First: here’s why it’s called Show Your Work. Other archived posts can be perused via the tag cloud at the bottom of this page.

A few throwbacks!

I’ve kept a blog in some form or another since 2003, so there are a lot of iterations of me scattered around the Internet. In no particular order, here are a few highlights.

Athletics:

I started CrossFit in October 2012, shortly after I moved to Philadelphia. I was a complete beginner, lonely and in search of a community — and I found it. Here are my takeaway posts from Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3. The role the sport plays in my life has definitely shifted over the years, but that’s part of the magic; I still see so many of my current experiences and emotions reflected in the decidedly different contexts of these older posts. Not to mention, it’s also just ridiculously fun to look back (remember the days when we all had mainsite workout logs?!).

I have a long history with the NYC Marathon, beginning in 2012 (when it became the ‘Run Anyway’ Marathon due to Hurricane Sandy). I finally ‘checked the box’ in 2014, but the year that I’m proudest of is 2018, when I finally did things properly. Historically, my body doesn’t hold up well to high mileage, but I knew a CrossFit-based plan could prepare me adequately, and it was extremely satisfying to watch the months of mature, intentional preparation finally come to fruition.

And, once upon a time, I was an open-water swimmer.

Travel:

In 2012, I completed a four-week medical rotation in Tanzania. As you’d imagine, Internet access was hard to come by, so I ended up writing four (mammoth) weekly posts. Here are the first, second, third, and fourth parts.

While I haven’t gotten much down on paper about my more recent international travels (Costa Rica and Cuba), my extremely young self did document a couple of trips from while I was living in the Netherlands (Auschwitz in 2003 and Ireland/London in 2005). I also took a pretty great trip to Iceland in 2014. Also, here’s the first time I visited New York City (2011), just because the magic never quite dies.

Speaking of NYC magic — there was also that time I sat in the cancellation line for long enough to get into The Room Where It Happens. (2017)

Life in general:

I shaved my head in 2011 for a pediatric cancer fundraiser during PA school, and basically haven’t let it grow back since.

Work to live, don’t live to work. (2016)

With the caveat that my approach to my own nutrition has since evolved a LOT, here’s the multi-part post from when I first started getting serious about it in 2017, and then the second go-round from early 2018 (slightly ill-advised, but still taught me a tremendous amount). Nowadays, I prefer shorter cut phases when necessary — here’s the post I wrote about the first one of those — but I spend the vast majority of my time now eating strictly for PERFORMANCE, with aesthetics and scale numbers taking a distant backseat.

I’m a huge fan of tiny living spaces; my 350sf apartment in Center City Philadelphia was one of the greatest places I ever had. I moved into a 411sf condo in late 2021, and I think this may be my forever home.

And, to wrap up: 35 things I’d learned by age 35. (Pushing 40 now… seems I need to start thinking about the next one in this series.)