2024 Essentials and Reset Kit

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope your holidays were amazing and joyful and I hope that your New Year is off to a great start. As I talked about last year in my New Year’s post, I take January 1st to reflect on the past year, set goals for the future, organize the coming weeks in my planner, etc. This feels like such a weird New Year’s Day for me because instead of planning to be more fit, or participate in something like Dry January, I find myself prepping for the new baby.

Instead of “resolutions” this year, per se, I like the new “ins and outs” lists I’ve been seeing online. I actually like New Year’s resolutions and I am the biggest cheerleader for anyone who wants to better their life or situation, but this year the “ins and outs” list feels more right to me. The list is more general and it seems like it might be easier to follow. Here is my list below that I posted to my Tik Tok and Instagram:

The “OUts”

Before I get into my 2024 Essentials and Reset Kit, I just want to touch on my “outs” for this coming year. Being pregnant and being required to cut back drastically on my caffeine intake has forced me to really take a look at my relationship with caffeine. I never realized how dependent I was on it. Now that I’ve adjusted to less coffee every day, I feel much better. Regarding the all-nighters, my husband was laughing at me because having a newborn on the way is a hell of a time to cut back on all-nighters, haha! 😂 I understand why this is funny, but in all seriousness I was more referring to being up all night just watching television or doom scrolling (which also made my “outs” list).

Plastic Tupperware is something I am actually really invested in ditching this coming year. Actually, plastic in general in the kitchen I’d like to ditch. (I’ll get more into this in a future post, but we even opted for glass baby bottles this time around.)

Lastly, I’d like to ditch comparison. I’ve written about this topic before (actually, very recently…) and genuinely hate comparison. It’s so easy to compare houses, children, marriages, diets, spirituality… the list could go on forever. Well, I feel done with all that nonsense this year.

The “Ins”

In general, I guess if I was forced to sum up my resolutions for this year based on my “ins” list, it would be to be just overall healthier in all aspects. A lot of my “ins” are daily practices. I want to keep up with my daily skincare routine and find time each day to walk. I also like the idea of nourishing meals as opposed to low-fat or diet foods. Prayer is something I really need to work on and I think I am going to take up some sort of Ignatian Spirituality like a Daily Examen. (If you’re interested in learning more about that, here is a good resource.)

Other daily must-haves are morning routines, an organized planner with meal planning, and even sleep hygiene.

As I alluded to above regarding the plastics in the kitchen, I also really want to revamp my kitchen to be primarily non-toxic. Oh, and I just feel drawn to neutrals lately.

I am hoping that getting into good daily routines in all areas of my life will help when Baby Lopes #2 makes his arrival.

2024 Essentials and Reset Kit

Okay, now that I talked about the “ins and outs” list, here are some of my 2024 essentials and my reset kit:

• Stanley Tumbler – The Stanley Quencher Tumbler made my list year year, too! I love the Stanley Tumbler and genuinely think it helps me drink more water every day.
• Red Raspberry Leaf Tea – Starting today, drinking Red Raspberry Leaf Tea is going to be a daily practice for me. It is supposed to help with labor and most women begin drinking it in their second trimester. However, I tried drinking it about two months ago and I felt like I had cramps after. My doctor suggested I wait till the third trimester, so now we can give it a go!
• Medjool Dates – This is another practice to prep for labor. However, I cannot start eating these daily until I am thirty-six weeks along. I am including them on this list because in a few short weeks they will become part of my daily practice.
• Daily Planner – I’ve written about Day Designer in the past and it is still my absolute favorite planner. Each day is organized by hour, there is a daily to-do list section, a meal prep section, etc. It is perfect for any woman who is incredibly busy with jam-packed days. Plus, they are offering 10% off right now for the New Year!
• Glass Food Storage – I am very excited about this Pyrex glass set! I am hoping that this is a good first step to really getting my kitchen as non-toxic as possible.
• Ice Roller for Face – I want to keep up with my daily skincare routine and to be fair I have done a great job the last year with really nailing down a regime. However, improvement is always possible and I decided to start using an ice roller every morning. I ordered this one right on Amazon and it was super cheap.
• Sleep Eye Mask – Like many pregnant women, I have been suffering with insomnia. Between going to the bathroom every ten minutes, my racing mind going through the check-list before the baby gets here, and just my poor sleep habits in general, I am barely sleeping anymore. In the recent post about my weekly pregnancy grocery list I talked a bit about tart cherry juice (which definitely helps when I drink it during the day). However, I needed to really bulk up on good sleep habits. I found that a sleep eye mask helps immensely. I really like this one from Casaluna. Not only is it very comfortable and adjustable, but you can match your bed sheets to it! (Yes, mine all match, haha!)
• Magnesium supplement – While on the subject of sleep, my doctor recommended this magnesium supplement to help. They also help with leg cramps!

So, there you have it! My list is pretty simple and primarily pregnancy-related. What’s on your list for 2024? I’d love to know!