off duty
when living in such a big and busy city like new york, it is easy to get lost in the madness. since moving to the city over two years ago (wow, how time has flown!), i never quite mastered "big city living." coming to new york right after college, i never realized how difficult balancing work, blogging, being social, exercise, and my overall personal life would be and the sporadic schedule of my first post-college job didn't help. after a career switch about a year ago, i started to get back into a routine again. but of course, the holidays hit and my newborn routine quickly took a backseat. holidays in retail are anything but relaxing and the last thing i wanted to do when leaving work was talk to more people or even work out. so i found myself passing on events, soulcycle classes, and happy hours with friends just to get an extra hour of sleep. instead of bringing my lunch to work, i defaulted to ordering seamless from less than stellar options and would repeat the cycle when i got home at night. i assumed my schedule would reset itself when the holidays were over but, of course, it didn't and a few months ago, the need and desire for a change slapped me right across the face. hard.
changing my eating habits
it was in the first few days of july when i started to notice two of my coworkers really focusing on their health and i knew i needed to do the same. so the first thing to get cut was soda and this was probably the toughest thing for me to give up. because i am not a coffee drinker (or tea drinker), soda was the only source of caffeine for my day...and i needed a lot of caffeine. i had given up soda before so i knew the first week was always the most difficult and needless to say, i was tired!! but crushing that first week gave me a huge sense of accomplishment and the motivation to keep moving forward. i then decided to cut out the morning bagels and limit my seamless orders to nearly zero. this meant i started bringing my lunch and not ordering out for dinner. but don't worry, i'm still getting my go-to chipotle bowl. juuuust not with the chips and soda anymore.
changing my social habits
since my job revolves around being social and having in-depth conversations with nearly everyone i come across on a daily basis, i would typically avoid any social interaction after leaving the store. but in doing that, i found myself growing distant to some of my closest friends in the city: especially those outside the blogging community who i don't typically see. i have now been making more of a conscious effort to reach out to them, saying yes to happy hour, going to the ballet, or trying a new restaurant in the west village even though it would take me 45-minutes to get there. because if i had said no to these, i would have missed out on catching up with a close college friend over an amazing pinot noir. i would have missed seeing misty copeland in "whipped cream," one of my favorite ballets to date. i would have missed an amazing risotto from dell'anima the evening that two girls got kicked out of the restaurant for being too loud. and i'm not in my twenties to miss out on things. so what fun events do i have planned this week? on tuesday i'm going to my first ever yankees game, wednesday i'm going to see dear evan hansen for the second time (this time going prepared with a box of tissues...not joking) with two of my college sorority sisters, and on thursday i'm heading out to the hamptons with my blogger besties dana, jenn, and kristyn for a girls weekend! and i couldn't be more excited!!
changing my exercise habits
because i stand and walk around all day (and live on the fifth floor of a walkup), i found it easy to justify to myself that i didn't need to work out. but boy was i wrong. i had lost touch with soulcycle and i dearly missed that feeling when you completely nail a class. so after picking it up again about a month and a half ago, i have committed myself to two or more classes a week...bonus points if one of them is on one of my days off! i am happy to finally have my soul groove back and i'm starting to push myself further for each and every class. my brother has also been a mini supporter (probably unknowingly) who got me back into playing tennis after six years of not picking up a tennis racquet! on tuesday night he and i reserved a court at the midtown tennis club, where he has been taking lessons, and i completely forgot how much fun it is! oh yeah, and i could barely move the next day because i was so sore. toto, i don't think i'm in high school anymore. but i constantly have to keep reminding myself that my health is a privilege, and not a right to ensure that i continue to take care and challenge myself every day. because if it doesn't challenge me, it's not going to change me.
changing my personal life
in addition to everything i've mentioned, i still need to make sure i reserve time for myself. whether that is getting a mani/pedi, sending out my laundry so i can go to that blogging event that i really wanted to go to, or simply unplugging from the social media world for a day (...or a week), i need to give myself time to be off duty where the little things don't stress me out. i even started using this app called instacart where they can deliver endless bottles of water to me (really any food) and i don't have to carry them up my stairs. it's little things like delivering me water bottles or someone doing my laundry that help me tackle my ever growing to-do list while still getting a full eight hours of sleep.
now this is just the beginning of these changes to my lifestyle but i couldn't be more excited to see where they take me!
jumpsuit: rachel roy
shoes: steve madden (old, similar here)
clutch: kate spade
bracelets: cartier
earrings: j.crew (also love these)
sunglasses: linda farrow
