what i tried in january.

I keep reading about how January dragged on and on for a lot of my friends, but it just flew by for me. Between starting up the new semester and working 35-40 hours a week at my externship (plus my actual paying job two nights a week...), I pretty much blink and it's the end of another week. With all that, I wanted to do a little round up of things I've tried this month:

(This post contains some affiliate links!)

Boar’s Head dark chocolate dessert hummus

Don’t think too hard about it, just grab a bag of pretzels and go wild. Just read on their website that they’ll only be making this for a “limited time” and I am next to devastated so may just have to buy 100 and freeze them. 

Body suits (and SHEIN.com)

I’ve mentioned time and time again that I’m not very fashionable, and I certainly wouldn’t describe my style as being “on trend,” yet here we are. I was thinking about what I wanted to wear to Gasparilla (Tampa’s annual pirate parade + drinking fest) and decided to branch out of my comfort zone. I found this one and this one from SheIn.com (for $8-$10 each!) and I’m actually obsessed with them, especially for the price. I found some coupons and opted for the express shipping because I needed them ASAP, and I heard they can take awhile to ship. This was my first order from this website, and I definitely plan on trying them out again. (Pictures below!)

Deep Eddy lemon vodka + soda water
So simple & delicious, with only 4 grams of sugar per serving of vodka. Sign me up, yoooo.

Swallowing/feeding therapy
No worries, guys, not for myself...for school! SLP covers speech, language, and cognition, in addition to feeding and swallowing. In case you aren't familiar (because I certainly wasn't, prior to starting classes a few years back), think babies and kiddos with difficulty holding food in their mouths, chewing, and initiating a swallow, or adults with a glossectomy who have to relearn how to eat and swallow their food without a tongue (SO many other reasons why someone might need swallowing therapy, but you get the gist). I'm still very new to all of it, but I'm learning so much at my hospital externship every day, and it's been so fun to learn and to actually put my academics into practice.

Other things I've been doing this month: 

• Dropping nearly $40 on fresh pressed juice and smoothie bowls,
• Taking the dogs for two mile walks on Sunday afternoons, 
• Incorporating some *~mild~* weight lifting into my workout routine, 
• Caring less about what people think of me, 
• Reading books vs. mindless scrolling (most days), 
• Watching Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

What did you try out in the first month of 2018?