2016 Resolutions Revisited

by Liz Heather in

I've purposely delayed writing this post, but since 2017 is officially well underway, there are no more excuses. I'll list my 2016 resolutions from last year below and then write alongside them how each went. 

1. Read at least two books per season.

  • Yeah, this didn't happen. Instead of reading eight books this year (two books x four seasons), I read a sum total of TWO books. Yikes. When I think back on why this happened, I really can't come up with any sound reasoning. This will be rectified this year.

2. Do pilates (or go to the gym) at least five times each month.

  • January - 6 times
  • February - 6 times
  • March - 8 times
  • April - 8 times
  • May - 4 times
  • June - 5 times
  • July - 1 time
  • August - 8 times
  • September - 6 times
  • October - 1 time
  • November - 6 times
  • December - 3 times

Okay, so I crushed this goal two thirds of the year. Yeah! And that means that I went to the gym 14.5% of the days this year (53 out of 365). Okay, that's not great since in 2015 I went 23.5% and in 2014 I went 37%, but still - it's not 0%. Not that there's anything wrong with 0%, but I would really like to get back up into my 2014 gym game.

3. Save 20% of every pay cheque from waitressing.

  • Totally done. I would tell you how much money that is, but it's gauche to talk about money.

4. Juice at least ten times a month.

  • January - 11 times
  • February - 4 times
  • March - 9 times
  • April - 2 times
  • May - 5 times
  • June - 12 times
  • July - 4 times
  • August - 5 times
  • September - 9 times
  • October - 1 time
  • November - 7 times
  • December - 10 times

I really said ten times a MONTH? Jesus. 2017 is definitely going to be about low expectations, Liz. LOW.

5. Go to an island with Nathan.

  • If Boston counts as an island, then did we ever!

6. Constantly buy flowers for the apartment and take photos of each arrangement.

  • This definitely happened and it was glorious.

7. At least once a month, go to a fancy-ass restaurant that you've never been to before.

  • January - Minetta Tavern & Bar Boulud
  • February - Stanton Social
  • March - Delmonico's & Peter Luger
  • April - Collage (in St. Augustine)
  • May - Beauty & Essex
  • June - nowhere!
  • July - Del Posto
  • August - The Lamb's Club & American Cut
  • September - nowhere!
  • October - Gramercy Tavern
  • November - nowhere!
  • December - Barberian's (in Toronto)

I love this resolution so hard. It's hard to pick a favourite of the year, but if I absolutely had to it would be Delmonico's. It'll definitely my to-go best steak place in the city now.

8. Get at least three haircuts this year.

  • Damnit! Only got two, one in January and one in September.

9. Wear all of the lipsticks. (I own twenty tubes of lipstick and I reserve them for... what?! I don't know. They gots to get WORN.)

  • I really did try to make an effort with this one.

All Fired Up by MAC

Sin by MAC

Freckletone by MAC

So Marilyn by Charlotte Tillbury

Bitch Perfect by Charlotte Tillbury

 

10. Sing in public again. 

  • Completely forgot about this one. Maybe on purpose.

All in all, 2016 was a pretty great year for me. I started the new year in Connecticut with Nathan, I began waitressing at a small French restaurant nearby, I went to the Westminster dog show, finally went to the planetarium, went to Florida three separate times (jesus, I just realized that), visited City Island in the Bronx, rode bikes around Governor's Island, cooked a lot of new things, went to the beach a ton, went to a lot of baseball games (one at Fenway Park), my mom came to visit me in New York, three of my close friends had babies, one got engaged and one got married, my brother came from Scotland for Thanksgiving, went on Central Park walks with Baby Dog - it was a pretty sweet year. 2017 resolutions coming soon!

Thanks for reading!

2014 Resolutions Revisited

by Liz Heather in

I'm a big fan of resolutions. New Years ones. Birthday ones. I think I just love any type of list. And it's extremely hard to keep your New Year's resolutions, yes. But I think the real problem is that we're not making the right resolutions. In order to avoid the cliched and terrible resolutions we've all heard a billion times, I think the secret of making good resolutions is to make ones that don't automatically set you up for failure. Example: Vowing to "Go to yoga more" is a lot less daunting of a resolution than promising to "Go to yoga two times a week." Does that make sense? Another tip? Don't make monthly goals, make seasonal goals. Four seasons sounds a lot roomier and more relaxed than twelve months do in my mind, but maybe that's just me. 

In any case, I try to come up with good resolutions and here are what my 2014 ones were, if you were interested.

  1. Check Facebook only once a day and take Sundays off.

    • Did this happen? Not even close. But I definitely went on it way less than in 2013. This is where I learned that I shouldn't be so restrictive since I'll be less successful in the long-run if I have ridiculous expectations.

  2. Watch at least three documentaries a month.

    • This resolution might make me sound like a loser who yearns to be cooler by being more into documentaries and that's exactly right. I did it and yet I'm not cooler than you somehow.

  3. Read at least two books a season.

    • Did it! Yeah!

  4. Try two things off Pinterest a season.

    • Did it! Gonna do it again.

  5. Apply for editor jobs at least five times a week.

    • Hahahah, didn't even remember this was on the list. Tip #2: Don't make long resolution lists.

  6. Volunteer at least once a month.

    • Did it only for the first seven months. Fuck.

  7. Do pilates at least five times a month.

    • Did this every month with the exception of stupid September. Goddam you September.

  8. Juice at least four times a week.

    • Nope! Nowhere NEAR that many times. This one was way too lofty. Gotta aim lower for next year.

  9. Never Google Kim Kardashian again.

    • COMPLETED! And this one felt good. I used to Google her a lot in 2013 to see her different outfits and pretty face and body and etc., but it was harming me more than helping me so I wanted to stop and I did.

  10. Stop reading The Frisky.

    • This was a hard one, but I accomplished it. Maybe it doesn't seem difficult to you to stop reading something, but it was. I used to go on that site maybe twice a day, every day. And then somewhere along the way it became way less about women-centered topics and interesting articles to focussing more on pregnant celebrities and top ten worst dressed lists. I had to stop.

As you can see, I wasn't entirely successful - but the things that did happen? I'm pretty proud of those. I also wrote down every day that I either went to the gym or went to pilates last year and figured out that I went 137 days out of 365. That's 37.5% of an entire year that I was at the gym. Do you know how insane that is considering I hadn't given a fuck about exercise for, oh, say 27 years? 37.5%! I think that's incredible. And obviously I'm not saying that everyone needs to go to a gym, but, like, that's insane for me and makes me crazy happy to accomplish something so (typically speaking) out of character.

I'm still thinking of some new ones for 2015, so when I do there will be a post about that in a few days. This was an especially self-indulgent post AND I'M NOT SORRY!

Tip - Workout Clothes

by Liz Heather in

Incase you have any qualms about buying from Lululemon, please realize that there are billions of other places to get less expensive, good quality yoga pants. I can't get over how gorgeous these Nike ones ($65) are.

Victoria's Secret and The Gap have a pretty sweet selection, too. Especially the sports tank tops at Victoria's Secret - they last you YEARS, it's weird/great. If I were you, I'd stay away from the super-cheap workout clothes from places like Old Navy and H&M since they wear out pretty quickly.