-I made hamburger buns today with the help of the bread machine! What used to be a seemingly impossible task was suddenly achievable and so easy! And they were delicious! Note: Used the “toast dough” setting on the Neretva for where the recipe specified just “dough”.

-More Glacier NP Trip planning today while totally neglecting cleaning house. Once the car rental and campsite situation gets settled I can go back to mostly business as usual…😬 and not be worried about this thing 6 months from now!

-I’m afraid to check but I had a pretty awful sleep last night…some crazy weird dreams though I can’t seem to recall them right now.

-Started listening to Cal Newport’s “Digital Minimalism” today. There were a couple quotes from Marcus Aurelius and Thoreau that were relatable to the concept of digital minimalism. (I mean to record them here as I’ve bookmarked them in Libby.)

Thoreau:

Marcus Aurelius:

-Looking to see if there’s some kind of app to aggregate all the lab work/blood testing I’ve done in the past…I know Apple health take some but I don’t see a way to go back and add info the to have from even college days circa 1997 when it was already recognized I had super high cholesterol.

-Freaking out today a little about getting a campsite in a couple weeks at Glacier and close by hotel accommodations to the park filling up simultaneously. I was able to book a couple hotels with free cancellation just in case…keeping fingers crossed we can camp inside the park though both for the economics of it and just makes it so nice and easy when you are inside and so much closer to doing all the stuff!

-Made pseudo-valentine’s plans for Eric and I on a weekend in early February to visit Rintaro finally…it’s been on my list (non-existent real list) for quite some time.

-Remembered to last minute have our Tuesday Backhaus date with Jasper and Juniper after school…a nice little treat of time with everything pretzel and chocolate croissant. Was proud of Jasper when he got to the cafe and just went straight in to the counter to buy an apple yuzu fizz with his own money!

-Ran the same 5k as last week and made some small time improvements already! Will try again Thursday.

-Got my Monday 5k walk in early today because kids & Eric were off work/school and so I needed to make sure it got done even if it meant venturing out into the dark streets of Burlingame…was rewarded with a pretty sunrise tho.

-Eric accompanied me for a quick run to Costco so I can dedicate tomorrow morning to another 5k run attempt. He and I even had a short laptop date at the Marriott by the Bay to learn something.

-We signed up for Function Health lab testing today…hoping to take advantage of this new system venturing into Medicine 3.0 and actually get a more comprehensive snapshot of what our midlife baseline is. I think it’s good timing since early February we also have our next Dexascan…hopefully the last few months since October of mostly consistent weighted vest, and workouts has reaped some benefits.

-Thinking of trying to add Urolithin A as an experiment these next few months and see if that can improve mitochondrial health, maybe aid in muscle recovery (my right glute/hip/low back issue), improve my ferritin stores, and maybe more…going to delve into some of the podcasts this week again with Anurag Singh (doctor of Mitopure). I’ve definitely felt improvement taking the creatine and collagen regularly, however it’s also difficult to tell how much the weighted walking/exercise has impacted it all as well. Thinking of actively abstaining from alcohol these next few months as well – even though that seems to have already just been the case as is!

-I’m grateful the Nintendo Switch has given me a chance to spend time/reconnect with the kids on a different level again. They seem so independent and wanting to be in their own space/reading/drawing/listening to podcasts, that it’s getting harder to find common ground. I’m grateful for our time together on our hike yesterday…hoping we can get them out again next weekend!

-Eric finished my last 2 kitchen cabinet shelves! It looks more organized for sure and feels good to be making small progress. I will try to start seeing if I can strip the cabinet paint just a bit more and get it cleaned up entirely for the next steps…

-Lights out now…it’s so hard to wake up in the dark even with nearly 7-8 hours sleep. Who knew I’d be addicted to getting more sleep but I kind of am these days.

First official family hike of 2025…going to up the ante this year – longer treks, more elevation, more weight. Got some bigger plans later this year that need some training to see glaciers Glacier National Park! Determined that if we are heading to Montana in August, then that’s 6 months away, meaning only 1 day/weekend to go on a hike which leaves us with only 24 potential family hike days…not counting the weekends when Juniper will be gone meaning maybe only really 20 hikes! I bookmarked a few in AllTrails but need to do some research for a potential harder hike for us while at Sea Ranch.

Gotta look into kayaking too…

The Memory Palace technique is a memorization strategy, based on visualizations of familiar spatial environments to recall information. “Loci” is the Latin term which means “places” or “locations”. The technique involves envisioning a location or physical space that you are extremely familiar with.

Eric was calling it a Mind Palace and I thought he was wrong but yet again we were both talking about the same thing.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/secrets-sherlocks-mind-palace-180949567/

-Kids played more video games and Minecraft all day, more than they probably should. Feeling a little tired though today and feeling lenient since it’s a 3 day weekend.

-Eric made me more kitchen cabinet shelves and also worked on his “does he love me today” website…taking my suggestions about trying to figure out how to find past messages…💕

-We had a late night run to Home Depot and Trader Joe’s for caster wheels and fake Takis. Planning to go on a family hike tomorrow together to Land’s End.

-Showed family Glacier NP hike to Grinnell Glacier which looks a bit grueling but beautiful…downloaded Alltrails to see it in more depth. I think it will be hard but probably worth it…family training the next few months to prepare? Also showed Juniper and Eric the guided kayak tour at Channel Islands NP…more family activities to train and get strong for!

-Got 1 hour of TV time watching the next episode of “the 3 body problem” with Eric…late bedtime for us today. After convincing him to do a full body dumbbell strength training workout. Gotta get our dot on the calendar!

-Also…

-Started/trying The Way app today. Henry Shukman’s meditation app.

-Also David Lynch died yesterday and my social media feed is overwhelmingly filled with so many gem of quotes, memories, inspirational videos.

-Deactivated Nextdoor account.

-At SM medical center this morning to get lab work done to see what Repatha is doing for my LDL, and also to get my ferritin lab redone. Update: got my lab results back and my ferritin is still in the green but pretty low, and my LDL cholesterol definitely dropped a little to 91 (I can’t remember it ever being below 100 anytime before) but it wasn’t as drastic a drop as I had expected. Even the doctor preemptively told me not to freak out if it turned to 0. She mentioned in her message to continue for 3 more months and test again. At which point we might consider adding Zetia (I think that’s Ezetimibe?). In this next 3 month trial period I’m going to really make an effort to get some more cardio in, likely in the form of running, which was a goal of mine anyways. I guess I have to remind myself of this year’s focus – 1% gains…which in this case the LDL is moving in the right direction and not getting worse. The ferritin may have gotten 1% worse though.

-Finished book 2 of the year today “The Memory Police”. I believe it’s one of the books I put on hold after doing a search for authors similar to Murakami. It was good and thought provoking.

-Had a conversation with Jasper about trying to remember that school and certain classes (in this case Humanities) aren’t always about the subject matter but trying to reframe what other skills he is building for future life. I tried to remind him that despite the subject matter, what he’s really building is the muscle to take in information and then think critically about it, and then communicate those thoughts back out to others. So much of what we do and take in is about what kind of person we are training our future self to be.

-In other news I’m going on day 4 of 5 REM cycles at night!

-It’s hard work doing all the things – sleeping on time, eating real food, lifting heavy things, getting all the movement, doing laundry, planning trips, taking kids to their respective classes, maintaining a calm and collected attitude to come home to. I’m tired today.

-Reminder to revisit Gregg Mckeown’s “Essentialism” and “Effortless”. Just placed audiobooks on hold from Libby.

-First attempt at using ChatGPT for something useful – asking which tent campsites are best at Glacier National Park…must think how else to harness this new power for future trip planning.

-Find article about Mastery with Jerry Seinfeld and Ichido Suzuki (referenced and possibly in show notes of Tim Ferris’s podcast #786)

-Finally well enough to officially go for my first attempt at a run in 2025. Proud of myself! 5k distance at a slow jog, no stopping or walking necessary. It did say my effort level was hard and it appears I was in zone 4 or 5 most of the time so my heart was working though my legs felt good and strong. Even now, they feel great and I didn’t seem to need a nap like I often have needed in the past even after just short jogs. Maybe those weighted vest walks are actually paying off, plus working on my overall iron levels/nutrients and especially not giving up hope on fixing/balancing my right glute muscles. For reference I’m posting stats so I can look back a year from now and hopefully see that 1% improvement I’m hoping for!

-Making the necessary plans for summer 2025 camping…looks like Channel Islands, Redwoods, and now Glacier NP will be happening thanks to Southwest amazing flight deal. Let’s hope I can make the reservations early February when they open up now that flights have been bought. It’ll be a little bit of a different trip where we either need to check in our camping gear, or rent from REI upon arrival in Bozeman, Montana. A trip like this used to seem impossible to me, but I finally feel like we are capable of any kind of adventure now!

-Listened to Pico Iyer’s interview at Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park on Zoom about his latest book “Aflame” where he explores his retreat time at a Benedictine monastery along the coast close to Big Sur. Some small research leads me to believe it is this place – New Camadoli Hermitage. I set a reminder for 395 days before my 50th birthday that maybe this would be a good gift to myself…

-Hectic start to the morning with last minute late bus do drive kids to school then rush back to take Eric to the eye doctor…did get in my chilly 3 mile walk all around downtown San Mateo chasing the sunlight while Eric was at his appt though.

-Started making summer plans & camping reservations. I think the goal will be to check off the remaining California National Parks – Redeoods, Channel Islands, maybe a proper Yosemite visit if I can be one of the lucky to secure reservations 5 months ahead of time.

-Trip to Costco, TJ’s for some meal planning for the week which I’m trying to be better about on Mondays.

-Revisiting The Minimalists and some of their newer podcasts…then proceeded to start the decluttering of my closet some. They talked on their of the idea to annually do a “take everything off the shelf/drawer and re-access exercise”…need to find the foundational rules list they have posted with advice like “no flat surfaces”.

-Other things to delve into that I probably heard reference to today: Mo Gawdat “Happy”, Edith Eager (sp?), Paradox of Choice book

GRATITUDE:

Today is last day of antibiotic…