New Year's Resolutions 2016 Update

Just a quick update on my "New Year's Resolutions" (let's just call them what they are: Goals. Ok? Mkay.)

Religious:

1. Complete a Bible-in-a-Year plan. 
• I am on 'Day 73' which is about a week ahead of schedule. I've been doing a lot of audio-Bible time on the way to or from work along with some worship songs. It has helped me be more centered throughout my day I feel. I've also been doing some shorter studies and devotionals to help with healing and on topics that I felt would benefit me. So far I've done short studies on: abuse, miscarriage, grief, depression, healing from pain, divorce, prayer, happiness, hope and finding comfort in the Lord.
2. Make more Wednesday Bible studies 
•  I am doing well so far. I have only missed 2 weeks due to bad traffic one of the highways I have to take to get home (they started a new phase of construction on the highway, ugg!)
3. Invigorate my prayer life. 
•  The  younger ladies at my congregation have decided we would like a class on this so have asked someone and she has agreed to teach a lesson for us! I'm pretty excited about this as it is an area I would really like to grow in and I think this class can help me do this.

Health/Medical:

1. No soda. 
• A few here and there that I still need to cut out but I never finish them as they are simply too sweet and I don't really enjoy the flavor anymore.
2. Prep more and try new things! 
•  I've been meal prepping for Monday-Friday for the past few months now with great success... saves me money, time and helps me stay on track. I've been trying a lot of new ideas recipe wise... that means that there are less posted recipes though since I make something new instead of perfecting something I've already tried out so I think I need to work on finding a balance.
3. Water
•  Most days I am keeping to my goal these days which is lovely. I'm not sure I really want the app to remind me to drink water on the weekdays at the office but I need it on the weekends still so reminders are staying on for now. :) When I don't make my goals I get headaches... interesting tidbit to let my neurologist know about. It could be dehydration is playing a part in my migraines more than we thought. I'm pretty much always on the edge of dehydrated it feels like but I've added extra Thermotabs and extra water since the New Year and haven't had to have an IV saline drip yet. Progress!
4. Meds
•  Changed some things up but still doing well with the reminders my app is shooting my way.
5. Exercise! 
•  Still walking... the 5k I signed up for isn't for a while yet so nothing new to report here really. 
• I picked up a FitBit HR Charge to help with pushing me to meet my goals as well as track my heart rate. There have been some interesting observations on that front but my meds seem to be doing a good job most of the time keeping the tachycardia under control so I feel safe to continue my speed walking plan for now. Of course that med is actually to help with the migraines so there's that :P but both the neurologist and I knew that my heart rate and blood pressure would be affected by them as I've been on other medications of this class before for my tachycardia. The first few months were horrible and I couldn't exercise until my body adjusted to the meds. Looks like we're set now though so *fingers crossed* that the neurologist leaves them alone or that his changes don't affect my ability to stick to my plan.
6. Lose 50 pounds.
•  So far I have lost 13.8 lbs. out of the 50 I had as a goal for the year.

Financial:

1. Budget, budget, budget! 
•  Going strong... I'm LOVING the budgeting software I have now so I will definitely review it soon.
2. Pay off debt.
•  So far I have paid off: $1,811.84 worth of debt between my vehicle, student loans and the credit card I took out to move last year.
3. Savings
•  So far I have saved: $2,148.58. Part of this is due to not having to pay rent so far this year as I moved in with my parents as a step towards this goal. I still have storage fees and etc. but I'm trying to put as much as possible towards debt and saving for my future house as possible as well as a healthy emergency fund. I picked up some side hustles with tutoring and work with apps which I will let you guys know about in another month or so as well. I want numbers for 2-3 months to really see which apps I feel are worth looking into and which are a waste of time. So look for those posts in a month or two.

Personal:

1. Get back into the dating world.
•  I've been out in the world of online dating for a while now... nothing major update wise here.
2. Complete at least 50 blog posts this year. 
•  So far this year: 8 of the 50 I had as a goal. I'll be working on getting this number up some.

DIY Deodorant... 6 Months In

I've been using DIY deodorants for a good long while now and 'natural' deodorants for even longer due to my allergy to aluminum- since high school. It's been a long and frustrating journey I have to say but I'm almost to the end of it in that my latest batch of deodorant was nearly exactly what I wanted. I'm pretty psyched about that fact actually and that means that I'll have a post upcoming on my finalized recipe in the next few weeks if things go as expected. 

On this journey to finding something that works for me I've learned a few things that would have been super helpful to know.

1. Natural deodorants don't have antiperspirant (so you still sweat) for really good reasons but I still miss them and the lack takes some getting used to. 
2. Eating properly changes the need for deodorant (and your natural scent... eww, I know, but true). 
3. There are million DIY deodorant recipes out there it seems... and not all of them will work for every person. That's why there are a million of them. We didn't all like Secret or Dove or what have you deodorant when we used store bought deo and we have ALL said that one brand worked better than another and had someone completely disagree with us. Why would DIY be any different?
4. Similar to the last one... this is a process and everyone is different. I've tried out a different recipe each and every time I made a new tube of deodorant. Some of those recipes were recipes I'd found online, some were based on recipes or combinations of recipes, some were completely mine. Many worked pretty well... some very much so did not. Reviews of recipes stating they were awesome didn't mean they worked for my body (see the next one... that was a painful week).
5. Baking soda can burn. The underarms are sensitive places, enough said right? Ouch. I ended up using a very tiny amount in my latest batch but for those who are even more sensitive than me you may want to sub arrowroot powder for baking soda completely in recipes you find for deodorant online. It doesn't seem to work quite as well as baking soda (for me) but its a close second. I've had to experiment with ratios over the past few months for each batch I created to see what worked best on my body.
6. Texture is very important for me. I wanted a deodorant that I could roll on from a normal deodorant tube but this was often far from the case. Most recipes I've tried have been not quite firm enough for what I am looking for... or too firm and the tube wouldn't rise. This has been the part I've spent the most time working on to be 100% honest. There have been recipes I've churned out that worked great but were simply too soft many times in this process.
7. Ingredient quality is important. This is pretty self-explanatory I think, if I bought the cheapest one of unknown quality then I was more likely to get variable consistency and quality. Do your research on brands you want to use basically.
8. Scent matters... oh so much. Some of the oils I've used to scent my deodorant just did not work well together, or worse, were not a good combo with sweat. This is likely the reason I have had several natural deodorants that didn't make the cut (sorry Tom's) before I tried my hand at DIY.

That's all for now. I'll be posting an update on what I've been working on lately  this week as well (I haven't been slacking, promise, just trying a lot of different things with mixed results). One of those things is my Instagram account... feel free to hop over and check out things I'm working on recipe wise, see some meal ideas and just keep in the loop on what's going on with me (my two pups pop up from time to time as well... love them!).
 
Instagram: @reallifewithheather