Full bellies and fall freedom

It's the end of another weekend, which is always sad but at least the last 48 hours were well spent. I'll get to that in a moment. First I wanted to reflect on an interactive Portuguese session with Rosetta Stone. It was humbling to say the least: you can learn vocab and phrases when it's multiple choice questions but come a real conversation, it's like your brain stops and there's suddenly a block on all the things you've supposedly learnt. Guess it's all experience and practice.

The weekend itself started off with a well-deserved sleep in, then some time in front of the TV watching the EPL (what a scrappy game Arsenal, but I'm glad we won). I also managed to squeeze in a 12 minute body-weight circuit of burpees, rocking planks, seal jacks and superman holds during the half-time. It felt good to get some morning movement in.

After a small snack and an hour long training session in the early afternoon followed by lunch courtesy of the perfect salad bar at Mariano's (plenty of berries, even though they're not really in season), some game time and a 30 minute yoga session to help my body recover equaled a wonderfully productive, relaxing and rejuvenating Saturday. Fueled with plenty of coffee of course. Where would I be without coffee.

We woke up Sunday morning with an invite for yum cha in Chinatown, Chicago. Of course we accepted! It's been so long since I've been to yum cha that there have been midnight cravings for it. We didn't have high expectation for MingHin, just given the quality of asian food in the USA we've had, but the restaurant certainly delivered.

Most of the classic dishes (har gao, turnip cakes, chicken feet) were true to flavour and downright delicious and even though it wasn't 'health' food, I feel great. There's something homely and satisfying that soothes the soul. Everything in balance.

Strolling around Chinatown felt great - I really do need to explore more of this city that's my new home. I'm a little regretful that I didn't push myself to go outside and walk by the river in this beautiful autumn weather but will make a point to get outside tomorrow, regardless of how busy things may seem.

I'll finish the evening with a 30 minute Forrest flow then it's time to tackle the week ahead. I've committed myself to taking part in a fall freedom challenge to prepare and reset my mindset for winter. Tomorrow is all about gratitude. Seeing as I keep a gratitude journal already, instead of writing, my focus will be on making more meaningful journal entries.

Wish me luck!

Chilly weather

The weather is cooling down, there's no arguing that. Thankfully, there's still plenty of warm sunshine to chase the blues away.

I've been spending most of my work time taking baby steps into programming and learning to code using D3. While at a high level programming makes sense to me, with all the steps and intricacies in the logic it's not long before I'm confused.

With the help of an online course, I have managed to generate a chart that updates with randomly generated data - not particularly useful but you've got to celebrate the small victories.

It's the stuff outside of work that makes me happy though:

 a warming bowl of ramen from downtown restaurant, Umai

and the view from the John Hancock building

I've been snacking more than I usually would and have been craving sweet foods recently which is never a great situation to have going on. Then again, I'm craving fruit more than anything so I guess it isn't all bad.

I never did make it to Bikram yoga in the end (work got in the way), but I'm keeping track with my other workouts, even managing a few sprints outdoors by the river today. Motivating comes and goes. but my habits are sticking strong so far.

Now off to dinner with a few Australians - can't wait to be back home for a visit in a few months.

TGIF

What another long week 3 days in Atlanta with plenty of meetings to keep me occupied. Both mornings I woke up in Atlanta though, I woke up almost stupidly early and so managed to get in and out of the gym (circuit workouts in both instances) by 630 am. Productive, yes, but it meant that I was incredibly sleepy by 3pm. Many a coffee was had.

For the most part, I ate well enough, choosing to order oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, salads for lunch and grilled fish for dinner. In practice, being vegan before dinner is incredibly hard. I manage well enough for breakfast, but come a catered lunch spread and options become limited.

If my experiment has taught me anything though, it's how much I appreciated being able to afford to have meat and fish in my diet.

After yet another busy week, I'm glad it's Friday, and I'm glad I'm at home snuggled on the couch, watching M playing a video game.