Mindfully Modern: Life Lately: Exercise, Diet, and Connecting with Others

Baker Beach

We're heading into the weekend and I feel more and more like it's summer, with the balmy weather and long days. Last weekend I had my first real beach day (as in, sitting out in the sun, not hiking to/from the beach) and it's just what I needed. I've had so much on my mind lately, here's some of what I've been up to:

I tried Zumba for the first time and it was really fun. Not sure how I missed the initial phenomenon, but doing it now is good because the music is fun and makes the time go faster. (I don't like a lot of actual workouts, but I like the effects.) My office gym is offering free group classes for the next month so I've decided I should go to at least one during the week. On weekends, I've been going to Pilates and just bought a new pass for the yoga place that I like. I don't have any hikes planned soon so I should probably get on that.

Coincidentally, I jumped on the Whole30 diet bandwagon and have crossed the halfway mark (it's basically 30 days of even cleaner Paleo). I've never done a real diet (I gave up on a juice cleanse on Day 1) but lucky for me, a couple friends were also doing Whole30 so the partnership and accountability really helps. Honestly, the first couple days without bread and added sugar were worrisome, but since then I've felt great. Of course I still psychologically want pizza and the like, but my body doesn't crave these foods like it used to. I thought it would be tough to go without alcohol as well, but the truth is my hangovers just kill me now that I'm 30. And knowing how great I feel without all this in my body is going to make me avoid the unhealthy stuff more (if not totally, since hey, I still like french fries). The diet's also made me be better about food prep and cooking at home rather than relying on take out. At the end of the 30 days, I'm supposed to start reintroducing the ingredients that I temporarily eliminated and see how my body reacts so I can make longer term adjustments to my eating practices.

In terms of mental practice - Have you ever sought advice from someone and come out feeling lighter and more confident about a given situation? I had some good business/career conversations with folks in the last week or so, and they helped me think through some challenges I'm facing. Not much else to share on that, just that it's good to reach out to others, they usually are more than willing to help.

Finally, I have never successfully been part of a long-term book club, and I actually don't think I know anyone who has. A couple friends at work and I were joking we need to have an 'article club' since we already share good news articles with each other, mainly on tech and overall business and finance. Here are some recent articles I found interesting:

Tory Burch on owning her ambition: Fortune
What's behind Facebook's success: Wired
Tech companies with the best engineering talent: Fast Company

Individuality and the School Uniform (harkens back to my recent post!!): The Billfold

Recent photos from around San Francisco: