H E L E N A

Definitely worst accountability plan to date.

So I last posted February, but I am SO GLAD of everything I’ve gone through these past few months.

I’ve been so overwhelmed by everything. I learned so many things about others and myself that the world ended up looking so different. But here I am, months after my last post actually glowing from the self-development. 

It hasn’t been all rainbows and sunshine, it got really dark for a while there.

For starters, I found out that my long term on-again off-again thing had things outside ours. I was honestly so so devastated. I guess I was already expecting it, given all my experience from 7 years past. He did some things to totally destroy my trust and I honestly hate how loving and kind I am to have forgiven him AGAIN. Love makes you stupid, but I guess I’m that extra level of stupid. 

The bright side though was that it got the ball rolling. 

It made me question EVERYTHING about my goals, my self. I realized I wasn’t taking care of myself the way I should have been. My first attempt at self-recovery actually involved buying some healthy food and doing meal prep. Lo and behold, I lost 9 pounds on the first month! I didn’t realize just how bad my caloric surplus was until I started shedding the weight. Best of all, everyone noticed! Definitely helped with my self-confidence -- here I was, someone who’s struggled for years to get myself back on track, yet I managed to do it no thanks to anyone else!

 The power is in YOU.

The most important thing I realized tbh ^ On top of that, I received my NMAT score and !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I GOT A STAGGERING 99 ON THE EXAM WITH MINIMAL TO NO PREP thanks to my lazy ass. BUT YA GIRL MADE IT THROUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Things are definitely looking up. 

1. I am slowly but surely working on all my pending paperwork as a consultant.

2. I have caught up with all paperwork as a clinical supervisor.

3. I am slowly and steadily losing weight!

4. I have lost 8% body fat. So many more to go, but progress is progress!

5. We are getting a professional fee raise!

6. We are scheduled for a Boracay summer vacation next week.

7. I am slowly but surely patching things up with my thing, with the strict knowledge that I am not desperate enough to chase after someone. 

I hope by the time I get back on the blog, I have more good news.

Basic monthly tracker of my repeating expenses!

Want a copy? Send me a message!

Let’s conquer our financial goals together!

I have to admit, I wasn’t very keen on returning to my personal trainer today. BUT I was sick all day. I guess my first session was made worse by the impending disease that planned to ravage my soul. I didn’t even make it to work today!

I slept through most of the day; only really waking up when my parents and sister got home at around 3:30PM. Lordy.

However! I would like to commend myself for some of the small achievements I made today.

1. I applied for PhilHealth, finally! - No confirmation yet, but at least I did it!

2. I applied for my 2nd bimonthly professional fee - yaaaas moneeyyy

3. Printed my NMAT ID and Practice sets - Ready to dominate!!!

4. Gave my friend K some pirated testing stimuli for her first evaluation as a working girl!! Waah I am so excited for her!!

5. Made my own, and printed(!), yearly finance overview. I will upload a photo of it after this post!

6. We brought our youngest baby tababoy Biscuit buddy to the Vet today for his occasional groom and to check out some very serious scabs all over his skin. - He’s fine now by the way. Sleepy. *sad*

7. I finally got the 785 pesos from Shopee for selling my preloved MSA reviewers WAAAAY below price.

8. Discussed selling my Dell laptop in exchange for a Macbook Air!

But of course, with every achievement in life, I definitely had some setbacks today.

1. I ate medium Mcdonalds fries huhu I am so ashamed

2. I also ate a bowl of Bicol Express rice topping at 12MN, with side snacks of Magic Flakes (3 flavors)

3. I didn’t get anything done - pending papers, upcoming lecture

And that basically summarizes my day!

Day 1 Breakdown

Health: -2

Academics: +1

Social: +1

Career: -1

Finances: +1

Self-Improvement: 0

Organization: +2

Travels: 0

This is it!

I am listing all my new year’s resolutions here. I will be dividing them into their respective areas: health, academics, social, career, finances, self-improvement, organization, and travels. I am claiming it: 2019 is MY year.

Health

Physical Activity

1. At the end of 11 months, I will lose 40 pounds through a combination of physical activity (see next goal) and calorie deficits (see food goals).

a.  At the end of each month, I will lose 3-4 pounds as evidenced by end-of-the-month weigh-ins through a combination of thrice a week workouts and calorie deficit of at least 150 calories per day.

> January Starting Weight: 150 pounds cry

2. At the end of 11 months, I will workout at Anytime Fitness in at least 140 sessions for 1 hour each.

a. At the end of each week, I will workout at Anytime Fitness thrice a week (Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays)

Mental Health

1. At the end of 11 months, I will decrease my phone screentime use to 1 non-continuous hour a day by using it only to replying and writing messages to patients, interacting with friends, checking emails, updating my Instagram (see social goal) and getting updated regarding recent events that may affect my future schedules. 

a. At the end of March, I will decrease my phone screentime use to 1 hour 45 minutes a day by deleting game and reading apps only used to pass dead time.

b. At the end of May, I will decrease my phone screentime use to 1 hour 30 minutes a day by strictly ending phone use by 9PM every night.

> Current screentime total use: 2 hours 12 minutes

2. At the end of 11 months, I will sleep at exactly 10PM every night.

a. At the end of February, I will set an alarm for 30 minutes before bedtime to prepare by turning off the lights, setting all gadgets aside, and turning on the aircon.

> Current bed time: 1AM nightly

Physical Appearance

1. At the end of 11 months, I will follow a strict skin-care regimen twice a day everyday.

a. At the end of April, I will follow strict skin-care regimen for the face twice a day through the use of my Ponds Acne Facial Wash, Belo Sunscreen, Garnier Micellar Cleanser, and Bello Night Moisturizer

b. At the end of July, I will follow a strict skin-care regimen for the body twice a day through the use of Dove Liquid Soap in shower, and Nivea Intensive Moisture lotion post-shower.

> Current use: Ponds Acne Facial Wash (thrice a week)?? Nivea lotion (once a week)?? Super inconsistent

2. At the end of 11 months, I will put on basic make-up (mascara, lip balm + tint, powder foundation) whenever I am going out of the house.

a. At the end of March, I will consistently use lip balm at least once an hour whether I am inside or outside the house.

b. At the end of May, I will consistently use mascara + lip balm with touch-ups every 3 hours when I am outside the house.

> Current use: NONE

Academics

NMAT

1. On the March NMAT Exam, I WILL GET A 95 PERCENTILE RANK through a vigorous self-studying using Khan Academy MCAT Test prep and NMAT provided practice set. 

By the end of February, I will have finished one physics and one chemistry lesson per day.

Hi! I’m Helena. 

I’m a 22-year old speech-language pathologist with lots of room for self-improvement.

I know it’s weird to be starting this blog one month into the year, but January is definitely always a trial phase. This was the month I learned of major adjustments in my goals so I guess I can safely say this is the perfect time to really get down to business.

At this point in time, I am not happy with myself. 

I wouldn’t call this my lowest point, but it’s a low point. To this day I feel the effects of my late night binge eating, my lack of sleep, my complacency, over-escalation of drama, you name it. I’ve tried to change some of these things, and I believe in myself that I achieved some small milestones - but when will it ever be enough? I guess it really is hard to quantify achievements if they’re not written down. Heck, in my line of work I need to use data sheets to ensure the progress of my kids (which unfortunately I don’t always do -- working on it!). So I thought to myself, how do I make myself more accountable? 

Why don’t I start a blog?

We once had this class on data collection, and our kind speaker (who is now technically my boss) introduced us to a man who kept himself accountable to all his goals through his website. Unfortunately, I don’t remember his name. I’ll update you when I remember. But going back to the point, he set down SMART goals for himself and used his website as a platform to keep himself accountable. And he did it!

With even more inspiration from the most recent movie I watched, Julie & Julia, this is the product.