7 Lessons I Learned in My 20's

1 — Fail Hard

Failure is your medicine. Take it often. Every time you fail, you have a grand opportunity to learn from your mistakes. Make time to create crappy work. Do it quickly. Prioritize failing on your own free time without the backlash within a workplace.

2 — Experience Everything

Be curious like a shark. Take sample bites and reject if it’s not tasty chum. Pursue opportunities that construct your worldview. Que my eight months in non-profit casework. If I threw my brain in a blender pressed crush, it would produce the same results as the burnout when I left. And I am grateful for it.

I spent eight months landing on my face, until I landed on my feet. I stretched my skillset to their absolute max, and left knowing exactly what I do not want to do with my life.

3 — Do What You Want

I promise you, other than (maybe) your parents, few people (if any) are thinking about you. People are drowning in their own lives, their own concerns with getting from point A to point B. PIvoting in your career, your interests, and hobbies are a natural sign of growth. Seek it aggressively. Take those internships when you don’t have a mortgage rendering those pursuits nearly impossible.

4 — Travel Solo

Your friends will have other things to do. Other plans, other relationships. Be safe, and don’t wait for other everyone. Just don’t.

5 — Stop Multitasking

In a distracted world of smartphones and instant gratification, simple is rare, simple is good. Do one thing at a time, in short bursts, and with complete focus. Finish the task, let it go, and move on to the next thing. Your brain will thank you.

short bursts of focus > cramming

6 — Value Time

Time is your most valuable perishable resource. You can’t “make” or “kill” time. It’s there, ever-moving, ever-consistent. I’m not telling you that twelve-hour Netflix binge was wasteful. Reschedule it during your day off.

Value your time with other people. Do not be late, do not keep people waiting on you. Once you do that, you have the power to hold others accountable for wasting your time waiting.

7 — Reject #nonewfriends

“No New Friends” is a DJ Khaled song. It doesn’t have to be your key to success. Show me your friends, and I will tell you who you are. Don’t waste time with people who treat you like dirt, or remind you how much you’ve changed as they’re clinging to that high school version of you. There will be people who come into your life, and it’s as if you’ve known them forever. They understand your mannerisms, they like to celebrate Harry Potter’s birthday, too.

Seek out people that bring peace in your life.

Seek out the ones you can sit in comfortable silence.

My Weight Loss Journey: 30+ Less and Counting!

20th Birthday 2008! (BEFORE)

Spring 2011 - far left (AFTER :) )

“Unless You Puke, Faint or Die, Keep Going!”
― Jillian Michaels, Making the Cut: The 30-Day Diet and Fitness Plan for the Strongest, Sexiest You

Back in June 2010 I weighed in at 158lbs on the scale at Lucille Roberts. At my heaviest back then I was nearing the end of my two-year membership at the gym and not much lighter than I had started.

I had been trying to lose weight since I started gaining it back at thirteen. Puberty was not kind to my previously rail thin body type, which, coupled with my aversion to exercise and eating vegetables set me on a downward spiral. I was isolated on my very own island somewhere in the fatosphere of my imagination.

I alone was the heaviest of my friends and more than anything, I carried that feeling around constantly. Consequently, I ate those feelings and piled on the pounds at a quicker pace as I got older.

By no means do I support that the beauty bar holding up super models as the ideal, rather, I believe in the healthy body and healthy mind approach. They’re like Siamese twins, you can’t truly have one without the other. Injecting this philosophy into my life forced me to actually do something.

Yeah, that Nike logo: Just do it. I took it to heart and joined the local gym two blocks from my house. It wasn’t a women only gym so I sported my brother’s oversized sweatshirt and put the “Mortal Kombat” theme song on replay on my ipod.

First workout:

I lasted seven minutes on the treadmill and pumped five pounds on the various weight machines.

Conclusion: Cardio was not my thing.

Improvement was slow, but the results on the scale were haphazard.

After failing to shed any significant amount of weight after a year and a half, I was completely dejected. I avoided mirrors and willfully changed in my closet so I wouldn’t have to see myself. Writing, dancing, posting pictures of myself on facebook became less fun so I stopped. Life was put on hold and my self-destructive habits ensued. I made bad food choices and made them late at night.

It’s not so much that I hated my body, but that I felt a deep sore of unhealthiness whenever I woke up and my heart was racing, or when I climbed those subway steps and could barely catch my breath.

The pressure was mounting and something had to give.

So it was on a whim that I decided to start a Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred DVD with my neighbor. It was a twenty-minute workout that left me a blubbering, sweat-drenched shadow of a person after the first day, but I told myself that I had nothing else to lose but weight.

I think my niece is taking pity on me and offering a grilled cheese sandwich.

Flash forward six months and I was 25lbs lighter alhumdulillah. I never started a workout without making du’a and I lost it all not because I prayed for a number on the scale but because I needed a change. While I was stuffing my face, I was really starving for self-discipline and mental clarity, and when you are throwing yourself into a world of pain that leaves you bursting at the seams with endorphins, it resonates into every aspect of your life.

25lbs LESS! First time I weighed myself (far right)

Now I am about 36 pounds less alhumdulillah. Growing up I never believed I could be that sporty person or someone who enjoyed that dull ache in your muscles after a really great workout. Way to put myself in a box. I was constructing my own downfall without even realizing it.

I still want to push myself for that six pack, but the best part of this journey has been realizing my potential and ability in a place I never had before.

HERE'S MORE BEFORE & AFTER PICTURES!

Wayyy back in 2009.

Just back from Bangladesh! Nightly biryani dinners sure didn't do me any favors :P

AFTER

I'm trying and failing to take a meaningful picture ! But at least I look good :P

Graduation 2011. The exact feeling of success in more ways than one. Let's hope my hard work sticks inshaAllah!

Introducing...

Hello! Assalamu'alaikum! Bonjour! Hajime mashite!

You are about to enter a world of sunshine, rainbows, and best of all...books! Before I embark on this journey of epic proportions and foam at the mouth from nerdiness overload, I should probably introduce myself.

Name: Fozia
Age: 23
Interests:
Everything! I
I am an experimenter (is that a word?) I love to try new things and record everything I do even if it's, and it probably will be highly embarrassing.

I am a:

READER

WRITER

TEACHER (AHEM, SUBSTITUTE)

CULTURAL ENTHUSIAST (Ok, ok, I admit. Pita bread and biryani are staples of my own culture, but me slurping yakisoba does not make much for a drool-worthy picture...at least on your end. Alas, my love & interest of different cultures does not stop at food, but it is seriously the best part especially when you're not paying)!

  

FITNESS/HEALTH ENTHUSIAST (now 36 pounds less, I still have a ways to go to reach my goal weight, but the blood, sweat & tears are worth it)

NYC EXPLORER (I am a nomad in many ways, shuttling from one place to another in this lonely city. But! There are always many highlights on a day-to-day basis whether it's running into the naked cowboy in Times Square or b-boys on the A train. I shall unearth the many excitements of this place, and do it the HALAL way. holla!)

 


Disclaimer:
This blog is an ode to all things awesome which will be explored in the center of the universe aka New York City! As a primary literature blog, I will be reviewing books every so often, particularly ones that focus on a Muslim/Asian/Middle-Eastern perspective. Perhaps when I get enough courage, and ignite the part of my brain that enables me to go on my writing escapades, I shall post.
But! Not one to be bogged down by too much reading or just work in general, I will also dedicate at least one day a week or every other week to go on an experimenting adventure to hopefully inject some inspiration and life back into my life, and hopefully for whoever is reading this cognitive vomit of mine. The sky is the limit, friends.