MONTHLY REFLECTIONS: OCTOBER 2020

Posted on October 20, 2020October 19, 2020 Posted in A DAY IN THE LIFETagged #2020, #ahealthierme, #alwaystrynewthings, #ashforduniversity, #autumnleaves, #BAinCommunicationsStudies, #balance, #betterme, #blessed, #blogger, #booksforoctober, #challenges, #collegestudent, #contentwithless, #GodsLove, #goodvibes, #hellooctober, #itsgoingtobeok, #mentalhealthiswealth, #minimalismISinmyfuture, #monthlyreflections1 Comment

Good morning. ☀️

It is now Tuesday.

I wanted to go over my goals for this month with you all today.

If you haven’t read the post, click here to check it out. Earlier this month, I wrote a blog post, talking about the goals that I wanted to accomplish. Some of them, I’m still working on, others I haven’t started on yet so I’ll transfer them over to next month for November.

Here were the goals that I established for October 2020:
• Create a vision board
• Have a fall outing with friends
• Document Fitober- blog series
• Read two books: one for personal development and one for fun
• Declutter each room in the apartment
• Sketch
• Keep a dream journal
• Have a Halloween Night with friends

Out of the eight goals I’ve written, I’m working on or accomplished four. Not bad right? Allow me to explain. Let’s start with the blog series.

DOCUMENT FITOBER
Even though I no longer have a category that says fitober, I’m still sharing with you all my health updates through the weekly updates. But, looking through my blog, I’ve decided that starting next month, I’ll give you all two posts in this subject: the first sharing where I am since I started September the 24th (click here to read that post), and then the second post will be an overall update on how I’ve progress over the month of November. It will be a challenge since we have the holidays coming up soon. And you know Thanksgiving offers yummy food and treats, so I’ll have to strategize on how to fight the temptation.

READ TWO BOOKS
My reading speed is still at the speed of a tortoise, but that’s ok. I’m learning from both “The Power of Habit” & “Living by the Book.” For next month, I think I’ll read one book. I probably aimed a little too high with two books for this month, so next month, we’ll take baby steps again, and focus on one book. But, I’ll share my insights with you all on the two soon before October ends.

DECLUTTER MY APARTMENT
I’m proud to announce that I’m almost finished with this goal. Saturday and Sunday, my family and I got the job done. They helped me out tremendously, and I’m not stressed, I don’t feel overwhelmed, I feel like this huge weight is lifted, and I just need to keep up my end of things, and maintain a clean apartment. With less stuff, I think that will be simple to do.

HAVE A HALLOWEEN NIGHT
On the 30th, I’m hosting a Hocus Pocus night with a few friends. I’ll keep you all in the loop on what movies we’re watching, the tricks and treats we’re having, and how you can host your own Hocus Pocus party for next year.

Well, that’s all for this morning. The remaining goals I will transfer over into November. So, look out for a November Reflections coming soon. I’ll check in with you all later on.

Happy reading!

Until next time…

❤️

CREATING A FINANCIAL PLAN

Posted on October 13, 2020 Posted in A SYSTEMATIC BIPOLAR BEAUTYTagged #2020, #ahealthierme, #alwaystrynewthings, #BAinCommunicationsStudies, #balance, #betterme, #blogger, #booksforoctober, #goodvibes, #inspiration, #itsgoingtobeok, #mentalhealthiswealth, #monthlyreflections, #motivation, #newgoals, #nospend, #notstressed2 Comments

Good morning.

Happy Tuesday.

Today’s post is an interesting one. As you all know, I’ve made goals for myself for the month of October. If you haven’t read it yet, you can check out the post by clicking here. Well, one of my goals is a goal that I’ve been struggling with the past few years, and that is being in charge of my finances. During my mid-twenties, Mom helped me with my financial plan and I was able to get my first apartment, as well as nice furniture. At this point, I did not indulge in the world of online shopping.

Then the year of 2018 changed my life…

It started with Vera Bradley, which then transferred to Amazon, and then it spilled into my current apartment. I was treating myself every so often, but it got to the point where I wouldn’t realize where most of my money was going. Thank you statements, you revealed to me the ugly truth. Also, I’ll be thirty this year, and I told myself at the beginning of 2020 that I wasn’t going to bring my financial burdens into my thirties. So today’s post is all about creating a financial plan.

WRITE DOWN YOUR PROBLEMS
The first thing you’ll want to do is create a brain dump or mind map of the things that you buy. Anything that comes to your mind at that moment, write it down on paper. If you know the price, write it down. I’ll use myself as an example. For majority of September, and most of this year, I’ve spent money on Amazon and UberEats. I can only imagine what my yearly statement is going to be like, but we’re not going to worry about that right now. Once I did that, I was able to work on the next step which is to create a budget.

CREATE A BUDGET
Next, you’ll want to write out a budget for yourself. To start, I wrote down what I would use my money towards (WISE SPENDING), and what I would stop spending. For instance, for food over the past few months, I’ve been cooking my meals now that I’m being more disciplined with my health. If I’m out with Mom, and we do go out to eat, I’ll use cash instead of my card. Now, I buy enough groceries to last me for majority of the month. I’m more of the healthy eater than Dad at the moment, so if I’m hungry, I’ll get up and cook myself something to eat. I won’t go too much into detail with this part because I think most of us know how to create a budget. If you’re unsure, do your research to figure out how you want to approach it.

READ A FINANCE BOOK
I read articles saying that it is important to familiarize yourself with the area of finances. Growing up, I really didn’t learn much about managing money until I got into early adulthood. Honestly, I’m still learning, but I want to be more disciplined in this area of my life so that I don’t mess things up for myself in the future. So, I got myself a few financial books to learn how to take care of my finances. Also, I’ll read the Word to see what the scriptures say about finances to help guide me in the right direction.

Ok you all. I hope these steps helped you. Again, I’m learning more about myself and trying to become a better version of myself and break away from old habits. I’ll check in with you all later with another post!

Until next time…

❤️

A DAY IN THE LIFE- UPDATE

Posted on October 11, 2020 Posted in A DAY IN THE LIFETagged #2020, #ahealthierme, #alwaystrynewthings, #ashforduniversity, #autumnleaves, #BAinCommunicationsStudies, #balance, #betterme, #blessed, #blogger, #booksforoctober, #challenges, #collegestudent, #fallreading, #God'sGirl, #goodvibes, #grateful, #gyst, #healing, #healthy, #hellofall, #hellooctober, #inspiration, #itsgoingtobeok, #journalingforthesoul, #mentalhealthiswealth, #newgoals, #nomorediabetes, #notstressed, #personalgrowth, #physicalhealthiswealth, #positivevibes, #self-love, blogging, SELF CARELeave a comment

Good evening.

How are you doing? Hope everyone is enjoying their evening and had fun yesterday with World Mental Health Day.

My week has been great. Class is still fun, however I was shocked to find that my teacher didn’t give me a critical thinking question during my discussion post for this week. Also, I’m entering my final week of class, this journey is going by so fast. But I’m enjoying it. Hopefully, he’ll respond on Monday, I enjoy those questions now.

Health has been going good too. Thanks to Trulicity, my blood sugar is under control, and I’ve changed up my eating habits. I realize that I get thirsty in the mornings, so having my water bottle next to my bed has been a game changer. I’ve gotten better sleep on the weekends, still trying to get my full eight during the week, work in progress but that’s ok. I’ve been looking over my tracker and the only thing I still need to work on is a skincare routine.

During my health journey, I’ve noticed my face becoming more oily than usual. It’s time to create an effective skincare routine, continue to drink my water, and take better care of my skin. Also, I noticed I haven’t been good at taking my vitamins, so starting tomorrow, it’s back to taking the multivitamin, Life’s Fortune.

So some things have changed:

Better and longer sleep
Increased water intake
More cooking
Less eating out/less over-eating
More exercise

And here are the things I’m going to incorporate:

Take multivitamin
Start skincare
Do more journaling

I’ve been reading, and that’s helped with my screentime. But, I still manage to come back and endless scroll. Overall, this past week has been a good week.

Ok y’all, the medicine has kicked in and it’s time for me to call it a night. Sweet dreams!

Until next time…

❤️

LIVING BY THE BOOK

Posted on October 8, 2020October 8, 2020 Posted in QUIET TIMES & SPIRITUAL GROWTH, THE JOURNEYTagged #2020, #ahealthierme, #alwaystrynewthings, #autumnleaves, #balance, #betterme, #blogger, #booksforoctober, #challenges, #collegestudent, #God'sGirl, #GodsLove, #GodSpeaks, #goodvibes, #healing, #hellofall, #hellooctober, #HisGirl, #inspiration, #itsgoingtobeok, #journalingforthesoul, #meditation, #mentalhealthiswealth, #motivation, #newgoals4 Comments

Good afternoon.

It is Thursday already? These weeks are going by so fast.

As I mentioned in my last post, I was working on my goal to read more books for the year of 2020. Even though we only have three months left, I decided to start now, and carry my goal out into the following year. On my last entry, I mentioned that I was reading the book “The Power of Habit.” If you haven’t read that post, click here to check it out. I started reading it to help me improve my skills of keeping track of healthier habits, as well as improve on my personal development skills. Well, I have another book that I’ve been reading for my Quiet Time, and it is called “Living by the Book” by Howard G. Hendricks & William D. Hendricks.

Another thing I talk to you all about on this blog is my journey with my spiritual growth. Lately, I have improved on my Quiet Time, however I was have moments where I wasn’t sure I was grasping the lesson discussed during the reading. I heard about the book originally from the channel, Coffee and Bible Time on YouTube. One of the girls mentions that she uses the book as a guide during her Quiet Time sessions. She went into detail explaining how she would read the Bible, but wasn’t sure if she was full understanding the lesson and getting anything out of it. I started the book yesterday. Chapter 1 helped me understand where I was when it came to studying the Bible for myself. Let’s just say, I still have a long way to go on where I want to be and where God wants me to be on my faith walk.

After reading Chapters 1 and 2, it made me feel better that I made the decision to getting this book. I’m also going to be working on a special project for this month that I will share you all soon. I think you’ll enjoy it, and I hope it will help you as much as it helped me. I’ll keep you guys updated on how this book is going, what I’m learning from it, as well as my findings in “The Power of Habit.”

I’ll check in with you all later.

Until next time…

❤️

THE POWER OF HABIT

Posted on October 7, 2020October 7, 2020 Posted in THE JOURNEYTagged #2020, #ahealthierme, #alwaystrynewthings, #autumnleaves, #booksforoctober, #fallreading, #hellofall, #hellooctober, #personalgrowth, #thepowerofhabit1 Comment

Good morning.

One thing I love about the fall season, is that it’s the perfect time to get into reading. Curl up in your comfy chair, wrap up in a blanket, and dive into a good book.

Today’s post is about my reading challenge for October. The first book, “The Power of Habit” is the book I chose for personal growth. The book talks about how habits can have an impact on our everyday lives, healthy and unhealthy.

I started using the Fabulous app, which was a habit tracking app. At first, it was fun and cool to use. Unfortunately, I forgot that I had it, and slowly stopped using it, so I uninstalled it off my phone. But, I then went to my plan B.

I created a habit tracking page in Notion. If you haven’t heard of it, check it out in your app store. It helps with productivity, where you can create your own databases. For me, I use for both my personal life and for my passion projects, and it has been a game changer for me.

The habits I decided to focus on for this month are drinking water as soon as I wake up, have daily and nightly quiet time, practice skincare, be consistent with exercising, read 25 pages a day, and get more than 8 Hours of sleep. I thought that these were simple habits to practice for the month, and can make a difference in my health in the future.

After reading the first chapter of the book, I learned that individuals focused on one thing that helped them develop more healthy habits. I know, I have five, but they all came from the first habit I started on, which was drinking water as soon as I wake up in the morning.

I’ve never did this until the middle of September. I took even more seriously after my health scare two weeks ago. I do feel a difference in my body when I drink water first thing in the morning, I feel like I have a little more energy.

So today, I challenge you to focus on one habit, it can be for a week, a month, it can be for a year if your need a year. That’s ok. Start with one and see how many habits can impact your life over time. I’ll keep you all updated on how the book is going, and what I’m learning along the way.

Well, time for me to plan the rest of my day. I’ll check in with you all later.

Until next time…

❤️

The Gabby Diaries

Tag: #booksforoctober

MONTHLY REFLECTIONS: OCTOBER 2020

CREATING A FINANCIAL PLAN

A DAY IN THE LIFE- UPDATE

LIVING BY THE BOOK

THE POWER OF HABIT