February 14, 2012

Must you Both Love the Same Sport?

Yesterday Adventure Journal launched a new poll: Must your Partner Share your Sport? It’s a very interesting issue: You love rock climbing- is it a deal breaker if your partner doesn’t? Must you both love the same sport? I’m glad that Adventure Journal brought it up, but their poll has a critical error- The only two responses are yes or no. No matter which you choose, you are leaving the heart of the issue on the table.

Personally I feel that you must have both. How could you possibly have a happy marriage if you don’t have anything you can do together? How can you be strong individuals within your relationship if you do everything together? Once again-we wind up with conflicting love advice:

  • Birds of a feather flock together
  • Opposite’s attract
What should we strive for when picking a partner? Similarity? Or Differences?

Let’s look at differences: I’m pretty gung-ho about yoga (as evidenced by my BLOG). I’ve been doing yoga since Freshman year of high school and will be doing it well into my hundreds. Garret isn’t much for being pretzely but he has come with me to a few classes here and there, we went to Wanderlust together last year, and he is willing to try it out whenever there is something I’m particularly enthused with. Does that mean he’s hooked? Not at all. Most mornings my asanas are me-time.

On the other hand- Garret has been into cycling since he got his first Schwinn Moab and was bragging to his friends about his front suspension. I’ve made several attempts at cycling over the years (see cycling team failure, tandem failure) but it definitely scares me to death and requires too much gear. I also freeze to death when I cycle but I will give it a try on the occasional warm day to get to spend some time together in the sun.

Over the years we have accumulated other activities that are mostly separate. Garret likes to surf, I like to swim, etc. That is totally fine, and totally necessary, but only if you also have activities that are shared. As evidenced by the awesome doodle that Google shared for Valentines day, if all you can do together is snuggle- you might find something missing in the grand scheme of things!

In addition to our separate interests, Garret and I also have many activities that we both love equally: backpacking and camping, rock climbing, snowboarding, and many more to come! What we have in common is an adventurous spirit which is why we continually find things that we both enjoy doing together.  And when we find another activity that we both love, we love it even more because we get to do it together. At the end of the day, what is most important is that we love each other and trying new things together.

I guess this puts us square in the middle of the Adventure Journal poll. But HEY, today marks our 9th Valentines Day together and I couldn’t be happier! I’m officially married to the best husband in the world and I can’t believe how blessed I am to this day! Whichever activities will come and go in our lives: Our love is forever.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

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February 9, 2012

My Food Sensitivities: 5-Month Update

Good Morning! 5-Months ago I received test results proving that I have food sensitivities to Gluten, Dairy, and Eggs. I told you I would update you about my progress so here I am!

A picture tells a thousand words: Here are my before and after pictures:

6-months ago I was in so much pain that I was convinced I needed my appendix out. After exhausting what felt like hundreds of options, I got the blood tests done in a last-ditch effort to try to live pain free- and it worked! Finally! (Thank you Dr. Wangen!) I didn’t know I would ever be able to write this post, but I can officially say that my life has changed! I have never felt so good and so energized!! For those of you going through pain or symptoms that seem to be from nowhere, I strongly recommend getting tested. It’s expensive. But sooo worth it. Here is a breakdown of how it worked for me:
  • Day 1: Found out about my food sensitivities and was advised to no longer eat them. I had to stop eating all gluten, dairy, and eggs. This includes items that say “Manufactured in a facility that contains…”
  • Day 2: Relieved to have an answer! Cleaned out my cupboards with resolve!
  • Week 2: Crazy frustrated can’t find anything to eat anywhere. Whole Foods is my new best friend. In a ton of pain. Can’t even walk more than to the water cooler without feeling like I’m going to need to be rushed to the hospital any second.
  • Month 1: In sooo much pain! Maybe it IS appendicitis after all! Called Dr. Wangen. He said that this is very common and it gets worse before it gets better. I have to go through “withdrawl” symptoms before my body can heal. Hang in there! Discovered that birth control pills have milk in them. (see Tired of Birth Control Pills?) Ugh… Stopped taking them immediately!
  • Month 2: Still in a lot of pain. Isn’t it supposed to be better now? I’m totally burnt out on cooking since I can’t eat out anymore and my kitchen is a disaster from all the cooking. I’m feeling a bit depressed that it will be impossible for me to ever travel or even visit my parents without doing tons of prep and bringing coolers with me. Ugh…I also discovered that the “bulk” food-bins at whole foods could have come into contact with my contaminants at and stage. They also don’t clean the scoops before putting them in other bins. No more bulk goods for me!
  • Month 3: I see a small, dim light at the end of a long and winding tunnel. I still have pain, but it isn’t as severe as it used to be. I have one to two days per week when I feel only minor pain- the rest are still painful. I’ve been able to start exercising again though! Could it be working? I also discovered that a lot of my chapsticks/lipsticks may have gluten or dairy in them and that I should avoid licking envelopes. Also can’t eat anything that says “natural flavor. What is with all the hidden ingredients?? The list continues….
  • Month 4: It’s working! I can sometimes be pain-free for a week at a time!  I’ve also discovered that I can always order a steak and baked potato loaded with veggies and olive oil at a restaurant so I’m not completely confined to my home cooking. At this rate, I’m already starting to feel hope for the future of my health and happiness! I did watch Garret eat a pizza one night though and drooled with envy.

Month 5: I feel completely transformed and know that it will only get better from here. I have tons of energy and am starting to plan trips, runs, and ramping up my yoga with new-found fervor! I ran a 12k without any pain. Not only that, but I CAN eat out! And thanks to my local grocery store (The Good Earth) I can stop by the prepared foods section on my way home and pick up comfort food that I can eat. They even have gluten-free/dairy-free pizza loaded with veggies (and its GOOD).  I still have pain from time to time but I can tell it’s when something might be slightly out of wack (as in I order something iffy at a restaurant or they don’t know what they are doing). Even then though- the pain is only SUPER minor and only lasts for a day! AWESOME!

I now feel complete confidence and through pinterest have discovered amazing meals that I can make. I used to feel uncomfortable making requests to friends or waiters and so I would go to my friend’s house for dinner but not eat anything until I got home. That is NOT fun. Now I let friends know upfront and I’ve found that they actually prefer to make something that suits you rather than have you drink wine all night. I don’t feel restricted at all. I also don’t pack my food anymore since I now realize I can eat at almost any restaurant, I just have to know what to order.

Here are some tricks I learned:

  • Make reservations on Open Table! This is one of the best discoveries I have made! When my husband and I want to go out, I make a reservation through opentable.com which allows you to include a note. I include specific instructions on what I can’t eat. So far I have been completely impressed. Since the restaurant gets to know before hand- they have time to prepare. I have even had chefs bring me a completely personalized menu or plan my meal in advance so that I can still eat something exquisite. Sometimes they circle everything on a menu that I can eat. So helpful!! I love it! Open table also lets you leave a thank you note online so if they did a good job, I always express my thanks for making my evening stress free!
  • Almost any burger joint will put your burger between lettuce instead of buns (and they almost always cook in oil and not butter- but you can always check).
  • Steak is always a good goto if the menu is mostly contaminants. Just make sure it’s cooked in oil. Not with butter.
  • I follow Paleo and Gluten Free boards on Pinterest when I need some more cooking options. Don’t want to get in a rut!
  • Saveur Magazine features food from around the world that I have found are mostly fine to eat (or require only minor substitutions)
  • Almost all chips and guacamole at happy hours are fine as long as they use corn chips.
  • Don’t ever order fried food since the vats most likely touch other items. But you can make french fries, tater tots, and other goodies at home in the oven!
  • Chipotle is an awesome goto for roadtrips! They post all their allergen info! 
  • When I ever do crave something from my past (like French Dip Sandwiches) I can order bread from Mariposa Bakery and they deliver to my house. And the bread is good! (and its gluten, dairy, and egg free!)
  • Say you are allergic to wheat. Don’t say that you are gluten-free. Sometimes waiter’s don’t take that seriously. They think you are saying you are just on a diet.

I’ll keep you posted with more about my journey as I go!!! Have a good week!

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January 30, 2012

Just Do It!

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I was once at a seminar about accomplishing your goals. The instructor made a point that really stuck with me and I have found that it relates to almost every aspect of my life. It was when the Olympics was going on and Michael Phelps emerged with an astounding number of medals. Why? Because he chose to. He made a million tiny decisions that got him to that milestone. And we do the same thing everyday.

Everyday Michael had a decision to make. His friends were going out, his family taking a vacation, but he always had the choice: Do this, or swim? And more often than not, he chose to swim. He did this because he had a goal- to win a gold medal in the Olympics in swimming. It was his passion and his livelihood.

I’ve also heard similar mantras in yoga. If you want to get better at yoga- go to yoga! Even if your heart isn’t entirely in it. Doing something can bring it back again. If you want to learn how to do a hand stand. Try doing it!

I have found this to be true with just about anything, once you start doing it, you start living it and loving it! So no matter what I’m working on or want to accomplish, I know the answer already: Just do it!

  • If you want to be more social- say yes to every outing!
  • If you want to be a faster runner- start running!
  • If you want to be a public speaker- start speaking openly!
  • If you want to be loved- love!
  • If you want to be better at prayer- pray!

Right now, I’m honing in on my new years resolutions and I already feel major changes happening in my life. One of my first ones- was that I wanted to dig into my yoga practice this year. Last year I let my practice slip and only went one or two times a month. But since the start of January, I have gone twice a week (Thank you SO MUCH Red Dragon for opening a power yoga studio in San Rafael! It’s changed my life!)

At first it was hard to lug myself to class, I’m not sure why! But now I feel like a regular and am soaking it all up! I’ve even gone up into my first ever unsupported handstand! (For only about 6 seconds- but it was major exciting for me!) I now remember why yoga is one of my favorite things to do- it covers all the bases! (Kicks your booty, revive’s your mind, makes you feel like you just got back from vacation, good for the soul, makes you happy!)

It’s up to you how to live your life. You have the decision every day to live the way you want to and to turn your hopes and dreams into actions. So do it!

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January 24, 2012

Losing Weight vs. Gaining Happiness

An active mind cannot exist in an inactive body―General George S. Patton

running I wanted to share with you a very well written blog (and a great website as well!). In this blog by Daniel Chidiac he really gets at the heart of the real health and happiness: Your body should be loved for the highly technical machine it is. It deserves respect for housing the only thing that is ever permanent: your soul.

Thanks Daniel for an excellent blog! Such a good reminder that we should be searching to feel good, not weigh less.

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January 5, 2012

The Poor Fisherman’s Story: A reminder about the important things in life!

This story is a classic but I was reminded of it by my sis-in-law over the holidays and thought it was a beautiful reminder:

One day a rich Westerner who had made sqillions from speculating on the stock market was strolling along the beach and saw the fisherman pulling in his boat with his meager catch.

The rich Westerner stopped and remarked “not much of a catch today”. The fisherman replied “yes not much” but explained that his small catch was enough for him and his family.

The rich Westerner asked, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”

“I sleep late, play with my children and have an afternoon’s rest under a coconut tree. In the evenings, I go to the local pub to see my friends, play some music, and sing a few songs….. I have a full and happy life.” replied the fisherman.

The rich Westerner ventured, “I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you…… You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat.

With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have a large fleet. Instead of selling your fish to a middleman, you can negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to a city from where you can direct your huge enterprise.”

“And after that?” asked the fisherman.

“After that? That’s when it gets really interesting,” answered the rich Westerner, laughing, “When your business gets really big, you can start selling stock in your company and make millions!”

“Millions? Really? And after that?” pressed the fisherman.

“After that you’ll be able to retire, move out to a small village by the sea, sleep in late every day, spend time with your family, go fishing, take afternoon naps under a coconut tree, and spend relaxing evenings with friends…”

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January 2, 2012

HAPPY 2012! It’s resolution time!

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Happy 2012! Last year was the best one of my life so far, and beginning a new one means even more good things to come. Garret and I celebrated the new year surrounded by new friends and we couldn’t be more thankful! Now that 2012 is here we have even more reason to celebrate.

That new years eve happens after Christmas is perfectly timed. After a month of decadence and joy we have the opportunity to make plans and discover what we want to happen on our new blank slate. What do we want to be? Enjoy? Do? That is why I love new years resolutions so much!

Last year I vowed to get to the bottom of my health challenges. After spending 2010 in constant abdominal pain, I wanted some answers. In 2011 I visited 3 doctors, one ayurvedic specialist, one clairvoyant, and finally- a digestive specialist in Seattle. Taking my health matters into my own hands has been an incredible journey. I now know that good health is up to me and to take good care of myself. I also achieved my goal. I found out that I am allergic to wheat, dairy, and eggs. After three months free of my poisons I can truly say that I have never felt so good in my life!

Now that I have my health and vitality back, I feel like the world is my oyster. I can do anything! So its time for me to dig into my passions and spend the year doing things I love with people I love. Sounds great right? Here are my new years resolutions to achieve just that!

Goals/Aspirations: I want to spend more time developing my hobbies and passions. In particular, I want to:

  1. Teach Yoga: I will teach a regular yoga class! I’m power yoga certified and now is the time to get my teaching practice going!
  2. Design: I will design 5 articles of clothing and get at least one of them made!
  3. Volunteer: I will be spending the year helping two causes I love- Young Life and Make-a-Wish.
Personal Growth: I want to make positive changes that will influence every aspect of my life:
  1. Re-read the entire bible: This will encourage me to have daily meditations each morning before rushing off!
  2. Renew my yoga practice: My personal practice deeply suffered in the beginning of 2011 in the ruckus of getting married, moving, etc. In 2012 I will get back to my passions and take weekly if not- multi-weekly classes. Having a consistent practice will deeply impact my mind, body, and spirit to enable plenty of other goals to emerge!
  3. Spend Consciously: I didn’t give much thought to my spending habits in 2011. But now that there are so many things I want to do in life I realize that I need to start making positive decisions to make those happen. Part of that, is needing money. I now have a meticulously planned budget on mint.com that I will stick to this year. Doing this means I get to do more of the things I love in life.

Dreams:

  1. International Vacation: Garret and I are going on a 2-week international vacation in 2012. Details to come!
  2. Use our land: Garret and I love our property and want to do amazing things with it. Plans include installing a greenhouse and others to make our lives more self-sufficient.

Hold me accountable everyone! Happy New Year!

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December 20, 2011

Thanks for an Amazing Year!!

As the year is winding down, I can’t help but think how much I have to be thankful for! I spent last weekend celebrating Christmas with my family and had a complete blast! We also get to spend real Christmas with the in-laws this year so we are very lucky to get to celebrate with both sets!!  Together there are 8 of us (four kids, two parents, and two significant others!) and when we are all together, my little brother gets so much attention that he can’t think of someone to miss! He has to resort to missing our exchange student from years ago when he can’t miss any of the sisters or “brothers”!

Lately the blessings just seem to be piling up, which seems to be perfectly timed for Christmas. Thank you so much to all my family, friends (both old and new), awesome neighbors, and community that have made this year completely amazing. It was all you! I just wish I had more pictures to prove it! Here are the ones I do have!

Our Combined Bachelor/Bachelorette Party the night before we were married!

Our Wedding Day

Celebrating with the whole family! (Luke is there, Garret is just blocking him!)

Catching concerts at the Britt!

Celebrating with friends!

Loving living in California, our favorite place on earth!

I am so stoked for 2012. Its going to be the best year yet! Thanks everyone! Merry Christmas and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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December 9, 2011

Pump up the Positive Thinking!

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Have you ever come out of a movie dying to tell your friend how horrible it was? I definitely have. It seems like its really easy to find the fault in everything because if you look for it, you will find it! But similarly, you can also find the good in everything- and it can change your life!

Finding Fault in Everything is Really a Bummer!

I used to think that as negative thoughts came up, I would just whisk them away. Every time lent came around, I would say “I’m giving up negative thinking!!” (Which led to my husband’s repeated gentle prodding “I thought you were giving that up?” every time I started giving my critique). Last week I tried out a new yoga teacher who ended up not being the right personality fit for me (I might be a little picky when it comes to yoga teachers, but you kinda have to be since they are the ones responsible for guiding you physically, mentally, and spiritually, and you want to feel in good hands). After class I was completely ready to critique him to my girlfriend even though she completely loved the class! Why do I need to put in my negative 2 cents? It’s not helping a thing! There is absolutely no reason why I should put negative thoughts into a friend’s head when she only has positive ones!

Life is AWESOME!

So after I thought about this, I came up with a new philosophy for ridding myself of negative thinking. Instead of trying not to make negative comments (which can be ridiculously hard)- I’m just going to make TONS of positive comments! I’ve officially challenged myself to find the good in EVERYTHING. So this week I tried out another new teacher. Normally I might have said he wasn’t a good fit for me, but this time I thought about it a little more. Didn’t I like how happy he was? Didn’t he challenge me? Didn’t I feel like I really nailed my wheel today? Ok so maybe I had a good time. Actually, maybe I had a blast! Why can’t I try tons of teachers? I will learn something new from each of them. The fact that I totally love Peggy Orr’s yoga classes in Mill Valley doesn’t exclude me from being able to enjoy other classes in Marin!

Afterwards, I thanked my teacher, and told my friend about how I loved how he got me into my wheel! Instead of trying NOT to say how he wasn’t a good fit, I chose to say the good things. This thought process alone has helped me drastically alter my week. The more positive things you do, the more positive you are! So I’m sticking to it! It’s Christmas after all and we all have PLENTY to be happy about!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

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December 5, 2011

Keep the Christmas Cheer!

Pinned ImageChristmas is here!!! I wanted to share with you an amazing blog by an old friend who hit it right on the nose. It’s important to keep Christ the center of Christmas, but it’s also important to not get caught up in the frenzy of holiday shopping and forget why you are doing it in the first place: To give! Erin talks about thinking about gift giving as a sacrifice- of thinking about it in the positive light of trying to do something nice for someone else. I love remembering the reason why I’m shopping- because I care about the people I am getting gifts for- and I want to give them something special. I can’t wait to celebrate Christmas with my family and give them their gifts. It’s all part of the magic of Christmas.

Merry Christmas!!!!

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December 1, 2011

Tired of Birth Control Options? Take Charge of your Fertility!

I have been on Birth Control Pills since I was 19 years old (7 years!!) and I have been wanting to get off of them for the last 2. I was left in constant indecision about where to turn. It wasn’t that I was unhappy with my pill, but I was freaked about the consequences! Everything I have read and researched about health has been entirely contradictory to what my chosen method was doing to my body. Once I was diagnosed with food intolerances and discovered that my birth control pills were laced with dairy- I decided that was the final straw and quit cold turkey. The plan was to use barrier methods until I made up my mind. Luckily hubby has been really supportive!

Fertility Awareness

Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler, MPH

In the midst of my anguish over what to choose- I happened to meet two people that offered an alternative! Talk about meant to be.  BOTH of them use the “Fertility Awareness Method.” Apparently FAM is 1) NOT the Rhythm Method, 2) It works, and 3) both of my friends have been using it successfully for several years. I bought the book “Taking Charge of your Fertility” by Toni Weschler instantly to get to work on some more research.

The result?? I am a completely new person! I highly recommend the book to every woman- regardless of whichever method you choose! I can’t believe how much I didn’t know about my own body! Not to mention, as I have been researching I have found that a lot of women with food intolerances are consequently on the pill- is it possible that synthetic hormones could be spurring this on? There are soooo many health risks associated with pills, patches, shots that we use simply to avoid getting pregnant! Isn’t that horrible??!! Meanwhile, woman have been going uneducated of their own bodies and don’t know that there is a more natural way to put you in control of your fertility. By tracking changes to your body such as basal body temperature, cervical fluid, and cervical position, you can be completely in charge and completely UN-pregnant (very important to me!).

Taking Charge of Your Fertility

The good news is that this method is as effective as you want it to be! It can be almost perfectly effective if you use condoms for about 8 days of the month depending on your cycle- or less days if you are thinking about starting a family.

Ok… But I have a friend who knows someone who…

Yeah there are pregnancy cases and everyone is an expert when you start talking about “natural birth control.” But really every case of an unplanned pregnancy using FAM is because of one of two reasons- 1)They get pregnant because they start using Fertility Awareness IMMEDIATELY or 2) They kind of want to get pregnant deep down (in other words- they start “risking it”).

Those are two problems that are easy to address, and if you do, you have awesome birth control for life without any horrible side-effects!!  So to address the first one is easy- if you are getting off the pill or other method of birth control, you need to use a barrier method for quite awhile since your body will be out of wack for a bit and you don’t know your body well enough yet. You can slowly wean yourself off the barrier method as you get more familier. And the second one- well you can’t really “cheat” with this method like you can with other methods. Yeah, when you are on the pill and you miss a day- you might feel ok with “risking it.” That is really not an option with this method since cheating would mean having sex exactly at the time you are most fertile without using a barrier method. That is a nice little baby recipe.

There’s an App for That
So it takes some practice to get down, and I have only just started charting myself and it has been tricky since getting off birth control pills has been a bit wild- but luckily there is an app called FemCalthat does the heavy lifting for you. It follows the strict guidelines of the book so you know exactly when you are fertile and when you are not. All you have to do is enter in the data everyday and track the changes of your body. Yay!!!

And one final note- don’t read this and then try to use Fertility Awareness- get your info from the woman who literally wrote the book about it- Toni Weschler! It is an excellent read that will give you plenty of information on how not to conceive, how to conceive, and how to know your body better.

I’ll let you know how it goes- but either way I seriously recommend the book! It will completely set you free! Talk to you soon! Good Health!

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