246 | Finding Joy Beyond Comfort Zones: Social Adventures, Holiday Cheer, and Life Hacks

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Stepping out of our comfort zones can be daunting, but what unexpected joys might await us on the other side? Join me as I recount my journey as an introvert navigating the realms of socializing and connection in a post-COVID world, accompanied by my charming kitten, Jinx. From attending a casual wine and yoga gathering to exploring new hobbies, I share candid reflections on the art of mingling and forming meaningful relationships. If you’ve ever felt the tug to break free of your cozy cocoon, my stories and tips might just inspire your next social adventure.

Beyond the social scene, I invite you into my world of holiday cheer, fitness, and culinary delights. Discover the magic of my potted trees and enjoy a virtual visit to the quirky "Do Good Dog" restaurant, with its delightful offerings like mahi-mahi and pumpkin cheesecake. I also open up about my Sunday reset routine, complete with cleaning hacks and meal prep insights, thanks to the macro-friendly recipes from "Lauren Fit Foodie." As a proud Pittsburgher, I can’t help but cheer for the Steelers and share my thoughts on their latest game. Tune in for a dose of inspiration and gratitude as I discuss tools that have streamlined my life and express appreciation for your continued engagement.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Tea with Tina, your favorite podcast
, where we talk all thingshealth, fitness, lifestyle, and
maybe a little bit of tea getsspilled.
We chat all about this in asuper casual environment.
So grab your beverage of choice, sit back, relax and enjoy.

(00:22):
Relax and enjoy.
Hello, and welcome back toanother episode of the tea with
tina podcast.
I come to you with a kitten, mybaby kitten jinx, uh, laying on
my legs.
Uh, because I'm in the officeand he is still quarantined if
you haven't kept up with that.
And, uh, he is ready to fallasleep.

(00:43):
I love how cats have differentpersonalities.
Oh, my goodness, he just rolledonto his back so he showed he's
showing me his belly.
Um, his quirk is like, if yourub his gums and I think it's
because he's like getting newteeth, because apparently
kittens eat their baby teethvery interesting.

(01:03):
Um, he's getting his new teethand, uh, so his gums are
probably sore.
So he'll rub his gums oneverything and he makes this
cute little like nasally purringnoise and he keeps his mouth
open and he just sounds like agoober and I love it.
And sometimes, if I like rubhis nose or his gums, like his
upper kind of lips gum area,he'll make that noise.

(01:24):
So I'm all about it, um, butanyways.
So I am continuing on thistrain of kind of just chatting
about what I want to chat aboutand what has been going on in my
life, and this weekend I'mrecording this on a Monday I
think was a great testament ofme kind of gaining momentum and
stepping out of my shell.

(01:44):
In regards to socializing, yeah,that may sound weird for some
of you who are probablynaturally extroverts and you
hang out with people, but I willsay, in this day and age,
post-covid with the internet, Ithink more and more people are
kind of hanging out at home andnot going out as much.
It's expensive, you know.
You could have just gotten outof the routine.

(02:06):
Everybody might be working orbe busy and everybody would just
rather kind of like hang out ontheir phone and not hang out.
Now, this isn't, you know, ablanket statement.
That's not the case everywhere,but I'm sure there's a trend of
that happening, especially asyou get older, when you're an
adult and people start to havekids and they have their own
lives.
Your work schedules aren'tgoing to match up.
I will tell you, when I wasyounger and I had friends, it

(02:28):
was just wonderful.
Like my best friends, we allworked together and we saw each
other every day.
I mean, if you worked full time, you would see them close to 40
hours a week and we'd hang outtogether after work.
In school you shared the sameclasses, the people who lived on
the same street as me.
We were all best friends.
We would, you know, do ourhomework and then hang out
together.
We'd knock on each other'sdoors to walk down to the bus

(02:50):
stop.
So you know, depending on whereyou're at, if you have a hobby,
school, work, whatever, you'regoing to probably become friends
with people that you're aroundthe most.
It's the people that you knowyou have to kind of make that
conscious effort to reach outLike I know my husband, him and
his like military buddies, theytry to meet up, you know, twice
a year at least.
They usually schedule something, they pre plan it because

(03:10):
everybody's life is all over theplace.
But they usually meet up for,like, some sort of sports game,
sports event, hang out, get somefood, and you know they're guys
, so it's way easier.
There's like hey, what's up?
I haven't seen you in fiveyears, like.
But but they make an effort andI think that's important and

(03:31):
I've been trying to do that alittle bit more.
I always kind of set that goalonce a month I want to do some
sort of like formal outing withfriends.
Um, and this weekend was fun.
You know, one girl hosted alittle event it was like a wine
and yoga event at her house.
Everybody brought food and wewere chatting.
Um, it was just a really goodtime.
It was super casual, you know,and that's exactly what I like.
I don't like when it's like hasto be crazy planned out or you

(03:52):
know, you're going to a bar andpartying and drinking.
That's never been me.
I've always been like an oldwoman.
With that Like, I think I leftat like 10.
I was like, oh man, this is.
You know, this is getting to bepast my bedtime now, because
I'm like a grandma.
But there was a couple othergirls that left around that time
too, so that made me a littlebit happy.
But yeah, I just kind of wentout and socialized and that was

(04:13):
fun.
So for those of you who may beintroverted, I encourage you to
step out of your comfort zone.
Do something that you wouldenjoy.
Maybe try to join a hobby, andsocial media can be useful for
this.
Maybe look at local groups onfacebook.
Um, I know some people usemeetup or, I think, bumble you
can use for friends.
Uh, but just try to get to knowpeople somehow, even at gyms,

(04:35):
you know.
See if you can get in with agroup class.
Um, I love my group class.
Uh, attendees like they're justamazing and such a great group.
Um, I always have the bestpeople in my group classes and
the energy of when they mesh andchat and like the relationships
are truly priceless.
Um, and it's a fun environment.
You know you're all burningcalories together, you're all

(04:56):
dying on the moves and it bringsthat sense of camaraderie, uh,
and it's really nice.
So, you know, explore, get outof your comfort zone.
See what you can do, even withyour friends, if maybe someone's
far away.
See if you can do like a groupchat, like a video chat.
That's always fun.
You can kind of like watchshows together, just hang out.
Maybe you like color and putsome music on in the background

(05:17):
and then you just kind of chatit up like.
There's plenty of ways to dothat and I think it's important
to include that.
I know I'm someone that I'mlike no, I don't need it, I
don't need it.
I'm glad that I did that and soI feel like I kind of like got
the ball rolling with thatRecently.
You know I kind of fall in andout with like hangouts, but I've

(05:38):
been pretty decent, I'd say,with that.
So there's that.
Then on Saturday I went to theRenaissance Fair.
This is as of December.
They did a Yuletide, it'scalled so for a couple weekends
in the winter they do almostlike Krampus-style Ren Faire.

(05:59):
Mostly the shops are open.
They have a couple littleactivities.
Krampus was taking photos, kindof like Santa Claus.
He could sit on his lap andwhatnot.
Food again, shows, people,people dressed up.
So it was nice.
We kind of just walked around.
I think we were there for liketwo hours.
It was only open like 11 to 4and you know we just browsed a

(06:21):
lot of the shops.
They had a lot of nice shopsopen.
We got hot, hot apple cider.
We saw a couple little shows inpassing because they'll kind of
just like pop up, um.
But it was nice.
It was nice to just get out, dosomething.
It was relatively inexpensivetoo.
The tickets aren't as expensiveas like the regular renaissance
fair, um, I think it was onlylike 20 bucks, so it was fun.

(06:41):
Um, I think I looked at plantsalso that day, so that was fun
as well.
I always got to look at plants.
We picked up like a very babychristmas tree.
It was like I don't even knoweight inches, like very tiny,
but it was cute.
You know, we just can't put up aChristmas tree with our cats.
There's just no way.
As soon as they see that tree,their eyes get so big and they

(07:03):
get the Disney eyes and theyjust want to climb up in the
tree and they knock stuff over.
They get tangled in the lights.
It's just crazy.
Maybe when we have a house, butfor right now we get the mini
trees.
I do have a slightly bigger tree.
Uh, it still can fit on my tvstand.
It's probably like two feettall.
Um, that I did decorate withbulbs and a little bow no lights

(07:23):
, but it looks nice.
And so now we have kind of liketwo little trees and I think
we'll actually keep them tillthey grow and probably keep one
out on the porch, uh, becausethey can obviously withstand the
colder weather.
So that'll be kind of neat tokeep those, because it has its
roots and everything, not like atraditional christmas tree
where they kind of cut it andyou just have to like water the
base, so it's actually like apotted plant, um, and then we

(07:46):
went out to eat at this reallygreat place um, I could not tell
you where it was.
It was was like in some randomPennsylvania town you know how
that goes.
That was relatively close to abigger town, but it was just a
small town itself and it wascalled was it do good, do good
dog or something like that andhas a little dog with like a top

(08:07):
hat or something.
It was really cute because theythey based it off of like ben
franklin or something and how todo good things.
It was decorated very nicely.
It was my vibe.
It was black and gold and kindof like maximalist, with wood
accents.
It was beautiful how they didit and the food was amazing.
Like everything on the menu wasfantastic.
My husband always finds theseplaces and these are the places

(08:28):
I always encourage you, thelistener, to go to if you're
going out to eat and you want.
You know there's options to eatunhealthy.
You know if someone in yourparty wants to eat unhealthy,
but there's also options to behealthy.
Like me, I got salmon that waslike in an orange glaze of
something, and was it salmon?

(08:49):
No, it was mahi.
I was deciding between that andthe salmon, but it was mahi,
mahi and it had a cranberrychutney on it.
And I got roasted brusselsprouts they were the best
brussel sprouts I've ever had um, and then a side of mac and
cheese.
So I did end up, you know,splurging a little bit and we
shared a pumpkin cheesecake andlet me tell you, I didn't expect
, I didn't have high hopes, likenot that I I didn't think it

(09:12):
was gonna be bad, but you know,I know what a cheesecake tastes
like and I like cheesecake, butthis one was great.
The texture was different in agood way, and it was just so
good, um, so it was a reallygreat, really great place.
There were so many things onthe menu I wanted to try, um, so
I had a really great time there.
And then Sunday was pretty mucha catch-up day.

(09:33):
I really just kind of cleanedthe house, which is something
I've been working on.
If you didn't listen to my last, I think it was my last podcast
episode.
I don't remember, maybe acouple ago, or I was talking
about kind of like refining yoursystems and getting stuff done.
You know, I was like, hey,you're gonna do the laundry, do
dishes, clean this.
We did go grocery shopping andI meal prepped some things even
though it was late at night.
It's gonna save me timethroughout the week.

(09:55):
So I set myself up really wellthis week.
There's actually I'm gonna likename drop a girl that I love.
If you look up drop a girl thatI love.
Um, if you look up Lauren FitFoodie, okay, I love she has
some fun macro friendly meals.
Um, so if you are somebody whotracks calories and macros, she
lists them for everything.

(10:15):
She even has, like my fitnesspal, logs for all of her meals
and, um, I just love her foodbecause it's like normal food.
It it's what I align with.
She makes normal food but putsa little healthy twist on it,
makes it macro friendly, and Iactually subscribed, which I'll
probably keep it.
I wanted to try one month justto see, but I subscribed to her

(10:39):
monthly club where she dropsexclusive, like member only,
recipes.
She does little meal plans andlet me tell you that meal plan
was life-saving for me this weekbecause when I got it each week
, um, she kind of lays out whatyou can eat, like she gives you
a couple options for likebreakfast, lunch, dinner and
even snacks.
It really helped me go.
Oh, I'm just gonna make thisthis week, like I did her um,

(11:01):
blueberry sausage pancake bakeand it was using Kodiak pancake
mix.
I made a couple littleadjustments and it tastes
fantastic.
But just to add a little bitmore nutrients, like I added egg
whites into the pancake mix,because I normally do that
anyway for some protein.
Um, I made her little proteinballs, which were delicious.
Um, with mini m&ms.
I had to use up some mini m&msin my cabinet.

(11:23):
Um, I just meal prepped herlunch bowl using quinoa,
stepping out of my comfort zonewith quinoa.
Believe it or not, I reallydon't eat quinoa, but I was
really happy with it and thatwas delicious.
And I'm using her burger recipefor dinner tonight.
So we're just like using all ofher stuff, which is wonderful.
It makes my life just so mucheasier.

(11:46):
Um, so, again, it's only 10bucks a month.
This is not sponsored.
This is just me like being like, wow, this is really useful,
and like it's nice to see when,like something like that you can
actually use um and it'sbeneficial.
And her food tastes good, youknow, like the peanut butter
balls had a little bit ofprotein powder in them and I was
a little nervous but theyactually came out really good

(12:06):
and my husband was like oh,those are actually pretty good,
and I was like, ok, so, so thatI was kind of leaning into
yesterday.
So literally just like Sundayreset, we did watch the Steelers
game.
I am a Steelers fan, I am fromPittsburgh.
They're doing great this season.
It was a really good gameagainst the Browns.
Um, they did great, someexciting moments.

(12:30):
That was fun.
And here we are.
So that has all this been goingon, but I just kind of wanted
to uh share that update.
The big thing was was I'm, youknow, stepped out of my comfort
zone, really just wanted to getout and socialize?
It's funny because, as atrainer like I, I talk to people
all day.
Maybe that's why I don't wantto get out and socialize.
It's funny because, as atrainer like I, I talk to people
all day.
Maybe that's why I don't wantto go out at the end of the
night because, like I am, I dosocialize all day.

(12:52):
You know, I'm teaching classes,I'm doing one-on-ones, I'm just
talking with people non-stop,um, but yeah, when it comes to
my own friendships, it's just Ihave to go out and schedule it
and do it.
That's the big thing.
But yeah, and streamline mysystem.
That's been going well.
I've been incorporating thosenew tools that I mentioned a
couple podcast episodes as well,my planning tools.

(13:15):
I've been getting morecomfortable with those.
It's been making my life easier.
So, yeah, that's what I've beengoing, got going on.
So I'm gonna close today'spodcast episode out with that.
Thank you for tuning in to mylittle life update and I'll chat
.