It’s the first Friday of the month of December. Down to the wire here in 2020, the year that lasted 12 years! Let’s take a look at my resolutions progress.
Continue reading “Monthly Resolutions: The Final Countdown!”
Category: Contentment
Thanks-giving Me Some Thoughts
I yam stuffed and my energy is mashed. I am not bread to gobble that much food for more than one day. Cranberry sauce. Thank you.
Stretches, Stands, and Strolls: My Current Workout Regimen
My routine these days consists of only leaving my house to go to the grocery store and to pick up food from a restaurant, to protect myself from the throngs of people who are considering face mask requirements as a light suggestion! I don’t really leave the house for much else… except a workout!
My gym opened its doors again at the beginning of the summer, much to my contentment. I waited a few weeks to feel safe, but since then, I’ve been back at the free weights during the week! They have limited equipments, spacing requirements, and the standard wipes for cleaning after using machines and weights (which, let’s be real, we all should have been wiping down our equipment before this COVID nightmare!). I keep myself and others safe, keeping myself to one section of the gym for the majority, if not all, of my workout!
As I mentioned previously, I’ve also been taking walks before or after my workday. It’s a great way to have some quiet me time!
Here’s a mini-breakdown of what I’ve been up to, in terms of keeping active in 2020:
Cardio: It’s all about the step goal, baby! I’ve been shooting for 15k steps a day. That said, some days I’ll do 10k steps a day, but I’ll tack on some miles on the bike to go with it! Oh yes. I GOT A BIKE. Aaron has taken to his bike like a fish to water, going for a crazy fast ride four times a week. He goes hard on his own, but he’ll join me for my more leisurely cruises, too! I like to get about eight and a half miles on my rides. My ability to complete my cardio varies, though! As much as I love pacing my kitchen watching TikTok videos, it’s a challenge to do that for hours on end to get up to 15k steps! Let’s also not forget that Florida’s title as the “Sunshine State” is misdirecting, as it tends to rain from 3PM – 4:30, 5:30, or 6:30 at night! I do what I can with what I have.
Strength: I’m at the gym roughly four days a week! The hours at my gym are minimal during the week, and they’re only open for four hours on Saturdays and closed on Sundays. With current safety conditions, I have to reserve a space in the weight room in order to access the free weights (I have left early/skipped a day because I felt uncomfortable with the amount of people in the weight room).
Currently, I’m focusing on my upper body and core, with little focus on my lower half, since that gets enough focus on my walks and bike rides! I start out stretching before I even leave my house, just to wake my body up before I dive into the heavy stuff. I start with bicep curls and shoulder presses to complete that warm up, and I typically use ten pound weights (though I’m working up to feeling comfortable using fifteen pounders!).
After that, I’m at the big squat rack… but not squatting. I use the barbell bar to work on my upper body through elevated push-ups and pull-ups. That’s when I get my pull-up practice done! From there, I do some ab work, and despite having a round tummy, I can see some definition of abs! It makes you wonder what my body would look like without the presence of the fat on my stomach. Hm. Hello Darkness, my old friend.
I finish off my strength workout with some serious dedicated time to my handstand resolution. My day is framed based on how well I do. I basically don’t leave the gym until I have a smile on my face from my attempts.
Granted, some days are better than others. Some days I have a great workout. Some days the only exercise I get is walking from my bed to the computer to the couch and back to bed (granted, those days ARE few and far between). I push myself to work hard, and feel strong, like Wonder Woman or a Jedi (I asked myself at the gym today: does my Star Wars obsession have an end date? I don’t see one in sight).
Though there are the obvious physical benefits to the workouts I do, the real reward comes from the focus on myself. Between the feeling of accomplishment when I do well at the gym, and the quiet time I have on my walks, my mind turns inward often, where I can find little moments of zen. When I bring myself back to the real world, the sky is a perfect purple or the moon is shining on a nearby pond. This time is healing, in every sense of the word.
That said, nothing gets me out of bed and into gym clothes like a feeling of alertness from a good night’s sleep. It’s 8:42 PM, and it’s time to read and rest!
Monthly Resolution Wrap Up – August
August. Not my finest month.
If anything, I’m celebrating that I think this was my worst month. What a relief! I got my worst month done, and now the rest of the year can be great! Right? Right?! I’m right.
1. Read 52 books – I finished two books this month, and I’m working on two more right now! If I finish them by this weekend I’ll feature all four in a monthly reads post.
2. Do pull ups – I am excited that this resolution is slowly getting there. I’m feeling my muscles getting stronger and more capable each day. I’m steadily pushing and I think I’m going to make it by the end of the year. I really do!
3. Spend LESS. TIME. SCROLLING – I don’t think I tracked this a lot this month. I feel like it wasn’t overly bad, but I wouldn’t give myself a gold star? I should really start paying attention to my device metrics to see how much time is spent each week on certain apps (Instagram seems to be the biggest time suck. I also spend inordinate amounts of time on TikTok but allegedly that’s getting banned in the United States by the end of this month? I’m not going to blame Baby Yoda, all I’m saying is that 2020 started going south right around the time “The Mandalorian” ended).
4. Write 104 Blog Posts – Nailed it. Crushed it. Gonna keep crushing it. <- I wrote this last month. Still applies! Yahoo! <- I wrote this last month, too! Still applies! Double yahoo!
5. Romantic trip with Aaron from Dec. 26 2020 – Jan. 2 2021 – A distressing development: my mother cancelled our vacation for the end of the year. Very sad. BUT. She rebooked a beach resort vacation in the same timeframe! I will still be “of the sea” with Aaron to begin 2021. My 2021 New Years Resolution is going to include a new iteration of this resolution where he and I go all out for our two year anniversary. Hopefully by then this pandemic will be over and we’ll be back to a normal, no-fines-for-leaving-the-state society.
6. Stop engaging in schadenfreude – I think I did okay this month? I genuinely can’t remember. I know I did better than I did in July. I know I watched a few schadenfreude videos/read a few Twitter threads, but that’s it. It’s not about being perfect, it’s about being better.
7. Take better care of my skin – I went to a dermatologist! I got a prescription! I still have hormonal acne on my jaw and cheek and a few bad boys on my back and I’m hoping it’ll go away in a month otherwise I’m gonna lose my marbles!
8. Go stargazing – I have yet to seriously go stargazing. Aaron doesn’t like bugs but doesn’t want me to go to a dark place at night by myself. However, twice in the past week I’ve gone on a walk early in the morning while the stars are still out and it’s just… sometimes the sky feels like I’m in a dream. I’m not saying I got this done (I told Aaron I want a date night stargazing, and now that it’s September it better start cooling down and getting less buggy it better happen), but I have taken a moment (give or take twenty minutes) to just be in awe of nature.
9. Get a new job – I have kamikaze’d my way through job applications this month. Just full on Han Solo charge, knock out ten in one day, throwing my name out and seeing what happens. Do I have a new job? No. But I have new job prospects and I remain optimistic.
10. Do a handstand – Last month I said I was doing L-handstands against the wall. I have LEFT THE WALL. I have been practicing just kicking up on my own and almost every day I get further up, and further into a better stance! Some mornings I have left the gym feeling like air punching the world because I’m so proud of myself. That’s pretty neat.
11. Go see two of my favorite performers – This is still not going to happen and I’m very very bummed. I don’t think I’m an entitled fan, but if my favorites don’t look back at 2020 and think “I owe it to the people who suffered to give them what they want: live performances at relatively decent prices,” then they should reconsider. I’m just joking! OR AM I?!
12. Lose weight – WOW. What a dumpster fire of a month for this. I felt super sad about it. I FEEL super sad about it. I’m tired of feeling this way. I’m letting myself down and that’s so not Raven. I can do better. I AM better. Oof. No.
13. Give Aaron a great 26th birthday – Mission accomplished! I wonder if I should keep mentioning this one, since it happened and I can’t go back and redo it or improve on it. Meh. It’s a part of the list and it will stay on the list.
14. Be a better friend, wife, sister, daughter and granddaughter – I hung out??? With a friend??? Yes! I did! I saw a friend in person for the first time since lockdown this month. It was just for an hour, sitting on my porch and catching up on life. It felt so good to see a friend that I might? Do it again? Another friend wanted to go to this one restaurant where they make insane milkshakes with me when I felt safe to associate with other humans. Now’s as good a time as ever!
See, you look at sentences like that and then item 12 and you gotta think “Wow, the disconnect.” I know I do.
Aaron and I have been going on walks and bike rides together. I’m so grateful to have him as my husband and my partner through the dumpster fire that is 2020. I went home earlier this month and spent time with my family, but I feel like I’ve been on a different wavelength than them since. I also haven’t spoken to my grandparents in a month. I wanted to go visit with them, since I technically could be in the same house with them/quarantine for two weeks as the law requires, but that would still be too risky. I was so ready to go be with them and yet I didn’t call or email once. What is wrong with me?
15. Be happy – It’s weird. I thought this month was my lowest month of the year, but looking at my resolutions, this was a relatively solid month. I think that the family thing, the weight loss, and the job situation all just made me feel so low that I look at the month (maybe as an extension of myself) as a failure. I can’t tell if me being hard on myself is a good thing or a bad thing. Am I disappointed, because I know I can do better? Am I setting myself up for failure by having unrealistic expectations? Either way, the sad feelings don’t really invigorate me to try harder, so maybe just being sad about it is just a waste of time (gee, this sounds familiar).
I feel good about September. These will not be famous last words!
I love you three thousand.
Staying Positive After a Tough Day
Yesterday, I felt overwhelmed. It suddenly hit me:
- BFF #1 – Got a new job that pays a higher salary than mine, despite working less time, and moving to a nice new apartment.
- BFF #2 – Left the job she hated to start a new job she loves.
- BFF #3 – Is about to get hired for a new position where she’ll be making more than twice my income.
- BFF #4 – Just bought a new apartment
- BFF #5 – Has discovered a new passion that is bringing him unparalleled happiness.
And then there’s me.
It was a lot to take in. I think I’ve done well emotionally with quarantine conditions, but something about this week had me taking stock in my life. One of my new year’s resolutions was to be happy. I don’t feel happy.
So, I took a minute to feel those feelings. I don’t ignore feelings, I just don’t let them weigh me down for too long. There’s no cupcakes at a pity party, and if there’s no cupcakes, what’s the point of having a party?
After a minute (okay, longer than that), I made the resolution to move forward and get things done. I know I will feel better when things get done. On the top of my list is my biggest roadblock: finishing “The Once and Future King” by TH White. I keep not reading this book even though I like it, and it’s keeping me from feeling like I can accomplish anything else. I woke up this morning realizing that if work is quiet, I could finish it.
Then work was not quiet. Work was stressful, and people were cranky at me, and I wanted to throw my laptop into the surface of the sun.
So I’ve made a decision. Currently, I am reading two massive books. I need to finish these two massive books before I can resume applying to jobs that will make me feel more fulfilled. To worry about books, work, and my body image is a lot to put on my head and my heart. I need to learn to slow down, and take things one day at a time. That starts today.
July Resolution Review!
We have three days left in this month! I can’t believe I’m more than halfway through the year. Time flies when you’re… in quarantine for five months. Golly. July was a decent month for my resolution goals. It kicked a few of the others in the butt, but I’m feeling strong about the rest!
Let’s take a looky loo:
1. Read 52 books – It’s down to the wire, but I think I’m going to pull it off. See you August 31st for the summer book haul!
2. Do pull ups – I am slowly getting better! I’ve been working on my pull-up strength at the gym roughly twice a week, with baby goals to mark the way. I’m gonna hit this month’s baby goal! It’s exciting!
3. Spend LESS. TIME. SCROLLING – I feel like I did slightly better this month! Taking Twitter off of my phone has helped immensely, and I’ve been cognizant of putting my phone down when other people are talking. That said, Aaron’s mom did chastise me a little bit for being on my phone so much at one point during her visit, so I clearly have a long way to go!
4. Write 104 Blog Posts – Nailed it. Crushed it. Gonna keep crushing it. <- I wrote this last month. Still applies! Yahoo!
5. Romantic trip with Aaron from Dec. 26 2020 – Jan. 2 2021 – My friend Christine said she would watch the cats if Aaron’s family doesn’t visit us for long this holiday season. I’m so excited.
6. Stop engaging in schadenfreude – This one just… RAVAGED me. I mentioned last month that there’s crazy internet things happening right now, and I have more than indulged a little bit, I’ve gone down full rabbit holes. Just last night, I wasn’t feeling well, but rather than go to bed early, I played on my phone and watched some gossip videos (okay, I still went to bed early, but I could have gone to bed earlier). As much as I want a more final conclusion, I don’t think I’m going to get one. In August, I’m going to stay away from it.
7. Take better care of my skin – In the past two weeks, my skin has gone from good to mediocre. I’ve honestly felt fed up with it. My skin care is expensive, and I’ve been taking decent care to apply it. My scars are still prominent, and I’m still experiencing breakouts on my chest and back!
8. Go stargazing – I want to see the stars tonight. It’s two different meteor showers tonight! I might wake up early and go to a field to enjoy them.
9. Get a new job – Emotionally broken down because of this one. I’ve been applying to jobs, but I feel like I hit a breaking point yesterday. I want something new, and I’m ready to move forward with something more suited to what I like doing!
10. Do a handstand – I genuinely think I’m going to pull this off by the end of the year. I’ve been working on pushing off the wall at the gym, and at some points it feels like I’m going to stay up, even for a second. It’s totally mind over matter, but like the pull-ups, I’m making tiny goals for each month. I accomplished this month’s tiny goal, so now I need to see about what my next tiny goal should be for August. I can hold an L stand just fine, but does that mean I now balance with only my knee? Hold it more with just the edge of my sneaker? Research is needed!
11. Go see two of my favorite performers – Big L on this one. I take pride knowing this isn’t my fault, but I really want some live music. Today I was thinking about how much I would hate, but still want to try, going to Coachella. I’d be hot and insecure about my body the whole time, from the looks of it everyone who goes is on drugs, and the team behind Coachella has a shady history. In 2021, assuming the world returns to normal, I’m hoping all my favorite artists and stand up comedians have new material for me to enjoy in person!
12. Lose weight – I’m slowly getting there. I mathematically won’t hit my goal weight by Dec. 31st without making potentially life-threatening decisions, but I’m still shooting to an adjacent goal.
13. Give Aaron a great 26th birthday – Um… see previous post. I did it!
14. Be a better friend, wife, sister, daughter and granddaughter – I spoke with friends on Skype, I spoke a handful of times with my mom, and I’ve spoken to my grandparents three times this month. My sister came to stay with us for July 4th Weekend and she loved it! I’m planning another trip home with her and my mom for next weekend, so I’m optimistic about August, too. I think I’ve been doing a great job with Aaron too, between a good birthday and just general support and love and attention.
15. Be happy – I think July was a good month, but while Aaron’s parents were here, I thought a lot about what I want for my future, physically, mentally and emotionally. It kind of hurt my heart to think about things in the negative that way. That said, the rest of the month was light, fun, and I felt relaxed, if not happy!
I’ll talk a little bit more about this in an upcoming post, but one of the books I read this month taught me something about the importance of priorities. If you have too many priorities, you have none. That in mind, I want to make getting a new job, speaking to my grandparents, and losing weight my top priorities for the rest of the year. Of course I won’t ignore my other resolutions/goals, but I want to keep those three at the forefront of my mind for the rest of the year. Let’s see how that translates into my next resolution posts!
Storytime Sunday: Aaron’s Birthday!
Wednesday, July 22 was Aaron’s 26th birthday. As I’ve said a handful of times, one of my new year’s resolutions for 2020 was to make sure Aaron had a great birthday.
Folks: Mission accomplished!
His parents are in town to celebrate his birthday, driving down from Vermont where there is only a limited amount of COVID-19 cases. With them, they brought a few presents for Aaron to enjoy! They stopped off in St. Augustine to visit the distillery and pick up a few of his favorite spirits (my idea, of course). In the days leading up to his birthday, his mom cooked him his favorite meals… and bought us bikes! We own bikes now! I can tell he’s really excited to go on bike rides together. We both had to work this week, but his parents went on searches to buy us the right accessories. We’re hoping to go to our original neighborhood to enjoy their bike trails!
I took the day off of work to enjoy the day with Aaron. His parents treated us to fresh banana bread for breakfast while Aaron opened his parents’ gifts. They included fresh spices, coffee from New Orleans, and spicy snacks, among other treats. They got a box of New Orleans beignet mix for me to make on Saturday, too!
Aaron and I decided to go to EPCOT that day to enjoy the Food and Wine Festival. There has been a LOT of hullabaloo and discourse about the Disney parks being open right now, but we threw caution to the wind! We’ve been in isolation during quarantine, and it was a special occasion. For all the anger over the parks reopening, Disney is really doing a great job of keeping both guests and employees safe. They are only at 50% capacity, employees are wearing masks and face shields, and the lines are spaced out to have each party six feet apart. As well, there are plastic walls separating the employees and the guests and enforcing guests to only take off their masks when eating or drinking.
We went on a rainy weekday. There were no crowds whatsoever. It was wonderful! When we first got to the park, we headed right for the Mexico booth, where Aaron got a mango margarita and a pork tostada. I stopped at the booth across from his that had plant-based foods, where I got an Impossible Burger slider with a wasabi cream sauce. I didn’t try Aaron’s tostada, but I had some of his margarita! It was very tasty. After that, we went on the 3 Caballeros ride, where we had a car to ourselves and sat front row. Something about the spacing made the ride perfectly in sync, and we didn’t hear the effects looping the whole time. Apparently one of the characters broke yesterday, so his animatronic was missing during the end sequence, but it was still fun! Aaron hadn’t noticed that part of the ride features a group of Mexican villagers hitting a Donald Duck pinata, and it was sweet to see his excitement at seeing something for the first time.
After the 3 Caballeros ride, we went to the Norway pavilion to ride the Frozen Ever After ride. It was the longest wait we had the entire day… roughly thirty minutes, max. Again, front row of the car, with no awkward loops! The music always makes me cry, I just love “Frozen” so much. We then went through the China pavilion, where I treated Aaron to a beef bao bun and I got an order of chicken dumplings! I was bummed that they didn’t have any boba tea like they usually do during their special festivals, but I get the desire to minimize unnecessary resources. After that, it started to rain, so we quickly moved on through to Africa, where Aaron and I marveled at some of the cute merchandise. We considered splitting something in Italy, but decided to stop there on our next visit, if there is one! Aaron grabbed a quick coffee in the America pavilion, while I went to Japan to get sushi in a flowerpot! It was served in a decorative cup, with salmon and salmon roe piled onto a tall bed of rice. Aaron then got us some hot sake. It was my first time trying sake, and I’m not a big drinker, but Aaron thought it’d be fun to try it hot on a rainy day! It felt warm in my tummy but I hated the taste. I think the next time I try sake it’ll be in Japan.. the REAL Japan!
We bought Aaron’s mom some fans in the big Japan store, and then moved on to Morocco, where Aaron got spicy hummus fries. That’s always a favorite for him! From there, we went to France, where we intended to watch “Impresiones de France,” which is a twenty-minute film about the beauty of France. It’s a highlight for me on every EPCOT visit… but they’ve sort of replaced it! They only show the film at night now, and during the day the film is a “Beauty and the Beast” singalong. The film retcons the original plot, with Lefou (Gaston’s lackey) feeling fed up with Gaston’s bullying, getting Belle and the Beast together. It was cute and I thoroughly enjoyed it and with Josh Gad killing it as Lefou in the live-action movie, I would be totally interested in seeing an extended version of that retcon. I think it was Disney’s first bit of 2D animation in years!
Aaron then got a goat cheese tart at the France booth before we “crossed the English channel” into the London pavilion. While there, I saw one of the Youtube personalities we follow! His name is Tim and I’ve seen him once before in town, because he regularly films in the Disney area. I didn’t say hi because I didn’t want to be annoying, but it was neat to see him in action (and see his video posted inside the park the next day)!
We went into the Festival showcase to enjoy a few of the other booths. Typically, they jam-pack six booths into the entrance of the World Showcase, but I’m assuming they moved those six booths into a private convention space within the park to make it safe for guests. Aaron and I split a fancy plate of mac and cheese, and I stopped for a treat at the… drumroll please… dessert and champagne booth! I got a glass of Veuve Cliquot rose and a liquid nitro M&M cake pop. It was delicious! I think both the cake pop and the mac n cheese were our food highlights of the trip.
Before heading home, we stopped off at “Living with the Land,” where you get to see all the exciting research Disney scientists are completing about agriculture and how to farm more responsibly. It’s such a great concept, and I’d love to see some of their methods prominently featured in the factory farming that makes omnivore life so depressing! On our way off we stopped in “The Seas with Nemo and Friends.” It’s a “Finding Nemo” themed ride that empties out in EPCOT’s large aquarium (it’s even bigger than the EPCOT ball)! We watched the manatee rescues they keep onsite. I love manatees! They might be my favorite animal. I love manatees, dogs, and penguins. I’m twelve years old, you see.
Once we got home, I was feeling a bit dehydrated, so I took a pre-birthday dinner nap. His parents had been up the night before, preparing Aaron’s birthday dinner: chicken poppyseed casserole and chocolate marshmallow pie! You serve baked chicken cooked with crackers and cream of chicken soup (topped with poppyseed), with a side of rice, green beans, and warm bread. We only have it once a year on his birthday, and it is delicious! Between the casserole and the pie, Aaron opened the rest of his gifts, from my family and myself. My family got him an iced coffee maker, an iced coffee tumbler, and my mom got him multiple bags of coffee from Kookaburra cafe, an Australian cafe we love in St. Augustine!
I got Aaron a few nice treats. From me, he got a compilation book of Critical Role (a DnD based podcast he loves) fan art. I also got him a series of field notebooks with designs from the National Parks Service, including Acadia National Park, where he used to go camping as a kid! I also got him a bottle of spicy chicken sauce designed by Keith Hapsberger, a Youtube personality we watch together (ten out of ten recommend his “Eat the Menu” series).
The real coup de grace: two volumes of “Star Wars” concept art from principal artist Ralph McQuarrie. It was the first present from me he opened, and his parents had to get him to stop reading to focus on the other gifts he had! He kept turning the page and talking about each design he saw. It warmed my lil’ heart.
We each had a slice of chocolate marshmallow pie (it’s what it sounds like: melt chocolate bars with marshmallows, fill into a graham cracker pie crust, top with whipped cream), and split a gingerbread s’mores that his parents got at a chocolate cafe they visited while we were in EPCOT that day.
After pie, Aaron and I went upstairs. He showed me some art from his Critical Role book, and I followed some of the artists I liked on Instagram between reading one of my books. I went to sleep while he ended his birthday playing his new video game!
- So, let’s recap:
- A day at Disney
- Great food
- Youtuber spot!
- Birthday dinner
- Chocolate pie
- Awesome gifts
I think he had a pretty great birthday. Especially considering that we were in an unprecedented pandemic with the world in shutdown mode! I hope he felt all the love that I could give that day. Now… what to get him for our anniversary? Christmas is five months away, too! Until then, I’m so happy I got this resolution accomplished. He deserves all of the birthday magic, and more.
Minimalist Wardrobe: The Purge Occurred
Yesterday, I woke up early and went for a long walk. I came home, took a nice shower, and put on a pair of jeans and a fitted tee shirt. I did my makeup nicely and blew out my hair.
I was ready.
I turned on my “Office Ladies” podcast, and created a mountain of all of my clothes. The purge commenced.
Rather than split items into four or five categories, I kept it simple: “Keep it” or “Donate.” I did set aside a handful of tee shirts that I want to recycle into a quilt! I found multiple companies that do this for you (it seems like a craft that I should outsource. I can fix a basic hem but stitching together a full blanket is too advanced for my skills!). Prices are on a sliding scale, so we’ll see how that goes.
While sorting my clothes, I kept this color palette in my head:
As you can see, no bright colors, no neon shades, and (finally) no navy. Navy makes me feel like an old woman. Some girls can rock it, but most navy clothes my size can also be found on cranky moms who are one tantrum away from a breakdown.
I eliminated a lot of clothes that were faded in fashion and color. I kept a few things that would work if I lost a few pounds, but my goal is to pare down further as I slim down more. I even donated a few higher quality items! I’m honestly not sure if any of my items would get me any kind of money at a consignment store, and to be honest, I’d rather someone shopping at Goodwill find my gently used tunics for six dollars than see it gouged out at a Fashion Planet.
A few items I bade farewell to were sentimental: a jersey I got in college as a gift from my Dad, my old college sweatshirt (with a bleach stain), and a pair of comfy pajamas were the ones I held in a hug and said thank you to before putting them in with the rest of the donation items. My “ideal” self can appreciate sentiment, so I took pictures of each one, too!
All in all, my two drawers that could barely hold my pants became two neatly condensed shelves, and I narrowed down my shirts to one drawer! I now have a whole drawer for my sports/at home bras. That’s an ideal situation when all I do is work from home and work out at the gym!
Currently, I have two garbage bags sat at the foot of my staircase to be given to Goodwill. My closet ONLY has clothes that I want to wear. Honestly, I feel pretty darn great!
Prelude to a Clothing Purge: Your Ideal Self
Earlier this week, I set an intention to purge my closet of clothes I do not want, nor need, to live a more minimal and satisfactory life.
Continue reading “Prelude to a Clothing Purge: Your Ideal Self”
2020 Style: Going Minimalist
Fun fact about me: As a girl who doesn’t love shopping, I have a lot of clothes. A LOT of clothes. I feel like my closet is overflowing and fully stacked with outfits and shirts and sweaters that I never wear. On top of that, I hardly ever shop on my own. My mom is often generous enough to take me shopping once a year, which is typically when I restock on clothes. I’m twenty-six years old. I love my mom, but if I’m only buying pants when my mommy takes me shopping, am I really an adult?
Let’s be clear: I drink celery juice and love chicken fingers. There’s a happy medium to keeping my adult self tethered to my childlike sense of wonder and innocence. I can enjoy a pair of workout pants from my mom every once in a while, but if I’m counting on an Old Navy run with her to give my closet a refresh, without throwing out the old stuff, I’m making a mistake somewhere.
I’ve decided my happy medium will occur threefold:
- Determine my style.
- Purge my closet.
- Buy the essentials.
Then, I can go shopping with my mom only when absolutely necessary, and buy items that will stay with me for at least two years worth of usage. No more fast fashion!
Minimalism is praised as the environmentally and economically sound choice for fashion more often these days. Think about it: if you buy cheap quality clothes, you’ll replace them sooner rather than later, inducing an endless cycle of mottled tee shirts and leggings with pilling in the thighs (just me? Probably not. Thighs like maple syrup, thick and sweet, a thank you very much). If you spend the extra money on clothes you know you’ll wear, multiple times over, you’ll spend less money in the long run.
Financially speaking, I tend to keep in mind when buying items of the financial practice of considering each dollar on an item is a use. If I’m going to wear a pair of workout pants thirty five times, then yes! Pay $35 dollars for the yoga pants!
I was inspired to go minimalist (or at least, guided to the idea) by these two videos from Keltie O’ Connor. Both detail her tips and lifestyle as someone with a minimalist wardrobe. According to her, she can fit all her clothes into two boxes, and she owns roughly five pieces of furniture. Imagine having that kind of freedom to pack up and go at a day’s notice! All she needs is a pickup truck with one of those extendo-carts. Aaron and I needed three car trips and a rent truck to move from our last apartment to our current one. It makes you think.
In this video, she offers up five tips to get the wardrobe you want:
1.Research online of what your ideal self looks like.
2. Write your ideal self (what does she do? Who are her friends? Where does she live?)
3. Based on your ideal self: What does she wear?
4. Devise a checklist of what she has. GET SPECIFIC.
5. Clear out the closet of what she wouldn’t wear.
6. BECOME THE SELF: buy clothes only she would wear.
She stresses that step five is tough. Minimalizing your wardrobe takes time to get used to, and it’s not an overnight process! Paring down to the essentials takes time. I couldn’t agree more.
In this video, Keltie goes into the purge process: pick a date to “purge” your wardrobe. Dress for it (like your ideal self), pull everything out of your closet, divide it into piles ranging from “love it” to “donate it” to “sell it” to “recycle it.” Make it a peaceful day, play calming music, light a candle if you want! It’s a freeing feeling.
I’m excited for this new experience. I’m going to purge my clothes on Saturday, July 18.
There are quite a few good ideas scattered between these two videos, but here’s two that I’m using to inspire me:
1. Pick five to seven words to describe your ideal self.
Mine are:
- Powerful
- Confident
- Feminine
- Alluring
- Smart
- Comfortable
- Cool
2. Pick a color palette of colors that go well together.
My chosen colors are:
- Black
- White
- Grey
- Burgundy
- Green
- Pink
The goal is to not go outside of this color palette, and I’m game: with a few exceptions. My ideal self has a killer red dress for fancy occasions. I may not wear red a whole lot, because it’s a bit too loud for me on a regular day. There’s a time and place for red. It’s fancy occasions, where Batman might show up when Bruce Wayne suddenly vanishes.
Stay tuned for my “Purge” experience!