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Journey to Wellness

~ Fighting for health in my life one run, meal, and choice at a time

Journey to Wellness

Tag Archives: Picture

Grace and Gratitude

07 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by Caroline in Mental Health, Pilates/Barre

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Tags

Barre, Mental Health, Picture, Thankful

I shared this quote at the end of my cool down song yesterday morning during my barre class, and I thought I’d share it here today:

grace and gratitude

It’s so simple, calming, and healthy. If you sit with your eyes closed and focus on deep breathing, say “inhale grace” as you inhale and “exhale gratitude” as you exhale- try this a few times and see how you feel!

I think infusing our lives with grace and gratitude would lead to much healthier relationships (with ourself and with others) and lead to much more peace for each of us- don’t you agree?

Now it’s your turn to share! What does this quote mean to you, and how can you apply it to your life today?

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On The Boston Marathon

21 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by Caroline in General Living, Travel

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Picture, Running, Travel

HAPPY MARATHON MONDAY! Today I’m waking up early and enjoying all of the footage on the marathon. I actually have the day off work, so I can watch the marathon instead of just catching little tiny clips in between my clients. I’ll be wearing my “Boston Strong” shirt and drinking from my Boston mug. One day I’d love to be in Boston on Marathon Monday, but for today, I’ll have to celebrate from afar.

Boston Marathon Finish Line IMG_5402

It’s weird to be watching this year, knowing that I’ve had my feet on that finish line, but also knowing that there’s likely no way that I’ll ever actually run this race. When I walked the last feet of the boston marathon race last September, I closed my eyes to take in the place, and to imagine the cheering, smiles, and tears that would fill that day in April of 2014.

Today, I also want to celebrate resiliency. Whether it’s the resiliency of each of the runner’s on the course, the resiliency of Boston, the resiliency of those wounded… the resiliency is important to acknowledge. Today is a day to remember and pray for those hurt and wounded (whether physically or emotionally) last year, and to cheer for and celebrate with those who have overcome.

And so today, I celebrate! Happy Marathon Monday!

Now it’s your turn to share! How are you celebrating Marathon Monday?

 

Half Marathon #5!

12 Saturday Apr 2014

Posted by Caroline in Exercise, Half Marathon Training, Racing, Running

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Tags

Half Marathon, Picture, Race, Racing, Running

Half Marathon #5 (Carmel Half Marathon) is over, and it was awesome! I have lots to say on the topic, but am busy unpacking and grocery shopping this afternoon, so I’ll be back tomorrow with my entire recap. For now, I’ll leave you with this:

photo

Happy Saturday!

Cuenca, Ecuador

13 Monday Jan 2014

Posted by Caroline in Travel

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Ecuador, Picture, Travel

So, I kept a tiny little secret from you all for the last few weeks. Since January 3rd I’ve been in Cuenca, Ecuador for a mix of work and fun, and just got home on Saturday. I had a really fantastic time, and I can’t wait to share some of my experiences with you all!

I flew into Quito, arriving just before midnight. Since I had to fly on one of Ecuador’s airlines, I had to wait until the morning to leave. I stayed at the Garden Hotel San Jose, and found it to be a great place to stay!

IMG_5872The hotel was on a cute little compound with a spa, and beautiful lawns and gardens.

The next morning I flew to Cuenca, Ecuador where I stayed for the week. I gave four hours of lectures while there , and enjoyed meeting with students and faculty members. The rest of the time was spent getting to know people in the city, spending time with people I already knew who live in the city, and touring around. And eating. Lots and lots and lots of eating. Enough eating that I’ll do an entire post just on the amazing food that was put in front of me almost every hour of the day.

One of my favorite things to do while in Cuenca is to walk around the old city. The tiny shops, women and men in traditional dress, and the cobblestone streets create a quaint and authentic experience.

DSCN6540The New Cathedral (made to be a duplicate of the Vatican)- if you ever go to Cuenca, make sure to walk up to the top of one of the towers. You’ll get a great view of the city, and an up close view of the domes!

DSCN6443

Nativity display set up in the New Cathedral. They had Christmas songs playing via recording, and when I took this picture “Santa Clause is Coming to Town” was playing. Yes. Seriously.

IMG_5887

Cute little signs on the bathroom doors

DSCN6447

Women at the market. From what I could understand, they would hit the various plants on little children as they would say something specific. Some parents bring their children regularly for this experience.

DSCN6462

The San Francisco market. There is a long row with maybe 12-15 of these little shops. It’s the perfect little place to buy souvenirs, especially scarves. I get a few scarves every time I go to Ecuador!

DSCN6459

Outside a cute little cafe (called Un Buen) on “the porch of Cuenca”

IMG_5901

Sunset in Cuenca over the Andes Mountains.

So there’s a quick little snapshot of my time in Cuenca. I’ll be doing a few specific posts about different events and things that happened while there!

Now it’s your turn to share! Have you ever been to Ecuador? Where’s your favorite place to travel?

Marco Island, Florida

16 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by Caroline in General Living, Travel

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Tags

Exercise, Family, Picture, Summer, Travel

I just got back from a vacation to one of my favorite places on earth- Marco Island, Florida! My family has been going to this island for a few generations, so it’s really become a family tradition. My time there, as always, was really enjoyable and relaxing, and I thought I’d share a piece of it here!

Marco Collage 1Clockwise from Top Left: 1: Sunset the first night! I never get tired of them! 2: Dolphins! I went out boating with my relatives and there were 7 dolphins swimming around and under the boat. So cool!  3: Out at the pool! 4: Kayaking

Marco Collage 2

1: Amazing Honey Chicken Salad from a restaurant called Mangos! YUMMY! 2: Out of control humidity and heat meant constant sweating and absolutely no beach runs this trip 😦  3: I wish I could build a tiki hut in my house! 4: Sunset!

Marco Collage 3

1: Smallpox has always been an interesting subject for me, so as soon as I spotted a book on the eradication efforts in India, I snatched it up and read it by the pool! 2: Fourth of July Fireworks. I talked more about the 4th here. 3: More sunset! 4: A sand castle snowman in a bikini! Cute.

Marco Collage 4

1: A bald eagle/American flag sand creation. 2: Early morning walk on the beach. 3: sunset! 4: A lightning storm in the clouds! So cool looking!

Marco Collage 5

1: HUGE snails come out after the sunset. 2: These sunsets were unreal. Oh yeah- no filters on any of these pictures by the way! 3: sunset 4: View of the marina at the Esplanade where Mangoes Restaurant is

I mentioned that I had extended and immediate family down there, and it was so fantastic to see all of them! I mentioned that I didn’t end up running on the beach at all while there. I’m so sad because I really love to run down there, but it was just too hot and humid and it would’ve been especially unsafe due to POTS. In order to still get some exercise, I walked every day on the beach (the views make the walks AMAZING!), and tried a new-to-me exercise: pool running! This was the perfect way to still “run” and get cardio while making sure that I didn’t overheat at all. Win-win!

Other than that, most of my days included a 4 mile walk on the beach, sitting out and reading at the pool, and swimming out at the ocean. However, the last few days the beach was inundated with baby jellyfish and multiple people were getting stung, so I didn’t go in the ocean at all those days! The days are leisurely there, and I love them!

Now it’s your turn to share! Do you have a favorite vacation place you’ve gone to multiple times? What’s your favorite thing to do on vacation? 

Today I Got To Play Model

12 Tuesday Jun 2012

Posted by Caroline in Exercise, General Living

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Exercise, Food, Picture, Pilates

…a Pilates model that is! This afternoon I headed into the Pilates studio and participated in a photo shoot for a few hours. The shoot lasted for about 3 hours, although I obviously wasn’t doing Pilates the entire time like I would be in a class setting. What I found to be the most difficult is that after I got into a pose, I had to hold it for awhile so the photographer had plenty of time to get a number of shots. This led to a bit of shaking on my part, and I’m definitely feeling sore right now!

Getting ready for the shoot.

It was a great time, and we moved between two studios: The Reformer Studio (where the reformer machines are) and the Mind & Body Studio (where we took some mat pilates pictures).

An exercise using what I like to call the “ring of torture”. This is not an official picture.

One of my favorite exercises on the reformer machines. This is not from today, but gives you an idea of what I was doing. I was wearing those pants today though.

I had a blast doing it and we’re planning to do another shoot soon! I really love Pilates and wish that everyone could have the opportunity to practice it on a regular basis. The benefits are so great, and I think it really enhances the other types of exercise that I do (running include).

Before I started the afternoon shoot, I fueled with a delicious salad.

Included was: spinach, mushrooms, corn, red pepper, onion, and chicken topped with some balsamic vinegar. YUM! After the photo shoot, I walked on the treadmill for 1.75 miles (at 13:20 per mile pace) and rowed for 11 minutes (equaling 1 mile). Obviously i was more then ready to eat when I left the gym, and had this delicious Chicken salad for dinner. Check out the recipe! One little note- instead of pasta I used quinoa, and that worked out just as well and gave me more protein post-workout.

Today was lots of fun, and an opportunity that I likely won’t get again!

Now it’s your turn to share! Have you done anything unusual lately? Have you ever gotten to “play model” for the day? 

Race Recap of the Indy Mini: My First Half Marathon!

11 Friday May 2012

Posted by Caroline in Racing, Running

≈ 19 Comments

Tags

Half Marathon, Picture, Race, Running, Training

Exhilarating. Fun. A Fight. The Time of My Life.

Only a few words to describe my first half marathon: The Indy mini! I’m so excited to sit down and write this recap, because I truly had a wonderful time. Just a warning- this is long!

I woke up at 5 am after sleeping about 2 hours (I can’t sleep when I get really excited). I immediately got ready, ate breakfast (12 ounces orange juice, 1 banana, 1 protein bar- just like I always have before a morning work out), and packed up the hotel room. I got a hotel downtown (Courtyard on Senate Avenue) so I wouldn’t have to worry about driving and finding parking the morning of the race. I only had a 5 minute walk from the hotel to the corrals, so that was nice. My brother came with me to the race, so it was really nice to have someone to share this with (and feel support from). I warmed up, found a bathroom in a mall to use, and hopped into my corral.

When I signed up for the race I wasn’t sure how fast I would be, as I had just started running, and turned in a very slow finish time. Because of that, I was support in the 24th of 26 corrals- with the walkers. Bad choice- I ended up weaving around people the ENTIRE race, which certainly wasted some energy. Oh well. Learned that lesson for next year (because I obviously will be running this race again!).

The race started and I slowly walked for 32 minutes with my corral before I hit the start line. I had a water bottle with me during that time to stay hydrated. It was in the mid 60s but the humidity was in the 90’s percent (91-95% I heard), so it was hot and sticky. I wanted to make sure that I started this race hydrated, so I sipped while walking and threw it away before i hit the start line.

The first two miles were pretty congested, and I even had to run up on a sidewalk a few times to get around walkers. If you walk during a race, please be courteous and move to the side. I spent a great deal of time weaving around people and that was annoying.

Mile 1: I was just excited to be out on the course and running an official race. We ran past the Indianapolis Zoo and a large and a baby elephant were behind a fence along the road cheering us on as we ran by. It was cute and fun to look at! Around mile 1.75 I got a wicked side cramp that HURT.

Mile 2: This was the first time I saw my brother, and I yelled as I walked by that I had the side cramp. He yelled “push into it, take deep breaths, and keep going. You’ve got this”. That gave me the boost I needed!

There’s me in the grey skirt and purple shirt!

Mile 3: I ran into someone I had talked to for the 32 minutes as we walked to the start line, and we realized that as we were going the same pace, we should just run together. It was fun! Mile 3 went by quickly, and we finally got into the water stops. It was already HOT and sunny by this point.

Mile 4: I was feeling great at this point, and my side cramp finally vanished! Right at mile 4 I ran past someone holding a side that said “Remember no one made you do this”. I had a good laugh at it, and I definitely repeated this a few times throughout the race.

Mile 5: I definitely got more excited about this mile, as I knew I was going to enter the Speedway towards the end of this mile. I grabbed one last gatorade before going in. Running down the drive into the speedway was really exciting, and I was excited as I’ve never been there before.

Entering the speedway. I thought this would be fun…

Mile 6: My excitement quickly died away. They were blasting music over the loud speakers which was nice, but the pavement was miserable. Seriously- it’s so much harder then the normal road, and within a few minutes my feet started aching- badly. The thing that kept me going was the fact that the photographer was coming up soon.

Mile 7: My feet are still aching, and by 2 miles into the speedway it felt like it would never end! I hit the photographer, so that was fun, and also ran over the Yard of Bricks, although I didn’t reach down and kiss it or anything.

Mile 8: Definitely ready to get off the speedway. I walked the last .25 of a mile of the speedway because I just couldn’t do it anymore. I longed for a softer surface to run on, and was thrilled when I finally ran off! After getting off the speedway about half way through this mile, the ground felt soft and bouncy under my foot. They had a misting station to run through (heaven!) and a gatorade station (so great after a few miles of only water).

Mile 9: There was a slight amount of shade during part of this mile, which was so fantastic. Race organizers were standing with bullhorns at most of the pit areas reminding us to slow down and to hydrate. Throughout the race I saw people being taken away on stretchers, and I even had to move off the road a few times for ambulances to drive by. The heat definitely did a number on people, and I slowed my pace quite a bit in order to stay safe. This mile felt great, and I pushed forward knowing that my brother was going to be at mile 10.

Mile 10: As I ran past my brother, I screamed “text everyone and tell them that I love this and am having a blast- I can’t wait to do this again!”. I clearly was having fun at this point. After I hit the 10 mile marker, every step I took was the farthest run I had ever done, and that was also exciting. The person I was running with had to take a long walking break, and told me to go ahead. I never reconnected with her, which I’m a little sad about. She was fun to run with! Misting stations were abundant during this mile.

SO EXCITED!

Loving my life right now!

Mile 11: This mile went by in a blur. The crowds started to pick up again, and I was hydrating like crazy. Each time I would grab a cup I would drink half and then pour the other half on my wrists to help cool myself down. It was hot, sunny, and humid, but I was having a blast!

Mile 12: Nothing really stands out from the first half of this mile either. Around mile 12.5 I passed a big flag that said “Victory Mile” and started running down the finishing chute. People started screaming “almost there” at mile 12, but as I kept running I got a little angry thinking “don’t tell me almost there- tell me how much longer!”. Funny. When I hit mile 12 I started getting emotional, realizing that I was actually going to do this! I wanted to cry, but knew I needed to conserve my energy to give a final kick at the end.

Entering Victory Mile which is, in fact, not a full mile

Almost there!

Mile 13: I could see the finish line and pushed my hardest to get there. As soon as I ran under the “.1” flag I started to cry a little and cried across the finish line with a huge smile on my face. I DID IT! I lived and breathed this race since Christmas, and I accomplished a huge goal:)

About to cross the finish line!

The race was well organized, and as soon as I crossed the finish line I was handed my medal, a bottle of water, and a plastic bag to put a banana and cookie in while I took my official pictures with the medal.

At the finish line with my medal!

I had a huge smile on my face for most of the race, and truly had a great first half marathon. Briana told me the night before the race “have fun- you only get one first half marathon” and I definitely kept this in mind while I was running. I seriously had a really fantastic half marathon, and despite the hot and humid weather and the two months I was out of running due to shin splints, I finished well under what I thought I would finish under. My total time was 2:53 which I was excited about given the conditions, my training, and the fact that a year ago I was hardly running. I can’t wait to train better this next year and kill my time next May!

Dinner At The Melting Pot

20 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by Caroline in General Living

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Food, Picture

This past Monday a friend of mine asked if I wanted to go to The Melting Pot for dinner. I’ve heard of this restaurant for many years, but because it’s so expensive, most of the people I know who’ve gone there go to celebrate an engagement or anniversary. Since I had the day off from work, I agreed. After settling into our booth right at 5 pm, we quickly scanned the menu and settled on The Four-Course Classic. The way the Melting Pot works, the person you go with shares the same pot as you do, so you order jointly, and therefore must agree on the same food.

Course 1: Wisconsin Trio Cheese Fondue

This course came with the pot of cheese (of course!) plus 3 different sides. 1 basket had 3 different types of pre-cut bread, 1 cup of bite-sized green apple, and 1 cup of bite-sized broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots. I forgot to take a picture of this course, but it was delicious!

Course 2: Spinach Mushroom Salad

This salad had mushrooms, red onion, tomato, and bacon on a bed of spinach, and it was delicious!

Course 3: Tuna, shrimp, seasoned sirloin, chicken breast, and teriyaki-marinated sirloin. With the meat course you get a choice of the cooking style for your pot. We chose the “mojo” cooking style, which was a caribbean-like dish that was spicy and citrus-y and smelled delicious!

Raw Meat Platter- it looks so pretty in its raw form, doesn't it?

Meat In The Melting Pot

This course also comes with 5 different sauces to dip your food into, and each of theme complimented a different meat fantastically!

Course 4:  Cookies & Cream Marshmallow Dream Fondue

Oh my gosh was this amazing. It came with a tray of various desserts to dip into the chocolate including rice krispie treats, banana, strawberry, both chocolate and cinnamon covered marshmallows, brownie bites, red velvet cake, and cheese cake. It was nothing short of absolutely amazing and decadent.

Dark Chocolate Marshmallow with Crushed Oreos on top!

Delicious treats for dipping!

I cannot say enough about how delicious this meal was! It’s a lot of food for two people, but because dinner took from 5-8 pm, each course had time to digest before digging in to the next course! I would probably reserve the 4 course dinner for an incredibly special occasion due to the price, but I could see myself going for dessert sometimes.

What’re your thoughts? Have you ever been to The Melting Pot? What’s your favorite type of fondue? 

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