Monday, June 30, 2014

June Foodie Pen Pal Reveal Day

Boo can't believe it's Monday already! I had an AMAZING weekend. A friend who I met back in DC drove up to visit from San Diego so I packed Friday-Sunday with fun activities, including a World Cup viewing party, tons of good food and drink, and a sweet boat trip to the Channel Islands.

(Image Source)
We woke up bright and early Sunday and made the drive to the Santa Barbara Sea Landing, where we boarded our ship for the 2 hour trip to Santa Cruz Island for some marine wildlife sighting, pretty views, ocean kayaking, and lots of soaking in the sun. We passed a big school of dolphins, saw whales in the distance, kayaked into one of the largest sea caves in the world, and saw seals come so close to our kayak that we could have touched them. I didn't take a lot of pictures because I was terrified of getting my new phone wet, so I concentrated on soaking in the experience. I feel so so incredibly lucky to live somewhere that I can have such an amazing experience a 10 minute drive away on a random Sunday!

Anyways, today's Foodie Pen Pals reveal day, and I'm excited to share the awesome Foodie Pen Pals package I got this month. 


This was my fourth time participating in the program. This time I was paired with Almah, who doesn't have a blog. She was in a conference in Philadelphia during Pen Pal mailing time and picked up a bunch of great food and a cute post card to send during her trip. 

Here's what she sent:



-BIENA Chickpea Snakcs: Love me some roasted chick peas! So much better than chips!
-SEEDSTERS Sprouted Seed Snack: These were kind of interesting with a great nutty flavor and a lot of texture.
-Zesty Lemon Herb Spice Mix: Love premade spice mixes. Can't wait to use this on chicken!
-Gaucho Ranch Chimichurri Sauce: I've never made anything with chimichurri sauce and can't wait to try this out!
-GRID Magazine: A free monthly magazine on sustainability issues and initiatives
in the Greater Philadelphia area. This issue was about food so you know I liked it.

Thanks so much for the great package, Almah!

I'm  a huge fan of the Foodie Pen Pal experience and highly recommend it to anyone who's considering signing up for the next exchange. I'm already signed up for July and I can't wait! If you'd like to join too, click here to learn more and sign up by July 4th.

Friday, June 27, 2014

Five Awesome Things

Since it's Friday I'm joining the Friday Five Linkup with Eat Pray Run DCMar on the Run and You Signed Up for What?!This week's theme is: Five Things About Me. But I already did a post on that which pretty much exhausted my ability to say little known and funny things about myself. So, instead I'm sharing five awesome things that happened to me this week. Who doesn't love awesome? 

1. I got kind of famous

As you may have seen (because I have been blasting it everywhere) I was interviewed in an article on Self.com. Pretty much the highlight of my week. Not that it's a big deal or anything.


(Image Source)
2. The US men's national soccer team advanced in the world cup

Despite losing to Germany, the US men managed to survive the group of death and make it to the round of 16 in the world cup! Which means we get to watch our favorite eye candy players for at least another match. Kyle Beckerman seems to be a crowd favorite with my friends.


(Image Source)
I get it, but I'm not really into the whole super hairy look. I'm more into the "I just won a street fight/got kicked in the face and have a broken nose look". Luckily team USA has something for everyone :)


(Image Source)
3. And we got to watch the game at work!

Yet another reason why I have the coolest office ever!



4. Cooking (and eating, obvs) some delicious food

Even though I didn't have time to meal prep, I made an effort to step my food game up and elevate my normal salads and stir fries. Exhibit A: asparagus, edamame, and tomato topped with a runny fried egg. Exhibit B: cruciferous crunch with steak, beets, cheese, pepitas and pomegranate vinegar.



5. Getting back into Blogilates videos

I'm a huge fan of Casey Ho from Blogilates and love all the videos on her YouTube channel. For some reason, I hadn't been following them for awhile but I did a ton this week and loved getting back into it. I got on a roll on Tuesday and did all of the below videos in one night!



Q: What was the most awesome thing about your week? Any awesome plans for the weekend? Or other things that are awesome in general?

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Three Reasons Girls (and women!) Should Play Sports

It's Wednesday and you know what that means. It's only 3 days until the weekend time for another Workout Wednesday (WOW) linkup hosted by Diatta Harris from Femme Fitale Fit Club, Sheila Simmons from The Frugal Exerciser, Natalie from Clean Eating Teen, Jenn from Comeback Mommaand yours truly! 

Before we start the party, I have some exciting news! I got the chance to speak to SELF Magazine recently about my experience as a female collegiate athlete on the 42nd anniversary of Title IX. And...I was quoted and pictured in an article on SELF.com talking about Title IX with 5 other former and current college athletes!


Talking to the SELF writer made me reflect on what my experience as a collegiate athlete meant to me as a woman in particular. So, in honor of the 42nd anniversary of Title IX, here are three reasons girls (and women!) should play sports.

1. Learning leadership skills
As Sheryl Sandberg famously pointed out in Lean In, while boys are normally praised for asserting themselves girls who take charge are often labeled bossy. All of this gender-role conditioning makes girls less interested in leadership roles by middle school, and may have something to do with the fact that only 5% of Fortune 1,000 CEOs are women. The court (field, track, etc) is one place where girls are encouraged and rewarded  for being assertive and taking the lead.

2. Getting comfortable with competition--and excellence 
Girls are also less likely to be taught to compete and tend to prioritize getting along. I saw a great example of this freshman year of college, when the fastest girl on our team would routinely run at less than 100% during sprint drills. When our coach called out her lack of effort, she explained she was trying to finish at the same time as everyone else. Well, you can bet coach put a stop to that. Playing sports teaches girls to want to win, and that it's ok to be the best and finish first. 

3. Building a positive body image
According to the Center for Disease Control and National Association of Eating Disorders, girls start to express concerns about their own weight or shape by age 6. SIX YEAR OLDs are worried about being fat, people! Playing a sport teaches girls to care about what their body can do instead of just how it looks. And studies have found that girls who play sports have higher self esteem and healthier body images.

While these are all important reasons for girls to play sports growing up, they're also reasons grown women should play. Men are more likely to continue playing recreational sports as they get older while women are busy fitting in work, childcare, and running the world. But despite our crazy schedules, finding time to get that sense of accomplishment, competition, and FUN with a group of other women is definitely worth it to me. My mom played volleyball all through my childhood and competed in the USA Volleyball National Championship in the 55 and over division (go mom!) last month! I hope to follow in her footsteps one day and to stay active in athletics as long as possible.

Ok, let me climb off the soapbox and get on to the party!


Point & Purpose: The purpose of this link up party is to mix and mingle and support each other’s sites by visiting, subscribing and/or leaving a comment. Please do not drop a link here, disappear and not follow through by visiting other party goers’ sites. 

Theme: We are linking up blog posts, Google+ posts or Facebook posts related to FITNESS, RUNNING, HEALTH or WELLNESS.


Simple Rules:
1. Follow, Like and/or Subscribe to your hostesses and co-hostesses:
2.   Don't be a wallflower.  I can not stress this enough.  Show some comment luv and support to other party goers of this link up by visiting their blogs and either leave a comment on a post, subscribe or both!  Visit at least others who have joined the party.
3.  Also join our WOW Link Up Pinterest Board (http://www.pinterest.com/curleedst/workout-wednesdays-link-up/ ) so you can PIN your post to it.
4.  Invite your like-minded friends!  We love finding and reading new blogs so spread the word so we can increase the size of our parties every week til we make the walls sweat!!!!  I told ya we party hard!  :-)
5.  Use hashtag #wowlinkup when you comment on someone's post for easy identification.
6.  Last but definitely not least, HAVE FUN!  This IS a party.

GRAB OUR BADGE CODE: 

<div align=”center”><a href=”http://femmefitalefitclub.com/?page_id=5741″ title=”Femme Fitale Fit Club”><img src=”http://femmefitalefitclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/10411245605_4348135958_m.jpg” alt=”Femme Fitale Fit Club” style=”border:none;” /></a></div>


Monday, June 23, 2014

Weekend Highlights: Fun in Pasadena

Ahh anyone else still getting over that US World Cup game yesterday? Such a fun game to watch but that last goal was so heartbreaking! 

I spent the weekend in Pasadena visiting the bf who's in town on a work trip. I got back too late last night to meal prep, and even missed the Trader Joe's hours by less than 10 minutes. It was definitely worth it though! Besides spending time with the bf, I got to eat a lot of delicious food.


A few particular favorite Pasadena restaurants:

Europane - an adorable bakery with the best frittata I've ever eaten and amazing salmon eggs benedict
Urth Caffe - cool organic coffee shop that stays open late so you can enjoy their delicious desserts after dinner
Fresh Squeezed Juice Bar - yummy juices, smoothies and acai bowls
Tender Greens - casual and semi-fast food farm to fork restaurant
Bistro 45 - fancy French-style food with a focus on local, organic ingredients

In addition to all the eating, we also stayed pretty active. Since the summer solstice was on Saturday, we visited the Griffith Observatory to learn more about the sun and get our science on. Then we hiked to the top of Mount Hollywood. Because, you know, hiking up a steep hill when it's over 80 degrees out on the longest day of the year makes a lot of sense.


But really, it was a great hike despite the heat and the view at the top was worth the climb. 

On Saturday I somehow managed to convince the bf to run with me. We did a little over 4 miles at an easy pace with plenty of walking and also spent some time checking out the stations on the Brookside Fitness Trail.


I loved the idea of having a running loop with different exercise stations in a public park, even though some of the equipment was pretty funny. The bf was less thrilled about the whole experience, but I think he had a good time too despite the pout.

For the week ahead, I'm switching up my workout schedule a little bit from my monthly plan since I have a friend coming to visit for the weekend. I'm definitely going to ge all my workouts in, though, especially after all of the weekend's eating.

Monday: Fitness Blender Fat Burning HIIT Cardio Workout
Tuesday: Pilates
Wednesday: Track workout
Thursday: Pilates
Friday: 4 mile run
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Beach volleyball

Friday, June 20, 2014

Five Foods to Beat the Summer Heat

Happy Friday! I've been feeling a little bit under the weather lately so I've been taking it easy. Not taking any chances, especially since I'm probably on the verge of falling victim to California's whooping cough epidemic. Terrifying.



This week's Friday Five Linkup theme is: Five Ways to Beat the Heat. Even though it's been pretty temperate in Santa Barbara, I feel for everyone back home dealing with DC's lovely amazonian rain forest-esque weather. So I'm joining Eat Pray Run DCMar on the Run and You Signed Up for What?! to share five foods and some of my favorite recipes to beat the summer heat. 

1. Overnight Oats



I'm a big fan of a hot breakfast, but it's not the best start to a sweltering summer day. Overnight oats are a great cooling option, and they "cook" in your refrigerator so you don't have to turn on the oven or stove. 

Tropical Mason Jar Overnight Oats
Blueberry Mason Jar Overnight Oats
Mango Mason Jar Overnight Oats

2. Salads



If you follow me on Instagram, you know I eat a giant mixing bowl salad almost every day for lunch. When it's hot out and I don't feel like cooking, this can carry over to dinner too. And while I usually make the same mix of bagged greens, veggies, protein, oil and vinegar, there are lots of fancier options to keep it interesting. 

If you get sick of salad, try putting the ingredients in a wrapper and you have a whole new meal! Summer rolls are light, cool, and raw and perfect for summer. Obviously.

Tempeh Hand Rolls
Blogilates Vegan Summer Rolls
Healthy Food Mind Mandarin Orange and Avocado Spring Rolls

4. Smoothies


When it's really hot out, all I ever want to eat are smoothies. And while it's really easy to buy delicious smoothies, it's not exactly easy on the wallet. With a little bit of effort, and the below tips, you can make even-better-than-store-bought smoothies for much less money at home.

100 Days of Real Food How to Make a Perfect Green Smoothie
Eating Bird Foo Creamy Avocado Mango Smoothie + Saving Smoothies for Later
No Diets Allowed How to Make Healthy Smoothies

5. Slow Cooker Meals


Using your slow cooker is a great way cook without adding a lot of heat to your house. You know I love my meal prep slow cooker shredded chicken, but you can also use the slow cooker to make fancier things (including dessert!).

Clean Eating Magazine Slow Cooker Pomegranate Poached Salmon
The Skinny Fork Healthified Crock Pot Beef and Broccoli
The Realistic Nutritionist Healthy Crock Pot Apple Crisp

Q: What are your favorite summer recipes/ways to avoid turning the stove on as long as possible?

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Workout Wednesday - Airobic Fitness Review

Happy Wednesday! It's time for another Workout Wednesday (WOW) linkup hosted by Diatta Harris from Femme Fitale Fit Club, Sheila Simmons from The Frugal Exerciser, Natalie from Clean Eating Teen, Jenn from Comeback Mommaand yours truly! 

As part of my June Goals I went to try a fun new fitness class on Monday: Airobic Fitness. And for all of you fitness fans who've ever wondered what a trampoline workout is like, I've got a review for you. 



Airobic Fitness is a "low impact exercise which combines calisthenics, core exercises and strength building aerobics all on wall to wall rebounders." Yea, basically you are jumping around and doing toning work on wall to wall trampolines. Crazy and new appeals to me, so you know I had to give it a try.

The Class

The gym is a little hard to find, tucked away in the mall at La Cumbre Plaza between Claire's and GNC. It consists of a small reception room with a desk and a couch and the main trampoline room. I arrived about 10 minutes early and the instructor wasn't there yet but luckily a regular told me to sign in and gave me her take on the class.

After the instructor arrived, he had me fill out a waiver form and told me it basically said not to do flips or anything crazy. Then I went into the trampoline room and started bouncing around on one of the little "pods" to warm up. The class was small, with only 6 other women of all ages and fitness levels.


After warming up on our own for a few minutes, our instructor Steve started demonstrating different jumps and we tried to follow along. He didn't really give any instruction or form tips, although it wasn't hard to figure out how to get yourself in the air. It did however, take a lot of coordination. Running around on the trampolines was especially difficult and definitely was a balance challenge as well as great cardio. My favorite exercise was a fun partner move where you had to throw a medicine ball back and forth while jumping. Think a super extreme version of taps.

Next we moved down to the "floor" for some core work. This part wasn't super exciting, and we definitely stayed in the same move for a looong time. Doing everything on the bouncy floor did add a neat element, though.

After abs we moved back up to do more jumping. There was even less instruction this time, and it was more like free time to try tricks. I had fun trying to jump from pod to pod (much harder than it looks) for a little while, but I wasn't that inventive and got kind of bored on my own. Plus having everyone do there own thing kind of took away from the whole group class aspect for me.

We then did some strength training with resistance bands. Again, not super exciting and no real form corrections or verbal motivation so it wasn't my favorite. Then, after a little bit of stretching, our 60 minutes were up and it was out to the parking lot.

Pros

Variety: Everyone pretty much went at their own pace so it was good for all fitness levels. Plus it was a low-impact option that was definitely outside of your usual cardio routine. Unless you work at a circus.
Fun factor: I mean, you're jumping around on wall to wall trampolines. I'm pretty sure that we all had dreams about doing that in elementary school/last week.
Price: Classes are very reasonably priced. Single classes are $8 and you can buy a 10 class punch card for $49 or a monthly membership for $39. There's also a Groupon deal right now for 5 classes for $25 or 10 classes for $39.  

Cons

Instruction: Steve didn't give a ton of instruction and pretty much let us do our own thing for most of the class. This works great for some people but wasn't really my thing. 
Intensity: It may be because I wasn't very good at self regulating, but this was definitely not a super intense workout for me. I heard that another instructor does a circuit workout, which seems like it might be a little more structured/harder, so I may check that out.

Bottom Line

This wasn't my favorite workout. It honestly just felt more like I was renting the trampoline space to play on than attending a group fitness class. It was still fun to try something so different, and I may go back to try one of the other instructors. I can see myself going occasionally to mix things up, but I don't think I'll become a regular. Definitely recommend stopping by and trying it out at least once if you are in the Santa Barbara area though. I mean, it's a giant room full of trampolines!


Now on to the party!


Point & Purpose: The purpose of this link up party is to mix and mingle and support each other’s sites by visiting, subscribing and/or leaving a comment. Please do not drop a link here, disappear and not follow through by visiting other party goers’ sites. 

Theme: We are linking up blog posts, Google+ posts or Facebook posts related to FITNESS, RUNNING, HEALTH or WELLNESS.


Simple Rules:
1. Follow, Like and/or Subscribe to your hostesses and co-hostesses:
2.   Don't be a wallflower.  I can not stress this enough.  Show some comment luv and support to other party goers of this link up by visiting their blogs and either leave a comment on a post, subscribe or both!  Visit at least others who have joined the party.
3.  Also join our WOW Link Up Pinterest Board (http://www.pinterest.com/curleedst/workout-wednesdays-link-up/ ) so you can PIN your post to it.
4.  Invite your like-minded friends!  We love finding and reading new blogs so spread the word so we can increase the size of our parties every week til we make the walls sweat!!!!  I told ya we party hard!  :-)
5.  Use hashtag #wowlinkup when you comment on someone's post for easy identification.
6.  Last but definitely not least, HAVE FUN!  This IS a party.

GRAB OUR BADGE CODE: 

<div align=”center”><a href=”http://femmefitalefitclub.com/?page_id=5741″ title=”Femme Fitale Fit Club”><img src=”http://femmefitalefitclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/10411245605_4348135958_m.jpg” alt=”Femme Fitale Fit Club” style=”border:none;” /></a></div>


Monday, June 16, 2014

Healthy Eating Grocery List

Ahh can't believe it's Monday already! The bf was visiting, so I had a great weekend full of quality time and tons of delicious food. 


Because I was busy spending as much time as possible with the bf, I didn't meal prep this week. But I still set myself up for success with a trip to the grocery store. So for anyone else who's strapped for time, here's what's on my typical healthy eating grocery list:



With the above ingredients, it's super easy to throw together a week's worth of healthy breakfasts, salads, stir frys and snacks that all take under 30 minutes to make. For more ideas on how to turn this list into meals, check out this no prep meal prep post.


Q: Grocery shopping: love it or hate it? What's on your grocery list?

Friday, June 13, 2014

Five Great Things About Your Late Twenties

Happy Friday! I've been doing a lot of birthday celebrating this week and definitely overindulged a little. I have been of keeping up with my workouts though, including a kind of crappy but beautiful 3 mile run.



Since it's Friday, I'm joining the Friday Five Linkup with Eat Pray Run DCMar on the Run and You Signed Up for What?!. This week is a free Friday so I had to think of a theme all by myself. Serious #firstworldproblems yo. 

Even though I had a good birthday, I'm not super thrilled about getting a year closer to 30. But at the same time, living with four 22 year olds (who I absolutely love!) definitely makes me appreciate being over that phase. So here's five things that are really great about being in your late twenties. 

1. You are a lot less subject to peer pressure

Putting on heels that hurt your feet because everyone else is? Staying out later than you want just so you won't be the lame one? That's so early twenties. By the time you reach your late twenties you care way less about what people think about you. And that lack of peer pressure leaves you with a lot more time to watch all the Netflix you want and get to bed early.

(Image Source)
2. You can afford to buy yourself nice(r) things

Unless you are lucky/chose a much more lucrative career than nonprofit work, you probably aren't rolling in dough. But, price is hopefully not the only factor determining the food you eat, alcohol you drink (no more box wine! unless it's good box wine), or the furniture you own.

3. You know who your real friends are 

By the time you get to your late twenties you've had plenty of time to weed out all the fake friends and frenemies. Your Facebook friend list may be shorter, but you waste way less time and energy on people who make you feel bad. 


(Image Source)
4. You know how to take care of yourself

After over 25 years of living in your body, you have a much better idea how to take care of it. This means you're much less likely to be hungover, starving from the latest fad diet, or running on way too little sleep. All of those things may still happen, but they'll probably happen less now that you know how much they're going to hurt. 


5. You are old enough to complain about young people

Because you're too old to try to figure out how to keep one of those flower headbands on without putting a giant dent in your forehead or why in the world anyone would want to bring "90s fit" jeans back.


(Image Source)
Q: What is/was/will be your favorite part of your late twenties?

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Workout Wednesday Linkup #31

Happy Wednesday! It was my birthday yesterday so I did a whole lot celebrating and not a lot of exercising. Hey you only turn 28 once right? Well,.maybe not. I plan to turn 28 again for at least the next three years.


Anyways, I'm still getting my healthy on by hosting the fabulous Workout Wednesday (WOW) linkup hosted by Diatta Harris from Femme Fitale Fit Club, Sheila Simmons from The Frugal Exerciser, Natalie from Clean Eating Teen, Jenn from Comeback Mommaand yours truly.


Featured Blogger

As another way to spread the love and WOW spirit, I'm featuring one of our guests from last week. For this week, I've selected... 


Maria from The Good Life! Maria blogs about running, faith, fitness and nutrition... all the things that constitute a good life. Her personal motto is: "have running shoes, will run... no matter where and what the conditions"--pretty much my kind of girl! Visit her blog and check her out on Facebook, TwitterInstagram and show her some love!

Point & Purpose: The purpose of this link up party is to mix and mingle and support each other’s sites by visiting, subscribing and/or leaving a comment. Please do not drop a link here, disappear and not follow through by visiting other party goers’ sites. 

Theme: We are linking up blog posts, Google+ posts or Facebook posts related to FITNESS, RUNNING, HEALTH or WELLNESS.


Simple Rules:
1. Follow, Like and/or Subscribe to your hostesses and co-hostesses:
2.   Don't be a wallflower.  I can not stress this enough.  Show some comment luv and support to other party goers of this link up by visiting their blogs and either leave a comment on a post, subscribe or both!  Visit at least others who have joined the party.
3.  Also join our WOW Link Up Pinterest Board (http://www.pinterest.com/curleedst/workout-wednesdays-link-up/ ) so you can PIN your post to it.
4.  Invite your like-minded friends!  We love finding and reading new blogs so spread the word so we can increase the size of our parties every week til we make the walls sweat!!!!  I told ya we party hard!  :-)
5.  Use hashtag #wowlinkup when you comment on someone's post for easy identification.
6.  Last but definitely not least, HAVE FUN!  This IS a party.

GRAB OUR BADGE CODE: 

<div align=”center”><a href=”http://femmefitalefitclub.com/?page_id=5741″ title=”Femme Fitale Fit Club”><img src=”http://femmefitalefitclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/10411245605_4348135958_m.jpg” alt=”Femme Fitale Fit Club” style=”border:none;” /></a></div>