A Recipe for Constant Change

Oct 23

Oct 23 A Recipe for Constant Change

By Lisa Kong

We all know the airplane “oxygen mask” reference about taking care of yourself first so you can take care of others. It sounds cliché, but it is so true!

Well, here’s another lifesaver that has helped me put myself first over the years: I follow a personal Wellness Recipe and change up the ingredients to suit my ever-evolving needs.

Years ago, I suffered from overwork, stress, and lots of self-imposed career pressure. I started my career as an interior designer, which sounds fun, right?

I had grown into a project management role as one of several leaders of a 65-person studio with annual billings of $12 million. It was a very competitive environment, and getting to that next level became daunting and frustrating. Add to that, I was going through a complete hormonal shift!

In researching menopause, I realized that over the past 20 years, I had put aside activities and practices that were my Wellness Recipe for feeling peaceful, empowered, and at one with the world.

*The Shanghai Tower job site in Shanghai - The DLR Group offices, in Los Angeles - The Miramar Hotel job site in Montecito.*

In my industry, long hours and short deadlines are standard. So I identified which ingredients would fit with my lifestyle and responsibilities.

Beginning with my physical health, which included weight loss. As your body changes with age, diet habits that worked in your twenties actually work against you in your thirties and forties. I had put on some weight, particularly in my midsection, that I wasn’t comfortable with. I researched and discovered stress was a significant factor. Not to mention, that’s just where it goes when you reach a certain age!

I originally came up with nine ingredients in my Daily Wellness Recipe that would help me feel my best.

Lisa’s Daily Wellness Recipe for a Changing Body:

10,000 steps
1500 calories or less
Less than 50 grams of carbs a day
64 ounces of water
7 hours of sleep
No sweets
30 minutes of cardio
Strength training (2 days per week)
Nature (immersion was the goal, but sometimes exposure to or just paying attention to it while driving sufficed)

Sometimes I couldn't do all nine things a day, so I balanced out the loss with wins in the other areas. I felt pretty good if I could average 5-6 of the items. The key is making time for them every day. Being a weekend warrior leads to burnout and doesn’t allow you to relax and decompress.

Then my life changed, and so did my Wellness Recipe.

I took a new position that included lots of travel away from home. I worked for a hotel developer, and I was responsible for managing the interior design, interior construction, and eventual installation of all furniture, artwork, and accessories.

I was on a construction site 2 hours from home in ever-increasing amounts, that eventually turned into 7 days a week before the opening. This made some of the items in my recipe very difficult to achieve. I added some new ingredients and deleted others to counteract the number of hours I was working.

During that time, I was averaging 20,000 steps a day, twice as many as my goal, but cardio was harder to achieve. I added sit-ups because I could easily do those in my hotel room.

Nutrition living away from home was also more challenging to control, so I added more fruit and vegetables to my diet. I had much less downtime, so I threw in hot baths as an ingredient to cherish those moments.

Late last year, another career change was in my future. I had never taken any significant time off since starting my career, so I agreed to teach a private university class.

I spent time surrounded by nature, recalibrating my goals around what was really important to me. And I modified the ingredients of my Wellness Recipe to match these new changes in my life.

Without a work structure, I found it was helpful to replace the calorie limitation with intermittent fasting. I also added meditation, which I’d never done before, to help me with the uncertainty of what I would do next. Talking to friends during this period also helped me from staying stuck in my head.

Lisa’s Wellness Recipe for Recalibrating her Priorities:

72 ounces of water
Cardio
Strength (1 day per week)
Intermittent fasting
No meat
7 hours of sleep
Nature
Meditation
A gratitude log
Talking to a friend

Cut to 2020. In January, I started a new position that I love with a large design firm that has a very inclusive and collaborative culture. Things were going well. I was getting in the swing of a new culture and a new way of doing things when our entire world changed!

I’ve watched and learned while people have adjusted, shifted, found the opportunity or a cause in the challenges we all face today. Now more than ever, creating your own wellness recipe will help you find the opportunities to thrive.

Be sure to include the ingredients you need to find the motivation, positive attitude, and energy that result in your best self.

Since we’re stuck at home, finding an exercise ingredient that gets you moving is so important. Maybe that’s jumping rope, yoga, or a streaming workout subscription. My father-in-law walks up the driveway and back 16 times a day to get his exercise!

Lisa’s Wellness Recipe for Living Through a Pandemic: