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  • Let’s do this

    Let’s do this

    December 3, 2025

    Self care. It seems basic right? But at least for me, sometimes it can be hard to actually let myself spend time just taking care of me. Lately I’ve been watching Zhirelle on youtube. She is a very positive creator but she also keeps it real. She doesn’t pretend like her whole life is in order or that everything is perfect. There are hard parts to life and that is okay.

    We are coming up on the end of the semester and the end of the year as a whole. Lots of people are getting ready to have their fresh start come January 1st. But why does that have to be when the fresh start happens? Why can’t we just decide that we want a change and so we do it?

    I’ve been on this journey to learn to love my life again. It has definitely been trial and error. A lot of things that I’ve tried just haven’t worked for me. But that’s not going to stop me from trying to find what does work for me. I made a list of about 40 different things that I could easily do in my day that will just take care of myself. I wrote them on slips of paper and put them in a small bin. Every day I will grab a little piece of paper and do what it says.

    I’ve had a hard time wanting to work out or move my body lately. I have the want to, but not the drive to. It just seems like so much work to get up and go to the gym. I have so many other things that I could be doing in the time that it takes me to get ready, walk there and walk back. I could do so much in that time. Is it really worth it? Now, do I actually then do stuff with that time I’m supposedly saving? No, no I do not. Well, I decided that there isn’t any reason I can’t move at home. I got a yoga mat and found a youtube channel to watch guided stretching. It’s just a bit of movement, but a bit is better than nothing.

    Another part of self care that I sometimes over look is that there is more to it than just taking an everything shower or journaling. Those things care for the whole, but that’s more like a reset. So now I have made it a priority to put lotion on every morning and evening (I’ve also been getting a lot of dry skin), do my skin care every morning and evening, style my hair after I wash it, put on music while I’m studying, allowing myself times of silence to just exist, letting myself rest when it’s needed, and more things. I think that doing these small things are going to help me not feel as burnt out at the end of each day.

    My mental health has generally been much better in the recent months. I think it is because I have been prioritizing myself and learning to love my life again. There are obviously some aspects that are still hard and that still bring me down, but it’s no longer my life as a whole. School is very difficult for me at the moment, as I’ve said before. I’ve always been a straight A student, but suddenly, school got hard. University classes are no joke. I am ready for a reset in the spring semester. That doesn’t mean that I have given up though. I am still working hard to finish this semester strong.

    Anyway, when I’ve previously tried to make a little jar or bin with self care ideas, date ideas, things to do when bored, etc. I’ve always had a hard time finding things to put in it. So here is my list in case you want to try this too and need a place to start:

    Self care

    1. everything shower
    2. Watch a comfort movie
    3. Face mask
    4. Do something creative
    5. Make tea
    6. Get a snack
    7. Mini dance party
    8. Put fresh sheets on
    9. Journal
    10. Take out trash
    11. Vacuum
    12. No phone for an hour
    13. Yoga
    14. Do makeup
    15. Drink 2L
    16. Walk 1 mile
    17. Exercise 30 mins 
    18. 10k steps
    19. Read 30 mins 
    20. Go outside 30 mins 
    21. Light a candle
    22. Make a coffee
    23. Affirmations
    24. Do my nails
    25. Read Bible 30 mins
    26. Make a new playlist
    27. Doodle for a while
    28. Stargaze
    29. Watch sunrise or sunset
    30. Gratitude list
    31. Write out every goal i can think of
    32. Comfiest clothes
    33. Find pics to print
    34. Start a puzzle
    35. Crossword
    36. Sudoku
    37. Try a new hairstyle

    I hope this was able to help someone, and if not, it at least helped me to get it all out there.

    Live Love Life, Yvie

  • Almost there

    Almost there

    I keep having to remind myself that it’s almost the end of the semester. I am almost there. This hasn’t been the best semester for me, but I’m making my way through. There’s just a few weeks left. I’m not going to suddenly achieve perfection in these last few weeks or catch up on so many missed notes, but I can do my best. And next semester is a fresh start.

    I’m also trying my best to get myself in the holiday spirit. I think it is always easier to get through something difficult if you have something to look forward to. Some Christmas lights, Christmas music, decoration, snow, etc. is just good for the soul.

    Home cooked meals are also just so good for the soul. I’m heading home soon, and I just know that my mom and dad will both be making some of my favorite dishes. Not just that, but some good family time is much overdue and needed.

    If you told 12 year old me that I would be missing my brother, I would have laughed right in your face. I saw him everyday and wished that I didn’t have to. Instead I was closer with my oldest sister. And then my other older sister. My brother was lowest on the list for me. He was always teasing me, making fun of me, punching me, etc. My mom likes to tell a story of when he did something to me around that age and I started to cry. She pointed out that I could just do it right back to him. I stopped crying and just did.

    From there, we grew closer together, not purposefully. We wrestled and if he made fun of me, I did it back at him. After dinner, he used to not let me get to my room at the end of the hallway. We would wrestle and push each other until I finally made it through (or sometimes gave up). However, there were a few times that this resulted in paintings falling off the walls and the frames breaking. Or the night light in the outlet that was torn out, snapping the outlet cover in 4 pieces. Or the duct tape that went over the light switch so I couldn’t turn the light on and when I took it off, it tore some paint off. Well, those were the moments that we would look at each other, go quiet and find a way to fix it before mom and dad noticed. You’d be surprised what some tape and a glue stick can do.

    Now, years later we like to tell my parents these stories just to rile them up. They can’t believe that we had broken so many things under their noses. The few things that they did notice took them at least 6 months to do so.

    Now, here we are, adults and much closer. We talk to each other as much as we can. And despite some difficulties with all our siblings, we all are supportive, protective and loving of one another. I might still complain about them time to time, but they are my family and always will be.

    So with the holidays coming up, I’m excited to spend time with them all. Undoubtedly, someone will get on my nerves, but that’s part of family. If my brother had never gotten on my nerves as a kid, we probably would not be as close as we are today.

    Anyway, my point is that I am looking forward to the holidays and to the break so that I can just relax and reset.

    Remember that you always deserve to rest. Resting is productive. I’ve really been focusing on that principle lately.

    Live Love Life, Yvie

  • Reminders

    Reminders

    Again, this post is mostly for me. It kind of just helps to get my thoughts out of my head and talk to myself as if I was giving someone else a pep talk. It’s hard to hype yourself up, but it’s always easy to hype someone else up.

    A few days ago, my girlfriend asked me why I hadn’t posted to this blog in a while. I said that I felt like I had been failing. In response, she pulled up my last post titled “Not Failing.” And damn did I need a reminder that sometimes I’m in my own head too much.

    A lot has happened to push me down, but I don’t want to talk about that right now. I want to talk about the things that have lifted me up even when I don’t notice. When I’m so surrounded with my own thoughts of gloom and doom, it’s hard to pay attention to the sun that is trying to shine through. I block it out. Much to my girlfriend’s irritation. So here is going to be a deep dive into my mind to let the sunshine in.

    A few weeks ago, I deleted all social media from my phone. I feel like that is a big win that I haven’t acknowledged. I spend much less time on my phone. Because of this, I have had SOOOOOO much time to read. At first it was an escape. Things around me weren’t going well, so I could go live in another world. But, now it’s just fun and relaxing. I dive into the books because I love the story, not because I don’t love what’s happening around me. And while it’s not going great at the moment, this is definitely a win.

    Let’s also celebrate the fact that for the first time in years, the eating disorder voice in my head (her name is Brittany and she’s a skinny blonde bitch who hates food (sorry to all Brittanys in the world)) has been silenced for months now. Whenever it creeps back up, I’m easily able to banish her.

    I used to think that I wasn’t meant to have good mental health. Because every time that I started to feel better, something else popped up. But really it didn’t pop up. Just now that something worse isn’t cloaking it, I am allowed to feel my feelings. And feeling your feelings isn’t a bad thing. If anyone ever says otherwise, they are full of shit and maybe they would be kinder if they felt their own feelings.

    I’m not exactly starting from scratch because I’ve made progress. But progress isn’t linear. I am starting fresh. It might be hard to keep doing this, but if I don’t do a reset, I don’t make progress. I just continue downhill. But each time that I start over, I make just a little bit more progress. I’m slowly climbing the mountain. I’m slowly putting my life together in a way that is making me love it. I am starting to love every part of my life, even the hard parts.

    So here’s to starting fresh…again. Because that’s what I need.

    Live Love Life, Yvie

  • Not Failing

    Not Failing

    Hi! There really aren’t many people, if any who consistently read this blog, but I don’t know, I find it fun to update it. Plus, it’s a bit therapeutic to write this out in a way that if someone was following along, I’d want to be encouraging. But, when it comes to myself, I’m just critical of everything I do. If I am critical in this blog then I worry that I will influence someone else to not believe in themself.

    Plus, that’s what this page is all about: learning to love life. Part of that is just letting go of the things that don’t work. Part of that is loving ourselves and being happy with where we are. We aren’t able to properly love life if we aren’t appreciating everything that our body and mind does for us.

    So, I have not kept up with that new 100 day plan. It just didn’t work. I think there was too much going on to be able to keep up with that. Now at first that might seem like I’m failing. To be honest, that’s my first thought. But, let’s go through this together. Did I stop tracking what I have been doing yes? Does that mean that I haven’t been doing anything? No! Not at all! For one thing, I have been a reading POWERHOUSE! I’ve been reading every day and blowing through books.

    I’ll be honest, I haven’t been exercising the way that I wanted to with that plan, but I am okay with that. I have been putting so much effort toward other things that are just as, if not more important.

    I have also been able to continue journaling when I feel like I need it. In the past week or so, I have gotten back into reading in my bible. I am connecting myself back to my faith that I have missed so much.

    I also got very discouraged by a bad grade that I got on an exam. It was really hard to get that grade when I am used to getting As. But, also I can’t be that upset, because I really didn’t put any effort into it. Which that just made me angry at myself.

    But! I’m taking it as a learning opportunity. I learned that for this particular class I need to be putting in more effort. I learned that I need to switch up the way that I am studying in general. So, then I put my new plan into action. I’m not sure what I got on the test just yet, but I am anticipating something that is at least better than before.

    And that’s what it’s all about. Improving. That’s what everything is about. I don’t need to focus on being the best that there is, but focus on bettering myself. That’s one of the main points that was started with this blog anyway.

    So, here I am reminding me, and you, that we are not failing. If we learned something from this, then it was not a waste of time. How are you supposed to learn if there is never anything to learn from. Hype yourself up. And when that person closest to you is trying to remind you of how much you matter and how much you know, let them. From first hand experience, it can be easy to just let everything they say to just go past you. It might just seem like they are just saying it to be nice. I promise you they aren’t. It’s true.

    And if you don’t have someone telling you that, here I am. I’m telling you that you are loved, enough, smart, capable, successful, and beautiful inside and out.

    Live Love Life, Yvie

  • Update – Starting Over

    Update – Starting Over

    September 23, 2025

    I’ve said from the start that I am going to be very honest about my journey. So if you don’t want that, don’t read this post.

    The last two weeks have been rough. Nothing crazy. I’ve just had some exams and been focusing on that rather than my challenge. The semester has really been picking up. And I think my challenge needs adjusting. There are some habits that I have absolutely mastered, which is great. But the ones that I haven’t are the ones that are more important to me.

    I am restarting my 90 day challenge. I am going to adjust the goals that I have and the habits that I am going to track. I think that this is necessary in order to become the best version of myself that I am striving toward. What I’m doing right now just doesn’t seem to be working for me.

    I’m going to be simplifying my tasks. I have narrowed it down to 6 habits a day that I will be focusing on. Some won’t even be done every day. My 6 tasks are: Weekly planning (to do once a week), exercising (3 times a week), read 10 pages, drink 64 oz water, 6,000 steps, and journaling.

    These are the tasks that I struggled keeping up with but to be honest, I think these are the ones that will transform my life the most.

    There are 100 days until the new year. So, new year new me. Except I’ll be going into the new year with the new me. I will have created a better version of myself that prioritizes my well being. Sometimes you need to start over. It’s hard. But it’s necessary. I’m not losing progress, I’m reframing my goals.

    Follow along with me as I navigate this challenge in a new way.

    So, come with me on my journey.

    Live Love Life, Yvie

  • Day 28 / 4 Week Update

    Day 28 / 4 Week Update

    September 16, 2025

    Alright, four weeks into this already. That’s crazy. I actually wrote week 3 at first before looking back at my last post. I don’t know why it didn’t compute at all in my brain. But here we are! I’ve been trying to get up early each day in the past week and honestly, it has helped me so so much. I feel much more ready for the day when can take my time getting ready for classes.

    Alright, here’s the daily breakdown! (I have created a new chart to show the percent completed each day)

    Wednesday: 100%

    Thursday: 83%

    Friday: 92%

    Saturday: 91%

    Sunday: 83%

    Monday: 75%

    Tuesday: 73%

    Overall, an average of 85% done! Which is higher than last week’s 82%

    Alright, now time for the breakdown of each task. I had planned to work on exercising, 6,000 steps and journaling this week. It didn’t go quite as planned, as you’ll see.

    Daily plan – 7/7 – 100%

    Weekly plan – 1/1 – 100%

    Exercise – 0/3 – 0%

    6,000 steps – 6/7 – 86%

    64 oz water – 5/7 – 71%

    Morning skincare – 7/7 – 100%

    Night skincare – 7/7 – 100%

    Budget tracker – 1/1 -100%

    Journal – 3/7 – 43%

    No phone morning – 7/7 – 100%

    No phone night – 7/7 – 100%

    Read 10 pages – 5/7 – 71%

    1 meal with someone – 7/7 – 100%

    Text someone – 7/7 – 100%

    My plan to work on getting my goal of 6,000 steps work, because I went from completing it 71% to 86%. However, exercising went from 33% to 0% and journaling when from 71% to 43%. So, this week I will still be focusing on exercising, journaling, and reading. While my reading percentage went up, I finished my book and then haven’t started anything else yet. So, I want to focus on making sure that I don’t let that just drop off my radar completely.

    Here’s the chart for these stats!

    Obviously, there is still a lot of work to be done. But, for the most part, I am doing pretty well! If you’re doing this challenge too, just remember to be kind to yourself, no matter what. As you can see, progress isn’t linear. It’s almost never going to be linear. Give yourself the grace you deserve. And let yourself rest. Sometimes we tend to forget that rest is productive. Procrastinating and calling it rest isn’t productive, but giving yourself time to rest and reset is productive and necessary.

    Live Love Life, Yvie

  • Day 21 / 3 Week Update

    Day 21 / 3 Week Update

    September 9, 2025

    Alright, we’re three weeks in. This week was definitely better than the last, but there is still room for improvement for sure. I realized today that I have not been focused on getting up early the same as I did in the first week or week and a half. Tomorrow, I will attempt to get back to that. I truly think that it is a healthy way to reduce my anxiety over all. It seems like such a small, simple thing, but if I have control over how I start my day, I just generally feel better the rest of the day.

    Anyway, here are the daily stats for week 3!

    Wednesday: 83%

    Thursday: 91%

    Friday: 75%

    Saturday: 73%

    Sunday: 83%

    Monday: 92%

    Tuesday: 75%

    Overall, 82% of my tasks were completed for the week. This is up almost 20% from last week. I think it really is all about intention. I was checking the list at least twice a day to make sure that I was working toward checking things off. Anyway, here is the updated weekly chart:

    I’m still not quite as high as I was the first week, but I am significantly higher than last week, which means that I am making progress. It doesn’t have to always go up. It’s okay as long as it isn’t only going down. Again, my goal is to have 90% completion by the end of these 90 days. At the very least, I want to be above my starting point, which was 85%.

    Now for the breakdown of each task:

    Daily plan – 7/7 – 100%

    Weekly plan – 1/1 – 100%

    Exercise – 1/3 – 33%

    6,000 steps – 5/7 – 71%

    64 oz water – 3/7 – 43%

    Morning skincare – 7/7 – 100%

    Night skincare – 7/7 – 100%

    Budget tracker – 1/1 -100%

    Journal – 5/7 – 71%

    No phone morning – 5/7 – 71%

    No phone night – 7/7 – 100%

    Read 10 pages – 4/7 – 57%

    1 meal with someone – 7/7 – 100%

    Text someone – 7/7 – 100%

    Overall, some were much better than last week, and some were worse. Like I said before, I’m choosing 2-3 habits each week to work on. This week it will be: exercising, 6,000 steps, and journaling. 2 of these are the same as last week, but they definitely could still improve from where they are.

    Here’s the chart for the individuals:

    Okay, I know this is still very chaotic, but hopefully as the weeks go on, it will be easier to see because it will be wider. I’m not sure if that’s how it will go, but I’m crossing my fingers.

    Until next week!

    Live Love Life, Yvie

  • Day 14 / 2 week Update

    Day 14 / 2 week Update

    September 2, 2025

    Here are the daily completion stats:

    Wednesday – 67%

    Thursday – 55%

    Friday – 58%

    Saturday – 73%

    Sunday – 50%

    Monday – 69%

    Tuesday – 64%

    Overall, I completed 63% of the tasks for the week. This is very obviously worse than last week. But, that doesn’t mean that I am giving up on it. I just need to put a bit more focus on making sure that my tasks are done. I know that might seem like I’m criticizing myself for not checking off on the habits, but the reality is that I didn’t look at the chart throughout the day as much this week as last. I spent more time just going with my day rather than making sure I was doing everything that I wanted to be doing.

    I’ve created a chart that will show me how the percent of tasks completed each week changes. Here it is:

    As the weeks go on, I hope the general trend will go up. That didn’t happen this week, but there are still 11 more weeks in this challenge. My goal over all is to have the finishing average higher than the starting average. And for the over all average to be above 90%. I’m not sure if it’s feasible or not, but I want to have a number to aim for, so that I am not blindly going toward a goal.

    Okay, now for the breakdown of each task.

    Daily Plan – 3/7 – 43%

    Weekly Plan – 1/1 – 100%

    Exercise – 4/3 – 133%

    6,000 steps – 2/7 – 29%

    64oz water – 3/7 – 43%

    Morning Skincare – 7/7 – 100%

    Nightly Skincare – 6/7 – 86%

    Journal – 1/7 – 14%

    No phone morning – 6/7 – 86%

    No phone night – 4/7 – 57%

    Read 10 pages – 0/7 – 0%

    1 meal with someone – 7/7 – 100%

    Text someone – 7/7 – 100%

    Okay, so some of these were really rough. I think each week I will choose 2-3 habits that I want to focus on getting the percentage up. This week, those will be reading, journaling, and 6,000 steps. So, let’s see it happen!

    Here is a chart for the individual habits:

    This is definitely a little hard to look at because the ones that have had the same percentages both weeks overlap their colors, so you can’t see both lines. Unfortunately, this graph shows that with the exception of exercise, all of my habits either stayed the same or decreased in how often I did them. Like I said before, my goal for this week is to get journaling, reading, and steps to increase.

    Let’s see where this week takes us!

    Live Love Live, Yvie

  • Day 7

    Day 7

    August 26, 2025

    1 week in officially. I know there’s not a post for day 6, but I’ve decided that if there’s nothing too important or different about a day, then I’m not going to write about it. If I did, that would make every single post the exact same. So, most likely there will be weekly recaps from now on. You know what my habits are and what I’ve been doing.

    Anyway, here are some stats from this past week:

    Day 1 (Wednesday) – 91% of all tasks done

    Thursday – 100%

    Friday – 75%

    Saturday – 100%

    Sunday – 100%

    Monday – 64%

    Tuesday – 64%

    Overall, the average amount of tasks completed each day was 85%. Next, the statistics for each individual task. Basically, even if it wasn’t an every day task (which they aren’t all) I have it marked for only the days that I planned to do it. For example, I only want to exercise 3 days a week, which I did. So, 100% completion. Okay, now that one is done, here are the stats for the rest of the habits:

    Daily Plan – 7/7 days – 100%

    Weekly Plan – 1/1 – 100%

    Exercise – 3/3 – 100%

    6,000 steps – 5/7 – 71%

    64 oz water – 4/7 – 57%

    Morning skincare – 7/7 – 100%

    Nightly skincare – 5/7 – 71%

    Budget Tracker – 1/1 – 100%

    Journal – 4/7 – 57%

    No phone morning – 7/7 – 100%

    No phone night – 7/7 – 100%

    Read 10 pages – 5/7 – 71%

    1 meal with someone – 7/7 – 100%

    Text someone – 7/7 – 100%

    Obviously there are some that need some work. But overall, I am happy with this first week. The basic goal for next week is to do just as good or even better. By the end of this challenge I want my overall trend for the habits to be upward. I will create a graph showing this. Since this is week 1, there’s only this week’s data, so you can see the chart next week.

    See you then!

    Live Love Life, Yvie

  • Day 5

    Day 5

    August 24, 2025

    Day 5 of 90. Making progress quickly. I know, I know. I literally do not have any control over time or how many days it’s been. But, it still is crazy to me that it’s almost been 1 week. I’m excited and happy with how things have been going.

    Today I got all my habits checked of again. The sense of accomplishment with that is just wonderful. I love the feeling that I am in control of my life and what I do. And by doing this challenge, I really am in charge of it all.

    I hadn’t planned on exercising at all today, but I ended up going for a walk in the evening to let out some energy and also get the rest of my steps in.

    I was also just generally very productive today. I washed, folded and put away my laundry. I know that doesn’t seem like much, but I don’t usually get that all done in one day. I spent a good amount of time on homework. I didn’t necessarily study, but I did do a small assignment for chem, which is the main class that I am making an effort in to stay ahead.

    My roommates also started to decorate our common area. I mean we’ve been here for a week, we should make it look like we actually live there. There are some string lights put up and I ordered some throw pillows to add as well. I’m hoping it will be a cozy little place for us all to sit in.

    I also read most of a book. I’m hoping to finish it tomorrow. I know people think that this is cringey, but I love the cute romance books. The ones that are just full of love and cute moments. Yes, a lot of them have sex in them, but that’s not at all why I read them, I promise! My least favorite thing about some romance books is that there are just shirtless men on the cover. Like I don’t want to look at that. I just want to read my cute little romance. Those books just always put me in a happy mood and make me want to giggle and kick my feet. I always can read them really quickly too, which helps me when I’m in a reading slump.

    Tomorrow is the start of the second week of the semester. I feel more prepared for it now than I did even on Friday evening. I am going to put in my best effort and leave the rest alone. I can’t control ever aspect of my classes or my grades, but I can put in the effort that I have to give. If I don’t put in the effort, then I can’t complain about how I am doing in my classes.

    On that note though, notice that I wrote “the effort that I have to give.” Sometimes you can’t give 100% effort to your school work because 10% of your effort is going to take care of yourself. You can’t give everything that you have and leave none of it for yourself because then you won’t have anywhere to go from there. You will be stuck in a rough cycle until burn out. And let’s be real. None of us want burn out and we are all scared that it will happen to us. And it might. But you just have to remember that it doesn’t matter as long as you get back up again.

    Live Love Life, Yvie