March 30, 2018 • Life
March, For Me
The Month of March saw too much snow for my liking and at one point resulted in me walking 30 minutes in the freezing cold and in the deep snow back home from yoga. Of course, I was only wearing a sports bra, cropped leggings, a jacket and mesh trainers – not my fault, it’s supposed to be Spring 😆
(You’d think living in the UK for 17 years would teach me a lesson about the weather but I still get too excited when a tiny bit of the sun comes out!)
Besides the snow…
MAIN HIGHLIGHTS
COMMUNITY
- 👩🏻⚕️ After 6 months of organising HackMed, the hackathon took place on the 10-11th of March and was a huge success! You can read about what went down over the weekend here. My very talented little brother also created this video to summarise the weekend.
- 💻 Wrapped up the Code First: Girls SS 2018 Python and Web Development courses in Sheffield. This is my last term because I’m in the final year of university – I was so sad of leaving and letting go because it’s honestly been my second family. I am SO excited to see how it develops.
- 🏆 Back in November, I was nominated by my community for two Northern Power Women awards “One to Watch” and “Person with Purpose”. Although I wasn’t shortlisted, I made it to the Future List. I am so grateful – it’s such an honour!
- 🎬 I worked on an outreach project with The Girl Code on their series: #CodeWithConfidence.
- 💫 On International Women’s Day, I featured on a video with The University of Sheffield where I had the opportunity to showcase the community work with Code First: Girls I’ve been doing for the last two years. It was great exposure of the coding courses at University and would have hopefully encouraged more female students to take part or at least be aware that it’s happening! The video showcased some other incredible women across the university encouraging everyone to continue to #PressForProgress.
PUBLIC SPEAKING
- ☹️ Unfortunately, because of the snow, I couldn’t give my WITNotts talk in Nottingham but this will be rescheduled!
- 🎤 I did attend the Code First: Girls Northern Conference (despite the bad weather) in Manchester and spoke on my panel on Personal Development with Kirsty Styles and Dijonn Taylor. I was very honoured to speak at the conference (as you all know Code First: Girls has a special place in my heart 💖) You can watch the panel here.
HEALTH
- 🧘🏻♀️ Last month, I finished my 21 days of Hot Yoga and ended up buying a membership. I’m now dedicating some time every weekend to do it alongside some mobility practice during the week! Flexibility goal, I’ve not given up on you yet. 👀
- 💪🏼 Kicking butt with Grace Fit Guide 3.
- 💦 Water is important. I’ve made it a goal to drink as much as I can this month!
UNIVERSITY
- 📚 The first half of my final spring semester at University is now complete! It’s scary how quickly time has gone. Soon enough I’ll be done 👀 I’ve enjoyed most of my modules with my favourite being Forensic Anatomy 🔎
- 🐰 Easter started!
CAREER AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
- 🚀 I’ve had some positive progress with job applications.
- 📣 I’ve made some changes on my website.
PERSONAL
- 🎂 My family and I celebrated my Mom’s birthday this month
MENTIONS
- ✨ Brandon Skerritt wrote a blog post about job applications and mentioned me and my online presence. He knows all my secrets 👀
3 THINGS I AM HAPPY ABOUT
1️⃣ My Health
I mention this every month because health and well-being have become the centre of everything for me.
This month especially, I’ve felt really content with where I’m at with my health. Whilst I was re-evaluating my goals this month (and starting #GFG3) I became mindful of how I have moved away from what I look like e.g. “I want abs” or “I want less belly fat” to the root of why I started in the first place:
- to feel good
- to become stronger
- for stress release
- for my mental health
I think it’s easy for people to fall into exercise wanting to look a certain way and focusing solely on that (completely fine if you do) but I find that, for me at least, it’s easy to fall out of love with fitness when progress starts to slow down compared to when you first started (which it will because #beginnergainz are a thing.)
I recall when I tried fitness in 2014, I was so focused on having a flat stomach and abs that when I didn’t see results, I quit. I felt frustrated that my one gym session didn’t seem to do anything.
My mindset has changed a lot since then.
Afterall, I’m working out because I love my body, my mind and health. Not because I hate it.
Self-care, y’all.
2️⃣ The tough career journey
This month I’ve been working hard on looking at the next chapter of my life after University. The journey is difficult, I’ve learnt to wire into my brain that rejections are part of the process and to practice patience.
I’ve been very inspired by companies I’ve been looking at and have had wonderful opportunities to speak to some. Learning about what some organisations are doing right now excites me for the future! The process has made me realise how much meaningful, impactful and positive work means to me. For me, it’s not just about going to work to earn – but to contribute to bigger things.
Fingers crossed on the outcomes. 😊
I’m feeling positive because each interview process has been a learning opportunity. I actually created a spreadsheet with all the jobs I’ve applied for, the process and outcome (if any yet) with a reflection column so I can always encourage myself to reflect on the situation for growth.
3️⃣ Starting to wrap things up
I can see the finish line of my university life. 🤗
I started wrapping up activities that I’ve been doing on the side, like Code First: Girls and MedTech (both of which I will miss a lot.) The first half of Spring semester is also done! Only one half left 👀
I’m excited to see what’s next!
March IN PHOTOS
#Pawsitivity🌠
This is a new section that I decided to add to my round-up posts to spread positive vibes! This can be tweets, messages, articles, videos – anything that have made my heart smile 😊
For March, it is this message from a student I taught from the CFG course. Thank you 💕
MONTHLY FAVOURITES
HEALTH & WELL-BEING
- 📝 The Five Minute Journal: A Happier You in 5 Minutes a Day – I started writing in the physical book recently as opposed to the app and have enjoyed less screen time.
- 🥜 Peanut butter – my recent obsession 😂 My personal favourite right now is the Natural Roasted Peanut Butter Crunchy Tub (1 kg)
- 📱 The app, Moment. It’s helped me track how much time I spend on my phone a day to help stop me from picking up my phone every 5 minutes (because awareness is where improvements start.)
- 💙 The FitBit app. I love tracking my health and my health data. I started tracking my water consumption on my FitBit and love the ~completeness~! My Fitbit is the Fitbit Blaze and I pair it with the Slim Band.
BOOKS
- 🍏Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food by Catherine Shanahan MD – a great book looking at epigenetics and food. I’d like to thank Alexandar Cortes for the recommendation!
PODCASTS
- 🎧 Optimal Health Daily – I’ve found myself listening to this whilst I workout. It’s a highly informative podcast on everything health-related from diet, fitness and myths.
MUSIC
FILMS
- Ready Player One. Those who’ve been around for a while, you’d know how much I loved the RPO book (you can read how excited I was about it in a blog back in 2015 here) The movie didn’t disappoint, it was fun to watch in IMAX 3D. Although it didn’t follow the book exactly, I liked how it was adapted. 🤖 If you haven’t read the book yet, I highly recommend you read it first!
NEXT MONTH
⚡ I WILL…
- 🤓 Keep my head down with final bits of university revision and coursework. I can do this. 🙌🏼
- 💻 Stay positive with my career search
- 🧘🏻♀️ Workout because I love my body, mind and health
🎫 EVENTS
- 💜 I will be speaking at InspireWIT this year on my journey into the tech/digital field! It’s an honour because this was the first conference that introduced me to the wonderful world of tech.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
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