Goals | Pancakes and Postcards

#1: Bike More, and a green giveaway!

May 29, 2012 by Courtney 24 Comments

So much excitement for one long overdue post. Let’s see! Okay, last week I blogged about my desire to create an atmosphere of growth, with a variety of different goals. Today I want to jot a note about #1: Bike More.

For those who don’t know (99% of you) I’ve been trying to bike to work here in the City. The issue is that I’ve been on a 40 pound, 15 year old clunker of a mountain bike, which works surprisingly well for its age, but left me wanting to take “walk breaks” on 1% grades. I walked into REI on the first day of its anniversary sale with a knowledgeable friend to check out the options, knowing I’d have to probably pay $1000 for a decent road bike, and there was a Scott Speedster, last year’s model, extra small, on clearance for $519. I bought it.

That was only 10 or 11 days ago and I am having a full on love affair with my bike. (No name yet – why does everyone keep asking me this?!) I put over 50 miles on it that first weekend on a 20- and 30- mile ride with my parents along the American River Trail. It felt like I was flying, and it was so fun to share that with them as well. Also fun is just how horrible I look in bike shorts – but then again, who doesn’t?

When I brought her back last week, I upgraded her for my City commute, with a rack on the back so I could start carrying my 30+ lbs of commuter drivel (huge brick of a computer, makeup, straightener, running clothes, and so on) in panniers (bike bags) instead of entirely on my back. Hello, back sweat! I feel like a whole new person.

Yes, biking home from work is still uphill and not a cakewalk. Yes, biking is rather dangerous in the City and a new bike doesn’t make me any less likely to be flattened by Muni. But at the end of the day, my new bike has made me excited about something – excited about a more pleasant commute that adds an entire hour-plus of exercise to my daily routine, excited about potentially going for a tri, excited about building a new kind of strength. In The Happiness Project, the author says money CAN buy happiness… and I think this was a great purchase. It distracts me from my nagging running injuries and reminds me that even if I can’t be setting any PRs these days, I can be chasing new goals on my new two wheels.

In other news – I have an exciting giveaway to share with you all! This is right in line with another one of my goals – to think much more critically about what I put into my mouth (AKA return to HEALTHY EATING!). The friendly people at Green Giant and Weight Watchers, via MyBlogSpark, sent me a gift pack with a coupon to try their new Valley Fresh Steamers line. I grabbed the Cheesy Rice and Broccoli from the grocery store a few days ago – they had me at ”Cheesy” – and cooked it in the microwave, just a couple minutes right in the bag and pow! Done.

I’m occasionally skeptical about frozen foods, but have been increasingly reliant on them as my schedule has gotten crazier and crazier and time in the evening has become so precious. But I feel great about these products – good for you, healthy ingredients yet also prepared quickly! I can honestly say I will purchase these products in the future to have on hand for quick, healthy meals and use their recipes.

In addition to the coupon, I was sent a pretty dope prize pack. I have had a few lunchboxes here and they’ve all kind of failed me. now I have a sturdy new one, a perfectly sized water bottle, a solar pedometer, and – this is awesome – a big salad container with a fork and knife that snap in to the lid. Perfect way to bring a salad or veggie-friendly lunch to the office. I will definitely be using this and taking advantage of any opportunity I can to eat healthier. It also included a nutrition tracker, which I’ve been using religiously since I received it last week. It’s a pretty well rounded kit for healthy eating/living.

The fun news – I get to give away another one of these sweet prize packs (Steamers coupon, insulated lunch box, sweet container with fork/knife in lid, ice pack, and pedometer) to a reader. If you are interested, please just leave a comment on this post by Monday June 4. Bonus points if you tell me something you do to eat healthy during the week, especially at lunch – I am in need for some motivation after a few too many mac and cheeses! I’ll notify the winner that evening.

Have a great day everybody!

Disclosure: The coupons, information, and additional gift pack have been provided by Green Giant® and Weight Watchers® through MyBlogSpark.

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Filed Under: Pancakes (Food) Tagged With: biking, giveaway, goals, green giant, growth, myblogspark

Fostering an atmosphere of growth

May 20, 2012 by Courtney 5 Comments

One of the subjects I’ve been meditating on a lot lately is Happiness. Happiness is a fickle thing—you often don’t recognize it when you have it, resent not having it when you don’t have it, or attribute it to things that are not really the cause or the source. I’ve long considered myself a happy person overall. Sure, we all have our moments or days or occasionally weeks where anxiety and stress override, but in general, I’m pretty happy and positive. Though lately, at times I’ve felt dissatisfied with my life and where I’m at – but why? I’m incredibly lucky and blessed, and everything is pretty much good.

I realized that I’ve been feeling like I’m in a rut. Somewhat bored, disaffected. I shouldn’t feel this way – I have some great friends, a job that challenges me, a city surrounding me that you have to work really hard to be bored in. But in my little bubble, things have felt a little stale and I’ve been trying to think of what I can do to revitalize myself.

This spring would definitely have been the time in my life that I decided to go all Elizabeth Gilbert on everyone and move to Bali, but unfortunately I don’t have anyone who wants to pay for me to travel the world for a year to find myself, nor do I have a trust fund. So instead of the “leave, only to figure out what you’re looking for was there all along” mentality, I am trying to figure out how I can experience growth HERE in the day to day.

I’ve read Gretchen Rubin’s “The Happiness Project” before and I really liked it. Okay, the writing is self-indulgent (by necessity), the tone occasionally preachy and her style much more type-A than my own, but it’s a great book to read more for what it makes you think about in your own life. I’ve been rereading it lately, and one of the things that really hit me was the importance of creating an atmosphere of growth to happiness and life satisfaction. I realized that, while I do have a pretty dynamic life, I haven’t been feeling like I am truly growing as of late, and decided that I am going to change that.(Note – I made some goals on the blog after reading this book last year – fun to look back on.)

How can I foster an atmosphere of growth when the circumstances of my life – where I live, how much I work, my salary – are staying the same? This is something I’ve been thinking about this weekend and I’ve decided to put some goals together. Often when we want to revitalize our lives, we try to do all of it at once: “I’m going to lose 20 pounds, buy a new car, become fluent in French, invest in stocks, fall in love, and volunteer more. In the next three months.” No wonder so many resolutions fail! In view of reality, I’ve come up with the following goals for myself to help me “create an atmosphere of growth” within my daily life:

1. Bike more.

2. Pick up one new hobby.

3. Redefine friendship – spend less time on facebook and more time investing in old friends and meeting new ones.

4. Make home homier: turn my apartment from a cluttered mess into a sanctuary.

5. Reduce small, daily stressors by being proactive and not putting off tiny tasks.

6. Embrace new challenges at the office.

7. Give my blog the time and energy that I want to.

8. Focus on the future – finish my “30 by 30” list.

9. Remember the importance of being mindful about what I choose to eat.

10. Ask myself each day if I am moving towards being a better me or settling for less.

All of these things are doable, and give me something to work on in the short term. I hope that, in accordance with #7, that I’ll be blogging about them. some of these I may succeed at, others will inevitably fail. But striving towards something – regardless of what the outcome is – can often bring happiness in and of itself – proving that it often truly is about the journey, not the destination.

Courtney

Question for anyone reading – how do you foster growth in your own daily life?

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Filed Under: Musings Tagged With: blogging, goals, growth, happiness

Race Recap: The New Years Dash 5k/2.87-miler

January 8, 2012 by Courtney 5 Comments

Okay, so the blog took a little tiny bit of a backseat this week while I was busy at work and lost sleep over the fire trauma, but I’m back in action.

First up: a New Years’ Eve Recap, or, more specifically, the New Years Dash 5K recap.

Backstory: this was going to be my first 5K as a runner. Besides one I ran in 2005 that took me 35 minutes. This year, I ran three marathons and zero 5Ks. Basically, I hate running fast and don’t know how to. So I decided I was going to run this 5K to give me a “base” 5K time to work on. My goal was to beat 25 minutes, which would mean running 8 minute miles for 3.1 miles. This would be EXTREMELY hard for me, but I was committed to redlining it and holding on as long as humanly possible. The course scared me, though—it was a mile downhill on JFK and then mile two was straight back uphill. Barf! I decided to try to do a 7:50 first mile so I could do an 8:10 second mile back up the hill. I picked #24 because I wanted a 24 in front of my time.

The race was very casual and even had me laughing at times, super informal but it was no big deal—I was just counting on my Garmin for time. At 9:45AM we were off and started screaming down JFK. I wanted to keep Alyssa in my sight for as long as possible (i.e. not long) and tore through the first mile in 7:22. This is the fastest mile I have run this year without stopping. But then we turned around and plowed right through a wet field. Yes, you read that right. I was slipping all over the place on the wet grass, plus it was uphill—I think I saw a 9:15 pace on my Garmin! Then it was back out to the steep uphill part of the road. I felt like I was dying and mile two beeped 8:41. I had to laugh at that point (even though I didn’t really have any energy to do so). 8:41?!?! In a 5K? Oh well—I figured I could scream around Stow Lake, clock a 7:45 and still go sub-25.

I did pick manage to hold my “I feel like death” pace around Stow Lake and when I was careening down the hill out of Stow Lake I was at 7:45 pace. I had 2.75 miles on the Garmin in just over 22 minutes and I knew I was made. But then the finish line happened! After 2.87 miles! I was so confused—part of me wanted to knock out the final .23 miles but there were people standing around in my way so I just stopped.

Turned out we weren’t supposed to go through that slip n’ slide of a meadow! The course wasn’t clearly marked and someone tore across it so everyone followed suit. So I still have no 5K time but a new 2.87 mile PR of 22:44. The great thing is that even if I had slowed a bit from the speed I had down the finish I would have finished in 24:30, thirty seconds faster than planned. So I plan to enter a new *flat* 5K and push for a sub-24. I think I can do it.

I enjoyed the time after the run with the amazing Katie (2place), Alyssa, Cate, Alisyn, Kabri, and Renee, and got to see Jojo and Erin from SFM as well! Katie poured my mimosa. It was a GENEROUS pour aka a red cup full of champagne with a tiny bit of OJ on top. Then my friend called and said she was already on the bay bridge (she was staying with me for New Years) so I chugged it down and decided to run the two miles home. Note: running 7 miles, including 3 at 5K pace, then chugging a mimosa and running through the Haight with new years beads on and holding a party horn is a really great way to start the NYE festivities.

I am bummed I didn’t get a 5K time but am excited for the next one I do with no huge uphill and no wet meadow. : )

Other New Years festivities included watching my beloved UCLA Bruins play an absolutely atrocious football game, finally meeting the Oscar Meijer Weinermobile, and wearing a very sparkly and very short gold dress.

A week-belated HAPPY NEW YEAR to everybody! This week I’ll finally post about some awesome new desserts I’ve created (very important…), my 2012 resolutions and my race recap from my first race of the year (spoiler alert: 13+ minute average pace. Watch out world.)

Courtney

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Filed Under: fitness Tagged With: 5K, friends, goals, Golden Gate Park, holidays, race recap, races, San Francisco, speedwork, stow lake

2011: The Year In Running

December 31, 2011 by Courtney 10 Comments

Greetings folks. I planned to do a whole 2011 series this week but frankly life just got in the way. So some of them may be belated, but I did want to do a little recap of my running year. The other, harder-to-quantify stuff can come later.

In January I started training for my first marathon.

In March I ran my first half-marathon and shocked myself.

On May 1st I crossed the finish line of my first marathon in Big Sur and it was one of the greatest moments of my life. I knew I was hooked. (note the unintentional post-race beer theme…)

A few weeks later I did Bay to Breakers – notice I didn’t say “run” – in two and a half hours. : )

In June, I met some amazing bay area runners and bloggers who now I count as some of my closest friends.

In July, I crossed the finish line of the San Francisco Marathon, a truly amazing race that I was blessed to share with many others.

In August and October, I ran three more half marathons, with various times and experiences.

The Giant Race – August

San Jose Rock & Roll Half – October

Nike Women’s Marathon – October

And then in late November, an opportunity presented itself to run the California International Marathon. I finished it on December 4th in 4:08.

Tally for the year:

3 full marathons
4 half marathons
1 12K
1 10K
1 5K
1,200+ miles
5 pairs of running shoes
4 lost toenails
2 boxes of GU
A scary amount of $$ spent on running clothes
An unquantifiable number of new memories

It’s really hard for me to look back on this year and truly dictate what a big role running played. It was the source of stress at times, of course, but it was so much more than that.

Running became an escape. It became something to throw the stress and hurt into and meld it into something positive.

It provided a constant in my life when nothing else was. Moving from Africa to America, moving cities, starting a new career, starting a new life. Everything seemed so transient. Running remained the same. One foot in front of the other.

It gave me a mental challenge: the marathon. The marathon is as mental as it is physical. Where your mind goes at mile 22 is a dark place that few experience. You know more about your deepest self after a marathon than ever before.

It gave me confidence. I used to believe I could never run a marathon and now I’ve run three.

It gave me some great friends. There are some new people in my life who I’m incredibly grateful for and blessed to call my friends.

It gave me new goals. I was ecstatic when I hit 1000 miles, then ending the year at a bit over 1200 momentarily makes me feel like I didn’t try enough when half my twitter beat 2,000, but then it gets me back to the main thing:

Running is one area where ironically, I don’t feel like I’m competing about anyone but myself. I compete for seats on the bus, better tasks at work, the soup special before it runs out. With running, it doesn’t matter how many miles other people ran. What matters to me is that in my first year of being a “runner” I did things I didn’t know I could do, and that’s what matters.

I look forward to 2012 and seeing what it brings. Thanks to everyone who’s been a part of my running journey this year. I can’t wait for the next chapter.

Courtney

What were the highlights of your 2011?

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Filed Under: fitness Tagged With: 2011, goals, race recap, recap, running

December

December 2, 2011 by Courtney 11 Comments

Just over a month ago I wrote one of my favorite posts ever on the blog, No-Nonsense November.

There was little to no forethought behind the post, just a straightforward declaration that I would Cut the Crap from my life in a variety of areas.

November has come and gone with several highlights, from the Foodbuzz Festival to Thanksgiving. But there were lows, too. And in some ways I made my vague goals and in other ways I did not.

The biggest accomplishment: I did not eat one bite of junk food from the office the entire month. Not one bite. We always have chocolate, candy, cookies, chips, crackers. I’ve been complaining that they are the bane of my existence and responsible for my weight gain of the last six months. I couldn’t go past 3PM without snacking on something salty and sugary. But I did it. I went an ENTIRE MONTH. And now I want to keep the streak alive.

I also gained two pounds. In a month.

Yes, one of my goals for November was to drop a few that the office job has brought on and I thought that cutting hundreds of calories from my weekly diet in the form of simple sugars at work would be the key to kick that off. Apparently it wasn’t. At all. This disheartens me because it means that getting my body back to where I want it to be will require much more serious work and semi-obsessive attention. But it has to happen. I am sick of looking at myself in the mirror and feeling like a “before” picture. Then again, what are you supposed to do when confronted with these?

The great part of this is I have a plan of sorts. And I declare here that by December 31^st I will see a positive change. I WILL see it because frankly I don’t think I can handle writing one more blog post like this.

Aside from the junk food detox I had some other successes. I swore off workout excuses, and I’m happy to say I did go running in the dark a couple of times. Baby steps.

I’ve also been working on prioritizing relationships. It’s hard, because everything goes two ways. But I recognize that a lot of the stress I feel regarding work/running/body image/state in life comes from feeling unbalanced. I know that’s all of our quest and it comes from within, but surrounding yourself with positive people really helps. I’m working on that.

I tried to think of a name for December, but after No-Nonsense November proved otherwise in a significant way, I figured calling it “Damn You Fine December” I should just focus on tangible goals for the month:

Run the California International Marathon
Transition to a lower-carb, higher-protein diet
Incorporate shorter, more intense workouts into my schedule instead of steady state cardio that is not doing much for me
Enjoy myself at the dozen holiday parties and strive for balance
Look inside for inspiration and motivation instead of to everything else but myself
Focus more on showing love to everyone in my life instead of receiving it
Meditate and pray over what I want my life to look like in 2012 and what I can do to make sure that happens

I can’t believe 2011 is almost over. I have a good feeling about this month. Let’s go out with a bang.

Courtney

What are your December goals?

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Filed Under: Musings Tagged With: body image, food, goals, happiness, life, monthly goals, no nonsense november, weight

Weekend Roundup and Weekly Goals.

October 9, 2011 by Courtney 14 Comments

Hello all! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I had a great one, a highlight being a Blogger Meetup but that’s a separate post for tomorrow perhaps, once I steal some pictures. As apparently amidst organizing a blogger meetup I lost all blogger photo-taking tendencies. Oh well.

One of my best friends was in town this weekend, which I’d been looking forward to for awhile. I love having friends in town, because it makes you make time for fun things that often get lost during the day-to-day. We headed out for an evening of drinking and eating in the Marina district, which is usually too fratty and full of girls in ass-length skirts and ridiculous heels they can’t walk in for my taste, but it can also be somewhat fun and it was also overrun with cute marines and navy dudes in uniform, which come on, is adorable. Even if the average age is 20.

My eating was off all day due to the meetup and snacking but after a long night with not enough food I finally got to eat at Pizza Orgasmica, which, if you can get over the name, has pretty freaking amazing pizza.

I also finally stopped into American Cupcake to take one to go. Monique had recommended this to me ages ago so I was excited to pick one up to bring home. And a cupcake shop that’s open til midnight? These people are geniuses.

This morning I woke after not enough sleep to meet Renee for a 10-mile run in GGP. It was a lovely run and I was just happier than I have been on a run in months. It was nice to run slower at recovery pace and just talk and not be alone with my head. So nice. Renee also introduced me to Sport Beans which I found amazing. GU is so convenient with the size but I ALWAYS get side stitches, so I need to suck it up and start carrying something like this or chomps with me. Or…

After I was really hungry (didn’t eat enough beforehand) and grabbed a handful of candy corn to bring with me on my way out the door for brunch. I’m also considering carrying a handful of THIS on a run. Haha. I think I just respond better to solid stuff than the gel, but we’ll see. But would candy corn melt? I’m not sure. I am going to try it.

I met Talia and Beth at It’s Tops which is an adorable diner on the corner of Market and Octavia streets that Alyssa introduced me to after our Half Moon Bay spectator-fest. It was after noon at this point and none of us had eaten real food so we were all starving. I was also getting into the post-run calorie-deficit anger stage which needed to be remedied immediately.

Beth and I split a vanilla shake…

And Talia and I ordered banana pancakes and a mushroom, bell pepper and onion omelet and split both.

(Butter expertly removed by Talia but I made her let me take a picture of it first. There’s something classic about pats of butter on a stack of pancakes, no?)

Unsurprisingly, it was all delicious. And fueled us up for our walk into the Mission to go shopping. I bought a dress and a belt from a cute boutique, and two things I absolutely didn’t need:

A penguin wristlet purse thing. Come on, it’s cute.

And even more ridiculous… cookie-shaped key covers. Now one of my keys is a vanilla Oreo and the other a classic. Anything to make me smile a couple more times a day, right?

And what I absolutely should have bought but did not: the hamburger purse. Seriously.

I am excited for this week because it’s the Nike Women’s Marathon next weekend! I am really looking forward to it. But with how exhausted I have been and how my diet has been off, I really need to set priorities for the week. (I know my blog often features my ridiculous dessert postings, I in no way pretend to be a “look at the healthy food I eat!” blog, but with that being said the majority of my meal choices are healthy—though when I get busy occasionally dinner is peanut butter pretzels so that’s what I need to work on.)

If I want to have fun through every mile of Nike and avoid a crash like at San Jose Rock & Roll last weekend, I am aiming for the following for this week:

7 hours of sleep each night. I need 8, but I’m trying to set an attainable goal here.
Exercise every day Monday through Friday—but don’t go overboard. I tried to run 10 days in a row right before SJRNR, which is too tiring for my legs. I will do varied and well-rounded workouts all week to stay energized.
Eat clean. Eat clean. Eat clean. This is the biggest one. I don’t mean “nothing unhealthy at ALL,” as I plan to get Quickly bubble tea tomorrow night and am doing a brewery tour on Friday with my office—I just mean my meals should be well rounded with carbs, protein and fruits/veggies and not haphazard.
Snack smart at the office. Apple and string cheese = smart. Honey Nut Cheerios = not so much.
De-stress. I have been too stressed lately. I will make a conscious effort this week to step back

These are really life goals not just for this week alone, but I hope I can concentrate on them this week and I’m not hitting the teddy grahams by 2PM tomorrow. Keep me accountable, blog of mine.

Have a wonderful start to your week everyone!

Courtney

what are your goals for this week?

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Filed Under: Musings Tagged With: american cupcake, blogger meetup, brunch, candy corn, friends, goals, it's tops, marina, restaurant review, shopping, unhealthy goodness, weekend recap, weekly goals

#1: Bike More, and a green giveaway!

Fostering an atmosphere of growth

Race Recap: The New Years Dash 5k/2.87-miler

2011: The Year In Running

December

Weekend Roundup and Weekly Goals.

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