Glow Up Journal

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Food

For me, a meal plan is one of the easiest “habits” to build and follow. Mostly because I enjoy having planned meals, a routine around it, and don’t mind repeating the same dishes. Because my finances are tight, I rely on prepared meals like quiche and lasagna. Having lived in the UK and the Netherlands, I don’t eat much fish nor tasty fruit as I’d like to.
My 2022 goal is to start taking collagen.

Exercise

I exercise everyday for about 30 minutes. I got my favorite workouts from YouTube back in 2019: Johanna Devries aka growwithjo and Pamela Reif because they actually work (for me), and I can see changes in a space of a month. For that I created the workout playlist GYM77 (77 for good vibrations) alongside a GYM77 workout playlist on Spotify. Some other day laziness (or that time of the month) kicks in and I decrease on the workout intensity, but don’t let it go down to 0. #atomichabits
My 2022 goals are to gain weight and focus on aerobic exercises.
In 2023, I aim to focus on cardio and build muscle mass.
I practiced swimming for 10 years and have started to miss it a lot. Hopefully when the pandemic is better, I’ll get back to it again.

Skincare

This has been the hardest habit to keep up with. I’ll use the Skincare heading for any habit that helps skin integrity and enhances its appearance (hair, body, and face).

💇‍♀️ On Hair,

Since December 2021, I’ve ditched regular shampoos after a botox treatment - you shouldn’t use shampoos with sulfates afterwards to maximize the treatment effect. My sister who had done it before gave me two slices of her shampoo bar from Lush - the avocado co-wash. It was my first time using a shampoo bar (better for our skin and better for the environment). For me, this one didn’t make so much foam as a regular shampoo and acted more as a conditioner. I was okay with it, and did notice my hair was getting very oily after washing because it was suffering from the sulfate → no sulfate transition (regular sulfate shampoos take away your natural oils and that’s why you need to keep washing your hair). By the end of January, hair oiliness started to stabilize and I could keep my twice a week hair washing routine.

Price-wise, branded shampoo bars are more expensive at first glance, but they end up lasting you longer and are way more beneficial both for you and the environment, so I don’t think I’ll keep buying plastic bottles filled with sulfates for the next years.

Those pieces of shampoo lasted until mid-February 2022, and I went on to buy a new bar, the Angel Hair also from Lush after chatting with the lady in the store. It’s always best to explain what you’re looking for/how your body reacts to certain elements so you can get the best advice on what products to try next. This one still has sodium coco sulfate, but I’ll see how it goes. (Feb 15 - May 29)

Mental Health

I do feel the biggest thing that helps me to maintain a healthy mind, is to exercise and meditate. To exercise above all. Whether I’m swimming or sweating on the floor, I feel incredibly free and relaxed.
“Bad emotions are like guests in your house. You need to entertain them for a while but you know they’ll end up leaving when it’s time, so don’t worry, they don’t last forever.” Since I learned about this way of thinking on a Brazilian podcast called “Autoconsciente”, my perspective towards feeling low/bad/almost depressive has massively changed. I started to accept when I’m feeling low and I just stay low. I feel there’s so much pressure when you feel bad or low to “just cheer up”, “go out for a walk”, “you don’t have reasons to be sad”. But only ourselves know thyselves and we need to see what is best for us. Maybe going for a walk will help you more (I do agree being surrounded by Nature is always the best), but also maybe just staying home for the day will do. The problem comes when you don’t see feeling low or bad as an emotion but believe that’s how you are and it becomes a persisting feeling.
Meditation has helped me with the last point: feeling numb vs feeling present. For the past year of 2021 I lived in automatic, feeling numb, and without anything to aspire for. I started using Calm, and found a daily external voice that gives me that morning motivation. I read reviews about the app before subscribing, and subscribed to it mainly to see if it worked for me.

Food

Exercise

Skincare

Mental Health

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