Month In Review: January 2021

January flew by so fast, and so it’s time for a little roundup of the month.

In January 2021, I wrote/published 21 posts which is 16 more than in January 2020. My blog received about 45% more page views than a year ago.

Top 10 posts of January 2021 on beautybymissl.com were

According to Google Analytics my top ten most visited posts in January were:

1. L’Oreal Preference 11.11 Ultra Light Crystal Blonde hair dye review (read it here)
2. Essence HELLO, GOOD STUFF! products revire (see the post here)
3. New from Essence Cosmetics – first impressions of Fall/Winter 2019 collection (see the post here)
4. Essence Brow Pomade + Brush in a shade 02 Ash Blonde review (read the post here)
5. My Comfy Weatherproof Winter Outfit & weekly link up #206 (see the post here)
6. 2020: My blogging year in review (see the post here)
7. Essence this is me. gel nail polish swatches (see the post here)
8. Valentine’s Day Gifts that are not chocolate (read the post here)
9. Black A-line Jersey dress and weekly link-up #205 (see the post here)
10. Review: Essence Pretty Natural Hydrating Foundation – 050 Neutral Champagne (read the post here)

My goals and resolutions for 2021

Blogging

Well, I guess when it comes to my goals and resolutions, then January has been quite okay. I did publish more posts, increased my page views, and also was able to earn a bit more. Unfortunately, I still have to work on growing my income from blogging because what I’m currently earning from blogging isn’t enough. I guess I should raise my rates, but with some ongoing cooperations, it might be a slippery road 🙁

Eating healthy and exercising

When it comes to eating healthy, exercising more, and losing weight then that’s another story. I have been more active. Since we have snow then we have been outside walking/sledding/ playing in the snow almost daily, plus when I had free time I also went walking. I would have preferred running, but since I don’t have those special running shoes meant for slippery conditions then no running for me at this point. Oh, and instead of a gym I have been shoveling the snow almost daily and sometimes 3-4 times a day 🙂

I’m so sad that Endomondo stopped working. I loved Endomondo – it was easy to use and never failed me. Since it was advised to use MapMyRun (or MapMyWalk or MapMyRide or MapMyFitness) instead, then I downloaded and gave it a try. Oh boy, I hate it. I especially hate its voice feedback! It’s so robotic and so hard to understand (I’m not a native English speaker).

So I downloaded SportsTracker. The voice feedback  seems okay. But when I used Sports Tracker and MapMyRun simultaneously then there was a distance difference between the two apps. I Googled and read reviews and decided to download the third app – Strava. Well, it seemed okay, but for some reason its voice feedback doesn’t work during a workout. When I start the workout the voice feedback says that it started but that’s it. So annoying!

The next problem – how to sync my Fitbit app with the fitness app? Strava works perfectly with my Fitbit and all workouts I track with Strava are visible on Fitbit app. But unfortunately, so far I haven’t been able to connect MpMyRun with Fitbit although they should work perfectly together. And well, the Sports Tracker seems hopeless.

Eating  healthy part has been a bit problematic, especially when there are some new baking recipe’s I had to try. But overall I think I have done a pretty good job avoiding unhealthy fats and excess sugar in my food. I did lose a bit of weight but unfortunately, I still need to lose about 5-7kg.

Budget

Although I planned to do the 52-week money challenge, then I just ended up putting away 31€ (1€ for each day in January). Since all the winter sales and clearances are going on right now and I usually buy all my boys’ next winter clothes during those sales then saving more money is rather hard. I have cut all my expenses as much as possible and really buying only things I really really really need.

Goals for February

For February I don’t have any new additional goals. I just keep on working on those goals mentioned because there’s still a lot of room for improvement.

How did you January 2021 go? What are your goals for this month? Let me know in the comments! 🙂