Hey friends!

Okay, pulse check.

How is everyone doing on keeping up with all of the New Years’ resolutions we made a couple week ago?

I feel like now is around the time where people have either fallen off or start to. While I haven’t made a lot of specific fitness goals this year, I have committed to being intentional about certain areas of wellness this year like eating more vegetables throughout the week, getting at least 6,000 steps in a day [which, I’m not gonna lie, can be challenging for a non-city person who works on a computer most of the day to do!], researching and finding the right vitamins for me and what my body is lacking, and drinking more water. I’ve been doing pretty good so far on keeping these so far.

While I am certainly no expert in how to keep your New Years’ Resolutions, here’s what I’m doing to see to it that I keep these wellness ones up!

Wearing my Fitbit Versa everyday!

I got a Fitbit Versa back in early December after debating between it and the Apple Watch for far too long. Personally, I couldn’t justify the cost of the Apple Watch when I felt like the Versa does a lot of what I was looking for a smartwatch / fitness tracker to do. I love that it tracks my sleep. I am super visual so to see how much sleep I’m getting [which isn’t enough by a mile!] is really helpful in encouraging me to get into bed earlier each night. Ten minutes before the hour, it reminds you how many steps you need in an hour to reach your goal. I may not always be in a position to achieve them – i.e. when I’m flying on a plane or in a long meeting – but I love that the reminder is there if, maybe, I’ve gotten so focused on getting work done or something. I can take a quick break to go on a little break to get those steps in! I also feel like those breaks help me come back to whatever I was doing with a renewed focus! I can also track my water consumption in the Fitbit app!

Another feature the Fitbit Versa has that has helped me really nurture my wellness kick is a ‘RELAX’ feature! Ha! I am NOT ashamed that I’ve needed help relaxing lately, especially with all of the effort I’ve been putting behind such a big change and also going to therapy and talking about some hard things. I’ve really found it helpful to practice breathing properly and just settling myself down. I never realized how helpful that would be, but it is, and you simply tap on the ‘RELAX’ feature and it’ll coach you through the breathing. It also only lasts for a minute so it takes no time at all to do.

I’ve always gotten my Fitbit’s [I used to have the Alta] at Nordstrom. I love knowing that if any issue ever arose with it that Nordstrom would trust that I was telling the truth and allow me to return it, if needed, or exchange it. They have an amazing selection of colors, that I don’t always see at other retailers, so I initially got it in the peach color and recently purchased the white band to change out if I wanted something more neutral!

Drink water first thing in the morning.

Studies show that drinking 16 oz. of water first thing in the morning can be one of the best things you can do for your body. It flushes out toxins [that your body has worked all night to cast out], gives your brain fuel, wakes up your metabolism and increase the production of new blood and muscle cells. I am notorious for going straight for the coffee in the mornings so, what I’ve been doing to remind myself to drink water instead, is to put a full glass of water next to milk jug in my refrigerator. When I go to take out the milk in the morning, I take it out with the water and while I’m getting my coffee prepped and ready, I drink the water and pour myself another when I go to put the milk jug away. I drink both glasses of water before I let myself drink the coffee. It takes being intentional about this, especially for the first few weeks, but I’m hoping it just becomes part of my night time and morning routine. I’m looking forward to feeling the results of this as time goes on.

Another thing that I do to ensure I get enough water throughout the day is I put a full 40 oz canister of water by my front door in the morning so that I don’t forget to bring it with me to sip on throughout the day!

Do you drink enough water throughout the day? Has it changed how you feel? Let me know! I’d love to hear!

Buy athletic / athleisure items that will motivate you.

You know that feeling when you finally get something you’ve been saving for and, once you finally get it for yourself, you wear it everyday – or as often as you can without giving people reason to look at you weird, you know?  For those of us who don’t LOVE the gym or running or whatever activity you should being engaging in throughout the week to achieve your fitness goals, I think it can be motivating to purchase athletic or athleisure items that will excite you to the point that you actually look forward wearing them TO the gym or that orange theory class or whatever! Does that make sense?

I recently discovered two activewear brands that has done that for me: Alo Activewear and Outdoor Voices! Everything I’ve ordered by that brand makes me feel good and actually WANT to get out there and tackle those wellness goals. If you’ve never heard of them before, I’m sharing a few different pieces that I’ve been wearing a lot of lately: these ice blue high-waisted leggings, this gray sports bra crop top, and this funnel neck sweatshirt. I realize you may not wear the funnel neck athletic sweatshirt to actually work out but it’s a great throw on over a sports bra if you need something to make your workout look more publicly acceptable.

I also brought and wore these leggings by Outdoor Voices with me to Nashville and wore them a couple of times. I still hadn’t gotten myself motivated back into ‘work mode’ while I was there so I didn’t share them with y’all. Bad blogger, ha! But, I will show them to you today on stories so be sure to take a look there! I’ll also be featuring all of these on stories today, as well, so you can take a better look at them!

What are you trying to do to stay motivated to keep those fitness and wellness goals in 2019?

I’d love to hear what y’all are doing! Thanks for stopping by today, loves! Make it a great day! xo.