You’ve all most likely tried this drug before…

This drug of course is…COFFEE!

Why is coffee so powerful? My java induced thoughts have me wondering, not without my brain sizzling, sparkling, and crackling. Is it the process and ritual of making it that is so appealing, what do you think?

To all you java heads out there who sip GOOD coffee on the regular, please let me know which roast is best?  

What I like about coffee is that its very nature in itself is, stimulating. My thoughts flow more, and I usually have a creative urge that wants to express itself. But as some things in life are worth doing, some people (lets not name names here) tend to over do it. This can turn ugly when not controlled right, hence a coffee addiction. Headaches, nausea, withdrawal like symptoms, something is wrong here…seriously. Due to the actions of some, this treat carries a negative reputation behind it. “It’s bad for you” or “it stunts your growth”, who knows for sure…

Just like most things in life, moderation is key. Let’s treat coffee like a ritual or an experience that can brew some great effects (pun intended). These effects are meant to enhance the person consuming it, not consume them! Guzzling down cups of coffee like it’s water takes away its uniqueness and magic. When used in the right amount for the right occasion, coffee has benefits. This beverage can bring people together, such like a bonfire or an intimate conversation can. The medium in which coffee acts as enables people to become closer. Let’s not cheapen the experience coffee can bring about by constantly having it flow through our veins. Right time, right setting, quality roast.

Please let me know your thoughts on the topic by commenting.

Warm & Comforting Sweet Potato Frittata

Wednesday’s Wonderful Breakfast: Sweet Potato Frittata & Café Bustelo

To create, our ingredients were:

• Sweet potato
• 2 whole eggs
• Liquid egg whites
• Spinach
• Yellow Onion
• Green beans (extra fine)
• Peas
• Corn
• Shredded cheddar cheese
• Seasonings: Oregano, rosemary, salt & pepper, smoked paprika, and basil.

To Prepare:

• Roast the sweet potato to the toasty temperature of 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour (flip 30 minutes through)
• Once finished, cube the soft sweet potato and let cool.
• Sauté spinach, onion, green beans, corn, and peas in a pan (probably around 6-8 minutes) with your choice of oil/no oil. Add in your sweet potato once vegetables are tender.
• Season ingredients once the vegetables have sweated through, and are ready to absorb those tasty flavors
• Place sauté mixture into your choice of baking pan (preferably curved edges to avoid spillover)
• Carefully pour whole egg and egg whites on top of the sauté mixture
• Place into a 450 degree oven for 10 minutes (or until eggs are cooked through)
• Take out and sprinkle some shredded cheddar cheese on top
• Place pan back in oven and set to broil, until the cheese is thoroughly melted and gooey. Take out let cool.

How did it taste?!

Damn tasty I must say! My spoon dove in to find a nice, fluffy layer of egg. The caramelized onions were sweet and complimented the vegetables well. Soft sweet potato was the money maker here, roasting it brings out a totally different flavor in in its own league (microwaving doesn’t even compare). The earthy and aromatic smell of seasonings permeated through the air. The melted cheddar on top added a nice fatty and salty flavor, sealing the deal on this dish.

Cook and create food that nourishes you, inside and out. TaylorMade to suit your lifestyle. Hope this inspires you all!

* Had a passion for cooking ever since I was young, so why not share right?

Is Passion bursting in your life?

As I now listen to a beautifully chaotic and epic cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child” by Stevie Ray Vaughan on Spotify, I think of what makes me happiest. Passion is the lifeblood that makes me tick. I am so interested in knowing:

What makes you tick?

It intrigues me because we are all so different…but yet all connected in a universal way. What fills your life with bliss and ecstasy? I truly want to know. At this point in my young 21 year old life there are some rich themes that consume my mind and soul: Reading, Strength Training, Writing, and most importantly Mastery. These passions eat away at me, for I must entertain them…to not to is a disservice to the world. Through these outlets I am on the journey of fulfilling my purpose, my destiny. Life can throw so many curveballs your way. It is CRUCIAL to keep your WHY in mind, in order to maintain some sense of sanity when life tests you.

The most profound form of transcendence (tick) for me has been: Strength Training. I am proud to say that I am an IRON ADDICT. I love strength, I love hard work, I love all the nuances of fitness. Perhaps I love it so much because it is endless, it cannot be ‘perfected’ but only improved upon. It is a lifelong pursuit that requires much discipline, commitment, progression, and grit. Strength requires much, but gives back MORE in return. Health is wealth, truly. The limits of the body are set and broken within the mind. To train your body is to train your mind, and vice versa. Walking up early to train is my passion, strength evens me out, so to say. Something beautifully profound about heavy iron resisting upon your body, only for you to bear the privilege of pushing against gravity to lift it back up again. The gift of REAL strength, FUNCTIONAL strength is so powerful. If you learn to use the iron as a tool for your own growth and helping others you will be miles ahead of the game. When you are in a position of strength of passion, it should be paid forward to others. Use it to enrich the lives of others.

Strength is addicting, as potent as any drug. The attainment of it can be self sabotaging if not done with consideration and respect. The iron is my gauge of all things earthly, my health, soul, emotions, state of being. Training is such a gift that many don’t understand, it certainly is esoteric. People often cringe and shy away from challenge and hard work. Heavy weight grounds you and shows you exactly where you stand, strength does not discriminate. To step forward and approach something that is hard sets people free, I am living testament to this statement. Strength is a quality that is earned and is considered a state of being. When people say “He/She is strong” my senses are awakened, because strength is so many qualities combined. Not just applied to the physicality of it all, but LIFE as a whole. Mental strength is perhaps the toughest to improve, because it requires living outside your comfort zone. To live outside your edge puts you into the unknown of endless possibility. So the purpose of this blog post is to spread the message of “Find what makes you tick and pursue it with relentless passion. Also, find your comfort zone…and GET OUTSIDE OF IT!”

Please feel free to leave a comment about what are you passionate about!

Failure necessary for success?

Are failures necessary? Should we embrace them?

Well…yes and no. Say you failed your exam (shoutout to the college students). By failing that one test you realized your weaknesses, areas of needed improvement. To have an unexpected outcome is often a blessing in disguise. Because you performed poorly, you now have to work harder to understand concepts. By failing, you are in fact succeeding, to an extent. You are shining a light on truth, which is NEVER without purpose or reason. By passing, and doing well on that exam you are also succeeding! It’s a WIN/WIN scenario. Congratulations, you have demonstrated your proficiency and grasp of said topic…so we think. But do you really know it inside and out?

There is this false belief said that when you get A’s it means you are smart. Not always the case. There are many different types of intelligence available for our brains to absorb. Knowledge is best put to use through application, trying it out for yourself. Getting down n’ dirty, in the weeds, in the thick of it, ah you known what I mean! Reading, studying, and thinking certainly have their place. But ‘to do’ is the icing on the delicious/fudgy knowledge cake. It’s been my experience that until I actually physically use hands and other senses to learn, I do not fully conceptualize a topic as well. But what if you are studying something that cannot be physically touched with any tangible result? INGRAIN it in part of you *(See bottom of page for more detail)

Here are some TaylorMade tips to help ingrain knowledge into your being:
1. Watch documentaries
2. Practice empathy (feel what that author, artist, engineer, scientist, whomever felt)
3. Picture yourself in their situation (Ask the question of , ‘What would I do?’)
4. Repetition, repetition, repetition (enough said).
5. Quiz your brain! Ask yourself questions about what you’ve just learned.
6. Teach others what you’ve learned. (Especially helped me while taking Anatomy & Physiology)

As I have evolved in the developing study habits, I’ve often asked others how they study. People mostly say similar things…but I have been enlightened by one study method that takes the cake!

Are you ready?! Do you want to know?

This will change your life, as it has changed mine!

Hence we have…”The Pomodoro Technique“

Here what it’s about:

http://lifehacker.com/productivity-101-a-primer-to-the-pomodoro-technique-1598992730

I’ve heard students say countless times say, “Oh yeah I studied for 8 hours” Really? You studied constantly for eight hours straight…I call bullshit. Study time is about QUALITY not QUANTITY. Out of that period of time, I’m guessing only a portion of it was spent in a  concentrated & focused manner. The other bit most likely was devoted to checking Facebook, Instagram, or other various social media outlets. The Pomodoro Technique is sure to help you on your journey of change.

*Have you ever noticed that the classes where you were actively involved in yielded more long-lasting knowledge? I have. Do you know why? Those teachers/professors asked you questions, kept you on your toes. Actively engaged. This is not secret. Putting you in a mode of impending doom if they called on you…or so it sometimes felt to me haha! Whether you got the answer correct or not wasn’t always the point, not just yet. They INTENTIONALLY want you to think, they know its power. So practice the same with yourself when you are learning by yourself or in a group.

NOTE TO SELF/READER: I am going to try out taking more notes as I read. Yes, this is likely to take up more time and energy. But I’m willing to bet the learning I engage in will have a far greater effect with my depth of knowledge. Keep yourself accountable, I am no exception! Try it out, let me know if you’ve had results. Works with me when I read for pleasure, so why not in academics?

Change…met with resistance

Some may look upon you and your lifestyle and feel the need to change it in some
way. Adding advice, criticisms, and suggestions here and there. This is not to
say they don’t care about you, it can be quite the opposite. It is because they
care that causes them to unleash their volley of opinions your way. It is your
decision to either let it influence your being, or to unrelentlessly stand your
ground and stay true. It’s easy to burst out in anger and angst, it is all the
more difficult to stay unmoved. So rooted in your being that its very foundation
cannot be shook. To internalize their words and have them imprint their power
into your brain is to give in, give up. Remain unphased and stay standing. To
submit to their words is to surrender your authenticity. It is often those who
are closest to us and touch our hearts that deliver the most striking cuts to
our ego. A way to hold onto and keep your sanity is to not take it so seriously,
don’t take it personally. Easier said than done, but not an impossible practice,
just takes conscious effort, that’s all. Say to yourself “They’re just saying
this because they care, they love me.” If this isn’t the case well then, tell
yourself it’s not personal, it may be a result of their own fear and/or
insecurities. It is easy to be a judge outside of the killing floor. To be a
player in the game is different. Stay playing the game to which you have chosen.
Stay hungry for victory. Remember…change is always met with resistance, inner
or outer.

Balance & Vice “Don’t be so hard on yourself”

Hope everyone had a joyous Thanksgiving! I definitely did, lots of food, family, and reflection. Which brings me to the subject of Balance. This subject was sparked by my own indulgences I partook in during this mini break including: food & rest. Let me explain.

1. Food: I LOVE food…let’s just get that out of the way. But I am very health conscious about what I eat and the quality of what I consume. I’d say 90% of the time I stick to a healthy, wholesome, and nutrient-dense diet. I exercise six days out of the week and follow a Pescetarian lifestyle, I definitely place health as a high priority. The other 10% of my diet…oh man. My vices are sweets: ice cream, chocolate, anything crunchy. Rich, creamy, fatty flavors of ice cream are my weakness. During Thanksgiving I really went all out eating what I don’t normally eat, which is a double-edged sword. I told myself that I was going to enjoy myself, but afterwards get back to business as usual. After thousands of calories were happily consumed, I was done eating and started to think. I asked myself the question, “Why I had felt the need to eat so much?” In the past I had tried to go as long as possible without “cheating” on my diet. But with this prolonged deprivation of what I so craved (sweats, etc.) I had only set myself up for a bad cycle of behavior.

2. Rest: I am very disciplined, organized, and determined by nature. That’s just who I am…but also Lazy if I don’t keep myself preoccupied. I can get work done when it needs to be done, but I also fall into procrastination; which I’m sure many of you have experienced before. During my Thanksgiving break I told myself, “I’m going to get work done” but quite the opposite happened. I marathoned through one of my favorite shows The Walking Dead, instead of studying for exams. I rested and got comfy on my couch and read, watched videos, the typical way to “waste” time…but really was it a waste? Essentially I listened to the side of myself within my mind saying “Hey…let’s not do anything productive today”. Which in the short term is gratifying, but long term feels somewhat self-defeating.

So how does this relate to Balance? 

What I learned from this holiday is, there is a time for both Yin & Yang (Balance) in life. Certain universal orders can’t be ignored, to do so goes against nature itself. Seeking balance and equilibrium is so so important. But going out of balance every once in a while is to be expected and natural. Finding the right contrast is all we can do with what we have. If one finds themselves going towards the less desirable path, that is a sign. It is life/nature’s way of telling you something, perhaps that change is needed. Some reactions towards this falling into the less desirable path might be to feel bad, shame yourself, and feel guilty. But these judgments won’t make you feel any better. A way to better handle this reaction is to ACCEPT it, NOT judge it. ACKNOWLEDGING you are imperfect as well as human is a way to ground yourself. Being human means to makes choices, decisions that aren’t always picture-perfect. It is NECESSARY to partake in vice every so often (granted it isn’t detrimental to your health, or doesn’t hurt anyone). Stay out late, eat that sleeve of Oreos, buy that expensive purse…whatever it may be, you get the picture. Having periods of discipline, hard work, and focus are essential in life. But periods of rest/relaxation are needed as well. Indulging in life’s pleasures are arguably more important. By setting time aside to partake in vice and time for play, you keep yourself sane. Afterwards you may find yourself even more motivated to get back on track! Keeping your ideal balance between work and play is key, which to me is becoming more apparent everyday. Pace yourself, make time for work yes…but do include time for fun.

Here are some tips for keeping yourself in a state of balance:

1. Give both Work & Play equal weight in terms of priorities, therefore keeping you mentally refreshed and sane.

      2. Observe your habits and behaviors. Having a 3rd person, objective lens towards yourself helps to keep you in balance. Decreasing the likelihood of non-desirable behaviors.

3. Visualize the person you’d like to be. Close your eyes and imagine the qualities you would like to exude in your life and focus intently on them.

Please share any helpful tips you may have to maintain balance. Also, tell me some of your vices!

 

Simple Pleasures on a Sunday Morning

As I awoke from a creative night one thing came to mind…breakfast time! This Sunday morning was perfect for such, sunny skies, clear air, leaves all around. Fall at its finest. The kitchen was inviting, so why not make a simple and tasty meal to get myself going right?

Here’s what was available to me:

• 3 medium potatoes
• frozen peas
• 2 eggs
• extra virgin olive oil
• garlic, thyme, rosemary
• other seasonings (paprika, salt, pepper, red pepper flake, italian seasoning)

After cranking up the stove to high heat and sauteing all these ingredients for about eight or so minutes, breakfast was served! Simple pleasures are truly the best. Cooking is a simple pleasure that feeds my soul. 

Simple pleasures are so important to cherish, they are riddled in essence and a sense of here-and-now. Whether it’s the scent of freshly dried laundry, the birds singing, the voice of someone you love, or a steaming cup of freshly brewed java bean coffee; life is filled with these timeless moments. What are your simple pleasures? What role do they play in your life, and could you ever give any of them up? 

Appreciate and give thanks to the moments that fill your life with passion and vibrance.

Look forward to more quality content from this blog, I am excited! Until next time, stay happy and peace in the middle East. 

About Me

Call me Taylor.

22.

College. Philosophy major.

Heart, mind, body, and soul. Blood n’ guts passion fuels me.

Live for change.

The purpose of this blog is to share and discuss ideas/experiences for those on the journey of change & self-mastery; much like myself. We will figure things out together and spread great content. Let’s talk about the things that MATTER to YOU. TaylorMade for you 😀