my healthy habits and routines living alone in paris

Auto-captioned from the film, lightly cleaned. Elena's words, not edited prose.

good morning look the way I get to start my day good morning back in Paris baby I have a lot of thoughts I have a lot of new not necessarily goals but systems and intentions and routines I want to implement and one thing that's exciting that's been a huge goal of M is to enroll in intensive PR schooling if I'm being very honest this is hard to admit so don't judge me but my French feels like it's barely improved since being here which is frustrating because that's part of the reason why I came to France so I have school this morning I actually have to literally leave in 8 minutes really really good at time management that is on my list of things work I hope you're excited for New Year if you're not we're going to get you excited let's go to school no it's what no for they they are for my third cup of coffee of the day it's okay hello as well for my first Vlog of 2025 hi I feel like for me this past year was a fascinating year it was the year of huge amount of change I moved to Paris and I like actually didn't I once like I left my New York apartment I got a Visa I moved into an apartment here like I'm doing the thing you know what I'm freaking proud of myself it was hard it was scary it was lonely and it still is all of the above at times but I found myself generally just a lot more at peace I do miss New York how was your year how are your Reflections do you have any new resolutions I want to hear leave me little comment and I definitely don't think you need a new year to create new habits and systems and goals I think something I'm trying to do this year is do it a bit more quarterly or check in every month with myself I hope you gain something still whenever you watch this video no matter what it be please hold so whenever I'm checking in with myself whether it be yearly or quarterly or the start of the month I like to break it down usually into a few different sections personal career relational and health personally I usually ask myself questions of what skills do I want to develop how do I want to work on my inner life therapy or meditation or reading or focusing on Art I have my career goals I usually ask myself like where do I want to be in 6 months what projects do I want to work on what do I want to be known for how do I want to invest what I want my finances to look like relational usually what relationships are working which ones aren't really necessarily serving me who do I want to add into my life maybe there's someone that I've been like I want to be friends with them if you're single Like Me Maybe it's going on dates maybe it's also going back to therapy learning how to let love in because I've been single for the rest of my life my health goals I really want to work on nutrition I'm such a girl dinner type of G to the max like I just nibble on whatever I can find and I want to work on really hitting all the most important food groups for each meal getting my daily protein in I think a big change for me is in the past I would write down a lot of goals at the start of the Year and have like 60 random goals to look back at and I often found myself disappointed because some things were too Niche or I wrote them down once and I never thought about them again so I think this year I'm really changing out of this goal- based mindset and more into a routine and system based mindset I think part of this is also aligned with my desire to be more present I love being future oriented but it can also really work against you because it can really lead to anxiousness there's really so much that's still out of your control so I think it's so much better to focus on one thing at a time and making slow changes to like incrementally get you to where you want to be let's talk about habits and we're going to refer to my good old friend James Clear author of atomic habits because this is such a valuable book I read it back in 2020 and I revisit it every year and if we want this big transformation my life he says it's really about small tweaks and our daily routine that get us there so some of the routines I really want to work on this year having healthier mornings and nights and I know this is like so basic but when you mess this up it is so easy to slowly become 1% worse and worse and worse you know you pick up your phone one night for 30 minutes and the next night for 40 minutes and the next night for 60 minutes and then you're sitting up too late and all of a sudden 3 weeks later you're consistently under slept and you're like how how did I get here the mornings especially I think are such a sacred time and and I personally want to work on creating the space to actually make it really healthy and calming whether that's meditation or if you really don't like meditation just sit and stare at your window with a cup of coffee no music just thinking just pondering do a morning page I think a beautiful intention is being more mindful with your time time is one of our most precious resources Parkinson's law I feel like it's perfect to explain it it's this law that says that work will expand to basically the amount of time you give yourself to do it another mindset I'm trying to take on this year is being a slower person it's not just slowing down but it's embodying living life at a slower Pace cuz I'm the friend who's always in a rush I'm always late so I think like actually genuinely learning to slow down even to speak slower to just exist slower walk a little bit slower so having lived alone for most of last year I found myself filling the Silence with stimulation and not even realize I was doing it there would always be music on on top of that even more so it was podcasts long time it was like NPR so I was like look I'm listening to the news I'm paying attention to what's going on in the world but then I think it finally set in that I just needed to be constantly stimulated and I really needed to relearn to just be completely okay with me and my thoughts and giving myself the space to just develop my own opinions and to work through the things that I needed to work on in terms of being mindful for your time while this is a year where I have learned to be so much slower and like softer with myself which I think was necessary on the flip side you do need discipline to become the person that you want to be if you want to be fit you got to get your booty to the gym if you want to be well read and cultured you have to put your phone down and pick up the book if you want to actually learn a language you have to carve out the time for it you want to make new friendships you to put yourself in the uncomfortable situation of reaching out to new people putting yourself in a place you might meet new people also on that note I feel like this past year I actually kind of took a little bit of a backseat on doing as much content as I always normally do just trying to be slightly more present while it was such a valuable season at the same time I'm actually really excited to kind of kick it back into high ge when it comes to YouTube and Instagram and creating content and all things I enjoy I honestly feel like I'm just really starting off this year with a ton of gratitude for you guys and this cool little community and the fact that you wanted to stick around for as long as you have I'm just really freaking grateful for you all for being here it's so cozy in here this is such a chatty Vlog but I guess I haven't made it a video in a while this apartment is so gorgeous I'm unfortunately only here for two weeks while I'm in between spots but I am soaking it in and then in terms of where I'm going to be this year geographically it's a big old question mark I think the year I should kind of decide between New York or Paris I think I'm kind of finally getting to that place where I should probably get a lease cuz I want to continue building Roots build a community friends build out a network maybe do more YouTube Community event go on dates and so it's interesting right now I'm looking at apartments on and then I'm also looking at apartments in Street EZ and it's really it's really a coin toss we could go either way I think 2025 is going to be a fascinating year I think there'll be either way some really big changes Al I meant to say this earlier but I'd love to hear if there's anything that you want to see here on YouTube and especially on Instagram with reals I really like get so paralyzed on what to post there so I'd love to hear what you want to see even though I'm very cozy I am going to work up the energy to do a little at home work out I'm still using train well this isn't sponsored by them I just love it it's the app I use I have like a little personal trainer in my pocket and so she's helped adapt my workouts for this week to do some at home stuff since I don't have a gym I feel like this last year I really found a balance that felt good for me I used to think be a cardio junky to a certain degree and a lot of times for the wrong reasons I think really just in the last few years I've really found a routine that feels good that makes me feel strong and confident and just healthy which is just such an important switch I love doing like two leg glute days one arm day in a cardio day obviously fueling your body is so important I want to lean into cooking more and just enjoy the process of it all because whenever I do take the time for it it really can be so meditative and on that note we're going to put on some house music we're going to get pumped we're going to get our energy up even though it's January we're going to have a little nice sweaty at home workout and it's going to be good honestly good music is key side not I just made the best running playlist but not just running specifically like treadmill Sprints in the winter I get down with some treadmill Sprints you put on some songs with some incredible drops you jog for a minute you run for 30 seconds you jog for a minute you run for 45 seconds these songs slap if you like your house if you like your techno I have a playlist for you and you're about to have the best workout I got you okay let's work out fall her size she's so cute small water a