Progress report cards for old people

Annual report cards didn’t bother me in school. I did well in the subjects I liked, and the rest did not matter. As long as I was somewhere nicely hidden at the center instead of standing out due to good or bad reasons, I didn’t care.

Growing old, of late, has brought annual report cards of a different kind with newfound anxieties. My annual health report card didn’t look so good last year. It didn’t look terrible either, but I wanted to avoid being on the newspaper for suddenly dying under mysterious circumstances while, say, climbing up the stairs or sweeping and mopping the floor. If my mother could write one self-help book, it would be named, “Getting things done by nagging!” She nagged me into working on my numbers. She had high expectations of me waking up at 5 am every day and working out, which never happened. But I said goodbye to mutton, biryani, and mutton biryani (kinda!). The pandemic worked wonders too. I lost adipose with minimal effort, mostly by eating at home.

It was time for my annual report card. I found myself sweating as my mother frowned at the numbers from my bloodwork. I left it to her, I didn’t have the heart to look at the numbers myself. Looks like the undesirable higher numbers have gone down and the undesirable lower numbers have gone up. I still wonder how someone living in all-year-sunny India can have insufficient Vitamin D levels. But overall, the numbers look better than last year.

I celebrated the good numbers with mutton biryani from Arsalan and loved every grain of it!

 

sunshine

Of bananas, temples, and early morning walks

There is something with me meeting people who take their fitness a tad too seriously. They sometimes involve me in their excitement and with me not able to say no, I get into all kinds of trouble.

 

A professor of mine has invited me to her campus. This evening, she enthusiastically showed me around. We walked for close to 3 hours, she is holding a moderately heavy bag of books and me, nothing. Yet, I kept huffing and puffing, stopping occasionally and pretending that I am admiring the trees, the birds, and the buildings. I was simply catching my breath. Her shapely biceps showed with the bag of books that she refused for me to carry. At 72, she gave me serious fitness goals. There is no asking what I would be doing at 72. I will be dead by 72.

 

With all her enthusiasm, she asked me if I'd like to join her and her spouse for a morning walk tomorrow so that they could spend more time with me. There was a window of a few milliseconds when I could say no, but why would I? This is exactly how I get myself into trouble. It's only after I said, "Sure, why not?" that she told me that they would meet me at 7 am. 7 am on a Sunday? FML! I haven't had a single day off in February due to early morning flights and interviews, and this is how I start the first day of March? While saying goodbye, I said, "So see you at the guest house tomorrow at 7 am?"

 

"Not there, we will meet you in front of Sri Maramma temple at 7 am," she said.

 

Holy cow! I quickly Googled to see that Sri Maramma temple was at the other end of the campus, a good 30-minute walk away from the guest house (make it 45 with me losing my way). I just said yes to a 7 am fitness meeting to learn that I must start much earlier than that. I am a ravenous breakfast eater; I cannot function without breakfast. And I don't mean tea or coffee, I mean solid food. Even if I managed to wake up at 5:30 am to start walking at 6:15 am so that I could meet them at 7 am and walk around some lake until 7:45 am (which is what they had planned), I would be dead at 8 am without food. The dining hall (which again served me vegetarian food during dinner, double dhokha!) doesn't open until 8 am on Sundays. This is like living a nightmare I did not sign up for when I left home this morning, coincidentally at 7 am.

 

Shamelessly, I asked the dining hall person if he can give me some fruits. I made up a lie that I wake up at 5 am everyday (no, I don't!) and I cannot starve until 8 am. He was understanding. He went inside the kitchen, talked to some people, and brought me four sorry-looking bananas I felt embarrassed to carry back as people started at me. I would be eating these at 6 am tomorrow before starting my shorter walk that would be followed by the longer walk. Just to make sure I know my way, I walked back from Sri Maramma temple to the guesthouse after saying goodbye to her. There was a huge demon standing in the temple with a tiny goddess poking his bulging belly with a trishul. The goddess was slaying the demon, but it looked like she was poking a hole into his belly to relieve him of all the gas after he overdosed on beans and radish for dinner last night. I know all of us at some point have felt like this demon, wishing for relief! I named her Goddess Anti-flatulence! By the time I had crossed Swamiye Saranam Ayyappa temple, I was screaming ayyo and appa in pain. I had not packed walking shoes and my feet were screaming murder!

 

So, as you enjoy your Saturday night eating and drinking and making merry, I am going to bed early. I was hoping to hang out with a few friends, chilling with some beer and barbecued animal protein. But I have a big fight ahead of me tomorrow. And only the spirit of Saranam Ayyappa or Sri Maramma and these four bananas can save me.

 

sunshine

Week 8: Traveling when not traveling

Lake Bled in Slovenia

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I did not start traveling either seriously or solo until I was in my late twenties. But once I did, it opened up a whole new world of learning for me. It boosted my confidence immensely and taught me how to pursue things independently, without waiting on people whose travel frequency does not match mine. In a span of six years, I had ended up traveling more than thirty countries, and many of them, alone.

However, I had to recently factor in the reality of my new position- being pre-tenure at a research university, which is not for the faint-hearted. It requires years of immersion in research, being very active and productive in terms of publishing and bringing in grant money. Therefore, I do not get to travel as much these days.

Scratch that. I do get to travel, but it is a different kind of travel. I travel mostly for work and conferences, and these are mostly to urban cities within the US. Baltimore. Atlanta. Boston. San Francisco. Such travel would have thrilled me many years ago, and I once used to spend my own money to visit these places during national holidays, but no more. After a point, all US cities look and feel the same. Sometimes, I do not even get to step out of the conference venue and explore the city.

When I think of my happy travel experiences, I think of hiking and driving around the Grand Canyon. I think of those beautiful sunsets and good food in Puerto Rico. I think of the blueness of the ocean in Hawaii. I think of the geysers of Yellowstone and the glaciers of Montana. I think of eating fried crickets in Mexico and Cambodia. I think of flying over Mount Everest in Nepal. I remember the flavorful stew in Dubrovnik (Croatia) and the church I hiked in Montenegro. I think of the cruise ship I took to Norway and the largest ice caves in the world I hiked in Werfen (Austria). I think of Mount Etna in Sicily (Italy) and the goosebumps I got visiting a concentration camp in Auschwitz (Poland). From the forts of Malta to the oceans of Portugal, from the mountains in Sikkim to the cobbled streets of Estonia, wonderful travel experiences have filled my life. Naturally, after visiting most US cities, the lure of Washington DC, Miami or San Diego is not much.

So how does one travel without traveling?

Once a week (during the weekend), I routinely spend a few hours watching travel documentaries on YouTube. I was amazed at the wealth of resources travel blogs and YouTube provide. It gives me a vicarious sense of travel pleasure. I randomly pick a country on the map and go find everything I can about the country. This is how I learnt about the Pamir Highway connecting Tajikistan to Kyrgyzstan, the amazing bhortas and the biryanis one can eat while visiting Bangladesh, the mountains of the Himalayan range, some of the higher motorable roads in the world in Leh and Ladakh, the different seasons in a country as small as Sri Lanka, the fanciest trains in the world and what they offer, the history of Burkina Faso that was formerly called the Republic of Upper Volta, the monasteries of Bhutan, the island of Bali, and so much more. Although I would much rather visit these places in-person, this experience gives me a travel high and enriches my knowledge about the history and the geography of a place when I am cooped up working for months and do not even get to visit the downtown nearby. I find it to be a much better use of time than following the hyped shows and sitcoms.

If you want to see the beautiful, awe-inspiring, rugged mountains of Pakistan, watch the movie Dukhtar. And if you have fascinating travel experiences and itineraries to share, I would love to hear from you.

sunshine

Week 7: A clean sink and a made bed

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Waking up to a clean kitchen sink really makes me happy, and so does coming home to a clean, made bed. So I make sure I do both every day. 

Long back, I came across this talk about the value of making your bed and really liked it. It is the joy of accomplishing at least one task every day. I know that throughout the day, I will have many triggers, things that will stress me out but I cannot control. There will be multiple rejections coming my way- papers and proposals rejected, decisions that do not go in my favor. I do not have control over those things. However, I do have control over the little things that I can do for myself.

For example, waking up to a sink with dirty dishes puts me off. Cleaning dishes is not my most favorite activity, and that is not what I want to start my day with. So no matter how tired I am, I try to finish off the dishes before I go to sleep. For this, I have to portion out the cooked food into little containers and store them in the fridge. I have to pack my lunch for the next day. I have to clean the kitchen counter. Once I have done all that, I try to finish the dishes, leaving them to dry overnight. That way, the next morning, I can start my day finding a clean, dry cup waiting for me to make myself coffee of milk. It saves myself useful morning minutes too. 

Similarly, at the end of a long day, it feels calming to come back to a made bed. It makes me feel grateful for having a home and being able to stay warm and comfortable. After a long day at work, I'd want to be nowhere else but home. So every morning before I leave home, I make sure to leave it in a condition that I would long to come back to it.

As a kid, I used to do other chores every night to prep for school the next day. I used to clean and polish my black leather shoes. And I used to organize my school bag. I especially miss polishing my shoes every night. 

When the bigger things are going wrong, I find comfort in these little things going right. Waking up to find the dishes clean and dry, coming home to a clean bed, and packing my lunch with me every day instead of eating outside. 

sunshine

Week 6: Visible-eaty

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I was craving ruti for lunch that day. So I opened the fridge, stooped, and retrieved the open but sealed packet of uncooked phulkas that Gundamma had packed me the last time I visited her. I had already cooked 5 or 6 out of that packet a while ago.

As I opened the sealed, plastic bag of phulkas and carefully took out an uncooked one, my heart sank when I saw a patch of green growing on the surface of the first one. Carefully, I peeled each phulka to see the patch of green on every single piece but the last, the patch increasingly getting smaller. I knew I could do nothing to salvage this, the green was a patch of mold growing on the uncooked phulka. With a heavy heart, I tossed all of them in the trash.

I felt horrible that day. Wasting food makes me feel like I have attained a new low in life. I had spent money on those, and since I am not familiar with the desi stores here, I got them all the way from Seattle. Since I had already consumed more than half the packet, I wondered what made me leave the rest uneaten. I knew that I was traveling, and before that, I was off solids for a while after my dental surgery. But I knew the main reason why I did not finish all of them.

The reason was because I had stored the packet inside the vegetable tray in the fridge, a spot that was out of my line of sight. Hence I had conveniently forgotten about it.

An empty vegetable tray 

So now, I try to store all my food in the fridge in my line of sight. I try not to store anything in the vegetable tray (see picture).

I try to do this with dry food too. Instead of storing them in some obscure nook in the pantry, I keep them all at eye level so that I do not forget about them. It often happens that I go to the desi store and cannot remember if I already have something. As a result, I have often bought multiple jars of pickle or ghee, multiple packs of spices or flattened rice or chaatu, and then they sit there and go stale. I am still learning to get better at letting things sit and go waste. When you do not see something regularly or do not have ready access to it (where you have to bend or struggle to find something), you tend to forget about it.

This is not only for food in the fridge or spices in the kitchen. I have often forgotten about clothes and accessories, the pair of jeans, a pair of gloves, and bought the same thing twice because things were tucked in an obscure corner of the wardrobe. Now, I try to put everything I have in front of me so that it is easier to remember how much I already have.

sunshine

Week 5: Minimizing plasticity

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In my effort to reduce plastic consumption, I have been doing the following for some time now.

·       I don’t use plastic grocery bags. I carry my own reusable bag. If I forget my reusable bags, I just do not go grocery shopping that day. I don’t even go for paper bags most of the time.

·       When I am at the checkout counter of a grocery store and they ask me if I want plastic or paper, I make sure I say it aloud that I prefer to use my own reusable bags for a better environment. People behind me may not care, but I still do my bit.

·       I do not drink soda/pop/cold drinks. They are unhealthy anyway.

·       I don’t buy food that has a lot of plastic wrapping. I buy vegetables in ones and twos and wash them at home instead of plastic wrapping them.

·       I don’t use single-use straws. I don’t use straws to begin with.

·       I avoid drinking at a coffee shop, unless they serve food in proper china, which is not a practice culturally common in the US. That to-go cup and its lid are plastic. Coffee in the US is unnecessarily pricey anyway. I make my own coffee at home. [I just heard that there is an app that simulates café noise, for those who miss working at a café].

·       I don’t even take free food that is covered in plastic. The pretzels they give you during domestic flights are a good example.

·       I have a plate, bowl, fork and spoon at work. I also carry a stainless steel spoon in my backpack.

·       I don’t buy things on Amazon unless absolutely necessary. They use a lot of plastic and bubble wrap for packaging.

·       I really judge and look down on people who invite me home, cook up a grand meal and serve food in disposable cups and plates.

·       I pack my lunch in glass containers instead of plastic containers.

·       I buy fewer things, especially single-use things to begin with.

·       I am mindful of what I throw in the trash and ask myself if I could have not generated that trash in the first place.

·       I light a scented candle instead of using air fresheners.

·       I don’t use Ziplock bags. I store my vegetables in a bowl or container.

·       I use cloth instead of paper towels to clean surfaces.

·       I use online billing to avoid trash.

If there are other things you do to reduce waste (plastic waste in particular), I would love to hear from you.

sunshine

Week 4: Giving up something comfortable

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For five years in the US, I not only drove, but also immensely enjoyed it. I never saw it as a chore, something to be afraid of. I gladly gave free airport rides early in the morning. I would drive from Lincoln to Omaha to get some mutton biryani in a jiffy. I needed no nudging for long road trips, and most of them, I did singly. I drove anywhere between 300-500 miles (one-way) during long weekends, visiting places like the Niagara Falls, New York City, and Princeton during my stint on the east coast (that later became my PhD). Before I left for Germany, I had embarked on a 22-day long road trip that lasted roughly 8,000 miles, driving from Nebraska to Houston (to renew my passport), continuing to Chicago (to get a work visa) before visiting Washington, DC to say goodbye to close friends and finally getting back to Seattle where I sold my car. If I did not run out of time with my driver license, I would have continued my road trip (driver licenses expire with visa expiry).

Things changed when I left for Germany, forcing me to rewire my brain. I could no longer afford to keep a car for various reasons (including not wanting to understand road signs in German). As if on cue, I also discovered the joys of efficient and reliable public transportation in Germany. I took trains all over Europe, all the way to Denmark and Sweden in the north and Slovakia in the south. Where trains did not go, buses and airplanes did. I walked too. It was the best healing experience after being forced to sell my car and give up my driving license when I left the US.

After two years, I moved back to the US. I live in a mid-size city now with a population of about 0.2 million people. Unless you live in a big city like New York City or Chicago, most of the US has bad public transportation. I was prepared to go back to my old ways of being. I thought that I would buy a car, get a driving license, and in no time, I would be driving once again to the mountains, to the nearby cities and quaint little towns.

But in these two years, I had changed. I no longer wanted to go back to my old ways of living, especially after I had completely weaned myself off it. Although I got myself a driving license, I did not want to buy a car unless I absolutely needed it. My wish must have been heartfelt, for things evolved in a way that worked out for me.

On day one at work, I was given a bus pass that would let me ride any bus within the city for free. Next, I realized that the home I had chosen was very close to a bus stop. Then, I realized that the only bus in front of my apartment took me directly from home to work. I saw that as a sign from the universe. I decided to hold off on buying a car for as long as I could. It’s been 18 months now, and I haven’t regretted one day of it.

Why I prefer life without a car?

·       It saves me a lot of money (in buying and maintaining a car). Fuel. Insurance. Parking. Repair. Routine maintenance. Tabs and taxes. Leisure trips. It all adds up.

·       No parking expenses and speeding tickets.

·       No more whimsical trips. I used to do them a lot before, mostly to meet people who are not active in my life anymore anyway.

·       I walk more and make healthier life choices. Sometimes, I walk partially to work till I get tired and then hop on a bus.

·       Riding the bus is a social experience. I get to meet and talk to a lot of people. I have some bus buddies too, and some of the drivers know me now.

·       I manage my time better (since the buses run once every 30 minutes during the day, and once every hour in the evenings). I don’t waste time at work doing random things like spending time on social media. When I am at work, I work.

·        I don’t have to show up to places I don’t want to. It’s much easier to say no to people when you do not have a car.

·       I buy only what I need and what I can carry with me, resulting in less clutter at home. My fridge has never looked better. My grocery has never looked healthier. Often, unhealthy food choices are also heavier to carry, like sweetened beverages. The grocery store is right next to my bus stop. Not only do I get free transportation to work, I get quick access to food too.  

·       I get to take the Amtrak train more often and love the experience.

·       I drink less coffee and do not make sugar-craving induced, impulsive trips to expensive coffee shops anymore.

·       I consciously live in a lovely neighborhood where I can walk to nearby parks. It is a very pretty neighborhood, great for both my physical and mental health.

·       I look at the weather website more often. I ask for directions. I look at maps to figure things out. I carry my umbrella with me now. I take slightly different routes sometimes to get to know the city better. I plan my time and my life better now.

·       I don’t go on impulsive trips to the shopping mall anymore. I use that time to pursue hobbies like reading and writing.

·       I sometimes read on the bus.

·       I use all the time and money I save to spend more time with my family in Kolkata, and also continue my world travels to different countries. My local and domestic (within the US) travels have drastically reduced now.

Challenges of not owning a car

·       It gets pretty cold and icy in winter. They do not always clean the sidewalks properly. Walking on icy sidewalks is dangerous.

·       Sometimes, I have to work until late and buses run infrequently. If I do not want to wait for another 45 minutes to take the bus, I have to take a cab.

·       I don’t get to pursue photography as much, since I am mostly restricted to taking pictures of places I could only walk or take a bus to. No more impulsive sunrise photography trips.

Clearly, my benefits outweigh my costs. Plus, I have a license, I can always rent a car (I have only done it once during the past 18 months). More importantly, I get to experience the thrill of doing something differently and making conscious life choices. For those who think that your lifestyle dictates whether or not you need a car, maybe your need for a car also dictates your lifestyle choices. I know it because I have lived both the lives now. When I had a car, I did a lot of random things, justifying that I can do it since I have a car. The day I absolutely need one, I will go ahead and buy it. Until then, I look forward to all the new life experiences borne out of not having a car.

sunshine

Week 3: Save actively, spend passively

Growing up, no one sat me down and explained how to take care of my financial health. Asking salaries or prices of expensive things were considered rude. I picked up bits and pieces of advice floating around- generic advice like don’t splurge, save for the rainy day, don’t get into debt, and so on. So even though I started earning from age eighteen by tutoring other students, I did not know how to negotiate for salary or manage my money until a long time.

It is only recently that I started watching videos on YouTube about money management and started to pick up useful tips. And the best tip I heard changed the way I look at money. Earlier, I used to spend what I needed and saved the rest. Here, they talk about saving what you need and spending the rest. It looks like a simple case of reversal. But at the core, it forced me to address a very important question- how much do I need or want to save?

By spending first and saving the rest later, spending continues to be the primary and variable factor. So long as I did not get into debt, I knew that I had a large pot of money to spend from. But when savings became the primary and constant factor, I had to account for what I was spending. So, I came up with a simple algorithm.

After every paycheck, I pay off all pending bills from the past cycle (credit card bills, rent, cell phone bill, etc.). Whatever remains, I put half of it in my savings account (I do not touch that money again). The other half, I keep for my expenses until I receive my next paycheck. When I get paid again, I simply add that to my current account, pay off all bills, save fifty percent of whatever remains, and repeat cycle.

Here is an example (all numbers are arbitrary)

First paycheck: $100

Pending bills (credit card bills, rent, cell phone bill, etc.): $40 (somewhat variable every cycle)

What goes in the savings account: Half of remaining: $30

What remains: $30

Expenses: $10

Remaining + Next paycheck: $(100+20): $120

Pending bills (credit card bills, rent, cell phone bill, etc.): $20 (somewhat variable every cycle)

Remaining: $(120-20): $100

What goes in my savings account: Half of remaining: $50

What remains: $50

Repeat cycle.

The basic idea is that every time I get paid, I clear all my pending bills and put half of the remaining money in my savings account (I never touch that account). The important thing is that the savings should be put in a separate account that becomes invisible money. This creates a visual illusion that I don’t have much. When you know your denominator (total available money) is small, you adjust your numerator accordingly.   

Doing this has helped me in many ways.

·       It has made me actively accountable for how much I am saving.

·       It has made me aware of when I am splurging.

·       If there is a large expense coming up, I delay it until I have enough money from the next pay cycle. Delaying things also prevent me from impulsive buying.

·       Rather than spending being an active process and saving being a passive process, saving has become active and spending, passive.

This is a saving algorithm that I have figured out for myself. You can create your own algorithm. If you have smart saving tactics, I would love to hear from you.

sunshine

Week 2: Subscribe

Other than unsubscribing from a bunch of websites no longer useful to me (Week 1), I have actively subscribed to a number of websites and emails that are either useful or entertaining. The word "active" is the key here. I get daily or weekly updates from them and make sure that I read or watch the content regularly rather than pile them up and hoard them for future binge reading/watching. These are the resources that in Marie Kondo's language, "spark joy." Unlike the stuff I unsubscribed from, these are not deals or advertisements nudging me to buy things.

Professional Development: The National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity has a lot of good videos that train you to manage your time, resources and skills as a faculty. My institution pays for a membership, making it free for me. Every week, I try to watch at least one video and use the worksheets they provide. Academic Coaching & Writing is another website that is useful for me as a scholar.

Health: I have subscribed to daily emails from Livestrong that offers tips for a healthier life. I don’t take everything I read at face value, but they have nice, small articles, sometimes written as lists (for example, 10 daily habits to increase your productivity). I am a big fan of Rujuta Diwekar’s YouTube channel too, not because she has celebrity clients (although that is how I know of her), but because she offers simple, sustainable health solutions focusing on our cultural background rather than asking to drink juice for a detox diet or do a hundred burpees everyday. I especially love her "Fitness Project 2018" where she posts one health video per week.

Hobbies and Entertainment: I am subscribed to Bookbub’s daily update emails for Kindle books on sale, not because I buy them, but because I use the daily lists to get something that looks interesting from my library. Being a traveler and photographer, I often gawk at the amazing travel pictures hosted at Exposure. And my latest addiction is Grandpa Kitchen, a YouTube channel with millions of viewers and 1.35 million subscribers currently. I love that grandpa cooks and feeds others, cooking in the open where you could hear the birds chirping and cows walking around in the fields. I love his accent, and how sometimes, he will take a break when the food is cooking and start singing. And while you are at eat, check out grandma’s cooking too.

Other cool stuff I read include something called “Stat Newsletters.” They publish some thought-provoking articles on science and medicine. I also often check out the cool homes available for buying on Zillow, although that is a relatively newer and more time-consuming addiction. The rest of the resources take defined amounts of time to read or watch. Zillow is where I sometimes lose track of time and end up spending hours because it is so addictive. 

Between professional development videos and book deals, grandpa's cooking and Rujuta's health tips, I have managed to sign up for and only read/view content that speaks to me. It is like coming home to something waiting for you.

Do share any of your absolute favorite resources.

sunshine

Also read: 52 small changes.

Week 1: Unsubscribe

Digital decluttering has been foremost on my mind. I don’t know how dozens of stray websites with daily offers of stuff I do not need find their way to my email. Some, I had subscribed to in my past life, in a not-so-deliberate act of my attachment to material therapy. But others, I do not even know about. This month, I have actively taken time out to unsubscribe myself from all the email lists that I am no longer interested in. I do not want to start my day virtually sweeping clean my mailbox.

I don’t remember the last time I bought a book from Barnes & Noble, but they kept sending me offers. Amazon is notorious in sending me follow-up emails if I even so much as look for a hairpin on their website. Hostelworld and easyJet still keep sending me deals for Europe travel, although I have left Europe long back. I once took a cruise ship from Germany to Norway, and they still keep sending me deals in German (which makes it harder to find their “unsubscribe” button). I will never figure out how I got to be on the email list for Baby Gap, of all things. I had once actively subscribed to Seth Godin’s blogs, but I have outgrown that content. In my previous life (meaning, many years ago), I was subscribed to Bath & Body Works, but it is cheaper to buy things at full price than get sucked into their bottomless abyss of “buy-3-get-3-free” offers. Now, if I need to buy one, I just buy one, and not six of the same kind. Seattle Public Library still keeps sending me emails, although I have been gone from Seattle for 8 years now (completely my fault, I admit).

And then, there are newsletters from photo websites, offers to send people flowers in India (why on earth?), and travel deals to places I am never likely to visit, like Bora Bora. 

It may sound like a petty thing, but I do not want to start my day reading and deleting pointless emails. I have actively started unsubscribing to declutter. I no longer provide my email id for future offers every time I buy something at Macy’s. Even after weeks of decluttering, a stray offer email, just like a stray mosquito, will buzz every now and then until I swat it away. But overall, I am done waking up to soul-inspiring emails of sales and deals about things I do not need.

Have you uncluttered your mailbox lately? And what are you changing in your life in week one?

sunshine

Also read: 52 small changes