Tag Archives: education

Getting Some More Union Education (or Having A Lesson During A Committee Meeting)

Posted on September 2, 2022 | Comments Off on Getting Some More Union Education (or Having A Lesson During A Committee Meeting)

I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of a few different committees with SAG-AFTRA. Some of the committees have been national ones and others have been local to LA. And each committee has its own way of organizing meetings. Depending on the focus of the committee, sometimes the meetings are all about news specific to that committee. For example, the National Conservatory Committee usually discussed things regarding the SAG-AFTRA Conservatory with each local and what the national committee could do to support them. And the LA Local Organizing Committee was mainly about sharing industry news and events that we should know more about and could benefit all members to learn about.

The only committee that I’m in right now that has been able to have meetings has been the LA Local Communications Committee. I’m grateful that we’ve had regular meetings because there are a lot of things we want to get done within the committee. I haven’t written any articles yet for the local membership, but I have submitted ideas for several and one is being worked on by a union staff member so it can be published (some articles are written by members, but others require staff to help us and the one I suggested needs staff to work on it). And since we are busy planning articles and other forms of communication that we want to get out to the LA Local, our meetings are typically just focused on that and we don’t have a ton of additional education.

But for the meeting that we had this past week, that changed. We still spent quite a bit of our meeting planning articles and other items, but we also got to have some time to learn about the union archives and what that entailed. I know what an archivist does for museums, but I wasn’t aware of exactly what they would be storing for the union. Before our meeting, we had a chance to submit questions that would be asked during the presentation. And since I didn’t know much about what they would do, my questions were pretty basic and simple. But I figured if I was unaware there probably would be at least one other person who was clueless too. So I put down all my simple questions and hoped that they would be able to be answered.

Only a portion of our meeting was dedicated to discussing the union archive, but I think the staff that was a part of it did a great job with their presentation and going over several of the questions that we had submitted. I learned that a lot of the items that have been kept have been about the creation of the union or artifacts from the first few years of the union, such as old membership cards. And I don’t know why I wouldn’t have thought of this, but they do keep information related to past elections and contract votes. It’s smart to keep all of that since there have been so many votes regarding contracts and ratifications that are important to remember. And if someone has a question about the changes in a contract, this would provide a resource to be able to see what historically has been in contracts and what was just something that was assumed to be in there.

I do wish we had more time for the archive presentation and to learn more about how we can share more information with other members and maybe some opportunities for people to understand more about it, but I am grateful that we had some time for education about the union. With everything being virtual and board meetings not open to all members like before, I feel like I haven’t had as many chances to learn about union things. I have missed that and even though observing board meetings isn’t really a time to learn, I always had notes after being there of things I wanted to look up and learn more about. So this committee meeting having the presentation brought back a little bit of that feeling and really helped to make me feel more connected to the union again.

And besides getting to feel more connected to the union, any committee meeting or event I’m able to be a part of really just reminds me of what I’m really pushing for in my life. Sometimes it’s easy to just be sucked into the day-to-day with my day job, especially since I haven’t had many auditions lately. It can feel like I’m not really pursuing my career and just working my jobs. But this gave me some time to be a part of what I have striving for and hope to have as my main focus in life one day.

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Default ThumbnailContinuing With My Union Committee Service (or I’m Still So Grateful These Are Done Over Zoom) Default ThumbnailUnion Committee Work (or Continuing To Be More and More Involved In My Union) Default ThumbnailMaking Sure I Make It To Union Meetings (or Sometimes I Can’t Help My Schedule) Default ThumbnailMore Union Education (or Making Sure Ads Go Union) Default ThumbnailFirst Union Meeting In A While (or Feeling Informed Again) Default ThumbnailFinal Union Working Meeting For 2017 (or A Commercial Roundtable)

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Another Speaker Series Evening (or I Really Should Read Emails)

Posted on May 25, 2021 | Comments Off on Another Speaker Series Evening (or I Really Should Read Emails)

Earlier this year, I got to be on a Zoom for a speaker series that my parents subscribe to. The speaker was W. Kamau Bell and it was an incredible talk. I know my parents miss getting to go to those in person, but since they are online they can share one of their tickets with someone else. They have been enjoying other speakers this year and have invited friends of theirs to use the other ticket. But last week, my dad asked me if I wanted to be a part of another one.

I would have said yes without knowing who the speaker was since I knew it would be a great talk. But I was excited to find out that the speaker this time was going to be documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. I haven’t seen too many of his documentaries, but I love documentaries in general and thought this would be an amazing chat to learn about all the different movies he has done and he would be full of stories.

When my dad asked if I wanted to have the extra ticket, I was working so I took a note of the information from it. He told me the start time and let me know he’d be forwarding me an email with the link to the Zoom. I saw the email come in but didn’t worry about opening it since I had notes of when things would start.

That day, I went about my day like normal, planning for watching the Zoom later in the evening. I had a pretty relaxing evening before logging in and took my time making dinner and then doing some reading. Then, when I finally opened the email, I realized I wrote down the wrong start time! I had written down that it started at 8pm when it started at 7pm!

I was so mad at myself for this! If I had just opened the email earlier I would have seen this. But I was so sure since I wrote down a start time that I had it right. But I’m guessing I was distracted enough with work that I misheard my dad or wrote down the wrong thing. But instead of worrying about it too much, I tried to get logged in as quickly as possible. Since I was trying to log in early to have time before I thought it would start, I was about 45 minutes late and not a full hour late.

And even though I only got to hear the second half of the talk, it still was awesome. I haven’t seen a lot of his documentaries, but this talk made me want to check more of them out. And I loved hearing about the stories behind the filming and what inspires him to find new projects.

There is a chance that my parents will get a recording of the talk that they can forward to me so I can see what I missed. But even if I can’t, I’m still glad I was able to watch some of it. Even though I am starting to do more stuff outside of my house, I like having virtual events too. I can be a bit more relaxed at home for virtual events and that’s always nice.

The speaker series that my parents are a part of is done for this season and next season will be starting later this year. If they have more virtual events, maybe I’ll get to watch more of them. I hope I do because I do enjoy these deep dives into someone who is an expert or master of their field. And this particular series gets some of the most amazing speakers to be a part of it.

I just know that next time, I’ll look at the email to confirm the time instead of thinking I wrote it down correctly so I don’t end up missing half of the talk.

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A Night Of Learning (or Watching A Lecture Online)

Posted on February 5, 2021 | Comments Off on A Night Of Learning (or Watching A Lecture Online)

I think for some people when they retire, they tend to spend a lot of time relaxing and enjoying free time with nothing on their schedule. I never really thought my parents would be that way when they retired, and they have proven me right in the years since my dad stopped working. I feel like my parents have never been busier! Right now, things aren’t as busy for my parents as they used to be, but they are still always doing something.

One of the things that my parents do is attend the San Jose Speaker Series. They’ve been doing this for a little while now and they always get to see the most amazing people. Before the pandemic, the Speaker Series was done at a theater. And for a little while, they took a break with the hopes that soon they would be able to restart. But since the pandemic has continued, the speaker series has gone online and is doing as a Zoom presentation. My parents still are watching each one and they always have the best stories after watching a speaker.

They had one with W. Kamau Bell this week, and they ended up having an extra ticket for it. And since this is done over Zoom and anyone in the world can watch, my parents asked me if I wanted the extra ticket! I said yes right away! I’ve heard W. Kamau Bell be interviewed on different podcasts and I’ve always been impressed by what he’s said. And I knew that what he discusses is very similar to the different anti-racism books and research I’ve been reading lately. So I was excited to continue my anti-racism education with his lecture.

It was kind of nice getting to watch the lecture from my house. I had set it up on my iPad but then streamed it to my tv so it would be on a big screen. I was able to be comfortable while watching and looking things up on my phone if he mentioned something I wasn’t familiar with or a show or book I wanted to remember for later.

A lot of what he discussed were things I have learned recently from the news or my reading. One thing he talked about that I’ve been learning more about recently is medical racism. I only knew minimal information about medical racism such as the medical mistreatment in the past. Until recently, I didn’t know as much about how medical students aren’t taught about how different diseases can present with different skin tones. For example, the photos in textbooks of different rashes are usually on pale skin because it’s easier to see them. But that doesn’t teach those medical students about how to recognize the same rash on darker skin. And with the pandemic, medical racism has really become obvious with how some patients aren’t believed when they say they are in pain or are struggling to breathe. It’s awful, but I’m glad I’m learning more about it so I can educate others and make sure I don’t make those judgments about people.

The lecture lasted about 90 minutes, but I wish it was a bit longer. It was so good and I was learning so much. And it didn’t really feel like I was just watching a Zoom presentation. It did help that nobody was on the screen except the speakers, but it still felt different. It almost felt a bit more serious than what most things I’ve seen on Zoom are like. I also loved the idea that even though I was hundreds of miles away from my parents, we were watching the same thing at the same time. It was a live event that wasn’t recorded, which makes it special.

I was talking with my mom after the lecture was done and we were both saying how maybe they will keep the virtual series an option even when they can go back to watching the speakers in person in a theater. If they do that, I might see about getting tickets because I really liked it. And there are amazing speakers in the series each season.

I’ve said how I need to have more fun in my days, and while this was serious it still felt like something fun. It was educational and entertaining and it gave me something to look forward to. I’m still working on adding more things to my days because this proved to me that it’s exactly what I needed. Hopefully, I’ll find more things soon, but for now, I’m just grateful my parents had an extra ticket to the Speaker Series and I got to join them for this one.

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Working On My Reading List (or Thankful Again For The Library)

Posted on June 12, 2020 | Comments Off on Working On My Reading List (or Thankful Again For The Library)

When the Black Lives Matter protests started and the idea of working toward becoming anti-racist was talked about more and more, one thing people started to do was to create anti-racism resource lists. I shared links to a few of these lists last week. And I’m grateful that people took the time to create these lists so we could start working on our anti-racism education as soon as possible.

I started to watch video clips that were posted right away. And I quickly read many of the online articles that were shared. Those were easy resources to access and view. But I wanted to make sure I was reading books from the reading lists too. Ideally, I would have bought those books to support those authors. I know that is the best thing to do, but I really don’t have the money right now to do that. So the next best option for me was to get those books from the library.

And I think a lot of people had the same idea as I did because when I went to put myself on the waitlist for “White Fragility” (which was the book many people recommended to start with), I saw that it might be a while before I had a chance to read it.

But I think the library saw how many people wanted to read the e-book and they quickly bought more digital licenses for it. I got an email 2 days after putting myself on hold that the book was available. I am currently finishing another book I was already reading, but this is the next book that I will be reading and I have several friends also reading it that I can discuss things with.

The same day that I got off the waitlist for the book, I saw on social media that the library was posting about how they have added an on-demand social justice book section online.

There are so many books now that are available without having to put yourself on hold. I love that the library did this because not only does it help people read these books as soon as they want to but it prevents people from forgetting that they want to read them if they had to wait weeks or months before they were available. I do hope that reading anti-racism or social justice books isn’t just a trend or fad and people will always want to educate themselves, but I’m scared that in a few months people won’t be as passionate about the issue as they are now. So letting people read those books now (or listen to the audiobook version) is a really good thing.

I haven’t gotten any of the on-demand books yet since I am going to work through one book at a time, but I have been going through the reading lists and either putting myself on the waitlist or adding books to my wish list so I have more than just the ones that are on-demand available to me. I know that I need to read up on how to be anti-racist and I’m glad that the library has so many books for me to choose from.

If I feel like I need to re-read one of the books or take notes in them, I might buy one so I could do that. But for now, I’m just going to use the library for the resources they have for me and not use not being able to buy books as an excuse to not read them.

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My First Challenge Of 2019 (or Planning And Education)

Posted on January 3, 2019 | Comments Off on My First Challenge Of 2019 (or Planning And Education)

Another post about the beginning of the year! This time, it’s about my monthly challenge for January so technically it’s not just about the beginning of the year. I’m in my 4th year of using the Volt Planner and the monthly challenges and I’m really excited to see what I’m able to get done this year!

My challenge for December was to plan for my challenges this year. I had some very abstract challenges in 2018 and it became easy to slack off on doing them because of that. Maybe I needed a bit of a break from my monthly challenges, but I wanted to get back at it in 2019. So I went easy on myself again in December and used that month to plan for the future. I have seen so many lists of ideas for monthly challenges and my plan was to check out a bunch of lists and pick out the ones that seemed good for the coming year.

While I did look at a ton of lists and see some amazing ideas, I wasn’t able to plan the way I hoped to. I think part of the monthly challenges is to see what inspires you and what you want to work on at that time. To plan out what I want my challenge to be several months from now just doesn’t work for me the way I was hoping it would. I found lots of challenges that I liked, but I didn’t decide what months they are going to be for. But I’m hopeful that by having a list of options available to me that it will be easier for me to pick challenges each month.

And for this month’s challenge, it was inspired by my circumstances and not exactly by the list I found. I mentioned this briefly in my 2019 goals post, but my challenge for this month is to take different free online classes. There are a bunch of different websites I have access to for free through the LA Public Library system, but I have decided to start with the classes I can find on lynda.com. I’ve heard good things about that site through other people who have used it and it seemed to have a good variety of classes I could take.

I spent a few days last week going through the site and seeing what options I have and I picked out a bunch of different ones. Some of them are related to making this blog better, some of them are job skills that I’d like to brush up on, and others are jobs skills that I don’t have but think could be good for me to know with my current jobs search. The plan is to work on a lesson for a bit every day and to get through whatever I can. I might be able to finish some in a day if they are fast, but I don’t want to have to set a rule for how quickly I need to get something done. If I’m learning a new skill, I want to allow myself time to figure it out and understand it before I move on.

I do feel like this goal has a couple of benefits for me. First, like I mentioned above, is that adding new skills to my job resume might help me in my job search. Things were slow with job hunting during the holidays but they are picking up again and I want to find a new job as soon as I can. I’m not happy being this stressed out about money and what will happen. I have had some interviews and second phases of applications, but I’m hoping now that the holidays are done that I will get more and maybe a job offer soon. And the second benefit I see this having for me is that it will help me be more productive during the downtime at my current job. I don’t want to waste my days doing things that won’t help me in the long run, and taking classes online is a great way to stay productive!

I’m pretty excited about this challenge and seeing what other classes I might want to add to my list as I go through them. It seems like there are a ton of options in so many subjects, plus I also have a few other online class sites I can use for free through the library that I can move to if I don’t find more through lynda.com. I’m also happy that I found something that is free since a few different educational things that I do are apps that have an annual cost. Anything I can find for free is good and I want to take advantage of them!

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Learning So Much From Union Working (or Getting Ready For Contract Negotiations)

Posted on March 29, 2018 | 2 comments

I know I’ve said this so many times, but I’m seriously so grateful that I’m a part of the Union Working group. Every time I’m at a meeting, I always walk away with so much knowledge and a better understanding of what is happening in my industry. There is so much information out there and it can be tough to figure things out on your own. So to have a group that can explain things and help you figure out what you want to focus on is so important to me.

And the meeting this week was another one full of information and I left feeling so empowered and ready to get to work on things. While we did have some of the standard discussions that we have at all Union Working meetings, the focus of this meeting was a mock W&W session. W&W stands for Wages and Working Conditions and these are meetings that the union has leading up to contract negotiations. These meetings are formal events for union members to come and discuss what changes they want to see in the next contract. We have these meetings for all different contracts but the next one coming up will be our commercials contract.

I have not attended a W&W meeting before. I have wanted to but I’ve had a few things stop me. Sometimes, my work schedule just doesn’t work with when the meetings are. I really can’t take time off work right now to attend, so if there aren’t meetings that are when I’m not working I can’t go. But also I’ve been scared to attend. It seems a bit overwhelming and while I want to be more involved in the union attending these meetings seems like a huge step. And I’m aware of how silly that probably sounds because I can always attend a meeting and just observe. I don’t have to propose any changes but I could hear what others think need to change.

But I think the team at Union Working get that the meetings can be overwhelming so they created this mock W&W session. Because W&W sessions are closed to the public (and our mock session was closed to all but paid union members), I can’t share too much of what was discussed. But I can share that we went over how to present an idea at a W&W, the rules for discussion and debate, and the feedback we may get when presenting an idea or debating one so we don’t get thrown off if it happens. All of these things were really great to learn about because you never know when you might be inspired to present something at a W&W and you want to be prepared and able to maximize your time that you are allowed to speak.

We didn’t get to do too many different ideas in our mock W&W session because the one that was presented was something that so many people in the group wanted to discuss. We didn’t have the time limits that you would have in a real session and some people were given opportunities to rephrase what they were saying to make sure they followed the guidelines of how we need to present them. I didn’t speak during the mock session, but I was paying attention to everything that was happening. And the more I listened the more I realized that all my fears about attending a W&W session in the past were silly and that I should have attending them before.

I still can’t guarantee that any sessions will be during times that I’m not working, but I’m going to make a much better effort to look into it so I can hopefully go at least once. I still don’t have anything I want to say about changes that I think should be in our next contract, but I do what to hear what others think. It’s also a great time to get even more educated about the current contract because when people propose a contract change, one of the first things that is discussed is what the facts are about the current contract. There is always a chance someone is proposing something that is already in the contract so you would learn about that. To me, so much of being a good union member is being an educated union member.

While I wasn’t feeling physically the best at the meeting, I’m so grateful I was there. There were so many things discussed that I am glad I got to hear about. I left feeling physically low but mentally on a high note. I know that there were some great ideas that others brought up that have given me things to think about. And like I said, the biggest thing to me is being as educated as I can and I know that being in a room with so many incredible people really are helping me understand as much as I can.

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Staying Educated With Union Things (or A Meeting Of The Minds)

Posted on March 6, 2018 | Comments Off on Staying Educated With Union Things (or A Meeting Of The Minds)

Recently I was at a meeting with several of my friends who are involved in SAG-AFTRA. Most of them were people who were at the union convention with me last fall, and it was great to get to see people again since I hadn’t seen everyone since October. And I was so happy to have a meeting like this after a vacation because it helped to get me focused and out of vacation mode quickly. Sometimes it can take me more time to get back into my normal life after a trip and I was so glad to have a meeting like this to ground me and bring me back to what I should be focused on.

It’s not election season yet so we weren’t really discussing the election or the next convention. But just because the next election is still about a year and a half away it doesn’t mean that there isn’t a lot happening with the union that we should all be informed and up to date on.

One of the biggest things that has been happening lately is the plan to help to prevent sexual harassment and to have better ways for union members to report it. This has been a huge issue for a long time, but it is only getting the attention it should have been getting recently due to some brave women and men coming forward and sharing what happened. While sexual harassment was never allowed, now we have a clear code of conduct for our members to refer to. And this code of conduct has been shared with studios, directors, casting directors, agents, and managers so others in the industry are aware of what expectations we have as a union when we are on set.

There have also been meetings lately for members to attend to learn more about how we can report sexual harassment and panels for people to discuss what they’ve experienced or what they have questions on. It can be tough sometimes when you are doing an intimate scene to know what is appropriate and what is not. If you are in a nude scene, having a director touch you to move you into where they want you to be or to make sure the camera is seeing what it should be seeing is a gray area. In any other workplace, your superiors should not be around you when you aren’t clothed or touching your body. But in our industry, there are weird situations that need to be discussed so everyone is on the same page. As an actor, you could say you are ok with that or that you don’t want anyone to be near you until you have the chance to put a robe on.

It reminds me of a project I worked on years ago where I was in a bra and underwear for my scene. There were other actors in the same state of undress as I was and we all had different ideas of what was ok. Between takes, even though I had a dress I could put on to cover up, I really didn’t bother doing it. Nobody on the crew was looking at my body in a way that I felt uncomfortable and I really didn’t care since I felt like it covered the same that a bathing suit covered. There were other actors who rushed to cover up and didn’t want to be given direction until they felt more comfortable. We were all lucky on that set because the director and crew all respected us and none of us felt weird for having our own limitations. But not every actor gets that experience on set and we need to make sure that we work toward making that happen.

Another big topic that was discussed was the commercial recapturing initiative and the upcoming commercial contract negotiation. This is something I have been much more involved in lately between attending union meetings and being a part of the Union Working group. Not everyone at the meeting was aware of Union Working and I’m glad we were able to share more about the group and what they have been doing. I know we want more actors (both union and non-union) to be at the meetings so we can make sure that everyone understands what is being negotiated and the opportunities they have to speak at the union about what their concerns are. And if you are in LA and are a SAG-AFTRA member, there is a meeting of the Commercials Organizing & Recapturing Initiative coming up on the 12th that I would encourage everyone to attend!

There were also other issues that we discussed like the New Media contract and how we are trying to make it easier for actors to create their own work, the current plan with the IMDb age lawsuit where the ages of actors and other industry people are being posted on a site that many people use when considering if they will be hiring us or bringing us in for a meeting, and the MOVE committee and the events and union support for all unions that is happening right now.

I know I say this all the time, but my biggest takeaway of all union meetings that I go to is that we as union members need to make sure we are staying educated and we are educating others. I did spend my first few years in SAG-AFTRA not really understanding what is going on and not taking advantage of what was being offered. But I’m for sure making up for it now. And my goal is to help other actors become more educated as well since I know how much more empowered I feel when I understand what changes I can help to make and why certain rules and policies are in place. That is why I keep sharing on here each time I have a union event. I know that not all of you are actors, but for those of you who are I hope that you are learning something. And for the non-actors, hopefully you find all this behind the scenes stuff interesting. There is so much more to being an actor than just acting and I know that most people don’t realize that!

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More Union Education (or Making Sure Ads Go Union)

Posted on February 15, 2018 | 3 comments

You may have noticed that I am posting more and more about union events. I’ve been saying for a while that I wanted to become more involved in the union and I’m finally taking advantage of that! My schedule is fairly regular so I can make plans to attend different meetings and events and I love how this makes me feel continuously involved in union happenings and not that I’m on the outskirts. And this week was another week where I was at union headquarters for another meeting!

So many of the meetings and events I’ve been going to lately have been about commercials. This is a pretty current issue for a few reasons. First, the union will be negotiating the new commercial contract next year so we are getting prepared for that. But also, commercials have always been both union and non-union, but we are starting to see more non-union than before. Many jobs are still union, but we want to make sure they stay that way and that we get even more union commercials.

SAG-AFTRA has an entire committee dedicated to keeping commercials union and that was what this meeting was about. Members of the committee as well as union staff were there to explain more about the plan to get more commercials to be union work and what things have been happening so far.

While I’ve been at several events regarding union commercials, I learned new things at this meeting. These meetings are a response to the growing problem of non-union work and because of what members say in them the union can know what our specific issues are and how to remedy that.

I’ve been pretty lucky. While I don’t audition for commercials a lot, my agents have never asked me to violate union rules and audition for non-union work. In fact, when a commercial lied about being union and when I found out, my agents told me to leave because they didn’t want me to run into any issues. Not all actors are that lucky and they were discussing how their agents are encouraging them to work non-union even though they are union members.

But even though I’ve been lucky since becoming a union member, I know the issues of non-union commercials from before I joined SAG-AFTRA. When I was non-union, I did a commercial that paid pretty decently. It was super easy work and with what I made I paid my rent and bills for a month! I was so excited! But I didn’t realize that because my contract allowed the ad agency to use the commercial in perpetuity (which is common in non-union work), I had no idea then that I would have something that has been on tv for 11 years! It’s a haircare commercial/informercial and I see it on tv all the time. If this was union, I would be making residuals and still be getting paid. But because it was non-union and I didn’t have the protection of SAG-AFTRA and the contracts we have, I only got that 1 payment that doesn’t seem that much when you think about it being split over 11 years.

Because of my experience with non-union work, I’m passionate about making sure that other actors don’t have the same issue. If they aren’t in SAG-AFTRA and chose to do a non-union work, I want them to know what things to look for in a contract so they are making an educated decision. But I am even more passionate about helping commercials be union so that actors will have the protections that we have in our contracts. And that’s why I love getting to know more about the Ads Go Union campaign in meetings and being able to share what I learn with you all. This time, we got more information on recent things that the campaign has done and promoted to other members.

Even if I don’t book another commercial in my entire career, this issue is going to be an important one for me. I know first-hand how easily actors who don’t know better can get into a contract that they may regret later. And I want to see more union work so that my union brothers and sisters have more opportunities to do what they love. For me, my union dedication is all about education and seeing others succeed. And hopefully I will succeed as well.

I am looking to branch out a bit more and find union events about other issues so I can learn more about other union things I may want to get involved in. But for now, I’m just so happy that I’ve been able to get involved in the commercial recapturing initiative and that I will be able to find ways to help out other actors. I do plan on attending more and more events and I will keep finding ways to be involved and to make sure that all actors are educated on the issues.

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Fitness and Nutrition (or Reminding Myself Of The Basics)

Posted on February 6, 2018 | Comments Off on Fitness and Nutrition (or Reminding Myself Of The Basics)

About 2 months ago, I shared how I was invited to be a part of the Runner’s Fit and Fueled course. I was so excited to be starting my year off the right way and to learn more about proper nutrition when it comes to fitness. I have studied nutrition a lot (many people with eating disorders know a ton about nutrition and food) but I was worried about how I would do when my fitness level was likely lower than what the others in the group were at.

But now that the official course time is over, I can say that I had nothing to worry about! The others in our private Facebook group were very supportive and most of the focus was on nutrition and not fitness. That was a big relief because I didn’t want to feel like I couldn’t do what was being taught because of my fitness level.

And I had every intention of doing this 4 week course exactly as it was set out and reading each of the lessons and watching the videos as soon as they came out. But of course, best intentions don’t always happen that way. Life took over and I wasn’t able to do the 4 week course when it was all released. I was feeling a bit frustrated because I wanted to do this as my first month of the year, but if I had done that I wouldn’t have been able to give it my full attention and I knew that I needed to do that.

Fortunately, this course wasn’t restricted to just the 4 weeks that it was happening. The Facebook group is still there and I can view any of the videos whenever I want. And I know that I will be wanting to go back to the videos a few times because I know that things will connect with me at different times. And I have all the handouts downloaded on my computer as well. And I have a feeling those handouts are going to be something I use for a while.

What I loved about the way this was taught was something I wasn’t expecting. Because this is a course for runners, there are days that are your hard run days and days that are your easy run days. And of course you also have rest days. And the nutrition was broken down into what to eat for each of those days to maximize what you are doing. For example, what to eat before and after a long run to help your body work at its most efficient. Or what to eat on a rest day to not mess up all the hard work that you put into things on the other days.

While I don’t necessarily have hard or easy run days, I do have days where I have a workout and days when I don’t. And I can look at workout days as hard days and days off as easy or rest days. Each of those types of days has sample meal plans to use with different options. And as someone who struggles with meal planning, this is an amazing resource for me! Some of the things in the meal plan are things I already eat, some are things I have eaten in the past and kind of forgotten about, and others are things I wouldn’t think of as a meal option. So I’ve been going through the meal plans and seeing the best way to implement them in my life.

While the plan has some elements of carb cycling, it’s not necessarily that. It’s more about eating what will make your body work the most efficient way possible and making sure that all your nutrition needs are met. There are so many diet ideas out right now and I’ve been checking out a few of them. But it’s been overwhelming. The Runner’s Fit and Fueled course seems to be more about the idea of getting back to good and wholesome foods and not fitting into a certain diet plan or hitting certain macros each day.

I know that I’m going to keep referring back to everything in this course for a while. While it may seem like basic nutritional information, for me it was almost a reminder that sometimes a meal plan doesn’t need to be something crazy or elaborate. It can just be filled with good options that will help you work out and keep you full. I don’t need to stress about getting into a certain mindset or tracking things like crazy. I just need to get back to basics and make sure that I pay attention to what my body is saying.

If you are interested in doing this course (and I recommend it for anyone who has a regular fitness routine), there will be another round starting on March 5th. I feel like this course really did help me get into a better mindset about what I want to do with food and how I feel about fueling myself. And I hope that if any of you are looking to learn more about nutrition and how it affects how you work out that you will sign up! And you can use the promo code BOMBSHELL to get $5 off!

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Runner’s Fit And Fueled Course (or Planning On Starting 2018 The Right Way)

Posted on December 7, 2017 | 1 comment

There are several things that I struggle with, but some of them are things I struggle with more often than others. And one of those things that is a constant struggle for me is nutrition and food. This will likely be a struggle the rest of my life as that is the nature of having an eating disorder. Hopefully the struggle is easier to deal with as I get into recovery, but I’ve come to the realization that it will never completely go away for me.

Another thing that has been a more recent struggle for me is getting back into running more. I’ve had some setbacks that have prevented me from working on my running, but I’ve also had excuses that really shouldn’t be stopping me. And I don’t have any 5K races that I’m working toward right now so my motivation for working on my running has decreased. But I do want to fix this as I know how awesome I’ve felt every time I’ve had a new accomplishment with running and I want to get that feeling back.

But I want to really work on both of these struggles in the new year and I think I found an awesome opportunity to do so! I was invited to participate in the Runner’s Fit and Fueled course that is starting on January 2nd! This course will include lessons, videos and handouts that is all about training as a runner and the proper nutrition that runners need.

In the course I’ll get sample meal plans, grocery lists, strength training workouts, a Facebook group for support, and guidance on how to get fit and reach my goals. This seriously sounds like the perfect way to start off the new year for me! It’s not as structured as some of the other nutrition things I’ve done before, but I think that will be good for me. This will teach me how to live normally but accomplish these goals. I won’t be on a strict diet plan that isn’t maintainable for me in the long run.

I’ve done a lot of nutrition things in the past, but this is the first time I’ll be doing a running course too. I know that I’m still a beginner runner, but I want to get better. I know that my endurance isn’t what it was earlier this year and I want to get back to that. I haven’t done a run outside of a workout in a while and now that it’s cooler in the mornings and afternoons I don’t have an excuse not to do them, but I haven’t been doing it. So I’m hoping that the guidance and motivation that I will get in this course will help me get back to that.

Of course, I’m a bit nervous about being such a beginner runner when others in the group might be people who have done marathons or other long runs before. But getting over those nerves to do something that is good for me is something else I need to struggle with. There is no reason why I have to be an expert before I try to get help. There’s nothing wrong with getting help at the beginning of my journey and I’m sure that the others in the group will be happy to help me out. That’s how I feel where there is someone new at Orangetheory and I can help them out.

Since I still have time before this course starts, I want to work on some goal setting ideas for what I want to get out of it. My big goals are a bit too big to be able to accomplish within a month, but I can create some smaller goals that I can work toward. Being better at cooking at home and not having as much sugar in my diet is one thing that I really want to work toward with my nutrition. And for my running I’d love to have some more running PRs with timed events and maybe even run further than I have before. And if I can find a 5K race toward the beginning of the year to use as a goal, that would be awesome too!

The Runner’s Fit and Fueled course starts on January 2nd, but the price goes up on December 15th so I recommend signing up now! And if you use the promo code BOMBSHELL you’ll get $5 off! I would love to have some of my readers in the course with me so we can support each other in reaching our goals!

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