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Detox Week

April 27, 2011 By 12 Comments
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There definitely can be “too much of a good thing.”

I struggle with moderation, I’ll be totally honest about that. I want to do it all, all out. I’m fine with not drinking at all, but if I have one margarita, I want four. I’m fine not touching chocolate, but once it passes my lips, I might eat the whole Easter basket that mommy and daddy the Easter bunny brought me (for the first time in about ten years!) Check out how creepy the M&M chocolate bunny looks.

If I meet a cute guy I like, I want to see him all the time, not adopt that “I have a million better things to do than hang out with you but I guess I’ll acquiesce” ‘tude that modern dating portends to necessitate. I get a smartphone and after shamlessly declaring for years that I would never be one of THOSE people always on their phones… I’m now one of those people.

I train for a marathon and before it even happens and I see if I can handle it, I sign up for another one. I freak out about money and don’t buy anything for days and then blow $50 on dinner and drinks.

Please forgive my horrible photos, it won’t happen again. Yes it will. My bad.

Or I go to Whole Foods and get what I think is “just a little bit” of Indian food from the hot bar, not even filling this box that’s the size of my hand, and end up having to pay $12.53.

I have a moderation problem.

But the hardest thing for me to control myself around is social plans.

I’m new in San Francisco still and there are so many things to do. But with my occasionally demanding work schedule, 7am conference calls for the last two weeks, and wrapping up training, I’ve been tired… but completely unable to say no to socializing or going out and even initiating plans myself. Last week was the worst when I had about two plans for every single day. One night when I met a friend at happy hour, then went to dinner with another friend, and then met up with two other friends after THAT, I realized this needed to stop. Hi, I am Courtney and I am a social-holic.


Enter Marathon Detox Week.

This week, Sunday–Friday, I am not making ANY plans (!). I am going right home after work. I am going to bed by 10 and getting eight hours if it’s the last thing I do.

I’m bringing my lunch and choosing healthy food. While excessively carbo-loading, of course. :) I’m trading this…

For this.

I had some drinks last Friday but that’s really it for the last two weeks. I’ve got food in my apartment FOR ONCE and a bunch of beer, beckoning me, for ATM (that would be After The Marathon). Back off, Blue Moon.

It feels really good to prioritize ME.

I have “stayed in” the last three nights and it has been funny to stress out about SLEEP, and I already am not sleeping well–I’m so scared about the race and have been dreaming about work stuff as well–but at least I’m in bed at a certain time, and that is what matters. It’s all going to work out. I even bought a new alarm clock app on my iPhone, so that means business.

I have time to do things like stick fake flowers in a wine bottle and call it decorating, or two watch mindless episodes of Sex and the City and not feel guilty about it.

It already makes me realize that I NEED to schedule at least two worknight evenings IN. Schedule time in? I have heard about this before and scoffed, but NO. This is really important. I was filling my life too much with fun so much that I was forgetting how to have it.

I’m going to enjoy these last few quieter nights, try to calm the pre-race jitters, and enjoy doing absolutely nothing.

Have you ever needed a social detox? How do you make time for you?

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    Transitions.

    March 29, 2011 By 19 Comments
    girls

    I’m tired.

    I always talk about how I will never complain about being MIA on the blog, which is perhaps as bad (or worse) as actually complaining about “being MIA.” (While I too feel the urge to apologize my way out of a pretty silent week in the blogosphere, I simultaneously find it self-indulgent that we all somewhat subconsciously seem to think that the blog world will be sad when we prioritize the real world over it for a few weeks… or days… or hours. Real world should always come first.)

    But the “Real World” has been coming on MUCH too strong for me these days. As evidenced by the blog silence. (Readies herself for self-indulgent rant about coldhearted corporations): I haven’t had internet in my apartment since I moved in. I was supposed to get it over a week ago, but when it didn’t come I contacted AT&T and was told that my order had been canceled. By who, they couldn’t tell me. But now I had to wait another week minimum. And they then “replaced my order”, with an order I found out soon thereafter was twice as much as my original order. Basically, six customer service people later, I still don’t have internet, and I’m at my office at 8PM just to break the blog silence when all I really want to do is hang out in my apartment. Plus, I don’t have cell reception at home. Literally. I can get and send texts sometimes, but I cannot receive or make a call (or check NextBus in the morning until I leave the house, which kind of defeats the point). I can buy an AT&T MicroCell for a cool $150, but not until I have internet. The circular problem continues. I am really sick of not being able to make phone calls or do work. Plus I have to work at night sometimes which has already resulted in being at the office at 9PM. I am really sick of being disconnected—it was fun in Africa but it is SO not fun in San Francisco.

    End Rant.

    Sorry, I had to get that off my chest. Cathartic, seriously. I want to blog, all the time, but I just haven’t been able to. I have reviews and giveaways to post and a ton of stuff backed up and I just can’t right now. Powerless feeling.

    The last month has really been a learning experience in terms of how precious time is. At UCLA, I was running around constantly. In Africa, I had too much time. Way too much. But I also learned what was important to me to fill out that time: time with friends, time with God, cooking and exercising. Eight hours of sleep. My favorite things.

    How am I doing in SF? There’s time, but how to spread it out is the challenge. Friends are great. I have been able to see a lot of buddies and feel very socially stimulated. Great. But everything else? My daily quiet times with God that I was doing a great time maintaining while bored and unemployed have flown out the window. My 6 days a week of intense exercise has flown out the window in exchange for fattening happy hour appetizers and beer. Speaking of cooking, I’m a self-proclaimed foodie who loves to cook. I moved into my apartment 16 days ago. Today I cooked the first thing in my apartment. Check it out:

    Yes, that is the first thing I have “cooked” in 16 days. What the hell have I been eating?? I don’t even know! Protein and clif bars for meal after meal after meal. Overpriced food near my office for lunch. I couldn’t even tell you what I’ve been eating. That is terrifying. My health is so, so important to me and it affects my energy so much, and I don’t even know what I have been putting into my mouth. I feel sluggish and gross.

    Exercising every day has become something of a dream. It doesn’t happen. It’s going to happen today, but it comes as a sacrifice. Instead of going home and having a night in and cooking a nutritious dinner, I gorged myself on chips and salsa at happy hour for “dinner” and will go at the gym to workout at 9, get home at 11, shower and get into bed only to wake up at 5:30am so I can run before work.

    Maybe this weekend I can relax. Maybe this Christmas.

    My to-do list grows, from inconsequential things such as “print pictures!” to bigger-deal things like bills, cussing out AT&T reps and attempting to defer graduate school admissions. I just found out I got into the London School of Economics, and also into George Washington University and American University and got generous fellowship offers at both schools. I’m not going. I belong here. Though the instability and current dreamlike status of this new life I’m just trying to figure out how to get into, like trying to zip up a dress that just doesn’t quite fit, leaves me somewhat confused and overwhelmed by the world. I want to fully experience it, I want to feel like I LIVE here, that I’m not just passing through like a wisp of San Francisco fog, that gives way to the sunny day and leaves you wondering if it was ever really there.

    I’ve been back in America for three months now and what a transition it has been. Sometimes it seems like I have been gone for forever, when I’m able to charge a pack of gum on my credit card and walk into one big store and know that it has everything. But yet remnants of Africa persist, when I don’t bring my ID out to the bars, when I think of words in Portuguese first, when I leave voicemails festering for weeks because I forget I have it and it truthfully kind of scares me, when I start thinking about leaving around the time that I was supposed to already be there, when I used to be punctual.

    I love my job and the people that I work with, but it too sometimes leaves me feeling in a daze. Everything is so big, so new. The more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know, and it leaves my mind aching as I try as hard as I can to find my place.

    Instead of spending my, well, second actual weekend in my apartment, I went to LA. I was in the airport for as many hours as I spent sleeping. I saw friends, both best friends and friendly faces that I hadn’t seen in three years. It’s weird, these moments, when your past life interjects into your present, a welcome interruption, yet leaves you feeling confused. LA is still home, but is it? San Francisco, Sacramento, LA, Africa… these places all have a part of me. But none of them are me. I can exist happily in many places, but I don’t feel I’ve truly found my niche, or hit my peak in life. I’m okay with that. The best truly is yet to come.

    LA reminded me of something though. That no matter where you are in life, your best friends are going to be there. It’s okay if you saw them yesterday or five years ago.

    I ran 20 miles on Sunday for marathon training. I’ve made it this far without a rainy day, narrowly escaping on my 18-miler last week. No more. 14 rainy miles later, I saw the sun. I ran through all the old spots—brentwood, santa monica, venice beach, marina del rey. When I moved out of this city I wasn’t a runner. Now I am. It’s nice to see change. Marathon training does give you that. My first “long run” for training was 7 miles. This one was 20. It was easier than the first.

    The run was cold but easy. I wanted to run longer just because, but I had a friend to meet up with, and that was more important.

    More important.

    I’m tired right now. I’m not blogging. I’m not sleeping enough. I’m not spending enough time journaling or reflecting or in prayer. I’m not cooking or eating as healthfully as I normally do. I’m not balanced, that constant quest for the perfect in-between that never seems attainable.

    I haven’t found that right now. But what I’ve realized is that sometimes other things are more important.

    You need to make time for yourself, true. And prioritize your time. But sometimes you need to go to brunch three times in thirty-six hours and declare it a great success.

    Despite everything going on right now, there is one thing I can say right now:

    I am unspeakably happy.

    Tired, poorly nourished, and overworked/underrested aside, there is something beautiful about a new chapter in life. Sometimes it’s more important to ride the wave, even if it’s unbalanced, even if you’re tired, even if you don’t have time for everything you wished you did.

    [source storypeople.com]

    There’s a quote I heard that said,

    “everything changed the moment she realized there was exactly enough time for everything that was important in her life.”

    I don’t know if I fully agree with that—I’d love a few more hours in the day—but the point remains. Time is precious. Use it wisely. Even if that means using it unwisely.

    I’ll be in and out in my period of disconnection. But I love you all.

    Courtney

    What do you spend your time on? What do you wish you had more time for?

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    A Week in the Life

    March 20, 2011 By 16 Comments
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    Hey y’all!

    First, thank you so much for the kind comments on my half-marathon recap. It really meant a lot to read all those! It was definitely an awesome race for me and something to hold onto as I have less-desirable races and runs (see below). I did get two race pictures back–do you like either of these? I can’t decide.

    So this week was a bit crazy–I had SO much I wanted to post about, being my first week actually living for real real in SF and doing fun things and whatnot, but I actually still don’t have internet in my apartment. Tragic.

    On top of no internet, I also have no cell reception. Not once in a week have I successfully had a conversation on my cell phone inside this apartment. Luckily I can send and receive texts the majority of the time, but even that is touch and go. I can purchase an AT&T microcell which will help, but that’s $150 and not a possibility until I have internet.

    It’s basically like Africa, but worse because there I USUALLY had service and occasionally had internet.

    Suffice it to say, blogging has so not been happening and that’s a bummer, but hey. I still love the blog, I’m still here, and I’ll have internet in five days. All is well with the world. And now I have like a bajillion things to catch up on, so easier blogging for me.

    A few highlights (and lowlights):

    The weather for most of the week looked like this:

    Add it to the morning darkness due to the clocks changing, and the overall attitude for the first few days was pretty much misery. I was more concerned, however, for my long run this weekend, with straight rain forecasted for every hour on the 48-hour weekend tab, with a smattering of “thunderstorms” and “heavy wind advisory” on the side.

    Somehow, it DIDN’T really rain up here today–blessing for me, but sorry about it, LA marathon folks. So despite wearing UnderArmor, a waterproof jacket and carrying a hat, I stayed more or less dry while I matched my PDR with an 18-mile run through San Francisco, primarily through the Golden Gate Park, up a huge hill to some lookout point, and then back down PCH (here known as “The Great Highway,” which I adore) and around in some circles until I arrived, several hours later, soaked with sweat.

    I felt pretty crappy and very, verrrrrry slow today but at least I got to know some more parts of SF, and it didn’t rain on me, and plus I got some pictures.

    I ran 18.1 miles, took in 310 calories during the run <– this needs to be upped. I had more gu but by the end of my run I didn’t want to eat it at ALL. But that is, in my opinion, NOT sufficient when you’re burning as many calories as I usually eat in a day ish. Need to figure that out.

    Speaking of the Great Highway, some NOT-SO-great news in that department came out on Friday: apparently with heavy rains, a part of the road in between Carmel and Big Sur washed out.

    This is right in the middle of the (former) Big Sur Marathon course.

    My marathon!! ** shakes fist in uncontrollable anger **

    So the course is now an out-and-back. Which means 12+ miles on significantly rolling hills, PLUS the added mental difficulty (for me personally) of an out-and-back where each person passing me reminds me that I am very, VERY far behind (oh, you’re at mile 20 and I’m at mile 6, yay!). Okay, this isn’t about comparison, I’m running to finish, but I am very, very nervous about this. At least I have several weeks to get used to the idea.

    And to run HILLS. I have been training for ten weeks now and TOTALLY neglecting this. The next six weeks is officially Big Booty Hill Bootcamp. Don’t ask me why I chose that name.

    Hills. YAY! (real reaction: throws up into bushes)

    So what else happened this week, hmmm let’s see.

    I have subsisted on protein bars and little else, thanks to an empty refrigerator, no time and a not-completely-stocked kitchen. Today I have food in the fridge for the first time!

    I still ate a clif bar for breakfast and some nuts and a Greek yogurt for dinner, but now there’s a salad and bananas there. Baby steps.

    I complained about NOT getting my expensive Wall Street Journal every day this week (only ONCE), and then the paper came with this note:

    I felt so horrible that I will never complain again even if my expensive paper which I very much enjoy reading keeps getting stolen. Darn it. I even feel bad for complaining now, even though it’s totally not my fault that someone is stealing the paper I am paying for.

    Oh here’s a fun fact. I have gone out to get food in SF several times in the last couple weeks. Somehow I end up at a Thai restaurant EVERY TIME. I love Thai, but it’s getting a bit ridiculous. Must make other food choices.

    And of course by “fun fact” I mean “by reading this blog you agree to be subject to my random thoughts and word explosions.” Sorry bout it.

    A highlight of my weekend was getting to take a Master class with the founder of Zumba, Beto Perez, and his team (including several famous Zumba staffers and also the amazing woman who taught my instructor class!) It was about 2+ hours of Zumba and overall it was epic (and sweaty). It was really small for a class with Beto, so I even got to meet him afterwards. ZUMBA SUCCESS!

    Note to self/blog world: I NEED to try to get on a sub list for Zumba. My full-time job is really demanding schedule-wise but I could probably pick up a few classes, and more importantly because it makes me happy.

    Oh and I ate Turkish food. (If you didn’t know, I’m Turkish.) Reconnecting with the motherland. Win.

    It’s only a bit after 10 as I’m writing this, but I felt like I could have fallen asleep HOURS ago. Time to hit Publish and sign off for the evening.

    Tomorrow is a new, busy day.

    What was a highlight or lowlight of your week?

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    Hope

    March 10, 2011 By 7 Comments
    hope-1

    I’m feeling introspective at the moment, kindly indulge me.

    This is my apartment.

    It’s empty, bare. But this is not sad. Rather, it feels full of possibilities and infinite promise.

    Three months ago, I was overseas, finishing up my 27th month abroad after a whirlwind tour of Peace Corps duty in Mozambique. I was excited, anxious, and hopeful for the future that was yet to come.

    Three weeks ago, I was starting to get my act together to embark on a crazy journey, starting a new job in a new city with very little forethought or time to process what was happening. I was excited, anxious, and hopeful for the future that was yet to come.

    Right now, I’m packing up my clutter that has defined the last 19 days of transient life on a couch, a transition period which ends tonight.

    Tomorrow I am going home for a race and shopping, and three days from now, I am moving in to this little piece of San Francisco that I can call mine.

    Life can change right in front of your eyes sometimes. All of a sudden, you’re in a place that just one month ago you never could have imagined you’d be in. And yet somehow amidst the chaos things seem clear.

    Joseph Campbell said that sometimes we must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us. I’m still trying to keep my head above water figuring out what’s going on, but recognize that my focus on the future and what I sometimes see as the right ‘plans’ can hinder me from experiencing what’s right there in front of me.

    It’s crazy to think back on the whirlwind of the last three months and crazier to wonder about the next three. But I’m learning to enjoy the process. And I truly believe–and chose to hope--that the best is yet to come.

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    Rediscovering Health in the Real World

    February 27, 2011 By 30 Comments
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    **you can still enter my Green Giant giveaway until Tuesday evening! Just leave a comment on linked entry to enter!**

    Today I ran fifteen miles, and it sucked.

    It was absolutely the suckiest possible sucky run ever. And that’s saying something.

    I don’t really want to delve into the deep extent of said suckiness because I’m actually embarrassed. It took me a full THIRTY MINUTES longer than it should have. Think twelve minute miles and I was TRYING. Just when I thought I had hit my horrible-running low, I went and smashed that one out of the park.

    I felt like crap the whole time. Slash I kind of wanted to die. At one point both of my arms fell asleep. Yes, while running. I’m fairly convinced that that is not a good thing.

    There are several things that contributed to this fifteen-mile disaster this morning. The first and potentially MOST damaging was my choice of route. Being close to the allegedly beautiful trails in the Berkeley hills, I thought it would be a great idea to run my fifteen miles up in the mountains. I mapped out a quick run on MapMyRun.com through the mountains and then when I checked elevation it said it was 2,000 feet of elevation gain. Whatever, I thought. I’ll be fine.

    Starting out, I ran a loop around Cal’s campus, which wasn’t so bad, then headed up the Berkeley fire trail. It really wasn’t that steep, but for some reason I was having TONS of trouble. Like, tons. Then we got to a part where it was just straight uphill and it took my whole breath away just to WALK up it. Nike+ repeated my pace in my ear at each mile. First in the 10s (what I want to be doing on my LRs—I’m slow and OK with it), then the 11’s, then the 12’s, then the 13’s…

    I tried to make myself go faster but I couldn’t. Each step of the way, skinny blonde Cal girls were breezing by me up the hill with not even a drop of sweat on their perfectly made-up faces. Then the older out-of-shape (so it seemed) dudes with their dogs started passing me. Then I just couldn’t move. I had to stop after three miles and catch my breath. I’ve NEVER done this. I was rewarded with a beautiful view of the bay once I got up to the first high point.

    It took me over an hour to “run” less than five miles.

    I almost started crying. I felt like a failure. How could I run a marathon when I can’t even run five miles? And Big Sur is just as hilly! I wanted to jump off the aforementioned high point.

    But then I realized I had a choice to make. I could throw it all away right there, or I could own it and do the best I could with what I had.

    Instead of continuing another ten miles in the hills, I turned around. I knew it was the only way I would keep running. I ran and ran, back around campus, down to the marina, around a small lake and back up. I was slow. I teared up. My knees and joints ached. My arms fell asleep. I gratefully accepted a freight-train-induced respite. When it was all said and done, the time on the clock was thirty minutes more than it should have been. I was drastically late for book club. My head was light and my body was weak. I salvaged it, but it sucked.

    Last week, I ran a very respectable half-marathon without putting in much effort whatsoever. And then this happened. Why? I decided to take ownership and figure it out.

    One, I need to be doing more hill work. Running on a couple rolling hills does in NO WAY qualify me to run a 26.2 on a hilly course. There are no excuses anymore.

    Two, I need to fuel more intentionally both before and during long runs. I snacked last night, but nothing super substantial. This morning I had two eggs on a tortilla—less than 250 cals. I took a packet of gu at mile 7, but when I almost passed out at mile 11, I realized I had burned at least 1,100 calories that morning but had only taken in 350 max. (I had a few gu chomps in my purse, but my life was saved by Gatorade from a Chevron at mile 13. I inhaled the 20 ounces in half a mile.)

    Three, this run wasn’t about a bad day, but it was a culmination of a horrible week. This week, I have completely neglected almost every aspect of my health. And it culminated in today’s suckfest that could have been prevented.

    Let me explain.

    A week ago today, I left my parents’ home in Sacramento, where I’d been staying for the past two months since I got back from Mozambique, to move in with my sister in Berkeley while I look for a place in San Francisco. I started a new job in the city on Tuesday, and am fully diving into this new life. And it hasn’t been easy.

    None of this has to do with my job—it’s sure to be very challenging and extremely demanding at times, but I’m looking forward to that. The problem was with my routines. The things that I am used to doing were all of a sudden not there. This week, with my change in routine, I really lost track of my physical, emotional, and spiritual health. I didn’t realize how bad it was until I started thinking about it (somewhere around mile 11, when I almost passed out.)

    For my spiritual health, I usually have a quiet time of prayer, bible study, journaling, and reflecting with God for about half an hour every morning to get my day started right.


    This week, the closest I got, despite being in an anxious state that would’ve been eased by this time, was listening to a few worship songs absentmindedly on the BART.

    For my emotional health, I usually make the time each day to connect with my loved ones and friends, to recharge relationships. I try to be in tune with my emotions and feelings, and to center or focus myself when I feel off-kilter.

    This week, I didn’t even listen to my voicemails. Or my own thoughts.

    For my physical health—sleep, I know my body needs eight hours a day.

    This week, I got hours less than that, and the thoughts and emotions I was experiencing prevented me from truly feeling rested.

    For my physical health—exercise, I make a point to be active every day, usually working out intensely six days a week: four runs, two cross training days, and at least two yoga classes on top of that for lots of stretching.

    This week, I walked a lot one day, ran 6 miles one day, and five the other. No stretching or yoga at all.

    For my physical health—nutrition, I pride myself on making healthy choices most of the time. This girl needs her sweets, but I usually make healthy meals. I started off the month with a Vegetarian Kitchen Challenge, attempting to spend loads of time cooking healthy vegetarian meals.

    This week, the closest I got to vegetarian cooking was reheating two pieces of five-day-old veggie pizza in the microwave.

    Not to mention the tons of fake food, sweets, chocolate, and non-nutritive snacks that I spent way too much time eating. I ate poorly, drank alcohol, didn’t sleep, stressed out, and neglected myself.

    WHO’S SURPRISED I HAD A BAD RUN TODAY??

    Today wasn’t about the run; it was about recognizing what I need to be healthy and happy.

    I need to get back on track with what is right for my body, mind and spirit.

    I need to make good choices and concentrate on the big picture.

    I need to make decisions and prioritize my time efficiently.

    I need to rediscover what it means to be healthy in the “real world.”

    In Peace Corps, we often referred to the “real world” as working full-time, an experience which many of us, fresh from college or other jobs overseas, hadn’t fully experienced yet. I definitely haven’t. And now with this new life, I need to re-learn how to face daily decisions (and the consequences of them) in a completely new framework. Leaving the house at 7:15AM and getting back at 8:15PM is a whole new schedule I need to figure out.

    I know I need to go easy on myself—its my first week (second week) in a brand new place with a brand new job! Of course the transition will be a little bumpy! But there are some things I can choose to do which will make it easier.

    This week, I will prioritize sleep, recognizing that feeling rested and alert is crucial to anything else I hope to spend my time doing. I will attempt to eliminate activities that waste my time in favor of using it constructively—especially if that means going to bed!

    This week, I will dedicate my time commuting, a time that is often spent frustrated, on prayer and meditation with God, focusing and centering myself on what truly matters before I face each new day.

    This week, I will dedicate myself to exercise, recognizing that without it I am grumpy and sluggish. I will weight-train on Monday and Thursday, and I will run on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, as well as stretching, to try to help Sunday’s 17-miler be better than today.

    This week, I will make good food choices, recognizing that fueling myself with lots of healthy, fresh food makes me feel good both physically and mentally, and I will attempt to say no to fake foods and unnecessary sweets, knowing how they make me feel later. (Thank God for Trader Joe’s, which netted me five salads, two frozen meals, tons of snacks, and beans for $35. I’d prefer to cook, but right now, it’s hard. So I am going to recognize my limitations and do the best I can with what I have.)

    I am going to try to harness my mind. Instead of being overwhelmed or anxious, I am going to harness positive energy and attempt to release the negative. I am going to put myself out there to build new relationships and take the initiative in my professional and personal lives. I am going to try to act the way I want to feel and be the person I wish I was.

    [source]

    This is a crazy time of life. There’s going to be stress and bad feelings (and bad runs!) sometimes. But dwelling on that in the past has never helped me. I want to go into this week feeling fresh—and end it feeling the same.

    There were some benefits of my rough run today.

    First, it called to my attention how I need to be treating myself and my body to succeed at this marathon thing.

    Second, nobody said it was easy. If it was easy everyone would do it. So buck up, grit your teeth and get it done.

    Third, I DID IT. Even if it sucked, I did it. I got out there and I ran fifteen freaking miles even though I would have rather been eating honey nut cheerios from the box while sitting in my pajamas. Sometimes half the battle is just showing up. The rest figures itself out.

    I saw this sign in the Haight yesterday when I was checking out an apartment I was really hoping to get. It’s nothing new, but for some reason yesterday it struck a chord with me.

    And with that, I’m going to go to bed early to get an early start tomorrow.

    Here’s to the week. I hope you all have a great one!

    –Courtney

    How do you manage YOUR health day-to day? What little tips or mantras help you get by?

    *(giveaway link if you still want to enter!)*

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    [Life] Ch-ch-changes…

    February 21, 2011 By 23 Comments
    SF1

    The last week has been about a lot of “firsts” for me.

    I took my first Bikram yoga class a week ago yesterday and ended up taking six classes this week and loving something I expected to hate.

    I bought my first foam roller and used it to recover from my long runs. I fueled my runs for the first time in the last week, developing a strange affinity for gu and ran my first half-marathon of marathon training season today. (Expect a post on the second emotional phase of marathon training this week, after the honeymoon phase.)

    I bought my first pair of skinny jeans (and a baggy flannel with owls on it just because I wanted to).

    And perhaps most importantly—I made my first life-altering decision since I returned home to America from Africa nearly two months ago.

    While I originally planned to attend graduate school for international communications this upcoming fall, part of me was unsure. I feel like I have a lot of interests that I want to explore and skills I want to develop before I commit to graduate school, as much as I would love being a student again and the flexibility that comes with that. So I started exploring another option: joining the previously dreaded “real world.”

    I went in with an open mind, not really knowing what to expect, but just a few short weeks later, I have officially accepted a job with a tech startup in San Francisco. Professionally, I think it’s going to be an amazing experience, working in a dynamic environment with a bunch of really interesting and intelligent people. And personally, it’s the “next chapter” that needed to come.

    What does this mean? Well, as of today I’m sitting in my sister’s apartment in Berkeley, where I guess I now technically “live”! And by live I mean “littering her previously-tidy place with all my crap.”

    We’re spending a fun day in the city tomorrow, and then I’ll start work on Tuesday. I hope to relocate into San Francisco proper as soon as I can find a good living arrangement.

    I’m excited and happy and anxious and curious and a bunch of other emotions all rolled into one. But mostly, I’m excited. Work is sure to be interesting and challenging, and personally, I can’t wait to make a life for myself in the city. In Africa, I used to talk about how I wanted to live in San Francisco “when I grew up,” and that move is happening a lot earlier than I expected then! While my heart still lives in Los Angeles, I think SF will be the perfect city for me to live in at this time of my life. It’s fun, it’s liberal, there are lots of green and beautiful places, it has public transportation, it has a wide variety of entertainment options, it’s healthy, it’s a foodie capital of the world. I’m sure to grow broke and put on a few living in this city but that’s completely worth it in my book.

    I’m astonished about how quickly life can change before your eyes. How rapidly a sitution can change, how we can make decisions now that shape our lives. It’s funny; moving to another city I’m familiar with already that’s within two hours of my family is just as crazy to me as moving to Mozambique was 2.5 years ago, because it represents a break. I’m at a crossroads, at the close of one chapter (Africa) and at the start of another (my new, adult life in San Francisco). I have absolutely no idea what these next few years will bring, but I can honestly say that I can’t wait to find out, and plan on just trying to enjoy the ride as it happens. I am a person who often focuses on the future and a “plan”, at the expense of the “now.” Africa was a great experience for me in that I really had to try to find the beauty in each and every moment instead of missing them because I was too busy looking forward to the Next Big Thing. I want to love my life as I’m living it, through all its challenges and changes. I feel like right now, sitting in this apartment writing this blog post, like I’m writing the first chapter of a new story. And I am so excited to see how it unfolds.

    [postsecret]

    I had an epiphany tonight when I was walking around Berkeley with a good friend looking for a place to eat. Neither of us had a specific hankering for any particular thing. We checked out one place and it wasn’t what we wanted, and then we meandered across the street just to check out the menu at a diner-looking place called the Saturn Cafe. We just decided to eat there, why not and it turned out to be a full diner-style vegetarian restaurant.

    I realized there, over my cowgirl buffalo “chicken” salad, that we don’t always know right away how things are going to turn out. Sometimes we DON’T have a plan, sometimes we DON’T know anything for sure. But sometimes, if we let ourselves wander, we might find ourselves ending up in a place that we wanted to be all along.

    What does this mean for P&P? This is good news! Living in a foodie capital and a very international city, in an area of California that is not only beautiful and cultured but that has no shortage of amazing day trips close by, will be awesome to experience through a blogger’s perspective. Also, I’m thankful every day for the new people that I “meet” and befriend through P&P. Knowing that there are other people out there with similar interests that I can easily relate to is awesome, and I want to say thank you (while I’m being all mushy and retrospective) to everyone out there reading this! I get a lot of joy from blogging and hope that this transition helps me prioritize it as a source of happiness and fun in my life. I also hope that I can meet some SF area bloggers! I’m looking forward to making new friends and would love to get in touch with other bloggers in the area and getting to know new people. It’s going to be a crazy few months.

    So that’s what’s going on in my life. One door closes, another opens. I’m trusting God. Here goes.

    –Court

    How do you manage blogging while working full-time/being busy? Any advice?

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