#53: Things I've learned on my vacation

1. It is totally acceptable to wear Crocs. Like not just the cute Crocs that I have but the legit Mario Batali-style old school Crocs. Everyone has them. 

2. The resort has one sign that says you cannot reserve lounge chairs. But no one follows that rule. Except some d-bags I ran into today who mocked me about leaving my towels out on 2 chairs and then were creepy and kind of racist so I took my towels and left. I know that means they "won" but oh well. I couldn't put up with it. 

3. Bring ear plugs. You don't have to hear an alarm- you're on vacation! Plus the walls between your room and the one next door might be paper thin and you can hear their TV and awfully disgusting cough all night. You will be happy you brought the ear plugs. 

4. Pack more sun screen than you think you would ever need. 

5. Also, apply that sunscreen often. More often than you think is necessary or normal. Don't look at your neighbors on chairs next to you as examples. You're a pale white person from Minnesota- make good choices. 

6. Bring more cash too. You don't have to exchange to pesos at the airport because everyone here accepts USD (for souvenirs and such) but not everyone has a credit card machine and once you have to get cash from an ATM but you get there and learn it's only pesos, things get confusing. 

7. Pack light. My dad told my mom before we left all we needed was a swim suit and toothbrush. We scoffed at this suggestion but he was right. All we have done all week is sit in lounge chairs in our suits. No need to bring 5 shirt/short combos like I did. 

8. Learn some Spanish. Conversational stuff to say hello, how are you and thank you. It also helps to know a little more for when the 40-year-old Dominican man on the beach is trying to convince you he loves you when one of his younger employees comes up and introduces himself to you using the Spanish word for "boyfriend" then he speaks to your older lover in Spanish and luckily you know enough to trick them into thinking you understand everything and also not somehow agree to marriage to either of them. 

9. Curse your stupid American upbringing and vow that you will raise your children learning English and Spanish at the same time. Everyone in other countries can do it- why can't we? The first thing I'm going to do someday when I have kids is put them on a waiting list for a Spanish immersion school. This trip has solidified that as my number one priority when the time comes.

10. It is likely that you won't hear a lot of English as people's first language- and if you do, they're probably Canadian. I've heard more French, Spanish and German in the past week than I have ever before. It's awesome. But also weird. 

11. Eat a lot of fruit! I've had more fruit with every meal this week than I probably have in the last month combined. It has been tasty and I tried new weird fruits like a thing that tasted like a very sweet lemon- I asked the waiter what it was and he told me. When I went to Google it that night, it turned out to be a grapefruit. But a delicious Dominican grapefruit.

12. Drink a lot of water. I admit I probably haven't done this enough but I'm trying- also the alcoholic drinks are just so good....

13. If you have a stay overnight between flights at an airport along the way, you will not get your checked bags as they are checked to your final destination. They will sit in the airport and wait to be thrown into your last plane to your final destination, even if your layover is like 14 hours and you have a hotel reservation. This makes sense now but didn't really at 11:30 at night at the Newark International Airport. 

14. Be thankful you have a job that allows you to leave for a week (though I know they would have preferred I didn't), parents who are great and pay half your way for the trip and a mom you want to spend a week doing nothing with. 

Check out this sweet burn! If it doesn't become bronze by the end do the weekend I am going to be so mad. 

Whole 30: What is it and why am I doing it?

The Whole 30 is something I have had my eye on for a few years now after reading about it on a blog I follow. It is a lifestyle changing way of eating- not a diet. For 30 days you essentially follow a Paleo diet with more restrictions to rid your body of the crap you've been eating for years and the bad habits associated with it. After 30 strict days, you go on to reintroduce certain foods in your daily diet to see how your body responds. If it does not respond well, to gluten for example, you would know that you are better off legitimately following a gluten-free lifestyle (unlike everyone doing it now because it's a fad). If you don't respond we'll to dairy products when you reintroduce hem, you know to avoid those as well. The idea is to cut down on snacking, get you to understand your body's signals when it is truly hungry or really full, to reduce the inflammation in your body from food that causes issues like asthma or migraines or diabetes. 

I do not have any major health issues. I just want to be healthier. I want to make changes in my life, even if that means cleaning out the beer fridge or not grabbing that Pizza Hut personal pan pizza when I run to Target at lunch. Mostly I want to do this to show friends and family it can be done. The couple who started this program and who wrote the book are skinny and good looking. 

Still, I somehow trust them. But I want my friends and family to see me do this and know they can do it too. Because I am surrounded by a lot more health issues than those of my own and I truly believe after reading this book that migraines, depression, anxiety, high cholesterol, etc can be alleviated by a change in what people are consuming and how people are eating. 

So here is hopingt that this works. Several testimonials say that they dropped weight by changing their diet only- no exercise boost. I would like to see if that's the case since I don't want to drive to my favorite fitness studio and it's not nice enough yet outside to of anything fitness-related. 

This may seem like another fleeting random fad that I found but I was right about Peak 10 so hopefully I am right about this too. And you will get to join me along the way because I will be posting weekly (maybe daily if the mood hits me right) my journey so you can travel along and them make your decision when I'm done whether it's worth it for you. 

In the mean time if you are at all interested, I would highly recommend reading the book "It Starts With Food" because it not only explains the science behind the Whole 30 but does some meal planning and shares people's stories too. 

Anyway, the journey (and test of my dedication and willpower) begins April 1. And no, this isn't an April Fool's Day joke- it was the closest month coming up with exactly 30 days. :)

A Few of My Favorite Things: New Music

Bastille//Bad Blood

Bastille's "Pompeii" was the first single on this album that was played on the radio.  It is every where now (even in the commercials for the movie Mr. Peabody, if I remember correctly).  The rest of the album is fantastic.  And the additional songs on the extended album "All This Bad Blood" are amazing too.  Download it now.

Ariana Grande//Yours Truly

Ariana plays Cat on Nickelodeon's "Victorious" and now "Sam & Cat".  She was a singer on "Victorious" since it was a school for talented kids.  You never really understand her true talent on TV because she's playing such an unfortunately dumb girl.  This album sounds like an early 90's Mariah Carey album- no joke.  She's got the range and the raspy voice and its so fun to listen to and sing along with.  Plus there is a song called "Popular" that she sings with MIKA that sounds like "Popular" from the musical Wicked- its wonderful.

The Mowgli's//Waiting for the Dawn

The first single off this album is "San Francisco".  I heard it many times on Cities 97 and never really liked it until a month or two after they started playing it.  Then I downloaded the album and fell in love.  I feel like a lot of the music on this list is pretty similar- stuff they play on Cities, kind of alternative until its catches into the mainstream.  I just really want to see The Mowgli's in concert only they're not touring right now.  Hopefully they'll be at the Basilica Block Party...  There is a song on this album called "Hi, Hey There, Hello" with a line in it that I want to get tattooed on my body- "I'm not skin and bones, I am sunshine and snow".  I feel like that's a pretty good description of myself.

Gavin DeGraw//Make a Move

I love Gavin DeGraw.  I attribute this love to my love of One Tree Hill.  Isn't that how most people learned of Gavin?  I would say so.  This, like all his other albums, is great and catchy and reminds me of Tree Hill and some of my favorite characters on TV.  He sings one song on this album about a crazy night out with one of his buddies.  It makes me laugh.

American Authors//Oh, What a Life

This album just came out to round out their EP that I've been listening to quite often since I got it.  "Best Day of My Life" is one of those songs you listen to and hope that it comes true as your day goes on.  I haven't listened to these newer songs too much yet but I know I love them already.

Lizzo//LIZZOBANGERS

Here's a rather random one on my list.  I like Lizzo for many reasons- she's a Minneapolis-based artist, she reminds me of Missy Elliott, she is smart and she's just plain cool.  I mean look at her.  I heard a couple of her songs on The Current and decided to download the album for a change in my normal music routine.  Its just a fun album with intelligent wording and mentions to Minneapolis every once in a while.  She's a badass.

Lucius//Wildewoman

This is also an album that I was introduced to on The Current.  They were just in town and I didn't really care but now that I've been listening to the whole album, I wish I had gone to see them anyway.  They'll be at SXSW next week so you know they're a pretty cool band.  I downloaded it because I realized when I heard the song "Tempest" on the radio I knew most of the words.

The Head & The Heart//Let's Be Still

And finally, this album.  It came out in late 2013 so its not super new to the scene but its new to me.  This is their second album- I didn't feel compelled to buy their debut self-titled album in 2011, though I did download a single from it.  I didn't even realize this album was out until I heard "Shake" on the radio (can't remember if it was Cities or The Current).  I downloaded the album and realized that I had also heard another song from it on the radio.  So far, though I just downloaded it, I love every song.