Monday 9 July 2012

7 Things ... for 7 weeks? || Week 1

Recently I got my exam results for the first year of uni,  a 2:1 which I'm really pleased about :) However,  between returning to uni and now I have quite a lot of free time on my hands which I want to utilise to the best of my ability to improve my mind and body, and generally enjoy the little things in life a bit more (I had a bit of a rough year last year, but that's another story all together!).

So, to enable myself to do this, between the seven weeks starting today and ending on the last week of August I'm cheekily borrowing one of the lovely Louise's ideas and setting myself seven routine goals to achieve over the space of 7 weeks (instead of her 7 days). I want to achieve each of the following things once per week from now until then:


1. Read a book for leisure: this week in my attempt to become content during summer, I'm ironically going to read 'The Winter of Our Discontent' by John Steinbeck. I've had this book on my reading list for a while but have rarely had the time to read for pleasure at uni.


2. Learn a piece of music (a song) on guitar or piano: I really want to become competent at playing the keyboard this summer, and have just ordered this to help me do it!


3. Paint/draw something: I've always enjoyed art and it was my best mark at GCSE,  so I'm not too bad at it, but I never practise it anymore. I want to change that in the next few weeks and build up a little portfolio to remind me of the summer. It might even become a little hobby of mine to help me de-stress in the years to come if I enjoy it :)


4. Eat healthily: I put on quite a bit of weight in my first year of university - I blame all the alcohol :o. I want to keep a food diary of everything I eat and try to cut out certain food groups in order to become more healthy  and to shift the weight. I'll also be partaking in intermittent fasting, as explained here by the hilarious yet informative Hodge Twins. I'll explain more on a forthcoming post!


5. Exercise regularly: I plan to go to the gym every morning from Monday - Saturday, whilst simultaneously completing the Jillian Micheals' 30 Day Shred in the evenings. To make a record my work-outs and diet I'll be using this awesome app called noom! I'll most likely be making a diet/fitness/weight-loss post at the end of every week in order to monitor my progress and share it with anyone who wants to read it!


6. Create: write or make something new every week. This is pretty vague but it can include writing on this blog, focusing on my own personal writing, or possibly even thrifting from charity shops and customising the unique pieces I find with my own hand. Either way, the goal here is to be creative!


7. Read something academic: This can be from one of the many books I have sneakily loaned from my university library over the summer, something from New Scientist, or my personal favourite magazine: Scientific American Mind. I wouldn't be a proper uni student if I wasn't trying to expand my knowledge in some way over the holidays now would I? 



Well, that's it! Of course while striving towards these particular goals I will continue to try to do new things during the holiday and make photographic evidence of it all through Instagram. 

I will also be making a weekly '7 things' post to see if I achieved my goals for that week! :)

What goals do you have for over the summer?

Hollie 
xx

3 comments:

  1. love this post!

    i should probably do a post like this tooo x

    www.divagirlstrikesagain.blogspot.co.uk

    Natali xox

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  2. Learning to play something on an instrument is so satisfying! :)

    The Style Diagnostic

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  3. love to read your plans to better your lifestyle. I should really plan out something like a goal to work on as well. And I also plan on doing fasting to flush out some of the toxins. I really need that :)
    would you like to follow each other?
    A
    xx
    http://epiquemoi.blogspot.com

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