Oregon is gorgeous. The geography and variety of scenery here are breathtaking. You can pretty much do any outdoor activity in this state. Portland is a foodie city with plenty of delicious restaurants. There is plenty of alcohol production for enjoyment: Willamette Valley vineyards that specialize in Pinot Noir, a sake brewery, distilleries, and of course, the craft beer scene is awesome since Oregon is a major producer of hops.
I will definitely come back... for vacation.
1. Eat healthier
I haven't been diligently tracking my weight, but last time I weighed myself, I was at 118.5 lb after dinner. I remember I used to be around 125 lb after dinner... so yay? Now, while I am losing weight, that doesn't necessarily correlate to being healthy, so I need to use some other metrics. Also, this was before I ate ramen for 3 nights and ordered pizza delivery. I was slightly depressed and needed some comfort food that I didn't have to work too hard to cook.
Now for some food photos:
Had to roast two chickens for the meal plan one Sunday and ended up using all the chicken bones to make homemade chicken noodle soup! It was good, but we didn't have a strainer or anything, so it ended up a bit chunky with bits of bone floating around.
When I visited Albany to look for apartments, Ben and I made lamb rogan josh, which is probably my favorite Indian dish. It really wasn't very difficult, just requires having the correct spices. Served with a side of mango lassis and on top of jasmine rice (lack of basmati rice in the house). Yum! Now, whether this was healthy or not, I am not sure, but it sure was delicious!
Not as good as Karavalli, but still very delicious!
And some highlights from The Fresh 20:
- Minestrone with quinoa (the only one I have a photo for - the others I ate too quickly)
- Chicken tortilla soup
- Spaghetti with fresh tomato sauce (homemade sauce is so delicious)
- Creamy butternut chicken fettucini with spinach and cauliflower
- Italian polenta mozzarella bake
- Creamy chicken and broccoli casserole
A twist on an Italian comfort classic.
Status: Still good... minus last week and having random cravings.
2. Exercise more
Since my last progress check at the beginning of the year, I've been skiing 8 times!
Bluebird days at Mt. Hood Meadows are very nice, and provide great views of the Cascade Range.
The Cascade Express chairlift was often closed when I was there, due to high winds.
But when it was open, there were great views of the peak!
Been trying to improve my skiing by not turning as much, pointing my skis to the fall line as much as possible, and improving my stance by leaning forward more and bringing my arms in front of me.
I also discovered that equipment makes a huge difference. My boots were too soft, too roomy - good for beginners, but an inefficient use of energy. A lot of my energy was spent in just moving my feet around in my boot, and not in moving the skis. So I went in to US Outdoor in Portland and was fitted by a very knowledgeable salesperson, who helped me determine the appropriate boot for my ability and size. Upgraded to the Atomic Hawx 80 W. Instant improvement. Much more control, my feet aren't sliding around, and I haven't been tired after an entire day of skiing! In fact, yesterday I went skiing and had 19 runs at Meadows. Mt. Hood Meadows has a cool system where you can track your vertical feet based upon when you check in at the RFID gates before you get on a lift. And since I'm an engineer, I like graphs :)
Yesterday, I did 19 runs from 9am-1pm (with a lunch break of 30 mins).
For the entire season, I've done over 149,735 vertical feet of skiing!
(It doesn't include my day at Mt. Bachelor)
Even though I've been skiing quite a bit, I would still say that there is a lot of room to grow in terms of exercising on a regular basis. Most of my skiing was done on weekends, so I need to find something close to home to do on weekdays after work - it will probably be biking, once it gets warm. I may consider buying a stationary bike stand so that I can work out in the winter.
Status: Getting better at skiing, need more variety of activities and more during the weekdays.
3. Read more books
Slowed down on the reading due to other activities, but still reading Life of Pi and starting Cloud Atlas. It seems that although I have lots of time to read, the time I actually use to read is when I'm on a plane.
Status: Not as great as previous months, but still better than six months ago.
4. Learn new things/develop hobbies
I'm continuing to take courses on Coursera. Currently I am taking Fundamentals of Personal Finance and Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering. The personal finance course has been very useful information, and just for learning various financial terms that one encounters throughout their life and what they mean. I would like to learn about how to invest my money, how to efficiently save for retirement, and what various kinds of insurance can do for me. The electrical engineering course I have not made great strides in, but it is to brush up on things that I should have learned while taking ECE 210, and also just know more because a lot of what we deal with in the field heavily pertains to electronics.
After looking at my resume and realizing that I no longer have some of the skills I listed, I decided to re-learn SolidWorks. It brings me a sense of enjoyment to design something and then create it. Except that I did it the other way this time. Ben gave me a jewelry box for Christmas which he made himself, and I decided to CAD it.
Opened jewelry box, showing the dividers.
Made of maple and purple heart woods. It looks better in real life.
Also, because my job has been requiring me to take lots of photos recently, I've tried to reacquint myself with Photoshop a bit more for some gorgeous photos around site, such as this lengthy paranoma that really requires detailed viewing to see just how vast the site is:
Try to count how many turbines there are. I dare you.
Using the new site camera: a Canon EOS Rebel T3.
Status: Much better! Learning things, re-learning things, I may have found a hobby that I like to do (CAD - for fun, not for work *ahem* Kevin *ahem*)
Of course, when I move back these goals will not change, and I hope that being back to a familiar environment with friends and family close by does not stop me from continuing my individual pursuits.
