Reasons to Run in the Rain

Since I first began my running "career" (i.e., started running to train for a race rather than just for fun), the greatest obstacle I faced was going out on those notorious Vancouver rainy days.  Hearing it pounding away on my rooftop automatically put me in the mindset that I wasn't going to run that day.  But after a gorgeous summer practically living at the seawall, I was so used to running almost every day that the idea of skipping a few days on account of perfectly harmless rain had me quite conflicted.

So one day, I put on the most water-resistant gear I owned, and just went for it.  The craziest part was that after the initial shock of running in a downpour, I really started to like it!  Rainy runs are definitely more exciting, challenging and fun.  And here are my top reasons to try it out for yourself:

1.) Once you get going, you stop minding the rain.

After adjusting and readjusting your outfit, turning up your music louder than usual, and getting thoroughly drenched to the bone, you realize that dodging puddles is no use and so you stop caring.  What helped me personally was wearing my old runners when embarking on rainy runs.  This is why it is important to never totally wear out your running shoes, so that you can wear them in terrible weather and not mind if they get muddy and totally soaked!

Photo cred: runranrun.com




2.) You officially look bad-ass.

By looking bad-ass, I mean you look hardcore.  By looking hardcore I mean you look like an elite, serious runner.  You'll notice as I have that on rainy runs, you will only run into other serious runners on your route. I also enjoyed the excuse to wear my metallic-purple Nike jacket, too.

3.) You will become a better runner.

Running in the rain poses some challenges--both mental and physical.  By overcoming that natural instinct telling you to stay in bed and out of the rain, you've officially lost one of the most common excuses to not go out running.  And after you've gone once, your subsequent rainy runs will just get easier and easier. You also improve your form because running in slippery conditions with limited visibility forces you to be mindful of each and every stride. You stay alert and concentrated rather than let your mind wander. After the rain has ceased, your next dry-run is sure to be better than your last. The next day after my first rainy run I felt like my body was lighter and that I was running faster and more efficiently.

If you are still feeling hesitant or uneasy about running in the rain, my last advice to offer is this:

4.) If you can't beat it, run in it.  

Rain persists throughout our Fall, Winter and Spring seasons and most people let it get them down emotionally and physically.  Unfortunately for us, human beings do not hibernate and we shouldn't pretend to. Instead, why not try to turn the tables on a conventionally unhappy rainy day and act like it is a good thing?  To run in the rain is to embrace it in every sense of the word, and you'll be happy and proud of yourself for the rest of the day for doing it!

How to Eat Clean on a Shoestring Budget

I often suffer from the same dilemma that I’m sure a lot of health-conscious-yet-poor-20-somethings’ have: eating healthy on a budget.  Though fresh produce is usually under a dollar a piece, for most people fresh fruit and veggies are not enough to live off of.  I am a pescatarian—meaning I only eat fish and no other meat, and I avoid dairy as much as possible.  The more foods or ingredients you try to eliminate from your diet, the more money it would seem you have to spend on groceries. Case in point: gluten-free products.  Removing gluten from cereal, soya sauce, bread and many other staple foods can make the price jump from 20-50%. Unless you go for items that are gluten-free naturally (such as rice), the price-hike can really dissuade people from adopting a gluten-free life.  It has for me at least, and as a carb-a-holic runner with no evident allergies, I embrace gluten with open arms.

That being said, I do LOVE rice. Good rice can be expensive, so buying it in bulk is advantageous because it won’t go bad.  My favorite rice is thai red rice, because it is hearty and also contains more nutrients than regular brown rice. Because it is so filling, you only need about ½ cup or even 1/3^rd per meal, so you won’t need to buy it every week.  However, having good bread in the house goes without saying for me--I usually have to buy it once a week.  I go for Silver Hills Steady Eddie, which has a low GI and 4 grams of fiber per slice.  Since this bread is on the upper-end of the price scale, I freeze it and use as needed to preserve it longer.

On the topic of freezing, storing produce in the freezer is a great strategy for taking advantage of sales on fresh fruit and vegetables.  If you want to save time on meal prep, the alternative to buying frozen is to buy whatever is seasonal or on sale, then washing, chopping and storing it all in Ziploc freezer bags.  This is especially useful for buying summer berries, as they can start to go bad before you even have a chance to put them in the fridge.  The same rule can apply to meat and fish, however my mother always tells me freezing fresh meat and re-thawing it compromises its taste and texture.

Eliminating meat or only buying it every other week is another great way to save on money and reduce unhealthy fats in your diet.  I buy tofu about twice a week at around $3-$4 a pack, and great meat alternatives are popping up at less expensive grocery stores (i.e. Canadian Superstore, which has delicious faux chicken breasts and soy burgers under their house-brand called Blue Menu).  Kidney beans, edamame, chick peas and quinoa are other great sources of protein that don’t cost a lot yet can add a tremendous amount of flavor and nutrition to vegetarian dishes.

If you are vegetarian, and especially if you are vegan, you’ll want to make friends with the potato, sweet potato and/or yam.  Potatoes are dirt cheap, and if you want to actually fill up from eating a salad, then adding this nutritious starch to it will benefit you in the long run.  Hold on to the potato’s vitamins by leaving the skin on, and hasten the cooking process by chopping or slicing them before boiling, baking or sautéing them.

Finally, to save money and to eat healthy, avoid the “convenient” isles. Anything in a box that you need (rice, crackers, cookies, pasta, and other perishables) can be bought in the bulk section.  The beauty of bulk is that you can choose the quantity, and therefore have less of the junk food and more of the healthy foods in the house. Just make sure you buy the whole-grain versions of everything.  The bulk prices are usually if not always lower than their boxed varieties—especially when it comes to baking goods, nuts and dried fruit.

Vancouver Keeps Climbing

On CTV News the other night, the headline story was about bursting the real estate bubble in Vancouver.  Apparently, luxury homes have not been selling as well as last year, down an estimated 30%.  The story went on to conclude that the “Average Joe” may soon be able to afford a luxurious home for only 3 to 4 million dollars.  Needless to say, I wasn’t taking a sigh of relief at the end of the segment.

As long as I can remember making note of such things as property rates, I have only recalled one thing about Vancouver real estate: the prices keep going up.  And the longer I live here, the more obvious the reasons become.

The 2010 Winter Olympics took everyone by surprise as both the weather and the people in Vancouver behaved more pleasantly than anticipated.  The warm temperatures, the strange absence of rain and snow, and the abundance of friendly smiles and high-fives in the streets all helped boost Vancouver’s reputation and image when all eyes were on the downtown core.  The City’s low-environmental impact initiatives were successful in boosting Vancouver’s reputation as a green city.  The additional bike lanes, driving restrictions and the new state-of-the-art Convention Center were just some of the ways Vancouver made a stellar impression on the world stage and on real estate investors.   

Post-Olympics, Vancouver has continued to build and sell condos everywhere possible, and gain more international attention with a few hit TV shows such as Gastown Gamble and The Real Housewives of Vancouver—the first Canadian city to have the Real Housewives franchise.  The gorgeous shots of Vancouver (to date, all episodes have been filmed on clear sunny days) make Vancouver look as irresistible as southern California.  And with people like the real housewives moving to the city without having to wince at the price tags, the cost of living in Vancouver shows no sign of coming down.  High competitive prices work in favor of the international housing market, so unless there is an economic incentive to lower prices, I fear the highest bidder will simply always win.

The Mayor’s Task Force on Housing Affordability in Vancouver is giving me some hope. Having a Task Force on the issue is comforting because it addresses housing affordability as a real problem. Perhaps by the time I am ready to stop floating in a limbo of month-by-month living, some solutions will have surfaced.  Until then, it looks like becoming a millionaire is going to have to be a serious goal in my 10-year plan.

Bombshell was a Smash

I am no TV connoisseur, but I do tend to watch a lot of it and I tend to be quite critical of it—though I do have a soft spot for good singing and good story telling.  Having watched NBC’s Smash from the start, I fell in love right away.  Katherine McPhee is the fresh-faced star of the show who is not only absolutely gorgeous, but is an extremely talented singer and actress that makes her impossible not to root for.  Another reason I started watching was because of the nature of the show: a fictional drama set around creating a hit Broadway musical loosely based on Marilyn Monroe’s life, called Bombshell.

 

Essentially, Smash is a more mature version of Glee, as it follows the personal dilemmas of the actors and provides the behind-the-scenes atmosphere of a hostile production environment.  The British director played by Jack Davenport behaves more like a misogynist dictator, yet manages to charm and sleep with two of the three Marilyns in the show.  The relationships and friendships between the characters develop, grow and change in ways more natural and realistic ways than in many other TV dramas, yet are just as interesting to watch because of the great acting--especially by Deborah Messing.

 

The struggling-actress plot line never gets old for me and, as a former dancer, I can remember feeling the anxiety of preparing for a show and rehearsing before a competition.  The parallel struggles fought between the real Marilyn Monroe and the actresses playing Marilyn (Karen and frenemy Ivy) add another layer of interest and made me feel sympathetic for both characters.  On top of that, McPhee’s on screen boyfriend Dev is a very handsome Indian-American with an English accent who treats her like gold and supports her no matter how crazy her life gets—a rare depiction of a good boyfriend character on a modern television show (er, save for the third-last episode, that is...).

Usually, too much corny singing will throw me off any musical be it in a play, television show or movie format.  But Smash has just enough singing, dancing and dramatic plot twists to leave me counting the days until the season two premiere in the fall of 2013.