All posts by Liz Bohinc

We Don’t Know: Heroes (Superpowers Not Required)

On January 14, 2014, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the 2014 Oscars telecast would celebrate “cinematic heroes.” My cynical self said, “This is just a ploy to sneak in Iron Man.” But the closer we got to the event, the more excited I was to see produced vignettes showcasing the telecast’s theme.

Note To Self: The Oscars fluff is not as good as Olympics fluff. Sorry guys.

There were a few major montages but the two that really stuck out in my mind were the “Ordinary Man” and “Superheroes” montages. Both celebrated heroes as portrayed in cinema. The first featured a measly six female heroines (think Jessica Chastain from Zero Dark Thirty and Oprah in The Butler). The second surprisingly was a bit better, featuring nine or ten heroines. (depending how you count Pepper Potts from the first Iron Man. More on that later).

When that second montage ended, I found myself screaming at the TV: Where’s Hermione? And no, the cut to Emma Watson applauding politely doesn’t count.

Harry was featured no less than three times in the montage but Hermione couldn’t even get a moment to sock Malfoy in the nose. This whole bit of outrage led to a discussion among friends: Why weren’t there more female characters featured in these montages? We had Neo, but why didn’t we have Trinity? We had Lincoln, but not Margaret Thatcher? At my Oscar viewing party, we debated whether or not we should count Pepper Potts in the superheroes montage as one for the lady team. Arguably, since it’s from the first movie, she’s kind of a victim. But I do think we have to give her credit for grounding Tony and being his “ordinary hero.”

The Oscars were months ago and I’m still plagued by this question: What makes someone a hero?

I think often we confuse heroes with icons, and I am not sure they are always the same. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a hero is “A person, typically a man, who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.”

It’s interesting because if I asked you to name some super heroes in movies, you might say The Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, Batman, Jean Grey or Storm. But if you look at the definition above, only two of these heroes fit that definition. The X-men live largely in secret, so how can they be recognized or admired for their courage? The Hulk is still considered a danger to most of society (smashing things isn’t a good thing all the time). Batman is a vigilante no matter how you slice it.

Are these people still heroes? Can you be a hero without public recognition? What about the reluctant hero? Is someone who doesn’t want to play this role, still a hero? Katniss doesn’t become a “hero” until Catching Fire because for a long time she rejects the burden associated with being the defiant victor.

Outside the sci-fi/fantasy hero realm, we can look at Jessica Chastain’s character Maya from Zero Dark Thirty. No one really knows who this person was. For her safety, privacy, etc. the filmmakers assert she is a compilation of people. Since she is not publicly admired for her actions to stop Osama Bin Laden, is she less of a hero than those on Seal Team Six?

This brings me into the subject of sidekicks. I am a giant Harry Potter fan, although sometimes I don’t agree the with the Internet’s feelings on the fandom. But I was equally outraged as the whole Internet was when Hermione was left out of that Oscars montage. I personally felt there was a distinct lack of sidekicks in both these montages. And it’s not fair. In the “Ordinary Man montage,” where was Geoffery Rush’s character in The King’s Speech, alongside Colin Firth’s? Without the support of sidekicks, heroes often wouldn’t be able to achieve their ultimate goal. Where would Harry be without Ron, Hermione, Neville, or Mrs. Weasley, or… heck, I could go on all day. If you ask me, I think the sidekicks deserved their very own montage! Just because they aren’t the lead character doesn’t mean we shouldn’t celebrate sidekicks as heroes.

In the end, I’m upset about the cinematic heroes montage. Being a hero isn’t just about puffing out your chest or standing up in front of a crowd. Yes, you have to own your position. After all—great power, great responsibility… all of those things. But I think there is something powerful about the simplicity of doing the right thing without being asked. I wish there were more time to celebrate the heroes who just keep their heads down and do what needs to be done, regardless of the attention it may or may not bring them.

I recently watched the documentary Miss Representation, and at one point they are talking to this high school student (now Stanford senior), Devanshi Patel, about what leadership means to her as she runs for Youth Governor of California. She says to her mother in the documentary, “Leaders are just servants to the people.” I think this is how we ought to view our heroes: as people who serve others, regardless of whatever fame and admiration they may attract.

What do you think?

Photo by Gali Levi-McClure

Photo by Gali Levi-McClure

 

We Don’t Know: Is My Exercise Routine Hurting Me?

Last week, I shared how and why I make exercise a priority. As I was researching my article (and reading my regular health blogs), I stumbled along this post on The Greatist. I was literally turning in my final draft for last week’s article and I already knew I had to write a follow up.

Fitspo, Thinspo, and all other “spos” on Instagram, Facebook, or Tumblr are said to be promoting a healthy lifestyle. But I’m wondering if, more often than not, they might just be distorting our body image and our health even more than before.

The big question is: what is too much exercise?

There are a lot of different articles out there that say you should do this many minutes of exercise a week and this percentage should be cardio and this percentage should be strength training. That’s not what I’m talking about.

I’m talking about exercising to the point where you are damaging your body.

When I was fourteen years old, I played a lot of softball. And I mean, a lot of softball. Between the two JV & Varsity teams, I was one of only three pitchers. That meant I often would play six games a week. If I threw sixty pitches a game, that meant three hundred and sixty pitches a week (not including any practices, warm ups, etc.). As the season would progress, you could slowly see me fall apart—my mechanics, my pitches, my focus—finding the strike zone got harder and harder and it wasn’t my arm.

You see, at fourteen, I wasn’t strong enough to carry a college level-schedule for pitching. That many pitches a week is a lot, even for an eighteen-year-old or a twenty-four-year-old. But I didn’t know that. So I kept pitching. The more tired I got, the shorter my step became, and I started locking my knee. Sure, this gave me a great drop ball, but it also made the ball-and-socket joint in my left hip repeatedly pound against each other. Yeah, it hurt! It hurt a lot and I didn’t know why. The trainer and the coaches just blamed it on fatigue: I would get used to it. Now, I look back and say, “Hell yeah, it was fatigue.” My body was fucking tired, and it was telling me to slow down and take seat. But I was an athlete, I could handle it. I kept playing and a mere six weeks into the season, I tore a tendon in my hip that took a piece of my bone with it. It left in its wake a crack just small enough to not need surgery but serious enough to put me on crutches for eight weeks. I was fourteen, not eighty-five. And what followed was four years of physical therapy (due to continuing alignment issues), knee pain, and back pain. Anytime I go to the running store to get fitted for new shoes, they are surprised I’m a runner because my right leg still supports a majority of my body weight. Perhaps that’s why I enjoy it so much: I wasn’t ever supposed to be good at it again.

The psychological effects of my injury ran deep. I never threw off my high school’s home field pitching mound again. I eventually quit swimming, field hockey, and softball. Maybe if someone had told me not to push myself so hard, I would have enjoyed them through college. Now, as an adult, I shared with you how I make time to exercise regularly. I tried to focus that article on having fun, not burning calories. Why? Well that’s another dangerous line to toe. You know bulimia? The potentially life-threatening eating disorder. People with bulimia may secretly binge—eat large amounts of food—and then purge, try to get rid of the extra calories in an unhealthy way. For example, someone with bulimia may force vomiting or do excessive exercise.

I think often, we forget about that part I put in bold and only focus on the vomiting. I’m not a doctor but I have experienced the obsessive emotions associated with disordered exercising. It’s hard to get them out of your head. You don’t have to be skinny to have them. Yes, being incredibly underweight is a sign you are sick, but so are other things: Is your workout schedule making you lose sleep? Are you constantly stressing about when you can have your next workout? Do you go through a run despite illness or injury? I have. I have obsessed about how to plan my weekend around my workouts. I justify it in some ways because I’m “training for a marathon” and getting enough miles in each week. Or I will sit and look over an entire restaurant menu and plug each and every item in to make sure it’s not too many calories because I only ran five miles today. Most of the time, it means plugging in 10 ingredients per dish to figure out if it’s right and, by the way, that takes forty minutes of my day. WTF, LIZ.

Though I’m really proud of my healthier habits, there are times where I feel my fitness obsession is also my biggest demon. I never feel more alive than I do after a spin class. Running has taught me so much about my limitations and given me confidence in myself I never had before. Early on, running was a way for me to get away from twenty-something stress (work, friends, etc.). But at the same time, I wonder if threw myself into it too fast.

So now, I say: Liz, if you want the damn pastrami melt, get the pastrami melt. I hate this term, but YOLO. Stop wasting hours obsessing over whether you worked out enough to earn that pastrami sandwich. Don’t go home for a run you didn’t plan just because you ate a bit too much. You shouldn’t punish yourself for living life like a normal person. We’re all different. We will find different activities and foods and lifestyles we enjoy. It’s great if you lose ten pounds before summer but if you don’t and you are loving life anyway, that’s all that matters. Go forth!

Photo by Meaghan Morrison

Photo by Meaghan Morrison

 

How I Made Exercise a Priority

I love running. I specifically love running half marathons (soon to be marathons, I hope).  I didn’t always like it—in fact in 7th grade my mom made me join the cross country team and I would walk 3.1 miles. I broke my hip in high school. One time my field hockey coach told me she was surprised I even finished two miles. I guess it was a special type of stubbornness that made me a runner. But I did it because I wanted to challenge myself. First, I ran a half-marathon on a whim. Then, I wanted to try and be a “real runner” and tackle my first marathon. I realized I loved planning for the races—you can’t just roll out of bed and run 13.1 miles. You have to build from 0 to 12, and then run your race. And while I wheezed and huffed and walked all around those 13.1 miles in Agoura Hills, it felt fabulous to actually make it through that first race.

To learn to love running, I realized I had to change my mindset. For me it was a competitive attitude (and lack of a team sport) that pushed me to live a more fit life. I’m not saying exercise is always fun for me, but I have learned to make it a time. Why do I make the time? How do I make time? Why do I schedule exercise and make it a priority?

I set a goal and make a plan

One way I force myself to workout is to set a goal, like a race, and then work backwards to create a training plan. Each takes up 14-18 weeks of a year and, a few races in, you have a whole year of training.

I make it fun

Do you hate exercise? You might be doing the wrong kind of exercise! I don’t mean you aren’t doing the Self Magazine endorsed “right exercise.” I mean you have to find the right type of exercise for you. For example, I don’t get Zumba but some of my friends don’t get kickboxing. You have to make the exercise not feel like work and make it fun. Find something amazing and give it a try. By the time you cool down, it will be like you just went to the best therapy ever! Whether it’s trying a new spin class or aerial yoga or Just Dance, you have to try things until you find your staple.

How will you know when to find the right thing? I’ll give you a hint. When you are posting Facebook statuses and taking Sweatie Selfies—you found the right thing. I can’t shut up about my workout and have to share it with all my friends.  I brag about my new cycle shoes I got on sale. It’s like showing off a new dress—except it’s an amazing feeling of accomplishment and self-worth! We were even talking about this at my boot camp this week: who wants to give it all they’ve got and get yelled at when you can work with someone who will make you laugh and feel good about yourself?

I find a buddy

Sometimes, finding something fun is about creating something social. Consider finding a workout buddy: your buddy can keep you entertained during the boring parts of a ten-mile run. Or it can just be someone to commiserate with after a killer crossfit workout, or someone to make fun of your bad moves in Zumba class.

A workout buddy can also push you to be better. I used to do TRX training sessions, but the private ones were expensive. I switched to the trainer’s group boot camp classes to save money, and soon I discovered another perk: I’m a bit competitive. Okay… a lot competitive. Working out with other people at boot camp pushes me to hold a plank ten seconds longer or sprint instead of jog. So partner up!

I plan ahead (and pay ahead)

For some, money is the best motivator. I’m not telling you to go out and purchase an Equinox membership if you are not going to use it. But getting money involved in my exercise regime does help! For example, a lot of boutique spinning studios like SoulCycle require cancellation by 5:30 pm the night before class or you lose the class. This means when I book a 6:00 am bike, I get out of bed because there is no way in hell I’m losing that thirty dollars.

I also recently signed up for GymPact. This app allows you to set a goal of X amount of workouts a week. For every workout you miss, Pact charges you at least ten dollars. If you complete your pact, you earn a portion of the money collected from the people who missed days. I like this because it forces me to get moving for at least  thirty minutes a day and earn money while doing it. It’s not a lot but I’ll be up to twenty dollars this week after five weeks. It’s something!

But Liz, I’m broke! I can’t make it to fancy classes.

When I have to workout at home, I always queue up cool online videos like Blogilates, Daily Burn and Lionsgate BeFit (all free or dirt cheap) but inevitably I find myself skipping out for another episode of House of Cards.

This is where you have to decide if you really are serious about making exercise a priority and and figure out how to motivate yourself to do it. Invite someone to do a home workout with you. Refuse to buy those new shoes you want until you do three weeks of workouts! It takes twenty-one days to make a habit—I know you can do it. You just have to tell yourself you can.

Photo by Meaghan Morrison

Photo by Meaghan Morrison

The Best Places for Getting Fancy Online

The internet! The greatest invention ever? If you are a shopping maven, for sure! But at the same time, the Internet can sometimes be just too big to find exactly what you want to wear.  Yes there are the typical flash sale sites like Gilt or RueLaLa.  Or the standard online retailers like Shopbop, Net-A-Porter, or Piperlime. We aren’t going to talk about those though.

Don’t get me wrong, they are great sites. I just find them so overstuffed with subscribers that it’s hard to get something I want there in the size or the color I covet. That said, I still hit them up for holiday gift ideas, but I like to think bigger when it comes to adding that pop of color I need.

Online Garage Sales

Let’s put it this way: if you tend to fall into one of two extremes when it comes to sizing (small feet or giant feet for example), eBay is a really good place for you. You can find shoes, bags, and more. These are often used or vintage but for a great price. Do you have to be wary of knock offs? Yes. Can you return things? Not usually. But I know most of the people my age wearing Louboutins are getting them used with a few scratches on the soles via eBay.

Online Consignment Stores

On the other hand, if you do want to pay a little extra to make sure your Chanel is legit, try The Real Real. This online consignment shop inspects all their items before putting them up for sale. They have great curators, a handbag sale every week, and so. many. shoes. WARNING! This is a dangerous website. No, seriously—I have had to unsubscribe from their email list because I’ve found myself coming up with reasons why I absolutely needed to buy a red carpet Alexander McQueen gown. That said, if you just check it out every once and a while, you can get really good deals (especially on shoes)! (I might have a shoe problem. Obviously, I have no idea what you’re talking about.)

Polyvore

Confession: I’m still not 100% how to use Polyvore. It’s a very powerful tool that allows bloggers/fashionistas/future Martha Stewarts to make collages out of their favorite items. But the best part is that you can click on the items on someone’s collage and it takes you to the site where you can buy it! How awesome! Polyvore can also be used to explore “red trenchcoats” or “pointy toes navy heels” and help you, as a consumer, find different sites to purchase these items. I’ve definitely used Polyvore to help me with DIY Carmen San Diego and Oswin Oswald costumes for next year.

Go Overseas

Sometimes the best way to get great deals is to go overseas! If you don’t know where to start, check out sites like Dorothy Perkins (a UK retailer à la H&M or Topshop) and Yoox.com (an Italian mail-order company). Some like Dorothy have cute, inexpensive dresses, sweaters etc. I like them because their palette and sizing generally is complimentary with my figure. Yoox.com is a really confusing online shopping black hole. No seriously, I had to go actually look up “how to navigate Yoox” while writing this because there is just so much stuff on there. But it has everything and at the best prices. For example, right now they have some $4,000 Balmain dresses and some discounted Alexander McQueen gowns (that I totally need at age 26, right? ) Since they are an Italian company, they have direct relationships with those showrooms, so this is a good bet if you like Dolce & Gabbana.

The con is that you have to then pay to ship your stuff from god-knows-where and it’s a lot of money to return things. But if you pull together 2-4 friends and put in a big order, you can split the shipping.

Another con is that some deals are actually too good to be true. If you find yourself buying an item for a ridiculous discount, take a look around the site. Is there a customer service number? Call it. Make sure it’s a real person. There are tons of web scammers out there who build legit enough looking shopping sites, take your money, and never ship your goods.

Rent It!

If you always need to be up-to-date or if you feel like you keep getting invited to special occasion after special occasion, consider renting your pieces. If I want a work-appropriate Tory Burch bag for spring, I can rent it for $75/month from Bag Borrow Steal or if I have to work or attend a black tie event, I can rent an evening gown from Rent the Runway. It’s pretty cool because usually they send one size up or down so you don’t order the wrong size and find out it doesn’t fit the day before. The bad news is that I find a lot of their styles a little prom-y, overly sexy, or all kind of the same.

Facebook

Do you have a seriously fashionable friend? Or a friend of friend? This isn’t exactly “online,” but I know some serious fashionistas who clean out their closet every 4-6 months with an online garage sale. For example, one girl at my university would sell designer stuff at a big discount just to always be in season. She needed to excise the old trends to get the new ones and would do so by selling off designer items for $40-100. Some were barely used, but only the lucky few people who wore her size could take part.

Whether you’re updating your own wardrobe, hunting down the perfect piece, or fulfilling the addictions of your shopaholic boss, these are all very, very dangerous places… but also the best places to get styles online! (I’m serious about The Real Real… No, I can’t afford you, Jimmy Choo’s, but you are 50% off!)

Just be sure to step away from the computer for a bit before clicking “Submit Order.”

Photo by Andy Sutterfield

Photo by Andy Sutterfield

Why I Love the Olympics

If you have been following my battle with the cable cord, you know there is one thing and one thing only that is the lynchpin with my cable TV attachment. I’ll give you a hint: it’s an international sporting event that takes place every two years and it’s not soccer.

I’ll be the first to admit, I have an Olympics problem. Like, I could tell you down to a five-minute window when Sasha Cohen would skate in the 2006 Free Program on Wednesday. I literally watch Procter & Gamble commercials on my laptop and start to cry. I am planning out which bar I can go to watch the Opening Ceremonies just so I can hear that Olympic fanfare this winter.

But why do I love the Olympics so much? It’s a bit hard to pinpoint one thing that makes them special to me, but I’ll try to break it down into pieces with the help of YouTube links.

Let’s get the easiest ones out of the way. The Olympics are a huge television event where NBC makes a ton of money off millions of eyeballs. As a result, NBC produces a lot of great promos aka “fluff” pieces. These are the little films before each Olympics broadcast  or each event that take the Olympic competition and make it super epic with music, great cinematography, and slo-mo. They are extremely well-produced and the best kind of sappy. To be honest, for a very long time, my dream job was to produce the Olympics fluff. (We’ll skip the part about how I actually went to film school with this dream in mind…)

The Olympics also bring a slew of really amazing commercials, brought to you from the likes of Home Depot, McDonald’s, Visa etc. They’re very memorable. Come on—I’m sure a large portion of the world only knows who Morgan Freeman is because of he says “Visa: Proud Sponsor of the Olympic Games” for eleven days straight every two and a half years. Additionally, these sponsors know how to produce commercials that celebrate the hurdles Olympians have to overcome and the people who are right there with them. One of my particular favorites this year is the commercial celebrating the addition of women’s ski-jumping. Seriously, guys, it’s set to a recording of Amelia Earhart talking about being the first woman to fly. It’s awesome.

Of course the moments that really stick with me in the games are the things that aren’t choreographed and produced. It’s pure athleticism and it’s great to see someone succeed in such a big way after hours upon hours of hard work. It’s those wow moments that, thanks to my old DVR, I could watch over and over again, saying to myself, “I can’t believe that just happened.”

Take for example, McKayla Maroney’s vault during the last summer Olympics. Yes, she fell on her butt in the individual finals of what was supposed to be her “best” event. But I am never going to forget watching her stick that insane vault in the team finals. This is a girl who had a broken toe and landed such a perfect vault that a judge literally exclaimed “Oh my god” on camera.  You just can’t recreate those moments, that rush everyone in that stadium and watching on television experienced.

Conversely, there are also moments we remember for being—for lack of a better world—bad. Like things went horribly wrong and you suddenly remember how much these athletes risk for their Olympic dreams.  The thing about Olympic athletes is that while some of them might be “professional” athletes, many of them can’t live off their Olympic dreams alone and are risking so much every day. Dana Vollmer has a deadly heart condition that could kill her while she’s swimming.  If you remember the 2012 Olympic Games, there was a lot of buzz around Sarah Robles, the US’s best shot for a weightlifting medal. Sarah lived off food stamps and could barely pay her rent, while athletes like Michael Phelps were rolling in endorsements. It was a shocking juxtaposition that reminded me how much these athletes have to give up. This isn’t the same as the NFL.

Fourteen years ago, a swimmer from Equatorial Guinea named Eric Moussambani competed in the Olympic Games in the 100M Freestyle. It was a dramatic moment when he won his heat due to the disqualification of his opponents after they had two fault starts. He was soundly defeated in the following semi-finals because Eric’s fastest finish was still one minute slower the world record set at that same Olympic games. So what’s amazing about this? Well, everything. This guy almost didn’t finish his first race, but the crowd of 17,000 people cheered him to the finish. It’s an iconic Olympic moment and something that’s stuck with me for over a decade. (Ignore Moorhouse, the British commentator in the video, because he clearly doesn’t get it). In the same way, Sasha Cohen fell on her two opening jumps in her Long Program in 2006, blew her chances at a Gold Medal, but still got up and skated a final compelling and emotional performance.  Watching these athletes stand back up, and watching the world come together to support them, is as an incredible moment as any big win.

I don’t have a perfect answer as to why I love the Olympics—it’s just something about the way the multiple elements evoke an emotional human response for me. What can I say? They mean something to me. I mean I’ve already booked myself for February 14th, 2016 when Los Angeles will host the 2016 Olympic Trails for the marathon. I’m going to participate in an Olympic Trials weekend! That is so awesome.

“Yeah, I love the Olympics that much.”

Photo by Sara Slattery

Photo by Sara Slattery

Holiday Cooking for People Who Think They Can’t Cook

Shit! You have three days to come up with a holiday dish and you have no idea what you are going to make. You start questioning why you even agreed to provide something in the first place. Never fear, there are a few easy dishes you can turn to throughout the winter festivities that require little to no actual cooking skill. I swear!

Soup

First, meet your new best friend: the blender. No really. With the magic of your blender, you can make delicious soup!

I don’t know why soup is so impressive to people, because it’s not actually hard to make at all, but I’ve found it to be quite the crowd pleaser.

There are so many variations so my advice is to start with one element at a time and taste each step of the way.

The process is pretty simple:

  • Take some veggies that seem like they would be good together in a soup (or whatever you have in your refrigerator)
  • Pulverize them in the blender.
  • Then heat up the puree with veggie stock. (I like my soups thicker so I prefer to see the veggie puree and slowly add broth until I get the consistency I want. It ends up being about ¼ stock and ¾ puree most of the time but this is not a science, there is flexibility.)
  • You can add various spices for flavoring.  (I liked adding cayenne pepper because it gives it a kick. Some people really like nutmeg for sweet potato and squash.

That’s it.

You don’t have to worry about “messing it up” if you just go pinch by pinch and taste test as you go. If you think it tastes good, it probably tastes good.

I’ve made  it’s pretty easy to make fancy soup while binge watching Breaking Bad, i.e. you can totally split your focus and not panic.

My suggestion: Butternut Squash soup. It’s in season right now, super simple, and very tasty. Try this recipe from BlenderBabes. And don’t worry, you can totally skip the cream and keep it completely vegan.  You won’t even miss it. No need for dairy substitutions.

No-Bake Baking

If soups aren’t your thing, I recommend looking to dessert. Even if you constantly burn things, there are many no-bake recipes that work for the holidays (but, if you do want to try your hand at baking, read this). Both Banana Pudding or No Bake Nutella Cheesecake don’t even require turning on an oven. Plus, you can even make the Graham Cracker Crust with your trusty blender.

Graham Cracker Crust:

  • Turn graham crackers into dust using blender
  • Add butter until it looks like “dough.”
  • Then press the crust into a cake pan.

 

Voila, crust.

Things you don’t want to skip: You have to make sure you have time to refrigerate both the Banana Pudding and the cheesecake or else they are goop. I also don’t recommend skipping the heavy cream in the cheesecake. I tried using a substitute this year and it didn’t work well. The cream cheese and the nutella just didn’t set as well and it was more blob than cheesecake (though they still tasted delicious).

Breakfast Strata

I love this recipe. It’s so simple and so delicious.

The Process:

Take any amount of the following:

  • Eggs
  • Cheese
  • Bread
  • Veggies and/or Meats options

 

Put it in a glass-baking dish and cook for 20 minutes. Done. I’m serious, there are no ratios, just add those three things. You can’t possibly screw it up and people will think your like Jacques Pepin!

If you’re sure you can’t cook…

My next best suggestion is to look up some special cocktail recipes. Liz Kerin tested some of her favorites for the holidays here!

But, if all else fails; there’s no shame in buying something. I’m not a big fan of faking it but if you have to, go for something that will inspire nostalgia in your guests. For me, that’s picking up some Magnolia cupcakes to remind my friends of our time in New York.  If I was in my hometown, I would die if someone brought a fruit tart from the bakery by my house. While I appreciate someone’s home-baked goods, one surprise dish from a place I love can brighten up the meal.

Whatever you decide to do, I promise that as long as you are excited about what you are bringing, you and your food will be welcomed with open arms. You’ll make new friends when everybody asks you how you made it and even if you didn’t, you get to tell them about a cool new restaurant or bakery in your hometown. You will still be part of the life of the party, no matter what your cookery skill level is. Promise.

By Rob Adams

By Rob Adams

Cutting the Cable Cord

I’m not going to lie, it was a hard decision. As a TV junkie, I never thought I’d find myself sitting on the floor of Time Warner Cable clutching my DVR box to my chest, about to relinquish it. How was I going to watch House Hunters (on HGTV.com) or The League (wait for Netflix or buy it on iTunes)?  Letting go of cable was a hard choice but, for me, a financially necessary one. These are the steps that helped make cutting the cord easier.

Photo by Rob Adams

Photo by Rob Adams

Explore Streaming Options

Technology has turned TV into a 360° experience. Not only can you watch your favorite shows on your tablet, phone, and computer, but there are also many options for streaming devices that hook into your TV.

You can consider streaming boxes like a Roku, a Google Chromecast, a WD TV Live, or an Apple TV. I’m not going to pro/con these devices because, honestly, I haven’t used any of them. I have always been old school and used a VGA cable to hook up my laptop to the TV (another inexpensive option).

Nowadays, I also have a Blu-Ray player that streams Hulu, Pandora, and Netflix. It’s not perfect because it doesn’t have all my streaming options in one place, but it’s pretty impossible to get Amazon Prime, iTunes, Netflix and Hulu all on one system. Netflix and Amazon are always expanding their libraries, but I also have this service called CinemaNow, I only recently discovered that it allows you to rent movies through the internet (like OnDemand) for a small fee.

I heard tons of people in the Time Warner Cable store talking about sites like ProjectFreeTV, and how you could catch your favorite shows there. But this isn’t actually free television.  It’s piracy. Stealing. It’s no better than theater hopping. You can, however, watch all the broadcast networks (FOX, CBS, ABC, NBC, & the CW) for free on your television. All you need is a digital tuner (this is what replaced the rabbit ears) and if your TV was made in the last couple of years there’s a pretty good chance that it already has one. Connect your TV to a cable outlet and you’re good to go—no cable subscription required.

Consider What You Can Do Without the Box

Here’s the major reason I cancelled my cable: outside the fact that you can save money, I realized I had 300+ movies in my Netflix cue. With cable, I would just channel surf all the time and, honestly, it wasn’t super enriching. I would rewatch episodes of Love It or List It multiple times in a day just because they were on!

Now, I have finally been able to use my TV time to watch House of Cards, Parks & Recreation, and great little movies like Turkey Bowl—the things I always intended to watch but never did.

Additionally, not sitting on the couch also allows me to spend more time going running or hiking, going to the theater, or just hanging with friends. There are so many possibilities in life without cable.

However, I will say that not having a DVR to help me watch the Olympic Games next year will be hard. But, that brings me to my next point…

Viewing Parties

I just came back from an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. viewing party down the road from my house. A viewing party is pretty much what it sounds like: a bunch of fans sitting in a room or in a bar, watching a show. It’s one of my favorite things!  If there is a show you love, see if you can get a group of friends to come watch with you, and get the bar to make it a theme night. One bar near NYU had entire nights dedicated to 24 (Jack Bauer Power Hour) and Lost (Get Lost Wednesdays)—and, more recently, is still hosting Breaking Bad and Homeland viewing parties.

You can also keep it low-key and just go to a friend’s place. The OC and Grey’s Anatomy are two shows from high school I hold dear because I’d always gather with friends to watch them. Make it even more fun by turning it into a theme night and have a group of friends bring some ‘60s appetizers for a Mad Men party.

After living without cable for a few weeks, I can honestly say “it’s not that hard.” Sure, it’s a bit harder to keep track of shows without a DVR. But now that I figured out how to use my Hulu Plus queue, it’s a piece of cake. If you are unsure if you can cut the cord quite yet, test it out by giving your remote to a friend for a week, signing up for a Hulu Plus trial, and seeing how you do.

Tell us about your experiences cutting the cord in the comments!

Understanding Employee Benefits

Congratulations! You’ve got a new corporate job. Your HR representative hands you a big envelope detailing your salary and all these benefits—401K, vacation, health insurance etc. And the questions start to pop up: Mom, do I need life insurance? What’s an employer contribution? I don’t know what any of this means!

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Photo by Meaghan Morrison

It’s important to understand your benefits and have the tools to take full advantage of them. If used correctly, your benefits can add approximately $10,000 value to your compensation package. (Note: I have no idea if this is a proven fact, but this is just something my parents and my first HR rep told me. They are all ‘money people,’ so I believe them.)

Here are a few things to look at a little more carefully while choosing your benefits:

1. Health Insurance

If you have any benefits, you probably have health insurance. Usually you have a couple options: plans where you pay more upfront and have lower out-of-pocket costs later, and plans where you play a lower premium but have to save that money for the “big bill” later.  Other important things to take a look at: your co-pay, deductible, and if there is an annual or lifetime maximum. One time, an employer offered me health insurance and, upon further investigation, I discovered there was an annual maximum of $1,000. My car insurance was offering me better medical coverage! I looked to purchase insurance outside my benefits plan because I knew that in any sort of serious situation, that medical insurance wasn’t going to help me.

2. Employer Match/401k 

Employer-matching contributions are another great benefit: your employers will match your 401K contributions up to a certain percentage of your salary (usually about 5% to start out). It’s a great way to increase your savings quickly! One important note: if you leave your company before you are considered “vested,” you will lose all your employer contributions. (Total bummer, I know!)

At my first company, employees didn’t become vested until two years in, and I left after a year and a half. But my current company’s 401K vests immediately. If you do happen to find new employment, ask HR what would happen to your vested balance if you came back to the previous company. I found out before I left that if I went back to my old company within two years of leaving, I would get my employer contributions back. Pretty cool research to have in my back pocket!

3. Life & Disability Insurance 

Life insurance is another common benefit. Generally, if offered, your employer will pay for the amount of one year’s salary, while giving you the option to purchase additional coverage. You also get to designate this money to your loved ones, so be prepared with all your beneficiaries’ social security numbers ahead of time.

Many companies also include short-term disability and long-term disability insurance options. Depending on your insurance, this may extend to illness or injury while not on the job (pneumonia, hospitizalion, etc.). That’s why you want it to pay extra for it, even though workman’s compensation would cover injuries on the job. Even if you are working a desk job, if you can make an affordable monthly contribution to earn these benefits, I would recommend you take it. Accidents happen everywhere and there is nothing more taxing for you or your family than a career-ending injury. Some examples of career-ending injuries include accidents in company vehicles, slipping on ice, and falling down stairs. Again, all very unlikely, but could lead to severe injury that would keep you from working.

You should also figure out when your disability rolls from short term to long term. An employer cannot replace you until you are considered to be on “long-term disability,” which can be anywhere from 3-6 months. If you like your job, you would hopefully recover during the short-term leave, before you get rolled to long-term and find yourself out of a job.

Finally, perhaps the most important thing about corporate benefits is to feel empowered to ask questions. Many corporations provide benefits hotlines that can answer your questions, get you specific details on your medical plan, and just help it all make sense!  If you don’t have a benefits hotline, your HR rep will be able to talk to you about any questions you have.

Playing Sports as an Adult

We all have friends who gather on their couches to watch the Super Bowl, Stanley Cup and World Series. I just finished watching a 15-inning game of college softball on ESPN. But how many people do you know who get off that couch and shoot some hoops on their own? There’s probably a handful, but for many of us, finding an adult community sports league can be intimidating.

Here are a few good reasons to join an adult sports league, even if you don’t consider yourself an athlete:

#1: Social Exercising

I don’t know what’s worse: the Freshman 15 or the College Degree’d 30. Whatever workout habit you may have had built into your class schedule, that luxury is gone. Now, you are on-the-go all the time. Eating from the drive-thru, or at your desk, or on your couch after 8 pm. Who wants to force themselves to dedicate time to exercising when you barely have time to breathe?

Recreational sports are an easy answer. Depending on the sport, the exercise can be vigorous or moderate, but you still get to meet new people no matter what level of play. Depending on the league you are in, you might even have practices with bonus exercise.

Additionally, you might find your company has a work league or work team. I can tell you right now, playing softball basically got me hired out of my internship and into my first big-person job. My soon-to-be boss and I warmed up and started chatting and, a year later, I graduated and had my first job (because they really needed my help in Center Field… I mean… in the office).

#2: Try something new!

Remember when we were little and your parents signed you up for things like soccer, tennis, basketball, theater camp, and piano? By the time you reached 14, you probably had to start specializing—pick one after-school activity or pick one sport.

But life isn’t over yet! Want to learn play golf? Sign up for a beginner’s course and bring some friends to the driving range. Did you always want to learn to play lacrosse but never could find a league as a kid? Ask your local league if they accommodate beginners. There are so many people who try new sports after they leave school, and it ends up being a center of their social life. I know people who have learned Ultimate Frisbee and Curling. Heck, go read Melissa’s article about Quidditch and tell me you don’t want to try it, too!

Don’t worry if you aren’t that good right away. If you like the league and team, you’ll get better with time

#3: Rekindle a love of sports. 

While my primary form of exercise is running, my first love will always be softball. I played in work leagues and slowpitch leagues, but it just wasn’t the same as the fastpitch I grew up playing.

But now, I play and manage two fastpitch teams and it’s my favorite hobby. It keeps me sane. Both my teams are in an 18+ women’s league with players at every level. I even got to go to a tournament in Las Vegas—seeing 12 teams from 4 different states compete against each other reminded me why I love this game.

Now a few tips to find a sporting league for you!

The two best places to find a league are through your work and through your city’s parks and recreation department. Many major corporations have company leagues or company teams sponsored through their employee activities program. Additionally, your city has adult sports leagues (mine varies from $40-90 per player per season), just like the ones for kids.

If you can’t find leagues through either of those, there are two private companies that run leagues across the United States: Zogsports and Planet Social Sports. Both these leagues generally offer multiple sports a year and usually make deals with local bars to host the athletes for post-game drinks. ZogSports also raises money for charity and offers volunteer opportunities to players in the league (it was founded in NYC in the wake of 9/11).

Lastly, if you are looking for an obscure sport, I highly recommend using Sportsvite or Meetup. Sportsville a Facebook-type community for sports lovers to find teams or find players for their teams.

Level of Competition

Make sure you join a team in the correct level of competition and find a patient manager. You don’t want to play on a team that plays to win if you are just there to have a good time! I can’t stress enough how important a good manager with the right vision can be to your experience. You don’t deserve to be screamed at for a simple mistake, especially when you are paying to play in this league. I know it sounds silly, but sometimes people don’t have the same priorities.

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Photo by Meaghan Morrison

Disputing a Medical Bill

Usually, when navigating the confusing world of health insurance, after every procedure, check-up, etc., you get a lovely little statement from your insurance company. I liked these—mostly because they said “Amount You Owe: $0.” Until last year, when a tiny billing discrepancy with my dentist crumbled into a massive back-office mess. My dentist was really good, and I truly used to like her, but in 2012—almost 3 years after I started seeing her—I got a big bill.  As in a several thousand dollar bill. There had to be a mix up! I just assumed they must have billed me for the wrong procedure and all would be straightened out soon enough.

So, I called in. Turns out, the dental office had only received checks for one or two of my seven appointments. Then, I called my insurance company, who told me that the practice had to call them to figure it out. I called the dentist back, and her office told me to hang tight. Three months later, we had the same conversation. And again at the six month mark.

Finally, when we rolled into 2013, I got another bill, and I was fed up. No one from my insurance company or my dentist’s office was listening to me.

And then I discovered how to dispute a claim. And now, I can tell you.

To clarify, this dispute didn’t involve lawyers—if you want to read about that, you can hit up Google. I contested this myself.

First, find out how to file a grievance with your health insurance provider. A grievance is a basically a formal complaint. You can actually call in a grievance, but I chose to file one online because it was quick and I had a written record afterwards.

Grievance forms ask standard questions such as when the incident occurred, who the persons involved were, and what exactly happened. Awesomely, grievance forms also ask you if you tried to handle the issue on your own, what the outcome of your discussion with the providers was, and (perhaps most importantly) what you want the outcome to be.

My dispute ended there. Problem solved: I ended up only owing a mere $9.

But, let’s say your insurance company doesn’t do a great job at responding in a timely manner. You have rights. These are usually spelled out by your insurance company at the bottom of the grievance form. In my case, the insurance company had 30 days to give me a written decision. If I was in that process longer than 30 days, I could file a grievance with my state. This is often done through a branch of the health department, usually called the Department of Managed Health Care or something similar.

No insurance company wants to get the state involved, so hopefully you won’t ever get this far. If things still haven’t cleared up, you have other options before even hiring a lawyer, such as contacting your State Insurance Commissioner. This government line of defense can help you in more areas than just insurance issues. When a friend of mine was going back and forth with AT&T for months on replacing a faulty landline, she called the Public Utilities Commission and someone high ranking from AT&T called her back within hours.

And then, when it’s all over, be sure to tell your state’s Better Business Bureau. Other consumers can use your experience to make informed decisions about their insurance companies. At this point, you have had a rough experience and you should let other potential customers know.

Pro Tip: When filing a customer service complaint in any area—from health insurance to fast food service—the words Better Business Bureau can often help turn things your way.

In some serious cases, you will need a lawyer’s help; but, know that if you look around there are already many avenues carved out for you to get your problems solved.

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