All posts in: Wellness

17 Jun 2018

Blog Roundup

  • The Unexamined Privilege of Gilmore Girls [Slate]
  • I’m a food writer — with some food issues [Food52]
  • Navigating a Digital World After 40 Years in Prison [Splinter News]
  • Airbnb’s new font “Cereal” [Fast Co.]
  • How to go out alone as a man [GQ] – honestly women can do the same thing too!
  • Poke bowls as the next convenience food [Buzzfeed]
  • Tough questions on self care in the workplace [Girls’ Night In]

  • Why Mister Rogers’ Message Of Love And Kindness Is Good For Your Health [GOOD]
  • How to pair wine with Shack burgers [Grub Street]
  • Best practices for leaving work early [7×7]
23 Mar 2018

To Take a Personal Day

A few years ago, I had questions about my productivity. I was coming into work every day for months straight and without much of break like a vacation or a 3-day weekend. That period of time weighed heavily on me and I expressed that to my manager to which she responded, “What if you took one day a month and worked from home? Or, you just took at least one day off a month and gave yourself that 3-day weekend?”

Personal days are so crucial. It’s something that I think gets lost in my generation sometimes because we are programmed to work, work, and work so that we can get farther ahead, succeed faster, and earn more money than we’re supposed to for our age. It’s a kind of pressure that most people can’t live up to. It also isn’t very sustainable. Because some weekends just aren’t enough to wind down, I decided to gift myself with not only a long weekend, but a personal day (today) where I only focus on Yow Yow! and nothing else. Other non-Yow Yow personal days have been for fulling errands or getting all of my health needs in orders – appointments for all of my doctors.

You may have noticed that things have been quiet on here lately. The first time I mentioned this, it was because I was still figuring out the kinks in my new provider and because figuring it out took time and I didn’t want to put time into it, I put it off. I couldn’t bring myself to write for weeks and instead just threw myself into work to stay productive. Today, we’re going to change that. The whole point of upgrading the blog was so that I could better balance this along with work. There’s a lot on my mind and ideas that I need to move forward a little farther and having that time and space away from work is going to allow me to do that.

 

28 Mar 2017

Trying Lyra

Growing up, I didn’t have too many options to choose from when it came to exercising or participating in a sport. If you were a kid, you could either do soccer, softball, or basketball. Well, I sort of gave each one a shot, but nothing ever felt stuck or rather, I never felt like I belonged. I was a petite girl (still am today!) and I didn’t enjoy running – something that is involved in almost every sport every kid my age was in. As an adult, staying healthy and being active is important to me. It’s not in my top 5 priorities, but I am very aware that I’m not going to have my metabolism forever and the work I put into my health and wellness now will serve me better as I age.

In the fall, Sandy asked a few of us if we’d be interested in trying a Lyra class with her. I hadn’t ever done it, but looked it up before I headed to the class and thought because of how tiny I was that it would be doable. I had been going indoor rock climbing on/off for the last few years and knew I had some upper body strength. Well, when I say I had been going indoor rock climbing, what I really mean is that that was the last form of exercise I had done and I probably hadn’t gone back in a year so that upper body strength I thought I was equipped with? Gone.

First off, please excuse for the not so high quality photos. I know it looks like I’m making it seem easy in these photographs, but the girls I went with all know how much I struggled. It was hard for me to even push myself off the ground let alone get into the hoop and balance myself. These two poses were done at the very end of the class and even then I had little hope that I would be able to pull them off! Lyra isn’t about endurance, but more so strength and a whole lot of patience, which I realized I clearly didn’t have at the end of the session. Would I try Lyra again? Potentially! However, now as an adult, there are so many different classes you can take – many options that I didn’t have when I was a kid and I’m really excited that I get to choose from them all.