The Vision Behind The Rebranding of Changing Lanes

The Brainstorm

Back in October, John and I started talking one day; what started out as a normal conversation quickly transformed into a wild brainstorming session about the future of Changing Lanes as a blog and what we wanted to do with it. We loved using it as a forum to keep in touch with friends and family back home, but since we were getting more settled into our every day lives here in California, we wanted to offer our readers more than just an update on our day to day.

When we asked ourselves where we saw the blog in five years, the possibilities were endless. We knew what had to be done to get our blog to the place that we wanted it – but were we up for the challenge?

Starting Out

We were both excited at the prospect of the new blog, but weren’t sure if we were capable of the skills required to build our own site. What better way to find out than try, right? (Since our road trip, the bigger the challenge, the more empowered John and I are to achieve it.) First task was to create the name of our blog so we could buy the domain name.

While at work one day, I was thinking about the content strategy plan for the new blog and just thinking about how I was excited about the blog in general and at the same time was listening to the song that was playing over dt’s office sound system. I started humming along to “This is the Rhythm of the Night” the classic tune by Corona. And as I sang along, one line hit me in Corona’s sultry voice “This is the rhythm of my life”. “That’s it!,” I immediately thought to myself, “The perfect name for the blog is Rhythm Of Our Lives!”

The Long Journey

On November 6, after creating a tentative game plan for building our website and deciding that Rhythm of our Lives was the perfect new name for the rebranded Changing Lanes, we purchased our domain and hosting on GoDaddy.com. We were excited to have made our first purchases, but had no idea really where to go from there. John started experimenting with WordPress, and quickly started learning his way around the site. Each thing we needed to do was a challenge, since we had no prior experience of any sort!

One of the first major challenges we faced was figuring out how to import all our content from not only Changing Lanes, but from another personal blog, as well, Sounds A Lot Like Life. We wanted Rhythm Of Our Lives to house the new content we were going to create, but also be the home for my musings pieces from Sounds A Lot Like Life and the beautiful story of our travels and how we got to California from Changing Lanes. We were able to import the posts using a plug-in, but were sorely disappointed when we realized that the posts didn’t import correctly and we had to manually go through and upload each post’s content and images separately. Needless to say, this was a project that took weeks, but was so worth it in the end. By mid-January, all our imported content was looking sexy on our new site!

Over the course of several months, John and I learned the trials and tribulations of WordPress, purchased a bunch of themes that ended up not working out, became in-tune with the fact that we were both artistically challenged, and hit hundreds of road blocks along the way. We realized after switching hosting twice that GoDaddy wasn’t capable of hosting our site, so we had to switch it a third time. With each new challenge there was a lesson learned!

I realized how thankful I was to work with an office full of designers and developers, when on multiple occasions John or I would struggle with figuring something out for an entire weekend, and I’d go in to work on Monday morning and ask any one of them and have an answer on most occasions in 5 minutes or less. They are all so amazing, and after having worked so hard on Rhythm of Our Lives, I have a newfound respect for what they do on a daily basis!

We hired one of the girls that I work with, Amanda Singleton, to do a lot of the artwork for our new page, and she also designed a bomb “About Me” page. We started pumping up our social media presence and have been getting ready for launch. Our long and hard journey of completely rebranding and redesigning Changing Lanes is coming to a close! We’re so excited to unveil what we’ve been working so hard on!

What to Expect

Many of you will be continuing to follow our journey from Changing Lanes- you can find all that content and more on Rhythm of Our Lives. As a part of our content restructuring, we wanted to bring you something less biographical, and instead, offer you timeless, valuable information. We’ll be focusing on bringing you exciting content to keep you inspired and motivated to lead the healthy and fulfilling life you want to live! We’ll still be keeping you updated on what we’re up to in San Diego, but we’ll be presenting the content to you in a different light – don’t worry, you’ll see :). 

We hope you enjoy what we’ve done. Let us know what you think of our rebrand and design of our new site in the comments below!

Review on Chris Kresser's 9 Steps to Perfect Health - #1 Don't Eat Toxins

Hi Readers!  Sorry updates have been a bit sporadic since the new year.  John and I have been doing great lately, and although we've been extremely busy, we're doing well! Aside from work being hectic, we've also both been studying away for our Real Estate Exams that are coming up soon, exploring potential business opportunities/investments, and working diligently on getting the new blog ready for launch.

However busy we may be, though, we've been making it a point to relax and enjoy San Diego while taking advantage of the nice weather that we moved here for! Yesterday it was nearly 80 degrees here, so John and I packed a picnic lunch and hung out on the beach for the afternoon. It was wonderful to kick back and relax for a bit while working on our tans for the first time of the season!

On the topic of relaxation, I'm currently undergoing some major personal lifestyle changes, from working out every morning, to establishing and maintaining a healthy diet, to focusing on giving myself newfound "Melissa time".  My stomach has been bothering me lately, and although we aren't yet sure if it's related to stress, or an allergy, or something entirely different, I've been trying to make positive changes to better myself, and I am determined to improve my mental and gut health by the end of 2014!

An article that I recently read, entitled 9 Steps To Perfect Health - #1: Don't Eat Toxins, by Chris Kresser was a real eye opener for me.  Since I haven't been feeling the greatest, I've been thinking a lot about what I'm eating and putting into my body, and the more I learn, the more appalled I become at some of the practices that have become norm in this country in regards to the foods that we so readily consume on a daily basis.

Although the article is a bit overwhelming in length, it is SO worth the read.  I'd highly recommend taking the 15 or so minutes to get through it.  I can't even believe that all of these foods (that are really toxins) are still available to us to eat, let alone that they're in nearly everything we consume!!! And they aren't "toxins" you'd think they'd be, they're four food products that we eat regularly, that are found in nearly everything that we as Americans consume - refined cereal grains, industrial seed oils, sugar, and processed soy.  "Bread, pastries, muffins, crackers, cookies, soda, fruit juice, fast food and other convenience foods are all loaded with these toxins. And when the majority of what most people eat on a daily basis is toxic, it’s not hard to understand why our health is failing." 

I was appalled at the info on soy: (And soy is in so much that we eat without us even knowing it!!)

"Perhaps most alarmingly, a study at the Harvard Public School of Health in 2008 found that men who consumed the equivalent of one cup of soy milk per day had a 50% lower sperm count than men who didn’t eat soy.  

In 1992, the Swiss Health Service estimated that women consuming the equivalent of two cups of soy milk per day provides the estrogenic equivalent of one birth control pill. That means women eating cereal with soy milk and drinking a soy latte each day are effectively getting the same estrogen effect as if they were taking a birth control pill.  

This effect is even more dramatic in infants fed soy formula. Babies fed soy-based formula have 13,000 to 22,000 times more estrogen compounds in their blood than babies fed milk-based formula. Infants exclusively fed soy formula receive the estrogenic equivalent (based on body weight) of at least five birth control pills per day."

WHATTTT?!  And then there's this, which is interesting to me as I am definitely finding myself having become very gluten sensitive, and possibly even gluten intolerant.

"Dr. Kenneth Fine, a pioneer in gluten intolerance research, has demonstrated that 1 in 3 Americans are gluten intolerant, and that 8 in 10 have the genes that predispose them to developing gluten intolerance.  

This is nothing short of a public health catastrophe in a nation where the #1 source of calories is refined flour. But while most are at least aware of the dangers of sugar, trans-fat and other unhealthy foods, fewer than 1 in 8 people with celiac disease are aware of their condition."

I know we should take all things that we read with a grain of salt, but I just thought I'd share what I thought was an exceptionally interesting article.  Hope all is well with every one of you!  John and I are getting extremely excited to show you RhythmofourLives.com.  It's so close to being done and ready for launch!! 

Lindsey Visits San Diego

This past weekend, one of my very best friends Lindsey was in town for a visit!  She started off the week visiting her sister up in Lake Tahoe, and on Thursday made her way to southern California to experience all that San Diego has to offer and visit yours truly.  I was so excited to see her, as almost exactly a year had passed since we saw each other last - it had been way too long!

I was able to make up time earlier in the week, so when Lindsey arrived at DT from the airport on Thursday, I surprised her by being able to leave work early to grab a late lunch and hang out for the rest of the afternoon.  For traditions sake, we had a sushi date, something we used to do all the time when we were roommates!  We tried out a place called Ogawashi, as my usual sushi spot (Sushi Deli) was closed between lunch and dinner.  Ogawashi was not at all disappointing, and we indulged on some fabulous rolls while catching up on girl talk!

After eating our late lunch, we decided to take a trip to David's Bridal (don't get all excited Mom, Christina, and Yiayia, this was not a trip for my own wedding).  Lindsey and I are both in our friend Steph's bridal party for her wedding in June and we thought Lindsey's visit would be the perfect opportunity to search for bridesmaid dresses together.  We had a blast trying on dozens of different dresses and both decided on a cute style in Steph's color of choice - guava.  After shopping, we kept the night low-key, as John and I had to be up early for work on Friday morning.

Friday around lunch time, Lindsey met me at DT for lunch, where we headed over to the Knotty Barrel for some grub.  Once we ate a yummy little lunch, we headed back to DT, where Lindsey helped me set up for our monthly team activity - "FabFriday".  The activity was supposed to be a movie night, so Lindsey and I spent quite some time setting up our projector, couches, and speakers just right, but once we started hanging out together, the night didn't go exactly as planned.  

During the week I had been working with our interior decorator to complete the redesign of our outdoor space, so on Friday, a beautifully gorgeous 75 degree evening, you can imagine why everyone opted to sit outside instead of indoors to watch the movie!  That's what I get for trying to schedule a movie night during San Diego's "winter" months ;)

We had a wonderful evening enjoying each others' company while basking in the lovely weather, indulging in some afternoon drinks, and munching on some snacks.  Although it was a "work" event, Lindsey still had a blast with us.  Once our team activity was complete, and most everyone had left, Lindsey, John, and I convinced two of my coworkers, Brian and Bradley to come over to the Penthouse Penthouse for an "after party" at our apartment complex's hot tub.  We had a lot of fun!

Saturday was sadly Lindsey's last day in San Diego, so I knew I had to really enjoy every last minute with her!  We started out our morning with brunch at Hash House a Go Go, which, as usual, was nothing short of outstanding.  We prepped Lindsey by telling her the portions were large, but upon entering the restaurant, she couldn't believe her eyes when she saw how LARGE the portions really are!  Needless to say, we were stuffed and barely even hungry for dinner 7 hours later.

We decided to burn off some calories after our indulgent brunch with a walk around Balboa Park.  Lindsey loved Balboa, and we showed her some of our favorite spots - the cactus garden, botanical garden, etc.  We then drove over to Ocean Beach to take a walk down the beach, put our feet in the ocean, and drive around the fun hippie areas that John and I enjoy.

Following up our tour of Ocean Beach, we headed to John and my favorite restaurant, Blue Water Market and Grill where we all ate another filling, but delicious meal!  We ended our last night together with another dip in the hot tub and said our goodbyes to Lindsey, whose flight left at 6:00 AM on Sunday morning.

We had a wonderful visit and I can't wait to see Lindsey and the rest of my college girls at Steph's wedding in June!

First Article Published on the DT Blog!

Over the past week, I worked with our Copywriter at DT to co-write my first article for the DT blog! It's all about the birthday surprises that I organize each month at DT. It's a really fun article, check it out! Here's an excerpt:

“'If you do this, then you get that.' As I researched motivational factors to improve our office’s birthday celebrations, I ran across Dan Pink’s TED Talk (which has racked up nearly 10 million views). He discusses how expected rewards narrow our perspective, our recognition of possibilities, and even makes the results worse than when no reward is promised. Pink’s ideas propelled my redesign of dt birthday celebrations, and it resulted in our Birthday Surprises."

I hope you enjoy reading the whole article and have a great rest of your Thursday! I'm super pumped because today one of my college roommates and very best friends, Lindsey, is en route to San Diego and should be here early afternoon! I'm sure you'll be reading about our weekend adventures at some point next week, check back soon :)

Spreckles Organ Concert with Rebecca

Last weekend one of my friends from high school, Rebecca, made a visit out to San Diego and LA to check out the west coast.  We hadn’t seen each other in several years and really haven’t spent much time together since high school, so it was great to catch up!  Aside from showing Rebecca a bunch of our favorite spots (OB, Gaslamp, Balboa, etc.), there were three particular highlights of her visit.  The first was being able to see the Spreckles organ at Balboa Park being played during an organ concert and the second was trying out South Beach Bar and Grille for the first time.

Another highlight of Rebecca’s visits was hanging out with Jed, Jamile, and Brian, on Saturday night.  We all met up for dinner and drinks, and ended up finishing off the night playing a few rounds of pool, but the coolest part was that Jed and Rebecca got to catch up, too!  Jed, Rebecca, and I all went to high school and grew up together; it was a fun little mini-reunion!

On Sunday, John and I showed Rebecca around Balboa Park, but were so excited to be around during the time of the weekly organ concert!  Each week on Sundays from 2:00-3:00PM, the Spreckels Organ Society hosts a wonderful outdoor organ concert in the heart of Balboa Park, completely free of charge!

The Spreckels brothers donated the enormous organ back in 1915, but we’re still able to hear its amazing sound today!  The huge instrument contains 4,518 pipes and comprises 73 ranks!  Its sound is like none other.  It was really amazing to listen to the organist Alicia McMillan play a variety of pieces, my favorite being Fantasia in G Major by J.S. Bach.  It was really neat to see and hear!

On Sunday night, as Rebecca’s visit was coming to a close, we all decided to check out South Beach Bar and Grille for dinner.  Aside from our delicious entrees, John was so happy to order chicken wings that were somewhat comparable to Buffalo’s!  He hadn’t been able to satisfy his craving for Buffalo wings before this meal, because all the wings he ordered were incredibly disappointing and not up to John’s standards, but these wings were good!  We enjoyed our meals while watching the end of the Super Bowl, and then sadly said our goodbyes to Rebecca as we dropped her off at the airport on the way home from dinner!   We had a great weekend catching up as we showed her around San Diego!

Digital-telepathy Holiday Party at The Pearl

This year for DT's holiday party, we wanted to host an event that would really give the team time to bond and enjoy each others' company.  As our party planning committee brainstormed ideas, we shuffled through a variety of options that just didn't feel "us".  Lasertag, talent show, comedy club, roller rink; all valid propositions, but activities similar to our monthly "Fabulous Friday" endeavors.  We needed the perfect holiday party idea.  After a few weeks of discussion, someone asked the question "What about an office sleepover?"  

This prospect excited us members of the party planning committee, and after researching some fun spots around San Diego, we found a true gem - The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma.  Cute venue with 23 hotel rooms, a pool deck, and flexibility for the date we wanted?  SCORE!

Our planning committee was super pumped about The Pearl, and we enthusiastically began crafting our meaningful experience for the team.  Several planning sessions, a Costco run, and dozens of emails later, we were ready to host our stellar holiday bash!

Although the team knew what date the party was being planned, we didn't clue them in to details until a week prior.  During lunch the week before we announced some details - only those that were pertinent, like location - we wanted the rest to be a surprise!

Our guests started arriving at The Pearl at about 6:30 on Saturday night, and immediately began enjoying appetizers and our open bar!  After cocktail hour, we all enjoyed a scrumptious meal of Spinach Salad, Rosemary Roasted Chicken Breast with Caramelized Cipollini Onion Demi, NY Strip with Horseradish Creme Fraiche, Farmers Market Vegetables with a white wine and garlic sauce, Mashed Potato Bar and Maple Glazed Root Veggies.  It was delish!

After dinner, we were ready for one of our first major surprises - an Improv Show!  One of our team members, Jason, is a part of the Improv Group, The Hinges, who were gracious enough to join us at our holiday party for an amazing show!  It was a hilarious event and the group did a really wonderful job of incorporating several "volunteers" into the mix, as well.  They even did a skit about our GM, Laurence's life - complete with a bit on how he met his wife in an elevator - the team was in stitches.  Huge shout out to the Hinges for helping to make our night at The Pearl a success.

Once the improv had come to a close, several people indulged in a fun, nighttime pool swim.  Those of us that didn't partake were pelted brutally with the beautiful decorative pool "pearls".  The lounging people on the pool deck didn't find it as hilarious as those inside the pool did.  =P

  

Although our open bar was nearing its end, we had another surprise in store!  Phase two of our holiday party!  When The Pearl told us that the pool deck closed at 10:30, we knew that was too early to end our festivities, so we prepped by planning two additional party "phases".  (We know how to do it right here at DT)

When the pool deck was closing, we rallied our crew and made our way to Phase two - a fully stocked bar, snacks, deserts, and bumpin' jams were in Chuck and Shannon's hotel room.  Squeals of "There's a phase two?!?" were quickly quieted with a new drink and loud music.  When phase two began to lose participants that were drifting off to bed, we knew it was time to kick the party back into high gear - with phase three!

Phase three was pretty epic.  Our Manager of Company Culture's room was the honeymoon suite, which we had fully decked out with (surprise, surprise) additional drinks, snacks, and a plethora of water (it was time to start rehydrating), but the best part was something no one was expecting.  The last few team members who hadn't yet gone to sleep walked into the room and were faced with flashing laser lights, smoke billowing out of our smoke machine, and an electronic set playing in the background.  We even accidentally set off the smoke detector with our smoke machine, oops!  Phase three was all we could have hoped and dreamed of.  Since no one could remember what time they left phase three to go to bed, our planning committee considers the night an overall success!

Brunch on Sunday morning was planned to take place over two hours - to allow party-goers some extra shut eye if needed :)  Our chefs from DT's weekly team lunches, Gage and Julia, attended our party, and were awesome enough to plan brunch for us the next morning.  Those suffering from lack of sleep (or a hangover ;) were faced with an awesome brunch spread to ease their pain - fresh gluten free belgian waffles with a variety of toppings, a baked potato frittata, tofu scramble, apple-smoked and turkey bacons, spinach salad, pasta salad, melon, and variety of beverages including mimosa bar.

As we parted ways on Sunday, we were all so much closer than we had been just one day before.  Our holiday party had been a smashing success - our main goal had been to provide the team with a fun and exciting event to get to spend more time together and get to know each other on a more personal level.  It was especially fun to get to know a bunch of spouses and significant others better, as well!  Overall, we concluded that the holiday was a smashing success - and we're already excited for what's to come next year!