The Kat Files

I DID IT! Two weeks ago, I auditioned for my first musical at The New Octavians, a local community theatre in Hammond. The show that I auditioned for is called The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and it will be directed by Rachael Knaps. It is a musical comedy centered on a fictional spelling bee held at a middle school where six oddball teens will compete, and three unconventional adults will run the show. Well (drum roll), my name made its way on the cast list. I was offered a role, and I accepted it! I will be playing Mitch Mahoney, who happens to be an ex-con assigned to the spelling bee to fulfill a community service requirement. HA! I’m SUPER excited about getting cast and cannot thank my voice coach Laura enough for all of her help preparing me for the audition. We worked intensively together for two weeks preparing me to belt out “The Kite” and the hard work paid off. Go, me! The performances will be in November.

In addition to coming clean about what I have been doing with my singing and acting, I’ve also been reading about eating clean. #8 Read one book a month for self-improvement. This month I read The Clean 20 by Ian K. Smith, M.D. I learned about Dr. Ian K. Smith and his approach to eating clean and intermittent fasting on Molly Kimball’s podcast Fueled: Wellness + Nutrition. I liked what he had to say, so I decided to check out his new book Clean & Lean and discovered the book he wrote previously, The Clean 20, that focuses on 20 clean foods that are incorporated in a complete 20-day clean-eating program. The program includes menus, recipes, exercise suggestions, motivation, and the benefits of eating these clean foods. Therefore, I am starting the program on Monday (Labor Day). It will require food prep and planning, as well as following “The Clean 20 Rules” of which there are fourteen. Some will be easy to follow (dairy is good, no alcohol, canned and frozen are permitted), and others will be much harder (no added sugar, no soda, no frying, careful with condiments). Along with reading the book, I joined Smith’s Facebook group Cleaner Get Leaner. The group was created as a companion to his Clean & Lean book; however, since I will eventually be reading that book in the near future, I decided the extra motivation and encouragement could be beneficial. I’ll keep you posted on my progress with the clean eating program.

In Other News:

I dropped my gym membership. I thought going to the gym at least once per week this year (#5) on my 19 for 2019 list would be easy, but it has not. I went ONE time in July and walked on the treadmill. Since Andrew can exercise at the Rec Sports & Wellness Student Activity Center at SLU and I’m not going to the gym regularly, I decided to save some money and cancel our membership.

It’s Labor Day weekend, dear reader, and for many of you that means an extra day off from your job. I hope you will be able to enjoy the additional downtime. Happiness!

“Sometimes it’s easy to forget about the essence of life — joy. We get so bogged down in the process of “doing” that we forget about the state of “being” and how important it is to enjoy where we are and not always look to where we want to be.” ~ Ian K. Smith, M.D.