Summary

The author of "My Glow Up Diary: Part 1" is embarking on a personal transformation journey to improve their life post-divorce, including outdoor activities, fitness, beauty routines, and reading, while also addressing their sleep habits and sugar intake.

Abstract

The author, recently divorced and navigating life changes such as buying a house, starting a new job, and coping with a breakup, has decided to embrace the positive astrological shift of Jupiter into Taurus to initiate a personal glow up. This transformation includes spending more time outside, engaging in new activities like golf, maintaining a fitness routine, and focusing on self-care through beauty regimens. The author acknowledges the challenge of breaking old habits and confronting self-hatred, while also setting practical goals such as ten minutes of daily outdoor time, incorporating reading into their nightly routine, and aiming for healthier sleep patterns. Despite the struggle of detoxing from sugar and the inconvenience of their gym experience, the author is committed to making these changes to live a happier life.

Opinions

The author is optimistic about the influence of astrology on their personal growth.
They believe that engaging in outdoor activities and new sports like golf will help them break out of their comfort zone and improve their mental and physical health.
The author values self-care and is dedicated to their anti-aging beauty regimen, though they struggle with finding time for it.
They recognize the importance of reading over mindless social media use and aim to replace one with the other.
The author admits to a sugar addiction and plans to address it once other habits are more established.
They express dissatisfaction with their current gym situation but are exploring more pleasant and affordable options.
The author is critical of their own unhealthy habits and is actively working to change them for the better.
They are taking practical steps to improve their sleep habits, understanding the impact of sleep on overall well-being.
The author is determined to make the most of their life post-divorce and is taking proactive measures to ensure personal happiness and growth.

My Glow Up Diary: Part 1

Let the glow up begin, motherf*ckers!

TikTok told me (because it tells me everything) that on May 14th, Jupiter shifted into Taurus and that’s a good thing for us Leos suffering for the past two years.

I don’t know what half of that means but in two years I got divorced, bought a house, survived on half an income with the same living expenses, put my kids through divorce hell, started a miserable new job, dated like a madwoman, and recently experienced a brutal heartbreak.

So whatever positivity the moons and astrology want to tell me, I’m taking it.

After excessive sleeping and wallowing after my recent breakup, I formed a plan to change my life. The dust settled on the craziness and now I want to live a happy life.

Eating healthy or trying new things won’t be the hard parts. Being on autopilot for decades and internalizing self-hatred is the most challenging because those are what drive many of my unhealthy habits.

My goal of going outside is tough, which sounds absurd given I pay a fortune to live in Southern California. Pre-divorce and pre-Covid, I didn’t focus on the outdoors because it was part of my life. I left the house daily for work and my weekends were jam-packed with kids’ activities.

Now I work 100% from home and I only see my kids half their lives (that still hurts to acknowledge). I get everything delivered because the junk I buy often isn’t in physical stores or the price is higher. I can easily spend days indoors avoiding the sun.

I wear fancy Korean sunblock and have over a dozen different sun hats, half of them in my car at all times. The sun and I aren’t BFFs. Time to amend our strained relationship.

Step one is to spend at least ten minutes a day outside. Seems simple, right? Not when you’re a vampire. Yesterday, I sat on my porch to eat a sandwich at lunch. Baby steps. It felt good.

I signed up for two golf lessons from two different women’s golf groups. I’m not athletic so there’s no point in making myself miserable by pretending I’m Misty May hitting volleyballs.

Not only will golf get me out of the house and in the sun, but it also forces me out of my comfort zone. I’m a creature of habit and those habits aren’t serving me. Plus, learning new things is good for the brain and lord knows, my cranium is a declining bag of mush.

This week, I left the house to work out at the gym which I rarely do since I converted my garage to a ghetto fitness space. My membership is $49/year (grandfathered in at 24 Hour Fitness) so I can’t complain about the gym’s crappiness. But it’s not a pleasant experience.

Last night, I dragged the kids to Planet Fitness because they had a special: $10/month. That’s in my price range, it’s nearby, and it’s a shockingly nice gym given the low cost. Like, really nice. If it’s clean, nice, and has signs saying “Judgement-Free Zone”, then I’m more apt to go.

Tomorrow is my first Date Thursday since forming my plan. It requires me on non-kid days to get dressed up and go out, whether on a real date or by myself. I’ve got plans with friends so I’ve hit that requirement for this week.

Detoxing sugar will be tough. I’ve eaten five Ferrero Rocher chocolates today and it’s not even 10 am. I’ll punt that one until I get the other goals fully incorporated into my life.

Water. Water sucks. I refilled my water bottle. Thoughts and prayers that I get through it today.

Two areas I need to consistently incorporate are my full beauty regimen and reading.

I don’t eff around when it comes to anti-aging. For me, it’s a hobby. But when I have the kids, my focus is on them and I feel dumb taking an hour for beauty treatments like NuFace when I only have custody half the time. For now, I’ll settle for incorporating all derma rolling and facial peels on non-kid days. It’s better than nothing.

My reading list is ginormous. It’s completely my fault for messing around on social media and doom-scrolling at night when I could use that time to read. Maybe I’ll stick with thirty minutes of reading before bed.

Speaking of beds, I also need to reevaluate my sleep habits since I average three or four hours a night. That’s aging me faster than my other bad habits combined. If I can make it a goal to be in bed by midnight, I’ll be golden.

Deep breath.

Bang the gong because the Glow Up has begun.