Moves.

Tuesday was leg day, starting to get some more movement back into the right leg!

• Superset x3: 20 Bulgarian split squats right leg, 10 pistol squats left leg, 20 KB deadlifts
• 2×20, 1×30 light leg press
• 3x 1:30 kneel to alt step up (18” box) no weight

Yesterday was 36 minutes going fairly easy on the assault bike because my legs were sore (right more sore than left lol), followed by 8 minutes of core work.

Peanut butter. I had at least 5 tablespoons of peanut butter on Tuesday. That is 500+ calories from just PB, people (no regrets, baby). That being said, some of it was in my overnight oats, two were part of my lunch snack (a packet of nuts ‘n’ more), and two were eaten as late afternoon snack since I have a late class Tuesday nights from 5:30-7:15 and I was lacking other types of options because I did not prepare well. Maybe I was so hungry because I’m walking a lot more again. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I know a couple guys who carry around a jar of pb during the day and honestly I would not be a poor candidate for that lifestyle.

When I first met John he told me he would sometimes eat a whole jar in a day (when he was into a body building type of routine). That’s when I knew I liked him.

#brotein

Habits. Forming (or renewing) good habits is something that I, along with most people, need to do constantly. I have been praying a lot about obedience to God in the little things, and I think that translates to the building of good habits in practice.

Several discussions and resources have popped in my life in this past week that have encouraged me to take action, and here are those nuggets of wisdom:

• Spend most of your time in “important, non-urgent” tasks (vs. “important, urgent,” “non-important, urgent,” and “non-important, non-urgent” tasks). Plan ahead to make this possible.
• Work for the purpose of finding quality rest time, don’t just rest to get back to work. And don’t work til you’re so burnt out that you can do nothing but collapse and have no energy for quality relationship building.
• If you make promises to yourself, keep them, no matter how little they are. The small things that you do with relentless commitment and consistency matter!
• Be persistent with all of the above but also understand your humanity and move past points of failure quickly. Assess, make changes, try again.

I feel like I’ve been talking about habits and self-improvement a lot these days, but I guess it’s the nature of my life stage right now magnifying the need for it. I’m about to leave school for the first time in my entire life, and although I know the general gist of adult responsibilities, I don’t know enough. Additionally, good habits of the body and mind relate to holy habits of the spirit, so it’s also something I want to work on for the sake of God.

Friendsgiving. Some friends and I had an epic pre-thanksgiving meal (what North Americans call, “Friendsgiving”). My heart and tummy were mighty full. I made corn bread with maple butter, and I don’t think I’ve danced so much after baking something as I did after baking that corn bread.

On disposable Domino’s plates like bosses.

Everything was so skillfully made and utterly delicious! I am spoiled by my friends.

Happy pre-Friday!

So tell me:

Are there any mantras or nuggets of wisdom that help you form and maintain good habits?

What are some habits you are working on?

Have you ever had a Friendsgiving dinner?

Have you ever eaten as much pb in a day as I have?

Whoops. I did not mean to take a whole week off from blogging but I got a little lazy (and busy too, if I wanna give myself the benefit of the doubt).

Moves. I’ll just start with yesterday’s – fresh new week.

• 3 rounds: 15 bicep curls, 10 push-up to renegade row, 12 Arnold presses
• 20 min boxing

Booked. I made way too many plans this weekend, but it was a jolly good time. Sleepover with my friend Lauren, Thai food lunch with my friend Christina, dinner a la Trader Joe’s with Lauren and Elayne, spontaneous night of MarioKart and Uno, dim sum brunch with PT friends… ugh I love dim sum. And friends. In which order, no one will really know.

The end is near. What I really should be doing is focusing on the last assignments, odds, and ends of this last semester of classes. FOREVER (hopefully). Thanksgiving is coming and then it is pretty much home stretch, baby!

The ways in which I still struggle. A big theme of my life in 2019 has been the daily cross (as in, the cross the Lord tells us we must carry).

I am grateful to say that I don’t currently have very heavy crosses (e.g., family deaths, serious illness, social injustices inflicted upon me, etc.) to bear, but I have prayed a lot about the daily cross of my failures and also of just…my more negative tendencies in thought and deed.

I said a few weeks ago that these blog posts are for me to reflect, but perhaps they can also be for you, to know you’re not alone.

The ways in which I struggle:

• Procrastination late at night
• Poor sleep schedule
• Overeating / emotional eating, followed by subtle squishing of my body fat, not feeling terrible, but still feeling “not ideal”
• “Pendulum syndrome” is what I’ll call it. My mind often goes from, “I’ll do all the things, and I will do them well! Things are great!” To, “It’s not worth doing anything, I’m probably not cut out for this.” And it’s hard to find the in-between. Although this is an over-simplification of how my mind sometimes work, it’s true that I’m not very good at living in messy/unclear situations, and I’m not very good at moderation in pretty much anything. I’m an all-or-nothing perfectionist at heart (a blessing and a curse), so living with the discomfort of little failures or mishaps without losing hope and perseverance is something I have grown to learn a lot through these past few years and still continue to learn every day until I die.

I’m not beating myself up about these things, but I do think I can form better habits (which I learned in class just 10 minutes ago). Everything is a work in progress, and we shall keep on keeping on!

It’s a rainy Tuesday here, and I feel like I could sleep FOREVER. Hope you have a great one 🙂

So tell me:

What are some ways you struggle with negative tendencies of yours?

What did you do this weekend?

Have you ever had dim sum?

Veganism? Don’t get too excited now.

My friend Zoe told me that she watched the documentary called, “Game Changers,” which is about how a vegan diet has transformed athletes’ performance in a positive and tremendous way (in addition to lowering blood triglyceride and cholesterol levels). As a result, she and some of her friends are doing a 7-day vegan challenge.

This got me thinking… I’ve neither watched the documentary nor ever considered veganism for myself, but I have wondered whether I could sustain that kind of diet.

Resource-wise: 100% yes in a city like Boston or New York.

Enjoyment-wise: Sure. I really enjoy the taste of well-seasoned bean and tofu dishes. That being said, I would miss dairy and eggs a LOT. More than I would miss meat probably. Then again, restaurant food would never be the same, and I would really be bummed out if I couldn’t have salmon or eel sushi. Or like, 25 cent chicken wings.

Time-wise: Probably not too different from my meal prep currently.

Desire-wise: The kicker. I honestly need to educate myself more on the benefits of veganism and sustainability in general, because I think the main reason I would switch would be for sustainability reasons (from what I hear). But I would first want to find ways to practice more sustainability through a diet that still contains animal products, because other than the sustainability question, I have no qualms about including animal products in my diet; I rather enjoy it and find that it fuels me well for my fitness goals currently.

Humility. Two days ago I realized I did not fulfill my civic duty by sending in an application for an absentee ballot to NY for general elections, and I felt pretty bad about it. I need to educate myself more on my world and politics especially. It’s one of my least favorite things, but it’s extremely important.

Then I also fell down half a flight of stairs on my butt for no reason other than I slipped. A lot of people were present, and I was mortified BUT the femur is a-okay.

Life isn’t about counting our mistakes and accidents, but I hear two imaginary red buzzers going off for these two situations, like I’m being rejected America’s Got Talent.

Whisper Wednesdays. My dear friends Ben and Casey have been hosting something they call, “Whisper Wednesdays,” in which they invite friends to come sit in their living/dining room in front of their real, wood-burning fireplace (in a Boston apartment!) and do whatever work they need to do. Last night was my first time joining, and was lovely! I just wanna be like Ben and Casey when I grow up.

Moves.

• Tuesday: I was on the verge of going mad because I stayed still studying all day and I just needed to MOVE, so I did 5×10 step back “burpees” in the dark on the esplanade at like 5pm before my pediatrics lecture. And then I modified this HIIT yoga when I got home.
• Wednesday: 45 min assault bike workout. A questionable decision regarding the femur, but I felt GREAT afterwards, and I’m fairly sure the doc said I could do bike and rowing workouts…

Happy Thursday!

So tell me:

Are you vegan? Why or why not?

What is a topic on which you feel you need to educate yourself more?

Any embarrassing moments recently? #solidarity