Beauty: Tips for a new you!

Every year on Jan. 1, I wake up with a new purpose to be great and do great things. That is – be great and do great things right after I get over my massive hangover from the night before.

Two liters of water and some aspirin later, I am ready to take on the world, making this year my year: The year I finally run a half marathon, confine my yoga pants to the house, and start that book of poems (or children’s book, or cookbook…really just any type of book).

Fast-forward six months, and I am nowhere close to this improved Kelsey I promised myself I would be. I’m still huffing and puffing through three-mile runs, convinced myself that yoga pants are an avant-garde public fashion statement, and on my desktop is a blank document entitled “BEST BOOK EVAH.” Halfway through my actual marathon (it’s the first season of Girls), I convince myself improved Kelsey can wait until next year – so it’s six more months of yoga pants procrastination.

I have decided, in the most unscientific and unquantifiable way, that this is the problem with New Year’s. Amongst the throngs of confetti and champagne flutes, is everybody’s expectation to be outstandingly better than their former selves, whether that means thinner, smarter or more accomplished. Society has convinced us that New Year’s Day is a day of reflection and ambitious change; and when we don’t live up to our unrealistic expectations, well, cue the yoga pants, gallons of ice cream and days wasted on the couch. If I can’t be that super Kelsey that I dreamed up on New Years, what’s the point in trying?

To avoid another inevitable relapse into self-inflicted failure, I have decided to set realistic expectations and to give myself the appreciation I deserve for my smaller accomplishments in the past year. I’ll trim that half marathon to a 10K, make my yoga pants a nighttime luxury (no one can tell the difference in the dark, right?), and will consider it an accomplishment to have six chapters of my book done by December – right after I figure out what kind of book it will be.

This is where my beauty guru comes to play. I encourage all of you to do the same – to set reachable beauty and health goals realizing that failure is an option, and to not being too hard on yourself if it happens. Instead of wishing yourself into those skinny jeans, start with a reasonable resolution to cut out soda and walk more, with the hope that, someday, cutting soda might lead to cutting processed foods and sugar, and walking may lead to jogging.

And, instead of lamenting the wrinkles you’ve acquired over the past year, implement the habit of always wearing sunscreen and drinking plenty of water, two habits that can help reduce wrinkles in the future.

Take time to appreciate achievements of the past year that have led you to grow, and the bad habits acquired that have stunted your success. Acknowledging these will help you continue, or alter, whatever actions, good or bad, you have grown accustomed to. But most of all, remember: Just because it’s a new year doesn’t mean that it’s a completely new you. Be nice to your current persona, and know that making it another year isn’t a reason for lamentation, but celebration. ]