SOVA Blog

by greekgirl

Honest Conversations About Self-Inducing Stress and Anxiety

July 13, 2021 in Educate Yourself

This has been a topic I’ve wanted to write about for a very long time if I can be honest. The main reason that this topic is so important to me is because this is the root of all the stress, anxiety, and mental health issues…myself. Now everyone has their own culprits or reasons as to what triggers their own mental health issues, although in my case, and maybe even yours, is that I cause myself such extreme amounts of unneeded and unnecessary stress that it sparks my mental health issues I face and experience. 

A few examples of how I know I self-induce my mental health issues is through school, work, even relationships with others, and my relationship with myself. At school, I would sign up for every club and every opportunity even if I was overbooked in order to gain extra experiences to add to my resume, but at the same time it was at the cost of extreme stress, weight gain, anxiety, times of depression, and even horrible migraines. At work, I work extra hours and multiple jobs – and honestly kill myself for yes, good pay and good work experiences, but again the cost of not seeing friends and having a a personal life, migraines, stress, no sleep, and the list continues. 

I have been the reason why I can’t be in a relationship because my mind self-sabotages and creates stress around my feelings for others. I get inside my head feeling not good enough at times. This creates a state of panic where I don’t know how to communicate how I feel, and then end up stuck. I’m likewise the reason that I have self-esteem issues: my mind makes me go into a constant state of comparing myself to others. I get obsessed with how I look and how people perceive me. 

I am the reason for all my negative thoughts – and the only reason I can control these experiences and feelings is only if I can learn to control myself. 

It’s not even healthy to mentally feel this way, to have no sleep, to not see friends, to not be happy. 

I feel like I’m at a stage where I need to say “no” more often, listen to my body, stay positive, avoid social media, and again what feels like a list of a million and one things to do is making me dread how to get better. 

Although, if I can also be honest,  I feel that understanding I’m the trigger is the biggest step. From here, I need to make a plan as to how to conquer and improve these different areas where I cause myself stress. I’m thinking that understanding when and where to set boundaries at work and school is step #1, and step #2 is being more capable of saying “no.”

In terms of relationships with others and myself, I feel like the ultimate way to improve is to block out time to prioritize weekly towards seeing friends, and then a personal time to budget away. Oftentimes, I feel like I’m working 24/7 and its a constant repeat, but by time-blocking and pre-scheduling, these two areas will make me much happier and productive. 

Lastly, I feel like I’m always in my head whether that is with relationships, or my body image and self-esteem. I am at a point where I just need to focus on myself, and be open to sharing my true feelings with others. Also, just filling my mind with positivity and good imagery of health is what I need in my life versus playing the comparison game. 

I’m curious if anyone feels similar to me, or has any tips to share in any of these areas to help me out 🙂

Have you ever walked yourself through your biggest triggers and things that cause you stress and anxiety? What are things that you think you can control? What have you done to help navigate your triggers to the extent that you can control?

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by greekgirl

Staying True to Yourself While Dating

June 15, 2021 in Educate Yourself

In January, I was in my first relationship where I was dating someone, and it was a great experience and something I have wanted for, well, forever. 

I am the type of girl where I always have a plan in place, and seriously had a list for the longest time of characteristics I want in a future partner. Despite this being my first relationship, I have been dating for years, so I kinda understood what I wanted in someone, but it was okay to get in a relationship if it happened and then not meet all my boxes in an effort for me to be more flexible and open to possibilities. 

Now here is the thing: I am someone who despite my age, I date in order to marry in terms of my intention with everyone I meet, go out with, etc. This is also why I already know certain characteristics I desire in a person (all of them are just items that over the years I know would balance me out, I know I need in a person, etc). 

My boyfriend and I dated from January of 2021 until the end of May 2021. For the most part, initially I was really head over heels for him, although soon a month into the relationship I started to realize how he wasn’t the person I thought he was. For example, despite him not meeting all my checkboxes, he still was an all around great guy. Although, different parts of our relationship just conflicted too much whether that was with personality, financial, career, and even social differences. This resulted in me having to end things due to myself being unhappy for honestly, far too long. 

There is likewise a lot of mental health stigma around dating and relationships; especially breakups. This ex in particular, we would get into fights where he would get moody and turn things on me, he would call me horrible names, and honestly just didn’t make me feel happy; which got me to a point of thinking, “If I’m not happy, then why am I still with him?”

Going back to how I date to marry, this resulted in me ending things, and really reflecting from this experience dating. I ended up learning a lot, and I figured this would be the best way to learn and grow, along with tailor what I look for in a significant other. 

  1. I need to listen to other people. My ex told me how I can be forgetful and not always remember stories or small details, he said. This made me start to journal in my phone quick notes after dates I’m on to ensure I don’t forget anything important.

  2. My list still stays the same even after that first relationship…shocker right? The reason for this is mainly that a lot of the items on my list my ex didn’t meet is ultimately why we did not work out. For example, he did not love and care for his family as much as me, and that is something we fought about. He wasn’t as career-motivated as I thought he initially was, where I personally want to be with someone where we can push each other to achieve goals. It’s okay to find this out, and I can see how even I might change things for future people I date.

  3. It’s okay to date soon after a breakup if you were ready to move on. Heck, after my breakup he said such horrible things to me, I didn’t even break a tear. This led me to being set up on a date a week later, and so far it’s going perfect. Hey, even if this next guy doesn’t work out, then I’m learning to accept there are other fish in the sea 🙂

  4. Truthfully, the biggest thing I learned during this first relationship is how looking back, I liked dating him, and staying with him due to how I always had someone to go out to cool places with and have weekend plans. Looking back, that might sound horrible, but in all honesty the time I started to date him I was very lonely, and I think dating was my default answer to feel happy since my friends were all away at school so I couldn’t visit as much.

  5. Enjoy being single when you can! I’m enjoying all the time I have back to enjoy hobbies, and honestly doing things alone feels empowering! I seriously went to dinner by myself the other day and felt like a million bucks since I can feel independent and confident. 

All in all, dating and being single are two amazing periods of time to experience. Although, ultimately, the biggest takeaway is to stay true to yourself when alone and single, dating, and even in a relationship. If you’re not happy, or lose feelings, that is totally okay. 

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by greekgirl

Summer Intentions

May 18, 2021 in Educate Yourself

This is my last summer break until I graduating college in the fall, along with afterward starting a new year in the 9-5 full-time realm of my career. Although, that being said, I try to make the most of my summer breaks with the days I do get off work. I feel like making my summer plan makes me more productive, and a lot happier overall. That being said, I wanted to share a few things I do to accomplish this. 

Make a Summer Goal List

A few weeks before the summer begins, I make a list called my “Summer Goal List,” and on this list, I basically write down everything I want to accomplish. This helps me stay motivated during the summer and make a list of daily to-dos as well where I choose 1-2 of these list items to get done. 

For example, on my list this year I have a craft kit I want to make; which will take a long amount of time, so I know if I have downtime instead of watching TV indoors, I will make sure I work on this craft kit instead to make better use of my time. 

Other items on my list revolve around losing weight, and better health habits, projects I want to accomplish, and even skills to work on and build.

Bonus: I highly recommend creating a daily, or at least a weekly to-do list. This helps plan out your week with a general list of things to do and will again, just help you stay productive and minimize boredom. 

Make a Summer Reading List

I don’t know about you, but I swear my summer break is the only free time I get to read, so with that I make a major reading list for myself. Fill this list with any possible books you want to read this summer, and of course, you can add to the list throughout the summer as well. My recommendation is that 1-2 weeks before the summer begins, go ahead and order/rent out at least 1-2 books to read. When this book comes in, I promise you will self-consciously choose to read it if you put it in common spots in your house. Instead of watching TV for a few hours, try reading a few chapters instead, or maybe sit outside with your favorite drink to read a bit. 

Right now, I’m enjoying books related to my career industry, finance, and starting a business. Although, in terms of your books, the choice is yours!

Make a Summer Bucket List

This is by far my favorite kind of list to make, but I think it’s fun to make a list of all the places and things I want to do in the summer. This list allows you to be creative, along with really being honest with yourself in terms of what things do you want to do that will make your summer a success if you can actually do them. Even with the pandemic, and safety guidelines it allows a lot of items on this list to happen. If you do not have a car to take you to certain places, I would recommend sharing your list with a friend or even give your parents or guardians a copy. This helps so they know what you’re looking to do, and can hopefully help make them happen. 

A lot of my list items include a family vacation, going camping, seeing a movie at the drive-in, and usually someplace in the city such as a museum or boat tour. 

I am excessive when it comes to planning everything, and making lists upon lists. Although, at least for me this system of lists helps me get a lot of items done and accomplished along with optimizing my time and happiness. If you have a summer with downtime, try implementing a few of my suggestions, or even one of them, and hopefully, you will have a great summer as well.

What does summer mean to you? Do you feel your mood, ability to be productive, or anything about your routine significantly change?

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by greekgirl

Semester Ends and Summer Begins

April 19, 2021 in Be Positive

Because of the pandemic, I can’t wait to have my college semester end. This feeling I have is by no means that I dread or hate school, but is more so for the fact that I have become a workaholic between work and school since the start of the pandemic of last year. By having my semester end, I am freeing up a lot of time during my week, that can be used for well – me. 

One of my New Year goals that I set for myself at the beginning of the year so to be more selfish (but the good kind of selfish). What this means, is that I need to understand what’s important to me in life, and choose opportunities and activities I want to do because I want to, not because someone else is making me feel obligated. So far, this has been very rewarding and I feel a lot happier. 

To be fair, I still have around three weeks until the semester ends, and unfortunately, one more semester in the fall left until I completely graduate. Although, I feel like I really deserve this summer vacation, and I plan to make the most out of it with the pandemic and vaccinations going on in the background as well. That being said, I started to make a list of everything I want to accomplish for my summer vacation in order to feel fulfilled. Typically my list includes places I want to go to, friends I want to see, and even skills or projects I want to work on. 

It’s okay to turn people down if it means your mental health will be able to improve, and it is totally fine to be selfish for your own sake, not even just summer vacation-wise, but all the time. We all need to take care of ourselves and do what we need to do to be happy, healthy, and the best we can be.

Have you ever practiced being selfish? How do you prioritize yourself? If you don’t, how do you think you can? What are your plans for this summer, and what are you doing for yourself during the time?

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by greekgirl

March Check-In: Goals

March 22, 2021 in Be Positive

Earlier at the beginning of the new year, I set a lot of different goals for myself. These goals focused on finance, career, health and wellness, relationships, and even hobbies. All in all, some goals are ones that I have been able to knock out of the park and already hit when others will take longer to attain. Something I have realized already is that some things take time to occur, and my hard work will eventually pay off on them.

I once heard from a colleague that it takes around 30 consecutive days of practice to have something become a habit. I have multiple goals I set that I’m truthfully only 1 week in successfully, but feel like great progress to making them habits. This specific goal I set is to create a habit of drinking at least 80 oz of water a day!  

Although, other habits I have will be a work in progress such as financial goals, or even weight loss goals – and that is perfectly okay 🙂 That is why it is good to get a system of check-ins, but to not stress out when you mess up. Much like weight loss, you need to set goals for yourself along the way. That being said, I have set smaller goals of weight loss amounts, that way I stay motivated to achieve each sets of amounts. This also puts less stress on me, and makes me feel like I can actually achieve what I set for myself. I love using a booklet to track my food I am eating, along with the FitBit app since I can track progress daily. 

As for my financial goals, I track my monthly finances to make sure I am staying on track. For example, I do this with an Excel spreadsheet, along with a budgeting app to track and measure progress. This helps to see where I can do better, and adjust for future months. 

I’m not saying I am anywhere close to reaching some of my goals, but you know that is the beauty of setting and reaching goals is that it is always something that you will work towards over time. I feel very confident that I can reach a lot of my goals that I set for myself, but all in all, I am content if some take longer than others. Hopefully, in a few months I remember to do another check-in update of my goals progress 🙂

What does goal-setting look like for you? Do you include check-ins? What are long-term goals for you?

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by greekgirl

How to Conquer The Annoying Dating Stigma Brought Up By Family

January 27, 2021 in Educate Yourself

Maybe this is just my family, but I come from a very traditional Italian/Greek household where my life is literally a spitting image of the family from My Big Fat Greek Wedding (no, seriously…). Despite my very young age, my different family members are CONSTANTLY asking me questions regarding my love life, and it is exhausting. Between my grandma asking me when I will meet a boy, to my mom asking if I have gone out on any dates yet, and even my sister asking why I don’t share information about my dating history and experiences!

To add to my situation, I have gone out on dates in the past, but never been in a relationship with anyone – I also do not tell my family of any dates or people I talk to in a romantic sense due to how they are crazy about wanting me married! This is honestly a lot of stress and pressure on me to begin with between seeing constant reminders of my peers, family, and friends in happy long-term relationships, let alone comparing to them my very, very, single, non-existent, love life. 

The dating stigma is a real thing that many individuals will potentially face, and some of us may already be experiencing this! At least for me, it affects me mentally in the sense of added stress, feeling lonely, and all across the board lowered self-esteem. 

Although, I’m here to say that we should not have these thoughts about ourselves! I’m here to tell you a few ways that we can conquer this annoying, added relationship stress that family, or even friends are inciting on us (that we frankly do not need). 

Part of my new year goals was to become more unapologetic in the sense of living my truest life, along with another goal of actively dating (or at least trying). In part, I decided to open up to my family and friends about both. 

1. Be Open and Honest

I sat my parents and sister down, and openly forked over all the details I have been hiding over the years about how I was, “in fact” dating, or have been on dates in order to bring truth to their rude assumptions on me. I opened up and really dug deep into how I feel when they talk about relationships and dating in front of me, set boundaries in terms of “when to meet the date to bring home to the family to meet”, and even qualities I value in a partner. This felt like a huge weight off my shoulder, and felt honestly, so good to just tell them about how I am dating or at least trying to actively date people in an attempt to find love, or even form some relationship. 

2. Put Yourself Out There

This can be interpreted in the sense of putting yourself out there with your family, or even with potential people you will meet and date along the way. I have to be honest – I am a self-sabotager when it comes to finding love. I have such high ideals and viewpoints of myself, that even the smallest deal breaker or fault in someone makes me shy away from even the chance of going out! Part of trying to date is the fact that maybe it is my fault due to self-sabotaging, so I’m trying to make more of an effort to put all of myself out on the line, along with letting the other person put them out there for me to learn more about. I likewise made a little rule for myself to have a “three date rule” before I make a decision on whether to continue dating someone I meet. This rule aids in being more open about what I like or do not like, fine tune my preferences, and allows both the individual and myself to not waste a substantial amount of each other’s time. 

3. Self Reflection & Understanding

Everyone is ready at different points in life! Despite my current age, I am personally in a place to get married (if the person came along, but as I stated I need to find that person). For others, you may not be ready until years from now, and that is perfectly fine too! You know yourself best, and again you know what you seek in a partner. For me, I took 2020 to better understand myself as an individual along with what I feel are qualities and values that I need out of my potential partner. I’m trying my best to find these qualities, but again being more open to different fish in the sea. 

In the end, everyone can, and will eventually find a relationship of some kind! Although, just remember that it is not up to anyone but yourself in terms of when or how this all happens. Be true to yourself, and enjoy the journey. 

Is there something that you feel like your family specifically targets you for when it comes to jokes or asking you questions about? How does that affect you? How would you bring this up to your family members? 

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by greekgirl

New Year’s Goals

January 5, 2021 in Be Positive, Educate Yourself

I’m not sure about you, but every year I try my absolute best to set a New Year’s resolution…but they never happen. When I say this, I mean it in the most sincere way, but I truly am a goal-setter and achiever. What was the difference then between a resolution and a goal for me to actually get things done and reset new habits each year?

That is when it hit me that maybe we need to get rid of the New Year’s resolution stigma, and instead call “resolutions” something that will resonate better for you. For me, I can set goals, make a plan, and achieve them no problem. Going into the new year, I decided to instead refer to my plans as goals. Again, you can call your anything that helps you – goal, plan, intentions, aspiration, theme, purpose…you name it!

Now, to provide a little inspiration, I thought it would be fun to share a few of my New Year’s goals, and it would be super motivating and empowering for any viewers of this blog post to share your “resolutions” in the comments!

Increase general health and wellness. 

My 2020 was a year where I gained the “COVID-15” a play on words of the college freshman 15 where you gain 15 pounds. I really want to make good habits now health-wise that will aide in my future wellbeing. Different factors of health and wellness for me are focusing on drinking more water to stay hydrated, not snacking as often or as late at night, exercise and stretch and X amount of time per week, along with practice gratitude in the sense of journaling and words of personal affirmation to boost my mood (“daily I’m thankful for…, This went well today.., I will improve tomorrow by …”).

Reach financial goals set

A huge part of my life is focused around personal finance, and just general career goals I have set for myself. I don’t personally feel comfortable sharing my specific financial goal, but for this year it focuses different activities around saving more money, investing, along with increasing income between getting another part-time job, and even learning new skills to apply to my resume for work.

Improve and create more relationships

After a year of not being nearly as social as I normally am, I am really looking forward to this goal. I’m looking to meet new friends, and join more groups to meet likeminded people (local parish, volunteer, work events, student organizations at my college, and more). To further expand on this, I’m also making an extreme effort to actively start dating – for my age, this is a personal decision and the time is right for me for my personal situation.

Weekly email clean-out for 15 minutes

I am very organized…except for when it comes to my email inbox! This goal I am very looking forward to, but basically I am going to set a reminder/meeting on my phone calendar for 15 minutes once a week for an entire year. This set of 15 minutes will be to clear out all the emails in my inbox that piled up from the week, unsubscribe from any new email senders that I be on the list for, and even just to have a clean space for the week. By setting the reminder, I feel that this will really aide in accomplishing this goal for sure.

Again, these were just my personal set of New Year’s goals in a form of inspiration if you’re still looking to make a plan for yours. Really consider to not use the word “resolution”, but instead think about an actionable word that resonates with you and sparks action or motivation.

I would love to hear about what word you decide on, or even a few of your New Years “resolutions” for the new year!

Are you usually a goal-setter? Do you try to set resolutions? Have you noticed a difference between the two? How do you feel when you don’t accomplish a goal or resolution, and what do you think can help you achieve them?

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by greekgirl

The Spirit of the Holidays

December 14, 2020 in Be Positive, COVID-19

I’m not sure if it is just me, but NOTHING can ruin my mood around the holidays; in particular Christmas, and really the entire month of December, if I can be honest. I am very into keeping traditions, having a lot on my calendar during the holiday season that I do year-to-year: dinner with family, Christmas caroling with neighbors, Christmas card photos, decorate and make cookies to gift out, the whole nine yards. 

The best part of the season to me is a combination of everything really between traditions, and also the idea of holiday spirit. The holidays allow me to keep my spirits up and shows me the power of giving. I make an effort to volunteer during the holiday season primarily with my time. For example, I usually volunteer in-person in order to serve Santa breakfasts, go to nursing homes to provide gifts, go to Ronald McDonald House charities to host a meal for the families, and lastly even assist at community fundraising events.

With the pandemic, we can all agree that the holidays will definitely feel different, but that doesn’t mean we have to let that get to us. This year allows us to still create a fun filled holiday season with new and old traditions. 

For example, every year I make the family Christmas dinner, but we will unfortunately need to split up due to the pandemic – that is okay, because I am still thankful to be with family and stay safe, along with cooking our Christmas dinner traditions. I normally Christmas carol with all my neighbors and afterwards have a party together. With the pandemic, we are still caroling since we can socially distance, but are opting to have a hot chocolate event outside instead of a party afterwards. I am not able to volunteer at my usual in-person service opportunities, but I can opt in for virtual offerings or service initiatives that I can mail, ship, and drop off! 

Here are a few ideas of socially distant, but still holiday spirit boosting service opportunities that you can try this year!

  • Write Letters From Santa
    • Check out if your local community can organize a mailbox in a public spot (community center, library, or even post office) that has a drop off box for children to write a letter to Santa. Then, the service opportunity is that some people in your community and yourself can write back to the children as if that you are Santa.
  • Donate canned goods and perishables to a local food bank or charity in your community.
  • Make handmade Christmas cards to give to a nursing home in your area!
  • Host a virtual class at your public library for Christmas storytelling to children. 
  • Do a random act of kindness this holiday season (pay for the order of the person behind you in the drive thru, donate spare change to Make A Wish while at the store, etc). 
  • Snow shovel your elderly neighbors driveway and sidewalks. 

There are a lot of great ideas online as well 🙂

Even then, think about new and old traditions to have some fun this holiday season. For example, we can still go ice skating, still can do gift exchanges, drive around to see Christmas lights, and even make cookies! 

Hopefully these ideas will inspire you this holiday season, along with get you in the spirit for the holidays. 

Let me know how you plan to keep up your spirit during this holiday season.

What are your holiday traditions that you do with your family, friends, or just for yourself? Have they changed or been cancelled this year? What are things that you have planned or have done for the holidays this year?

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by greekgirl

Media Can Help Us Realize How We Feel

November 17, 2020 in Educate Yourself

I grew up always being overweight, I was that kid that tried every diet in the book, or every form of exercise and still wasn’t able to drop the weight. During what may be my entire childhood, I binge ate when no one was home – I have accounts where I would eat tubs of raw cookie dough, or containers of ice cream when no one was home; after school and alone time was just dangerous for me. 

It wasn’t until my hospital and doctor recommended that I should go to a weight loss camp for my age that I started to meet more people with what could be similar weight issues. I was learning how to have a healthier lifestyle, and try to make changes for me. About one year after being in the program, I ended up falling down a slippery slope again of constant binging of food. It wasn’t until a few years later when I hit puberty that things started to change. I started to drop weight and realize that I need to make a lifestyle change for real since my habits really were not healthy. I still did diets and what not, and was able to make changes to improve my lifestyle, but again it led to a point where I barely ate some days or not enough just to lose weight. I noticed that I obsessed over what I looked like. 

In fact, to this day, I probably look at myself in the mirror or see my reflection every chance I get. It doesn’t help that I have a lot of mirrors in my house or in my room. It doesn’t help the fact that I ask my mom and sister if I “look chubby?” everyday. I look at myself in the mirror and pick at my flaws and what I could be doing better with my body. 

There was a point in my life for about three years in high school that I was what I feel was my happiest. I loved my body, my friends, my relationships, my successes – I was the most confident and best version of myself in high school. You know, deep down, I don’t think I was actually still comfortable in my skin though. I always was self-conscious of what people thought about me, or how I looked, or what a group of guys thought if I walked by. 

This brings me to my point:  I recently watched Netflix’s show, Insatiable, where I not only binge-watched, but also realized that I entirely resonated with the main character in her story of the show. Her character was a compulsive eater (binge eater) for emotional and mental reasons. Once she went from overweight to skinny, she even admitted her actions were almost to make up for validation of herself (ex: getting a boyfriend, doing beauty pageants, etc). The character struggled with body dysmorphia where she compared herself to others and continued seeing her old self in the bigger body. 

This show made me finally come to terms with why I was acting like this my whole life – and understanding that body dysmorphia is the reason behind why I binge ate emotionally, or why I feel bad about my body, why I can’t be truly confident, or why I can’t be happy in relationships totally made sense and everything clicked. The good news is that I had answers, and that I could get proper help finally to not feel this way. Honestly, I feel like I need to give credit to shows and certain media figures we have (influencers, tv shows, movies, artists we life, etc) who are able to create content that really resonates with us, and can help us identify what could be wrong for times we are really unsure.

Has a TV show, movie, book, or any other kind of media made you realize something about yourself and your mental health? What recommendations do you have for media that has helped you?

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by greekgirl

Living a Healthy Lifestyle

October 5, 2020 in Be Positive

I have always struggled with health and wellness, from now to even as a little kid. I have tried every diet in the book, every workout, every tip, you name it; but still, nothing works. I notice that I do have discipline in other aspects of my life such as personal finance to save money, but lack that discipline when it comes to my personal health.

During college, I noticed that I have turned more sluggish than when I was in high school, fine-tuning my food diet, and also lack in drinking water. My personal goal is to just live a general healthier lifestyle. The following are a few things I’m trying in order to achieve that.

Vegan Diet

I have never been vegetarian or vegan, but have always admired the cooking that both groups did. I come from a family that loves carbs and meat, and big quantities of food. I never really was a snack eater, and never really ate “junk” food. I watched recently the documentary Game Changers on Netflix that debunks plant-based eating and the health benefits from it. This automatically made me have a light bulb moment where I decided that I would try a version of plant-based eating (but not hardcore cold turkey). I have tried my version of plant-based eating for about 2 months now, and it has improved my health in not only weight, but also energy levels, and endurance. Since I live at home with family, I made a rule to just not be causing my family extra groceries, so for me I chose to still eat certain dairy products and fish in limiting amounts (I barely ate these food groups to begin with). If you watch Game Changers, it talks about the science of why veganism and vegetarian is just so much better for our bodies, and I can totally confirm how helpful just cutting out meat was for me.

Water Tracker

I have a horrible time with drinking enough water. I started to use the FitBit app to start tracking just my water intake. I think the best piece of advice I have is that water is so important to make you have more energy, but also purify your body so to say. When you drink beverages other than water, they are definitely more delicious, but I guess water just overall makes me feel better wellness wise. I am a huge coffee drinker, so I usually get up every morning and start drinking coffee, and then could go until like 11pm until I finally had my first drink of water (which is horrible, I know). I started to drink one glass of water every morning before the coffee, and seriously just that caused me to want more water throughout the day. This got my daily water intake from literally 16oz of water to about 80oz within the timespan of only two months. The tracker is definitely helpful to track progress and is super motivating to see the numbers in front of you and how you feel different based off just something like a few glasses of water.

Fitness Classes

I used to be insanely active in high school because of cheerleading. When I started college, I lost that and turned pretty sluggish by not having that dedicated time for practice or workouts. I actually got the Freshman 15 (let me tell you that it is real). I always had a hard time sticking with the fitness regimes between the gym equipment, or home workouts. I started to try out different fitness classes to see what worked for me. I tried HIIT classes at my community center, yoga, cycling, and even Burn Boot Camp. Trying out these different classes were 1. fun to get back in the workout mode,  2. helped me see what I liked and disliked, and 3. made me get so much more energy in my day.

Mental Walks

I majorly struggle with mental health between relationship stress, school/work stress, and even personal stress that I just get of myself. This pandemic has made things incredibly tough on me mentally, so I missed having an outlet. I tried a lot of different things to try and relieve stress like adult coloring books and journaling, but what ended up working out the best was actually just walking. I started to go for walks a few times a week with my mom and we would just walk for about 45 minutes to an hour during our lunch break, or after work. We would walk, talk, and sometimes just walk in silence. This was both good exercise, and also a way to clear our minds in nature. It was great to have my mom to talk to and bond over our walks, but also talk about everything on our minds. I do go bike riding by myself and use that as an outlet as well and it helps in the same way. I have friends that do this with a treadmill, walking their dog, and even yoga.

I think it is important overall to work towards a healthy and maintainable lifestyle for yourself the more we get older. A healthy lifestyle is crucial to a lot of health determinants that can affect our day to day lives – especially mental health across the board. My ending point, is to just do a self check-in to see where you currently and where you want to be. Making a small change will make a ripple affect across other areas of your life, and the main key is that we just need progress in our lives to continuously be improving and being a better version of ourselves.

Have you made any lifestyle changes during quarantine for your physical and mental health? What are things that you want to incorporate to have a healthier lifestyle?

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