Summer Bucket List

Happy Friday! After a week back from my month-long overseas trip, I finally feel like I'm getting back on my feet. I also got in my first outside run in way too long yesterday, which definitely helped. Missed this beautiful California weather!

Since it's Friday, I'm joining the Friday Five Linkup with Eat Pray Run DC, Mar on the Run and You Signed Up for What?!. This week's theme is: This Summer I Will ____. I just finished setting my monthly goals, but I love the idea of having broader goals for the whole summer, especially since I want to make most of my first summer in California. So here's five things on my summer bucket list:

1. Get outside

Santa Barbara is one of the prettiest places I've ever been!This summer I'm going to take advantage of the longer days and pretty weather to get outside as much as possible.

2. Explore

There's still a lot of my new city I haven't seen yet. Plus, the California Central Coast is loaded with tons of cute towns, great wineries, and gorgeous hikes. I'm going to get out and explore more this summer, by myself or with friends.

3. Make new friends 

Even though I've been here for a 6-ish months now, I've been away for a lot of the time. I need to focus on getting back in touch with the friends I made before I left and being social so I can meet new ones.

4. Walk/bike

One of the only healthy living downsides to moving to California is how much less everyone walks here. There's a lot of places within easy walking/biking distance from me, so I'm going to focus on driving less.

5. Love my body 

Warm weather = less clothing and living near the beach means I'll be spending a lot of time in a bathing suit. I don't know about you, but bikini-land is still not my happy place. This summer I'm going to keep working both physically and mentally to love my body in or our of a bathing suit.

Q: What's on your summer bucket list?

Friday Favs - Trader Joe's Finds Part II

It's Friday!! Super exciting but also super scary because it means I'm only eight days away from the Santa Barbara Chardonnay 10-Miler! That's right, with all your support/peer pressure I actually pulled the trigger and bought a race registration. And three wine tasting tickets. Don't worry, they're not all for me. Unless the race goes REALLY badly. Or really well :)

Even thought it's scary I'm really excited to be running this first race in my new town. I've mentioned before how much more having such beautiful scenery and weather has made me like running, and the course is supposed to be super pretty so I'm excited to use picture taking as an excuse to take breaks share lots of race pics with you.

Something else I've been growing to like since my move is having Trader Joe's as my main grocery store. It's kind of annoying sometimes because I have to make multiple trips to find things like aluminum foil, dried chickpeas or turnips. But on the upside it has given me the chance to try a lot of cool new Trader Joe's foods. 

I shared a few favorite Trader Joe's products back in September, but since I've been trying a lot of new things lately I'm joining in the DC Trifecta's Friday Five linkup with five favorite recent Trader Joe's finds.

1. Cruciferous Crunch Collection

As you can probably tell if you've seen my Instagram lately, I'm OBSESSED with this new salad mix from Trader Joe's. The mix of kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and green and red cabbage is so full of texture and makes for a great hearty salad or stir fry that keeps even me full.

2. Sparkling Mineral Water

I'm probably way late to the party, but I did not know that Trader Joe's sold delicious and cheap flavored mineral water. This is a great, healthy alternative to sugary sodas and it's my current non-water beverage of choice. The lemon and lime flavors are my favorite!

3. Organic Dark Chocolate

Trader Joe's has a lot of great chocolates but this is my current favorite. It's dark, rich, organic, and was only $1.99 a bar!

4. Dr. Praeger's California Veggie Burgers

I first saw these on this list of healthy veggie burgers made from ingredients you can recognize and looked for them the next time I was at Trader Joe's. I love that they are GMO free and made from mostly whole ingredients, and I love that you can taste the veggies. And they're pretty cheap for a veggie burger.

5. White Cheddar Corn Puffs

As you may have seen in my last WIAW post, these are my newest cheesy, salty, snacky obsession. I'm a huge fan of Pirate's Booty, but I may like these even more because this whole giant bag was only $1.99! Warning: extreme danger of eating the whole bag.

Q: Are you a Trader Joe's fan? Any favorite food finds lately?

March Recap and April Goals

Oh man I'm so glad it's Friday! It's been a looong week y'all. Don't get me wrong, I love my new job, but I put in a lot of hours with not much to show for it this week.

Even though it's been hard to find time, fitness and blogging have really helped me through the rough parts of moving cross country, starting a new job, and being in a bi-coastal relationship. So to make sure I stay on track, I'm joining the DC Trifecta's Friday Five and Fitting It All In's Five Things Friday linkup with a recap of my Mach goals and five goals for April.

March Goal Recap:

1. Run 4+ times in India

I only ran 3 times, because the gym at my week 2 hotel wasn't built yet, but I did do hotel room workouts almost every day and even fit in a run in 12 hours between flights. So I'm going to call this done.

2. Run 35 miles
Ran 37 despite a run-less week in India and had both my longest and fastest runs last month! Check it out my dailymile log, it's pretty sweet :)

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3. Try a new fitness class

Tried Pilates on the super scary but awesome Megaformer. Review here.

4. Hike inspiration point
I kind of ran out weekends to get this done. Not a great excuse but hey, it happens.

5. Hang out more with new friends
I showed up to salsa, invited new people to my beach doubles group, and went out with my coworkers. I could definitely still be more social though.

4 out of 5 goals = a solid 80%. Pretty good in my book! Here are my April goals 

April Goals:

1. Finish the Chardonnay 10 Miler (and drink a lot of wine after)
Thanks to the support/peer pressure of my internet and real life friends, I'm jumping right from 5K to 10 miles on April 19th. My goal is just to survive the race. And the large quantities of wine I'm going to drink afterwards. 

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2. Hike inspiration point
For real though.

3. Try a new fitness class
This has been on my list almost every month but I really love it. If it ain't broke...

4. Workout with with a friend
In spite of writing a whole post about making fitness friends, the only social workout I've done is volleyball. Which doesn't count because you can't play volleyball by yourself. So this month I'm going to convince someone to do a workout with me that they could do alone.

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5. Give the blog/social media outlets a face-lift
With my exciting new ambassadorship, I really need to step my game up. 

Q: What's on your plate for April? Anyone want to pimp my blog for me?

Fearless Five

Happy Friday and thanks for all the encouragement on my potentially crazy pants plans to run a 10-miler in a month. So far I've done a good job of sticking to the training schedule. Which isn't really that remarkable considering that there were only 3 miles on the menu today. 

In other news, I've been tuning the radio to NPR instead of the top 40 when I'm in the car. That only gives me about 10 minutes of news at a time, but as my housemate says, I definitely feel 10 minutes smarter every time I leave my car!

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One of the NPR programs I heard recently was, ironically enough, about the fact that intelligence is not the best predictor of academic performance. Many researchers think 'grit' is the key to success. According to NPR, "experts define grit as persistence, determination and resilience; it's that je ne sais quoi that drives one kid to practice trumpet or study Spanish for hours — or years — on end, while another quits after the first setback."

What interested me the most was the program's description of experimental efforts to increase students' grit. Most of this work focuses on making students believe that failures and mistakes are a normal part of learning instead of reasons to quit. Teachers give students space to struggle with questions before offering hints, for example, helping them "get comfortable with struggle so they see it as just a normal part of learning."

I've been facing a lot of challenges lately, in my new job, new city, and even with writing this blog. I've jumped at the opportunity to stretch myself with new goals, and made a commitment to make 2014 a year of growth. But tackling new challenges means facing the real possibility of failure, which is something I've always feared. That NPR program reminded me that if I want to succeed, I have to learn to embrace the possibility of failure.

So to help us all get a little more 'gritty', I'm joining Fitting It All In's Five Things Friday and the DC Trifecta's Five Things Friday link ups with five inspirational quotes on embracing failure and making mistakes.

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Q: What's one thing you've done that's scared your pants off? How did you get the courage to try?

Five Free Hotel Room Workout Videos

It's my last day in India! It's actually not even a full day, since I have to leave for the airport at around 1:30 AM. Still can't decide whether or not to try to grab some sleep before heading out. Maybe I'll surprise myself.

I had about 12 hours between my domestic flight to Mumbai and my flight back to the US and was able to fit in one last treadmill run.

This was important since I couldn't run for the second week of my trip due to the gym at my second hotel mentioned online not existing and safety issues with running outside. 

While I couldn't run for the second half of my trip, I did manage to workout almost every day in my hotel room. So in case any of you are traveling soon and without a gym option, I'm joining Fitting It All In's Five Thing's Friday and the DC Trifecta's Friday Five link ups to share five hotel room workouts I did in India.

1. Fitness Blender Quiet Cardio Workout

This workout is great because it's designed to be virtually silent, which means you can do it in your hotel room even if the only time you have to work out is early in the morning or late at night.

2. Blogilates New Body Makeover

Pilates is a great travel workout because it's quiet, doesn't take a lot of space to do, and you don't need any equipment besides a couple extra towels to stand in for an exercise mat. This video from Blogilates is great because it works your whole body in just under 30 minutes.

3. Jessica Smith TV 30 Minute Power Walk

Indoor walking is a great hotel room cardio option, as long as you don't stomp too loudly. I usually do it barefoot with a towel or bathmat under foot and haven't had any noise complaints.

4. Denise Austin Total Body Burn Cardio Dance Workout

Dance fitness is another good way to get in some cardio without leaving your hotel room. This routine takes a little more space, although I've done before in the tiny Arlington condo living room. You just have to get a little creative with your moves. #makeitwork

5. Fitness Blender Total Body Toning Low Impact Cardio Workout

Fitness Blender has so many great low impact routines I couldn't resist including another one. This workout is really more toning than cardio, but it is very quiet, requires little space, and will give you a full-body burn in a relatively short amount of time.

For a couple more hotel room workouts, check out one of my previous workout Wednesday posts here.

Q: Any travel coming up? What's your travel workout of choice?

Friday Five - The Big 100

This is my ONE HUNDREDTH blog post!!

I can't believe I've written 100 posts since I started this blog in...(let me look that up)...July! I've really enjoyed this whole blog thing way more than I thought I would and it's been great to document my healthy living journey. I've also loved getting more involved in the blog community and interacting with other great bloggers. Ok let me stop before I tear up.

After trying hard (ok not that hard, but I did try) to come up with a post worthy of this momentous occasion, I decided to join in DC Trifecta's Friday Five and Fitting it All In's Five Things Friday link ups with a look back through my favorite blog moments.


5 Favorite Recipes

One of the best things about starting this blog is how it's encouraged me to try new recipes and get creative in the kitchen. Before blogging, I was pretty lazy about cooking, unimaginative in the kitchen, and always always followed the recipe. Now I'm still lazy and mostly cook fast and easy recipes, but I'm not at all afraid of experimenting and have made a lot of my own recipes. 

1. Vegan Holiday Quinoa

2. Vegan Slow Cooker Pumpkin Chili

3. Gluten Free Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Balls

4. Cranberry Pear Baked Oatmeal

5. Gluten Free Pumpkin Zucchini Muffins

5 Favorite Workouts

Blogging has also pushed me to try new workouts. I'm pretty fearless when it comes to fitness now--after getting lost in the woods I figure I can handle almost anything!

1. My First 5K

2. Fast and Free At-Home Cardio Workouts

3. Run for the Wounded Warriors 5K/How I Got Lost in the Woods

4. Terrapin Adventures Ropes Course

5. Revolve Spin Class


5 Most Viewed Posts

Going back and looking at my blogger stats for my most viewed posts was interesting. Guess I should review more stuff, huh?

1. Reebock CrossFit Nano 3.0 Review

2. Betty Rocker 30 Day Bodyweight Shred Review

3. Blogilates July Calendar Review

4. Zucchini Banana Coconut Flour Muffins

5. Meal Prep Monday: Veggie Style


Q: Anything you would like to see more of in my next 100 posts? :)

Five Fun Things to Do Alone

Happy Valentine's Day all! The bf is still on the other side of the country, so we'll be spending the day apart for the first time in four years. Plus all my housemates have plans so I'll be alone in the house for the first time over a 3-day weekend. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

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Ok, so maybe I'm a little bitter. But I'm not going to wallow. Even though I'm basically a champion wallow-er. Instead, I'm linking up with the DC Trifecta's Friday Five and Fitting it All In's Five Things Friday link up to share five fun activities to do alone for anyone else flying solo this long weekend.

1. Take a hike/bike ride

Hiking and biking alone means you don't have to worry about keeping up with anybody. And mother nature is the perfect date--beautiful but accessible and always available.

2. Mini road trip

I've never been a great solo traveler, but a mini road trip is a great starting point. Driving by yourself means you control the radio and gives you lots time for self reflection. And once you get to your destination, you'll be able to explore at your own pace.

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3. Try a new fitness class

While it's fun to go to a fitness class with friends, group exercise classes are also great places to get a little social interaction even if you don't have anyone to go with.

4. Hang out at a coffee shop

I know I should be confident enough to feel comfortable dining alone at any restaurant, but requesting a table for one at a fancy restaurant is still pretty scary. Coffee shops, however are the perfect place to eat alone, with or without a great read. Plus  I love coffee shops! There's just something about the whole intellectual atmosphere combined with good food and caffeine.

5. Pamper yourself

I'm super cheap, so getting a manicure or pedicure is a big treat for me. Maybe for you it's a massage, full spa treatment, or just running a fancy bubble bath. Whatever it is, alone time is perfect for doing something that feels totally self indulgent.

Q: What are your favorite things to do alone? Besides watching Downton Abbey and eating chocolate. That's obvious.

Five Things I'll Miss About DC

I'm running a giveaway for a free sample of ENERGYbits! Don't forget to enter here :)

It's my LAST FRIDAY in DC! Right now pretty much everything is the last something in DC, so I'm feeling the urge to make everything big and momentous. Feels like senior year of college or something :) 

Preparations are slowly but steadily moving forward. I've added 3 trash bags of clothes to one box, got my car serviced, and bought a bunch of healthy road trip snacks. Have snacks will travel! 

To commemorate the last Friday before my big move, I'm joining the DC Trifecta Friday Five and Fitting it All In's Five Things Friday Link Ups with five thing's I'll miss about living in the DMV.

1. Museums and Monuments

DC has a a TON of museums and monuments, and most of them are FREE. Free culture is awesome! Yes they can be crowded with tourists and, like most people who live here I didn't go down to see them as often as I could have. But I'll definitely miss able to run past the Washington monument or visit the latest baby panda cub whenever I want.

2. Cultural Diversity

People from all over the country and the world settle in the DC area. Not only does this mean a lot of interesting conversations, it also means a wide variety of awesome restaurants. You might have to head out to the suburbs to find the best and most authentic meals, but almost any cuisine you could possibly think of is a metro or quick car ride away. The DMV also has an awesome variety of neighborhoods, from hipster mecca H-street to historic capital hill to awesome, accessible and affordable Arlington where I've lived for the past 3-4 years.  

3. Snow Days

DC weather is nothing to write home about and Santa Barbara weather sounds amazing (high of 79 today!), but I will miss our four distinct seasons, especially snow. Snow will still be a car ride into the hills away in Santa Barbara, but I'll miss having grown up snow days off work when the DMV's south-of-the-Mason-Dixon-line snow clearing services are paralyzed by 2 inches of snow or "wintry mix".

3. The Metro

Call me crazy but I'm really going to miss the metro. Yes it's constantly running late, stops running super early, has seldom-working elevators and escalators, and goes way less places than NY's subway. But it is comparatively clean and safe, and moving from a city with a subway system to one without definitely makes me appreciate it more.

5. Family and Friends

Of course, the thing I'll miss most about living in the DC area is all my family and friends. I grew up in a Maryland suburb and have been living in DC and Arlington since I came back from my grad program in China 5 years ago. I know we WILL keep in touch, but I'll miss being so close to all my family and the awesome friends I have here (not to mention the bf), the most. Ahh ok tearing up, must stop now.

Q: What do you love most about your city?

Five Ways to Make Fit Friends in a New City

Hope everyone is having a happy Friday! I'm in full panic mode because I'm moving in less than two weeks and I still don't have a single box packed or a place to live. Oh well. I managed to pack my entire dorm room from a year of grad school in China in the 2 hours from 6-8 AM when I had to leave for my flight back to the US. So I have tons of time!

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I'm also fairly convinced that I will have no friends in Santa Barbara except for Netflix, the internet, and food after I get there. Oh and alcohol!

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So I was super happy to get this email from a good friend from high school:

"I saw your blog post on moving and not having any friends, and it made me think of how I felt when I moved down to Atlanta without knowing a single person.  So I started googling Santa Barbara and found some things similar to what I did in Atlanta...I apologize if you don't want this unsolicited information, but I thought that maybe it might be useful."

After reading my friend's suggestions (thanks SO MUCH Andrew!!) and a little googling, I'm joining Fitting it All In's Five Things Friday Link Up with five ways to make new fit friends in a new city. So you don't end up alone, watching Downton Abbey on your laptop with a bottle of wine and block of cheese for company. 

1. Join a Meetup group and actually show up

Meetup.com claims to be the world's largest network of local groups and it is super easy to find and join meetups for almost any interest. So far, I found meetups in Santa Barbara for beach volleyball, running, hiking, yoga on the beach, and survivors of near death experiences. 

2. Find a running club

I've never had a running buddy, but since I'm going to really run this year I figure it's a great time to make running friends. Santa Barbara unfortunately doesn't have a Road Runners Club of America, but I was able to find a group using this Find a Running Club tool from Running in the USA.

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3. Play social sports

Social sports are a great way to meet people and are usually less awkward than chatting up strangers at a party. Being on a team gives you a built-in group to interact with at least once a week, and something in common to talk about during any team happy hours or other social events. With an extensive national network of leagues, Waka Kickball is a good place to start, and most leagues let you register as a free agent.

4. Find a CrossFit box

I've never made friends at regular gyms, but CrossFitters are supposed to be a really tight-knit community. You can find a CrossFit location here.

5. Volunteer

While not fitness related, Andrew says volunteering is a good way to meet people because "it's less like a young adult hookup club and the people seem to be generally nicer and more genuine (unless they are doing community service against their free will)." VolunteerMatch is a great site to find places to volunteer in your city sorted by cause area.

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Admittedly, finding all of these opportunities to make friends is the easy part. But to actually make friends, you have to take the next step--showing up. When I moved to DC, I joined about 10 Meetup groups but to date have not been to a single meetup. Ever. So something to work on this time.

Q: Any tips for meeting people in a new city? Have a place for me to live in Santa Barbara?

Friday Five - 2014 Goals

Hi all! In honor of the first Friday of 2014, I decided to join this week's Five Things Friday and Friday Five link ups with a New Year's resolution post. 

I've never been very good at making and keeping New Year's resolutions. It seems like a lot of pressure to come up with a goal big and important and resolution-y enough by January 1. Plus if I actually do come up with something I have trouble remembering and following it.

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This year, I've read a lot of great posts with different approaches to the whole resolution thing. I loved Nutritionella's "bite-sized" health resolutions, Wildly Fit's awesome collection of goal setting methods to do resolutions your way, and Olive to Run's 2014 theme using the My One Word approach.

I loved the idea of picking one word to really focus and on moving forward throughout the whole year, not just on January 1. So, without further ado, my 2014 theme word is:

While I didn't pick a word in 2013, if I had it probably would have been "change". I really got serious about healthy living, started this blog, took a new job, and decided to move cross country. Now that I've made all these changes, I want to make sure I keep moving forward and growing.

Because I can never leave well enough alone and always want to do MORE, here are five fairly broad goals that go along with my one-word theme that I'll also be working on this year.

1. Try New Things

I love new things. They are shiny and not, you know, used. But sometimes they are also scary (likes ropes courses). In 2014 I'll keep being brave and trying things, even if they terrify me.

2. Really Run

Y'all know that, despite running my first 5K and managing to get lost in the woods during my second, I am still a reluctant runner. But I kind of enjoyed the race thing (except when lost), I'm moving to an area with beautiful running weather and scenery, running outdoors is cheap, and running seems like a good way to make friends so I don't end up alone and sad watching Downton Abbey reruns every night. So I decided in 2014 I'm going to try to be a real runner.

To help keep me on track, I joined the Run This Year challenge and committed to running 365 miles this year. It doesn't seem a lot when you consider the default RTY goals are 2,014 miles or kilometers (1,252 miles) but a mile a day is a lot more than I've ever run before. Stay tuned for how I'm going to meet this goal, you know, when I figure it out.

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3. Eat Healthy AND Happy

I'll keep eating healthy, focusing on more homemade meals and less meat. But I'll also work on my relationship with food to make it a source of joy, not stress. I want to get better at intuitive eating to hopefully stop counting calories without growing out of my skinny clothes.

4. Make New Friends But Keep The Old

Since I'm moving to a city where I have no friends, I must be social and meet new people. When I moved to DC for grad school, I signed up for like 7 Meetup Groups and never attended a single event. This time, I will sign up AND show up!

Moving away also makes it harder to keep my old friends. I'm terrible at keeping in touch, but this year I'll make phone calls, birthday cards, Skype sessions and random emails a priority.

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5. Grow the Blog

With all the life changes I've got going on, I want to make sure I continue to maintain and grow the blog. Because I love it. 

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Q: Do you make resolutions? If so, what's your 2014 New Year's resolution?