Hey-a, hey-o, hello, um, hi!
It's taken some time (2 weeks actually lol) for my to finally kick myself into high gear and get into productive mode. And I have some few ideas on how to do just that ;)
One
I'm going to a little thing, which you've can guess from this post's title, called #Blogmas. In case, you didn't know I am a huge Youtube fangirl, and a thing that my favorite Youtubers like to do is something called #Vlogmas, which is basically them committing to vlogging their day-to-day lives every single day for the month of December. And I'll be doing the same thing, just not on video, but here on my lovely blog.
Two
I am making a pledge to become healthier in 2015, and I figured I might as well start now. I've decided to do the POP Pilates Beginner's Workout Calendar. It was designed by Cassey Ho, otherwise known as Blogilates on the interwebs.
Pilates is basically a more intense, muscle-group focused form of Yoga, and Pilates was actually inspired by the forms found in Yoga practices. In case you didn't know (which you probably don't, because I do it in secret), I've been dabbling in Yoga a bit (though I'm frankly terrible at it) and Yoga was good because I was aiming to not to be good at the poses or anything, but to develop some flexibility with the stretches but also try to learn how to meditate and to breathe through them. I felt I needed some way to warm up a bit after waking up in the morning and sort of take a few moments to just breathe and calm myself down and get ready for the day.
I've decided to up the ante and do Pilates, because the exercises are quite simple to do, and the beginner calendar doesn't involve any weights or anything complicated. You just need a mat and some willpower to power through them, which will help when I'm abroad and busy travelling since I probably won't have that many resources available to do any heavy exercises. And it'll help me develop my core strength, tone out some of my flabby muscles and help me burn some excess calories and hopefully burn fat, which is a bit of a concern during the holidays because of all the food. (insert yum! face emoji here)
Three (really 2.5)
As part of being healthy, besides exercising I'll also try to eat healthy. Ever since I came home I've noticed that my stomach is in bit of a turmoil lately. Maybe it's because Singapore food is generally so clean, that eating Indonesian food which is not always so clean (but def way tastier) is upsetting it a bit. My portions have also gotten pretty small. I dunno. Maybe spending the last week in Singapore pigging out in buffets and whatever, has pushed my stomach to its limits and it has drawn the line and is saying no to too much food going down at once. Which is a good thing, really. Though I don't know how I am going to survive my trip to the States, because the portions over there are huge. Like really, huge, so much so that even my Dad and Brother have trouble finishing sometimes.
I'm the type of person who likes to eat a lot, but it has to be in small portions and at frequent intervals. Which kinda makes it feel like I'm eating a lot, when actually I'm not taking in that many calories. And that bring me to snacking. And not just any snacking, but healthy snacking. Cassey Ho, besides making workout videos, also makes cooking videos. She started a series called Cheap Clean Eats, and you won't believe how cheap and healthy her meals can be. Her recipes are really simple. You don't need that many ingredients, you don't have to do anything complicated, and though I've never tried anything yet (just watched so far) you can just tell that it'll probably taste amazing. Plus, it's healthy!
If you wanna take a look at anything I mentioned, you can go to blogilates.com to see everything that Cassey has put out, print out your own Beginner's Workout Calender (if your looking for something a bit more intense, try her monthly workout calendars. The December one just came out and it's a good place to start) or check out her other workout videos and food videos over at her Youtube channel.
Four
Another one related to writing, a bit like number One, is that I've decided to write. Every single day. Now, this is different from blogging. By writing, I mean actually story-writing, which is something I haven't done in a while. I am both excited and terrified. I'm always been dreaming of writing my own novel, and I did start trying back in 6th Grade when I first started writing (which was almost 5 years ago now wow) but being in 6th Grade, my writing was terrible. And over the years I compiled a whole list of novel ideas (haha get it) but I never finished anything or came up with anything concrete.
So this is a bit like NaNoWriMo (National November Writing Month) which this thing, where writers all over the words try to write a novel in one month. They set word count goals for each day and everything, and the whole point of it isn't to actually finish writing the novel, it's about pushing and motivating yourself to just sit down and get the work done, and churn out the words as best as you possibly can. The end product isn't meant to be perfect, it's just meant to be a starting point, a stepping stone to better writing.
I haven't decide exactly, how I'm going to write this month. Will I pick up an old idea and stretch it out? Will I read through some of my old half-finished drafts and try to finish it? Or will I surprise myself with a new idea and start from completely from scratch? I have no idea, as I always have when it comes to writing, but I'm excited, pumped and hope it turns out well.
I guess the problem I have with writing is that I tend to get creatively stuck. It's either I start a story but then half-way I can't figure out where it's going, or I know exactly what I want to do with a scene but the words just don't come out right. Time-management is also a tricky thing, because when you're so busy and you're life is so hectic, the last thing you want to do is set aside some extra time to frustratingly sit in front a blank screen. (cue wry smile). And with Singapore life basically leaving little time to pursue any side-hustles (at least, without losing your mind to stress) I have not written anything in about a year.
As much as I want to crack open the my head and tap into that creative mental juice, I'm somewhat afraid that I will open it only to find nothing much. It's like opening a cookie jar in hopes of satisfying your sweet tooth (and feeling a bit guilty that you desperately wanna eat a cookie -- or two -- or three -- in the first place) only to find that there is no cookie! *surprised ghostly scream emoji*
Five
Not much structure to this point, but I'll basically be trying to dip my toes into some other creative fields. Because I might be busy, these #Blogmas posts I plan to keep short and concise, and I figured one way to do that, without making the posts bland, is to tell the story with not just words. I might start posting pictures (I have an old DSLR lying around that I plan to brush the dust off), maybe even try vlogging, just a test run. I'll also try to sketch, draw, whatever, just learn some basic techniques. Also watch and read as much as I can. Not just movies and novels, but also TV shows (even animated!) and maybe fanfiction too. So yeah. I'll see where my whims take me and just indulge myself in whatever I feel like from there.
* * * * * * * *
Wow. That ended up being a long post. But I guess that's just shows you how much I plan to do. And will probably fail to accomplish *nervous laugh*. But yeah. Initially I thought about doing all this but without the blogging, but then I realized blogging about everything might help me move this along. This might sound weird, but it makes me feel like I'm being held accountable for what I've pledged to do here, and I feel like I can't ever procrastinate or give up because I need to do, and I need to write about it, if only to please my imaginary audience ;)
So yeah. Exciting stuff coming soon. And for once the idea of work makes me feel really excited, because I love feeling productive and even if I'm afraid I won't pull it off, I'm not dreading it, and just planning to go with the flow on this one.
Thanks for reading this looooooong post, dear reader. I appreciate it. And I hope you're having a fantastic holiday, and if you're not on holiday yet, you're holiday is undoubtedly coming soon. Just keep pushing through and all the work and stress you're feeling right now will be worth, I promise!
'Til the next post then!
--Karin Novelia, Making Plans :)
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