January Goals

Hey, everyone! I decided January would ultimately be the month to focus on perhaps the most popular New Years Resolution of all time- Exercise and General Health (not related to food). I started exercising at the very end of last month and was really starting to enjoy it. I found if I exercised early in the day, I would feel better for the rest of the day and sleep better at night.

1. Exercise at least three times a week
I find it silly to commit to exercising every day; some days are busy and some days just aren't made for exercising. However, I think three times a week is a reasonable commitment to make with my schedule. I plan to be doing workouts from this calendar (this tumblr is probably the only fitness tumblr I follow because it's the best). I'm not sure which calendar I will be following yet/probably either the student one or the beginner one. Either way, I'm sure it will be fun.

2. Attend one of my university's rec center's classes
My university has a relatively nice rec center that offers all kinds of fitness classes. Every semester, I say I'm going to go to one of these fitness classes and look at the schedule to try to figure out which one works best for me. Then I never go because I have this irrational thing about going out in workout clothes/exercising in front of people. I'm not sure what this stems from, but I want to definitely beat this fear (?) and go to a class!

3. Go to sleep earlier/sleep better
This is the goal that makes this general health. I want to start getting up earlier; therefore I need to go to bed earlier. I want to be fully rested and refreshed for my early mornings. This goal is probably the simplest to understand, but it is also probably going to be the one that is most difficult to achieve.

In addition to these goals, I am hoping to read 50 books in 2014! You can follow my progress either here or on my Goodreads.

What are your goals for January?

2014

I'm not usually one to be overly enthusiastic about a new year. Usually, I'm with the masses going, "It's just another year / you can start change within yourself at any point." I never understood the big deal with New Years Resolutions so I never made any or felt compelled to stick with them.

I'm feeling a little different this year. When looking back on 2013, I've had some good times. But I've also had some things happen that I think I could have handled better/prevented. Reflecting on this, I just feel compelled to focus on self-improvement. Unfortunately, I have no clear direction on how I want to go about that, but I am working on it.

This year I wanted to make goals for each month that would focus on me just becoming better. A better friend, girlfriend, overall human being, whatever. "Better" is really subjective, but it is also relatively easy to obtain. After all, if I'm doing slightly better than yesterday, then I am automatically doing better.

I don't know what exactly I'm going to focus on improving each month; I think for January I'm just going to focus on exercise since I started on that before the end of 2013. We will see though, as I haven't one hundred percent committed to that yet. I will hopefully have a post on my goals for January up soon. My bookish/blog-focused goals will go up next Tuesday with Broke and Bookish's Top Ten Tuesday. Once I have goals for each month lined up, I will try to post them and at the end of the month, let you all know how I did.

Do you have any goals for 2014 or even just the month of January? What are they? Leave them in the comments. 

Starcrossed Review

Cover from Goodreads

Title: Starcrossed
Author: Josephine Angelini
Published: April 1st, 2011 by HarperTeen

Plot Summary from Goodreads:
Helen Hamilton has spent her entire sixteen years trying to hide how different she is—no easy task on an island as small and sheltered as Nantucket. And it's getting harder. Nightmares of a desperate desert journey have Helen waking parched, only to find her sheets damaged by dirt and dust. At school she's haunted by hallucinations of three women weeping tears of blood . . . and when Helen first crosses paths with Lucas Delos, she has no way of knowing they're destined to play the leading roles in a tragedy the Fates insist on repeating throughout history.

As Helen unlocks the secrets of her ancestry, she realizes that some myths are more than just legend. But even demigod powers might not be enough to defy the forces that are both drawing her and Lucas together—and trying to tear them apart

I really enjoyed this book; it was some nice, refreshing paranormal romantic ya.

The plot of this book was really intriguing. While at the beginning it may seem very similar to Twilight in a lot of respects, it diverges and goes down a completely new path. It's based on the Trojan War and the protagonist, Helen, is based on Helen of Troy. She has her own mystical powers and is able to use them. While I do question a lot of her decisions, she is still an interesting character to see the story through. 

As much as I like Helen though, I have to admit my favorite character is Claire. I just really enjoyed the fact that she was aware of how strange Helen was and accepted her anyway and continued to be her best friend. I hope we see more of her in the next book. 

The ending was so-so. On the one hand, I definitely want to read the next one. However, the main action happened a little before the ending and then the ending itself seemed like it was more of a teaser for the next book. Overall, I would recommend this to fans of the genre and fans of Twilight. Also, if you like books based on classics, this is one for you to try. 

Happy reading and happy new year!