Feel Good Lost

I am going to Puerto Rico next week for 9 days. Itinerary? Everywhere, everything. (And lots of plantains.)

I am trying to find ways to make it more of a challenging trip. Originally I considered biking the loop around the island but PR isn’t quite that bike-friendly yet. There is a 70km path from San Juan to Farajado I’m eager to try, where I can then hop a ferry to Vieques Island and swim in the Bioluminescent Bay. From there, I’m probably renting a car and making my way around the coast.

Recommendations are greatly appreciated. And as with every trip, you can follow along at Yes Mom, I’m Alive.

Today we hiked around The Gorge. It was Gorge-ous.

My happy place: Broder in Portland, Oregon for delicious Swedish comfort food.

And then Richard Simmons grabbed my ass.

How was your day?

I lost the paint war.

yesmomimalive:

That would be me, playing with a snakecharmer’s cobra in Djemaa el-Fna.

Made it to Morocco.

Bold Strokes: New Font Helps Dyslexics Read 

Christian Boer, a graphic designer from the Netherlands, has developed a way to help tackle his dyslexia. The 30-year-old created a font called Dyslexie that has proved to decrease the number of errors made by dyslexics while reading.

…One of the first things he did was increase the boldness of letters at their bases, to make them appear weighted, causing readers’ brains to know not to flip them upside down, as can occur with “p” and “d.” Boer also enlarged the openings of various letters, such as “a” and “c,” to make them more distinguishable from one another, and increased the length of “the tail” of other letters, like the “g” and y.” He also put certain letters at a slant so that they would appear to be in italics, like the “j,” a tactic to increase the brain’s ability to distinguish it from the letter “i.” Finally, he boldfaced capital letters and punctuation, and provided ample space between letters and words, to allow the brain more time to compute the letters and begin forming them into words and sentences.

Nice work, guy! Internet high five!

I lost the weight primarily through a somewhat intensive fitness routine: I work out every day at 6 a.m. for about 60-90 minutes. I primarily do sprint interval cardio, cycling, bootcamp-style classes and a lot of strength training. I was surprised to discover I genuinely love working out; I look forward to the gym every morning. (I try to keep that to myself, though.)

Of course it has been accompanied by relatively good nutritional choices but I try not to be too restrictive- afterall, I live in one of the best cities for food!

Keep on pedaling!

At a private tea blending and tasting workshop with Steven Smith, founder of TAZO and Stash Teas. One of the coolest afternoons I’ve had in Portland, I think.