A Fresh Start

May 27th 2019

Begin again, and again, and again~

I moved from Long Island to my new home in North Carolina on Friday, however, I really consider today to be the first day of my new life here. For the first 3 days, I was lucky enough to have my friend, Angie, with me to help me get a feel for the environment and to get a lay of the land.

Today though, is the first day of the rest of my foreseeable future. I am alone (except for my immediate family), in a new state where I know no one and nothing. It is sort of scary, but also delightfully open-ended because I really have the choice to decide who I am from here on out. But I realized before moving and after a disappointing experience, that a large part of starting over is rediscovering myself and putting myself first for a while.

Despite having improved my relationship with myself over the past few years, I know that there is a long way to go before I become the person I truly view myself to be. The gap between who I am and who I know I can be is pretty big right now and I am planning to use this experience of being alone somewhere new in order to help me become that person.

So I guess you could call this post a bit of an “introduction to my self-care journey” because I sort of just want to sit and list out what I hope to get out of this period of major self-care. And one awesome thing about this is that you don’t have to move in order to do this for yourself so, if you want to make your own list of self-care goals, feel free to follow along with me!

1. Develop a new routine- Being in a new environment means developing a new routine which means it is also a perfect time to implement new healthy habits. Since I am in the process of searching for a new job right now, I have a lot of time to pin down a new routine. I really want to figure out a good morning routine, work out schedule, meal prep plan, and make time for moments of self-care like reading, taking a hot bath, or just spending some time outside. Striking a good balance before my life picks up will help ensure that I will be more able to stick to and adjust my schedule in a practical and meaningful way.
2. Work out regularly- As I mentioned in #1, I want to figure out a good work out schedule for a few days a week. When I was living in New York, I used to do yoga 4 mornings a week for an hour each morning. That worked pretty well for me because I had a busy life there with a bustling social life and a decently busy work schedule. However, now that I have more time, I would like to not only diversify my workouts to include gym equipment and swimming, but I would also like to increase my daily active time a bit. My major goal is to eventually build up strength and try one of those ninja warrior style classes! I’d also love to find a yoga studio that has aerial yoga!
3. Improve my diet- I definitely gained weight during my last 2 weeks in New York and I completely forgive myself for that. However, I would really love to get back into a more stable way of eating. I felt way better when I was limiting my carbs and sugar intake, so I want to get back into doing that and I also really want to work on cooking at home more to get into a good groove before I start working.
4. Find a job- This is probably the most “duh” thing on the list, but finding a job is really a big priority for me right now. I am lucky enough to still be working remotely for my previous job, but I do need a full time income if I hope to move out of my house within the next year. Plus, working is a great way to hopefully make friends and also just get me out of the house.
5. Be more confident doing things alone- This is my absolute weakness. I suck at doing things alone because when I go to places alone, I have no motivation to leave my house. I can’t justify dragging myself out of bed to go get Starbucks or to see a movie alone or something. I know this will probably take me the most time, but I think this will be the most beneficial thing to me once I get it all sorted.

Overall, I am incredibly nervous but excited for this fresh start and I can’t wait to share this journey with my blog. Over the past few months, this blog has really become the place I go with all of my hopes and plans for the future and I really appreciate all of the positive feedback and growth I have been experiencing despite the most personal and less “trendy” format. I hope to add a bit more variety to my posting once I get settled, but thank you all for your patience and support during this very transitional period of my life.

Jess~