Hello everyone and welcome to the first of many blog posts of 2017!

A new year surely stands for a new theme?

I’m sure by the title of this post you all understand the new series I am trying to in-corporate to my blog, which is; ‘Monthly resolutions, my check in diary’.

At the beginning of every New Year, we set goals for ourselves which we would like to reach by the end of the year in order to become better people, two weeks in and we are all motivated but by the time it had hit the 20^th of January we were all wondering, is this month still here?

Soon before we know it, the resolutions are out the window, we then continue this vicious cycle every few months throughout the year.

This however is not a bad thing, I mean at least we are attempting to keep up. But I decided this year, that is not how I want to handle my goals for the year ahead.

I have or will set tasks / resolutions for the beginning of each month of this year; my objective is to integrate one of these tasks into my daily routine. Whether this may be only once a day, or even attempting the task at one time throughout the week, depending on my plan.

This will hopefully transition the resolution to be from incomplete to complete or just as good as accomplished.

I have not set all of them yet as I would like to see how I feel when the next month is approaching and I also desire to look at factors such as my current situation, weather and facilities etc.

I do however have ideas written down so I don’t get idea blocked. These ideas may be big or small.

 

 

The task I set for myself this month was to drink more water, which I know sounds simple but it reality, when you are anybody with a busy schedule who likes their sleep, sometimes we just forget to drink the daily recommendation.

I mean, water is most certainly my favourite drink and I have always enjoyed drinking water as I don’t really like ‘miwadi’ (cordial) etc, but I always felt I could be drinking more as I observed to be especially dehydrated most mornings and at some stages of the day last semester.

To me this was also a good starting point as it was achievable and when you hit small goals, it motivates you to move forward.

Now Alisha back to the task – how did I get on you may ask?

 

Technique, what worked for me – as said before I always tried to have water on me, I found this effortless when I had my own bottle of water.

The water bottle I have is the ‘Bobble’ filtered water bottle, this was handy especially as sometimes I had tap water so with the filter it made the difference. I know these bottles are expensive for a bottle but I do believe it can sometimes be an investment, it is also environmentally friendly.

This is the one I have;  -click here for idea of bottle- it is the 32 Oz, sky blue one.

I am not sure where mine is from as my boyfriend got my one for me, this is because I had bought the dupe version and it fell off a table in class and it burst, that is why it can be important to invest in a proper one. However you can get them in most home-ware stores / big supermarkets.

I love mine because it is just plain sailing in my everyday life, it fits in my bag, I can carry it and it is also adorable in appearance (bonus).

 

Aside from that you don’t actually have to own a specific water bottle, you can buy the 1.5L ‘Volvic’ water bottles or 2L ‘River Rock’ bottles from ‘SuperValu’, ‘Tesco’ or any other store owned brand. You can also purchase any size / types of plastic bottles and just re-use them if you wish.

(It is also socially acceptable to carry a massive 2L bottle with you now days so no need to worry about the odd looks)

 

Motivation – I was doing well with this task, but like anything I had the mid-way slump, so I wanted to find ideas and motivation to make this challenge interesting. I turned to ‘Pinterest’, which is an amazing site full of storyboards, photos and quotes to keep your mind reloaded.

 

A very good idea and to keep you drinking water daily would be this ‘do it yourself’, all you need is a plastic bottle, some permanent markers and I’m sure the photo below is fairly self- explanatory.

 

Another idea for those of you who do not like just plain water, cut up a slice of both lemon and lime and drop it into the bottle, berries also work for this as it adds a taste rather than just plain water. I loved this, tasted better than any cordial!

link to these photos  – click here –

Reflection – I quite enjoyed this, I developed the mindset that if at all times I had water on me whether it may be a water bottle beside me whilst I watch ‘YouTube’ or Television, if I left a pint of water on my bedside table beside me before I went to sleep, or even just at dinner, that way I always had water and I tried to drink even when I didn’t feel thirsty that way I was constantly hydrating myself.

This stood to me when I awoke, when I was exercising as I felt more energised after and my skin had also cleared up.

(I am excited to say the least on this series as I can document my progress and also I can share my tips and tricks I learn along the way.)

I do have long term goals this year which understandably cannot be completed in just one month, but considering it only takes 21 days to break a habit, I’m going to give this idea a try.

I hope you are sparked by this idea and hopefully you try it yourself, start with a fresh new day, week or month, start small and work your way up.

 

Side note – I understand this was a long blog post but it was an introductory on my plans for the year ahead so if you made it this far, thank you!!

This series is also just to add consistency to my blog, at least once a month I shall post my diary entry on how I get on with my recent resolution.

I will also be blogging in between these posts with topics I feel are important to cover or that I would like to discuss, fun events I attend or interesting projects I shall be involved in, some blog posts may be short and sweet and others could potentially have more length on them so watch this space!

 

Thank you for the read, I promise you it means a lot!

 

Alisha X