Monthly Challenges | February

With all of the New Year's resolutions flying about, I've decided to try giving myself monthly resolutions. Year long goals can seem intimidating and unattainable, but having five smaller goals to achieve in four weeks seems like a fun way to challenge myself and really push myself to make the most out of every month. I want put myself out of my comfort zone as much as I can, and having smaller aims seems like a realistic way to achieve this.

Plus, I love a good list. You may have noticed that from reading this blog and seeing the many list orientated posts...

(Before you think, 'is one of her resolutions really taking selfies?!', no, it's not. I'm just a little bit obsessed with these sunglasses and that seemed a reason as good as any to use this photo)

1. Try Dodgeball

Despite everything being horrendously expensive in Oslo, my gym membership is actually pretty reasonable, more so than London. So I'm vowing to make the most of this and go as often as I can, but not just to do my normal routines. No my friend, I will be going to a Dodgeball class because which self-respecting gym doesn't have this on their group exercise class schedule?!

From yoga to dodgeball and nakke (no idea but I'm going to give it a go and see!), Oslo really has changed me...

2. Talk to someone new every day

I'm still finding knowing less people here a bit weird, I love socialising and whilst I'm making some really good friends here, there's always room for a few more! This led me to decide to talk to someone new every day, and to try to always seem friendly and approachable. It's a nice way to meet people, and even just a simple smile and hello can really lift someone's day.

3. Cut out/down on sugar and dairy

Being vegetarian since I was, I've always been aware of what I'm putting into my body and of the importance of having a balanced diet. But recently, being vegetarian hasn't seemed enough, and for moral and lifestyle reasons, I'm making a really concentrated effort to eat as few animal based products as possible.

I've mentioned this before, but I have a lot of problems with my skin, particularly acne, and seeing as I'm religious with cleansing and looking after my skin, and have medication for it, I figured my diet might have something to do with it. So I'm going to eliminate dairy as much as possible from my diet, and see if it makes a different to my skin. 

When it comes to sugar, I've seen all the warnings, and I've looked at my intake and realised it's much too high. But I've never actually done anything about it, so my resolution for February is to remove refined sugar from my diet as much as I can. After talking about it with my friend, I realised that it doesn't have to be as difficult as it might seem, I just have to get creative!

4. Discover a new singer/band

Music has always been one of the most important things to me, I can't do anything without having a soundtrack to my life, whether it's cooking, travelling, relaxing, you name it. But I tend to find myself listening to the same artists and songs I love continuously, until I get a bit bored. 

Rather than clicking on the same old links on youtube, I'm going to see where random suggestions from songs I'm already listening to take me, and to get recommendations from my friends. My brother is a massive hip hop fan, which I've never really listened to much, so I might have to start there...

5. Try a new recipe every week

I LOVE cooking. But so often I find myself making the same things I always do on repeat, or being lazy and throwing a few random things together. This seems kinda stupid to me when my recipe bookmark folder on my laptop is intimidatingly massive, full of amazing sounding things. 

So every week, I'm going to choose at least one of these and spend some time making something fresh, healthy and (hopefully) v v yummy.

Do you have anything you want to achieve this month?

Honor xxx