 Hi, hello, good morning. It's afternoon, good afternoon. Happy 2024. We need a full reset, okay, it's time. I just got back home to North Carolina last night. I drove back from Pennsylvania where I was for a little over two weeks visiting my family and my boyfriend for Christmas and New Year's, but it felt good to sleep in my own bed, shower in my own shower. Now I just wanna hit the ground running and just get back into my routine and I don't have to go back to work at the salon until Saturday, so it's currently Wednesday. So I have these next three days to kinda like get my life in order before I have to be back at work. I'm gonna go get ready though so I can go head to the grocery store. Just carried so much stuff up. So I was trying to just do it all in one trip. We got eggs. Got a bunch of meat, big pack of chicken broth, ground turkey, turkey bacon, salmon, chicken broth, strawberry vanilla, oli pop, romaine lettuce, bananas, parsley and cilantro, carrots, thin sliced Dave's killer bread, pumpkin spice latte, Alfredo sauce, spinach, zucchini noodles, frozen broccoli, green beans, dental chews, lemons, jasmine rice, celery, grape tomatoes, mushrooms, a red pepper, a red onion and some avocados. I'm so excited to be home again and to be cooking and just making good, healthy meals and eating a lot more whole foods because I didn't eat terribly the past two weeks but you know, like we got takeout. I indulged. I wasn't on like a good healthy normal routine in any aspect of my life. So yeah, I'm just looking forward to like eating the same kind of meals that I'm used to eating throughout the week. So I'm planning on making some chicken soup, some Alfredo chicken with zucchini noodles, salmon with rice and vegetables, maybe some ground turkey meatballs, you know, just like a bunch of my favorite go-to easy recipes. It's several hours later. I went to the gym as you saw. I just walked on the treadmill. I want to start a new weightlifting program but I'm trying to just kind of use into it because I feel like there's all these things that I want to do as far as like getting back into just like a healthy lifestyle and I'm trying to just kind of gradually ease into it because I feel like if I go super hard all at once I'm not gonna actually be able to maintain it. So I walked for an hour while I caught up on some YouTube videos which was great. Then I had a big salad for lunch and now I am making some chicken noodle soup. It's almost done. It smells so good. And I was setting up to record the podcast. So I'm gonna record that and then eat my dinner. If you didn't know, my best friend Julia and I have a girl chat podcast. It's very like laid back easy going like perfect thing to just kind of throw on while you're driving to work or at the gym, folding laundry, that kind of thing. We just talk about all kinds of things that you would talk about with your best friend like body image, things that we're going through in life dating, that kind of stuff. We took the month of December off so that we could just, you know, enjoy the holidays but this week we are coming back for like season three. I also saw her once over the break but we didn't really have like one-on-one time because we were on a double date actually. And other than that, I haven't talked to her since November so I'm really looking forward to just chatting with her and just kind of catching up. I feel like there's a lot that I wanna talk to her about. Oh, also I finally gave in and made a TikTok. I have been saying for the longest time, no I don't have TikTok, no I don't wanna make one, no I'm not interested, like it's just, it's a lot. I feel like there's already so many social media platforms and there's so much to keep up with. And I feel like when TikTok first blew up, I was like, I'm not gonna jump on the bandwagon because like it's super popular now but who knows how long it's gonna last or like I'm sure there's gonna be another app that ends up coming out that everybody's obsessed with but this seems like it's here to stay because people are obsessed with TikTok and it just seems like it's so much easier to grow on here compared to the other platforms because they really just push your content out. So I literally just downloaded this like an hour ago and I just uploaded some videos like I just reused Reels that I already had on Instagram basically and just within like this one I literally just posted oh my, like 10 minutes ago and it already has over 800 views. And I just feel like on Instagram stuff just doesn't, I don't know, like it's just, it's a lot harder to grow on there. So I feel like this could be good promotion for my YouTube channel and a good way for me to maybe possibly get more clients. So that's kind of like one of my resolutions for this year is to just be more active on social media and post more, create more content. I feel like I got to a point where I was just getting kind of lazy and really stagnant with it and just staying in my comfort zone and I don't want to do that anymore. If you want to follow me on TikTok, my username is styledbysamvei. So it's the same as my hair Instagram page. So I want to post more of that as well. So I have two Instagram pages. My personal one is just Sam underscore vei. That's just personal stuff. I'm going to still post on there, but it's just going to be like stuff for friends and family and just myself. And then styledbysamvei is going to be more so like my influencer account, my hair account, where I'm going to be posting more content. So definitely follow me on there. I'm excited, fun stuff to come. I have a lot of ideas of the kind of content I want to start posting. So yeah, go give me a follow and like my TikToks. I would really appreciate it. But I'm going to get my laptop and set up to record this podcast. I'm literally just going to stay like this. I know I look kind of gross, but whatever. I was going to put some makeup on and like get a little cuter, but I'm like, it's already 730 at night and it just feels wasteful to put on makeup that I know I'm just going to be washing off. And plus, I just don't really feel like it. I feel kind of tired and lazy right now, to be honest. Officially signed my move out papers. I am starting to get a pounding headache. So I'm going to refill my sandly, maybe take some excedrin and just go lay down. I have just been sitting on the couch on my phone and computer doing like admin type stuff. Like updating my Amazon storefront. I finally got a LTK like to know it page. So I'm setting that up. Posting more on TikTok and oh my God, I'm just like really overwhelming and stressing myself out because there's a lot of pressure because things are constantly changing. The industry I guess is like so overly saturated. There's so many content creators now and it's hard to like stand out and feel original. And I don't know, it's like there's just so many people and I'm like, oh, well, they're like so much prettier and so much more interesting and like they are so much better at this. Like they seem to really have their shit together and they're so consistent. And I get really hard on myself. I realized I was just sitting there and getting really stressed out. And I think that's what was giving me the headache. And I was like, okay, I need to like step outside, get some fresh air, interact with some humans. So I went to the office at my apartment complex because a few weeks ago they sent me my least renewal information and I let them know that I'm not gonna be renewing my lease. So I had to sign a paper in person. So I went and did that. And that's another thing that I'm stressing myself out over. Like I was laying in bed last night and I couldn't fall asleep because I was just overwhelming myself thinking about how I'm gonna be moving soon and as excited as I am for that. But then I was thinking last night about like actually packing everything up and like physically transporting it and how much I hate that part of moving. But I'm gonna let all of that stuff go, all of the stress and focus on the good. I'm super excited about this move. I feel like being in a new space is going to inspire me. Also having more space is going to be so great especially working from home because I'm always just sitting on the couch while I'm working and it's hard for me to feel like in work mode without having like an actual designated office space. So it'll be good and it'll be more content to share too. But I am going to finally take down these Christmas decorations. There's not really a point in me like packing it all away and worrying about organizing it because I wanna reorganize everything when I get to the new place anyway. So I think I'm just gonna take everything down and just put it in a box. And I'm not even gonna worry about like putting back up my other like regular decor pieces because I'm gonna have to take it all down in a couple of weeks anyway. And then I am just going to relax the rest of the day because I'm feeling tired. I still feel like I haven't recovered from my holiday break. The last couple of nights in a row I got more than enough sleep but I still am so tired. I feel like no matter how much sleep I get I still am not rested. And I opened up my Ultra Human app. If you didn't know, I got one of like the smart rings fitness rings, whatever that just tracks everything like your heart rate, your body temperature, your steps, your sleep, et cetera. And it's been so helpful. I wanted to give you guys an update because I shared throughout Vlogmas how I got this ring. And now it's been, I wanna say almost a month that I've had it and I love this thing. It is so spot on. It's crazy. And for me, like somebody that is always really hard on myself, this has been so nice to have because I can open up the app and I can see like, oh, okay, it's not that I'm just being lazy. My body has not recovered. Like I need physically more rest and recovery. That's why I'm feeling this way. So I should listen to my body and allow myself to rest and not feel bad about it because that's what I need. So like my sleep index last night was a 78, which is higher than how it's been but that's still not good. You know, I try to aim for it to be in the 90s and it says that I slept for 10 hours and 15 minutes but my heart rate was a little bit higher and my temperature was elevated. And it says focus on recovery today. Elevated temperatures usually mean that your immune system is trying to cope with additional stress. Okay, but look how bad my sleep index was over the break when I was in Pennsylvania. So normally my sleep index, like I said, I try to keep in the 90s. Normally it's like 95. This was before I left, 95, 81. And then once I was in Pennsylvania, it dropped out to a 69. One night it was a 50, 62, 72. Yeah, it hasn't been good. I haven't been treating my body well and getting like the rest and recovery that I need over the last few weeks. So like no wonder I feel like crap. So yeah, I'm just gonna allow myself to rest. But I really love this app because it just gives you factual information and it just helps explain why you feel the way that you're feeling and it helps you, it gives you tips like how to do better the next day, how you can feel better the next day, like what's causing you to not have good sleep. It'll tell you like when you should taper off with like caffeine and stimulants. So it's been really helpful for me. I've been wearing the ring every single day and I just love the insight that it gives me and it's been great for tracking my steps because that is something that I have really been trying to focus on, especially now that I'm back and it's been a new year. I wanna like start fresh and make sure that I am staying more active throughout the week. So being able to track that has been good and it makes it kind of like a game for me because I'm like, oh, okay, my goal is 11,000 steps. And if I see that I'm close to that, I'm like, oh, let me finish it off and get those last few steps. So if you're interested in getting one for yourself, I'll have a link and a discount code. They gave me a discount code that you guys could use. So I'll have that in the description if you wanna check it out against the ultra human ring. And it's like so much more sleek than having like a big chunky thing around your wrist. Like it literally just looks like regular jewelry. It's waterproof. But let's finally take down this Christmas decor. The stuff up there, I'm just gonna leave for now because I don't feel like climbing up there and I'm gonna have to take everything down soon anyway and like clean up there. So it'll just stay up there. It's not super noticeable, I feel like. So there's all the Christmas stuff for now. I'll put it all in its proper bin when I begin the packing process. But for now, it's fine. I feel kind of crazy right now, but I laid down for a little bit. I had some espresso, maybe that's what's doing it. But I laid down for a while. I was watching a movie, that new movie, Salt Burn. And I'm like halfway through it and I've been thinking about changing my hair color for a while now. Like even back when I had first cut my hair, I was like, do I wanna like do a red copper or something? Like just different. I don't know, my hair's been dark like this for about a year and a half now and I just randomly got the urge to change the color. And I just have like all this energy now all of a sudden. So I'm about to go to Cosmoprof and get some hair color. Okay, I am back home. So I got my color, because I had everything else that I'm gonna need. I just needed like the actual copper color. And I wasn't entirely sure what formula I wanted to do because there's so many variations of you know, like the cowboy copper. But all I know is I don't want it to be too light. I'd rather it be darker. They also, at my Cosmoprof, they were kind of limited. Like they didn't have, at least it didn't seem like they had the full range of wella colors. And then what they did have, a lot of the colors were sold out. So I came up with this concoction. So we're gonna see how it goes. I need to figure out what ratio I wanna do because I got two reddish colors and then one more natural. This is like a golden brown color because I don't want it to come out too intense. I still want it to be like a little more subdued and a more natural looking color. So I don't know if I wanna do like equal parts of all three or like half of the reds and then half of the natural color. I'm gonna play around with it. I have these little blonde hair swatches. I got a big pack of them from Amazon. And even though this isn't gonna be perfectly accurate because I'm not planning on lightning my hair this light first, but it will at least give me an idea of like how red it's gonna come out and like how dark it'll be and all that. But I got six stroke seven three, just like a golden brown. And then I got six, six stroke four four. It's just straight up red, like a dark red. And then I got five stroke five, which is red violet. My swatch is currently processing. I just applied the color. So this color needs, I think 40 minutes. I should know this because I went to a Wella school, but I don't use it anymore at the salon. But I think it's like 35 to 40 minutes processing time. So I'm gonna just leave that to do its thing. And in the meantime, I'm gonna make a quick dinner. I'm gonna do one of my go-to favorite meals at the moment. I'm just going to cook up some chicken and zucchini noodles. And then I just like saute them together with some Alfredo sauce. And it's just like chicken Alfredo, but extra veggies, low carb. And I'm gonna have the salad on the side that I made the other day. This has romaine lettuce, parsley, red onion, red peppers, tomatoes, and chickpeas. And I usually add cucumbers too, but I forgot. So I just drizzle lemon juice with salt and pepper on it by dressing. It's so good. It's just like so fresh. And then we'll see once this swatch is done processing, I'll see how it looks. And then I'm hoping that it will come out good in the way I'm envisioning it. I'm just going to do my brows too. I decided I'm gonna just post the tutorial before this vlog. So if you wanna see it and you haven't already, it'll be the video right before this one. But yeah, you can see it a little bit better in this lighting. I'm excited. Good morning. It's the next day. Here is my hair. This isn't the best lighting because it's really cloudy and raining outside. So when I'm out in the sunlight, this is gonna be even more reflective. And that's the thing about reds. It's going to change a little bit as you wash it and just like live with it. Like as this fades over time, it's going to start to look like brighter and lighter. But I love the color right now because it's still dark, which is what I wanted. And then it just looks different in different lighting. Like if I'm just inside in dark lighting, it still looks like I just have dark hair. So it's not too much of a shock to my system, which is great. Anyway, I am getting ready to go work at the salon. I'm actually vlogging the day for TikTok. I recorded like this whole process to doing my hair on there as well. And I did it more like vlog style. And I'm really enjoying it. It was really fun. And I don't know. It's kind of like the same style sort of of what my YouTube vlogs are like, but a little bit more edited because the shorter videos obviously. But yeah, definitely go follow me on there, especially if you want to see what I ended up doing today. But I am going to wrap up this vlog here. Thank you guys so much for watching and for spending these last few days with me, getting back into my routine. I'm feeling so much better. And I think honestly doing my hair kind of gave me that boost. Like it was something exciting. Like I woke up this morning really excited to do my makeup so I can see how it would look with the hair and stuff. And I'm super excited for all of the new stuff to come with the new apartment and everything in the next month. So make sure you're subscribed to my channel so you don't miss out on that. I got lots of moving vlogs coming your way soon. So I will see you in my next video. Bye.