Fighting Through the Fog
Things have been pretty quiet around here — I see this on other healthy living sites, and when things are quiet, they’re either going well, or badly. Here, luckily they’re going well.
I’ve had good weeks, and better weeks, and no perfect weeks, but I’m not striving for those anyhow. It’s all about balance. I was away from home & my own kitchen for many, many weeks in the past 3-4 months and I managed to balance things out.
Instead, what I do see coming are some hard times. Winter for me is always difficult. In Milan in the past week we’ve had days of beautiful sun and days of rain and complete fog and gray. Watching my mood go up and down with the sun has been incredible. I wish I were just a spectator, watching someone else.
In July I was lucky to head to Chicago for the BlogHer conference. I had been there 4 years before for the exact same thing, as well as the first TBEX conference.
While in Chicago (in 2009), I took advantage of some professional photo opps being offered by photographers for some free headshots. My headshot and photos of myself from that event are still some of my worst “Before” pictures.
One of the very excellent things that came out of that event is I sat next to a “Roni” at BlogHer during a food blogger dinner. I didn’t know who she was, but we chatted and I remember thinking she was nice. I took her card, and I went home and started reading her blog. Read more…
Post-workout recovery drinks & Justin’s Nut Butters
I almost always drink some sort of recovery drink post-workout. If I’m lifting weights (most of my workouts except Zumba), lots of sources recommend getting some protein in your system the following 30 minutes to help rebuild your muscles. I also like the opportunity to get something into my system as I don’t have much or anything to eat prior to my morning workouts, something I’ve been used to for years and years.
My drinks are usually pretty similar – banana and chocolate seem to be flavors I never get tired of, and my drinks usually have at least one of those, those I’ve often experimented with variations of vanilla or using greek yogurt as a base.
So I usually mix things up from this list (note that it’s usually never more than 2-3 ingredients per drink): Read more…
This past Sunday, I spent some time marking off something on my Health Bucket List: becoming a licensed Zumba instructor. In order to do that, first I needed the certification. So I did that.
The class was a blast – Vicky (the training specialist) has been involved in Zumba since the beginning and she was amazing, and I had some great conversations with people in the class, as well as dancing (and sweating) my butt off!
That’s pretty much Zumba in a nutshell.
Before you get confused, let me clarify: Read more…
I believe I can fly: Box Jumps at CrossFit basics course
First I posted about being nervous when heading to an intro CrossFit lesson & it being like the first day of school, then I talked about how I’m not a CrossFit convert but I could be. And I thought that would be the end of the story…for a while at least.
Then I noticed my local Reebok Crossfit box was offering a full day’s course of CrossFit basics on a Saturday. I signed up. My reasoning is so wherever I go in the world, I should be able to walk into any box and try that day’s lesson. Ideally. I know each box has its own requirements, but me having completed this course raises those chances. I think I’ll even be able to join my colleagues at our all-company meetup when they go to a box (I couldn’t go last year).
The course was really good, and a good next step to understanding CrossFit. This box has a rule that if anyone’s late, the entire class does burpees (I hate burpees). Spoiler alert: Italians are not the most punctual people. So that’s how class started out. Read more…
Food Blogger on a Diet 