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:

Baker Beach

El Techo

Smokestack

Smokestack

my mocktail at Smokestack

Original Thought, and Renaming This Blog

Lower Nob Hill

At a yoga session this past weekend, the instructor talked about our brains having no original thought, as well as how difficult it is to completely quiet the mind, even with yoga. Therefore, we could practice being aware of our thoughts and guiding them. After all, no one actually controls your unoriginal thoughts but you. (And also, when going through a challenging yoga practice, my thoughts were completely guided by what my muscles did and didn't want to do.)

Today we have so many platforms to express our thoughts and see what everyone else is thinking about every possible subject. There's so much content to consume, if we let ourselves. Social media can be great, but it also tempts many of us to spout off whatever is on our mind at a given moment, without any further consideration. Is that really the stimulation we want, for ourselves and those around us? For me, the practice of composing a longer post also helps me guide my thoughts and express them more coherently. It makes me slow down and pay attention, to be more mindful of what I send out to the world. Because of course it's also not just about  "me" or even "you" but the world around us.

And that is the overall purpose of my blog, and why I rechristened it this year as "Mindfully Modern." Throughout the content blitzes and hectic schedules, my goal is to remain discerning and to still be able to see the simplicity in life. Enjoy the world today, and reflect on it. Namaste.

What I Gave in 2014: Charities

This post could also be named, Trying to Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

I looked back at my charitable giving this year and here is what my wallet supported:


Social Justice:

• Southern Poverty Law Center: The tragedies around Michael Brown and Eric Garner made me want to support an organization that is fostering tolerance and understanding. 

Health:

• The SAMFund - I was introduced to this organization at work. They are the only charity in the country that gives direct support to young adult cancer survivors. They are pretty small (~$200K in annual grants) but growing and after meeting several survivors who received SAMFund grants, it's really evident how much impact this organization has. 
• ALS Association - Yup, did this through the Ice Bucket Challenge, but learned more about ALS along the way.

Friends' Fundraisers:

• (health) A cancer-research fundraiser brought on by the death of a friend-of-a-friend a couple years ago. When twentysomething who was beautiful inside and out dies from a senseless disease, and when her friends honor her memory by raising money for research, you give.
• (health) AIDS/Lifecycle - A friend took on this cycling challenge that supports California AIDS/HIV organizations. Seeing them go through the months-long training to raise awareness for the cause was inspiring.
• (aid) Oxfam - Another friend was part of a 100km relay walk to support international development

Schools:

• Both my undergrad and graduate schools keep calling me, and I won't stop giving them, but I'll probably give minimally from now on.

I'm using this list to consider what I'll give to next year and how to be more strategic about it, including how to fit giving in with my other financial goals of paying off my loans and saving money for 'the future'.

Cheating on My Juice Cleanse

Over the holidays, I was traveling, staying with family and friends and doing almost no grocery shopping. I basically ate whatever was put in front of me. So when I got back home I signed up for a juice cleanse from a local juice place using an online coupon. They delivered a heavy box with three days’ worth of a liquid diet along with some of their raw/organic snacks, which were meant to be eaten after you completed said cleanse. I tried to be good with my prepping and had no caffeine or meat the day before the cleanse.

Day 1 of the cleanse - I didn’t even last until lunch time. Please note I like to have big breakfasts. The first (out of a daily 6) juice tasted good, but I just did not like #2, and more important, my mouth and stomach REALLY missed solid food. So I cheated in a small way and had carrot sticks and some almonds. I didn’t even finish juice #2 and instead went on to #3, which tasted much better.  I went out but kept a bag of carrot sticks on me to snack on when I felt hungry. Then evening came,and I was invited to meet some friends at a bar. You might think I just totally gave into temptation but I drank only water, and I ordered salad (it was really pickled vegetables, at a German place, but it was the healthiest thing I could find). I still had juice #5 but didn’t end up having juice #6, which was supposed to be a “dessert.”

Day 2 - Super Bowl Sunday! I pretty much set myself up for failure here, but maybe I just didn’t care. Again I skipped the juice I straight up disliked. I accepted an invite to brunch at a friend’s house and totally gave into eating solid, non-veggie food. I was planning on just having her sweet potato mash (even though she warned me it had a ton of butter in it) and salad, but I also ended up with quiche, bacon, and a chocolate croissant. I didn’t even feel sick afterward. And then I went to a Super Bowl party and grazed on the snacks, even having 2 chicken wings (I’m such a rebel). I started on the raw/organic snacks that came with the cleanse and shared them with my husband.

Day 3 - The last morning was pretty easy, sadly I guess you can get used to starving. I think I did have a bag of nuts or maybe more carrots, though. I had salad for lunch (along with juice), then more of my healthy snacks in the afternoon. But by the time I came home from work I was over it. I asked my husband what he was thinking for dinner and he said he’d taken pizza dough out of the freezer. Done. I probably could have ended on a higher note than pizza but, convenience.

The rest of the week, I kept having more salads (something I had not been doing enough of recently) and didn’t eat meat or have any alcohol for a couple more days. Don’t recall having much cheese, either. I realized when I signed up for the cleanse I was thinking I’d use it as a heavy duty detox, but realistically it just helped me jump-start the healthier eating again. Would I do it again? Probably not. I do like juices but I hate the thought of replacing every meal with them. Me and juice cleanses I guess were not meant to be.