Work Work Work Work Work

I'm sure that song has been stuck in my head for the past couple of weeks because life has been a bit work crazy...long days, travel, and lots and lots of meetings. I'm still behind on everything I need to get done!

This week I was in Washington DC Monday and Tuesday. The highlight was listening to Twitter founder and currently CEO of Square (fintech firm) Jack Dorsey speak about his childhood (as a child of two entrepreneurs growing up in St.Louis) and his vision of technology helping people empower, educate, connect.

This is what I was wearing on the first conference day. The jacket is faux suede and the skirt is lace.
A perfect non-creasing outfit for a day of plane travel and long sessions in conference rooms:-)

The Whole30 Second Week

The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. I must confess that the second week on the Whole 30 did not go as well as the first week. I still avoided dairy and sugar (except for the one teeny serving of froyo, which was a "no sugar added" variety), and grains, but I did fall down and had some wine (twice). I'm finding it's not so hard to resist the sugar temptation when you cut out the bad carbs. But I'm a social wine drinker, and it's tough to be the party pooper who doesn't partake. Oh well, I'm still feeling lighter, and seem to have more energy, so the journey continues in a very positive frame of mind. The next few weeks will be tough and full of temptations with many birthday celebrations, culminating in the candy bonanza of Halloween. I will give myself a permission to eat cake and candy on these occasions, but the test will be to cut the sugar off once it's over. In order to do that, I plan to return to the Whole30 type eating for a week or so, to make it easier to avoid sugar. Another good thing has happened during these two weeks - I've minimized the mindless night snacking in front of the TV. I will continue to soldier on for the next two weeks, and not judge myself too harshly.  All in all, the experiment so far has a lot more positives than negatives.

Sinivalkoista / Blue and White

I took the kids to the Finnish School yesterday in this (not planned) thematically correct blue and white outfit.

I'm so happy the weather is finally getting slightly cooler. It's soooo nice to be outdoors in the crisp mornings, and not deal with the humidity. 

It's Still Summer

I have a confession to make: on Friday I cheated on my diet... It was just such a nice day, and I took the little girls out for some froyo, and I couldn't help myself but get some too. Life is meant to be enjoyed, after all! And I did enjoy it!! But as usually happens, one thing leads to another, and since I had already cheated, it was easy to slip some more. So because it was also such a nice night, we fired up the fire pit, sat outside, grilled some sausages, and had some red wine. Oh well, you know what they say... Failure doesn't come from falling down, failure comes from not getting up.

Busted!

Love these autumn nights and sitting around the fire pit. No TV needed, just a glass of wine, something to munch, and a nice conversation...

FALL / WINTER WANTS

For the new season I want a couple of new things to update my look:

- a velvet jacket, preferably blue
- an oversized gray sweatshirt
- a box bag
- the perfect cap
- loose and luxe pants

The velvet jacket is making its way to me all the way from UK. Keeping my fingers crossed that it's what I want. The hunt continues for the other items.

Saturday in New York City

Last Saturday my daughter and I visited the Tenement Museum on Orchard Street, Lower East Side. It was a great experience for history buffs like us. The contrast between the immigrant life back in the day and my own when I arrived to this country was something to contemplate. I recommend visiting the museum, but be aware that you can only go with a tour, and you have to book way in advance, at least if you want to go on a weekend. They don't allow any photographing inside the museum, so I don't have any pictures from the actual tenement apartments.

I wore my Marimekko for Target top, Calvin Klein pants, Mansur Gavriel bag, Zara sandals. 

We had lunch (The Whole30 compliant, of course) at the Market Ipanema on Kenmare Street.
Not very traditional Brazilian, but very nice and fresh. 

On our way to a bit of shopping on Broadway, we passed by Little Italy. It was the feast of San Gennaro, and the crowds were something else, as evidenced by this photo. 

Luckily, we had already left the city before the explosion took place on Saturday. It's so lucky that nobody died even though it was a huge explosion. New Yorkers have been really chill about the incident. Life goes on and it's business as usual. New Yorkers won't let the fear of terrorism run their lives.

The Bell Jar

"If I didn't think, I'd be much happier"

Sylvia Plath

I'm a bit behind documenting the books I've read. Some time ago I got into my head that I should occasionally read classic novels to educate myself. Not that reading contemporary literature is not educational too, but you know what I mean.

I settled on Sylvia Plath's Bell Jar for a few reasons: she's a legendary poet, had a tragic ending killing herself pretty young, I like her name, and I was curious. The book was also cheap on Amazon (usually NOT a good reason to read a book - or have you ever tried reading those free books on kindle? If not, DON'T!) Anyway, the Bell Jar is a pretty short book and a quick read. It was really well written with a tremendous ease to the tone but at the same time very sophisticated language. It's full of amazing little pearls of original thoughts, passages and quotes, by the way. I'm going to include one below. The book is clearly autobiographical, given it's a description of a young girl going into and through a mental illness, which is pretty much Plath's life. It may have been intentional by Plath, but the girl  felt cold and detached, which made her hard to like. Still it was a really good book, and I'm glad I read it. I will continue reading classics every now and then, though now I'm on to another contemporary book.



"I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet." 
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

A little bit of Red goes a long way

I haven't posted an outfit for a long time, so here goes.

I whip my hair back and forth :-)

I love my red Tory Burch slides, and my new red patterned sweater from H&M. The pants are from LOFT, t-shirt from Forever21, and bag from Fendi.  

The Whole30 First Week

Ok, I can pat myself in the back for successfully finishing off the first week on the Whole30 diet. Some observations: 

- It's not that hard, but you do have to plan ahead because it's harder to grab something on the go. That said, I'm cooking ahead for the week today. 

- Mornings are hardest. I was getting tired of eggs, so I moved to a cut up peach and a slice of ham for breakfast. 

- I've been feeling pretty good mentally, even though it's been a very busy and somewhat stressful week, and no major mood swings that I was afraid of. 

- I feel like I'm less bloated. 

- I should probably eat more fibrous vegetables to help the bathroom situation. 

- I haven't had major cravings, but let's see what happens in a week when I get to that time of the cycle...

The Whole30

I've been in an eating slump for pretty much the whole year since last Christmas. I eat healthy foods, but I've had the worst sugar and carb cravings, and been snacking almost every night on chocolate and crackers and peanut butter, and this and that. Needless to say, I've put on weight, and haven't felt very good about myself. So I decided that now is the time that I have to get back to super healthy eating, and find a way to kick the sugar habit. While I've done the South Beach diet before, it just didn't appeal to me this time. But then I heard about the Whole30 and it just clicked. It's a tough love approach; an elimination diet that requires no calorie counting. You eat real foods, BUT you cut out all dairy, sugar, grains, legumes and alcohol. You can eat meat, chicken, fish, veggies and fruit. Even potatoes are allowed, as long as they are not fried or chips. You can drink coffee, but no milk in it.

The Whole30 promises lots of good things: increased energy, reduced inflammation in the body, lower blood sugar, huge reduction in cravings, weight loss, better mood, glowing skin, better sleep. Today is my third day, and so far so good. The only tough part really is the morning, coffee with coconut milk is definitely not as good as coffee with my favorite vanilla cream... but it's a small price to pay if I can feel much healthier and more energetic.

I ordered the Whole30 book and the recipes look really good. Haven't tried any yet, but I'm sure I will. 

Since milk is not allowed, I substituted with coconut milk coffee creamer. Doesn't quite cut it, but I guess it's better than drinking black coffee...

I've inspired my family to join me in this diet. My 13-year old and my husband are doing it with me, and for practical reasons, even the little girls are doing a modified version so that we don't have to cook too many different meals (I'm not eliminating dairy or grains from their diet, however). I'm sure this will benefit everyone's health.

What I like about this approach is that even though it eliminates a lot of things, it's not a crash diet. There are no shakes, protein bars or pills, just real, healthy food. You don't have to limit the amount of food you eat. I'm hoping that this will give me more awareness of how what I eat affects my body and health, and when I slowly add dairy and grains back to my diet, I can eat them in moderation. And mostly, I'm hoping this will cut the sugar cycle.

Sunset Cocktails on Long Island

The weekend was still super hot and humid. Saturday night turned into a girls' night out, adults enjoying sunset cocktails, and kids enjoying hosing each other, and some innocent by-standers, soaking wet. It was a night for some light dresses and sandals.

We wore our H&M dresses, with my daughter wearing Steve Madden sandals and I wearing Vaneli sandals. 

Cocktails were served with these beautiful views and a sunset like a piece of art 

Half a Century

Five decades... the big five o... Fifty is the new thirty with twenty years of experience. This past month we celebrated my husband's fiftieth birthday on several occasions.

First we did a sunset picnic with a few friends at our favorite place, the Seacliff Beach.

Then hubby and I had a rare luxury, a 24-hour date in NYC, with a dinner at South Street Seaport, cocktail cruise around Manhattan, drinks at a midtown rooftop terrace, and finishing off in a dive bar on Second Ave playing old school rap from when we were young. We woke up late and had brunch/lunch next day at my husband's favorite restaurant (Fogo de Chao). We stayed at the W-hotel with the most minuscule room I've ever seen, but that didn't matter. It was good times. 

And of course, us being who we are, we (really meaning me) had to throw a party to our friends. Put the number out there and own it :-)

And now I finally get it when people say that age is just a number. Hubby says he feels like he's around 38. And I believe it, because so do I. So own the 50 but at the same time, let it go, and just be who you are. I'm happy to have you and share my life with you, and hope to share many more numbers with you!