STREET MADONNA

I worked out today for the first time in a while. It’s kind of hard to do cardio in the apartment because we’re on the third floor and the last thing I want to do is be bouncing around on our downstairs neighbors’ ceiling. We have rude upstairs neighbors who stomp and party, so we know how it feels.

And now that we have a new rug in the living room, I can hop a little bit in my sneakers and not disturb anyone below.

I’ve been looking for some fun cardio workouts that I could do without too much bouncing around, mostly without floor exercises or burpees, and not that much strength training. Light dumbbells is a plus.

Here are three of my favorite low impact, high-intensity workout channels on YouTube:

Body Project

I like that these workouts are mostly 30 minutes long. Honestly, I just discovered them, but so far I like the motivation and quality of the videos. They seem to have something for all fitness levels.

This is one I just did. It was a little too easy for me, but I needed easy on my first day back:

POPSUGAR Fitness

I used to work out to POPSUGAR Fitness videos all the time, but mostly for strength training. I still follow along with some arm workouts that were posted by them almost 10 years ago. Never really viewed any of their cardio videos until recently.

They have a wide variety of different types of cardio workouts, like kickboxing or hiphop dancing. I look for the ones that don’t have too many complicated moves because I’m not good at mirroring the dance moves.

I haven’t done this one yet, but I’m going to. I’m a fan of Anna Renderer, she’s fun and down-to-earth.

Git LIIT with Amy

I love Amy. She’s fun and motivational and picks good songs. Has moves that combine boxing and dance. Uses light dumbbells. Workouts are not too easy (for me).

The quality of her videos are not that great, and sometimes the workouts feel very long to me, even when they are just 30 minutes. Not sure why…could be because they are hard workouts or because the moves are the same as the ones in her previous videos. But I mostly like her spirit and want to support her and her channel.

Most of her videos are about an hour long and she does cardio and strength training. Honestly, I’ve never finished any of her hour-long videos. I just putter out at around 30 minutes, so I can’t say whether she does resistance stuff at the end of the cardio part. I stick to her 30-minute videos now so I can finish and not feel like such a fat quitter.

If anybody has any recommendations, let me know!

Before I tell you the simple secret of how I got myself to read a book a week, let me tell you about my awesome new morning routine.

On March 2, I started the “millionaire morning routine,” where I wake up “early” (around 7:15…that’s early for me), recall my dreams, meditate, jumpstart my energy by working out for just a couple of minutes, journal, and make to-do lists.

I have to say that it was all very successful. I felt great, my productivity was off the charts, I received more material manifestations, and my mind was at ease. I felt like a new person.

Another thing that I decided to do was: read a book a week. And with all the extra time I have at home because of the COVID-19 lockdown, I found that it was super fun and easy to get some good reading done. I’ve gone from bingeing on Investigation Discovery TV shows to curling up under the Snuggie with a good book. New person.

So here is the secret to read a book a week: commit to just 45 minutes of reading a day. That’s it. With average reading speed and average word count of an average novel, you will on average read a book a week…if you just commit to reading 45 minutes a day.

And just to share, here are the books I read in March:

Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl

I got this book after Jenni Many recommended it to me. It was the best book that I read this past month. The author is a master of using similes and I felt like each character was vivid and realistic (down to her Lanvin flats).

The plot is interesting. Supernatural theme, which is a theme that I just recently started gravitating toward. The characters relive the same day in a Neverworld realm, which ends up being kind of like Groundhog Day, but not as hilarious. They use their brains to navigate through the Neverworld to try to solve the mystery of one of their friend’s death. Love a good book about brainy rich kids.

I also liked the underlying theme where the main character has drifted apart from the group of friends and doesn’t feel like she fits in with them anymore. Sounds familiar.

I would recommend this book. And Jenni says the author’s first book (Special Topics in Calamity Physics) is even better. I will check that one out too.

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes

I got this book because it was in the “Hot and New” section of my local library branch. I typically read a lot of classic literature, but I figured I should start reading some hot and new fiction. This one is written by an NPR host and is about a lady who is about to leave her lame husband, but then the husband dies in an accident. And then she falls in love with a washed-up professional baseball player.

After reading Marisha Pessl’s rich and intricate writing, the writing in this book felt cliché. I didn’t like the main character, Evvie, at all (I liked that she drinks bourbon, but there is a part where she secretly follows Dean, the baseball player, at 2AM and it made me think she is crazy and weird). And I didn’t understand why the baseball player fell in love with her in the first place.

BUT, the book does a great job of painting a scene. I loved the family scenes, like how the family and friends gathered on Thanksgiving (even though Evvie got lame again when her sweet dad made a toast), and I love how she described the seaside town and culture.

Not an awful book, but not a book I would recommend. But people on Amazon seem to love it, so what do I know?

Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday

Dave gave Eddie this book, and I decided to read it too. It discusses the benefits of some Stoic and Buddhist principles…mainly how slowing down in life can be beneficial to everything in life—your work, relationships, health, etc.

The book goes into some interesting stories about artists, leaders, and athletes, like JFK and Tiger Woods. And one particularly interesting story that Dave liked too…about Michael Jordan giving a speech where he called out all the people who he felt had wronged him early in his career. Haha.

This is a good book. But I already practice most of the things the book was encouraging, so I did not really learn anything new. But it’d be good for someone who is anxious and high-strung, and wants to read about an alternate way of being.

Buy here on Amazon.

Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

Hmm. I have read a few other MG books, eg, Blink, Outliers, Tipping Point, and loved them all. I was happy to see Talking to Strangers in the Hot and New section at the library. But it has ended up being my least favorite one of his books.

The writing style is all the same and I love that part. MG explains psychological studies and findings so you don’t get bored or overwhelmed. But the topic of talking to people we don’t really know and the idea that they might be lying to us just isn’t that interesting to me.

What’s interesting is the acknowledgement that humans default to truth. It is our default setting to believe that others are telling us the truth. And that is largely why we wouldn’t expect our sibling to be a Cuban spy, our colleague to be a pedophile. If you thought I was acting shady and called me out on it, and I said “I was tired,” or “I was just joking around,” you would probably believe me. (As you should. I am not shady.) But you probably shouldn’t believe everyone.

I think every MG book is worth reading. I’m just saying the topic of this one just isn’t as interesting to me as the others I’ve read.

Available here on Amazon.

And now it’s April. But the library is closed. I’m planning on reading a book about marketing (currently taking a copywriting course), and maybe some random books that I find in Eddie’s book pile. We shall see. E-books are still available from the library, which is great.

Hope you all are staying safe and healthy during this weird time!

Do you read a book a week or do you prefer to lounge with Netflix? Let me know if you’ve read anything good. Or if you’ve watched anything good!