Wellness vlog | productive days in my life + monthly reset & planning!!

Good morning. It's a Monday today. I thought I'd do another wellness vlog. You guys have been really seeming to like these videos. I love making them. I feel like it keeps me on track and it also keeps me accountable, which sometimes I need, okay? It's kind of a dark and gloomy day out, which sometimes puts me into a very sleepy, lazy vibe, which I love and need, but sometimes I'd honestly rather try to have a very productive day when it's kind of gross out just because if it's sunny and gorgeous, I feel like it's harder for me to want to get things done and I just want to enjoy the outside. So it actually kind of works out in my favor today. Anyway, drinking a big glass of water before I start my day. I don't always eat before I drink caffeine. Sue me. I'm going to make a matcha. I just started using Rocky's matcha. I heard a lot of good things about it and I've actually been really, really enjoying it. It's a very rich matcha taste, which I really like. So I'm going to make myself that. Didn't get the best sleep last night. Maka woke up three different times, so not feeling the most rested, but we'll live. I don't know if it's just me, so let me know how you guys feel, but I feel like February went by in a blink. For me, January was the longest year, genuinely. It just went on and on and on, and then February went by so quickly. And now here we are. The way I look at March is that it's the last month of the first quarter of the year, which is crazy. I feel like it's a good time to check in with yourself and see how your year is going and where you're at with maybe certain goals that you've set. Maybe you've forgotten about your New Year's goals by now. I feel like sometimes after January, the motivation and drive from the New Year's goals kind of dies down a little bit, which is totally normal, but I think when I break up the year into quarters, it's honestly a little bit more helpful to me because I'm like, okay, what did I do that I'm really proud of that I liked? What did I not do that I want to incorporate more of? We're starting to near halftime, kind of. That's something I like to do with my goals is kind of breaking it into quarters like that and being like, okay, by the first quarter of the year, I want to do this. Because sometimes if you set a goal for the entire year, at least this is the way I am. I am a tried and true procrastinator. Have to work around that because it's not something I like to do, but it's just something that always happens. Anyway, if I just set a goal for the entire year, guess what? Mama's going to wait till the first of December to be like, oh ----, gotta do this. So if I look at it like, oh, I have goals for every quarter of the year, it actually helps me. I feel like I actually take action, you know? You want to say hello? March is the month that Maka can finally start going on walks with us and just go to, you know, outside world in general, go to the beach with us, go to the park. I'm so excited. He has no idea. Someone said, why are you always carrying your dog? Put your dog down. That's my child. Okay. You know what I need to stop doing is pretending like my days are not significantly better and I get more done and I feel better when I actually get ready. What a concept. I feel like, duh. But as someone who technically does not have to leave the house for their job, it's nice to put a little bit of effort into my appearance. I did my makeup, straightened my hair a little bit. I have on matching set. Life's good. Life's worth living. So here's my to-do list. Film an ad that's due that's going to be for Instagram. Go grocery shopping. I have a private lesson today. I have two concept forms I think that are due to brands. So get that done and then spend a few hours editing. I feel like I've talked about this before, but I will go down rabbit holes of watching my old videos sometimes. And it always leaves me with these very intense feelings of nostalgia of who I used to be and like what my life used to look like. I feel like it's a pretty unique experience to have basically your childhood, teenagehood chronicled and documented in video form. It's so weird because when I see these videos, I almost envy that I used to feel so carefree with what I was posting and not think twice about how I was going to be perceived or worry that someone was going to take a clip out of context. But also with that, I also forget how much I was wanting to be liked and accepted. And I felt like I was constantly trying to prove myself in order to build what was then a small channel. I think it's really easy to look back at certain periods in our life and kind of idealize them, but it's important to stay present with the life you're currently living and building for yourself. That's something that I worked on for many years now is being present and enjoying and being where my feet are. If you're also someone who struggles with being present, therapy is a great way to help with that. BetterHelp, the sponsor of this video, makes starting therapy easier. All you do is take a quiz that'll get you matched with a licensed therapist quickly, and depending on how you feel comfortable communicating, you can chat via phone, video, text. Over 6 million people have gotten help through BetterHelp, so if you're interested in starting therapy, you can click the link in my description or go to betterhelp.com slash Ava to get 10% off your first month and find out how therapy can help you. I'm gonna pick him up a new toy. I love this one. Okay, I'm liking this. I just finished planning my week of workouts. I find it's nice to do that just to take the guesswork out of what am I gonna do today, and then I feel like sometimes when you don't have a plan, it's easy to just not execute because there is nothing in place to execute to begin with. So sometimes I like to do this where I'll just write out every single day of the week and then what I'm planning on doing each day, not only because it takes away the decision-making aspect, but I feel like it also helps me hold myself accountable. So today, my workouts of the day was going on a walk and a push day workout, so chest, shoulders, and triceps. Tomorrow, I booked myself an early morning workout class, so that'll be my workout of the day. Wednesday will be my pull workout day, so back and biceps and also go on a walk. Thursday will be kind of like my active rest day. I'll probably go on a walk. I try to honestly go on a walk every single day, not doing any actual workout class or strength training, but I am gonna ice skate for a few hours that day, which is technically a workout, but it'll still be a nice break from being in the gym. And then Friday is my leg day quads, so quad-focused workout. And yeah, it's kind of nice to have it all laid out because, again, it takes the guesswork out of it, and I can just look at this and be like, okay, this is what I'm doing today. I'm gonna do that. Plus, there's also the aspect of having a plan and sticking to it rather than seeing how I feel every single day, which I will say, if something comes up, obviously things are gonna shift. Let's say I am ridden with period cramps because mine are so debilitating. That would obviously change this. Personally, it just helps me really stay on track. Actually, since I have my journal out too, I was writing yesterday. Since yesterday was the first day of March, I kind of did my monthly check-in and my monthly goal setting, my more of, less of list. For example, on my more of list, I have fiber, and a few things I put on my less of list. Less of sugar. I went a little crazy in February. I feel like it started during Valentine's Day. We had a big sack of candy, and then it kind of just spiraled into eating a lot more sugar than I normally do, and it doesn't make me feel good, even though it does in the moment. Yeah, I had more breakouts, and I felt a little more inflamed. Anyway, yeah, less of added sugar. Natural sugar, yes, and of course, everything in balance. I hate that I feel like I always have to like disclaim everything in case someone takes something the wrong way, but yeah, do what feels best for you, and I'm gonna do what feels best for me. Less of buying clothes. I mean, yeah, that's pretty self-explanatory. I also like to set some goals, so I have regular goals and then work goals. Example of a regular goal, I want to finish the tandem read. That's my goal for March. By the end of this March, I want to have finished the Throne of Glass, Empire of Storms, and Tower of Dawn. Another goal is get my scratch spin, which is a type of skin in, skin, spin in figure skating that I haven't gotten quite yet, and I've been very frustrated, but by the end of this month, that is my goal, and then I did something called a March Five, so five things that I want to make sure get done or make sure I'm intentional about planning or doing in the month of March. These are a little bit different from my goals, so for example, I have one, paint the entryway. I want to paint this little section right here, do my spring decluttering, host friends for dinner. We had my friend and her husband over maybe like two weeks ago for dinner, and it was so nice. It's not something I've actually done before, and it just showed me like, oh, I want to do this more often. This was so lovely, and I feel like I need to put it down so I can be intentional about doing that. Otherwise, you know, you get into the groove of the everyday life, and it kind of slips you by. I want to have a beach day, haven't been to the beach in months and months, and then once, well, number five is daily walks with Maka. Once he finishes his round of shots, maybe like the mid-month, then I want to make sure we're taking him on daily walks. Not super long, but just, you know, get him out into the world. So yeah, that was my new month little spread, more of, less of, goals, and then my five, like my March Five, five things I want to do. So if you want to do that, it's still not too late. Even by the time you're seeing this, I think it's just nice to kind of, you know, set the intention of all these different things. And I felt really good after writing all of that out. Personally, I find that having it laid out like that, where I'm more so kind of just making lists rather than writing paragraphs, like you could turn that into, you know, detailed paragraphs. That's not my style. I'm not going to do it if it's like that, but literally just writing bullet points for me, easy, can do that, and it makes me feel really good. And now I feel ready moving into this new month, moving into a new season because spring is happening this month, which is crazy. It is almost 10 PM, done with the screen for the night. Best thing I ever did was removing that from my night routine. I sleep better and I read more. The workout class I booked tomorrow is pretty early. It starts at 530, which means I'm going to get up at like 430. So I'm going to read some more, get to bed, and I'll see you in the morning. I woke up and the first thing I debated was just accepting the cancellation fee and sleeping for like two more hours. Tempting. And to be honest, I used to do that all the time. Maybe a few years ago, I would book morning workout classes and then just not show up and pay the fee. What happened is that I just stopped believing in myself. Like when I would say I would do things, I would already know that I wasn't going to follow through because I had set that precedent. So, oh my God, that is way too big of a word for 4AM. Anyway, we're going to show up and it's going to feel really good. I love when I have a go-to breakfast like this. These are also so easy, so it literally takes less than five minutes to put together in the morning. I take two of these little yogurt cups. I usually have the tub version, but they didn't have at the store, so I just got the mini cups. I use two of these. I've been sprinkling some chia seeds. I was recently listening to this podcast episode and this doctor was talking about the importance of fiber and it really was a wake-up call to needing to add more into my diet and with one serving of this, you get 10 grams of fiber, which is really good. So, I add chia seeds, granola, and then raspberries. So, I think altogether, this bowl is like 30 grams of protein and with the raspberry, I want to say 15 grams of fiber, which is really good. Mix that up and there you go. Super yummy, super easy. You know how when you were younger and your parents would be like, breakfast is the most important meal of the day and you're kind of just like, yeah, okay, whatever. Growing up is me realizing that it really is because when I do not fuel and feed my body at the beginning of the day, I am kind of a bitch. My mood is just terrible. I like, oh my gosh, and I just feel super sluggish. So, ever since I prioritized having a good meal with a good amount of protein in it in the morning, I just feel really, really good. So, yeah, just a reminder, feed yourself, fuel yourself. Gonna eat this. Also gonna do a little dumpy dump of my brain in my journal. Write down a to-do list. It is 8.30 right now and I still have not gone on my phone yet. That is something that is a non-negotiable for me in the morning is not picking up my phone. I feel like that has helped me, one, get my mornings back because when I would start my day in bed scrolling on social media, I would look at the time and time just slips away and I'd be like, oh my gosh, this is literally such a terrible start to my day. I don't know. I've talked about this before. I could go on a whole rant, but I feel like starting your day scrolling on social media doesn't really necessarily set you up for success with feeling good because for me, I feel like if I start my day scrolling, I am starting my day kind of in a frantic headspace, maybe feeling a little reactive. You can't always control what is gonna pop up on social media and so I've decided my brain does not need that first thing in the morning. It does nothing good for me, so I don't go on my phone in the morning and honestly, that has changed my life. Getting my tattoos removed. This one on my arm, the bikini one, and then the little star are going bye-bye. This is like my third session, I think. I'm just waiting for it to numb and then they'll come and zap them away. I think it's gonna take like seven or eight sessions total. I'm hoping by the time the wedding rolls around that they'll be completely gone. If they're not, it's not the end of the world, but I started this process maybe like six months ago and I've been really happy with the progress so far. So I'm just waiting. I get it done at LaserAway and yeah, I'm really happy with the progress that we've made. I will say getting it removed hurts 10 times more than getting it, so keep that in mind. Hello. Hello. How are you? Good, how are you? Good. You're so beautiful. What is up everybody? I'm going to cook dinner. It's kind of meal prep also because I think it's going to reheat well. It's going to have a good amount of leftovers. I'm going to do a crispy rice meat chicken bowl. I don't have a name for it yet. I'll link the recipe down below. It's from Instagram actually. Kind of gonna put up my own little spin on it. I'm not going to follow it step for step, but pretty much it's crispy rice. So I used jasmine rice. The recipe calls for that, which I've never actually made jasmine rice at home. So I made that earlier. Chicken. I'm going to use this one from Costco and then I'm going to air fry it and season it, make it a little bit like more peppery, chili pepper kind of vibes. Add some fun toppings like edamame, avocado. TBD if I'm going to add this because sometimes, well actually all the time, I get stomach reactions to avocado. Like I am allergic to avocado. It is horrible. I used to eat avocado toast every single day. Haven't had it in like two years. Stomach pain went away. Anyway, sometimes if I like squeeze lemon on it or eat really small amounts, it doesn't hurt. So anyway, we'll see. And then basically I'm going to make a crispy rice with this. So allegedly all I have to do is take my cooked rice, grab some parchment paper. I heard someone say that the reason it's called parchment paper is because it's paper that's parched. Like it's so dry. It's parched. Parchment paper. Let's move you so you can see all the super cool, amazing stuff I'm doing. Okay. This rice is getting tossed with soy sauce, chili crisp, and sesame oil. Here we go. I'm going to honestly kind of just eyeball this. If this turns out yummy, I'm going to freak out because I love crispy rice. I've only ever had it at like sushi restaurants. I think it's so good when they have little crispy rice with like spicy ahi on top. It's just so good. Love a crunchy rice. So if this works, that would be so fun to do an at-home sushi night. We actually used to do that a lot growing up. When it was my dad's night of cooking, he would do, we would do like at-home sushi nights, and he would have all the ingredients out on the table. It was kind of like build your own rolls. And wow, haven't done that in so long. That sounds so good. Sesame oil. Honestly, looking at this recipe, it's kind of ingredient bowl dinner. I honestly love ingredient bowl dinners where you kind of just throw ingredients together and it turns out really yummy. This is kind of ingredient bowl dinner, but it feels, oh my God, it feels kind of fancy, even though I'm pretty much taking many things from packages. I don't care. Let's get this on the pan because this is going to have to cook for like 30 minutes, which is not ideal, but it's fine. Looks like sourdough. That's another thing I'm kind of interested in trying to make. I just don't even know where to start with that. All right, in the oven she goes. Sous chef is clocked in. He's just hanging out with his new toy. He's obsessed with it. If I have one piece of advice to anyone who is either living on their own for the first time or not even alone, but just on your own, get an air fryer. This thing single-handedly changed my cooking experience and it's opened the door to so many possibilities. And I feel like so many things taste better putting them in the air fryer than they do anywhere else, to be honest. It just has a magic touch to it. I'm going to end up chopping these up into small bite-sized pieces, but for now we're just going to cook them like that. Sometimes the air fryer sounds like an actual rocket ship trying to take off, so excuse that. But I did make the sauce. I think it turned out pretty good. It was just equal parts light mayo and Greek yogurt, sweet chili sauce, and paprika. That is going to drizzle on top of my bowl. Everything's ready. Got the chicken. I tossed it with some cayenne pepper, a little bit of smoked paprika, and a little bit of chili powder just to give it the flavor I was looking for. I want to go on the record and say I literally hand-popped these edamame beans. My fingers are so sore. I forgot to buy the kind that comes like just prepared like this. So anyway, cut up some green onion, got the sauce. I'm deciding to save the avocado for tomorrow because I want to have it for lunch with Micah, so I want to save our only avocado for that. And then this just came out of the oven. It looks so stunning, beautiful. It definitely crisped up, which I'm shocked. I don't know why I'm always in such disbelief when I follow a recipe and it works. I'm like, wow, did that. So anyway, that's all the pieces. It's really not that crazy, but I think it's going to taste really good. All right, not going to lie, not my best presentation work. Hello, sir. This looks like a kid made it, but you know what? I'm sure it's going to taste good and I can't wait to eat it. Taste test. I think I could have left the rice in a little longer, but I'm going to save it for next time. I need to like add something to this. I feel like pickled red onion sounds good for some reason. Okay, that looks a lot more colorful and better. Love when ingredients just go so well together. Big fan of these MediCube sheet masks. I love wearing them overnight and I feel like I just wake up and my skin looks so good. Anyway, I was buying some more of these and then I saw that they now sell, I don't know if this is new or not, but it's a wrapping mask. Basically one of those like peel off masks, which I've not had maybe since like middle school, the kind where it's, you know, like a peel off mask. So I thought it'd be fun to try it and I'm going to do it tonight. It says to just put on, oh, interesting. It's like clear. Put on an even layer, wait for it to dry for 15 minutes before you go to bed so that it's not sticky and then it'll peel off in the morning. I always feel so good on the nights that I make myself dinner and put in the extra effort to do that, even if it's a dinner like the one I had tonight where it's really nothing crazy. I just feel like it's a nice way to show yourself that you want to take care of you and you never regret putting in that extra effort to make yourself a nice meal, you know? Okay, mask is on. We'll see how that goes in the morning. I'm going to do a workout, not a workout class, but just an at-home workout. I've already picked out my clothes. I feel like I said this already at some point in this video, but the less decisions, like the less friction between you and something that you want to do, for example, me wanting to work out, if I'm waking up at 6 a.m., the last thing I'm going to want to do is go through my workout drawer and be like, oh, I have to pick an outfit that just adds more friction to doing what I want to do, so I'm already going to lay that out. I already have my workout planned, so that's like another thing of friction that I'm removing and another decision I now don't have to make, so I'm making it as easy for myself as possible. And that has honestly helped with so many things, and that's a really good way to make habits stick is by creating less friction to doing those habits. Anyway, I'm going to hop into bed and read my book since my goal by the end of this month is to finish that tandem read. I have probably in total like 800 more pages to go. If you stick to this point in the video, comment down below this emoji and let me know what other kind of themes or things you want me to show in these wellness vlogs, because I know you guys like these vlogs. I see my analytics and stats, okay? These videos always do very well. I'm like, okay, people love the wellness content. I love making it, so it's a win-win, but would love to know what you guys want to see more of. I hope you have a beautiful, magical, marvelous day, and I'll see you in the next video. Bye!