I planned to publish this blog post on January 1, but Comcast had other plans … Our internet was out (along with most coffee shops in our neighborhood) all day on the first day of 2019, so alas, here we are on January 2nd.

I hope you enjoyed the holidays with your family and friends and had some time to reset. Today I’m sharing 5 things I’m doing to jumpstart the new year! I hope these 5 items will encourage you in some way to have a positive outlook as we begin 2019. I’m really excited for what’s to come this year, and I hope you are too!

I shared a similar post last year. It was fun to look back on, and writing those 5 items down really helped me to stick to my goals, especially during the first few months of the new year. So without further ado, here are 5 things I’m doing to jumpstart the new year!

Dry January & Clean Eating

If you’ve been around here for a while, you may know that Michael and I have done Dry January for the past two years. You can check out blog posts on my experience here and here! Essentially, I don’t consume any alcohol during the month of January. This year is a little different because we’re getting married in January! I’m committing to an abbreviated Dry January this year. I won’t be consuming any alcohol from now until I arrive in The Bahamas on January 15th.

Along with abstaining from alcohol, I’m committing to eating really clean over the next two weeks. I’ve cut out most sugar (with the exception of fruit) and most carbs. I’m being very strict about my intermittent fasting and eating a high protein diet over the next couple of weeks. It will be a nice reset after indulging throughout the holidays!

SoulCycle

Last January, I committed to upping my SoulCycle workouts. I’m really proud that I stuck with SoulCycle throughout the entire year. I finally found a workout that I LOVE. I love how much I sweat during class, I love the SoulCycle community, and I love how inspiring and uplifting the instructors are during class.

I completed my first 90-minute ride yesterday (on January 1st), and man, it was hard! But so rewarding to actually make it through such a long ride!

I’m committing to sticking with my SoulCycle routine of 3 or 4 classes/week this year. In the next few weeks I might even throw in a few more just for good measure to kick off the new year! 🙂

YogaWorks

I’ve chatted a few times here on the blog about wanting to add in more of a strength workout to balance all of the cardio I do in SoulCycle. Along with strength workouts, I love incorporating stretching and meditation into my fitness routine. When YogaWorks recently reached out to see if I would be interested in partnering with them, I jumped at the chance! I’m excited to hopefully find a yoga studio that I love this year!

I’m taking my first class at YogaWorks today. Pop in over on Instagram Stories where I’ll share my initial thoughts!

Ideally, I’d love to incorporate 3 or 4 classes at YogaWorks each week to balance out my SoulCycle routine.

Closet & Cabinet Declutter

Wintertime is the best time to declutter! I’m really excited to do a deep declutter of our apartment over the next few weeks. Michael and I live in a small row house apartment in the city. While we’re pretty good at getting rid of things throughout the year, our closets and cabinets are in need of a major clean out. I’m planning on following the closet clean out method I wrote about in this post and will use a similar method to declutter all of our kitchen and bathroom cabinets.

Clean Beauty

I’ve written a few blog posts on my efforts to switch over to cleaner skincare and beauty products over the last few months, but I’m really excited for this to become a bigger part of Cobalt Chronicles. A big goal of mine for this year is to incorporate more wellness posts here, which will include lots of posts (and hopefully conversations!) on cleaner beauty products. I’ve been slowly but surely swapping out all of my skincare, makeup, and bath products to clean products.

If you’re not sure where to start, try switching out a few products that you use everyday to begin. I use moisturizer, lip balm, and under eye cream every single day. So those items were some of the first ones that I swapped. I love Beautycounter’s Coutermatch Adaptive Lotion for everyday use (I apply it all over my face every morning), this Peppermint Lip Conditioner (the best lip balm!), and this Eye Rescue Cream (I apply it around my eyes in the morning and nighttime).

If you’re interested in a quick and dirty list of ingredients you should stray away from when cleaning out your skincare and makeup products, check out Beautycounter’s Never List!

Do you have anything you’re doing to jumpstart the new year?!  I’d love to hear!  Leave a comment below!

Cheers to 2019!