At Last

Guys!

I’m finally home!

George Washington Bridge picture taken through an obviously filthy windshield.

There are really no words that can properly express how being home feels. I am just so thankful to have this place as my home and am so relieved to finally be out of that school that did nothing but suck the life out of me.

I feel so motivated and optimistic. I hope this lasts!

Of course, I had to start today with a run in the absolutely perfect weather that only a New York spring can offer.

I covered 5 miles in my town and couldn’t be happier. It was so nice to be running my old and familiar trail. Bayshore by my college may have been nice, but nothing compares to running the trails that I have past 3 years.

After my run, I whipped out the good ‘ol Vitamix to make my first ever acai bowl! God, I have missed smoothies!

 

In the mix: Sambazon unsweetened acai smoothie pack, 1/2 frozen banana, 1 Tbs Cocoa powder, and stevia. Topped it off with some sunflower seeds, vegan chocolate chips, and a couple of goji berries. So creamy and yummy! Definitely going to become a frequent flier in my daily meals!

I spent most of my day running errands and unpacking (groan). I actually think that unpacking all of my stuff will take the rest of my life. Trying to put away things leads to me pulling everything out and trying to organize it, not liking how it is organized, pulling everything out again, and repeating this process about five times. I spent hours unpacking and barely made a dent… I decided to take a break and do more tomorrow!

Then it was time for lunch, and it was another creamy smoothie bowl. I am just loving having access to the Vitamix again!

Chocolate frozen banana “nice”cream! Carbs are my favorite.

Later, I cooked dinner (this post is very food centered isn’t it? … It is also quite dull. My apologies).

Heaven in the form of veggies.

 

We ended the day next door at my great-aunt’s house to celebrate her birthday. Being surrounded by my family and being close to them again is indescribable. I am SO thankful for the family that I have… I never want to move out of New York again!

 

 

I love life right now.

Questions.

What did you have for breakfast?

Do you live close to your family members or do you live far away? 

A Spa Day and Some Kettlebells

I’m blogging from my phone here, so let’s see how this works.

I’m on vacation right now! Well… kind of. My aunt owns a house at this resort and were staying here like we always do.

Today was extra special though because we had gift cards to the fancy schmancy spa here.

I had only been there once before a couple of years ago so needless to say I was VERY excited.

I got a 50 minute massage and oh my goodness it was amazing. I’ve only gotten a massage 3 times in my life and Woodloch is definitely my favorite place to get one. They’re so non-invasive and even someone as hyper self-conscious as me can feel slightly comfortable there. I got to pick the oils she used on me, I picked one called forest which had a mixture of… Well… Foresty things like different kinds if trees. It was supposed to be good for the respiratory system and as a runner I was all over that.

After the massage I was taken to a place called the Whisper Room where I sat in silence and waited for my mom, aunt, and cousin who were all also getting massages. It’s funny how easy it is to forget how nice silence is sometimes. For the first 15 minutes that I was in the Whisper Room all I wanted was my phone so I could DO something. We as a society are always so wound up with constantly being on out phones, laptops, iPods, iPads, and other electronic devices that we often forget what true silence is like. I can see why people love meditation. Silence is a beautiful thing.

After we left the Whisper Room my cousin and I headed back upstairs to use some of the spa’s facilities. We hopped in the sauna until it got too hot and then I headed out to one of the spa’s multiple hot tubs. My favorite is the one that is an outside infinity pool style. It’s so calming to sit at the edge and look out at the forest.

Not the view from the hot tub but pretty much the same.

All in all… Spa day was a success.

Post massage, oiled up and happy.

I also made a little friend in the gift shop!

Sadly, I had to leave him behind (ill always remember you, little polkadot bunny!).

After I was all calm and relaxed from the spa, I headed to the lodge’s gym to get in a good workout! Since my hip is acting I decided to take it to the stationary bike for one of my recent favorite workouts.

The biker babes workout from my favorite girls over at Tone It Up!

Honestly, when I was skeptical when I did this workout for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I was afraid that the bike wouldn’t be good enough of a workout and that I wouldn’t burn enough calories. BOY OH BOY was I wrong !

If done at the right intensity you WILL have sweat pooling down your face to the point that it begins to get embarrassing. TRY THIS WORKOUT NOW.

After finishing the workout I headed over to the weight section of the gym with the intention of doing Tone It Up’s bikini strap workout …

Then I saw the kettle bells.

I don’t own a kettle bell at home so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to try my very first ever kettle bell workout! And oh yes was it wonderful.

I did (of course) Tone It Up’s “Saved by the Bell” workout, a major throwback by them.

I repeated the routine four times using a 15 pound kettle bell for the kettle bell swings and a 10 pound one for the rest of the workout.

I ended up being the only one remaining in the gym and left happy and sweaty beyond belief.

I headed home and showered and headed pool side to read a book by one of my favorite authors. My idea of perfection right there. Pool side + good book + post-workout buzz.

Well. I hope this iPhone written post wasn’t too much of a mess. It definitely was a mess to upload. Have a wonderful night!

What Makes a Runner a Runner?

Good morning!

I’m sitting outside as I type this and by the looks of it, I really need to get running if I want to beat the rain.. Although, who doesn’t love a good summer run in the rain?

I started my morning off with Tone It Up’s Fourth of July workout.

I love this workout for days where my body’s tired because while it’s definitely a good strength workout, it’s not ridiculously tough. It’s right in the middle. Plus, I like any excuse to use my exercise ball… hehehe

Breakfast came soon after with a clean-out-the-fridge-smoothie (i.e. I’m going away today and needed to use up the fruit). 

1/2 a banana, blueberries, ice, water, and Sunwarrior Vanilla Protein Powder + some water on the side ;).

LATER

After completing some college stuff I headed out for a super sweaty 5 miler. 

Like I said earlier, it looked like it was going to storm any minute so the humidity was INSANE! My body has been super fatigued the last few days for some reason and my hip has started acting up again (I hurt it last year) so while I took it easy I was still so exhausted. My spits looked like this:

Ugh.

The first mile I had so stop at about 4 red lights (the WORST) and I didn’t pause my timer, hence the obscenely slow pace. Mile 4, I stopped and walked for about .2 miles. Walking during a run makes me freak out, for some reason there’s that little voice in my head that yells, “You’re so pathetic! How dare you call yourself a real runner! Real runners push through and aren’t to pathetic to run a simple 5 miler and a disgustingly slow pace!” 

I’ve heard a lot of runners say things similar to this, that they feel like they’re unworthy because they run a little slower than others or because they take a walking break. It’s important to push these emotions out of your head. I’m not saying that it’s easy to do, and I’m certainly not always able to keep that little green monster at bay. But, it’s important to remind yourself of this, “You are runner if you run. Period.” I run because I love it, yes I do it for the calorie burning thing as well but honestly, running is my favorite form of exercise for a reason. It’s my favorite thing in the world, and part of being a runner is knowing your body. If it’s hurting (not the tired kind of hurting, the actual pain kind of hurting) it’s ok to stop and take a little break! You’re not destroying your entire workout by walking for a couple of minutes. I normally never take walking breaks, I can run for over an hour and normally feel perfectly fine. If I’m feeling off one day, if I’m sick, exhausted, or just not feelin’ it one day it’s OK to rest up a little bit. Walking .2 miles of my 5 mile run isn’t going to make me gain a million pounds or make other people deem me as a failure.

I am me. I know myself better than anyone. I know my limits. It’s OK to not always be super hard on myself.

Anyways… back to that humidity…

The best part about running is that I can feel like this (embarrassing myself on the internet is always fun) right when I finish…

and then like THIS ^^ 5 minutes later (pardon my makeup-free sweaty face).

Running’s awesome like that, no matter how horrible you feel during a run, how amazing you feel for the rest of the day.

Oh! And I tried a new running hair style today!

This was supposed to be a 5 strand braid…

Also, I’m obviously an expert at taking hair photos. Vogue should call me right now!

I need to leave to go away in a couple of hours and I haven’t even done my laundry yet, let alone packed… I should probably get on that. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to work out blogging while I’m away since there isn’t any internet in the house but I shall try to figure it out…

Until next time!

Questions…

Do you like running in the rain?

What kind of hairstyle do you wear when you run?

Are you ever a victim of self-depreciating thoughts about running? 

Saturday Selects (numero uno)

Hi guys! Sorry I wasn’t able to post anything the last two days, on thursday I got home too late to blog and last night I slept over at a friends house.

I was thinking it would kind of be a fun idea to do a round-up of some of my favorite things from this week (also, I can re-cap the days I missed hehehe). Who knows, maybe this could be a sort of weekly series?

My favorite day this week was actually Tuesday. My best friend came over just to watch a movie and somehow that quickly turned into a WATER BALOON FIGHT

(Cody, if you’re reading this…. I won)

It was so much fun and just … liberating? I don’t even know how to describe it. Running around with my little brother and his friend and dumping water on each other was just so fun. It’s great to be able to feel like a little kid again, everything feels simple and easy and you feel so free. After we were soaked beyond what I thought possible, we changed into pajamas and watched “Identity Thief.” Such a funny movie! I also really just love Melissa McCarthy.

 

My favorite workout of the week was probably last Sunday, I went for a run with some girls from cross country and that’s just always nice. It also didn’t hurt that we went for frozen yogurt after… hehehe.

I’ve also really been loving the XHIT youtube channel lately! They have some really great, quick toning workouts and HIIT routines that never disappoint! They also upload new videos every day so you never need to worry about getting bored. Some of my favorite routines are “Abs like Olivia Wilde,” and “Miley Cyrus Legs.” I like doing these routines in the mornings as my #Bootycall (the Tone It Up kind kids =P) or before bed.

Another favorite of this week was going to the Bronx Zoo for the very first time! On Thursday, I drove in (first time driving in the Bronx.. woah) with a couple of friends and even though we only got to stay for a couple of hours (closed at 5, we got there at 3) it was still a lot of fun. I have to say though, the greatest zoo of all time is the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, Florida. 

Favorite animal I saw was this little guy The fluffiest of ducks.

Everybody loves giraffes. 

After getting no sleep last night and not feeling well all week my workout today was definitely not my most intense. I did a simple 50 minutes of intervals (cross country setting with a level 10 elevation and resistances ranging from 5 to 11) on the elliptical was a 5 minute cool down.  I covered 5.67 miles.

Since I was at my friends house for most of the day I didn’t get to do my morning 30 minutes of toning workouts… kind of regretting it now, but I’ll double up tomorrow!

Speaking of tomorrow, I need to get up early to go running with my friend (yay!) so I should probably be getting ready for bed about now.

I’ll leave you with this sassy little guy

 

But for real, you can’t tell me that his facial expression isn’t making you laugh. 

 

 

Do it because you love it…

Yesterday, I came across what is, probably, one of the best things I have seen on the internet in a long time…

I saw this floating around and I really found it to hold so much truth. There is so much pressure put on people from social media and just society in general to be this super fit person who eats only berries and seeds and works out for hours a day. I see so much of people who live these kinds of lifestyles being judgmental of people who don’t and honestly, it’s ridiculous. Too many times I’ve seen people post on twitter or instagram about how they are, “so grossed out” because they just saw some family eating McDonalds. Who are you to judge people by what they eat? Just because you see someone eating something one time doesn’t give you any right to judge them and make assumptions. Maybe they have little kids and it was all they could think to grab, maybe they haven’t had it in years and they want to treat themselves. There are so many possibilities. That person eating a candy bar on the train could be a marathon runner for all you know.

No one has a right to judge someone based on an assumption they make without even knowing something. Also, yes, being someone who is super into fitness and eating healthy is wonderful, but it doesn’t make you God’s gift to humanity. You need to focus on yourself. Not everyone feels the need to be a paleo crossfitter or a vegan yogi. Some people will just go to the gym to get in their 30 minutes on the elliptical. Not everyone wants to do HIIT or go run a 5 miler.

I work out because I love it. It’s part of my life and it’s what makes me who I am. For some people, working out is just a chore. Yes, it’s important to stay active, but that could be as simple as going for a daily walk. Yes, healthy eating is important but not everyone WANTS to be 100% with their diet. You could easily eat a moderately healthy diet and still be a healthy, happy human being. Not everyone wants a 6 pack and killer quads and standout triceps. Life is too short to try to please others by doing things you hate. If you hate running, DON’T DO IT. If you want to eat a slice of cake one day EAT IT. Life is so short and it’s not worth living a life that you don’t feel the need to.

Judging is judging, you may think that you’re “helping” by pushing someone to live the same lifestyle that you do. But stop, let others live their own lives, you focus on your own.

 

 

Nice to meet you!

Hi everyone! My name’s erin!

I’m a seventeen year old girl from New York with a passion for running, and all things related to healthy living. I am currently a senior in highschool.

Here I am going to be blogging about… well… my life, my thoughts, and well… my passion which is healthy living. So come join me on my adventures in life!!

Wow… that sounded corny.

I hope you’ll stick around with me. Nice meeting you new friends!