Rethinking Food, Money Practices, History Lessons, and Hot Springs

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🧖 I. A Place to Add to Your Bucket List

I recently visited Ojo Caliente in Taos, New Mexico. It’s a charming resort with hot springs, spa treatments, and a farm-to-table restaurant.

I’ve been to Ojo Caliente twice to soak in their mineral springs, which are situated in the middle of the desert. Both times, I’ve walked away relaxed, content, and wondering why I don’t do stuff like this more often. If you find yourself in Taos or nearby, it’s worth a visit.

💰 II. A Money Practice to Try

My wife and I did our quarterly financial review this week. It’s one of the most helpful practices that we do. Four times a year, we sit down over dinner and:

1. Discuss how we’re been feeling about money

2. Review our investments and overall financial picture

3. Propose specific ways to use money to improve our lives

4. Come up with action items for the next 3 months

It’s pretty informal and not a perfect structure, but we both walk away feeling clear and aligned about our financial picture and the role of money in our lives. And doing it every three months helps us stay in sync over the long run without having to think about money too often.

I don’t remember exactly why we started doing this, but it was at least in part to make sure that money is not an acute source of stress or conflict in our relationship. Instead, it’s a part of our lives that we discuss openly and collaboratively as life unfolds. And so far, it’s been working pretty well.

🎬 III. An Instructive Look into History

I started watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel this week. It’s a series that features a New York housewife who pursues a career in stand-up comedy in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Outside of being well-produced and entertaining, I’m really enjoying the show because it is a view into how different the world was in the not-so-distant past.

The show reminds me of Mad Men, a series about advertising professionals on Madison Avenue that uses a simple story and deep character development to shed light on what life was like for different types of people in another era.

While I generally think it’s best to limit how much television you watch, I believe that shows like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Mad Men can teach you about history in a way that is both more entertaining and perspective-changing than reading the dry accounts of what life was like in different eras that fill the pages of most history books.

🥗 IV. Rethinking Food, Health, and Nutrition

I started listening to Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. So far, it’s an interesting book that has me rethinking my relationship with food and what it means to be “healthy.”

For most of my life, I’ve seen food as fuel for my body. While I enjoy good food as much as the next person, I tend to prioritize “eating clean” over “eating for taste” and often feel guilty when I eat delicious, “unhealthy” meals.

Pollan has me asking three questions so far:

1. Would I be better off if I developed a more expanded view of food, one that extended beyond seeing food as a source of fuel and added more emphasis on the social, communal, and spiritual aspects of eating?

2. What are the core beliefs I have about food, nutrition, and health that are simply wrong?

3. How can reduce some of the guilt I have when I eat simply for pleasure?

I don’t have the answers yet, but it’s always fun when a book has me asking questions that may fundamentally change how I think and operate.

🧠 VI. Something I’m Thinking About

Maybe it’s not the people in your life who need to change.

That's all for now. See you next Sunday.

— Cal

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