This weekend my family ran the UNDY race for my cousin Sanjay. Thanks to all of your donations, we raised about $1700 dollars and placed 5th overall for money raised. I am so thankful for both my family, friends, coworkers and even strangers who chose to give so we could help raise awareness, fund research and stand in solidarity with Sanjay.
You all are amazing and I’ll be forever grateful.
Gratitude is something I strive to practice as much as possible and the practice helps keep things in perspective for me. Â I want to remember these lines from today’s Zen Habits
From: http://zenhabits.net/gratefully/
Jeremy and I backed a project back in March called Pavlok. In a nutshell, it gives you an electric shock when you want it to. Here’s how it works. Â It’s called ‘Aversion Therapy’ and it’s going to help me lose weight and be more productive. I can make these claims only because yesterday I used it to help control two things I want to change about myself. First: cravings for food not included in my chosen diet, and second: wasting time when I’m attempting to focus on a task.
The food aversion therapy was surprisingly easy. Â Earlier this year I lost 30lbs of fat and gained 10lbs of muscle without any aversion therapy, but I became complacent soon after. I haven’t gained any weight back or let my body fat percentage slide back up the scale, but I’ve had trouble kickstarting the second half of my weight loss. Doctors, nurses, and the ‘know your numbers’ ladies for our insurance have had one metric I should meet: lose 40 lbs of fat. I want to gain an additional 15-20lbs of muscle to go with it. The Pavlok has arrived at the right time!
It’s amazing how many times throughout the day I think about food even if I’m not physiologically hungry. I zapped myself yesterday on accident, and it was enough of an aversion that I chose the right foods for the rest of the day. The thought of having to zap myself for choosing wrong and zap myself with each bite made it totally not worth it. Â In terms of diet, when it comes time to make a conscious decision, the Pavlok is my extremely persuasive friend.
The issue that has been harder for me was the time-wasting when attempting to work. Last night I worked on wedding photos, but my efficiency has been reduced (greatly) by the fact that I wind up alt+tabbing to goof off. Sometimes it even starts out sounding reasonable: Â “I’m just going to check out how other photographers handled this particular processing issue”… and I go down a black hole of links.
I zapped myself like 20 times yesterday while editing photos for four hours. From 6 pm – 10 pm I felt like a foolish rat. However, after about 2 hours of zapping, I was able to focus more. The last hour was just a solid block of productivity. I think part of the reason this was harder was that unlike the amount of presence my mind had to have while pursuing bad food choices, it’s almost a brain stem activity to alt-tab. I didn’t THINK. It was a habit in the worst way.
Today at work I’ve got my chrome extension all setup and if I wind up on my list of time wasters, I get zapped. Just kidding. I thought I had it setup but it’s actually down for maintenance until later this month. I’m hoping they’ll do a little IFTTT integration so I can really take advantage of this device.
Day two, here I come.
“Sympathy’s easy. You have sympathy for starving children swatting at flies on the late-night commercials. Sympathy is easy because it comes from a position of power. Empathy is getting down on your knees and looking someone else in the eye and realizing you could be them, and that all that separates you is luck.”   – Dennis Lehane, 2004 Commencement Address to Eckerd College
Jeremy and I are running in the Colon Cancer Alliance UNDY​ Run/Walk 5K on the 24th of this month on behalf of my cousin, who is more like a brother, Sanjay Dharmaraj​ who is bravely battling colon cancer. Please consider donating to help us raise money to meet and exceed our goals!!
I am grateful for any amount you can spare towards this cause! In place of donations, prayers and thoughts towards my cousin Sanjay would be much appreciated.
For everyone who donates $75 or more, I’ll do a 30 minute photo shoot of you, you & partner, you and your pets, your family, your bee hives, your 90’s troll collection or whatever as long as it’s within the Metro Atlanta area and I don’t have to go into anyone’s basement alone! Haha! I trust you guys! …maybe.
You can check out my work at  https://instagram.com/suniraphotography/ for a quick snapshot of my work or http://suniraphotography.com to see more complete galleries.
Any donations can be made here: https://secure2.convio.net/cca/site/Donation2?idb=1207767141&df_id=2939&2939.donation=form1&FR_ID=2260&PROXY_ID=1731822&PROXY_TYPE=20
Thanks again!
I turned 30 last week! Honestly, I’d been forgetting how old I was and telling people I was 30 all last year so it didn’t feel like much of a change. Â I’ve honestly been looking forward to my thirties for a while. I feel like this decade will offer me the most in terms of being independent, healthier, and an adult! A real live adult. I had several dinners with friends whom I’ve known for so long now (another benefit to getting older!) and enjoyed a very relaxed weekend doing a lot of things I wanted, spending time with Jeremy, at home, with friends, and with family. It was a pretty wonderful start to the week, and a lovely start to my 30’s. I even have a couple birthday dinners after we come back. I am truly blessed with wonderful friends.
And… since my birthday has now passed…it’s that time of year again! Jeremy and I plan a longer trip around the time of our anniversary and this year it’s Chicago! We’re headed there for ten days, and I am so stoked! We are staying in Printer’s Row in an AirBnB. The views from the apartment are amazing, and I’m looking forward to a week of waking and going to sleep with the skyline in view.
Look for photos on instagram as the week progresses! :)
Magic 2.0 is a series of books that mashes together two of my favorite topics: magic and computers! The premise of the series lies around characters the discover a file that controls and reflects the state of the world around us and the consequences of changing things for their own personal gain. They tackle topics of time travel, changing matter, building Atlantis, and surprisingly some social issues!
Apart from being the somewhat-newish genre of  computer-magic-fantasy, the humor was just short of being campy and right in the middle of being enjoyable and worth a snicker periodically. Think Monty Python-esque humor in book form. : They’re all fast reads, with easy language. You can complete the books in a couple of days so I recommend buying them all at once!
Definitely pick up some copies if you’re looking to enjoy some lighthearted fantasy. I enjoyed them thoroughly.
Jeremy and I hiked Blood Mountain this past weekend! Our friend Jenny joined us and we made two new friends! I had never been camping overnight before so I was a little apprehensive! The hike up the mountain was pretty strenuous. I had to stop a few times to catch my breath but I never felt completely winded. This was a huge change from when I tried to brave Black Rock Mountain a few years ago. That was also pre-boot camp, pre-lifting, pre-running Sunira. It felt good to take on the challenge and come out on top, literally.