cynosure

A photo I took in Canada two years ago. The sky is always beautiful here!

Project: Summer 2010! (Project What?) Weeks – 1 & 2 | 3 & 4

I’m pretty sure that after this summer, I’m going to have a Project: Fall 2010! and a Project: Winter 2011!, et cetera… After all, you & I never stop growing, and this is a great way to be accountable without having to post every single day about what I’ve been up to

Week 5

• Monday: Sprinted up & down stairs 20+ times. It was absolutely hot outside and I didn’t know what to do… just stay inside doing nothing all day!?
• Tuesday: Walked around downtown just a little. Still hot.
• Wednesday: Walked up and down stairs a few times. Some random stretches and core exercises. This day was actually my turning point when I realized I could still move my body inside (the idea never occurred to me before, inside to me used to just call to mind “treadmill, ugh”.)
• Thursday: Some plyometrics exercises. My whole body was sore for four days… and it was sore just walking… ahaha.
• Friday: A little easy indoor cardio. There was a thunderstorm this day and after the storm I walked to and from the grocery store.
• Saturday: Finally cool enough to jog outside again! Ran/walked 2.3 miles, and did core exercises in the evening. Still sore.
• Sunday: Finally my torso was no longer sore… but my legs still were! So I spent an hour stretching as a recovery day.

Week 6

• Monday: I don’t know why, after a day of rest, I woke up feeling nauseous and sick! So I rested for most of the day, tried to do some yoga but stopped after half an hour (I don’t have a mat and there’s just hardwood floor, so I kept on slipping… plus to be honest I was a little bored! I’ll try again when I actually have a mat).
• Tuesday: I thought I was getting better but I still woke up nauseous. Still, by evening time I finally felt up to running again, so I did! Yay! Did more core exercises, and walked home after dinner.
• Wednesday: Today I ran about 20+ minutes straight for the first time without walking! It was the longest time I’d ever continuously run. Yay! I went really easy and before I knew it it was over! Also did a 10 minute cardio video later on.
• Thursday: Plyometrics exercises again. It was easier this time now that I knew to protect my knees/legs more, and all that soreness gave me some endurance. Then I walked to the bus, then 3.2+ miles around downtown, and later walked home from the bus.
• Friday: Ran/walked, then walked 2.65 miles around the neighborhood. More core exercises. Later on I walked to and from the bus station to a restaurant (about 4.2 miles).
• Saturday: Other than walking a little around downtown, today was another rest day. Must eat more mindfully every day! Part of the reason was that I slept way longer than I thought (guess I was tired!).
• Sunday: I had an insomniac night, the first in ages… and slept past 5am. Yet I was still able to run 2.77 miles, for which I’m very glad!

Epiphanies (or Notes to Self)

• My original July goal was to move every single day. I had issues with this when it got really hot, until I realized the answer (home exercise videos, haha). But also I realized that rest & recovery days are really important. If our bodies don’t get time to heal, and we continue to push hard, that’s not taking care of ourselves and our bodies at all. At first I got antsy but I’m starting to learn to enjoy a rest day.
• Start out slow. Pace yourself.
• Prioritize reading more!
• I’m eating mostly vegan lately. Still undecided if I’ll go completely. I’ll probably do a monthlong trial in September or October. It hasn’t been that hard…
• I feel more at peace & equilibrium with my spirit, mind, and body than I ever have in my life. Finding a way to just move my body almost every day has led me to feel better about myself and my body image, and it leads me to be so relaxed that I don’t need a self-destructive outlet to channel any pent-up frustration or tension. I feel happy with my little accomplishments.
  • When I still overate occasionally in the past few weeks, I bounced back within a day instead of getting into a long, hurtful cycle of self-hatred, and that is something in particular I’m more than happy about.
• Soy milk is a great recovery drink! The right ratio of proteins, carbs, and a little sodium to replenish electrolytes… I like mine unsweetened, organic, & non-GMO
  • I know there’s a lot of public health drama about soy, but soy is like corn. In its natural state it’s awesome, processed it is not, and the US processes it a tad too much (soy protein isolate anyone?). Yes, tofu and soy milk are also processed, but not to the point of being additive ingredients in & of themselves, and uh… at least a few entire nations (China, Japan, Korea…) have ate tofu & soy milk for literally hundreds of years and have never had any problems. One famous Japanese model swears on eating soy in every form– soybeans, soy milk, tofu, etc.– to keep healthy. Anyway, that’s my beef with other people’s beef with soy. You can choose to think it’s a secret evil, or just take it as it is: another alternative to dairy, a health food, whatever.

New Things to Do (and some Interesting Links)

• Become plastic- & petrochemical-free. (Slowly.) As I was picking up blueberries last week I realized that if I wanted blueberries (or any other berry, for that matter) that weren’t in individual plastic containers, I wouldn’t find them anywhere in a chain supermarket with freezing air-conditioning. Then again, I’m getting a CSA share once I move into my new place (so excited!) and well, the preliminary step is awareness. I could always do better. (Kudos to Trader Joe’s for their compostable plastic containers of dates, though!)
• Similarly… Switch to safer/natural/homemade personal care products. I already don’t wear makeup, but damnit, are there toxic chemicals in the stuff I put on to protect my skin from sun damage? I’ll probably be using stuff like shea butter, coconut butter, etc., instead. There are currently no regulations for cosmetics (or what’s labeled “organic”, either!). Watch: The Story of Cosmetics & stop and think about what possible carcinogens you’re putting on your bodies and the bodies of your loved ones.
  • Also, ever stop to realize that petroleum jelly/Vaseline is made from petroleum? Yes, THAT petroleum. (Thanks Mary for the wake-up call!)
• Ponder the Bechdel test and not only why there aren’t movies that can actually pass the test, but why film schools teach screenwriters deliberately not to pass the test.
• In other news, for some reason I stumbled across this post (the 6th ever on this site!) from deep within the crevasses of past posts the other day and was pleasantly surprised. It still rings true, and I needed the reminder. Read: We all survive. We all heal.

Would a separate post with important/interesting links be better than jamming all miscellanea into one post? Probably(?). Let me know what you think

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Happy Monday everyone!

I asked, you answered, and I listened… thus, today’s post will be (the first of many) dedicated to cats!

Hats off to you, good reader!

I’ve always loved cats. I’ve come to love dogs, too, gradually, but in my heart I am a cat person. Sailor Moon was, too, after all.

I’m dreaming of the day I settle down enough to adopt a kitten and a puppy and raise them together to be best friends.

Once I actually do get a cat of my own, I’m sure I’ll be populating the world with (even more) cute cat pictures.

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In other, non-cat-related news, read my guest post at Positively Present on How to Stop Regretting, Let Go of the Past, and Thrive in the Present! We can all do to live more positively and presently every day.

And I made vegan cherry banana coconut butter bread à la the lovely Angela… and it was freaking amazing! I actually had to make it two days in a row, because the first day I didn’t get to taste any myself… six grown men and women ate it for breakfast!

My goal for this week is to run 5k. Yay! (And I have a special surprise about late September soon coming up that I want to share with you, too! If this parenthetical seems non sequitur, you’ll understand why soon.)

And more news about Pleiades is also coming soon. So look out!

Have a great week everyone! ♥

I’m off to make oil-free vegan blueberry banana bread!

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You can judge someone, think they’re a terrible person, absolutely hate them from what they seem to represent before you even talk to them…

And then talk to them, and realize they’re, just like you, a human being. One deserving of love and peace and joy, just as you are.

And maybe you realize that you and I, well, we aren’t that different after all.

“The idea that other people are strangers only exists in the mind,” says Jesh De Rox (or something to that extent).

Speaking of which (not really, yet at the same time, very really)…

I saw The Tallest Man on Earth live (and met him too!), I met and photographed the awesome Alicia of Instant Vintage, I ate phenomenal vegan food, I befriended and photographed a new friend, I took a train from Los Angeles to San Diego, I wrote on the inside of a bathroom stall.

When I don’t know what to say in words, photographs do it for me.

When I don’t know what to show in photographs, words do it for me.

I’m blessed to have the option. Blessed blessed blessed.

This isn’t me, but I still wish it were.

Funny thing about life: life is funny.

(Which also happens to be an awesome adolescent fiction novel that still remains one of my favorite books ever.)

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Sunny blessed afternoons. I read 10 books in April. I’m now ahead for reading a book a week (I was behind the first three months!). I’m now striving for at least 100 books this year.

I still wish I could clone myself so I could actually be in my own photos sometimes, but benches and tables work as good stand-ins once in a while

I bought myself a huge tiramisu cake for my own birthday a week ago. The girl at the bakery asked, “Is it for someone’s birthday?” I nodded yes and she let me pick out a candle and a “Happy Birthday” sign. I still have yet to eat it (or make a birthday wish and blow out the candle!). I wonder when I will.

Likewise, two mango cakes for a half-birthday & an anniversary.

Friday a week ago was fantastic.

Speaking of desserts, which I simply adore, I’m excitedly beginning to create raw vegan desserts. Since cupcakes are tempting (and aesthetically pleasing, which is probably why I like them so much) I made a few yesterday with Oliver. (We also finally did a papercraft project together that we’ve been meaning to do since November.) Making food is fun and exciting.. to me, at least. If you’re asking, how could a cupcake be raw? then the answer is: It’s made of fruits and nuts, coconut butter, and natural unprocessed sweeteners like agave (or honey, which is “beegan”).

Yummy raw vegan chocolate cupcakes with frosting! (The frosting was almost too rich and sweet for me! but maybe because I tasted it too much while I was making it…)

I’ve been meaning to write about raw veganism (and all sorts of healthy delicious food in general) since I first started eating more raw food, and many yummy food writings are coming soon!

I’ve also been vegetarian for a couple of weeks and it’s been both surprisingly and unsurprisingly easy for me. My trial period was 30 days (I haven’t slept past noon in over a month, either! hurrah!) but I think I might transition entirely (or at least to pescetarianism). On some days I’m completely raw vegan, on others, I’m just vegetarian… I’m flexible and I like it that way (plus, I rebel against restrictions, self-imposed or not– restricting and depriving is for the weak!).

Either way, I find myself not missing dead animal flesh at all. After I’m done with my 30 days, I’ll be sure to share my journey, considering my parents used to call me a tiger for my carnivorous tendencies and wonder how a horse (I was born in the year of) that was supposed to eat grass became such a voracious meat-eater. The funny thing is that I (along with a few other vegetarians, vegans, or even raw vegans) used to be one of those people that’d say “I’d never be able to be a vegetarian.” But it’s a process, and it’s gradual. Whew! I’d better not get carried away before this becomes a ramble about vegetarianism.

I hope you had a good weekend, and may you have a good week.

photo by Oliver

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