What I Want Out Of This Summer

Well it's official, I'll be graduating on Saturday, and Thursday is my last real day of school, plus as far as I know we get out early that day. This school year is winding down really fast, and it's time to start thinking about summer time. Typically around this time, I would be thinking of how I want to improve as a student, and as a person, both personality and looks, for the next school year, as well as some other things I want to do over the summer. However, as I will not be returning to the school I grew up in, and will be moving this summer, I am thinking more towards a completely fresh new start, as well as actually doing the things I want to do over the summer. This fresh start is the opportunity of a lifetime for me, it's my chance to really make a positive change in myself, and to make my life better then it has been throughout my years here. 

We all have ideas of what we want to do, and goals we want to achieve over the summer. Some may be related to the next school year, bettering yourself, getting a job, or just having a good summer in general. I have similar goals and ideas of what I want to do as I had in the past, but I also have many new ones, and I plan to actually work towards these goals and wants this summer. Especially as I will have more freedom once I move to do these things. This is the summer for me to start taking chances and meeting new people, rather than trying to fit in with people back here.

The worst thing you can do with your summer is to do nothing at all, or to make it all about getting ready for the upcoming school year, and do nothing to actually enjoy it. And that's what I ended up doing throughout my high school years. I just stayed home all day, and slept in a lot. Let me tell you, staying home everyday and doing nothing is BORING! It also gets really lonely when I'm sitting in my room alone all day playing computer games. It's often hard for me to stick to any kind of goal or plan where I am now due to a few environmental factors, but that's all going to change this summer. 

I want to make Summer 2013 the best summer I've ever had, and change my life for the better. I want to actually enjoy the summer time, rather then think about college the entire time. I also want to challenge you guys to make this the best summer ever, and do all of the things you want to do, especially if you are shy like I am. Take chances, you never know what good may come out of it! Please, tell me the things you want to do over the summer!

This Summer I Want To Am Going To...

-Move To A New Place, I will be moving up to where my dad lives this summer, an hour away from where I live now. A new place to live comes with so many opportunities. From decorating my room to how I want it, to having new things to do and meeting new people. 

-Get my driver's license. Yea.. I'm 19, graduating, and still haven't gotten my license. It's hard to go many places without a license, LOL! I am terrified of learning to drive, and to get on the road, but I am also excited that I'll have my own car, and I won't need to be driven around anymore. 

-Get out of the house and not sleep all day, like I've said, I have a terrible habit of spending my summer indoors playing on the computer, and sleeping until 3 p.m. What a waste of a day! I need to get myself up at 10 am, not to early, but not to late either, and get outside more often. Even if it's just going for a walk, it's better then spending the day trapped in my room.

-Go to fun places, and to summer festivals. I would love to go to a place like Cedar Point if I can, but that can be very pricey. But that doesn't mean I can't find local festivals and celebrations to go to and enjoy. I haven't been to a community festival since middle school, and at the time I was limited by my mom on what I could do there. This summer I want to go to a 4th of July celebration, and not just go to watch fireworks, but to hang with people and have a good time too. I want to go to community festivals and celebrations and meet new friends. I want to make the best of everything this summer. I want to try to get to the beach, and to the pool as often as I can, and just have a good summer time before it gets all cold and icky again.

-Meet new people, make friends, this is probably the most important thing to me, and why moving is such an opportunity for me. I will have a fresh start with people who don't know my past, and can't judge me based on my actions in my younger years. This is my chance to become more outgoing, be a nicer person, and show people the best side of me. I haven't had the best experiences in the past, and I'll tell you more about that later on in the summer. It means so much to be to be able to go out and meet some amazing new people to hang out with, get to know, and become friends with, without them knowing my dark past. The most important thing to me is just meeting some nice girls (and boys as well) to just be great friends, and to make memories with. And who knows... I may even find a boy I'll fall in love with this summer. But I'll just see where this summer goes.

-BLOG! BLOG! BLOG! I can't forget about you guys! I love blogging so much, and school has really slowed me down over the last couple months. I have so many ideas on what to blog about. I also plan to start that YouTube channel I said I was going to start back in January.

-Work on bettering myself. A typical summer goal for me, eat healthier and exercise, work on being a nicer person, ect... But this year I don't just want to do it for college... but for the people I will meet over the summer and throughout life. 

If I can I would love to do these things as well...

-Change my hair, I've never colored my hair before. I'd love to get some brown highlights! Maybe even get some layers too!

-Get a tattoo! I really want to get a cute or really pretty tattoo sometime... I already have ideas on what I wan't to get! I don't wanna go to crazy and get like, sleeves, but a cute tattoo would be nice. 

-Go to a fun place like Cedar Point. I've been to Cedar Point a few times with my high school choir... but our time was limited and some people didn't want to go on certain rides. I'd love to go with a few friends when I can afford to go!

-Go to a Blood On The Dance Floor concert!! I've mentioned many times how much I love BOTDF, and I have never been to a concert in my life. This is looking more towards fall.. but they will be playing near where I live on September 15! It would make for an amazing night.. just to be able to see them. I'd love to meet Dahvie and Jayy! 

Spring Into A Healthier Lifestyle

As the weather starts to warm up (well, hopefully anyways, it's still cold here) and we move into spring, I feel it's time to start setting a few new goals for myself, and also revisit some of the ones I've made before but have never really worked much towards. Perhaps even revisit some of the New Year's Resolutions that I pushed to the wayside. Spring is a time for new beginnings and fresh starts, and a perfect time to start working towards your goals. One of my biggest goals this spring is to start living a healthier lifestyle and get fit for summer. Not only to look better, but to feel better and live a healthier life as well. I admittedly eat primarily junk food, and a lot of it, on top of not getting much exercise. I'll eat because I'm bored or upset, and for other reasons other then actual hunger. I go for the packaged snacks and sweet treats because they are the most convenient, just because I'm to lazy to actually cook something. This is certainly not at all a healthy way of eating, and it needs to change. But I know that I need to have a good plan and motivation if I plan on going about this and actually sticking to it.

The first step is to think of your motivation. Why do you want to start eating healthier and exercise more? If you are only doing it to lose weight, you are much more likely to slip back into your old habits. When all you want is to look better, it can be very discouraging when the weight doesn't come off the way you thought it would... Or if you gain a  few pounds. Trust me, I've been there before, and I went right back into my old habits because I didn't even think of doing it for anything other then weight loss. Certainly losing some weight can be a part of or your motivation, but it shouldn't be your only motivation. Improving and preserving your health, living longer, and feeling better should be the real motivation to changing your eating and exercise habits. It's a known fact that better nutrition can help to reduce your risk of developing serious health problems down the road, it can even help to improve some existing medical conditions.

Once you have the proper motivation in place, it's time to start thinking of the actual plan. This is another area that you need to be careful with, as it's very easy to set something really unrealistic and hard to stick to. It's always best to start small and take baby steps. Certainly there should be a little bit of a challenge to it, but it shouldn't be nearly impossible to stick to. Take baby steps to the lifestyle you want, and once you get there, don't forget to keep at it, no matter what, keep the healthy lifestyle going. But if you are anything like me, it would be highly unrealistic to say that you're going to get an hour of vigorous exercises a day and cut out all junk food right away. I know I wouldn't be able to stick to this and I would slip out of it rather quickly. I will share with you my own plan to start living healthier to give you a few ideas. But remember, everyone is different and has different habits, so you should adjust based on whats best for you. 

My Plan To Start A Healthier Lifestyle

-Watch when and why I'm eating. I tend to eat when I'm bored, when I'm in a bad mood, or because someone mentions food to me. Not always just because I'm hungry. I often find myself venturing into the kitchen late into the night to grab a snack simply because I'm just bored or maybe feel a little hungry... even if I should be going to bed soon. I need to pay more attention to whether I'm actually hungry or if I'm just bored before I go get something to eat.

-Drink more water rather then eating. Often times when we confuse hunger with thirst. So if I start to feel a bit hungry (or bored), I'm going to go for a glass of water rather then going for a snack. Not only will water often settle the hungry feeling, but there are also many health and beauty benefits to drinking water as well. Drinking water helps to flush toxins out of your body and keeps you from getting dehydrated. Drinking water can even help your skin! 

-Watch what I eat and how much I eat. Because there is generally nobody home to cook dinner after school, I'll eat anything, primarily sweets and snacks for dinner. I know I could never cut out these yummy treats completely, but I need to eat less of them. For now I plan to cut down my sweets intake to one or two things a day. I also plan on actually cooking something for dinner at least twice a week, and watching my portion sizes when I cook. I need to pay attention to serving sizes rather then eating until I'm full. 

-Go for healthier options at school. My school serves some pretty awesome tasting lunches sometimes. And while they aren't the worst thing for you, they aren't the best either. A school lunch can have over 1000 calories in it, that's half a day's calories in one meal. My school does however, have healthier options rather then the regular lunch. I tend to go for their salad tray when I don't like the lunch they are serving. Which is rarely... Even though some lunches aren't my favorite, I still kind of like them so I get them anyways. I now plan on getting the salad tray a lot more often, almost daily. I know there's some lunches I can't give up, and I will still buy the regular lunch on those days, and on days when salad trays aren't available. 

-Start doing some short, moderate workouts. I am not very active at all, and I know I can't jump right into doing daily long, vigorous workouts. While I do plan on eventually getting to the point where I'm doing longer and harder workouts, for now I'm going to start small. To start off I'm going to try to get in a 10 minute workout everyday, and just do some things to get moving such as dancing like a weirdo to my favorite songs, or going for a walk or maybe even a jog when then weather gets a little nicer. Even simply walking the dog a bit is a great work out. I want to make my workouts fun and enjoyable. Play music while you get active, it makes it a lot more fun! Play songs that make you happy, or pump you up and get you moving. When I feel that I'm ready for it, I'll increase my exercise time in 5 minute increments.

What are some of the ways you stay healthy and stay in shape?

*Disclaimer: I am not a doctor or a dietitian. This will not replace any professional or medical advice. This is only my plan to work towards a healthier lifestyle, and may not work for everyone. My ideas have come from prior knowledge as well as things I have learned in a class or have researched. 

*WARNING: If you have or suspect you may have any current medical conditions, see a doctor before starting any exercise or dieting regimen. If you start to feel sick or start feeling pain stop what you are doing. If it persists seek medical attention. 

Get Organized For Spring

Let's face it, we could all do something to get a little, or a lot more organized. Whether it be for school, or cleaning up your room. I'm someone that could use a lot of reorganization in both, LOL. It's a proven fact that more organization makes your like easier and more efficient as you don't need to scramble to find things when everything has a place, and everything is in it's place. However, it can be really easy to get unorganized, even to the point where everything becomes a mixed up, jumbled up mess, and mess often equals stress. And with spring break coming up shortly, I wanna try my best to eliminate this stress now rather then dealing with it over spring break. 

So let's start with what I see as the big thing, cleaning up your room. The room where, if you are anything like me, we spend most of our time. Our room should be a serene little get away from stress, a place to relax. It should also be a place where you can find everything you need, and run through things smoothly. These things are nearly impossible when you need to dig through jumbled up piles of stuff and mixed up bins to find something, just to find it isn't where you thought it was. And it's certainly not relaxing to look at piles of clothes on the floor, and a mixed up pile of jewelry and make-up, and in extreme cases not even being able to walk. Surely it's not always that extreme, and maybe you just have a couple of things out of order. Or maybe your current system of organization isn't doing you as well as it could. There's always at least a little something you could do. 

The most important thing to remember when it comes to cleaning your room is to take baby steps, especially if your room is a total disaster, and only work on one area at a time. What I like to do is to have a large area (such as my bed) to organize everything into categories on. Whatever you choose to organize with is up to you. I'll clear all of the pillows and blankets off my bed so I have a nice surface to work with, then I'll start working on my room one area at a time. If you have a messy floor, I'd suggest cleaning this up first so that you have more room to walk around as you work on everything else. Start in a corner and work your way across the room, putting things into their category as you go.

After you have your floor cleaned up you can then begin working on clearing up and organizing the things on the shelves into categories. I would clear everything off completely, so that you can dust the surface off. Dust can make it really hard to feel comfortable in a room, especially if you have any allergies or other breathing problems such a asthma. I like to dust each surface off as I work, and then take the items that I want from each catagory and place it back on that surface so I can get it where I want it quicker, you can place them and organize them further later on after you have all of your shelves cleaned off. As I work I like to place items I had misplaced in other parts on the room in the area where they belong, rather than in a pile. Once you have everything cleaned off and categorised into the right part of the room, you can start setting things up and "fine tuning" a bit. And don't forget to do any laundry you may have and wash your bedding just to freshen things up a bit. :)

I actually find the fine tuning and organizing part of cleaning to be rather enjoyable. I love to arrange things in an appealing way on my shelves. Arrange things in a way that looks good, and works best for you. Keep things that you use often within easy reach. It wouldn't make sense to put your favorite mascara at the bottom of your make-up drawer, or to put your daily essentials on a hard to reach shelf. I personally like to keep all of these things up front or in an easy to reach basket. I like to keep all of the beauty products and make-up brushes I use often in a little basket so that I can easily bring them to the bathroom with me in the morning, and not have to pull the products out of my drawers and put them back everyday. As for the rest of my make-up I like to organize it by type, and by area of the face it goes. I also kind of organize by packaging. There are so many ways to organize make-up whether it be by type, packaging, brand, color, or even frequency of use. Whatever helps you out and keeps you organize, or whatever you want to try, go for it.

As you work through reorganizing your room, you may want to grab your school things and straighten them up a bit as well. You can also do this in a study hall when you have nothing else to do. Reorganize things to the way you had them at the beginning of the year. I recently got a bit careless and started cramming papers wherever i could. My pshycology book has become my folder for every class, and it's really hard to find the papers I need. Surely I may not need to look over any old papers for final exams (seniors in my school don't take finals), but it's always good to stay in practice for college, and to just be able to find the right papers to study for a chapter test, or the homework I need to turn in. You may also want to use some pretty colored duck tape to tape up any damaged folders or binders to help them last until the end of the year without getting shabbier. Remember, there is still at least a quarter left of school, and you still want to get the best grades possible.

After you are all organized and you have everything how you want it, think of how nice it feels to be organized. Knowing you can find everything you need when you need it. Sitting in a fresh clean, organized room feels so much better then sitting in an unorganized mess. And always keep at your organization methods. It doesn't take much time to place things where they belong. Avoid throwing something something in the wrong spot and saying you'll take care of it later. One careless throwing of something in the wrong spot can lead to another careless placement, gradually building back into a mess. And if you start getting frustrated or stressed out when your cleaning, remember, it's okay to take breaks. Get some fresh air, grab a quick snack, or even watch a little TV. Just get back to work as soon as you clear your mind a little bit. Don't feel like you need to rush, take your time and take baby steps.

Are you always organized, or do you tend to get a huge mess sometimes? How do you like to stay organized? How do you like going about your spring cleaning? 

Stop Procrastinating, Stay On Top Of Things

Admit it, we all procrastinate sometimes. We've all put off writing that huge research paper, doing our chores, and other things that, we just don't want to do. We tell ourselves, "I'll do it in an hour," but then that hour becomes two hours, and eventually "I'll do it tomorrow". Sometimes it'll even go beyond that, and we find ourselves scrambling at the last minute to get something done. I myself, am a terrible procrastinator. I'll put off just about anything for as long as I can, whether it be homework, waking up, leaving for school in the morning, or even applying for college. Sometimes I'll even put off doing things I enjoy doing, such as blogging. It's not  always that I don't want to do it, it's that I get distracted doing other things.

Often times, we put off things because we are either distracted by something else, we want to avoid stress, or we simply don't want to do it. It's really easy to spend the whole night on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube rather than cleaning your room or doing your research paper, or to go hang out with your best friend instead of doing your homework. We would all prefer to do something fun over something stressful. But in all honesty, putting things off causes you more stress than just doing them straight away. You get that nagging little voice in that back of your head that keeps saying "You should being doing [insert task here] right now", and it keeps you from having as good of a time as you would if you had done it already. The voice nags you everywhere you go, and through everything you do. And when you finally get to it at the last minute, you wish you would have used your time more wisely, because it's taking even longer than you anticipated, and you know you won't do as well as you would have if you would have been working on it from the beginning. 

When it comes to large assignments, we're typically given more than enough time to get it done, and sometimes we're even given class time to work on them. One of my first steps to beating procrastination is to actually use this class time to work on the assignment, whether it be big or small. It gives you less work to do outside of class, and less to take home. It also gives you the opportunity to as for help if you need it. Don't mess around on the internet or use this time to chat with the people around you. You may even inspire your friends to get to work on their assignments as well if they see you working. And if you have a study hall, use that to get as much of your project done as you can as well if you don't have any other homework due the next day (or the same day). Doing homework that you've been assigned before study hall will lighten you load of homework for when you get home. However, don't save all of your homework to do the next day in study hall. Some assignments may take longer then one study hall to complete, and you might not always get done. Especially if you are in a lot of classes that give homework often. Take what you didn't get done in study hall home. If you have a large project, work on it for a certain amount of time each night at home, 15 minutes to an hour a night would be a good time frame. Or making sure you made a certain amount of progress each night, for example, writing one page of your essay a night. You may even get done early and not have to worry about it near the due date. I will post an example of a project schedule in the future.

You'll also want to set a certain time in which to start doing your homework. Be sure to give yourself a little time to unwind before you begin, and allow some time for a small snack. Don't make it to late at night, and don't set it much more than an hour after you get home. And don't start doing anything that might delay for from starting your homework. When the time comes, no excuses, get off of your favorite website and turn off the TV, and get to work on your homework. If you find yourself getting over stressed, take a short 5 minute break and maybe get a glass of water. Don't start doing other things like going on Facebook or watching TV. You can listen to music while you do your homework as long as it won't become a distraction. The less breaks you take,and the more you focus, the more time you get to yourself at night. Time to chat with your friends and read a book of your choice without that nagging "Do your homework!" :)

Scheduling out specific times a day to do the things you have to do, and going by those times is the first step in breaking the habit of procrastination. Set a time to wake-up, leave for school, start your homework, get ready for bed, and go to bed, and anything else you may need to do and stick to it. You can also schedule certain days and times to do certain chores. If you are given a list of chores to do, it's best to just get it out of the way and do it right away, rather than just thinking about it, or possibly forgetting about it completely and getting in trouble, or disappointing someone. 

Procrastination is easy to fall victim to, especially when you're surrounded with distractions, and it's up to you to avoid them. If your homework doesn't require you to use a computer, it's best that you shut your computer off, along with the TV and your cellphone. Resist the urge to check your text messages or see whats tending on Twitter. If you do need to use the computer, stay off of your favorite websites and close out all instant messaging programs. You may even want to put a temporary block on these websites. Many anti-virus programs allow you to block and unblock certain websites. Some even allow you to block the use of certain programs. But again, this is of your own will to block this websites until you finish your work. Don't allow yourself to use or do anything distracting until you are done with what you need to get done. 

How do you plan to beat procrastination? How do you keep yourself on top of thing? Remember, you'll always enjoy yourself better without your own mind nagging at you :)

Keeping Your New Years Resolutions

Many of us make several different New Year's resolutions. Perhaps you want to lose some weight to look, and feel better. Or we want to break a bad habit, try new things, become better as a person, or even start focusing more on something we enjoy doing. Sometimes we do really well with them, other times we don't. And I'm going to be completely honest with you guys, I often find them hard to keep. We all know that it's easy to say we are going to do something, but actually carrying it out is the hard part. I often find myself getting disappointed when things don't work out as planned right away, and I'm sure that many others have as well. And as the days move along, the excitement of a New Year often subsides, along with some of our resolutions. 

This year, one of my New Year's resolutions is to keep trying, even if thing's don't work out as planned in the beginning. Always remember, nobody's perfect, especially when it comes to trying to new things or breaking a bad habit, or when trying to make improvements to your own outlook on life. It's sort of like you won't be a pro make-up artist the first time you put on make-up, or a professional athlete the first time you step onto the field or court. Nor can you expect to completely lose a bad habit, change your entire outlook on life, or start doing great in one or your lesser subjects right away. Whatever the goal is, you need to work at it, and never ever give up!

Make plans for how you're going to go about your New Year's resolutions, and be realistic. If one of your goals is to lose a few pounds, or to just become a little healthier, you can't just say "I will not eat any sweets and I'll only eat 3 meals a day." This would be difficult to stick to, especially if you're anything like me and tend to eat at the first sign of hunger, or as a reaction to boredom or stress. Something more like, "I will limit the amount of sweets I eat, make healthier snack choices, and drink more water rather than constantly eating," would be much easier to stick to, and allows you some leeway. Or if one of your New Year's resolutions is to do better in a certain class, you might want to start asking that teacher, even if you don't like them very much, for help.

Don't forget to reward yourself for following your plans, if gives you something to look forward to. A week of healthy eating can be rewarded by a nice desert at the end of the week. Or getting a certain score on a big test or report card can be rewarded by buying a new outfit, or beauty product you've always wanted to try. Whatever you choose as your reward, just be sure it's something that makes you happy. Perhaps your reward can even be the satisfaction of success. 

Let's make 2013 the best year yet. Remember, every year has it's up's and down's. Always live every day to the fullest and keep your head up! :) What do you want to accomplish this year? 

Here are some of my New Year's resolutions for 2013 :)

-Start eating healthier, and get into better shape. I tend to eat whenever, and whatever. I'll even eat a large meal late at night around bedtime, simply because I'm bored or upset, eek! And I'll mostly go for sugar filled snacks throughout the day, not just as special treats. This is a habit that I certainly need to break. I need to better plan out my meals, and start eating something for breakfast (and potato chips are NOT for breakfast), drink more water in place of some of my snacks, and choose smaller and healthier snacks to satisfy my hunger, and turn to something I enjoy doing rather than food when my emotions are getting the better of me. And of course some light exercises are in order as well.

-Move Forward with life. I'm about to enter my very last semester of high school. It's time to start growing up, and letting go of the past. The past is the past, and as much as we'd all love to sometimes, we can't go back to it. I need to focus more on the friends I have now, rather than wishing I could have some of my friends from 2 years ago back. Life's to short to worry about what happened yesterday. And not only do I need to enjoy the present, but I also need to start working towards the future. I really need to get to work on searching for a good college, I'm already behind, and this is the year to get of my lazy behind and find a job. Perhaps I could even try to get a job at one of my favorite stores. 

-Try to be better as a person. This year, I should start being a little more social with people I wouldn't normally talk to. Even giving someone a simple smile or hello can really make someone's day. It wouldn't hurt to say good morning to someone walking down the street on my way to school, rather then turning up the music on my iPod and looking away just because I'm a grump in the morning. I'd also like to start helping my mom out a little more by doing a few things around the house, and even try to get involved more in the community. 

-Break bad habits. Everyone has a bad habit of some kind, and some are worse then others. My worst habits would probably be procrastination, a terrible sleep schedule, and bored/ emotional eating. Nail biting is also a very nasty habit that I need too break. 

-I want to really focus on the things that I love. I absolutely love beauty, and I love blogging. I want to try new make-up looks and hairstyles, and share them with you. I want to really get a start on having my own beauty channel on YouTube, and write the best blog posts I can for you guys, and get videos and blog posts out as often as I can. I'm hoping to upload a video to YouTube sometime this, or next week. If you are interested, my channel is: http://www.youtube.com/user/AngelicGlitter feel free to subscribe to my channel, as well a follow my blog posts. :) 

-And finally.... NEVER GIVE UP!