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Opting into Simple Acts of Self Discipline

  • Writer: Bri
    Bri
  • Nov 17, 2024
  • 4 min read

Updated: Dec 3, 2024

Every three or four days, I find myself in the kitchen, placing oats, cashews, and refined coconut oil into my Almond Cow machine.  With a press of the button, it moves through three whirring sessions to cycle water through the ingredient cup as it blends those ingredients.  Simply removing the top, allowing the cup to drip for a few seconds, and placing it to the side leaves me with a 32 ounces of creamy oat/cashew milk.  Enough to perfectly fill a mason jar.


There is no world in which homemade oat milk taste as delicious as Oatly.  That said, I find pleasure in this arbitrary act of self-discipline.  I want to remove more over-processed foods from my diet.  I want to place fewer items in the landfill and tetra paks aren’t recyclable where I live.  I also want my world to feel deliciously small and sacred as the moments tick by.  Each morning that I make my vegan milk I feel gratification as I move through the simple process, framing the decision with the self-discipline to “opt in” to living within my values. This benign task grounds me.


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Huck in our natural environment.

As I write, Huck moves over to plop his bum in my lap - this is Huck for, "Hold, comfort, and cherish me".  For the past few days, he has either been glued to my side or actively seeking reassurance by gently snoot-nudging my arm for pets.  The last several weeks have been incredibly challenging for both of us as I’ve had to travel for relatives, for work, and to celebrate Ryan's birthday.  I’m not a homebody, but I am someone who has actively chosen to shrink my personal world.  I love using solitude to be within myself, I love the place and space I live in, I love acts of physical labor to create, and I love feeling my body move as I envision big goals on the horizon.  As much as I seek to minimize popup travel, the commitment I’ve made to travel for career is at odds with the choice to live small.


The moment I step on an airplane each month for a work trip, I find myself battening down the hatches and waiting for the storm.  I enter a world with people that I usually see on screen and find myself scrambling to hoard the details of their in-person mannerisms and physical cues.  On this last trip, I was invited to a sales demonstration that is typically reserved for managers and executive leadership.  My own manager did not invite me - this privilege comes from a VP that I knew in a past life.  It’s a strange dynamic to be greeted by the leadership of my company who all seem to know me by name and face when I technically don't hold a position that would open a door into this space. It was "a lot" and forced me to see that the gratitude for my privilege can nestle right next to the kernel of knowing that the overwhelm I experienced was too much.

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This is the end of my favorite Strava segment in Simi Valley; it's a fitness check I used when I'm in town.

To minimize the jarring experience of leaving my home on the regular, I’ve built small acts of self-discipline into my work life, too.  Before each trip, mixed in with the stress of packing is a subtle thread of excitement that I get to test my fitness on my chosen Strava segments in each of the towns that I have to visit. Each morning on my trips, after I run, I place a few drops of a forest-themed essential oil (linked below) on my yoga mat and I visualize the land that I call home as I move through my strength and stretching routine. I also feel gratitude as I savor the fruits, veggies, and pre-mixed salads that I've packed my hotel room with from the local grocery store. If you break this down, you'll notice that I've embedded a simple, grounding routine into travel that reminds me of the home I love... and forces me to build a run-relationship with the spaces that I travel to. Beyond what's listed above, I've segregated my work travel cloths/tools. I don't love wearing a uniform every time I travel but removing extra thought steps around planning each month has been helpful. Honoring my diet (both in content and time of day) is also essential to keep me feeling my best. It took me a decade, but I am finally comfortable being the stand alone sober-vegan at work functions, too.


This morning I am back home, having already made oat milk for the coffee I'm drinking.  I’m also petting Huck gently when I pause my typing. I’m moving through that post-work decompression phase, knowing that I still have work to do to honor... yet minimize the time it takes for me to feel functional upon my return home. Due to that BD-sales event that I mentioned above, this trip hit me harder than usual, robbing me of an unacceptable amount of my personal life as I recovered. Tips, tricks, and resource recommendations welcome, friends.



Travel Tools


What I'm eating

Simplicity has been key lately...

  • Best vegan milk? Ratio of 1/4 cup cashews, 3/4 cup rolled oats, 1 TBSP refined coconut oil... sometimes I add a splash of maple syrup. Follow the straining process you can read about online if you don't have an almond cow milk maker.

  • Frothy Cacao: 1TBSP cacao powder, a palm full of cashews, a date or two, and hot water. Blend on a high speed in a vitamix for at least a minute.

  • All the veggies soup: Challenge yourself to get as many veggies as possible... and use the recipe on the back of Bob's Red Mills Vegi Soup Mix


What I am listening to

A bit of a throwback on the music front with some "new" in the mix.


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