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Writing :: 100 Blog Posts Later… and a Whole30 Taco Mason Jar Salad
Guess what?! This is officially the 100th blog post to be published on barreeatrepeat.com! I can't believe it - starting a blog is something that I have wanted to do for literally years, but was afraid to start for a few reasons. Firstly, I tend to keep a very full schedule and I wasn't sure if this was something that I could commit to. When I take on something new whether of my own initiative or by signing up for something with someone else, I take it very seriously as an Upholder. I am not someone who likes to quit things once I get started, so I knew this would…
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Well Worth the Effort :: Developing Grit and Healthy Habits and a Whole30 Chicken Parmesan
One of my stocking stuffers from Christmas this year was one of my family’s all time most beloved movies – Matilda. I had read the book by Roald Dahl as a little girl and loved it so much that when I saw it was also produced as a movie insisted we rent it to watch as a family. And it was a HUGE hit. I hadn’t watched it in ages, but for over 15 years now my dad, mom, brothers, sister and I have continued to quote the absurdly hilarious lines, so much so that some of them have nearly become family mantras and we may have even forgotten their…
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A Fresh Perspective and a Whole30 Tuna Avocado Salad
I once had a friend, who although I loved (and still do) dearly, had one quite irritating quality. It seemed like she would always ask for advice or suggestions on what to do or say, but she didn’t actually want to take it. She would circulate her latest dilemma or decision to be made around our circle of friends, soliciting opinions, but almost to no end. Regardless of how many people said she should do X or they would take Y, she seemed unsatisfied with the response and unwilling to make a step forward in any direction. This would usually go on for a while, until eventually, maybe days, weeks,…
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A Love of Learning :: What I’ve Been Up to Lately and a Whole30 Strawberry Guacamole Swordfish with Coconut Cauliflower Rice
I love to learn. One of my greatest passions is continuous learning and improvement. I have a unquenchable thirst and desire for wanting to know more and gain deeper insight, to grow, to improve, and to change. In virtually every situation I find myself in whether it’s professionally, socially, or personally related I find joy in the pursuit of gaining deep subject matter expertise and an understanding of the underlying dynamics that are in play. On a typical day off (after I get my barre fix in of course), you are likely to find me curled up with a book or with my laptop researching and studying something. It’s what…
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The Significance of Now and a New Whole30 Fiesta Frittata
I actually gasped as I received a work meeting invite yesterday for a Q1 business review scheduled just a few weeks from now. Although, I spend plenty of time with my calendar, it provided me with an alternative (and startling) perspective on the fact that we are already halfway through the third month of the year – which served as a powerful reminder that there truly is no time like the present. One thing I have started trying to do consistently over the past month is to observe what Gretchen Rubin calls the “One Minute Rule.” In her book, The Happiness Project, she talks about her commitment to automatically do…
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What in the World is a Whole30 (and More Importantly – Why Would Anyone Choose to Do One)?
As you may have noticed, many if not most, of the entrée recipes that I post are tagged as Whole30 compliant and you may or may not know what exactly that means. In short, the Whole30 is an elimination diet which outlines specific rules and recommendations around foods which are commonly problematic for many people as they tend to violate at least one of the “Good Food Standards” outlined by Dallas Hartwig and Melissa Hartwig in their book, It Starts With Food. I recently reread this book, and was surprised by how much of the fine detail I had forgotten. The book is a robust review of research in the…
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Energy Boosters: Sunshine, Tackling Nagging Tasks, and Whole30 Swordfish with Pistachio Gremolata
As the winter **hopefully** approaches a turning point, I have been thrilled with the slightly longer days as opposed to pitch darkness starting around 4:00 PM. I find it amazing the extent to which exposure to light has been shown to impact our moods – something which certainly rings true for me. In a cross-cultural study of participants from four different countries at varying distances from the equator, Kuller et al., found that those subjects which were located furthest north experienced “significant variation in psychological mood over the year that did not occur in the countries closer to the equator… [and] the light and color of the workplace itself also…
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Happy Memories and Whole30 Broccoli Cheese Soup
Just as we tend to overestimate what we can do in the short term and underestimate what is possible over the long run, it can also be challenging to objectively measure or recognize our progress even when we are consistent. It’s like watching a plant grow every day or bringing water to boil. We can kind of tell things are headed in the right direction, but when we wake up each day with ourselves, it’s often hard to see the small and slow changes that are being accumulated. I recently realized that I am over halfway through my year long Happiness Project and therefore stopped to consider whether or not…
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Be Consistent – Those Small Steps Add Up :: Whole30 Chicken Pesto Pasta
As always, the time that I spent back home with my family for Christmas was fabulous (although already becoming a faint memory) and went by MUCH too quickly. Especially whenever I am with my sister, it seems that we have a million and one things that we want to do and accomplish, but never have nearly enough time. Although we had a lot fun and I wouldn’t have changed a thing, we had wanted to meet up with more friends, visit a Christmas lightshow, check out a new restaurant, take a barre class together, and so on. I guess time does fly when you’re having fun. And in many ways,…
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Visualization and a Visually Appealing Whole30 Salmon Nicoise Salad
Something I always find interesting when I learn something new, hear about a particular concept or idea, or start a different activity, is the feeling that it seems to pop up everywhere, across a variety of settings. The Pacific Standard described it well: “your friend told you about that obscure blue-grass-electro-punk band yesterday morning. That afternoon, you ran across one of their albums at a garage sale. Wait a minute -that’s them in that Doritos commercial, too! Coincidence… or conspiracy? More likely, you’re experiencing ‘frequency illusion,’ somewhat better known as the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.” And although research has shown that this occurs due to the psychological processes of selective attention and…
