Just Be Better: Positive Reframing

Posted on by Julie Pearson

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It’s St. Patrick’s Day and everyone in the office is asking me “Where’s your green?” They have a lot of nerve, considering I got out of bed at 7:07 this morning, successfully put clothes on my body, and brought said body to the bus stop on time. I was feeling grumpy about being questioned for the one thing I hadn’t done, but then I realized my negativity was getting in the way. I was thinking about it all wrong.

I deserve credit for all the things I DID do.

  • I only needed five alarms to get out of bed.
  • I ate a cupcake at 8am, but I also had a bowl of oatmeal.
  • I didn’t forget to zip the side of my shirt for the entire day, letting only the cooperation of a sweater keep me from exposing myself to everyone, unlike last week.

Reframe Your Situation

When I was looking at my day through one lens – not wearing green – I had failed. But when I pulled back and refocused, I saw all the things I was doing right, and it turns out I’m doing pretty gosh darn great.

So consider this: are you thinking negatively about something because you can’t see the whole picture? Once I looked at things differently, I felt a lot better

In fact, I felt good enough to have another breakfast cupcake. 🍀

 

4 Things I Love This Week

Posted on by Julie Pearson

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I’ll be very ill if I don’t have this!

It’s important to me that you care what I, a successful lifestyle blogger, am into every week. Well, since you asked…

  1. Afternoon Coffee. I’ve been desperately addicted to my morning cup of coffee for a while now. I love the ritual of racing the clock to get to that sweet caffeine before the headache kicks in. But it’s become routine and stale. Yesterday, though, I made myself an afternoon cup of coffee. It felt as joyful as that morning cup used to feel, and might even be opening a door to a brand new addiction!
  2. Ignoring Sports. In LA, the seasons don’t change, and time exists only as a weird amorphous blob where months pass like weeks and suddenly it is the middle of March. This gives me even less awareness of important sport times that other people are paying attention to, and because I don’t live mere blocks away from a baseball hellscape anymore, it’s not being shoved in my face. It all washes right over me, along with what holidays are coming up, which day rent is due, and how old I am.
  3. Small, Nervous Dogs. I was terrified of dogs as a child, and while I got over the fear, I never really became a dog person. But lately I’ve been hanging out with a couple of tiny dogs with tiny anxiety disorders, and their stress makes sense to me. I, too, sometimes shake for no reason and need to be constantly comforted. Often I have heart palpitations and I don’t know why. And my legs are much shorter than they should be.

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    Panic attack in progress.

  4. Staying Hydrated. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve been getting a lot of headaches lately. If I go to the doctor, I’m pretty sure they’ll ask me questions like, “Are you getting enough sleep?” Are you drinking enough water?” “Do you exercise?” Obviously: no, no, no. This one seems easiest to address. For the last week, I’ve been drinking a lot of water. Like, actively drinking water. All day. For some reason, I feel a lot better! Also I can’t stop peeing.

Logic Hacks to Make Guacamole an Acceptable Dinner Choice

Posted on by Julie Pearson

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Guacamole is so delicious, it’s too bad I can’t eat it for every meal. But I can’t, because avocados are expensive and there’s no second reason. When I have avocados on hand, though, I try to make the most of it. Here are a couple ways that I shoehorn guacamole (or guacamole-like-substances) into a completely legitimate main course.

Chips for Dinner

No doctor or reasonable person would ever tell you to eat chips and guacamole for dinner. But I’m going to let you in on a secret so you can do it guilt-free. The secret: homemade chips!  That’s right, if you bake the chips yourself, it’s as if you were eating a tortilla. Tortillas are for sandwiches. Ergo, eating chips and guacamole for dinner is equivalent to eating a sandwich for dinner. And no reasonable person would complain about that.

To make chips: Slice a tortilla into wedges, lay on cookie sheet and spray with olive oil (and salt/chili powder/etc). Bake at 375 for 8-12 minutes.

To make guacamole: Oh come on, you know how to make guacamole. I’m not going to insult your intelligence by telling you a guacamole recipe. I put cumin in mine, though, which feels like a worthwhile secret to share.

Avocado Toast

Avocado toast is very hip and expensive right now, but it’s also very a-normal-breakfast. And if something is breakfast, you can definitely repurpose it into a dinner. Avocado toast is basically a deconstructed guacamole, but it requires even fewer ingredients. So you’re at least 50% more likely to be able to make it at any given time.

Here’s how I made the one above: Mash an avocado with a little lime juice. Scoop onto toast. Top with salt, pepper, tomatoes.

There you have it: not one but two dinners made out of condiments. I ate both of these dinners last week, and I feel GREAT and kind of weak and tired.

Get Reggie’s Deli a Netflix Show!

Posted on by Julie Pearson

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Apparently, Reggie’s Deli has been living in the shadow of Brite Spot all along and I had no idea until SandwichQuest: Part Three. Very sad, because Reggie’s Deli has been featured on no Netflix shows this year and Brite Spot is in at least two.

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Anyway, I went to this delightful – and admittedly, barely existent – deli with my friend Kurt, who was in town for work. We hadn’t seen each other since college and SandwichQuest facilitated this reunion, which is totally the kind of minute detail you could put into a show about my generation.

My sandwich featured turkey and avocado, which means it’s definitely in the running for the “cosmically perfect sandwich” title. The sourdough bread/swiss cheese/mustard/mayo situation worked really well. I liked it a lot, even if Netflix doesn’t feel that the tiny closet of a storefront is a fitting place for dissatisfied thirtysomethings who are just like me to discuss their angst.

Added bonus! The sandwich came with an (unadvertised) side of totally passable potato salad. This meant I was full, and saved half my sandwich til later. Aimless TV thirtysomethings can afford to go out for whole meals, but aimless real life twentysomethings need to make everything last two meals.

Reggie’s Deli, I’m writing a show for you (and me).

Grade: A-

Spiritual Wholeness Quotient: On par with watching something that was filmed in your neighborhood and is eerily reminiscent of your life to the point where it’s infuriating

Fun Clothing Pieces I’m Uncomfortable Wearing

Posted on by Julie Pearson

Your style is the most immediate way to present who you are to the rest of the world. And I keep hoping that one day, I can be someone else. I bought/acquired these things with the intention of wearing them, but I haven’t done it yet. Here are some of my favorite pieces that I love to stare at longingly in my closet:

Who, me? I’m always casually standing under trees.

Polka Dot Crop Top. I bought this shirt at Goodwill without trying it on, and I thought it was a few inches longer. I want to be a person who’s comfortable with showing this skin, but I’m just not. I love the outfit though, so I forced myself to wear it once. I got catcalled on a side street ten seconds after leaving my house, and felt self-conscious all day, silently willing the shirt to grow more fabric as I tugged at the bottom of it. I haven’t worn it again, even though I want to.

Backless Sleeveless Top. When I was talked into buying it I thought, “yes, I can be the kind of person who wears this shirt.” But I can’t. I can only be me – a person who does not wear this shirt. It’s backless which is kind of confusing – no bra, I guess? Seriously, how do people wear things like this? I want to understand.

Plaid Romper. Oh how I hated rompers for so long. But now I see people wearing them and find myself thinking…could I? This one’s cute! It’s plaid. And blue. But wearing it still feels like such a bold move. It’s backless, but I didn’t get a picture of that because by then I had crossed over into complete self-consciousness about being photographed (Exhibit A: Leaning Tower of Romper pose). It also might be too big, but that’s fixable. I haven’t given up on this one yet – my hopes are high for summer!

 

(Photography and insecurity-wrangling by Inae Bloom.)

Achieve Your Goals: Reward Your Progress

Posted on by Julie Pearson

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We all have goals we’re trying to achieve, and it can be hard to commit to making progress on them. For example, my goal right now is to get more sleep – I’ve been getting headaches and feeling dizzy a lot, so I’m finally compelled to try out basic healthy habits. The problem is, I work at 8am and I love staying up late (I become my best self after midnight). It’s been an uphill battle, but finally this week, I went to bed before midnight three nights in a row! Great, right?

But don’t forget: if you want to stick to your goals, it’s important to celebrate small milestones by tanking all the progress you’ve made.

That’s right! After feeling well-rested and healthier for three full days, I rewarded myself by staying up until 1:45 last night. It felt great to indulge a little bit and completely undo the healthy pattern I’d just barely started to develop. It’s just the kind of reinforcement that will make it even harder to achieve what I set out to do, and it felt great. And then, the next morning, awful.

It’s 11:44 now and here I am, back at square one. 🙂

 

4 Things I Love (That You Should Arbitrarily Care About)

Posted on by Julie Pearson

 

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This object is larger than it should be, and is also hilarious.

This is a lifestyle blog, and lifestyle blogs LOVE “five things” lists. They also LOVE weekly series. So in order to be a successful lifestyle blogger, every Wednesday I will post a list of four things I loved during the previous week (five seems really ambitious). That’s a lot of loving of stuff, but I think I can handle it.

  1. Stone IPA with Blonde Coffee Roast. I had this beer at Jay’s Bar the other night. All the alcohol of a strong beer plus the bitter dregs of an over-burnt Starbucks roast? Count me in. That sounded sarcastic, but it was perfect. The added perk is that the caffeine is definitely included. I skipped dinner and drank it at 10pm on an empty stomach, which is an experience I recommend. Afterwards I wandered the aisles at Von’s, confused. I think I made a cameo in someone’s grocery store snapchat. I either stayed up all night or fell asleep immediately, and I couldn’t tell which one it was. It’s an experience I’d like to repeat ASAP.
  2. Tastemade’s Tiny Kitchen. This is a series where disembodied hands cook tiny versions of popular dishes. I find it hilarious when any object is smaller or larger than it’s supposed to be, so I’m powerless against this clickbaity nonsense. On the other hand, I can’t even get it together to make myself normal-sized French toast that I could eat for a regular human meal, so it downright offends me that somebody has time to make novelty meals. Feeling torn about this one.
  3. Apocalyptic Weather That Would Be Benign Anywhere Else. I woke up on Monday to a horrible, loud, crashing noise like I’d never heard before. I thought maybe plane fell out of the sky? I was terrified! Except it was thunder. That’s it. Just thunder. In the midwest, storms happy like three times a week and they’re 100% normal and fine. In LA, cloudy skies are a call for panic. Free anxiety? Count me in!
  4. Vending Machine Breakfasts. I was really responsible for about a week – I bought a box of oatmeal packets so I could eat breakfast at work. But those days are over, because I keep forgetting to buy more. So lately I’ve been getting morning snacks from the office vending machine. I love it because it’s better than eating saltines from a drawer in the kitchen, but cheaper than going out for a bagel. Usually I’m responsible and choose something like chex mix or vegetable chips, but this morning I answered the siren song of the mini vanilla sandwich cookies. I feel ill.

If You Don’t Know Much About Curry, Then Yes I Made Curry

Posted on by Julie Pearson

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I went to the store the other night because I wanted a pizza, but then I thought “I should buy groceries, too.” I am very responsible! So I bought a bag of sliced mushrooms and a bottle of wine.

Did you know it’s hard to cook with only a bag of mushrooms?

I planned poorly. But I still had part of an onion in the fridge – remember when I sliced my finger chopping it last week?? It’s the same onion, but it’s probably still fine. Those were the backbones for what I’m going to go ahead and call a curry.

You’ll need:

Mushrooms, Onion (sliced), Can of diced tomatoes, Can of corn, Curry powder, Cumin, Garlic (all measurements are imaginary)

Instructions:

Mix together in pan over heat. End of instructions.

It tasted pretty good! Calling it curry is really a stretch, and putting it over rice would probably improve it a lot. Maybe we’d call it a stew? But there’s one thing I know I’d call it: a success 🙂

Too Much Cheddar

Posted on by Julie Pearson

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SandwichQuest: Part Two led me downtown to The Sandwich Shop, a place that put as much effort into its decor as its name (a fact I admire – sandwiches don’t need frills). I went around noon for a work day lunch with my friend Bradley. The sandwich immediately got points for involving both turkey and avocado. Because when you’re looking for your soulmate sandwich, you know what you want even if you’re too scared to require it outright.

Anyway, the turkey-avocado-cheddar also contained some chipotle mayo that I found delightful. My only problem was with the cheddar. And you know what they say, “when a sandwich tells you who it is, believe it” – cheddar was right in the name. So I should have known that this might not work out. Still, I’m open-minded, and I like cheese. Ultimately, while I enjoyed the time I spent with this sandwich, the cheddar was a little overpowering.

I found myself envying Bradley’s vegan chicken bahn mi, and sandwich envy is an ugly feeling to have. I’d order this sandwich again, but it’s not an every day sandwich. And I’d definitely try the bahn mi first.

Grade: B+

Spiritual Wholeness Quotient: On par with the moment you realize you just ate half a jar of queso dip, but the dip was delicious but still, you ate half a jar of it

How to Choose Happiness

Posted on by Julie Pearson

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I was feeling down the other night. We’ve all been there, right? Everyone gets bummed out from time to time, but it’s important to remember not to give in to the temptation to wallow in it. Happiness is a choice, and it’s a choice you get to make every day. So I’m going to let you in on this little secret – one small thing I do that reminds me that things aren’t so bad.

Eat an entire pizza.

That’s right. It’s that simple. I went to the store, bought a pizza, popped that sucker in the oven and 13 minutes later…I was on the road to feeling better. Just like that! The best part is, anyone can do this. That’s right, even you! So cheer up – happiness is a choice and you can choose pizza.

(Disclaimer: I’m a lifestyle blogger with integrity, so I need to confess that I can only eat half a pizza. The fact that I can’t even follow my own advice correctly is, frankly, soul-crushing.)