One of the most-watched cities in the world this week in Washington DC, where the Presidential Inauguration occurs on the Capitol steps. On heightened alert, the influential Washington DC metro area can seem intimidating to an outsider.
And, especially coming from news about political hoopla, wherefrom the outside, DC seems like chaos and a stressful place to live and work.
Actually, DC is as safe as any city to live in and has cleaned up over the years. Nearby residents are moving back into the city to be closer to their work and a more exciting, city lifestyle that the downtown offers. The suburban areas are calm and easily accessible.
That makes the DC metro area a great place to live and work! …and with all the new companies like Amazon coming to town creating buzz.
So many flock and move to the DC area for great job opportunities and work-life balance. Maybe that’s you or a Future You?
If so, I have some insider tips below that are helpful for someone or anyone who has just relocated (or is thinking of moving) to the area.
From an inside view, I became aware of the transient-ness vibe of the metro city area early on when I kept seeing an influx of people move in and out for a career, personal, or lower cost of living reasons.
The local residents who have grown up in the area (or lived in the area for most of their lives) are mostly friendly, helpful, educated, and cultured. Many have traveled overseas, are savvy on any subject, and dress the part.
What to Expect At Work In The Washington DC Metro Area
If you’re a new transplant adapting to the DC metro area, work-life balance can be tricky and you may need to adapt, as most people may not be as relaxed as you may be accustomed to depending on where you moved from.
If you moved here for work, your employer can have high expectations in a competitive city, where managers and organizations can provide employees even higher than the already stressful demands of many corporate jobs.
Even if you didn’t specialize in learning how to teach or do digital marketing, unless you’re a scientist or removed from working with people, expect to use general administrative and presentation skills, as your companies will expect you to run meetings, train others, and use digital communication tools, at the very least.
Wearing many hats that may or may not fit you, and speeding up your learning pace can play on your overall health and emotions. It’s important to find ways to relax, handle stress, and find work-life balance, especially if you’re planning to stay long term.
You want to stay connected to your core values.
It’s easy to forget your own goals and get off-balance when most jobs require more than working 9-5, or 8 hours per day. But you can find sustainable jobs that do fall in this category that I’ll point out below.
Like most cities, there are plenty of convenient delivery options and services that can help make your life easier. There isn’t one good hairstylist, burger joint, or dry cleaner in town, there are a bunch to choose from.
The large DC metro area attracts many go-getters, with a larger pool of jobs and work opportunities that other cities may not have as much to offer.
These are just a few industries in the area worth checking out if you’re looking for a good work-life balance:
Associations – most people don’t know that the DC metro area is one of the largest association towns in the U.S. Old Town Alexandria and downtown DC houses many of the nation’s largest and well-known associations.
While the U.S. does have a reputation for a work-to-play lifestyle, many locals think to work hard now and relax at retirement age around 65.
Taking breaks and getting work freedom isn’t the path norm, but this is changing as people pivot and have second and third careers, or choose the side hustle lifestyle.
Wake up, Sunshine! In the morning when you get out of bed, you use you mind-body muscles to get up, as part of the daily, morning routine.
You know if you’re an early riser or a night owl. You’re usually wired one way or the other. Morning people are usually proud of how much they get done early on, while night people stay up and enjoy more leisure time.
I’m not a natural morning person and I honor that, as I do appreciate sleep. Similarly, if you’re a slow riser naturally, I have some suggestions below that can help get you moving…
Women need more sleep than men and children need more sleep than adults. Waking up adult energy changes and depends on many factors.
If you normally pop up, right out of bed, but find it difficult this season in your life, then you may have a Kapha imbalance (could be mind or body).
If it’s recurring every winter, then seasonal affective disorder (SAD) can be an added layer of mood tiredness. You can change your morning routine so it’s enjoyable, and you look forward to getting up.
Embrace Your Vata-ness and Why This Matters Even If You’re Another Dominant Dosha
While usual daily variance on waking up energy is a good indication that you’re a natural Vata, you may find your partner or friends seem to get up at the same time every day. They’re likely Pitta dominant people.
In true-Vata form, if that’s your natural way, one morning you could start off feeling energized, and then the next day, tired and groggy waking up, that doesn’t always have to do with what time you went to sleep.
Your eyes can open at the same time every morning naturally, that’s part of your natural circadian rhythm and internal clock, but you want to rest and snooze for a few more minutes before you drag yourself to get up. This is especially if you wake up to an artificial alarm clock.
Your level of mood tiredness and body functions are separate aspects and both affect the energy you have for a morning routine.
Since we all possess traces of all the dosha traits, you could be imbalanced in a dosha that you or may not be dominant in, and that’s what I want to help you with today to invigorate a healthy, wake up morning routine.
If you’re not sure which imbalances you currently have and want restoring suggestions on your specific body imbalance symptoms, then I encourage you to take the body balance quiz.
The results are revealing to what your body is trying to tell you at this moment without written or voice communication. Your non-verbal response can be simple, healthy behavior tweaks to prevent irritating symptoms from getting worse and so you can enjoy foods and activities you like.
In the same way, having an inspiring morning routine for your body is going to be better than a forced one. If you’re a learner you like to challenge yourself and that will help you to get going.
Easing Into Your Morning
So, while you’re starting your day drinking room temperature water (or a warm ginger tea is good) and visiting the bathroom, this is a good time to get mentally prepared about yoga stretching.
You may need or enjoy a cup of coffee or cappuccino to wake-up your mind, and that’s great.
As part of your morning routine, find a pause moment to be mindful, and think of something to be grateful for today, or that just happened recently.
You can find this mindful moment when you’re heating water for tea, straightening up along your path, or putting the clean dishes back in the cabinet. In America, we don’t usually stop reflecting on our busy lives and ambition. Living overwhelmed isn’t healthy.
And if you have a Vata imbalance, you easily move on to something else without finishing your current activity. Staying focused at least at the start of your day, and having a routine to stick to is especially helpful so anxious feelings don’t sink in.
So after getting mindful, and visiting the kitchen, a natural transition is to move onto stretching parts of your body that need just a little awakening and movement, from the wear and tear of yesterday and the day before. You can call this yoga or just stretching, it doesn’t matter.
This is a good way to ease into the morning even if you only have 10 minutes before someone or something needs you.
Sugar cravings don’t have to get the best of you… and the orange scone recipe below may help you get over the worst sugar sweets as it was the healthy start for me, someone who ate way too much daily sugar that many of us do. It’s no one’s fault.
The new dreamy sugar – orange zest! Use in a good orange scone recipe below… 🧡
Oranges and citrus fruits are good for blood sugar levels as citrus fruits have a lower glycemic index as a general indicator for how a food will impact your blood sugar level.
And juicy foods like oranges also have a way of quenching your thirst and hunger. Like water and tea, you can feel less hungry when you consume oranges and lower your food cravings.
Using orange and orange zest are also a good way to avoid artificial sweeteners while brightening your food and day.
Maintaining a healthy blood sugar level is at the heart (pun intended!) of a healthy heart.
I became aware of the American Heart Association when I volunteered for the American Cancer Society in my backyard while I was attending college.
The “Eat Smart” campaign was one of the promoted programs and I remember posters (remember those?) were donated that had healthy fruits and vegetables.
These are now known as anti inflammatory food ideas like oranges that were brightly represented on the poster and I proudly displayed on my wall.
Who knew that anti-inflammatory foods would become so important with all its healthy benefits and in many healthy diet movements like the Mediterranean Diet and plant-based diets?
And we couldn’t have predicted that the role of Vitamin C would grow in highlighted health importance, and that oranges would relatively stay the same while we see more orange varieties on the grocery shelves.
We keep evolving in food, health, and nutrition.
Vitamins stay as a focal point in the anti inflammatory diet. Some are antioxidants that are good body protectors for preventing heart disease, Diabetes 2, certain cancers, and cognitive decline that can start off as harmless brain fog or short memory mental health lapses.
In the beginning of 2020, I created a smart pantry for “just in case,” where I collected processed, longer shelf-life foods in cans and boxes. That’s where I failed in my sugar cravings dilemma and developed an itchy eczema skin rash by mid-summer that came from sugar indulgence.
Luckily I caught on before things got worse. I got aware and my love for sugar got replaced for Ayurveda ways, moderation, and anti-inflammatory foods.
Sugar we know is good for our happy selves, but not our healthy one. They latch onto lectin anti-nutrients in our gut and can destroy our microbiome that we know controls so much of our daily body functions.
My hope is you’re onboard for a healthier new year, new health progress goals, and micro habit changes. Fasting is one way I have deployed in my healthy lifestyle and you can too. You can download my FREE fasting guide that makes it a sustainable way.
And when you’re eating, if you’re like me, you’re a bit choosy and conscious about your food choices.
I love foods, food variety, and enjoy good foods. I planned catered parties in nice hotels and foodie restaurants for a decade, so it’s a part of me that has been weaved into my adult DNA. And healthy eating that I learned early on.
But I have a weakness… a sweet tooth.
Many of us enjoy some sweets in moderation.
Having a sweet tooth is natural but isn’t helpful on a healthy lifestyle mission.
If you regularly eat sugary foods to curb your sweet tooth and sugar cravings, you set yourself up to have more sugar cravings. It’s a vicious cycle.
For entertainment, I had started watching TheGreat British Baking Show, that’sa competition show that started with U.K. bakers… initially, it wasn’t the best thing to watch if you want to curb sugar cravings and stop eating so much sugar.
But I worked through it and can now watch the show without eating a sweet dessert. I’m telling you this because I believe everyone can get there!
In my search, I came across a book called The40 Day Sugar Fast by Wendy Speake.
It reminded me of a sugar fast I set out to do for 3 weeks in 2011 but ended up doing the sugar fast for around 40 days.
How?
When I had my tonsils removed as an adult, the fast was a smooth transition as I mostly had a liquid diet in the beginning.
And if you’re trying to break the sugar habit, finding a time when you’re not dealing with as much stress is your best bet.
Like if you’re a teacher, do your sweet fast after the school year ends and you have the summer off. You usually crave less food in the hot months anyway, so use all those helpful situations to your advantage.
Another helpful situation is when you have support. To keep me encouraged, the church I was attending was doing an annual fast for those who wanted to participate. So, it was perfect timing as I wasn’t doing it alone.
And as I focused on giving up sweets for sweet Jesus, the sugar cravings also miraculously disappeared. The ones I’d had every single day since I was a child.
I didn’t use my own willpower to make changes. That doesn’t usually work.
I focused on my heart and deeper desires. To my surprise, my way of thinking changed. It was supernatural and beyond my small capabilities to overcome sugar on my own.
But that’s just a reminder that you don’t have to do it alone and can encourage the Universe or higher source you turn to, to help you.
I also use maintaining good teeth as motivation. As a child I always had a mouth full of cavities. I wanted to live a better dental life later in life. That same motivation carried me when I quit all sodas years ago. Previously as a young adult, I’d have at least 1-2 sodas by noon.
Do whatever works for you and your healthy motivations.
Another tip is to look at sugar nutrition labels. Most food labels are in grams and 1 gram = about .24 teaspoons or a quarter teaspoon.
We use teaspoons for baking in America so that’s easier to visualize.
It doesn’t take much in a Western diet to go over 20 grams of refined sugar at breakfast alone!
You can try these breakfast plant-based breakfast ideas and tips to stop sugar cravings and craving sweets if you want some suggestions.
And sodas are off the charts starting at 30-40 grams.
I drank diet sodas early on, but those are linked to heart disease and Diabetes 2 so they’re no better and probably worse off
Also, keep in mind no fat is usually linked to higher sugar in foods, so you’re giving up one evil for another.
The better healthy answer is to change your healthy food and beverage habits. And then you will enjoy the healthy foods and especially after you have adjusted. I promise.
If you’ve every shifted from a whole milk to a plant or other milk, you know what I’m talking about.
You no longer go back to the other because 1) your body doesn’t need the same quantity of nutrients it needed before or growing up and 2) you have a decent food or beverage replacement.
Most of are lazy in this area about food fixing. It we have something easy and near us, we’ll grab that instead of go out and forage if we don’t have to.
And for fruit, I still don’t overindulge even though the Food Pyramid I grew up with recommended 2-4 servings of fruit per day. These days, MyPlate says at least 1 piece of medium fruit.
Even natural fruits and dried fruits have a huge dose of natural sugars, the better fructose sugar, but still sugar. I limit myself to an apple, a banana, and an orange if I’m craving fruits and sweet foods.
Foods that you wouldn’t suspect and maybe even classify as healthy food like a Fig Newton or low-fat “healthy” cereal are loaded with sugar. You discover reality when you do package label reading.
I once felt I had to add a puff of white cloud sweetness that finished off almost every dinner dessert, holiday cheesecake, pie, or warm beverage. The nutritional breakdown ingredients of some whipped foods say “hydrogenated oils” or trans fats and high-fructose corn syrup to avoid.
You can always say “no whip, please.”
And you can choose moderation where it’s okay for a happy celebrations, but not for daily healthy consumption. That’s what I do in the balance.
That’s the modern Ayurveda way that is sustainable. Turning to healthy and anti-inflammatory foods that are also good for weight loss and preventing weight gain, so you don’t have to do one more yo-yo diet that never works long-term.
Modern Ayurveda lifestyle people love following natural, doable, and achievable (practical) advice.
So here are 3 actionable Ayurveda creature habits and tips for reducing sugar in your diet and curbing sugar cravings:
Become aware which foods have high sugar, added sugar – fact vs. fiction. Read labels at least until you are familiar with the foods you eat regularly.
Substitute your sweets not for other foods, but for a higher calling or purpose for yourself. Find a motivation that makes you stick to your plan and look forward to maintaining.
Do one daily baby step food choice action you can make to create a healthier micro habit. Reminder: the more you eat sugar, the more you crave sugar.
Maybe that’s substituting an empty calorie sugary dessert with a fortified cereal that at least has some nutrients?
And if you need a replacement for something super sweet, I have a low sugar, Orange Scone recipe below I mentioned above that you can try that’s super easy and you’ll love (or grow to love!).
What I love about this recipe is the orange peel zest you would normally throw away is used as the main sweet ingredient.
Oranges are also good for calming in our parasympathetic nerves, so in the strong orange smells, we experience calmer nerves instead of anxiety. You hear people who like to eat oranges by their bed and this could be a good reason why. They are calmer, better managing worry and anxious thinking hours before sleep o’clock.
This orange recipe has no needed added refined sugars, but you may like the turbinado sugar small packet crunch finish like I do, that has 5 grams of fat total used for the entire 8 scone slices. So you do your daily sugar math and see if that’ll work for you.
I also love that you won’t use all your eggs in one recipe. And, in the easy, it can take less than 10 minutes time to prepare!
It takes about 40 minutes total time (from prep to baking to mouth 😋). That’s something to celebrate!
cinnamon and currants or raisins (optional)to taste liking
1sugar In The Raw (turbinado sugar) packet to cover the top of 8-scone slices.
Instructions
Combine all ingredients except sugar and make a circle mound. This is a crumbly dough especially with gluten-free flours such as almond flour.
Take all the crumbly bits and add back to the circle mound. Then, slightly flatten the top with hands to about 1 inch high.
Use one packet of turbinado sugar (optional) to zhugh the top before baking, so the sugar sticks.
Cut lightly or score 8 triangular "pie wedge" shapes.
Bake at 350°F at 25-30 minutes (or until light golden brown color).
with currants and brown sugar topping
Orange Scones (Bread) – Makes 8 pieces
This can become a regular dessert bread for you that’s healthier than sugary processed breads and pastries. Great for a sweet tooth (or a Vata)!
1 egg
2 cup flour
2-4 tbsp frozen unsalted butter (this is great if you keep your butter in the freezer and forget to take out hours beforehand! You can get away with less butter if you’re super healthy, but it helps with to have a few tablespoons for taste and to glue the scone bread together)
1 tsp baking powder
¼ baking soda
½ cup plain or vanilla Greek, or regular yogurt (this is a good food item to look at sugar labels)
Zest of an orange (navel oranges are great)
Cinnamon to liking (and you can purposefully add a little sugar, some tips below)
You omit sugar that normally would be added. Since you’re not using sugar, you don’t need salt either, to balance any sugar. NO refined white sugar, yay! 😊
Add flour to a medium bowl. Add butter and cut it into small pieces with a knife. Add the egg and mix with a spoon.
Add yogurt and keep mixing until well mixed. Add baking powder and baking soda. Add orange zest and mix until blended into flour mixture.
Form a ball with the spoon in the bowl. Then place the dough on a baking sheet and flatten it slightly, so it forms into a 6-8” circle.
There will be flour crumbs, just stick them on top of the circle to blend in (like you’re adding clay to pottery before being fired in the kiln).
Sprinkle with cinnamon if you like. Cut 8 slices before placing in the oven.
Optional sweet: if you desire, you can add one brown sugar packet of Sugar in the Raw (turbinado cane sugar) on top of the circle bake before it goes in the oven. These small brown crystals are similar to refined sugar in health terms, but if you add them in moderation, that’s not going to make a big difference. If you’re feeding anyone diabetic, they’re not going to eat it anyway.
You can also optionally add ½ tablespoon of dried currants or raisins and blend in the mixture before you form the circle. Or you could do half and half (4 pieces plain and 4 pieces lightly sugar)… then you can please those you’re sharing with who won’t necessarily appreciate your low sugar, healthy scone bread efforts.
Finally, put the baking sheet in the middle of the oven and bake the scones to a golden brown for 25-30 minutes at 350°F/180°C degrees. Let your scones cool, and then you’ll be ready to enjoy.
Intended effective gym habits can begin in a new year and die before February 1. Don’t let that be YOU in the upcoming year. Make this year and better and different that it deserves as you’re a better, more resilient person.
The usual drill…
Welcoming in the first week of the year with effective gym habits is the intent, where many of us think of new personal, health, and fitness goals. In my mind, I think of the end goal that comes from 7 habits of highly effective people that can be applied to life. But not always effect in fitness areas…
Because most people don’t like to workout. That’s the first hurdle. Especially if you prefer to work or play instead of work out (I know the feeling!). At times, working out can add more stress if you don’t have a routine down.
But, if you prioritize, practice and adopt doing regular habits (great for Vata balancing)… and they are habits you enjoy, that could be a game changer to effective habits. Let that be the new year mantra or philosophy you breathe in…
OUT with ancient new year’s resolutions, and IN with inspiring habits for your betterment, progress, and self-improvement goals.
Simple steps like attending a Gold’s Gym (my fond memories) or similar, and doing at-home ab exercises regularly can help get you into healthy physical body habits with good results if you choose successful ways that help you, explained below…
Inspired by 7 habits of highly effective people who are proactive in their lives and begin with the end in mind, these are 7 effective habit traits (and what it boils down to), to embrace ideas that can turn into action and help set you up for success.
I think these ways make habits easier to adopt, and you can apply to any area you want to have continued success in.
So, applying these traits will help you with training to stay active and healthy fit for the year and keep effective gym habits for life.
Effective Habit Traits Inspired By 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
1. New – highly effective people consider and embrace new ideas, challenging the status quo or current norm. They keep everything fresh and have a learning and growth mindset. They think “today is a brand, new day” to do something better, remarkable, or impactful.
2. Variety – they spice up life with more than one way or choice. This can be from food to finding new inspiration or a new route. If they did it one way, they try another way to keep things exciting.
3. Fun or exciting – they have fun doing what they do. If you’re enjoying yourself, then you’re more likely to keep doing what you’re doing. Laughter is a good indicator that you’re engaged. Remember when you were a kid, and that’s what got you going?… just good, innocent fun.
4. Usefulness – they know how to be productive with their time, and highly effective people spend time working on activities that are useful and not a waste of time. There’s a next step, where there’s personal growth, observable impact, or serves others.
5. Practical – they turn ideas into action and use resources they have access to, and keep going. They don’t let excuses keep them from moving forward. Relevance guides them to their next steps and pivots.
6. Getting better – they look for progress. They know that if it’s not getting better, that it could be getting worse. They look for signs of growth, impact, and healthiness.
7. Easy – they keep it simple and uncomplicated. They know if it’s easy, then it’s doable. There won’t be delay and “easy” can be duplicable and scalable to perform in other ways.
Cracker Barrel menu vs. fast food is night and day. Cracker Barrel uses slow cooking methods for some dishes that us foodie enthusiasts appreciate! This homestyle burnt-top Cellantani and cheese (with a healthy option) recipe is below.
Homestyle burnt top baked macaroni and cheese reminds one of slow cooking, the Cracker Barrel restaurant, and the fond eating childhood memories. 🧡
In this post, you’ll get tips to lose weight from snacking, ordering off a Cracker Barrel menu, and how to make calories count! And how to to get the tasty burnt-top on your baked macaroni without drying out the pasta.
After your turkey feast has come and gone, what are the secrets to keep a healthy, trim body you aspire to? …I share my best tips below. And they don’t require giving up macaroni-n-cheese if that’s one of your favorites.
If you’re on the road, it’s easy to get off-balanced in your diet. I recommend the Cracker Barrel menu that’s loaded with options for a conscious calorie counter, where you can find a healthy meal for under a thousand calories. Real homey comfort food and not a frozen packaged one.
👇 You can get to my Cracker Barrrel menu selections if you scroll way below.
…But, as with most my blog articles, there is jam-packed meaty healthy inspiration and tips in between. So that’s where I’ll start… with my story.
My Food Life Lessons
I think I’m lucky because I have pretty much maintained the same ideal healthy weight since my late 20s (after some hairy years working around decadent catering food).
And yep, I’m a Vata so my genetics play a big, big part. I’m not a vain person, but I am self-conscious (another Vata trait we call sensitive). That could be you too.
We are all unique in that we have a different one-and-only body that’s given to us to maintain for our entire life. And that’s daily changing.
So we want to optimize our body and body image that’s relative to each of us. There are some tips that work for all of us females and humans. Some ideas that work better for some of us than others.
And you know your body better than anybody else.
For the lifestyle part, like everyone, I had to learn in life’s journey.
Early on I went into a testing phase and tried to listen to reliable sources about how to have a healthy body. I wanted to get more tone and slender so I tried the trendy health fad diets with so many others.
Back then, I focused on one diet in particular, where I counted calories. You can probably guess what happened?… I gained more weight during that season. I craved foods and especially pasta that I grew up eating and had given up.
I was also craving sweet foods I normally ate and gave up. If you have a sweet tooth (e.g. for Vatas that’s your middle name), bread just doesn’t cut it as a sweet if ya know what I mean.
That’s when I realized self-discipline and willpower produce backfiring results…
When I told myself “no” to certain foods, that just made me want them more. …sound familiar?
That’s because our minds, don’t actually hear “no.” Instead, your mind hears you’re putting energy towards that food item, so then you just want it more. English isn’t your mind and body’s first language. Your mind-body interprets words by your feelings and actions…hmmm.
…so I ended up essentially on a “yo-yo” diet, where I was below weight, gained it back, and then went over the weight that I started with as I got a taste of the foods I loved like mac-n-cheese.
These were years before Oprah was popular on television and we learned all about the yo-yo diet effects from her sharing journey to the masses.
And, weight and size are relative to each of our bodies. In my body size journey, I went down to a size 2 (from a size 6 at the time) and grew to a size 8.
I have fit into the same size clothing and maintained a size 4 since then (it’s funny how some clothing pieces have come back in style a few times and I can live them up again!). …OK, so before you judge or playfully roll your eyes at me, I KNOW what you’re thinking…
Oh my gosh, I would love to be a size 4 or 6 (if you are, you know what I’m talking about!)… Or maybe you prefer your ideal size whatever that is…
But the truth is, it doesn’t matter what your number, size, or weight is, as much as keeping overall balanced body proportions to your frame, where you like and feel better about yourself. When your feed your mind happiness, that shows up in a healthier body as body love (and NOT body shame).
That’s the ultimate goal (to feel good about ourselves and our self-image). We need to build up our self-esteem especially if it was beaten down in the past. You may have experienced PTSD or had a rocky childhood.
Or maybe you still need to heal from wounds, build self-confidence from insecurities, and develop an abundant mentality to replace the victim mentality. That’s common for most of us.
And like most personal growth goals, it’s up to you to make your choices along the way. That’s where replacing habits helps (plus, not denying yourself any one specific food or category to reach the goal).
Along my journey, these are a few tips I discovered in choices that I’ve found that make the biggest impact.
One of the most-watched cities in the world this week in Washington DC, where the Presidential Inauguration occurs on the Capitol steps. On heightened alert, the influential Washington DC metro area can seem intimidating to an outsider.
Wake up, Sunshine! In the morning when you get out of bed, you use you mind-body muscles to get up, as part of the daily, morning routine.
