40 Days Until 40.

Sweater / Jeans / Boots / Earrings (similar to pictured) / Welcome Mat

A few months ago I Googled “What date is 40 days before March 4, 2019?”. Apparently, it is January 23.

I marked it down in my calendar and even set a notification alert.

So this morning, upon waking up, I was greeted with an alert on my phone reminding me that I have 40 more days left in my 30’s.

It doesn’t really bother me, this whole turning 40 thing. (Actually, the weirdest hang up I have is that when I read a celebrity story in the press and the writer references said celebrity as age 39, I perceive the celebrity as young. But when the celebrity featured is 40 or above, my mental association changes. Not sure why that is…Also not sure why the press always notes celebrity ages in like every story, even when it has no relevance to the story at all, but, I digress…)

What it does do, though, is motivate me to take better care of myself. I am never gonna be the “Dry January” or the 7-days-a-week-killin’-it-at-the-gym, or the committed-clean-eating girl, that much I know after living with myself for just shy of 4 decades. But I am the girl who likes a challenge, likes feeling good in her clothes, and likes being able to keep up with the most fit people in the room (those people, by the way, are usually my over-40 friends who leave me in the dust be it in a bathing suit photo on vacation, a workout in the gym, or eating the way a healthy, self-respecting woman should at a dinner party while I’m the one washing down a fistful of fries with a Tito’s, splash of soda and lime in the corner.)

In an attempt to train myself into realizing the importance- and power- if consistency in self-care, here are four things I plan on doing every single day for the next 40 days:

1- 100 burpees a day, NO EXCUSES. If it takes me an hour to do them, so be it. If I want to cheat to preserve a good hair day, screw it- I can do the damn things outside in the freezing cold and not break a sweat. But, from now until March 4th- rain or shine, frizzy or freshly blown out hair, nursing a hangover or bright eyed and bushy tailed, they will happen.

2- Keep a food journal. My friend Heather is a nutritionist and founder of The Food Fix, a 28 day online weight loss program that is truly amazing. Her principles are engraved in my head, and when I need to get my sh#t together, I always go back to her program. The one thing I slack on though, is keeping a food journal, and I know why- because I cheat. There, I said it. So, while it may not be an Instagram-worthy bullet journal work of art, I will be accountable for my food choices, on paper, daily.

3- Leave my iPhone downstairs when I go to bed. Scrolling social media does not need to be the last thing I do before I go to sleep, or the first thing I do upon waking up. It just isn’t productive. (Note to self- I need to get an alarm clock.)

4- Spend at least 10 minutes writing something personal. Be it a blog post, a letter for my girls to keep in their birthday books, captions for family albums- something with longevity beyond Instastories :)

Granted, these are small, simple things. But they are things I know I can do, and should do. So, here goes…

Oh- and I would be remiss not to link the outfit pictured because it is comprised of my most favorite things currently in my closet:

PURPLE SWEATER (on sale in a bunch of colors right now!) / HIGH WAIST SKINNY JEANS

COWBOY BOOTS / EARRINGS (similar to pictured) / HOLLA WELCOME MAT