I'm Sorry Dua Lipa; I Hath Failed You

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You heard it here first folks, I have broken almost every rule on my list in the past week. But honestly, what did anyone expect from me trying to enact life changes the week before midterms? So let's unpack this.

Rule #1: No eating after 10 pm.This one was the first to go. Ya boi has got night classes, man, and sometimes I don't get home until nearly 10 pm and I've got the munchies. I'm working on packing healthy snacks to eat during class so I'm not hungry afterwards, but sometimes I just need a proper big dinner.

Rule #2: Go to bed by midnight.Not staying up past midnight flew out the window. Being awake past midnight is one thing- I've had chronic insomnia for as long as I can remember- but being out of bed until past midnight is what I was trying to avoid. But my roommates were watching the Prince of Egypt downstairs and I just couldn't resist. Plus I had heaps of work that needed doing on most other nights of the past week and the next few days so that didn't help at all.

Rule #3: Rise by 10 am.Rising by 10 am was going fine until I had some icky icky dreams one night and I stayed in bed until well past noon because the dreams made me too sad to get up. Not something too unexpected when you're on selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, (which are the kind of meds that I've been on for about two and half years now), but unpleasant nonetheless. It's not super common for me, but it's something I'll need to consider moving forward.

Rule #4: No caffeine after 4 pm.This one has actually been okay, since I've been so anxious for the past week that I've not wanted to put much in the way of stimulants in my body. I've replaced a lot of my tea breaks during the day with herbal tea just because I've been so jittery I highly doubt caffeine was going to do me any good.

Rule #5: You must eat one (1) healthy meal per day.Uh. So technically I've kept up with this one, but considering some of what I've been eating for my other two meals, I'm not sure if it counts.

Rule #6: No use of the following phrases:-I hate myself-I want to die-I'm going to kill myself. I'm not going to count how many times I dropped the ball on this one, but I will say that I've become so much more conscious of when I say these things and I usually stop myself or chastise myself for saying them.

Rule #7: Just because you screw up once doesn't mean you should give up.I'm! Still! Trying! Am I coming in at below a 50%? Yes! But am I giving up? No! It's midterms, I'm sure I'm going to struggle big time with these, but I'm not giving up. I want to prove to myself that I can get this on lock so that someday soon I can add things about working out and meditating to the list and work on that stuff and really be one of those annoying healthy-living self-improvement hoes.

P.S: Dua Lipa only had three rules she was trying to follow, so considering I had more than twice as many I think I'm doing okay.Pictured：My rapidly crumbling resolve