Favorite Things From September - 2016

Happy Saturday! My big weekend plans are seeing my FAVORITE band Green Day tonight legit down the street from my apartment. I could not be more excited.

As always, here’s the round up of my favorite things from September. I don’t usually talk about beauty products, but lots of beauty products ahead this month including the new (cheap!) perfume I cannot get enough of. Let’s do this!

Foods I’m Loving…

Poke Spot [Greenwich Village]

Welcome to the neighborhood, Poke Spot! I’m no stranger to poke and am mildly obsessed. For those not so familiar, poke is like chipotle meets sushi… but not as gross as that sounds.

Poke Spot recently opened up super close to me on 12th Street and 4th Avenue. It’s my new favorite lunch when I’m too lazy to cook and want something quick. Which let’s be honest is always.

I’ve been super impressed so far with the freshness of their fish (mucho important when it comes to consuming any raw fish…) and the choices of toppings. I’ve been getting a double order of salmon over brown rice with kale, mango, rice puffs, avocado, hikiji, sesame seeds topped with sesame shoyu sauce.

It can get a little crowded during peak times so I’ve been careful to avoid the thick of the lunchtime rush around 12PM. I will say, even when it’s crowded the line moves fast!

Sun in Bloom [Tribeca]

I was looking for a quick lunch to grab before class last week– something filling, vaguely healthy, quick and of course dairy-free. I totally forgot vegan restaurant Sun in Bloom is SO close to Pace’s NYC campus (where I’m taking all my classes for grad school) and headed there to see what I could find.

I was SO impressed. There are a TON of grab-and-go options (including the above taco) which made it easy to run in and run out in 5 minutes flat.

The taco hit the spot… and I found out there’s a cute outdoor courtyard with wifi in the Pace main building. Win win.

Beauty Products I’m Loving…

Hask Keratin Protein Shampoo + Conditioner

Since getting my first keratin treatment last December, I’ve been using sulfate and paraben-free shampoo to maintain my frizz-free ‘do.

Considering how ridiculously expensive most sulfate + paraben-free hair products are, I was super excited to come across Hask’s line of relatively inexpensive hair products at Duane Reade. They smell AH-MAZING, my hair has been looking shiny and they were less than $8 each for shampoo and conditioner.

Pistachio Brulee Hair + Body Mist from Urban Outfitters.

I love Urban Outfitter’s beauty section. Not sure if this is just a thing at their NoHo location, but it’s a dangerous dangerous place for my wallet. So many fun goodies from brands like Milk and there are amazing Urban Outfitter exclusives.

This UO exclusive perfume smells so so so good. At $24, it’s an awesome price for a decently large bottle of perfume. Or maybe it’s not technically perfume. I don’t care, it smells goooood!

Yummy candles from Urban Outfitters

I’m not typically a candles person, but really love these scents from Urban Outfitters (seriously, I can’t be left alone in that store), plus they are cute too. The Brooklyn one is tobacco and vanilla scented, which sounds weirded than it is. The other one is sea salt and lychee flavored.

I’ve been burning them on my desk while I do homework. It doesn’t make statistics suck less, necessarily, but it does relax me a bit and makes my desk feel more cozy.

What I Read…

Guys, I’ve had serious book commitment issues! I start a book and just can’t get into it and therefore abandon it. Gimme your fiction recommendations!

For this reason I only finished one book… but I started and abandoned quite a few…

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert.

I am SO LATE to the Big Magic party. Holy moly, I don’t even know where to begin with my love for this book. I was a total Eat, Pray, Love junkie so it doesn’t surprise me that I was instantly sucked into this Elizabeth Gilbert book all about the creative process.

As my year of living fearlessly is starting to come to an end, I’ve come to realize how much fear was holding me back and this book so perfectly goes along with these thoughts that have been swirling around in my head.

Even if you’re not a writer specifically, this book is such a bible about the creative process and getting the f*ck out of your own way to make things happen.

What makes the book so incredible is how open and honest Elizabeth Gilbert is about the process. She’s certainly the person to talk about the highs and lows having been mega successful with some books and not so successful with others. What comes through is her serious love of writing, despite the highs and the lows.

I cannot recommend this book enough to anyone remotely creative or looking to create their own thing. It will leave you seriously inspired.

What I’m listening too…

I’ve been on a total podcast kick since the beginning of summer– warm weather means lots of long walks around the city because WHY NOT.

Here is what I’ve been listening to:

Being Boss Podcast

Creative entrepreneurs Kathleen and Emily have put together an excellent, down-to-earth, un-sugar coated podcast about doing the work and creating your own business.

I started listening to this podcast before Holistic Happening was even a fully formed idea in my head. I knew I wanted to create my own thing and I was starting to realize that a traditional career was not the right choice for me right now.

There have been SO many nuggets of wisdom in each episode, whether I’m learning new methods for time management or ways to fine tune my personal brand.

If you’re already a solopreneur or creative entrepreneur or want to head in that direction, this podcast is a must.

Badass and Bare Podcast

Badass and Bare was created by Andrea Hood and Katie Corcoran and is for multi-passionate, hustling #girlbosses trying to do it all but also remain sane. Sounds like someone you know 🙂 ?

I feel fortunate that since starting to listen to Badass and Bare, I’ve become “real life” friends with co-host Katie Corcoran. Both her and Andrea are serious inspirations to me.

Highlights from the month

Holistic Happening #3: Flow into Fall

Holistic Happening is a labor of love for myself and my co-founder Leslie. Our goal is to bring like-minded people together through interactive wellness events. It’s been so exciting to see Holistic Happening grow from this little idea on my brain to an actual, real life thing.

September’s happening was really so exciting for us. It marked the beginning of our partnership with Primary, a KICKASS, wellness focused, co-working space. They have a YOGA STUDIO with jade yoga mats, how insane is that to have at your office?

I kicked off the event teaching a vinyasa yoga class in the studio space. It was my first time teaching somewhere with a sound system and I was SO excited about my playlist. Some top 40 tunes, some Grateful Dead, some Green Day and I even snuck in some Hamilton 🙂

We then enjoyed a healthy, fall-themed dinner created by Leslie. The pumpkin cookies totally stole the show.

For me the most exciting part of the evening was looking around the dinner table seeing total strangers discuss their favorite wellness books and fitness studios in the city total unprompted. I started this blog because I felt alone in my fitness journey, none of my friends worked out or even knew what almond milk was my senior year of college. Reading fitness blogs was my intro to this bigger wellness community and I realized there were other people who shared this interest with me and were trying to navigate this tricky “healthy” thing.

Now I get to create that space for people in real life.