Instagram Life Update

Hello everyone! Since I have been terrible with my blog, I thought I would share an Instagram life update to let you know what's been going on in my life lately! I'm not sure about you, but I love being nosey into other people lives and living vicariously through them, and not only that, but I love how the internet is bringing us much closer to each other, and you can feel like your best friends with the people you admire. So, if you were interested, here is a sneak peak into my life! And in case you want to follow me you can find me @allymariecatherine on IG!


1 - 2. I currently work full time as a receptionist (and am obviously SO busy in that at work selfie!). To be honest, it's definitely a great learning experience not only for the skills that I am building but for the fact that I am being thrown into the adult world and having to figure out how to live in it. However! I have been accepted into school! If you didn't know I just graduated in June'14 from a Bachelor of Arts Honours in Psychology from University, but have decided to go to College for Practical Nursing. I'm at a point in my life where I want to start a career, and I think with my Psychology and Nursing degree I can hopefully work with patients with mental health issues and I think I will really enjoy it! I will be going back to school in January 2015 and so look forward to back to school posts coming mid-way through everyone else's school year!

3 - 4. I've currently been exploring my city, which is not only excellent exercise, but I love exploring the beauty where I live, and I haven't really noticed how many beautiful corners there are in my city until recently! Going for an hour or two walk gives me time to think, I get in some exercise on my rest days, and I just get this calming and relaxing feeling exploring and appreciating the beauty around me, because I really am one of those people who focuses a little bit too much on my internal world rather than the world around me. It just opens my eyes and gives me and really helps me focus my energy outside of the mess of our human minds.

5. My boyfriend and I celebrated our two-year anniversary in August. For my first relationship, I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty ecstatic that we've made it two years. We have our ups and downs, but I've come to love video games and fitness, and I feel I've really grown and learned things that I never would without him. He is currently up North about a 16 hour drive away, and although it's tough being in a long distance relationship, it's only six months and then we'll be going to school together in January! Here we're enjoying some extra delicious burgers before going out for a few drinks. He comes home the last weekend of the month and I'm so excited for cuddles!

6 - 7. I've been into fitness for a few years now, but recently I've taken the bull by the horns and fitness has become one of my number one goals. Going to the gym and getting enough protein have become priorities, and I'm in love with who I'm becoming. I'm becoming healthier, leaner, fitter, and going to the gym and squatting some heavy *ss weights is really just an amazing feeling. I hope to include more fitness and lifestyle tidbits into my blog because it was really intended to be more than a beauty blog when I started it, so let me know if you are interested! Posts will be coming your way in the near future :)

8. Speaking of fitness and protein, I have started to love smoothies, and here I have one that I had on my last cheat day and it tasted exactly like Reese's peanut butter ice cream. I will definitely be posting this recipe and sharing a some other food and tips related to eating to get fit. I am not a clean eater - go ahead and shame - but my goals are different from what clean eating will do for me. That being said, I do go by an 80-20 rule for healthy/"unhealthy" foods, and my main goals are to lose fat and build muscle so I eat according to my goals. I will have to give a lot of credit (about 75%) to my boyfriend for everything I've learned about fitness and nutrition, and maybe I will get him to do a guest post sometime! Let me know if you would be interested! I'm sure he would love to write a post and answer any questions you may have!

9. It is officially fall in Canada, and in some places like Calgary already winter, and therefore it's time for skinny jeans and sweaters! To be honest, I have never been a fan of any other season other than summer. I am allergic to the cold ;) But! I'm excited for jeans, and comfy sweaters, and sweatpants, the smell of the crisp air in the morning, pumpkin and other fall scented candles, and dark nail polish and lipstick!

Anyways, that's all for my update, I hope you enjoyed getting the inside scoop on my life, and let me know.. are you excited about fall/autumn? What's your favourite part of fall?

xoxox
Ally

PS: accidentally pressed publish while trying to save! *facepalm* sorry for the awkward "insert photo" draft post!

Baking Day!

I thought I would share an extra snippet of my day today. I've had a lot of time on my hands, and so I'm really into cooking at the moment, and today I decided to bake some cupcakes! I'm not even lying when I say they are the best cupcakes I have ever had. Bravo me! Anyways, hope you enjoy this little life tidbit, and if you'd like to see more random life tidbits, let me know in the comments!

mmmmm....

xoxox

2014 New Years Resolutions

To be honest, I couldn't think of a better blog post to do today so I settled on my 2014 New Years Resolutions. I never really make resolutions. I think they're kind of corny, and not something that people usually stick to. But since moving I have wanted to start doing quite a bit of things more regularly to get into a routine, and since it's the New Year, they may as well become my Resolutions.

Make This Year Better Than Last

Each year I make this resolution, which is really quite simple. Make this year better than last year. I've had quite a few struggles over the years that have made enjoying myself and others almost nearly impossible, and so now that I'm recovering and making my way into adulthood, my goals are to improve each year and make it better than the last.

Skincare & Teeth

I never thought skincare was really important until about a year ago, but have never really stuck to a skincare routine, nor have I yet found what really works for my skin. So, now that I have discovered that I have combination to oily skin and have post-adolescent acne (help!), I want to stick to a skin care routine every day, morning and night, and discover products that work for me. Along the same lines is brushing my teeth twice a day. I've never really been a good tooth brusher, because I was blessed with never having cavities and pretty solid teeth. However, they are now getting yellower and yellower as I'm getting older, so I need to start taking care of my teeth!

8 Hours Sleep (And No More!)

I would sleep all day every day if I could, and that's a problem. So I need to stick to getting 8 hrs sleep per night and not going over. I need to train my body into this routine. So far I am failing, but it's really important to me to make this work.

Avoid Social Anxiety

I've always been shy, but over the past year or two my shyness has turned into a horrible sort of social anxiety. I worry constantly, I'm incredibly nervous and tense around people I don't know, and can't usually find the appropriate words to say, so I end up just having verbal diarrhea all over the person or barely being able to say anything. And I really want to work on improving this. I'm not yet sure how to do this, but I definitely don't want it to get any worse than it currently is!

'Get Skinneh'

That is the phrase I wrote in my journal. I lost 32 lbs over the 2012 year, and then gained 10 lbs in just over a month. I really need to get back into the gym once I get a job, and try and control my eating again, so I am not hugely overeating like I was in December. (In my defense, I did have a lot going on, and eating made me feel happy, and as much as it's a poor coping mechanism, it really helped in the moment.)

And that's all! Talk to you all tomorrow. I may be a little different tomorrow and upload a youtube video!

xoxox