Photo Dump

    Hey guys! 

       What a week and capped off the with promise of a crazy hurricane… Here in RI we didn’t see a whole lot of serious damage in-land where I live. I hear the coast took a bit of a beating, and there are plenty of people without power, but it thankfully wasn’t much worse. My thoughts go out to those who weren’t so lucky. <3 nbsp="nbsp" p="p">

    Tuesday night my friend and I went to watch our husbands play darts (They play in a league out of a local bar) We shared some J.K. Scrumpy hard cider which is one of the best I’ve ever had. It’s organic, hand bottled and tastes like regular apple cider.. But I assure you there is alcohol in it.. so drink with caution. 

     Wednesday I channeled Chuck Norris writing this quote and putting it right in front of my face at my desk.

     I’m guilty of sitting back and hoping things will just occur. Truly every single job I’ve gotten teaching yoga or some kind of fitness has fallen into my lap. Back when I was still a brand new green teacher, I didn’t really know where to start (and still almost 5 years later I feel like that sometimes!) A friend and neighbor worked at the local YMCA.. They needed someone to replace a teacher but couldn’t pay.. In exchange I got a free membership.. So he talked me into giving it a go, I taught for free for 3 months or so and eventually did get a small amount for teaching the class.. Then a few months later, my sister-in-law told me about a family friend who had just opened a yoga studio was looking for a teacher. (and I still work there today). a year or so later a friend of a friend of a friend was looking at a different studio (which only lasted about 6 months- the owner was not a very nice woman) .. and now recently the kickboxing gym was passed along as well.. (again I’m in a position where I’m not getting paid to teach but I get free membership and can take my PT clients and use the gym for free)
    Ok, so you might be thinking.. what’s wrong with that? My answer is simple.. NOTHING.. It is pretty awesome how word of mouth can really get things done.. However, my problem has always been lack of confidence. I’ve struggled for years to get past it, and truly this last year (with the help of a holistic counselor) I have really made some progress. I find it very hard to put myself out there.. I really fear rejection, or doing something wrong.. or just not being what perspective bosses are expecting from a yoga teacher..
     See… While I finally found my teaching voice, I know that I’m not your typical yoga teacher.. I encourage my students to laugh, have fun, and even swear if things are hard in the middle of class.. I take pride in pushing them not only past their comfort zones, but to be ok with failing as part of the process.. As long as they try.. They aren’t allow to say that they “Can’t” do something- or I’ll make them do it again- for longer. I have faith in them and their capabilities and I push them believe that they are as awesome, strong people.
   As a result, I feel privileged to teach these amazing individuals.. I’ve seen them grow and improve.. I truly love each and every one of them.. The other side of the coin is that there are a whole lot of students that do not return.. In the past I’ve really taken it personally.. I’ve had to take breaks from teaching because my ego just couldn't handle it..  I realize now that its ok for people not to come back, or not to enjoy my class.. and it just gets me to push past my own insecurities and become a better teacher but to also keep believing in myself... Part of that is “Making things happen” - which lately includes making new business cards, making flyers, posting ads.. whatever I need to do to gain more clients..
     Too bad I can’t get paid for hanging out with these guys

    I did manage to get a new waitressing job this week.. So I’m going to take that and run with it.. It feels good to have some money coming in again.. 

   Friday night we had our friends over to carve pumpkins

 Usually we have a big party- it’s tradition since we bought our house.. But money was tight, and it totally snuck up on us.. At least we managed to carve pumpkins… and next year we are totally going to make up for the lack of party this year :)
    Here’s my pumpkin this year.. I named him Lenny..

     Saturday I worked at the restaurant all day. Pretty much as soon as I got home James and I started to prepare for our friends halloween party. You had to be a vampire, or a circus freak.. or just something in between..  This is the only picture I have of us so far

    James ended up being a version of teen wolf.. totally by mistake.. haha.. I was supposed to be a vampire, but the teeth didn’t stay in and I had no blood so instead I was a circus freak.. I was wearing a little girls ballet outfit.. (my friend found it at an antique store and since I was the only one who was able to fit in it, it was all mine!) Since it was for a 10 year old, I had to cut out the crouch of it because my torso is way too long, but it fit everything else.. I don’t know if I should be excited that I’m small enough to fit in something made for a 10 year old, or sad that my “boobs” had no problem fitting comfortably in something made for a 10 year old.. hahah..
   I’m going to go with the first theory :) 

Weekend Highlights

   Puppy snuggles are the best way to start the weekend… Just saying

     James let me sleep in on Friday morning, which was amazing. I get up with James every morning (mostly voluntary- hah) and make smoothies to start our day, sometimes I pack his lunch too.. Mostly its just some extra time spent together. I slept until 8:30! I made myself a smoothie

 Greek yogurt

Blueberries

Spirulina

Maple syrup

     After a cup of coffee, I got to working out.. I did this workout that I found on Pintrest with a 12lb medicine ball. After I got cleaned up, I spent the afternoon hanging out with Paula. James and I wanted to keep things low key so we had some friends over instead of going out for the evening. We played Cranium!

   

    Saturday 

 

   Our friends dropped by and asked us to go to a wine tasting at a local vineyard. We jumped at the chance! It was such a beautiful day, so after we sampled all of the wines they had to offer, we bought a   bottle (cranberry apple wine) along with some cheese and crackers, and headed outside. It was a beautiful afternoon.
    Sunday we got around to painting the new garage doors which took up most of the morning. Afterwards we met up with a couple of friends from MA to walk around Providence and grab some dinner. We came back to our place and made a fire.. We even made S’mores..  Good way to end the weekend!

WO+ Recipe Fail

   I made it back to the gym this morning, I had planned to run 5 miles… But I thought it would be a good idea to do some lifting too. While I’ve done quite a bit of upper body lifting, the lower body has been non-existent.. I haven’t really figured out the balance between training for a race, lifting, and teaching. As a result, I’ve skipped out on my strength training quite a bit.

    I did sets of squats, split squats, deadlifts, and single leg-deadlifts.. then headed to the treadmill.. after 10 minutes, I was bored and really not feeling the run.. So I thought I would run some sprints.. yeah that didn’t really work either.. in all I was on the treadmill for 20 minutes. 

   I came home ready for a banana bread GF pancake, but I was out of bananas… after scrounging around the cabinets I found some unsweetened applesauce- I figured it would work the same

   Haha I was VERY wrong! It looked like a pancake until I attempted to flip it, then it just fell apart. I just went with it and “scrambled” it up.. It reminded me of oat bran, pretty darn good! I’m going to work on it and get back to you.. it might be destined to be oat bran like!
    Some errands were on the agenda. Before I knew it I was hungry again. We are in desperate need of a grocery trip..  but I was able to dig up a bag of edamame out of the depths of the freezer and green beans along with some un-pictured rice

Not the most exciting meal- But it did the trick. 

    I did some office work, made soup for dinner, and taught yoga. 

Grateful

   Piggy- backing on Lindsay’s post (which was amazing as always!) and taking a couple of minutes to acknowledge what I’m thankful for…

*My Body- For doing all of the crazy shit my head asks it to- without too much complaining :)
*My Brain- For never being satisfied with the knowledge it houses, always searching for more. For remembering Sanskrit which is badass! For keeping memories.
*My Personality- For waiting patiently while I work up the confidence to let you out %100- For being silly, fun, intense, determined, creative and unique.

*James-  For loving me unconditionally. For being my #1 supporter and best friend in the entire world. For always making me smile.

*Mom and Dad- For loving me and giving me a much better life than you had.

*Sammy and Hydro- For puppy snuggles. For Smooches. For lots and lots of love.

 

*Friends/Teachers- For guidance, acceptance and support. For sharing who you are and what you know- much love. 

*Students/Clients- For support. For showing up to class ready to do whatever it is I ask of them. For having a sense of humor and learning not to take themselves to seriously. For going out of their way to thank me or tell them I’ve helped them in some way.

*For our home, Food, heat and everything in between

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    Monday I tackled a 7 mile training run. I had put it off all weekend because there were just other things I wanted to do instead- like have a Pancake breakfast while watching old-school cartoons with friends.. (and the fact that I couldn’t sleep Saturday night, was up since 2am, didn’t really help things either) 

    I headed to Planet Fitness, grabbed some free grape frooties for fuel (PF only has the grape flavor along with regular chocolate)

   I hopped on the treadmill and got after it. Eating candy for “fuel” is a great idea… It’s my new favorite gym activity :)  I have never run more than 5 miles before- not counting the 6 hour Adventure race I did last year because I have no idea how many I ran. So I kept at a 10:00mph pace. The treadmill shut automatically after 60 minutes which is really annoying BTW- but it was kind of nice to get a little breather. I finished in 75 minutes which included a little cool down and I was a sweaty monster.. You know it’s bad when you gross yourself out with your sweatiness. 

   I foam rolled, stretched and iced a bit while chugging down a little post-workout smoothie.  I think I’m really starting to dig this whole running thing :)

What are you Thankful for?

Frozen Treats+ Race recap+ Roller Derby

    I’d love to tell you this is going to be short and sweet, but I’d just be lying to ya.. I haven’t checked in.. it’s been a week.. and kind of a lot has happened!
   I’m just going to start with Friday Oct. 5.
I took Hydro to a new vet in the morning. This lady was pretty awesome about listening to my sob story and looking at before and after surgery pics of the mutt. I felt a little bit crazy whipping out my phone for the pics, but she agreed that he looks a whole lot different.. Unfortunately, even after seeing her, I still feel like we need more answers about whats going on. She didn’t notice much with him physically and suggested we give him puppy Prozac.. The husband and I are still trying to figure out what to do.
    James came home around 3:30 that afternoon, got cleaned up from work and we left right away on the motorcycle to take advantage of the nice weather and go pick up my race bib and packet. The mall is only 5 minutes from the hotel, and I had made an appointment at the Apple store so James could have his iPod looked at. (I bought him the iPod Classic 160gb for Christmas last year and he broke it in less than 2 months- why are men such bruts?) And yes it has been broken for that long..  We figured that they would just tell us we were shit out of luck- it was full of dents and dings from James dropping it at work a million times.. and at first they told us it would be $120 to get a replacement.. but when he got us the new one, he told us we didn’t owe anything! (He was just as surprised as we were) So we booked it out of there in 1 minute flat, just in case they made a mistake.. and ran like we stole something.
   Ran right into Pinkberry!

    It was my first time at the famous froyo spot.. We got a small mango and original with fruit to share, (it was our appetizer before dinner after all) which was really good- though I must say I like to put my own toppings on- I would have had more than 4 raspberries!
   After we housed that froyo we walked around the mall a bit.. this just killed me

    Haha.. Too much fun- a great night!

       The next morning I made us breakfast

   I can’t really remember what we did all day- and since I have no pictures of it, it’s like it didn’t happen.
   Later that night we met up with our friends and headed to Foxwoods Casino for some fun

   Oh yeah.. there was more ice cream..

 I haven’t had Ben and Jerry’s in light years.. OMG so good.. again we shared- a small Cookie Dough..  YUM..

    Sunday was race day! The race didn’t start unit 11:15 so we just took it easy and hung out most of the morning. It was pretty chilly and cloudy but the ran held off for the race

 We parked in our old neighborhood and walked to the race.. which was about 15-20 minutes. which left us plenty of time to walk around a bit and check things out

   This was made out of sand.. So cool!

    We parted ways so I could make it to the starting line.. At this point I was pretty nervous, cold and anxious to get started. I had the “Heavy Metal” Pandora station playing in my ears and I was pumped up. (I always listen to this station when I’m getting ready to be a beast.. Maybe it’s the screaming and anger? Whatever it is.. it works for me) So... I wanted to finish in 25 minutes. I hadn’t “trained” specifically for this race since I signed up less than a week before,  but I felt that 25 minutes was a feasible goal. Along with Pandora playing in my ear, I also had the Nike running App on as well. Its set to tell me at each mile what my pace was.
     The race started downhill, went through a little loop downtown and ended by running UP the hill we started down. I started quickly with a 7:40 pace, and felt pretty awesome.. except my mouth was SUPER dry as soon as I started running, which was a bit uncomfortable .. I was very excited to grab some water at miles 1 and 2, though both times more water ended up down my shirt- not intentionally BTW.  I focused on a couple of the other runners to keep pace and by the time we were about a half mile away from the finish line I was ready to push it.. I knew that I would have to dig- because there was no way I was going to come this far NOT to finish in 25 minutes!
    The run up the hill to the finish line was pretty awesome… Yeah I couldn’t really feel my legs, or breath at that point but I was pumped! I finished in 25:07 according to the Nike Run App, and according to the official results 25:53- I’ll take it! I finished 36 out of 919 in my age group (0-39) and 174 overall (out of 2600)

    I called some friends on my banana phone to tell them the good news

    After eating a banana and some oreos and guzzling more water we started to walk back to the car.. We made a pit stop at Starbucks- where the barista thanked me for  running (so cute!) The coffee was amazing and just what I needed :) Unfortunately we came across a smushed Praying Mantis

  (Poor little dude.. This guys are endangered and it is illegal to kill or even mess with them)
 Once we got to the car we drove to Wholefoods to pick up some stuff, and ended up grabbing some Subway for lunch (By this time it was nearly 3pm and James was starved.. I wasn’t so much but got a veggie salad with avocado to hold me over for dinner.
     You want to know the best part about running? Not feeling the least bit guilty about eating this

 WAY under the mountain of whipped cream is fresh strawberries and a drizzle of chocolate.. but really all I cared about was the whipped cream.. Who needs ice cream when you can just have the topping? Oh and eating it snuggled by the fireplace wasn’t half bad either :)

 (That’s Stoney the Stoner Gnome- he lives in the living room all the time.. Smoking his pipe and sitting on a shroom) We watched some TV and our friends stopped by later on to watch a movie..  And then I passed out.. I think it was a whipped cream coma..
    Since it was the holiday weekend, James was home from work on Monday.. We got some yard work done, I painted the door to our downstairs bathroom and he worked on building our new garage doors.. I had just gotten out of the shower when I heard him coming up the stairs and heard him say “You need to take me to the hospital!” I’m not the best when it comes to these kinds of situations.. but I sucked it up, asked if I needed to bring down a towel (assuming there was a ton of blood) and ran down to see what was going on..

   He was cutting some wood on the table saw, slipped and cut the tip of his index finger, and grazed his thumb and middle finger. Thankfully he didn’t cut off his whole finger.. or even the whole tip.. It could have been so much worse… They cleaned him up and bandaged it before sending us on our way. (there were no stitches because there was no way to close the wound)  Needless to say, James was out of work all week.. which was partially to blame for me lack of checking in.. But we spent a lot of time together which was really awesome.
    In between I managed to get a couple of 4.5 mile runs in

   AND we found a used Vitamix at a local consignment shop… for $15! Thats right.. a VITAMIX!! And- It works and everything! Green smoothies!

 I’ve used it since everyday.. multiple times.. I love it.. no.. no.. I’m IN LOVE with it.. I’ve always wanted one.. and now that I have it.. I’m pulling a Titanic.. “I’ll never let go!”
   I also went to visit my friend who just had baby Phoebe a month ago

    I held her for 2 hours.. and my arm was dead.. but it was so worth it..

And last but not least… We went to roller derby

   These girls are brutal.. it was awesome.. Neither of us had  ever been to a roller derby game, but we are definitely going to more! Oh yeah.. and I want to BE a roller derby girl..

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   Most of my lunches look like this lately.

   
   Hydro looks like this most of the time. Doesn’t he just look so sad? :(  

    I made an appointment with a new Vet for Friday.. Hopefully a new set of eyes will be able to shed some light on what the heck is wrong with the little man.
   
   My love of cooking come from many places.. My dad, vegetarianism, hunger.. and lack of money.. When my food budget gets tight I definitely cook way more things from scratch- like this batch of pumpkin spiced granola..

   Or the tortillas I used for tonights enchilada dinner..

    

      It can be kind of fun to wrack your brain for something cheap, delicious and healthy to eat when your low on cash. It looks like I’m about to get a LOT more creative around here….

   You see I got “Let go” from the restaurant I’ve been working at for the past month.. Apparently they aren’t as busy as they were anticipating, so they no longer need the extra help.. Hey I get that.. But what I don’t get (or appreciate) was getting the information through A text message! 

   Maybe I’m old school or something.. but that wasn’t professional… or cool..  

   This week I signed up for the Gloria Gemma 5K.. The Gloria Gemma Breast cancer research foundation was founded in 2004 and has raised a boatload of money for cancer research.. I signed up a bit late, but I’m hoping I can raise some money to donate. If you would like to contribute, click DONATE. 

 Workouts have been focused on running.. I’ve never been a runner, but I have always WANTED to be one! Plus I really need a goal these days. 

-Monday- 2 miles @9:13pace

-Tuesday- Arms and Abs class (at the new kickboxing gym where I’ve started teaching yoga) 

-Wednesday- 4 miles @8:49- 8:49 pace, Taught Yoga, Random amount of pushups after class with a bunch of the students- hilarious! 

Do you like to cook? 

Are you a runner?