Aura Fitness Studio

On the eve of a new year, I'm writing this post to offer a new year solution to help those of you who would like to establish and maintain healthier habits.

I have always enjoyed journaling and have done so since my pre-teen years.  I used to keep paper journals and would try to track my goals, habits and thoughts by filling out little hand made graphs and charts.  I also jumped on the "bullet journal" trend awhile back.  Additionally, I used to give space in my journal for "brain dumping" to write down everything that I was worrying about, in hopes of alleviating stress and thinking I'd be able to look back and laugh at the silly things I lost sleep over, with the benefit of hindsight aiding my mental health.  As I've come to realize, the "brain dump" exercise was kind of a waste of time. 

Over the past three years, I've developed a much better system for myself.

Check out my wellness tracker here (you can make a copy of the template and edit it accordingly).

Now, my journal is completely digital and lives in a Google Form that I parked on my phone's home screen for easy access.  

 

Using the domains of wellness (physical, emotional, social, intellectual, occupational, spiritual, financial, overall well-being) I created 10 daily action steps that I wanted to work towards throughout the year.  For instance, throughout 2023, I wanted to get better at taking a daily multivitamin, so that was a daily action step that I tracked under the "physical" domain of wellness.

Beyond tracking my habits with quantitative tracking, I also track my habits with qualitative tracking.  Every night before I go to sleep, I complete these three nightly reflection exercises:

Today I am grateful for....

The best part of my day was....

Today I learned.....

Rather than giving negative thoughts power, I've found that focusing my daily efforts on achieving small wins and intentionally learning new things every day is both empowering and energizing.  It's easy to say this is flimsy science, but rewiring my brain to focus on positive energy has had such a profound and positive impact on my life that I know it's this positive thinking that has given me the courage and confidence to take action on bigger goals that I have set for myself.

Every year my tracker changes, depending on the overall goals I have for myself and for the year.  For instance, this year (2025) was a big year for me with the growth of my business, so under the "occupational" domain I really pushed myself to complete all ten daily actions related to business development, networking and writing proposals because I knew I needed to do that to reach the growth goals I had.  

This year was the first year since my 20s that I wasn't a member of a gym so admittedly, my physical health domain wasn't as strong as I thought it was going to be.  I thought I was going to do fine, relying on my daily 10k step goal that I usually achieve with my morning walk and lifting some weights in my building's gym, but there were a lot of last minute schedule changes, just "one more Zoom" to attend to, and by the end of the year, my daily average dropped to 6k steps/day.   

I did get better at logging my daily results.  In 2024, I only did 84 entries as you can see in the sample below.  However, in 2025, I logged 245 of 365 days.

Last year, I took all of my qualitative data from the spreadsheet and parked it in a Google Doc that I printed out and put in an envelope to open in ten years, as a special time capsule.  I'm doing the same with the data from this year, but what I also did for 2025 was put the data in ChatGPT and I asked the robots to analyze the text and recommend areas for improvement.  I don't normally celebrate the robots that much, but I have to give credit where it's due.  It picked up some interesting nuances that I didn't even catch and it also affirmed a lot of the growth that I was attempting to achieve in 2025 and gave some pretty awesome ideas for 2026 to further improve.  Side note: please remember to remove personally identifying information if you attempt to do the same!

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the growth I've achieved this year and the healthy habits I have established and maintained for myself over the years.  I know life moves fast in the modern age and sometimes it feels overwhelming to keep track of everything.  The best part about this solution is that it's completely free and you own all of your data.  No one's trying to sell a shake or a supplement, etc. etc. based on your habits and actions.

In closing, I also want to say that I'm glad I thought to create this digital journal and tracking mechanism because my daughter sees that I have a healthy relationship with the tech tools I use to stay healthy and she sees that I'm using my phone for good, at the end of the day. She likes helping me think of things to be grateful for and throughout the day she reminds me of things that we learn about that she tells me to include in my tracker.  I asked her if she's ready for her own tracker, but she said not yet.

Friend, I hope this new year brings you joy, health and happiness.  No matter what happens, don't let up.  Keep looking for the good in every day and remind yourself: I AM LOVING AND I AM LOVED.

Happy 2026! 💗

I’m really happy with my life.

Over the past year, I’ve had a few ups and downs, but overall, I’m very grateful for this journey called LIFE.  Over the past year, I’ve been able to connect with so many interesting people and experience new growth as an entrepreneur, leader and innovator.

Since May 2017, I have:


*Started a business in Asia
*Found my tribe with local entrepreneurs and expats
*Traveled to Vietnam with my husband and daughter





*Launched my mentorship platform, INSIDER PORTAL
*Published 15 weeks of newsletter content
*Made new friends with inspiring female entrepreneurs, leaders and innovators.

In the next few months, I’m planning to:

*Develop a prototype to measure brain activity during exercise in pediatric populations
*Publish 30 episodes of my new podcast
*Ride across the United States to meet entrepreneurs, leaders and innovators
*Write about about my startup experience.

Above all, it has been an amazing year of growth for my daughter.  She's now a toddler!


 Every day with her is the best day of all.


It might sound cliché to say so, but my daughter gives me so much focus and drive to be the best version of myself.  Some habits are different, while others have stayed the same.  My journey of wellness continues to evolve.  I am excited to see what the future has in store!

I'm the real deal, folks! No time for fancy cameras or fancy editing!

Finished before my baby woke up from her nap!

Today's post is written in spirit of International Women's Day.

I was in the mood for a cheesy "feel good" movie last night, so I found my way over to the Hallmark channel.  Normally, their movies all follow the same plot and are so predictable. However, within the first five minutes of playing this one, I was annoyed.  The main character, a girl of about eight years old, was sent to the principal's office and was reprimanded for exposing secrets about the cafeteria food.  The principal told the little girl, "Strong women get into more trouble".  I know it's just a movie, but this happens in real life in schools all over the world!

This comment stuck out at me because I was and still am like that little girl.  From a very young age, in grade five, I was trained to raise my voice on behalf of those who had no voice.  I was raised to believe that I could do anything I put my mind to.

Society: Be Yourself.

Society: No, not like that.

It's been hard to be a strong woman.  I've had to accept unfair labels (problematic, stubborn) and name calling (bitch) for speaking out and holding my ground in ways that would earn an average man admiration and respect.  My direct communication has been mistaken for aggression.  The world doesn't really want more women to "Lean In".  The world wants "polite and silent" girls.  Society tolerates very little blabbering, neuroticism, anxiety, melancholy, sarcasm or any other character flaw which makes a woman "weak".

But it's okay.  We all have the right to be who were are. The weird one, the nerdy one, the lover, the worrier, the thrill seeker or the artist.  Be them all and be them all at once.  You are the ONLY you that there is and will ever be. How tragic it would be to act like you are anything but that.

Be Bold For Change

On International Women's Day 2017 we must celebrate how far women have come but never become complacent or forget about how far we still have to go. Today I'm confronting injustice.

The systematic oppression of women begins in schools. From the curriculum and programming we offer little girls, to the books they're required to read, to the "history" they're required to reflect on, to the behavior they're expected to exhibit, to the male majority leading schools (despite being a female-dominated industry).  Later to the careers young women are encouraged to pursue, to the gender roles and expectations emphasized in modern society, to the tradition of gender oppression in organized religion.

If this sounds like an exaggeration to you, you're probably on the right side of the coin.

I too never really understood the struggle until I became pregnant and was on the receiving end of unsolicited advice and opinions of people who wanted to decide my life for me. I never really understood the struggle until I found out I was being paid less than a man for doing the same job (in spite of possessing more qualifications!).

I didn't even know about "International Women's Day" until I lived overseas!  How many news channels are actually covering IWD today? So the majority of women don't wear hijabs here, but let's not kid ourselves...The USA is NOT a friendly place for women or families. No woman should have to choose between having a career and having a family. We need to redistribute childcare and elderly care work to empower women. We need to reallocate federal tax dollars spent on military expenditures and subsidize support for families. We need to be not just pro-birth but pro-life across the entire lifespan.

We need to stop laughing at stay at home dads and celebrate them with fanfare. We need to normalize involvement of fathers because it's good for the child, it's good for societies and it's good for mankind.

If it can be done in other countries, I'm sure we can figure out how to do it here.

The promise of equity is possible. It starts with an unwavering commitment to a fair chance for every girl-families, communities, governments and their partners can and must work collectively to set in motion a virtuous cycle of equity for today's girls, and for generations to come.

Some facts and figures for you, on this International Women's Day, 2017:

Geography, wealth and gender are key markers of inequality for children.  The poorest girls are more likely to be married as children and less likely to have equitable and equal access to health care, education and social-emotional support.

Conflict, natural disasters and climate change also undermines equitable education for girls. Based on estimates for 2013, some 59 million girls are still missing out on their right to primary school education. Globally, two thirds of secondary school-aged children are enrolled in school; in the least developed countries, only one third are. It's not a question of intelligence, but rather access; in most countries with available data, girls outperform boys in reading.

Africa's increasing share of the world's child population makes investing in girls, particularly the poorest, more imperative than ever.

We have the tools needed to disrupt the destructive cycle of marginalization. Let's do something about it...

Happy #IWD2017 to all the wonderful, diverse, challenging, supportive women in my life. I could not do what I do without you. Thank you.