Things I Love Thursday

Happy almost-Friday! How’s your week been? Around here, it’s been kind of quiet and rainy, which has been the perfect vibe for reading, making soup, and taking long, super-steamy baths. Nope, not for running! Haha. Some of you can run in the rain. I respect that. I’d like to run in a tropical rain. But San Francisco rain is cold and bitter! Nah, I’ll stick it out with yoga, the elliptical, and swimming until things clear up again.

Well, as always, there were some good finds around the web this week. Here you go ~ enjoy!

1. Scientists prove the color pink doesn’t exist, via Time:

Say whaaaaa???

Pink is just wishful thinking has GOT to be my favorite quote of the year so far.

I’ve always had a theory that pink is subversive and now I know why. What an interesting argument!

2. Boing Boing brings us the case for dolphin rights:

In their words… whether or not certain cetaceans—primarily whales and dolphins—deserve to have legal rights under the law, the same as people have. 

Yowza! I’m telling you. We must prepare. They WILL become our overlords… once again.

3. Need a crash course in Mad Men Season 4 before Sunday’s Season 5 premiere?

Click the link above for a comprehensive, 4-minute video that reviews all the good parts.

Trés Sugar helped us out here. Thanks, Trés!

4. Via Copyranter, this fantastic 1960s anti-war Lego ad. Try not to cry.

5. Rawmazing had some deee-lish-looking Strawberry Thumbprint Cookies!

Oh. Em. Gee.

No, I haven’t tried these yet, but I’m gonna! AND I want to try them with cashews instead of almonds. HOW great would that be? Super-great.

6. An excellent essay on Clean Foods, Clean Living via Crazy Sexy Life:

Guest blogger Amie Valpone dishes on clean eating as a clean-living lifestyle, not just a dietary choice. Yes, it takes dedication and planning, but it’s your life. Do you really want to fill your life with processed crap that makes you feel like junk? I don’t

She says:

It’s not about the gluten-free pizzas or the vegan cookies or the dairy-free ice creams. Yes, I’m sure they all taste great. But if these companies are taking out the gluten, dairy, fat or sodium, well … what exactly are they putting in? Kind of scary to think about, isn’t it? Just take a look at the ingredient list, and I’m sure you’ll be blown away (or unable to pronounce) what’s inside.

Let’s start by taking a step back and eating the basics: fresh produce, lean proteins and healthy fats. Challenge yourself to forego the food store for local farmers markets … I bet you’ll be surprised how creative you can get. And the best part? Your taste buds will transform, and you’ll soon realize you don’t need that fake sweetener or that sugary iced tea or those cookies.

Go, Amie!

Plus, she includes a few delicious recipes for Vegan Falafel Balls and Kale Cashew Pesto. Yum!

7. Aromatic Lifestyle dished on why DIY beauty is the way to go:

Save money, customize, reduce waste, and know exactly what your skin is absorbing ~ yes! Excellent reasons.

Check out her post for some thoughts that will get you on the DIY train in no time!

8. A short essay on “need” via The Minimalists:

It’s true. We don’t need much for a meaningful life. We really, really don’t.

9. Hey, romance writers! Read RT Review’s 10 places now accepting manuscripts!

Got a finished ms? Send it out! Set it free! Good luck!

(Entangled Publishing is getting big, big, big methinks.)

10. Finally, Mashable shared a new HowAboutWe, this time for couples.

Been with your honey for a while and need some fresh ideas for dates and quality time? This sounds like a good, cute idea.

Whelp, that’s all for now, friends! Have a wonderful weekend!

What are some great things you’ve seen this week?

Got any fun plans for the weekend?

Things I Love Thursday

I always love the ocean... no matter what day of the week!

Happy Thursday, everyone! It’s been an amazingly inspired week so far and I’m happy the year is off to such a good start.

Onward and upward! Some of my faves from around the webs…

1. From Copyblogger: 31 Pro Tips for a Successful, Satisfying, and Insanely Profitable 2012

Some excellent tips in this article! Particularly useful information for writers and entrepreneurs but they can be applied to anyone, in any field, really!

• Leo Babauta, of my fave blog Zen Habits, says: Don’t mistake busy-ness for effectiveness.
• Erika Napoletano, the sassy firestarter behind Redhead Writing says: Be you, be true, have an opinion. Opinions start conversations — being wishy washy sends people running.
• And the always-inspiring Jonathan Fields says:

To stay sane, productive and creative, pulse and refuel. Ninety minutes of intense focused work, then 10 to 30 minutes of any activities that completely removes you from work. Meditate, walk, exercise, listen to music, eat great food. This allows the part of your brain responsible for problem-solving, attention and creativity to refuel and helps stoke self-regulation — aka willpower — that keeps the mean-nasties and distraction at bay.

Read all 31 tips when you can ~ they’re super-inspiring.

2. From WOW! Women On Writing: The Writer’s Diet OR How to Balance With Writing, Food and Exercise

Writers know… it can be so easy to sit all day. WOW! calls it the “butt-in-chair nature of writing.” I can relate, can you?

This short and effective post has some great advice on balancing the desire (or need) to sit and write all day with the essential needs of exercise and healthy eating habits.

3. Running Foodie showed us how to Cook Your Own Beans in the Slow Cooker

TBH, this is something I’ve always wanted to try but have shied away from for some reason. I think I’ve been afraid the beans would turn out too mushy, causing too much waste (beans, time, energy). But not so! At least according to RF. Check it out and get your cheap legume living on!

4. The Art of Manliness shared: How to Handle Being Out of Your Depth: 6 Tips from a Con Man

Strangely practical advice. For example:

The next time you’re at an event where you feel like everyone is staring at you, try to relax and realize that people probably aren’t paying attention to you. Abagnale found that if he strode confidently and purposefully wherever he wanted to go, people were unlikely to question him at all. He acted like he belonged, so people assumed that he did.

Fake it till you make it! Always one of my favorite methods  Or this:

When you’re dressed appropriately, and you feel like you look good, your confidence goes up, and this effect is only compounded as people treat you with more respect.

Yep ~ look good, feel good. I’ll add that even if you’re a telecommuter, work from home, or are a SAHM, dress for work! I promise, it will improve your self-esteem and confidence levels tremendously. No yoga pants (unless you’re a yoga teacher), and no sweats ~ get dressed!

5. From Clean Eating Magazine: Sharpen Your Mind

Simple, everyday tips that can help keep your brain healthy and vital.

6. Rue Magazine shared this gorgeous living room, courtesy of Remash:

7. Boing Boing reminded us how to advertise to girls.

I didn’t play with Legos, but I wasn’t allowed to have gender-specific toys: no dolls or fake pink kitchens, etc. Instead, I played outside a LOT, had stuffed-animal friends, and read oodles. I think I turned out pretty okay as a result (and girly enough, eh?)!

8. From The Beauty Department: this adorable short twist.

Alas, my own hair is way too long for this style, but it sure is cute!

9. Becoming Minimalist offered one of my all-time favorite tips: Don’t Just Declutter, De-own

Who cares if you’re well-organized if you still have a bunch of junk in your trunks? Let go, let go, let go.

They say:

Simply organizing our stuff (without removing it) is always only a temporary solution. By definition, organizing possessions is an action that must be repeated over and over and over again. At its heart, organizing is simply rearranging.

And on that note, I’m off to clean photos from my laptop! Have a wonderful day!

Are you a de-clutterer or a de-owner at heart?

What were some of your favorite things from around the web this week?

2011: Top Five Bests

Looking back at the year, the months seem like a swirl of running, biking, swimming, yoga, Pilates, writing, reading, and cooking. Good thing those are some of my most favorite activities! The year was also filled with some heavy, high emotions and deep, soul-searching (and soul-baring) moments in my meditation practice, my race training, my writing, my search for writing and editing work, and my relationship.

All of this adds up to one very full year of rollercoaster highs, lows, and sideways twists! And I guess sometimes that’s just what life is all about

Here I present my Top 5 Best Memories of 2011:

1. Racing!

I completed my first triathlon, ran the SF Marathon 5K, the Title 9K, and the North Face Endurance Challenge 10K. It felt great to get back to running races after a few years and it felt fantastic to complete my tri. I’m very much looking forward to new races in 2012!

2. Clean Eating

This year also included some dietary choices that surprised some people around me. After reading The Mood Cure (which I highly recommend to anyone looking to adjust and balance stress, energy, and emotions without pharmaceuticals), I was inspired to clean up some lingering habits that I knew weren’t benefiting my life:

• I quit drinking alcohol.
• I gave up sugar for the most part (except for the very occasional cookie or birthday cupcake!) by replacing it with stevia or eliminating it entirely from recipes.
• Most significantly, I started eating a LOT more protein, about three times what I had been eating. This really helped my energy levels and mood and was particularly beneficial during my triathlon training.

I also added amino acid supplements, such as Tyrosine and L-Glutamine, to help with cravings and energy levels and after a few months, I was able to cut them out almost entirely, too.

These days, we eat out rarely, spending most of our time and money cooking at home. We stick to “clean eating,” which I define as whole foods with an emphasis on quality, low-fat protein and lots (LOTS) of vegetables, especially leafy greens. Our recipes typically have no more than 5 ingredients and we almost never use processed food or “food products.” (This includes tofu and vegan meat substitutes, which are some of the most highly processed foods out there!)

3. Writing

(note: not my hands)

• I successfully re-added “freelance writer” to my resume after a few years, when I went freelance with iSport. I wrote over 200 how-to and informational guides on yoga and Pilates, more than any sport on the site, and pumped up my portfolio in a huge way.
• I wrote a novel! Then I edited it, edited it again, and once more, then proofread it and submitted it to a contest by December 15. If I win, I’ll know in February. If I don’t win, I’ll also know in February Either way, I’ll keep ya posted.

4. Yoga

The definite yoga highlight of the year was my 50-hour Advanced Teacher Training with Jason Crandell, indisputably one of the best teachers in the U.S. today, as Module One of Yoga Tree’s 500-hour Yoga Teacher Training program (which is currently on hold for me due to other priorities).

5. Time Spent with My Honey and Kitties

I know it sounds shmaltzy, but when the stress of everyday life hits and the world seems cold and unknowable, it’s nice to know I can count on a few things to warm me up. Watching our kittens grow up to be cats has been one of the sweetest experiences ever.

What were your favorite experiences / memories / moments of 2011?

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What would a year be without music and books? Dreadful, I say!

Here, my Top 5 Books of 2011 (books I read this year, not actually books that debuted this year):

1. ChiRunning by Danny Dreyer

A game changer.

2. Counterculture Through the Ages by Ken Goffman (a.k.a. R U Sirius)

A wild romp through the funnest nonconformist countercultures throughout history.

3. Cheesemonger by Gordon Edgar

The cheese guy from our local c0-op wrote a book about punk rock and cheese. It rocks!

4. Deliverance by James Dickey

There’s no “Squeal like a pig” in the novel. This book is pure survivalist poetry. Brilliant and chilling.

5. Vision in White and the rest of the Bride Quartet series, by Nora Roberts

Fun, emotional, sweet, complex, and everything I want in a romantic series about four best friends who run a wedding business!

Top 5 Artists of 2011 (music that got me through the year, not artists that debuted this year):

1.Brian Eno

Suffice it to say, I wrote my novel to several of his ambient albums from the ’70s on repeat.

2. Deadmau5

Bassy progressive/electro and such a cutie, too.

3. Ulrich Schnauss

Dreamlike, neo-shoegazer psychedelia.

4. Josh Brill

I can’t tell you how many yoga practices I’ve done to his lush soundscapes.

5. Arctic Monkeys

And nothing gets me out the door running better than these guys.

What about you? What were your favorite books and music from 2011, (new or not)??