September Foodie Pen Pals Reveal Day

Ok so I know I've been saying this every month but how is it October already?! Even though we aren't really having much fall weather here in Santa Barbara, the bucket loads of pumpkin products in Trader Joe's and my constant Pumpkin Spice Latte cravings are definitely hitting home the fact that the year is almost over.

Anyways, the last day of the month also Foodie Pen Pals reveal day!

I love Foodie Pen Pals and this was my seventh time participating, so I'm an old pro at it now. I was partnered with the author of the fun healthy living blog Miss Nutralicious, who was joining for the first time. Well let me tell you, she totally hit it out of the park on her first try! Just look at all these awesome goodies!

The box was jampacked full of delicious local finds from all over Michigan. And, to go with her local products theme, Miss Nutralicious sent a cute card, a detailed description of the box's contents, and even included a foodie road map showing exactly where everything came from. Love that!

Here's a breakdown of all the Michigan products in my box:

- Spinach Linguine: I haven;t had pasta in awhile and the nutrition stats on this are awesome. Can't wait to try it out!
-Jiffy Blueberry, Raspberry, and Corn Muffin Mix: Sooo many recipe possibilities with these.

-Eden Wild Berry Mix: Yummy trail mix in a perfect snack size. 

-Dried Montmorency Cherries: I don't know what it was about them, but these were the BEST dried cherries I've ever had! 
-Honey Sticks from Obstbaum Orchards: Great for a healthy sugar fix, or for stirring in tea. Plus it was super helpful to have a picture for identifying the flavors!  
-Yooper Bar: Umm, this was simply amazing! It's a good things these aren't sold here or I would have a serious problem on my hands.
-"Try New Food" Pencils and Temporary Tattoos: So cute!

Thanks so much for the incredible package, Miss Nutralicious!

I love Foodie Pen Pals and highly recommend it to anyone who's considering signing up for the next exchange.If you'd like to join, click here to learn more and sign up by October 4th.

Happy Active Nation Day!

Hey all! I made a quick stop in DC for a wedding this weekend and am heading back to the West Coast today, but I wanted to drop in to tell you something awesome: it's Active Nation Day today!

(Image Source)

Active Nation Day was created in 2012 by Lorna Jane Clarkson (who I met last month!) to help women live an authentic and active life. So today, Lorna Jane is hosting events all over the world to help inspire ALL women EVERYWHERE to move more.

I LOVE the idea of this campaign! As you may have read last week, I've been struggling to find positive workout motivation that comes from a place of loving my body and wanting to be good to it. So I love Lorna Jane's positive messaging and her efforts get more women living an active, healthy lifestyle.

So how can you get involved?

1. Download the new Lorna Jane App on iTunes or Google Play for a cool new way to keep track of your fitness.

2. Use the app to track how much you move today and get inspired by how much women all over the world are moving today  

3. Learn how to do the #LJMOVE, a fun, simple, dance move that's creating buzz around Active Nation Day. 

 

4. Film yourself doing the #LJMOVE and upload the video to Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter for a chance to win a $1,000 Lorna Jane gift card! Just make sure to include the hashtags #LJMOVE and #ACTIVENATIONDAY. You can read the full terms and conditions here.

Now if you'll excuse me, it's time to get my butt out of the apartment and start moving!

Disclosure: I'm participating in this campaign as part of my Sweat Pink ambassadorship. I was not paid for this post and all opinions are my own.

Finding Positive Fitness Motivation

It's Wednesday and you know what that means. Time for another Workout Wednesday (WOW) linkup.

Today's theme is: "Your Fitness Motivation." I've actually been thinking about this a lot since running the She.is.beautiful 10K on Sunday. I've always enjoyed being active, and especially playing sports, but like many women I started my fitness journey with the main goal of losing weight and changing my body on the outside. And, for awhile, it worked! I was in the best shape of my life and I felt strong, healthy, and really happy about how I looked. 

Then I took a new job and moved cross country, leaving all my friends and my boyfriend of 4 years behind. And I gained 15 pounds.

Even though I was still super active, it didn't feel as good and exercise sometimes felt more like a punishment for those extra pounds than a way to improve my body's performance. 

But ROCKING my first 10K the day after winning my first California Beach Volleyball Association tournament really made me appreciate how amazing my body really is. Yea my abs didn't look as amazing in my bathing suit on on Saturday as they did a year ago, but they were still strong enough to stretch out for crazy dives and to power swings that won us a tournament. Yes my thighs are a little bigger, but they carried me up every hill and through every mile of that race on Sunday with very little training. How can I not love my body when it does so many great things for me? 

(Image Source)

So I'm attempting an attitude adjustment to focus on how exercise improves what my body can do instead of how it appears. Sure, I like the way my arms muscles look in selfies, but I also love that they are now (finally!) strong enough to do proper chaturangas in yoga class. And when I do cardio I want to focus more on getting faster and increasing my lung capacity than burning calories.

This is definitely still a work in progress, and I would love to fit into my skinny jeans from last year (hey, they're super cute!) but I'm committing to find positive fitness motivation that comes from a place of love, not hate.

"I will work out because I love my body, not because I hate it." 

Q: What about you? What's your fitness motivation? Please share in the comments or linkup below.

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:

• Diatta Harris (Femme Fitale Fit Club)| Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
• Sheila Simmons (The Frugal Exerciser) | Twitter | Facebook |subscribe via GFC or email.
• Amanda (Eat Hard Work Hard) | Blog | Twitter | Instagram
• Jenn (Comeback Momma) | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram]

2.  Post our badge on your site so folks "hear" about our weekly link up

3.  Leave no more than 2 links to your blog, Facebook or YouTube post or video using the link up tool/button below

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 so they know how you found them

6.  Last but definitely not least, HAVE FUN!  This IS a party.

GRAB OUR BADGE CODE: 

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An InLinkz Link-up

She.Is.Beautiful 10K Race Recap

Whew! I can't believe it's Monday already! I had a super active weekend, with a beach volleyball tournament on Saturday and my first 10K  on Sunday. I was pretty nervous about playing a whole day of volleyball the day before my race, but it was totally worth it because we won!

This was my 3rd CBVA tournament, the first time my partner and I played together, and both of our first tournament win! I'm starting to feel like a real Californian :) 

The Race

After getting back from LA, resting, and re-hydrating as much as possible Saturday night, I was up bright and early again for the She.is.beautiful 10K on Sunday. She.is.beautiful is an all women's race which focuses on encouraging self love, confidence, and empowerment for all levels of runners and walkers. The whole positive focus of the race was really cool, as was the fact that race proceeds went to benefit Girls Inc., an awesome nonprofit whose mission is to inspire all girls to be strong, smart and bold.

(Image Source)

There were conveniently two days of pre-race packet pick up so I was able to get my bib on Friday before I left for my tournament in LA. I was running the race with 7 of my awesome co-workers and friends, and we all met at the office and carpooled down to the race. Parking was a little tight by 7:15, but we were able to find a spot that wasn't too far away. Race-day packet pickup and registration lines looked fairly short and organized, and there were plenty of port-a-potties. 

We headed to the start line about 20 minutes before the 8:00 AM start. My legs were feeling pretty dead from Saturday's tournament, plus I rolled my ankle AFTER the tournament when I stepped in a hole running into the ocean (typical me). I was figuring I'd be lucky to run under 11 minute miles and might have to walk a lot. So I left my speedier coworkers and headed back to the 9-12 minute mile marker.

Unfortunately, the 9-12 minute mile section was by far the most popular and the most crowded. With the 5K and 10K starting at the same time and over 1400 runners in both races, it took me a few minutes to even weave my way in to the corral. While the crowding was a little crazy, the energy was super positive and I loved seeing the sea of pink. The race organizers led what looked like a pretty fun workout at about 8:55, but I was a little too pinned in to move much. Then, right around 8:00 AM we were off!

Since everything was so crowded, I was stuck at a walk at first, then a slow jog until things cleared out after a quarter of a mile or so. I'm not gonna lie, my legs felt pretty terrible and I was doing my best to take it slowly, so I was pretty surprised when my phone kept telling me my split pace was under 10 minutes. I was worried I would burn out but figured I'd just go with it.

The course was similar to the Chardonnay 10-Miler, so there were lots of pretty beach views to distract me from my tired legs and all the runners were really supportive and encouraging. The race organizers also did a great job of getting out volunteers to cheer everyone on, and even had male-only-staffed water stations. It was great to see a group of men supporting a group of women at an athletic event, and the gender role reversal felt pretty empowering.

The whole day was also filled with inspirational messages, including motivational quote signs all down the race course. It sounds cheesy, but they really inspired me. I haven't been feeling the best about my body image since I gained a bunch of weight after my cross-country move, so a lot of the messages resonated with me and even had me a little teary eyed. All the signs telling me that I was beautiful, strong, powerful, and enough just as I am really hit home and helped me keep going. 

After the turnaround point, I realized I still wasn't losing my pace and starting finding people to stay with. I lost some speed on a crazy steep hill during mile 5, but my phone kept telling me that I was running 9:30 splits. I figured I had started it too early or the GPS was off and it was probably wrong.

At mile 5, in typical competitive-me fashion, I started picking people to beat. When the finish line was in sight, I saw a woman who I had been with and then lost on that terrible hill in front of me. By the time we hit the finish line corral, she was within catching distance and I started sprinting. Now, usually, when I decide I'm "racing" someone in a race, they kind of don't notice or don't care, which makes victory a little unsatisfying. Well, this woman totally saw me sprinting to catch her because SHE started sprinting too! We zoomed to either side of a couple walkers and were neck and neck to the finish line. It was definitely my most fun finish line ever, plus I'm pretty sure I won ;) 

The Results

It took me a while to stop MyFitnessPal on my phone, so I wasn't sure what my chip time would be. Luckily, SVE Timing emailed out the results really soon so we had them by the time we sat down to our post-race breakfast. And my chip time was 57:54! That's a 9:20 minute mile!!

Ok so that's still over 20 minutes slower than the 1st place finisher (36:48! How is that even possible?!) but for a tired and painful leg day where I thought I'd be lucky to run 10 minute miles, I'm pretty proud of myself. I even ran negative splits on every mile after mile 2, except for a slight slow down on terrible-hill-filled mile 5. Plus I also finished 176 out of over 700 runners and 37th out of the 150+ runners in my 25-29 age group. Really makes me want to run another 10K that I actually train and am rested for to see how fast I can go!

Overall Experience

This was my favorite race ever! The race day energy, positive messages, crowd and runner support, fun pink outfits, and whole vibe made for an awesome experience. Plus, being able to run with my strong and inspiring female coworkers made the day even more special. I loved seeing so many women all on their own fitness journeys and ROCKING IT! 

I would ABSOLUTELY recommend this race next year to any ladies near Santa Barbara. It would also make a great run-cation, and any out of town visitors can totally come hang out with me. I'm even considering driving up to Santa Cruz for the She.is.beautiful race in March!

Q: What was your favorite race ever? Have you ever seen so much pink in your life?

My Five Favorite Ways to RELAX

Whew thank goodness it's Friday! It's been a super busy week after four days in LA, working over 12 hours at an event on Monday, and driving straight to work for a meeting on Tuesday, so I'm super glad the weekend's almost here. Although I'm driving right back to LA for a beach volleyball tournament on Saturday and running the She.is.beautiful 10K in Santa Barbara on Sunday, so I'm not sure how much relaxing I'm going to be doing.

My weekends have been pretty packed in general lately. Saturday will mark my 3rd weekend in a row driving down to LA! And, as part of my ongoing effort to make new friends in my new city, I've also filled my week days with multiple beach volleyball pick up games, indoor volleyball drop-ins and yoga dates. I even joined and then promptly forgot about a dodge ball team which starts playing tonight.

While it's been great to be so busy and social, I can feel the burn out setting in. So for today's "Favorite Things" themed Friday Five Linkup with Eat Pray Run DC, Mar on the Run and You Signed Up for What?!, I'm sharing my five favorite ways to relax in the hopes I can do them more often!

1. Read a good book

Nothing is more relaxing to me than cuddling up with a good book in bed, on the beach, or anywhere else lying down can happen. Definitely need more lying around in my life.

2. Hang out at the beach

I'm at the beach all the time, but the bf's visit was the first time I've went to the beach to just soak in the sun. So much more relaxing than all that beach volleyball. 

(Image Source)

3. Get a mani-pedi

I've had a Groupon for a mani-pedi FOREVER and I really need to find time to use it. I don't get my nails done very often so it makes me feel extra fancy when I do. 

4. Watch Reality TV

I've talked about my love for reality TV before. I'm super hooked on Bring It! and Dance Moms right now. Only downside is it makes me want to add dance classes to my crazy busy schedule. I just wish I was a Dancing Doll!

(Image Source)

5. Enjoy a meal outside

I don't know what it is but nothing beats enjoying a meal, coffee, or yummy adult beverage at an outside table. Especially one with good people watching.

Q: What's your favorite way to relax? Any tips for clearing your social calendar?

Workout Wednesday: Kickin' It Old School Again

Long time no see! Sorry I was MIA on Friday and Monday. I've been super busy and was in LA through Tuesday for a work event. It was a lot of hard work but went really well, and it didn't hurt that I got to wake up to views like this every day :)

Today's Workout Wednesday (WOW) linkup theme is: Throwback Wednesday, so we're inviting you to share your favorite old school post from a year or more ago.

If you were around for our last throwback themed linkup, you already know I love listening to old school tunes. I even made a Spotify playlist based on the 93.9 WKYS Middle School Mondays mix. So good!

 

If you aren't in to 90s and early 2000s hip hop or other old things, feel free to post whatever you want. But since I'm all about the theme parties, I'm sharing my Work Travel Fitness Recap from all the way back in September 2013.

I'm scheduled to go on another big 3-4 week international trip in October, so it was really interesting for me to look back at what I did to stay fit during work travel last year. This was my very first time making a conscious effort to workout during this kind of business trip, so I had to come up with a fit packing list and find workouts I could do on the road. I've definitely gotten a lot better at travel fitness-- I did hotel room workouts almost every day in India and worked out about 4 times a week in the Philippines, Belgium, and Amsterdam. Looking back, I'm still pretty proud of these first efforts, though!

Now it's your turn! Give my Spotify playlist a try or blast your favorite oldies and join 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:

• Diatta Harris (Femme Fitale Fit Club)| Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
• Sheila Simmons (The Frugal Exerciser) | Twitter | Facebook |subscribe via GFC or email.
• Amanda (Eat Hard Work Hard) | Blog | Twitter | Instagram
• Natalie (Mean, Green, Clean Eating Teen) | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
• Jenn (Comeback Momma) | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

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 5 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>

An InLinkz Link-up

Why Volleyball Is My Favorite Sport

It's Wednesday and (hopefully) you know what that means: time for another Workout Wednesday (WOW) linkup!

Today's theme is: "What's Your Favorite Sport?" If you know me at all, you probably know the answer to that question: volleyball! I've talked about what playing NCAA volleyball taught me, and definitely mention my current volleyball activities a lot on the blog. But I don't think I've really talked about why I love the sport so much. So for today's post, I'm sharing three reasons volleyball is my favorite sport.

1. You can play it in all seasons and on all surfaces

Indoor volleyball was my first love, but I've also played on grass, sand, and even concrete. It's awesome that you can really play the sport year round. I appreciate being an indoor athlete in the fall and winterwhen I watch football players struggle through rain, snow, and all kind of horrible weather. And I love being able to play at the beach in the summer and work on my tan. It's really a win win.

2. You can play it your whole life

I'm no spring chicken anymore, but I still enjoy playing volleyball at a pretty high level and hope to do so as long as possible. The age range of people I play with varies a lot, and some of the older players are sneaky good and make up for athleticism with experience and smarts. My mom still plays and we actually got to play together in a few tournaments and rec leagues when I was young. There's even a women's 65 and over division at the USA Volleyball National Championships and they had 8 teams competing last year! How's that for longevity?

3. It's the ultimate team sport

Volleyball is pretty unique in that no player can touch the ball twice in a row, which makes it the ultimate team sport. Even a really standout star player wouldn't be able to win without teammates to (sometimes literally) set them up for success. I love that about the sport, and love the tight, lifelong bonds I've formed with my teammates as a result. I seriously don't think I'd have any friends if it weren't for volleyball!  

Now it's your turn! What's your favorite sport? Share your favorite sports-related (or whatever you feel like sharing) post, YouTube video, etc. with us. For next week's theme, visit: http://femmefitalefitclub.com/workout-wednesdays-link-up/.

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:

• Diatta Harris (Femme Fitale Fit Club)| Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
• Sheila Simmons (The Frugal Exerciser) | Twitter | Facebook |subscribe via GFC or email.
• Amanda (Eat Hard Work Hard) | Blog | Twitter | Instagram
• Jenn (Comeback Momma) | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram]

2.  Post our badge on your site so folks "hear" about our weekly link up

3.  Leave no more than 2 links to your blog, Facebook or YouTube post or video using the link up tool/button below

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 so they know how you found them

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>

An InLinkz Link-up

Manitoba Harvest Hemp Pro 70 Review

Happy Monday! I had a great and super busy weekend, including an awesome day in Long Beach. Not only did my partner and I make it to the semis in our first ever California Beach Volleyball Association tournament together, we also had an AMAZING post match meal at Seoulmate Long Beach, plus a good shopping trip and Swedish meatballs for dinner at Ikea. 

I'm super sad the weekend is over, but really happy to share a review with you today for some NEW Manitoba Harvest HempPro 70 protein powders.

Disclosure: I was provided this product free of charge for review. I was not compensated for my time. All thoughts and opinions are all my own. Obvs :)

As a Sweat Pink Ambassador, I was offered the opportunity to try Manitoba Harvest's newest Hemp Pro70 flavors: vanilla and chocolate. The samples took a little while to get to me all the way from Canada, so I had a lot of pent up excitement when this package showed up at my door. Plus I loved that they called me awesome. You can never hear that enough :)

Anyhoo, besides calling me awesome, here are a few key features of HempPro 70 protein powder from Manitoba Harvest's website:

• Water soluble - mixes easily into any delicious drink! Just add to shaker cup and go.
• Smooth, creamy texture that tastes great!
• Can also be stirred into yogurt, or hot cereal and is great for baking.
• Complete, plant-based protein.
• Per 30 gram serving, HempPro70 Vanilla contains 15 grams of protein and 3.4 grams of Omega 3 & 6.

I first tried the vanilla flavor blended in a smoothie with spinach, a banana, coconut water, and almond milk. It was delicious! I loved the real vanilla flavor and the total absence of any dirt-ish (if you've had plant-based protein powder you know what I mean) or bad fake sweetener after taste. It was the perfect quick, portable, filling, but not too heavy breakfast for my 6 AM drive to the volleyball tournament in Long Beach.

I followed the suggestions on the package and tried the chocolate flavor straight up with 1 1/2 cups of almond milk in my blender bottle. It mixed up pretty well without any major clumps, but it was a little grainy. I again really loved the not overly sweet or fake flavor of the powder, but I think I would have liked it better in a smoothie.

Pros

Flavor: Even though it's completely plant based, these powders don't have any plant-y after taste. Plus they are not too sweet for me and don't taste fake at all. 
Ingredients: Both flavors have only FOUR totally recognizable ingredients which I LOVE! Definitely makes this a good protein powder option if you have a sensitive stomach.
Nutritional Value: In addition to 14-15 grams of protein per serving, both flavors are also chock full of Omegas and have a good amount of iron.

Cons

Texture: I didn't love the texture of the non-blended powder. It tasted awesome in a smoothie though, and I bet it would be great for baking.

Bottom Line

The new Manitoba Harvest HempPro 70 protein flavors taste great and have great ingredients and nutritional value. I would highly recommend them for anyone looking for a plant-based protein powder for smoothies or baked goods, especially if you have a sensitive stomach or are just avoiding artificial ingredients.

If you'd like to give HempPro 70 a try for yourself, you can buy it here. Plus, if you use the code "sweatpinkpro70" you can get 20% off the vanilla and chocolate flavors! 

Oh and finally, for a chance to win a WHOLE CASE of your favorite flavor for FREE, make sure to share the hemp love by snapping a pic and tagging @manitobaharvest on Instagram or Twitter with the hash tag #pro70. Entry deadline for the contest is September 30 so get a move on it!