Getting Started: 5 Tips

When you Google “Getting Started” it pulls up specific instructions for starting specific types of projects, but there are universal tips and tricks to starting just about anything. Whether you are starting a new diet, starting a business, or just trying to motivate yourself to get off the sofa and clean the bathroom, these tips can help to make that first step forward toward your goal.

1. Make a list with at least one actionable item you can do right now. Every big project can be broken down in to smaller pieces to make them more manageable and to help you celebrate small successes. To me, there is nothing quite as rewarding as checking something off a to-do list, so why not start your project by organizing your list and putting that first check mark on it.

2. Get an accountability buddy. Making your self accountable to someone else is like forcing peer pressure on yourself, but in a good way. Whether you are trying to get to the gym, trying to quit smoking, or working on organizing your hall closet, if you announce it to someone else, you will feel the added pressure to follow through on your promise, which might just be the boost you need to get going.

3. Divide and conquer tasks with a team. Similar to the buddy system, if you have a project or task that can be shared with someone else you will have the accountability that comes with working as a team, and the benefit of sharing the work load. Decided who will tackle what portion of your project and communicate the deadlines that each of you will adhere to.

4. Visualize the outcome. If you can dream it you can do it! Take some time to think about what your life will be life when your project is complete or your goal achieved. Live in that moment and come back to that feeling when you are feeling discouraged or having trouble getting going.

5. Start with a cleanse. In my post earlier this week, I talked about the three ways that I am cleansing. Cleansing is a way to hit the reset button and start a new project with fresh perspective and added energy. You can rearrange your space, take some time to meditate, or plan a full on detox. The idea is to clear out space in your life for your new endeavor.

It is Friday; the end of the week, but also a great day to start what ever exciting adventure awaits you this weekend! Go forth and get started!!

Next Week’s topic: “Lists”

Getting Started: Time to Cleanse

Photo credit.

I worked with a woman who used to rearrange her office before every major project. She would literally move the furniture around, clean, and reorganize her entire workspace. I used to think it was a stalling tactic, a form of procrastination, but have come to realize that starting with a clean slate, as they say, does help you tackle a project or problem with added energy and refreshed perspective.

Mental Cleanse I just had a full week’s vacation away, two whole weekends, plus 6 full work days off. This is the most time I have taken off since my wedding and honeymoon four years ago and IT WAS AMAZING. I had enough time to relax, spend time with family, and refocus on what I want to accomplish once I head back to the real world. I had time to set goals for work, for my business, and for my personal life. There is nothing like time away from your daily routine to put your priorities in perspective.

Physical Cleanse I have done a bunch of different eating cleanses in the past few years, but right now is not the time for me to be doing anything extreme with my diet since I am six months pregnant. I was pumped to come across this 21 Day Morning Detox Routine while browsing on Pinterest. It is less about going extreme and more about creating a healthy habit. The cleanse is simple, (and I have no idea why it is for 21 days) you drink warm water with lemon every morning when you wake up. A ritual to start your day with hydration, is absolutely a cleanse I can get in to.

Objects Cleanse I just started reading The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin while I was on vacation and for my last day off, I vowed to start on my Nagging To-Do List, a list of things that you have been putting off, that can only make you feel better once accomplished. The two things I tackled on the list kick-started a cleanse of my space. No, I didn’t clean the bathroom even though it really needs it. Instead, I finally changed out all the hangers in my closet to matching Huggable Hangers, recommended by my professional organizer, Minima. Then I cleaned out all the clutter, vacuumed, and detailed my car. These two very rewarding projects (that took a total of 2 hours to complete) were awesome things to check off my list and absolutely gave me energy to keep going with my list.

Here’s to added energy and feeling good about getting started!

New Beginnings

So much has happened since I started (and abandoned) this blog. I remember weeks when I would have gone out to 4 or 5 restaurants and had so much content to post about dining in Richmond that my only problem was finding time to write about it all. I loved this blog so much. It connected me to some great friends here in RVA, got me invited to some cool events, and was a great outlet for something that I absolutely love to do, write about stuff.

So what happened?

Life gets crazy. Especially when you are an over achieving, volunteer for everything, don’t know your limitations until you run directly in to a brick wall, kind of person. I have a lot of reasons why dining daily in Richmond no longer fits my lifestyle. I became vegetarian. I opened a business, while still working full time. And most recently (this January), I got knocked up. All of these things are awesome, but at the end of the day, when the blog went silent, something was missing. My outlet for discovering new things and sharing them was gone, and it is about time I do something about that.

Blogs can be stressful. Not soon before my blogging hiatus, this thing was really stressing me out. I would worry that I wasn’t posting consistently enough. I was stressed that my posts weren’t very good. I hated every picture I took to try to make my blog pretty. And if I didn’t get responses from readers, I felt like I was totally sucking. My blog became a thing I was using to try to impress other people and that made it not as fun.

Thinking of stuff is hard. Coming up with interesting content about a pretty specific subject, dining in Richmond, multiple times a week, is really not easy. Some weeks the creativity flows and other weeks I got nothing. I would get really bummed if I went to a restaurant that wasn’t good because then I couldn’t write about it and felt like I wasted not only my dollars, but my valuable blog research time. When my blog was my main hobby, it was easier to stay motivated to be creative, but when my schedule starting filling up, my time to think of cool stuff was fading away.

So, what happens now?

I am going to attempt a do-over, with a different goal in mind this time. I am going to:

Be realistic with my limitations. My goal is one post a week. If I am feeling fancy and have more in me to share, I will. If I don’t, I won’t stress. When I have this baby, I will probably take a break. And if my job/business/life gets busy, the blog will have to wait. My goal is not to be a professional blogger or get a book deal.

Not stress about all the extra stuff. Eventually, I will update the header, links, and blogroll on this blog. The most important word in that sentence is “eventually”. I will not worry about what a terrible photographer I am and stay away from posting pictures unless I have good ones. I will not think about SEO, blog comments, and all the other stuff that turns a fun hobby into something serious and stressful.

Use writing prompts to keep my creativity flowing. I will write about things that I want to read about that most of the time will have nothing to do with eating in fancy restaurants. I put together a list of 52 topics and will pick one every week, so that I don’t get burned out of one particular subject.

Let’s see how this goes…

This week’s topic: “Getting Started”

social 52

Photo from social52

Life has sure changed since my last blog post. I was a fool to think that I would still be able to keep the blog regularly updated while opening Boho Cycle Studio and working my full time job and eating and sleeping (pretty much the only 4 things that I do), but today is a very much needed day of unplugging that I am only able to have because of my awesome business partner. My advice for anyone starting a business is: get a partner. Sharing the work is the ONLY way that I have any shred of sanity.

But speaking of sanity, it comes and goes, and when I signed myself and Evan up to run a 3-mile race up a hill, that must have been in one of the “goes” phases. That’s right, while all the excitement at Boho is kicking off and we are in the middle of the busy season at work, I signed up to run my very first race UP A HILL. Luckily, this was a fun run, the Hardywood Bottom to the Tap, 3-mile race from the 17^th Street Farmer’s Market up through Church Hill with a free beer at the end. I was never so excited to see a can of beer in my life.

After I barely survived 3-miles and finished my can of Hardywood Cream Ale, there was only one thing to do, lunch! We went to the newly opened Social 52 and stuffed our faces with vegetarian deliciousness, accompanied by more Hardywood, this time Farmhouse Pumpkin. I had the Applewood Smoked Gouda Grilled Cheese, minus the Applewood with sliced apples, chipotle garlic mayo and a side of shoe string fries. Evan had the Vegan Club which he said was a damn good sandwich, marinated tofu with jicima slaw on sour dough.

It felt so good to eat at a restaurant and drink a beer during the day time. We sat at the bar, chatted with one of the owners, and had a great meal. It felt like my former care-free life. I so thankful for days like these, but I would not change my situation for a second. Although at times it feels overwhelming, the studio is amazing, my day job is exciting, and my husband is by my side, up all the hills.

how to plan a food crawl

Pictured: Nachos from Don't Look Back

My very BIG news and the reason I have not been writing/eating this summer is that WE SIGNED A LEASE for Boho Cycle Studio!! I cannot be more excited, overwhelmed, overjoyed, and every other possible emotion that a person can have when putting in to action the thing of their dreams, opening my very own dedicated indoor cycling studio!

That being said, expect the blog to be spotty at best over the next couple of weeks. I do have some guest posts planned and will update on the progress as we celebrate small successes over big piles of food.

For now, I leave you with a piece I wrote for Richmond.com....

How to Plan a Food Crawl

When hunger strikes, throwing a dart at a map can seem like the easiest way to decide on a restaurant. We are lucky to have so many eateries to choose from, but sometimes the act of choosing is not a palatable one. When you simply cannot narrow down your dining destination to one place, plan a food crawl!

A food crawl is a great way to sample multiple restaurants’ cuisine in one night, but being armed with a plan is essential to making the most out of your experience. Here are a few tips to ensure your eating adventures are nothing but delicious........Read More

heritage

Photo of #burratasparatta via Heritage Facebook Pate

When a restaurant dish has its own hashtag, you order it whether you are doing a cleanse or not. This is a non-negotiable fact.

Exhibit A: I was doing an elimination cleanse where I basically stopped eating everything for a couple weeks and then died of starvation. Not really, that is a joke, but not a very funny one, because nothing is funny when you are hungry. The deal is you cut out booze, meat, dairy, beans, wheat, corn, potatoes, oil, vinegar, and citrus. Then after a couple weeks, you add them back in one by one to see what things make you sick. I made it four and a half days until #burratasparatta entered the picture.

Exhibit B: What is #burratasparatta, you ask? It is amazingness on a plate. Burrata is a combo of mozzarella and cream, so it has the consistency of cutting into a big mozzarella ball, but with a creamy center. It is a game changer. Heritage (1627 W Main St), or as I like to call it, foodie paradise, serves this as a special usually on top of a fried green tomato with some kind of plate lick-able sauce.

Exhibit C: The Chef, famous for his Richmond foodie fan club, is Joe Sparatta, the genius behind this burrata invasion. Hence the hashtag, #burratasparatta. And really with a name like Sparatta, what is not to like?

Exhibit D: Because I was abandoning my elimination cleanse, I said to myself, “Let’s just forget this whole thing ever happened”. Then I ordered a glass of rose. Well, that was a mistake because I had only eaten vegetables for 4 days and got sloppy drunk off 4 sips of wine, thus major hangover the following day.

Exhibit E: I don’t really know why I chose to type this post in exhibit format, but I am going with it. I have always liked the word exhibit. Really, any word with an x in it is pretty great.

Exhibit F: #burratasparrata = good. Elimination cleanse followed by rose = danger. 

Be careful out there, folks.

goatocado

Habberdash Quinoa Bowl via Goatocado Facebook Page

Please, tell me that you have seen the show “My Crazy Obsession.” I am talking about the show on TLC that profiled the guy who dresses up like a mermaid and the women who loves carrots so much that she is turning orange. Not to be confused with the show “My Strange Addiction” that profiles people like the lady that eats cat food or the guy who makes out with his car. Those are just gross.

I happened to catch an episode about this girl who is obsessed with celebrity stalking. She runs around New York City every day for 8 hours a day so that she can get her picture taken with famous people. She has over 10,000 pictures with people ranging from Angelina Jolie to Pauly D. Here is a little glimpse of the so-called stalker.

I get it. She is a nut. But here is the thing….

I think that I might be celebrity stalking the Goatocado food cart. It started innocently enough, as it always does, when I had one of their sandwiches at a local festival. Their fresh unique vegetarian combinations instantly won me as a fan. Soon after, I liked their facebook page. One thing lead to another, they started serving quinoa bowls, and my office started calling in orders for lunch. I found myself liking more and more of their facebook pics of delicious fresh food creations. I even wrote a blog post about them. That’s when it started getting to be a bit much. I started following them on twitter and tweeting when they were in my neighborhood. Tweets kind of like these.

At Dominion River Rock, I ate two quinoa bowls in one day. I would check the Hardywood Food Truck roster to make sure they are going to be there before I commit to going. I am up early every Saturday to hit the South of the James Farmer’s Market just to get my Goatocado fix. I think I have a problem. I have to make a conscious effort not to talk about them in every food conversation and have held back from hitting the like button on every pic they post. Every other pic is ok, but not every one!

I didn’t mean for it to happen, but I will admit it. I have a problem. But if stalking delicious vegetarian sandwiches and quinoa bowls is wrong, TLC can sign me up for my 15 minutes of shame, because I don’t want to be right.