in a Jewish household (but with a Christian father), my experience of Christmas was strictly the capitalist version that some people think ruins the holiday. I love decorating trees, baking cookies, listening to Christmas music, and most of all, giving presents! Getting presents is fun, but… I think this meme sums it up best:

I wish I had a billion dollars to buy everything for the people I love. I wish I had a time machine so I could spend Christmas morning with my fiance’s family, my family, and my friends up north. Until I get those billion dollars and until Elon Musk stops messing around and does what I’m paying him to do, I will work with my holiday budget (?) and time management that I have now. I got most of my Christmas shopping done early this year, though one gift is coming later than the rest… a seasonal coffee gift that delivers coffee every month from a different corner of the world!

It really is the most wonderful time of the year. But, I am very sleepy and still have so much to do. I’m going to get the last of my to-dos taken care of and go to sleep a bit later than usual… with visions of sugarplums dancing in my head. Sweet dreams!

The Journey Begins

Posted on by maljoylove

Thanks for joining me!

“Perfectly executed Chewbacca noise!” — Tracy Jordan, 30 Rock

autumn autumn colours autumn leaves blur
Photo by Vali S. on Pexels.com

Welcome to my blog! My name is Mallory. I am 24 years old and today, it is exactly one week before Christmas 2018. I had a lot of lofty 2018 resolutions that I did not accomplish. It is my goal to not let the same thing happen to my 2019 resolutions. This website was one of my 2018 resolutions, if not a watered down version. I set out to create a website that would show off my web development skills, creating custom CSS and coding in PHP. Alas, this was not meant to be, as my skills are more maintenance based than creation. But that said, a website has been created with the intent to move forward into 2019 with a head start! 

To kick things off, let’s KISS … I mean Keep it Simple, Silly! Here are ten facts about me:

  1. I currently work as a web support specialist for the Golf Channel, owned by one of my favorite companies in the world… NBC (xylophone jingle in the distance). I help other people with their websites, making them look pretty and updating things that golf course employees may not know how to do. It’s a fun job, and my coworkers are always full of positive energy. 
  2. I live in Orlando, but can’t wait to move! I love being so close to Disney that I can hear the fireworks, THAT part is magical. But there’s traffic, everything else is far away, and the HEAT! My goodness, the heat. I’m ready to move to a bustling city (THE bustling city, where I will avoid the traffic by walking and taking the subway), or somewhere blooming and idyllic, like Austin or Denver. The ultimate dream would be to move back to Burlington, Vermont, where I went to college and fell in love with autumn colors. They don’t really have the job market for my return, yet. In time though, who knows? 
  3. My favorite color is purple, but I always wear black. 
  4. If you couldn’t tell from fun fact 1: I love NBC sitcoms. I  can talk your ear off about “The Office,” “Parks and Recreation,” “30 Rock,” “Scrubs,” and premiering this spring, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.”
  5. My favorite movie is “Almost Famous.” Other movies on my top 10 list include “Inglorious Basterds,” “Psycho,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” and “The Devil Wears Prada.” 
  6. Music makes me happy! My favorite song is “Tiny Dancer” by Elton John, and my favorite band is Panic! at the Disco. The first Beatles song I ever heard was “Here Comes the Sun,” and I’ve loved them ever since. I’m currently experiencing a love of lo-fi music. Some chill tunes while I start and end my day keep my head on straight.
  7. I’ve got a genetic case of wanderlust. My mom has traveled the world and back, and I’m just a few decades behind her! I was lucky enough to study abroad in England in 2015, and while in Europe I visited Wales, Ireland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain. Switzerland and Italy are at the top of my list right now! I want to visit every continent before I die. 
  8.  I love food. It feels weird to spout this as a fun fact about me, considering the my weight loss journey, but I should embrace every part of me. While I love to eat, I also love to bake! I’ve got a great chocolate chip cookie recipe, and one time I used a brownie recipe as a jumping off point and somehow created the greatest peanut butter brownie you’ve ever had. Now I just gotta remember how I did that.
  9. I’m a work in progress. I want to be a hardworking woman, who tops the Forbes List and gets her face on the cover of Vogue for doing it (the headline I have in mind is “Having it All: Mallory Joy’s Journey to Completion”). I feel like my mind is cloudy now, and I’m hoping for clear skies to brighten my way.
  10. Okay, I get it– why “Mal Like Maple”? I don’t know why the name occurred to me on the treadmill this morning, but it did. I put maple syrup in everything! I’ve gone down the vegan path and thus avoid honey nine times out of ten, which makes maple my sweetener of choice. It starts with an “M,” as does my first name, and like maple syrup I’m thick and sweet. 
    Sorry, I had to throw that one in there. 

Post one complete! I spent $90 on this. That’s a good investment in my future, right? Branding?