Less is More

Instead of new years resolutions, for the last 11 years I’ve been assigning myself a yearly motto — a basic word or phrase that I can be easily reminded of to focus on or be challenged by. For those of you new to my blog(s), here’s a recap of the last decade:

• Bold in 2006
• 2007: Keep Moving Forward
• 2008: Live in Love
• One Day at a Time in 2009
• 2010: Keep it Simple
• 2011: Great Expectations
• 2012: Make Yourself Proud
• 2013–2015: Progress not Perfection
• Bold in 2016 (a 10-year anniversary motto throwback)

… and now for 2017: Less is More.

I first started using this phrase as a design aesthetic in college (thanks to the late professor, Guy Chase), and it’s one I’ve tried to carry with me in my career as a designer, but I feel like it’s also relevant to almost every other aspect of my life. It will be a good reminder in almost every situation to know that it will do me more good to have less. This isn’t so much about the money, but maybe I don’t need another drink, or I don’t need to buy that eye shadow palette, or maybe I don’t have to get a *gallon* of Diet Coke at the drive thru (or get drive thru at all?), or maybe I don’t have to watch the entire season of whatever show *tonight*, and I can probably donate some of these unused clothes to Goodwill, or you-name-it. But guess what, it may mean MORE blogs at the ol’ Jenna Daily, so you all have that to look forward to. ;)

Here’s to a new beginning, friends, it’s gonna be great.
♥ JB

Call Me, Maybe Not

Apparently I started this draft more than a year ago and forgot to post it. I mean, it is pretty important.

You know what else is important? Ok — maybe not important, but exciting? Like all broken promises of years past, I’d like to get back in the habit of blogging. I was rereading some of my old posts the other day and it’s not like the world’s greatest examples of the written word or anything. It’s just good discipline and if nothing else, fun for me to look back on and reminisce. So there.

And, please, don’t call me… Want to find out what’s going on in my life? Read my blog. ;)

What is happening?

I MADE TURKEY BACON THIS MORNING. I don’t cook, let alone something with actual nutritional benefit, and especially not before 10 a.m. And this is what I ate for lunch today:

Iceberg lettuce, muenster, tomato, turkey bacon

Seriously, what is happening?

Well, it turns out feeling like crap for years will finally make this old dog learn new tricks. As of today, I’m making an intentional decision to change my eating habits. I’ll be most closely following the ketogenic diet (high fat, adequate protein, low carb), but to be honest, any move in a direction other than where I was going will be considered a success. I’m hoping to get back to a regular exercise routine as well, but I’m working on baby steps right now. (Thank you, Dr. Leo Marvin.)

And though I believe mental illness is most definitely real (I’ve struggled with depression and anxiety for almost ten years), I also believe I wasn’t properly fueling my body and I’m looking forward to seeing how this change affects not only my physical body but, maybe even more so, my emotional/mental state.

Anyway, I’m excited and felt like an over-promised blog post was the best place to start. :)

 

Whoops

Guys, I just realized I went without blogging last week. (for shame!) Guess that just means I’ll have to double-up this week. Wooo!

 

Discipline

Since I’m now officially in my mid-30s and supposed to be a grown up (?!), I have come to the conclusion that I need a little more discipline in my life. Don’t worry, this isn’t a new realization, I’m just actually going to try and work on it. As with any new calendar year or birthday, there comes a lot of introspection and goal-making (LISTS!!!). I got myself a sticker chart of sorts and came up with a list of different items that will hopefully help me practice discipline and live a better life. Drinking more water, eating 3-5 servings of fruits/vegetables, journaling before bed (instead of looking at my phone), getting 30+ minutes of physical activity, putting away clothes after work (instead of throwing them over the back of my chair), things like that. Some are daily goals, a few weekly ones, but they’re all reasonably attainable things—unlike goals of the past, like, lose 20 pounds by next Saturday or something.

Wellllll… lucky for you, one of the items on my list was to blog once per week. And three days in, I can already cross that bad boy off the list! Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing some positive changes come from this discipline challenge (but I’m also being gentle with myself if I don’t get to everything, as I haven’t always done in the past). Perhaps I’ll keep you updated on the progress, but if nothing else, you’ll at least get more frequent peeks into my super exciting life. :)

It’s Maaaaadness

At one of the properties where I work, we are doing a March Madness bracket challenge with the residents. We had a big kickoff event last week and it’s been a ton of fun to see everyone get excited about something. Last week I went door-to-door and passed out more than 220 brackets (one for each apartment) for everyone to fill out and turn in. Only 54 people decided to participate (including a few of the staff), but the FUN (sarcasm) thing about doing the bracket thing manually (via paper and not the INTERNET) is that today I got to go through and highlight and count up the total points for all 54 brackets. Granted, we are only halfway through the tournament, but we needed to update the standings. (Side note: last year they had more than 100 brackets, so good riddance to whoever had to keep track! Sucker!) The actual good/useless thing about doing that is I now have the entire list of winners/losers memorized. So if anyone needs help keeping their brackets up to date, I’m your girl.

Let’s be honest, some of those mindless, mundane tasks are the best — especially when I get to use markers! And next year, I’ll suggest that we send out a link and let the computers do all the work. :)

Still alive.

I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve started a post and then gotten distracted and forgot to save the draft and all my hard work (exaggeration) was deleted. Maybe seven? Eight? Either way, I’m baaaaaack. Last week, I even typed up a post on my phone, but when I went to publish the dang thing, the Wordpress app closed out and I lost everything. Dang technology! It’s so amazing but so frustrating all at once.

I don’t have too much to offer at this time, but just wanted to say that I’m still alive. :)

Third Time’s the Charm?

So much for more frequent blogging in 2015, huh?! Ha. Oh well. Since starting my other job (same company, just more hours at a second property) at the beginning of the year, I’ve had a difficult time adjusting to the new schedule. I’m working occasional weekends which I’ve never done before and I’m working the 2nd shift (2-10 p.m.), which is actually ideal for someone with hypersomnia. It’s just hard to maintain a “normal” schedule when sometimes my shifts are less than 12 hours apart. My social life has taken somewhat of a hit, but overall it’s been good. I enjoy what I’m doing, I like getting paid for those additional 16 hours, and even more importantly, I’m at 40 hrs/wk now so I get BENEFITS! No more medical assistance for me! It’s almost like I’m a fully-functioning adult again!

Now that I’m more than a month into my new schedule, I will be able to blog more often. Third time’s the charm though right?, so I should be all set after today. :)

How I felt about New Year’s Eve

But seriously.

Testing 1, 2, 3

Soooo I’m contemplating a return to regular blogging in 2015… I haven’t decided yet. I know my throngs of readers will appreciate the daily input into their lives. Ha. Yeah right. (I kinda just wanted to say throngs.)

Happy New Year everyone. Maybe I’ll see y’all soon.