I’m definitely stating the obvious here, but 2020 has really sucked. For starters, we continue to live through a pandemic that has taken the lives of so many worldwide, and dramatically altered life for all of us lucky to still be alive. Wildfires ravaged the state of California this summer. In the best case scenario, one couldn’t step outside for coffee or a short walk around the block for weeks on end. In the worst case scenario, your house and all your property was burned to the ground. We woke up to ORANGE SKY as our state burned (over 4,359,517 acres): In case a pandemic and wildfires weren’t quite enough,…
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Finding the right meal delivery service: a side-by-side comparison of Model Meals, Territory Foods, Purple Carrot, Thistle, and Daily Harvest
I can’t believe I made it from college all the way to my late twenties without eating home cooked food, but I did. My college meal plan, my consulting travel budget, and my tech company cafeterias kept me happily full without ever needing to step foot in a kitchen. As a result, I never learned to meal prep or do any kind of functional weekday cooking, opting instead to dabble occasionally with the latest recipe trending on Instagram or try my hand at some ‘healthy’ baking. It’s no surprise, then, that when COVID-19 hit and physical offices closed in the middle of March, I had no game plan to feed…
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Redding: the perfect long weekend getaway destination for Californians
At the beginning of the year, I had several exciting trips planned. My friend’s bachelorette weekend in Savannah! New York in the Spring! Wimbledon in July! But all those plans changed as COVID-19 spread around the globe. Goodbye, Savannah. Goodbye, New York. Goodbye, London. While I have been fortunate throughout this period, confining myself to 720 square feet was certainly an adjustment. The 1 bed/1 bath apartment I share with my fiance started to feel a bit like prison. By the time the end of June rolled around, I was majorly craving a change of scene. My fiance and I brainstormed locations and ideas. Chicago? No, we weren’t comfortable flying.…
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Japan is the perfect destination for nervous, first-time solo female travelers
My friend Mehek has a great travel and vegetarian food blog. I recently wrote a guest post on her blog about my experience solo traveling for the first time, and why I highly recommend Japan to all solo travelers. Check it out here!
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Guidance on the transition from management consulting to product management
In January 2019, I left my job in management consulting at the Boston Consulting Group to begin a new journey as a Product Manager in Facebook’s Rotational Product Manager (RPM) program. While looking to switch jobs, I leaned heavily on my product manager friends. I asked them what their days entailed, how they prepared for interviews, and why they decided to become product managers. I also took them up on generous offers to mock interview me. Of course, not everyone lives in San Francisco and has ready access to friends who are PMs. Knowing how lucky I was to have their support, and in the interest of paying it forward,…
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Discover Tokyo and Kyoto’s secret food gems! Don’t panic that you haven’t planned your meals yet, use this guide to eat affordable and delicious Japanese food on your trip
My first trip to Japan doubled as my first solo travel experience. Any Medium article worth its salt espouses solo travel as a way to ‘discover oneself,’ but my key discovery was this: when you travel alone, your days are yours alone and you can do exactly as you like! As it happens, everything that I like relates to food, so I spent the majority of my Japan trip either eating or researching future eats. Given Japan’s reputation as a food mecca, I arrived in Tokyo with an empty belly and sky-high expectations. Incredibly, the food I ate satisfied both these demanding parties. So I remember these when I visit…
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I moved from SF to Mumbai and back again, here are my thoughts on working and living in a foreign country
Living and working full time overseas headlined my life bucket list. Last May, I took the plunge and moved to Bombay for one year as part of a social impact leave of absence, which conveniently allowed me to keep my job in the US while taking a year to work at an Indian nonprofit. Despite having spent every summer in India growing up, and having completed many internships in Bangalore and Delhi, moving was nonetheless an adjustment. Whether you’re considering moving abroad to India or another emerging economy, I hope my reflections help to smooth your adjustment curve and set realistic expectations! As trite as it sounds, my year in India…
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Making Friends in a New City as an Adult
Making friends as an adult is a challenge. And with both of my post-college moves (first to San Francisco, then to Bombay), I chose to pursue the development of deep friendships with great intentionality. First, because it drives a huge amount of my happiness. Second, because it doesn’t happen as organically ‘in the real world’ as it used to in college. Third, because I experienced pretty crushing loneliness after both moves. The move to Mumbai, a city halfway across the world from my family, was an especially tough transition. Whether you have a million close friends (good for you, asshole! wait…should I not be calling people assholes if I want…
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The best Lewis Howes podcasts to help you move towards a better life: great advice from professional athletes, nutritionists, and more!
I find podcasts impossibly boring, and I’m quite incapable of listening to one for more than a couple of minutes without my mind drifting off. I’ve always been much more of a reader. But for whatever reason, when the podcast is videotaped and I can see the interview happening, a switch flips and I quite enjoy them! For this reason, and also because I enjoy Lewis’s congenial style, I have taken to watching Lewis Howes interviews on youtube whenever I’m commuting, eating takeout, etc. Here are a few I’ve particularly enjoyed. The Science of Hunger, Optimal Health and Body Love with Celebrity Nutritionist Kelly LeVeque Kelly LeVeque inspires me. She…
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Learning New Skills As An Adult
Learning New Skills As An Adult One of the best parts of working in nonprofit, as opposed to in management consulting, is the staggering increase in free time. For all you management consultants out there (no hate, I am very pro-consulting!), I assure you there a world exists in which you needn’t work 60+ hours a week. What’s that you ask? “Can you really go for a date or a dinner or a drink on a weekday?” “Can you really sleep 8 hours a night?” “Can you really dedicate an hour or two a day to developing other skills?” YES YOU CAN. A huge percentage of the gratitude I’ve felt…
