I’m Lucie Fink and this week is Five Days of Swapping Summer Routines.
Hey guys, welcome back to another challenge video!
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I already did an episode of Try Living With Lucie where I lived my anti-routine for five
days, and instead I took on the daily routines of some family members and friends and coworkers.
And this episode is going to be similar except
there’s one major exception.
Did you just hear my arm crack?
The routines that I’m taking on this week are people’s summer routines.
Let’s get into it and I’ll show you what I did.
If you’re a major Try Living With Lucie fan and you’ve watched a bunch of my previous
episodes, you might know my camera guy, Andrew.
He’s been shooting this series with me since 2015, and in the process the two of us have
become really close friends.
Andrew is one of those people who I aspire to be like, mind, body and spirit.
He has such a positive outlook on life and he’s just all about waking up when the sun
rises, being active, and enjoying each and every day.
Good morning, Lucie!
Welcome to Andrew’s summer routine.
It starts here at 7am.
Welcome to coffee time.
Ah!
I do not wake up as early as Andrew does naturally, so on Monday I set my alarm for 7am and then
I was wide awake for coffee time.
Coffee time is a serious ritual for Andrew.
Mm, wow.
He’s not joking around with his coffee time.
Woo!
And since Andrew often goes through one, two, sometimes three cups of coffee, I had to do
the same.
Ah!
Once you’re done with a couple of your cups of coffee and you’re all pepped up, there’s
only one thing left to do, Lucie: time to hit the skate park, roll around a little and
have some fun.
Andrew does not work out, he never goes to the gym, he doesn’t take exercise classes.
His motto is, and I’ve heard him say this many times,
“The world is your playground.”
And on Monday I accompanied Andrew to the skatepark on the Lower East Side, the one
that he normally goes to.
And it was hot outside.
Ahh!
He did a bunch of his favorite tricks, and then I tried a few of my own.
I’m gonna try to jump and do a kickflip.
I even took it one step further and really swapped routines with him by taking hold of
the camera and becoming the camera operator.
Wow!
I’m a camera woman!
Woo!
It’s great doing your routine.
After I like to go to the park, I like to come home and, you know, unwind, to mill about
the house, I love doing house projects.
You caught me on a really good summer, so I’m gonna have you scraping some paint,
paint some moldings.
I’m not doing any construction or any renovation projects in my apartment at the moment, so
instead I just went to Andrew’s home and did his housework.
But after Monday’s crazy active day of waking up early and going to the skate park, and
then coming home and doing housework, I understand how Andrew gets tired so early.
Cheers!
When I got home from this day, I walked into my apartment and I just collapsed onto the
couch.
It’s always so surprising to me how people that have jobs not in the social media world
are able to be so disconnected from social media.
So for my next routine, I wanted to choose someone who’s way less connected to social
media than I am.
I chose my twin sister, Allie.
Hey, Lu bug.
Typically when I get up in the summer I try to avoid looking at my phone right away while
I’m getting ready for the day.
I don’t know about you guys but sometimes I find that instinctively, first thing I do
when I wake up in the morning is I reach for my phone, and I open it and
I start scrolling.
And by the time I put it down, I find that not only have I wasted so much time, but I’m
not really in the best mental state to go about the rest of my morning.
The moment I woke up I put my phone into airplane mode and then I left it that way as I got
ready for the rest of the day.
The next thing I do is I get up and I try to enjoy the nice weather by taking a walk
outside.
For these walks I really try to leave my phone behind or just put it in a bag so that when
I’m walking I can enjoy the nice scenery rather than looking down at my phone.
I cannot tell you how often I walk around New York City and I’m either fixated on
my phone, or I’m just so busy in my own thoughts that I’m actually not even looking
where I’m going.
So on Tuesday I went for a walk outside, and I made sure to walk around in the best way
possible.
Eyes up, looking around, soaking around in my surroundings.
One thing I loved about this day was that I noticed some amazing architecture on the
buildings that I pass every day, things that I’ve never even looked up at or noticed
before.
I walked to the park and I just sat for a few hours,
by myself, with my book.
I left my phone at home and I just had some nice, peaceful quiet time.
We humans are meant to be outdoors and we’re meant to ground ourselves by putting our bare
feet on the ground.
And sometimes living in a city makes it really difficult to do that, but you’ve got to
find the green patches.
Find a little patch of grass.
The last thing that I do that’s part of my summer routine is that I come home and
I enjoy making a nice home-cooked meal.
To really adopt Allie’s routine, I copied one of her favorite recipes from a cookbook
she gave me.
Brown rice pasta with sauteed veggies.
Because it was such a hot summer day outside, I grabbed a cool and refreshing sparkling
water to go along with my meal, and this was the perfect parallel to the meal I was making
because one thing I love about cooking is that you know what you’re eating and you
know that you’re making real food.
And Spindrift sparkling water is nothing but sparkling water and real squeezed fruit.
So everything I had for dinner was real, and very simple,
and very delicious.
When I think of summer, I typically think of relaxation.
As kids, many of us grow up having summers off from school.
So at least for me, summers were always a time to rest and to rejuvenate before the
start of another year.
But summer does not mean rest for everyone.
For some people, it’s actually the time when they’re the busiest.
They’re hustling, they’re running around, they’re trying to get everything done so
that they’re actually ready when the fall rolls around.
And for Refinery29’s fashion market writer, this is what summer feels like.
My summer is so go, go, go, it’s absolutely insane but in the best way possible.
On a typical summer day, I usually wake up around 7 or 7:30 in the morning and my day
is pretty much booked bell to bell from then through the evening.
It’s really pretty nuts, to be honest.
Because I’m not a fashion writer, I obviously didn’t have the same tasks as Alyssa, so
instead I made my own to-do list of errand and things that I’ve been meaning to accomplish.
Yeah I know, I’m coming.
Yeah, I gotta do my errands first.
I went to mail a package, I updated my credit card and cashed some checks, I got my legs
waxed, bought groceries, refilled my subway card, donated clothing, picked up my dry cleaning,
and grabbed some more plants for my apartment.
It was hectic to say the least.
I'm so busy in the summer, but still it's definitely a time to have fun.
I try to make the time to plan something fun for myself whether that’s just reading in
the park or seeing some girlfriends for something fun.
So try to balance a little bit of everything.
Towards the second half of the day I made sure to prioritize Alyssa's advice and I met
my friend Dayana for a drink and an early dinner.
Cheers!
Mmm!
When I got home at the end of this day, I was physically and mentally exhausted.
My feet hurt, my head hurt.
I was so proud of myself for getting all the items done on my to-do list,
but at the same time I was so tired and all I wanted to do was sleep.
So I wanted to contrast Wednesday’s crazy running around routine with the routine of
someone who takes things a little bit more slowly.
My co-worker Anissa is all about rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation.
So on Thursday I asked her to share her routine with me.
In the morning I wake up, I make my bed right away.
Making your bed first thing in the morning is actually something I implement into my
daily routine.
I find that it really just starts the day off on
the right foot and it's like a clean, fresh slate.
And then I get on top of it and I meditate.
As for meditation, that's something that I've really been working on and I really want to
include in my routine.
And so far I'm pretty comfortable with 10 to 15 minutes of meditation.
But that's the max before I start to get really antsy.
And to feel the effects of meditation, you don't have to sit there for long.
So even if you can only sit still for one to two minutes it's better than nothing.
Next while I’m still on my bed, I actually spend
some time journaling.
I love my journal and I love taking time to just sit and write down my thoughts.
So on Thursday I made myself a hot cup of tea and then I sat down first thing in the
morning, I wrote out my dreams from the night before and I also wrote out some intentions
for the upcoming day.
And then lastly, in the evening after work or after whatever I did that day, I get into
my comfiest athleisure, maybe a cute robe, and I actually do my skin-care routine.
It's really important, I think, every day to make sure that you’re doing something
great for your skin.
It’s the only skin that you got, so you gotta make it glowy and happy.
When I got home I popped on my fuzziest robe, and from looking at my skin in the mirror
I just knew that what it needed was some energy and some vibrancy.
I put on a pink glitter peel off mask.
Seriously it was the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life.
This is so sparkly.
It feels so good on my face.
Once it dried, I peeled it all off.
This side of my cheek wasn't dry yet.
Ooh!
And then I chopped up a cool cucumber and I sat on my bed with cucumbers on my eyes.
I've read that cucumbers have a mild lightening effect so if you have dark circles under your
eyes supposedly they can help with that.
And I've also heard there's something in them that helps reduce water retention, so if you
have puffiness or swelling it can help with that.
In reality I'm not sure if any of this is scientifically true about the cucumber.
I'm going to leave it to the experts to comment below,
but it's definitely a classic spa staple that I've seen in countless movies, and we're making
a mini movie here so I just wanted to include it.
Alright so, I've now taken on the summer routines of four local New Yorkers, people that live
here every day and are pretty set in their ways.
But on Friday I kept wondering what would a New York City summer routine look like for
someone that's just visiting New York, say a tourist.
So I reached out to my friend Coco who lives across the country in San Francisco
and I asked her to send me a video of herself sharing what her classic daily routine would
look like if she was a tourist visiting New York.
So the first thing I always do is no matter where I'm staying, I wake up and I just go
outside and pretend I'm a local.
And I just explore the neighborhood, walk around, go into a coffee shop.
The Refinery29 office is situated all the way downtown on the southern tip of Manhattan
in the financial district.
And even though I've worked at this company for a really long time, I actually don't know
much about the financial district.
So I took Friday morning to follow Coco's advice and to explore this area as if I were
a tourist.
I walked around City Hall Park with a camera strapped around my neck and I took some great
historical photos.
I played in a public fountain, I ran through a flock of pigeons.
I mean, it doesn't get any more touristy than this.
I was also trying not to look at my phone for directions so I went old school style
and I got a physical map of the city.
I even pulled a Joey Tribbiani and I put the map down and I stepped
into the map to help orient myself.
Next, if you're in New York City you gotta go to Central Park.
I love that it's just this huge amazing park surrounded by city.
Almost every major city has a spot like Central Park, even if it's not quite as big.
And I'm a local in New York City and I myself have only been to Central Park a handful of
times.
So on Friday I went to the park, I sat in some shade under a tree, I climbed on a rock
like all the tourists do, I took some pictures, walked around.
Mainly I just chilled.
Then I love going to Times Square, and it's seriously such a magical place with all these
people from all over the world and it's just so quintessential New York City.
Most large cities also have a major tourist attraction, and in New York that has got to
be Times Square.
Times Square is the theater district in midtown Manhattan and it's filled with flashing lights,
crazy crowds, street performers, and of course all of Broadway's historic theaters.
I walked through Times Square very slowly and I even sat down at some points and just
looked around and took it all in: the bright lights, the magic, the vibrancy.
The city in Times Square feels so alive.
Then, last but not least, I always go and get a slice of my very favorite dollar pizza.
And of course I grabbed Coco's favorite, which is also my favorite, dollar pizza.
Routines are a very weird thing because on the one hand, we're always encouraged to
make routines and to stick to a solid routine.
We're told that the most successful people in the world have a routine and stick to it.
But on the flip side, by breaking out of your routine and trying something else you might
actually find a better or a simpler way of doing things.
And you might learn that you can feel more present and get more out of your day just
by doing some simple things like putting your phone down or taking a walk outside with your
head up.
Let us know below what your favorite part of your summer routine is.
And we'll see you next time on Try Living with Lucie.
Bye!
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See ya.