Kennedy suffering from lack of pets while I am scrolling.
As 2023 rolled in, so did new resolutions for the year. I am sure many can relate, but it feels like your phone can suck countless hours from your day.
One second you’re texting a friend and the next you’re scrolling through random people’s babies and watching dog videos.
So, February 2023 is the month I decided to go social media free.
SETTING INTENTIONS
Not only did it feel like I could invest this time elsewhere, but also I saw it as a personal challenge. I have not had a month social media free since Facebook rolled out in 2006 — SEVENTEEN YEARS (how?!). Most of my time is spent on Instagram but with a new phone purchase, I also managed to lock myself out of my Facebook (and still am - womppp), so a bit of a forced Facebook detox.
With the main goal of giving my brain a break, there were other goals I came up with for the next 30 days social-free:
Campfire complete with s’mores at our neighbors.
Decrease distraction — take in the moments around me in real-time. Also, if I am going to watch a show, watch the dang show.
Get back to blogging — finish our construction before & after blog that I have had in a draft for over a year… and start a few new ones (here we are)!
Lower anxiety levels — I don’t know if the lovely world of anxiety gets worse with age or worse with scrolling. Probably both. But holy moly is there a lot of negativity that comes from within the feeds of social media and that energy can permeate back into my day.
Pinterest planning — while this is technically social media, I wanted to spend time here to help make new recipes & get inspiration for our Phase 2 house remodel of the patio.
Mas Espanol! — Use Babbel and Duolingo again. Kyle is starting to pull ahead of me in his day-to-day Spanish game and I don’t like it. Necessito mucho mas practicar!
A Month in Review
I felt like it would be fun to recap it all in a blog vs. where I typically would (on my social stories). So, 28 days in a nutshell — let’s roll it back.
In the first few days, my pointer finger was literally using muscle memory to navigate to where my Instagram app used to be, almost every time I would unlock my phone. That was eye opening in itself. Kinda scary. After a few days, that wore off and my brain was shifting to the thoughts of what else could entertain me when I had downtime.
GOOD EATS!
A joint New Years resolution for Kyle and I was to make one new dinner recipe a month. Instead of researching on Instagram and getting distracted by a funny dog video, I was able to use cookbooks or Pinterest to find new recipes to make throughout the month. It’s safe to say we ate (and drank) good in February and made sure to balance it all out with spinnin’ off the calories on the Peloton.
DATE NIGHT
Another resolution this year is to abide by the 2, 2, 2 relationship rule. Every 2 weeks, go on a date. Every 2 months, a weekend away. And every 2 years, a real vacation. To kick it off, we had a date night at Nido, down the street from us in the Viceroy Hotel. Living here can be hard sometimes, as we are often tempted by all of the many beautiful, fancy restaurants around us. But every once in awhile, we make an excuse to celebrate for no reason and venture out. This meal, inside a nest on top of the resort pool, was well worth the investment — melt in your mouth sashimi and fresh veggies cooked on an open Japanese grill.
TIME WITH FRIENDS
Over the last year, we’ve really grown our relationships with our Cabo friends. We have transitioned from tons of down time just the two of us, to now spending most weekends doing group activities with our friends. The funny part? When we’re with them, we somehow never take photos. Good conversation, laughs and tons of games are the signs of fun times with the best people.
In February we celebrated our monthly ‘First Friday’, where our friends Mac and Dan host dinner and games at their house, an opportunity to meet new friends and faces. Montse, Nolan, Rachel and Shawn joined us for a beach day with the Counts fam squad (Mac, Dan, Carter & Cruz!) on the Palmilla cove. We were invited to a sunset fire and dinner at our neighbors, Austin & Jess’ house, where Austin chef’d up a beautiful Mediterranean dinner for us.
Then, we transitioned into Superbowl mode where we decided to host a watch party…
SUPERBOWL - LET’S GOOOOO
Once again the Kansas City Chiefs, Kyle’s favorite team, found themselves back in the Superbowl. This year, the big game turned into a family rivalry, as the Philadelphia Eagles turned out to be the KC Chiefs competition.
After a few Google searches, we found the perfect gift to mail to my Mom Mom in New Jersey, leading up to game weekend.
After going back and forth on where we wanted to watch the game, we ultimately landed on a last-minute get-together at our house. We invited a few friends over and catered in Cabo-style KC BBQ and had some Eagles-colored palm tree napkins (ya gotta make do with limited resources in Cabo, ya know?). Ultimately, the Chiefs took home the W and my Mom-Mom was a good sport about it.
My least favorite part about social detoxing during this? I couldn’t post the hysterical videos I usually capture of Kyle yelling “Let’s Goooooo!” every time the Chiefs did something good. Check out my KC Insta highlight if you need a reminder (and a good laugh). We took off work the next day (pro-tip) and rewatched some of the game highlights over mimosas in bed.
A FAMILY VISIT!
It's been 6 months since my Mom’s last visit to Cabo but a whopping 5 years since my Mom-Mom was here (last time was our wedding in November 2018). She decided she had to get back to Baja, so for her birthday we booked her a flight down for vacation. Mom-Mom brought her friend Judy and my Mom decided to join along for the fun.
Kyle and I are used to entertaining in Cabo at this point and know how to jam a whole lot of fun into one week:
‘Welcome to Cabo’ homemade dinner at Casa Turner after a long East Coast >> West Coast travel day
Zipper’s Bar & Grill beach lunch for coconut shrimp & sunshine!
The San Jose Thursday night Art Walk, shopping and dinner (Mom-Mom’s search for the best flan dessert in Cabo began)
A bumpy road trip up to the East Cape to enjoy our favorite restaurant, Zai Sushi (making sure to hand out a few carrots to the donkey’s along the way back!).
Garden brunch at Flora Farms and after, a walk through Acre Baja (our wedding venue) to see all that has changed in 5 years (A LOT!).
Sailed around San Lucas with Cabo Sailing to take Mom-Mom’s bucket-list picture in front of El Arco and say hi to a few whales
To send them off, a relaxing local beach day at Palmilla cove
If you’re wondering, out of three (maybe four) places where Judy and Mom-Mom tried flan, their favorite ended up being from the takeout pizza restaurant on one of their last evenings here. Who would have thought?
They left some behind for us and Kennedy was very interested in trying the prize-winning dessert.
PHASE 2 house reno: patio PROJECT
This project has been a BIG distraction from social media — and a fun one at that! We started Phase 2 of our reno in mid-January. The goal was to enclose the front of our house from the street, adding privacy while also extending out our patio off the living room for more entertaining space and indoor/outdoor living.
February brought a lot of time to devote to the vision of how we would utilize the space and a bunch of last minute decisions while the project was in full construction mode.
Thankfully it was finished in time to use while my family was here, allowing us to have a cocktail and take in the sunset views.
Here is a sneak peek of how it turned out! The final house renovation blog (coming VERY soon!) will include the full recap of the project.
THe social detox conclusion
So, did I accomplish my social detox goals? Most of them! We checked a lot of ‘to-do’ list boxes and got to soak up all the goodness from our fun with friends and family.
I was surprised I didn’t have more time to devote back to my goals, given how much time I can spend scrolling, but we did end up with a very busy month. I did not get time to open the Babbel spanish app to practice my Spanish, but there’s always next month for that.
I’d say the time off the ‘gram was well spent and the month surprisingly flew by. 10/10, I’d do it again…. but thank god the Vanderpump #Scandoval went down in March because that temptation in February would have really sent me over the edge. :) Back to scrollin’ I go (for now…).
— Leigh
