4 Happy Choices I’ve Made That Changed Me For The Better

I like coffee and I want to drink it. 

So for a few weeks, maybe a month, I decided I was going to try to be this uber health goddess who didn’t drink coffee. It made me a little jittery and my stomach a little upset, so I figured I’d stick to tea. Each morning I’d wake up, have hot lemon water and some green tea and head to school.

Then, I would see everyone with their coffee. I couldn’t even smile at people as I walked by. I just eyed their coffee. Iced coffee. Hot coffee. Coffee in a to-go mug. Coffee from Starbucks. Cold brew coffee. And I just wanted it all.

Turns out, when I really thought of it, coffee made me jittery when I had more than one cup. And it made my stomach upset when I had soy milk, but coconut and almond milk was fine.

And you know what? I simply like MAKING coffee. In a french press. A Keurig. An espresso machine. I love the rhythm of it. It’s meditative.

So I decided – screw it. I’m a coffee girl. I like a cup of coffee in the morning. After that, I’m good. But I will not deprive myself! (V good decision FYI.)

Running is cool, but the gym is less of a beating.

Remember when I ran 3 times a week and hit an 8 mile run at least once in a week? Yup. Same. You know why I did that? I was training. I needed to be able to do long distance running, so I just had to put on my sneakers and go. Now that I’m not trying to push towards a race, I can do whatever I really feel like my body wants in terms of exercise.

For a while I felt guilty. Running gave me such a high and made me feel great afterwards, but the more I pushed myself to do it, the harder and less fun it became. And then I wouldn’t get a work out at all – I’d just get discouraged.

I started going to the gym with my sisters and doing circuit training as well as a lot of plyometric exercises. Switching it up made me excited to work out again, and now I’m always excited and eager for the gym! Literally today I flew through a test just so I could squeeze in some time at the gym before class. ?

So do the exercise you want to do, and you’ll have such a better workout.

I’ll post what I want, even if it’s not something that will get 200 likes. 

I don’t take a lot of photos that don’t make it on Instagram or some social media of some type. Sometimes, I’m trying to share a story with someone about a trip I took or a restaurant I visited, and I scour my camera roll to show them a picture and I realize whatever it was wasn’t “Instagram worth” so I never took a picture. But there are things I always want to remember, like the way the morning light comes through my windows in the Spring or the perfect afternoon spent at my favorite museum. So I take the picture and post it anyway! I’ll be able to look back on it someday and that will bring me all the happiness – not the likes.

The extra $5-$10 I spend at the grocery store in order to make healthy meals is worth it. 

I’ve come to learn that my health means a lot to me. A LOT. And through years and years of research and trial and error, I’ve learned that healthy starts with what I eat. Confidence starts there. Beating anxiety starts there. And so on and so on. So that grocery store trip I take at the beginning of every week is SO IMPORTANT. I usually don’t spend a lot of money because I get mainly fresh produce aside from almond milk, eggs, and a healthy protein every week. But now that I’ve spent a couple extra bucks to buy the healthy pasta sauce or the coconut aminos for salad dressing, I’m realizing that a little extra cash goes a long way in terms of health. Plus $5 or $7 extra isn’t much – I’m eating out a lot less because I genuinely would rather have what I have at home!