Do you know who you truly are? It may be a weird question to ask yourself, but if you think about it, it may be difficult to answer. You may be a certain way towards your friends, or parents, or boss. It’s interesting that as people, we have a certain persona towards different people. Imagine that your best friend or significant other – probably the person who knows you best followed you for a day. He/she would see how you were towards your mom, your coworker and the person in front of you at Starbucks. At the end of the day, what does he/she have to say about you?

It may be difficult to grasp, but being your true self is definitely difficult (or even confusing) in all situations.  I personally realize that I am so different towards the people who I work with even though we spend the majority of our day together, 5 days a week. When I am with my husband, who I spend 4-6 hours a day with during the week, I am a certain way towards him. Even though we don’t spend all our time together, I am more comfortable with him than I am with my coworkers. Or even my best friend, who I only see once a year or even longer than that, but we interact online on a daily basis – I can tell her anything and not hold anything back.

When someone asks you to describe yourself, how do you do it when you act differently towards specific people in your life? Do you base it out of those specific situations? Or do you base it out of the specific people you feel most comfortable with? I think it can be a difficult thing to determine. I would want to be my true self, in all situations: A kind, honest person who respects everyone, but refuses to be taken advantage of. A strong, bold, action taker that looks at life positively and realizes that things happen for a reason, and therefore should take things as they are. We should all remember that we are who we are and not let anyone think we are anything less.

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I wanted to do a video blog about a video I saw the other day, called The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. This lecture really inspired me and I wanted to share my thoughts about it.

Here is the link to the 10 minute, short version of his lecture, and here is the full version, which is 1hr 16 minutes.  Let me know what you think in the comments!

So, I kind of have a love/hate relationship with running.  I think running is a great form of exercise.  I totally admire people who run and train for races.  But the “hate” comes from having to do it alone.  I don’t like to run out alone, so I usually run on a treadmill, which can be quite boring sometimes.

When I first started this blog, I really wanted to get into running, so I decided to train for a 5K.  I had no idea where to start, so I looked around and found this really interesting program called the Couch to 5K.  The Couch to 5K is a program that helps you get into running a 5K by working your way up, by doing intervals of walking and running.  Even if you never ran in your life, you could start this program.   I gave it a try.  Back then, I had used a podcast by Robert Ullrey, who put together music with verbal cues.  So for example, if you started on Week 1, Day 1, you would first do a 5 minute walk, followed by alternating 1 minute runs and 1.5 minute walks for 20 minutes, followed by a 5 minute cool down walk.  That podcast series helped me train for my first 5K, which was a great experience!  The feeling you get when you work so hard for something and you complete it is an awesome feeling!

I started running again yesterday at the gym using the Couch to 5K app on my iPhone.  It’s amazing how technology advanced from the time I ran my first 5K to now.  I can now use my own music and get the cues, which is great.  In addition, I use the Nike Plus+ app, which measures the distance and logs each run, showing my progress over time.  I figure it was a great enough incentive for me to see progress and get back into running.  After all, yesterday’s run wasn’t so bad for me.  Maybe I’ll decide to run a 5K this year!  We shall see!

Anyone else use “tools” to keep track of their running?  Whether it is an iPhone app, a heart rate, monitor, or whatever else, let me know!

My Pretty Journal

I’ve been working on this online course for almost 3 weeks now and it’s definitely been eye opening. I’ll do a full review later on, but I’ll just say it’s helping me figuring out living my life on purpose and conquering the quarterlife crisis I am in. For a very long time I have been struggling with ‘my purpose’ and I think that I finally have a much clearer idea on what that is. Even though I’m not finished with the course, I already have some clarity and definitely more confidence in what I really want to do! More on that later too.

This post was inspired by Erin, who is also taking the course and decided to just make a list of what I am grateful for because without being grateful, you can’t be graceful in everything you do!

1. My husband, who is understanding, loving and supports me in everything I do.
2. My family – mom, dad, sister and nephew, who I love very much and who have been there all my life (my nephew, for the past year, and I love him!)
3. My longtime friend, Binky. No matter how busy her life is, she always is an email away. She is a great supporter of me and what I want to do! BTW: She makes freaking awesome cakes!
4. The many blogs I read about lifestyle design, entrepreneurship and other fitness blogs I follow, that provide so many ideas and inspiration. It truly makes me believe that I can definitely achieve anything I put my mind (and hard work) into.
5. Last but not least, every person that reads this blog and watches the videos I’ve been adding lately. The comments I get make me feel loved and motivate me to keep on doing this. You all are awesome and I heart all of you!

Honorable mention: The journal that I have been writing in during the duration of this course. I’m grateful that I have daily journal prompts to really make me think and being able to put my thoughts on paper. Wow, I can write again!

I think I’m really enjoying making these video blogs! Here’s another one that I made today when I was cooking dinner. Why not make a video about food and what I’m making for dinner. It’s pretty long (8:33 – oops!) because I was being chatty. And I used iMovie to put the pieces of video clips together. It was a lot of fun!

Hope you enjoy the video and feel free to let me know what your favorite dish is to cook!