A New Year And Giveaway Winners Announced

I'm sure you've been hearing this all day - but 2015 is now upon us! This is the year my whole life changes and hopefully yours too. I can finally say that I'm leaving this year to backpack Europe and it's all I can think about (still, I know). I was lucky enough to have New Years Eve and New Years Day off this year so my sister and I woke up early and decided to head up to the mountains where we found this beautiful little pond. It was cold as balls and we weren't exactly dressed for a hike so we couldn't go up into the woods like we really should have planned to.

Every year I make New Year's Resolutions and I'm fairly certain I've never kept one. But this year that all changes. There are things that I absolutely want to change about my life and about myself in order to make myself a happier, healthier person. So, I've decided to share with you my New Year's Resolutions for this year and how I plan on keeping them. But, before we delve into that I wanted to share the Giveaway winners! The first prize, the lusted after Naked on the Run Palette, will go to Ciara Murphy from Ireland! Congrats! The second (and equally lovely) prize, will go to Yuen Lim from the United Kingdom! Congratulations to them both! I have emailed both of the winners and if I do not hear back from them by the end of Sunday night I will choose new winners. Thank you all for entering and keep your eyes peeled for more giveaways soon to come.

On that note, I will go ahead and get started with my resolutions and if you're feeling up to sharing please tell me yours in the comment. I would love to hear what other people are doing to better their lives or the lives of others. I hope you all had a fantastic holiday! Here's to the New Year and to what, I hope, will be the best one yet.

Start An 80/20 Lifestyle
THIS IS NOT A DIET! I plan to start living an 80/20 lifestyle so that I can effectively start eating healthier. With the 80/20 lifestyle you basically eat healthy for 80% of your meals during the week and for the other 20% you can eat whatever you like. So, if you eat three meals a day for seven days then essentially, four of those meals you can indulge in the things you normally wouldn't consider a "healthy choice". I think this will be a lot more manageable than just trying to diet because it's a lot easier to make better food choices when you know you'll be able to reward yourself at dinner the following night, or splurge on cocktails over the weekend. In order to make sure I don't "lose track" (picture me with finger quotations here as I sometimes cannot resist the alluring call of sushi) of which meals I'm going to allow to be a part of my 20%, I'm going to plan them ahead. This is something I plan to stick to and if you are someone who struggles with eating healthy I would really suggest you try this!

Work Out At Least Three Days A Week
I'll admit, it's really hard for me to convince myself to wake up early in the morning to work out. I know that no one is to blame but myself but between working 60 hours a week and going to TWO schools full time - I don't have a lot of free time. But I am going to start making a conscious effort to work out at least three days a week for a half hour minimum. Whether it be a run, a cycle class or a home DVD - I will at least do something. I read an article somewhere where a fitness "guru" was explaining that you should think about working out and taking care of your body the way you think about brushing your teeth and taking care of your teeth. You wouldn't skip a whole week of brushing your teeth, so why would you skip a whole week of taking care of your body? If I start to make it a part of my daily routine, it won't seem so god awful to wake up early to make it happen.

Put An Extra $40 A Week In My Savings Accounts
As it is, I put at least $500 a paycheck into my trip savings, but starting this week I will pull an additional $40 out of my checking account and put it safely away in my Charles Schwab account. If I do this once a week until I leave, I will have enough to buy my Eurail pass and a little leftover to put towards my Britrail pass. I'm really going to cut down on my frivolous spending this year and try to keep in mind my ultimate goal.

No More Using Credit
To be honest, I don't actually use my credit a whole lot but occasionally a big expense will come up that I just want to get out of the way so I'll put it on credit and forget about it. But no more! Up until the day I leave I will only use my credit card for emergencies (such as when I needed to replace my brakes over this last weekend). I don't know why but sometimes when my weekly spending allowance that I give myself is running low, I'll start putting petty things on credit like coffee or lunch. It's not that I can't afford to do this but WHY!?!? Forget the coffee! Forget those cute shoes! I'm trying to see the world. So, I'm going to try my best to cut that shit out.

And that's it for my resolutions! What are some of yours? Hope you all had a fantastic New Year's Day and I hope you all enjoy your weekend.