by Sam Tackeff | Mar 10, 2016 | Uncategorized
Every spring, I take a trip with the same group of incredible friends – it’s a tradition that I truly look forward to, and I highly recommend! Some years we stay local, last year was London! This spring we took a week long trip to Disney World to run the Princess 5k. We ran the 5k – and it was fabulous! – but our real endurance event was a four day park hopper – we were averaging 12-16 miles a day! Florida was warm and sunny, which was just what I needed. I also picked up a new pair of Sanuk yoga mat flip flops – a great find!
Now that I’m back, there is much on my mind, and much work to be done! I’m feeling energized and rejuvenated. Here are some of my current adventures.
:: I’m expanding my strategy work with businesses – helping companies think up creative ways to drive business in the digital space. I’m also bringing my experience as a project manager to my consulting projects to help teams optimize internal systems.
:: I’m expanding my photography work to do more of what I love – portraits, product photography, and pitching some new brands for partnerships. I’m working on building out my portfolio – a fun challenge. How do you choose which work represents you?
:: I’m taking a six week fitness boot camp with Amanda Tress, incorporating carb cycling into my diet. (A week in – spoiler – I’m eating more food, more whole food carbs, and I have more energy for my workouts. I’m hoping for a better transition into triathlon training – I wasn’t feeling the motivation this winter.
:: I’m turning Secrets of Self Care into a self-guided e-course. I’ll still be offering group sessions and individual consults, but I’m building out the program so that folks can take it whenever they want on their own time, so I can reach more people!
:: At the same time, I’m working hard to build my (still un-named) corporate wellness startup. The company is focused on “not-so-corporate” wellness, for startups and mid size businesses. I don’t have a name yet, but I’m building out a beta program right now – if you know of a company (maybe yours?) that could use my services, I’d love setting up a call to talk with you. In the short term, I’ll be using my expertise in health and wellness (coupled with my experience in building internal programs / mobile health and fitness apps / environmental studies and architecture) to do corporate wellness audits as I build out our services and programming. These are smaller scale assessments of your current business, benefits, and recommendations for quick wins and building systems for ongoing company wellness programming. Beyond the one-off step challenges!
And that’s the tip of the iceberg!
But of course, most importantly at The Second Lunch, I had some great meals planned for this week! Here’s what I’ve been eating. Yep, I planned to post this Sunday, and it never got up!
:: The Weekly Meal Plan: Week of March 6th, 2016 ::
This week’s prep: cook chicken sausage, ground beef and cabbage, roast butternut squash. Boil a batch of Rancho Gordo beans, roast potatoes.
Sunday: baked chicken and cabbage, with mashed potatoes. This was another Blue Apron meal that I adapted to fit my nutrition goals.
Monday: shakshuka with spicy chicken sausage. I also got some Kite Hill almond ricotta that I planned on spooning on top, but it ended up being a little too tart for my taste.
Tuesday: Devon had a show at the Middle East so had some stuffed grape leaves before the show. I had my eye on their mjudra (lentils) or their lamb shank, but I forgot to take some home with me! I ended up eating hummus and fried eggs for dinner.
Wednesday: scallops with rice and peas. This was just comfort food! Light, healthy, goodness in a bowl.
Thursday: roasted sweet potatoes with beef and tahini sauce, and broccoli. Inspired by Jules Clancy’s recipe on Stone Soup. I’ve been meaning to make this again for a while. So delicious!
Friday: out! or as we do these days – takeout and an On Demand movie at home.
by Sam Tackeff | Feb 14, 2016 | Uncategorized
Happy Sunday, everyone!
Here’s what’s going on in my little corner of the interwebs.
This week I’ve been reading Oliver Sacks’ memoir ‘On The Move‘, and could not recommend it more. It’s been such a comforting read during the bracing Real Feel -30 nights in New England. I’ve been making a concerted effort to read more memoirs lately – I find solace and comfort in the fact that so many incredible people spend much of their lives feeling a little lost and trying to find their place in the world. The best of them do it with a spirit of adventure that I’d like to emulate!
As for my adventures: Monday (tomorrow!) starts my third session of Secrets of Self Care, a course I designed to help people feel their best to be able to do good work in the world. There are still a few spots left if you are interested. Sign up here.
I also created a free Facebook group for those interested in health, wellness, and productivity: it’s called the Productivity and Wellness Percolator. If you’d like to join, simply sign up for the wellness wisdom mailing list, and then request an add to the group here!
Dinner wise, my week looks a little bit abbreviated because I’m traveling on Thursday – to Disney for the Princess 5k! I ordered a Blue Apron box (I’m on the fence about most meal planning services, but they *are* convenient when the weather is freezing and you are short on time.
Dinners this week:
– cheesy chicken with brussels sprouts
– Mexican spiced salmon with black rice, avocado, and orange salad.
– Lebanese lamb and beef arayes with broccoli
– chicken and mashed potatoes with maple carrots
Stay warm this week!
by Sam Tackeff | Feb 7, 2016 | Meal Planning
I finished two books this weekend.
Saturday afternoon I finished a book I’ve been reading – Stephen Pressfield’s The War of Art. I’ve started (hesitantly) marking up my non-fiction personal development reads, and this one had so many notations. It’s going on my desk in my little self-help reminder zone, so I can pull it down and re-read sections when I’m feeling stuck.
Today, I finished Patti Smith’s M Train. It was exactly what I needed it to be. There’s a few pages in there about an adventure seeking the greatest coffee in the world, and they may have been the best few pages I’ve read in a long time.
After finishing the book, I took the pup on a long overdue walk. In my Secrets of Self Care course last week, we had a module on personal development – and someone mentioned their dog being a large part of their current personal development – which on reflection couldn’t have been more true for myself as well. I’ve learned so much about myself over the past few months of getting to know, love, and train my little puppy. One of my favorite parts of the week is training class – we are working through puppy kindergarten, and then I’d like to work with him on both agility and therapy dog training. It’s a great way to engage your dog, keep them thinking, and work on your own communication skills – you have to clearly communicate with an animal who can’t speak in your language, but when it works, it’s so satisfying!
I then progressed to planning out my weekend chores. The dishes needed a new system, and we need a new dishwasher, so I’ve been working on the backlog. We have yet again, an abundance of cardboard boxes that have piled up, and an IKEA bookshelf that needs to be assembled. (I actually enjoy assembling IKEA, but it’s not clear where this is going to go.) The fridge needed a purge and cleaning.
Then I sat down to meal plan. Here’s what was on my mind this week before heading to Trader Joe’s during the Superb Owl:
:: a breakfast plan for my weekly co-working date
:: a crunchy salad that can be assembled in the fridge and last for several days
:: a tray of roasted vegetables
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:: The Weekly Meal Plan: Week of February 6th, 2016 ::
After I cleaned my fridge, and realized that I had absolutely nothing left in there to eat. When I got to the store, I ended up scrapping a few of my ideas in order to get in more vegetables. I took home a pile of greens, and will be eating them throughout the week on top of my planned meals.
Sunday: mandarin orange chicken thighs with broccoli slaw, and a slice of almond cake. Not quite wings and pizza, but delicious none the less. (See header picture.)
Monday: lamb chops and cruciferous salad with balsamic dressing and thyme honey – I need to remember to defrost some lamb from the freezer!
Tuesday: cheesy chicken with Brussels sprouts and dubliner usually I make this with Laughing Cow cheese, but I noticed that they make spreadable Dubliner flavored wedges, and thought I’d give them a go.
Wednesday: eggs for dinner. Same as last week. I’ll keep this one simple and make a regular scramble and a green salad.
Thursday: roasted sweet potatoes with beef and tahini sauce, and broccoli. Inspired by Jules Clancy’s recipe on Stone Soup.
Friday: out! or as we do these days – takeout and an On Demand movie at home.
by Sam Tackeff | Jan 31, 2016 | Meal Planning, Wellness
Happy Sunday everyone!
That gorgeous skillet is filled with chicken thighs with caramelized onions and cardamom rice from Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem – my favorite dinner last week. I highly recommend it!
Today I spent most of the day outside, taking advantage of this un-seasonalbly warm 52 degree New England weather. I come to you with two lists today – the first is the morning practice that I’m committing to for the month of February. And then capping it off with my weekly meal plan – because most of you are here for the food!
For the month of February, I’m teaming up with some of my favorite biz ladies to do
Hal Elrod’s Miracle Morning. It focuses on making a habit of six activities – all of which I’ve done on a semi-regular basis in the past – but could use a little more incentive to get rolling on. The first step is waking and drinking a glass of water. This doesn’t count as one of the activities, but might be the most important! Here are the six:
Meditation – I’ve worked my way through the
Headspace foundation pack, and am now working through the activity packs. I started with Depression (I have a lifelong history of SAD in the New England winters), moving on to Anxiety (might as well tackle the tough ones first!) and looking forward to starting on “Creativity”. I have a year long subscription and am committed to meditating every day.
Affirmations – this is an interesting one, because I’ve avoided these in the past. Why are affirmations important? Well, we chose the scripts that we play to ourselves in our head, and often they can be a repeat of negative and self deprecating thoughts. By thinking of the same negative thoughts over and over, we can make these thoughts a reality. The goal with affirmations is to re-write the script. I’ve written out a series of affirmations that go beyond the inspirational quotes, but hit on my WHYs, my passions, and my desires. Sometimes you have to give yourself a pep talk to get going! (This is actually a great strategy for racing as well.) As I read personal development books, Internet articles, fiction, or even just talk to people, I’ll be building on these affirmations. I’m looking forward to adding to them as I learn and grow.
Visualization – this goes beyond a vision board, but vision boards are a good start! Just by thinking about the life that we want to be living and what our ideal days and years and accomplishments look like, we are achieving the first critical step to making change happen for ourselves. Today I spent ten minutes thinking what my ideal day would look like this coming week. No dramatic stretches! Just reminding myself how I want to act and FEEL.
Exercise – after a quiet winter season, I’m working to bring back movement in a more dedicated way through race training. But the idea here isn’t my whole workout, but to just get my muscles moving and heart pumping. I’ll be starting with a light weight routine in my house. After far too long in the trunk of my car, I just recently brought my frozen kettlebell up the stairs to have on hand. I will also be planking, squatting, and stretching.
Reading – 10-15 minutes of personal development reading. I have a strong reading goal that I’ve written about this year – 100 books! – and I make time during the day for reading already, so this is just a bonus. For my morning practice, I’m going to keep it to non fiction personal development topics. Right now I’m reading Steven Pressfield’s
The War of Art.
Journaling – this is something that I already try to build into my day, but could use the extra motivation. I’ll be doing my typical morning pages – 10-15 minutes of free writing with occasional structure – feelings, thoughts, gratitude lists, and the start of my daily to do list.
The most important part of this month is that I’ve found my accountability partners to ensure my success!
And! To make sure I feel rewarded for my habit building – I have a physical checklist that I’ll be using with little gold star stickers to cross off when I’ve accomplished my tasks. Chore charts don’t just work for kids!
Do you currently have a morning routine?
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:: The Weekly Meal Plan: Week of January 31st, 2016 ::
I’ve been trying to add in a new recipe from a cookbook each week. Last week was the gorgeous chicken with caramelized onions and cardamom from Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem. (See above!) – his recipes are always so delicious! Since cooking with Blue Apron, I’ve actually expanded my patience for cooking slightly longer week night meals, so I’m trying for some with a little oomph more often.
Sunday: green salad with smoked andouille chicken sausage and buttermilk biscuits
Monday: shrimp fried rice (Blue Apron) wild shrimp, with a little side of kimchi that my neighbor made and gave to us.
Tuesday: pork chops with brussels sprouts and pancetta, a super simple three ingredient dinner. Okay, plus spices. Maybe five ingredients.
Wednesday: eggs for dinner. I’ll keep this one simple and make a regular scramble and a green salad.
Thursday: the cookbook recipe that I haven’t decided on yet! I know, I know, I’m sorry to keep you hanging! If you have any suggestions for a great cookbook recipe, I’m all ears.
Friday:out! or as we do these days – takeout and an On Demand movie at home.
by Sam Tackeff | Jan 21, 2016 | Lists, Uncategorized
Welcome to my new office! Now that I’m working from my home several days a week building my business, I finally decided that I needed to get off the couch and get myself a desk. It feels so good to have a place to strategize, dream, and create! I made a big trip to IKEA and went wild. All I have to do now is add some art, plants, a lightbulb in my new lamp, and I should be good to go.
cart: raskog // tabletop: linnmon 59” // trestle: finnvard // side leg (out of shot) kallax bookshelf // chair with sheep
I have a secret goal to write a list every week in 2016 and publish it on The Second Lunch. One of the key ways to build a successful goal is to share it with others! So here you go. I’d like to hold myself to this practice, at least for the next month, when I’ll sit down and re-evaluate if it’s a thing I really want to do! I hope it is!
Here’s what’s happening over here:
cooking
I have a friend Traca who cooks multiple incredible recipes a week for a project she’s currently working on. She’s really pushing herself consistently to learn new things, taste new ingredients, and try new techniques. Each week she posts the list of her global conquests – Mole Colordito Enchiladas, Sichuan noodles and pork shoulder chop, complex recipes from Ottolenghi, Naomi Duguid, and more. I cook a lot of simple meals around here, and it’s really inspiring me to up my game! This week I’m doing the chicken thighs with caramelized onions and cardamom rice from Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem.
shooting
This week I’m taking a ten day natural light shooting challenge with my accomplished friend Kristin Tatem. She has a stunning studio in Lexington, KY – if you are local, consider taking a class with her! She also has online courses! It’s a good excuse to get some practice, and she’s such a capable teacher!
learning
I’ve started a new EdX course – Berkeley’s The Science of Happiness. It’s a 10 week self paced course that delves into the science of happiness, exploration of global and cultural happiness practice, and helps add to your own happiness toolkit. I’m looking forward to sharing some of my learnings with my clients!
reading
I made my way out to an independent bookstore for a book group this week, one of Book Riot’s read harder book clubs. I follow the organizer Jessica on Twitter, and I’m glad she tweeted about it! It’s an “any book book club” which actually works out great, because you get to talk about all different kinds of books, and we all got Book Riot Read Harder Challenge printables. Mine is going up on the wall!
I’ll also be participating in the Newtonville Books reading challenge, working my way through the Man Booker long list, and slowly working my way through the BBC Big Read – a long term project that I started a few years ago.
This week I’m reading: How to Cook a Moose // M Train // On The Move
