March Goals

Not gonna lie, typing the title of this post roughly five seconds ago made me chuckle due to the new connotations the word 'goals' has obtained - kinda sounds like I'm having a humble-brag about how fab my month was... March goals everyone, absolute MARCH GOALS!

Who knows, maybe March 2018 will indeed be #totesmarchgoalz, but right now it's the beginning of the month and I'm in that classic 'January was definitely non-existent and did February even happen?' stage of the year where I need to get organised and productive.

I thought I'd share three goals for March with you because 1. I always find inspiration in seeing others make their dreams a reality and I hope it'll do the same for some of you, and 2. let's be honest - once you've told people you're aiming to do something there's more chance that you'll actually do it, so thanks for being a lovely and supportive reader!

Eat

A few years ago when I was only a couple of months into my degree, I discovered fitness bloggers on Instagram and became so motivated by them. I'd never exercised more than having to endure freezing cold hockey practice during PE lessons at school and although I liked eating healthily, being in a university flat environment meant that I'd often reach for a microwave lasagne over anything else. Inspired by the accounts I'd started following, I created my own which I called Meg Says Eat - let me know if you remember it! - and I really loved that time in my life when it came to food as I was constantly cooking and trying new recipes, and every meal I ate was full of colour and flavour and goodness.

Food is still one of my greatest joys in life but I've recognised that I don't cook from scratch as much as I used to and I'd really love to get back to wholesome homemade meals again. At present, I'm a vegetarian who eats vegan most of the time and in the spirit of becoming more adventurous with my meals, I've purchased a few new cookbooks: Keep It Vegan by Aine Carlin, Feed Me Vegan by Lucy Watson and Vegetarian Cooking Without by Barbara Cousins. I bought the latter for 1p (no exaggeration, secondhand in perfect condition for ONE SINGLE PENNY!) and think it might be really helpful for cutting out various things like gluten or dairy to see if they help with my chronic fatigue at all. I did the Whole 30 a couple of years ago, but in all honesty I don't think I tracked my symptoms or progress anywhere and without a diary of how I felt I can't really remember that far back!

Perhaps something like The Whole 30 would be worth giving a go again in April, but for March I'm going to be focusing on eating as much fresh, healthy food as possible, trying out more exciting veggie recipes and getting into good habits like cooking in bulk and meal-prepping to conserve energy and minimise waste.

Save

My boyfriend Will and I have just booked the absolute trip of a lifetime and we couldn't be more excited for our big adventure! We're pretty much going on a world tour and it's going to be a) exhilarating, b) romantic and c) EXPENSIVE. The saving has begun with what we coined Frugal Feb (catchy) and now Frugal March (less catchy): we've set ourselves weekly spending limits and monthly saving targets, and we wanted to make sure we started saving early to ensure we're all set when the time comes for us to pack up and jet off.

Going back to the Meg Says Eat portion of this post, little things like meal-prepping so I can take a homemade lunch with me on the train rather than buying a meal deal at the station like I usually do will tick off two of my March goals... and I've totally just realised (thanks to my notebook next to me) that the third and final goal is 'organise' and that would be such an organised thing to do, so little old me trotting along the train platform with a cute lunchbox in my bag is all three goals in one! No, YOU'RE easily pleased.

So, if ASOS hauls seem to be lacking on my YouTube channel and there isn't a new date night restaurant on my Instagram story every weekend, you'll understand why. Instead, I'll be adding Topshop dresses that are still brand new and unworn with the label on to my Depop page and Will and I can be found on a Saturday night catching up on First Dates Hotel in our pyjamas. Actually sounds pretty blissful, bring on Frugal March!

Organise

I'm naturally not a very organised person. Sometimes I think I shouldn't say that as perhaps I'm perpetuating the notion too much and if I constantly vocalise how unorganised I am then things won't change, but when I look at my track record of 24 years... it's pretty obvious! I'm definitely not a born Monica Geller and that's totally fine, but it can also lead to me becoming a giant ball of stress because things have been left until the last minute or I'm not on top of deadlines or something important has gone missing... you get the picture.

I've got to be kind to myself as I often overlook the fact that I have a disability and that plays a big part in how much I can physically get done each day, but it wouldn't hurt to set myself little achievable tasks that will contribute towards getting a big job done. One big job that has desperately needed doing for literally years now is clearing out my wardrobe, so in March I'm really determined to break it down into smaller chunks and finally do it. It'll be such a sweet feeling, I can't wait!

There are other 'big jobs' on the horizon but that's exactly where I'm going to leave them, on the horizon - taking on too much at once is just setting myself up for failure and these monthly goals are hopefully going to help me overcome that. Those jobs can be for May or July or October, right now is all about March and making it #totesmarchgoalz!

Jacket | Hat | Jumper | Lipstick
Photos by Megan Duffield Photography