Living the Gray Life

A Fitness & Lifestyle Blog

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November Recap

What is it with this year just flying by? Thanksgiving’s over, it’s full-on holiday season, and before I know it, school will be back in session in January. Yesterday was December 1st, and that means I’m fully in the holiday spirit (hello Christmas music, sweaters, pretty lights, and Christmas crafting) and Vlogmas has started! Since yesterday was the first official day of Vlogmas, make sure to check out the video at the end of this post or head over to my YouTube channel!

november-recap-cover

If you’re looking for people to follow for Vlogmas and Blogmas, make sure to check out my latest post for a list of some of my favorites! Moving right along into this monthly recap, I’m going to be skipping favorites for this past month partially because I ran out of time to take photos and partially because I didn’t keep track of what I’ve been loving the past month… oops! So, I hope you’ll be okay with a life update and a look at my stats for the month.

Life Update

November was such an amazing month! The leaves finally started to change here in Columbia making for some beautiful fall photoshoots and gorgeous walks to and from class. The first half of November was very uneventful, going to class, hitting the gym, and eating way more than I should. Then it was Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is one of my, if not my favorite holidays. The food is delicious, and there’s always plenty of funny moments to go around. I think the only thing negative that happened in November is that I consistently had a migraine for several days a week almost every week. I’m prone to migraines so it’s nothing new, but I’m definitely not used to having them that often.

When I came back to campus after Thanksgiving, I had a heart-to-heart with myself about my fitness goals. I’ve been overeating for the past month or so, and I can definitely tell. While I’ve gained some muscle mass, I’ve also gained some fat, and that I’m not too happy about. My goal is to drop a few pounds and get my body fat percentage back down in the teens. I’m in a bout a 300 calorie a day deficit and adding some cardio here and there throughout the week. The important thing to remember when it comes to fat loss is the slower the better. Don’t jump into any crazy 1000 calorie deficit and do cardio 5 days a week.

Monthly Stats

I’m so happy with my stats for this past month! I had a low couple of months when I wasn’t consistently posting content and really slacking on social media. I really tried to increase my social media activity and keep up with a regular posting schedule in November, and it definitely paid off.

statsOkay so I was too lazy to fix my monthly stats template that I usually use so I’m just going to put the numbers in here!

  • Pageviews: 20,772 (190% increase from October)
  • Unique Visitors: 14,132

What went right:

  • I passed 400 followers on Instagram!
  • Pageviews are back up to normal
  • The blogging spark has returned!

What went wrong:

  • I missed one (maybe two) posts
  • Did not stay as active on Twitter

All in all, November was an amazing month for the blog and for my life. I can’t wait to see what December has in store, and I am so pumped for Vlogmas! Make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel so you don’t miss any of the details!

Happy Holidays!
~abigail gray