by Sam Tackeff | Jan 21, 2016 | Lists, Uncategorized
Welcome to my new office! Now that I’m working from my home several days a week building my business, I finally decided that I needed to get off the couch and get myself a desk. It feels so good to have a place to strategize, dream, and create! I made a big trip to IKEA and went wild. All I have to do now is add some art, plants, a lightbulb in my new lamp, and I should be good to go.
cart: raskog // tabletop: linnmon 59” // trestle: finnvard // side leg (out of shot) kallax bookshelf // chair with sheep
I have a secret goal to write a list every week in 2016 and publish it on The Second Lunch. One of the key ways to build a successful goal is to share it with others! So here you go. I’d like to hold myself to this practice, at least for the next month, when I’ll sit down and re-evaluate if it’s a thing I really want to do! I hope it is!
Here’s what’s happening over here:
cooking
I have a friend Traca who cooks multiple incredible recipes a week for a project she’s currently working on. She’s really pushing herself consistently to learn new things, taste new ingredients, and try new techniques. Each week she posts the list of her global conquests – Mole Colordito Enchiladas, Sichuan noodles and pork shoulder chop, complex recipes from Ottolenghi, Naomi Duguid, and more. I cook a lot of simple meals around here, and it’s really inspiring me to up my game! This week I’m doing the chicken thighs with caramelized onions and cardamom rice from Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem.
shooting
This week I’m taking a ten day natural light shooting challenge with my accomplished friend Kristin Tatem. She has a stunning studio in Lexington, KY – if you are local, consider taking a class with her! She also has online courses! It’s a good excuse to get some practice, and she’s such a capable teacher!
learning
I’ve started a new EdX course – Berkeley’s The Science of Happiness. It’s a 10 week self paced course that delves into the science of happiness, exploration of global and cultural happiness practice, and helps add to your own happiness toolkit. I’m looking forward to sharing some of my learnings with my clients!
reading
I made my way out to an independent bookstore for a book group this week, one of Book Riot’s read harder book clubs. I follow the organizer Jessica on Twitter, and I’m glad she tweeted about it! It’s an “any book book club” which actually works out great, because you get to talk about all different kinds of books, and we all got Book Riot Read Harder Challenge printables. Mine is going up on the wall!
I’ll also be participating in the Newtonville Books reading challenge, working my way through the Man Booker long list, and slowly working my way through the BBC Big Read – a long term project that I started a few years ago.
This week I’m reading: How to Cook a Moose // M Train // On The Move
by Sam Tackeff | Jan 12, 2016 | Wellness
One of my favorite parts of leading a wellness group is working through daily assignments alongside my clients. I find it personally rewarding to engage with the material – one of the most important reasons I chose to dedicate my focus to a career in health and wellness was because of my own pursuit for a healthier lifestyle. On the practical side, it encourages me to assess and reassess the curriculum if I find that I’m personally feeling resistant to the work!
An important part of my regular focus on well-being is my gratitude practice, and so I often begin my coaching work with a short gratitude exercise. Today in Secrets of Self Care, we wrote out 10 things we were thankful for. Here is the short version of mine. The long version took up two pages in my notebook.
Today I have much to be thankful for.
I’m thankful for my loving partner.
I’m thankful to work with some amazing women in my program.
I’m thankful for fluffy white snowflakes.
I’m thankful for a trip to Florida for a few months from now when the snowflakes will be less appealing.
I’m thankful for Jamie Oliver’s muesli recipe. With cacao nibs, blueberries, and maple syrup.
I’m thankful for my oldest friend willing to make an IKEA trip with a stitched up foot. And she let me push her in the wheelchair!
I’m thankful for the $20 *already put together* Raskog turquoise cart from IKEA I found in the as-is section.
I’m thankful for dear friends, both near and far.
I’m thankful for the safety of my family in Istanbul.
I’m thankful for my ever-loving sweet pup, Bertram.
What are you thankful for today?
PS: If you’d like to hear more on this topic, or are interested in future sessions of Secrets of Self Care, sign up for my wellness wisdom newsletter!
by Sam Tackeff | Jan 11, 2016 | Meal Planning
I spent much of the weekend preparing for Secrets of Self Care and am just now sitting down to one of my favorite rituals of the week – my meal planning! Still a few spots left in the program if you are “Monday motivated” and want to LEAP into action today. Send me an email!
For the past few weeks I’ve been trying out Blue Apron to assess whether I’d recommend it as a service to some of my health coaching clients. I’ll write up some thoughts soon, but after this week, I’ve put the service on hold – perhaps not indefinitely, but I miss coming up with my own meals! I decided this after getting the last shipment, so most of these dinners will be from the kit this week.
The other thing I’ll be eating is butternut squash. Somehow I’ve managed to amass a small arsenal of butternut squash, and haven’t been keeping up with cooking it. There are five on my kitchen counter, so I’ve been chopping and roasting like a mad woman this week. Do you have any favorite butternut squash tips? I’d love some more ideas!
Here’s what’s on the docket:
:: The Weekly Meal Plan: Week of January 11th, 2016 ::
Monday: seared cod and date vinaigrette (Blue Apron) with browned butter, quinoa, and spinach salad. Truthfully, I’m not big on quinoa these days, so this is likely going onto cauliflower rice.
Tuesday: cheese and snacks at the Wellesley College Club of Boston board meeting. In some of my spare time, I’m the co-VP of admissions and get to coordinate off campus interviews for prospective Wellesley women! Undoubtedly the best part is that I get to meet up with other amazing alums once a month and partake in high class snacks and wine.
Wednesday: chicken and udon noodle soup (Blue Apron) with napa cabbage and dried lime. I’ll be eating a late dinner because I’m going to try to head to Porter Square Books at 7pm for my friend Annelies’ talk about her wonderful tea cookbook Steeped! After that I have my business mastermind meet up – so this is going to be a late dinner!
Thursday: juicy lucy burgers (Blue Apron) with frizzled onion and romaine-walnut salad. Burgers are always a huge hit in this house. We’ll probably eat them bun-less, because I prefer them that way (and find that hamburger buns tend not to last several days in the fridge.
Friday: Out! Or more likely takeout from one of our favorite neighborhood spots.
What’s on your table this week?
by Sam Tackeff | Jan 8, 2016 | Uncategorized
Second Lunchers! A quick post tonight to let you know that my next 4 week wellness program starts on January 11th, 2016. I’d love to have you a part of it!
Secrets of Self Care is a 4 week program for those who have been focused on career, family, or business, and lost themselves a little in the process.
- Are you lacking inspiration to make simple, healthy, and seasonal meals?
- Are you feeling tired with the change of seasons?
- Does your energy wane in the early afternoon?
- Do you find yourself making sub-optimal food choices when you don’t have better options?
- Do you feel like curling up on your couch with a cup of tea, and not leaving?
Join me for this adventure in which we’ll focus on being kinder to ourselves, supporting our needs and desires, and nourishing our bodies.
What you get:
- Daily weekday emails providing journaling and action prompts.
- Supportive online accountability
- A personal coaching consultation with Sam (via Phone, Hangout, or Skype)
- Additional email support for the duration of the course
What we cover:
- goal setting and mindset training
- gratitude and journaling practice
- meditation and (non-traditional meditative practice)
- adding more joyful movement into our lives
- building better eating habits (and cultivating an abundance mindset)
- and much more!
Here’s how it works:
- The winter session of Secrets of Self Care starts on January 11th.
- Participants are expected to put in the work! Accountability is the name of the game – the more you put in, the more you get out.
- Participants will be added to an online accountability group with other vibrant and kind women!
The cost of the course is $179 for the 4 weeks, including a 1-1 personal coaching session.
We start Monday – I’d love to have you join me – we’ll be thinking, writing, dreaming, and bringing good things to life, and I’ll be doing the work right along side of you!
by Sam Tackeff | Jan 6, 2016 | Cookware
Julia Child, photographed in her Cambridge, Massachusetts kitchen, June 29, 1970. By Arnold Newman/Getty Images.
This is the time of year where I sit down to reflect. While many folks are making resolutions about health and fitness – and I have those year round, I just call them goals – I like to focus on resolutions for my kitchen – my favorite room in the house. It’s a nice practice to remind myself to be more mindful in the space where I prepare our meals, nourish my body, and explore my creativity.
Kitchen Resolutions: 2016
:: I resolve to use my large/fancy appliances more often. This has more to do with my current kitchen space, but my Vitamix, Instant Pot, and Kitchen Aid mixer need more use in 2016. I will say that I’ve used my amazing Breville Tea Pot and my Cuisinart Steam Oven almost daily in the past year though.
:: I will do a weekly assessment of fresh produce in my refrigerator, and do what I can to not let the greens wilt and die before eating them. Or worse, completely desiccate. Although, I did contemplate eating them anyway… fridge-dried kale chips.. how bad can they be?
:: I will cull the pantry. No more hoarding of things that I have no interest in using. No more taking pantry items when people move. On that note, if I inherited something from someone and don’t like it, I will get rid of it and not feel any guilt or shame.
:: Take better care of my cast iron. My mother seasons her cast iron (that I gave her) religiously and it’s beautiful. This is really shameful – my cast iron is currently sitting in the oven and hasn’t been used in a month.
:: I will not use the wrong lid on the wrong pot. I learned my lesson this year when I almost lost my Le Creuset lid to a vicious steam hold on my oversized frying pan. It took several days, the advice of over 20 engineers and 50 Wellesley alums and the collective power of the internet to free it.
:: I will not season directly into the pan. I will take appropriate amounts of seasoning into my hand… and then into the pan. One does not need four tablespoons of chile on one’s eggs.
:: I will read my new cookbooks cover to cover before buying several more. This is actually a newer resolution, because I’ve rarely had this problem before. But somehow several cookbooks came into the house this year that were not read through before getting a spot on the shelf.
From previous years:
:: Wash all dishes and wipe down counters before going to bed each night. I’m too often guilty of leaving things until the next day. A clean slate makes life infinitely easier in the morning, and I feel even better when I have my coffee mise en place ready to go to avoid confusion during my morning grogginess.
:: Keep a running Kitchen Journal. To keep track of our likes and dislikes as a family, and to pass on perhaps one day as a keepsake.
What are your kitchen resolutions for 2016?
