4:55 a.m. – alarm goes off. Check phone in bed until second alarm goes off at 5 a.m. I get up to train clients at 5:30 and 6:30 a.m. Sullie stays in bed. This is the regular for her. She never gets up until I get home from my morning gym sessions and then she’s [...]
Life Balance
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Don’t Compare Your Inside to Someone Else’s Outside
July 21, 2014 { 44 comments }Hi. I hope Monday was kind to you. My day was good. I trained clients at 5:30 and 6:30 a.m. and then came home and took a little nap on the couch for 45 minutes. I got up around 8:30 and made a green smoothie and got to work on finishing up a the edits/feedback [...]
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Life Lately: Work Love, Sullie Cuteness, Welcome Weekend
July 12, 2014 { 6 comments }The last five days of my life have been…a blur. I’ll share them with you the best way that I know how, with pictures. It is a complete breath of fresh air to drive Uptown every day to work. The days have been long with training/teaching in the morning, working during the day, training/teaching again [...]
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Burger Night
July 8, 2014 { 18 comments }I think one of the most difficult things about blogging on a daily basis is actually not finding the time for it but rather doing it regardless of what’s going on in your life. Being human, most of you understand that things are constantly changing, ebbing and flowing. And in this current moment I am in [...]
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Day in the Life: A Holiday Week
July 3, 2014 { 8 comments }4:50 a.m. – alarm goes off. I didn’t fall asleep until midnight (with the help of a guided meditation) so this felt very early after three weeks straight of 5:30 a.m. clients and lack of quality sleep. 5:30 a.m. – gym to train a client who is in her third trimester and a close friend [...]
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Morning Meditation: Living with Intention
June 25, 2014 { 8 comments }My alarm went off this morning at 4:55 a.m. and I was woken from a very deep, restful sleep that I haven’t been experiencing too often lately. All I wanted to do was sink back into that deep sleep but I had a client to train and a class to teach so I got my [...]
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Friday I’m In Love…
May 23, 2014 { 9 comments }This is the happiest kind of Friday of them all…a long weekend Friday! Although I’m not traveling anywhere, I’m hoping to make the above photo a reality. My grand plans for the weekend include sleeping, pool time with friends, movies and just hanging out at home. Sounds like the perfect stay-cation to me! Here are [...]
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Let’s Catch Up
May 21, 2014 { 24 comments }Hi and happy Wednesday. I hope this week is going well and that you’re all getting geared up for the long weekend. I wanted to write a general checking in post today to kind of let you know where I’m at and what’s going on with me at the moment. I feel like the blog [...]
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This Week’s Workouts + How I Plan My Workouts
May 18, 2014 { 15 comments }Every couple of months I find that I naturally have a “reset week” with my workouts where I dial it back and keep it simple. This was one of those weeks. In general, I don’t plan out my workouts. While I’m aware of my schedule and where I can usually fit in what, I don’t [...]
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Waiting for Mamu + Supporting a CNN Hero of the Year
May 13, 2014 { 11 comments }I have a different kind of post for you today but I hope that it’s a story that touches your heart as much as it does mine. I feel so passionately about this cause that I have to share it with you. A couple of months ago I had the opportunity to attend a screening of [...]
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Realizing when you need a break. (And letting yourself take one.)
May 4, 2014 { 18 comments }I’m so happy to wake up to this… I really need to think harder about that dream of mine to move to the U.S. Virgin Islands and open a yoga studio/training center. ;) In all seriousness, I want to start off today’s post with an important topic. Realizing when you need a break. (And letting [...]
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Day in the Life: When Clients Cancel, A Good Run, My Book is Done!
May 2, 2014 { 28 comments }Happy Friday! Happy Friday! Happy Friday! I’ve got two big reasons to be happy today. 1) I turned in the FINAL draft of my book yesterday! 2) I’m celebrating with a trip to the beach to visit my parents. Flying out at 6 a.m. Saturday and can’t wait! So I thought I would do a [...]
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Finding The Right Workout Balance: Lift, Run, Stretch
April 2, 2014 { 67 comments }One of the questions that I receive all the time is how to find the right workout balance between cardio, strength and mobility. I totally understand this question from both ends of the spectrum. Mindset #1 – “I do this one thing and it’s all I want to do!” I spent a good 6 years where [...]
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Putting Down the iPhone
February 6, 2014 { 144 comments }If you haven’t read Brene Brown’s book Daring Greatly, you are missing out. It was hands down THE most influential book that I read in 2013…to the point where it has created changes in my behavior in several aspects of my life. It’s all about embracing vulnerability and imperfection and living wholeheartedly in a world [...]
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Scenes from the Purge
February 1, 2014 { 27 comments }Let me sum up my Saturday in one photo. I have been putting off a massive purge for months and it’s finally happening this weekend. My guest bedroom has been one of those, “keep the door closed and pretend like it’s not a disaster in there” kind of situations that was really hanging over me. [...]
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The Walls Come Crumbling Down
January 13, 2014 { 37 comments }Last weekend was…emotionally heavy. The studio where I teach started their fourth teacher training on Friday night. I participated in the very first training the studio offered three years ago and have now been teaching yoga for three years. I wrote a post about my experience in teacher training. Every year when a new yoga [...]
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My Look Back at 2013 + Your Favorite Posts
December 31, 2013 { 17 comments }The blog world runneth over with “Best of 2013” recap posts today and here I am to add to the fun. I would like to start out by saying that overall 2013 was a good year for me. It wasn’t without its struggles (probably one of my personal favorite posts from the year) but one [...]
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Approximation
December 23, 2013 { 15 comments }One of my yoga teachers is always telling us to “approximate the pose” to the best of our abilities. How you do a pose might not look like the yogi practicing next to you, a photo in Yoga Journal or the way Krishnamacharya would do it but it’s the right way for you and your [...]
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Healthy in 2014, 2024 and Beyond!
December 20, 2013 { 6 comments }The New Year is just around the corner and that means it’s time to reflect on the past year and set goals for the year ahead. This year I want to encourage you not to think only of short-term goals but also long-term goals around health and the aging process. What can you initiate in [...]
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Five Things I’m Doing To Age Gracefully & Healthfully
December 6, 2013 { 20 comments }Let’s have an honest conversation about aging and growing old. I think it’s easy to have tunnel vision when it comes this topic. We have the tendency to limit aging to focus more on the next phase in our life instead of the overall big picture. So for us growing older means hitting common social [...]
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Practicing Gratitude
November 25, 2013 { 9 comments }I hope your Thanksgiving week is off to a great start! I taught my regular Sunday morning yoga class yesterday and the message that we focused on was letting this week of Thanksgiving be about actively practicing gratitude and celebrating the abundant blessings in our lives. To begin class I read my yogis the following [...]
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Happy In The Here And Now
November 9, 2013 { 10 comments }http://oascentral.blogher.org/RealMedia/ads/adstream_jx.ads/ReviewBadge/OID5498_Folgers_Best_Part_ReviewBadges_015/@x13I was out on a girl’s night recently and as we circled around the table catching up we laughed that every single one of us answered with some sort of variation of, “I’ve been so busy. Work is crazy. Life is complicated. Will things ever be simple?” The resounding answer was NO! Things will never be [...]
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Be Your Own Hero
October 19, 2013 { 14 comments }http://oascentral.blogher.org/RealMedia/ads/adstream_jx.ads/ReviewBadge/OID5498_Folgers_Best_Part_ReviewBadges_015/@x13I have a quick exercise for you. – Make a list of five things you love about yourself. – Make a separate list of five things you wish you could change about yourself, insecurities you harbor, negative self-talk that runs on a repeat reel, etc. Which one was easier to write? If you’re like me [...]
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Women Supporting Women
October 15, 2013 { 28 comments }I can’t even tell you how many conversations I have had with this year with female friends, co-workers, students, business owners, etc. who have dealt with competition, jealously, gossip, resentment and overall lack of support among women. I walked into my 8:10 yoga class today feeling overwhelmed and sad by this current epidemic of women [...]
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Dealing with Stress and the Stomach
October 14, 2013 { 152 comments }When I am super stressed or anxious one of the first symptoms I experience is digestive issues. It seems to be one of the ways that my body physically manifests the emotional stress of anything from a job interview to an argument to receiving really bad news. I have had this post in the “to [...]
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This is going to be the best day of my life.
September 24, 2013 { 17 comments }http://oascentral.blogher.org/RealMedia/ads/adstream_jx.ads/ReviewBadge/OID5498_Folgers_Best_Part_ReviewBadges_015/@x13 What if you woke up every morning and said to yourself, “this is going to be the best day of my life.” Did you know that the oldest yoga teacher in the world is 95 and this is what she tells herself every day she gets out of bed? Oh, and she can still [...]
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Decide What To Be And Go Be It, Round 2
September 23, 2013 { 49 comments }Two years ago today I announced that I was leaving my advertising job to pursue a career in fitness.The past two years have taken me from making training, teaching and blogging my living to accepting a full-time position as the general manager of Metro Fitness Club and Metro CrossFit. Each step of this journey has [...]
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A Day In The Life Tuesday
September 18, 2013 { 24 comments }I thought it would be fun to do a post about what Tuesday looked like for me versus another “day in the life” post I did on Tuesday, October 18, 2011. The 2011 post was written just a few weeks after I left my full-time job in advertising to pursue fitness but I had not [...]
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The Evolution of Two Blogs & One Girl
September 9, 2013 { 84 comments }I got my start as a blogger five years ago when I launched my food and recipe blog, Bakin’ and Eggs, and shared my dad’s chili recipe. I started Bakin’ and Eggs because I was constantly getting asked by friends and co-workers, “What should I make for dinner?,” “Do you have a recipe for…?”How do [...]
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A Response & Regular Stuff
August 28, 2013 { 15 comments }Good morning. I so appreciate all of your insightful and kind comments on yesterday’s post. I guess what I want to say in return is that I have been through an incredible amount of change in my professional and personal life over the past two years. Literally everything has changed. I have experienced a broad [...]
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All I Seek Is Within
August 27, 2013 { 33 comments }http://oascentral.blogher.org/RealMedia/ads/adstream_jx.ads/ECU/OID5039_Whirlpool_KitchenAid_ECU_097/@x13?_RM_HTML_FRAMEWIDTH_=450http://ads.blogherads.com/campaigns/13/131/1310892/1311534/x92.js One of the things that keeps me coming back to my yoga mat over and over again is that my practice always seems to deliver what I need, whether I came looking for it or not. I’ve had a lot on my heart and mind over the last few weeks as I’ve worked to [...]
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Introvert or Extrovert?
August 21, 2013 { 26 comments }The last few weeks I have seen two different articles circulating Facebook about introverts and extroverts. There’s the Huffinton Post’s “23 Signs You’re Secretly An Introvert” and BuzzFeed’s “25 Frustrating Things About Being an Extrovert.” I found both to be entertaining and they made me think. The signs you’re an introvert definitely resonated with me [...]
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The Best Way to Wrap Up the Week
August 9, 2013 { 8 comments }I am beyond grateful for Friday and to put this week in the books. Although it had its good moments, I cannot say this week was a very pretty one overall. A vegan whole wheat chocolate chip cookie from Earth Fare helped. Nothing about this cookie tasted vegan or whole wheat. As did spending two [...]
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What I’m Reading + The Best Summer Lunch
July 29, 2013 { 33 comments }Hi there. I’m back in Charlotte where it seems that things are exactly as I left them. I had to get away because I missed my parents and also because I needed a step back. I find that I have to get out of my day-to-day reality sometimes to gain clarity on the big picture. [...]
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The Most Important Practice: Self-Care
July 18, 2013 { 18 comments }Take care of yourself so you are more able to receive. When I take care of myself — sleep, movement, space for not-doingness — then I’m better able to hear and see which way to go. You can’t be tuned in if your head and body are static with fatigue and stress. – Via Danielle [...]
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You Never Know
July 9, 2013 { 37 comments }I have been in a really contemplative place lately. I don’t know how better to describe it but I’m in major evaluation mode. I’m okay. I’m just thinking about a lot of things and working on a lot of things. This is a good thing. I taught a yoga class this morning and during my [...]
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On Swirling and Expanding
July 2, 2013 { 16 comments }Type, delete. Type, delete. This is how so many of my posts start. “Hey guys, Happy Tuesday!” is NOT working for me today. Blogging is difficult sometimes because there is this whole life thing going on behind the scenes of what I show you every day. And mine has a tendency of late to look [...]
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Sustainability
June 23, 2013 { 15 comments }I’m back in Charlotte but only for a few days before I take off on my next adventure. Details to come on that later this week but I should have lots of good stuff to share with you from my upcoming travels. The past few weeks have been really crazy and stressful on both personally [...]
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Stop saying I don’t know.
June 9, 2013 { 34 comments }Weekend in photos… I had to work on Saturday morning but it was pretty awesome. 1) Metro CrossFit was rocking and we had a great group for our morning classes with lots of new faces. 2) These sweet puppies were there overseeing the WOD! No really, every time people ran out of the doors to [...]
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On Stopping The Storytelling
June 4, 2013 { 23 comments }Last Sunday I talked to my yoga class about storytelling. Not the kind of sweet stories you tell children but the stories you make up in your head that cause you fear, anxiety, questioning and doubt. This is something I have struggled with for a long time. I completely freak myself out about things and [...]
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30 to 30
May 16, 2013 { 37 comments }One month from today I will turn 30. I have mixed emotions about this. It’s not being 30 that freaks me out…it’s more all of the evaluation that comes with entering a new decade of your life that freaks me out. The true struggle is letting go of the picture of what I thought my [...]
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On Being Real And Letting Go
April 20, 2013 { 46 comments }Sorry for the silence for the last couple of days but it’s been an off week. I’m just not feeling great. I’m feeling emotional and anxious, I am questioning a lot of things and I’m sad in general about some situations. It’s a daunting task to write a blog post when you don’t really have [...]
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Love, Compassion and Kindness
April 16, 2013 { 31 comments }Yesterday was a tough day. It started with writing what felt like an endless stream of checks as I took care of some life expenses along with tax day. This brought on a minor freak out about getting serious about financial planning and being more responsible about the big picture. And then Boston happened and [...]
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You Are Okay
April 11, 2013 { 69 comments }The last couple of years have been really up and down for me on a personal and professional level. There have been moments where I’ve wondered how I could possibly be in any more pain and I even uttered the words “I’m dying” on more occasions than I care to admit. I believe that the [...]
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Eating Healthy And Homemade When You Are Busy
April 2, 2013 { 32 comments }It’s no secret that I work a lot. One of the questions that I have been asked countless times over the years is how I have the energy and creativity to make homemade meals when I’m working long days and late hours. The first thing I always say is that it’s like therapy for me. [...]
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On Renewal and Softening
March 31, 2013 { 10 comments }I hope everyone has enjoyed Easter. I had the honor of teaching yoga on this special beautiful Spring morning. Regardless of your belief system, I think that Easter and Spring encourage and welcome renewal and rebirth. I read the following passage to my yoga students at the start of practice today. German writer Johann Wolfgang [...]
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Taking the Bitter with the Sweet
March 19, 2013 { 32 comments }I was talking to my sweet grandmother a few weeks ago and telling her all the things that I had going on. There might have been a bit of whining involved and I loved it when she totally called me out and said, “you have to take the bitter with the sweet.” So for the [...]
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Monday Perspective + Eats + Randoms
March 4, 2013 { 15 comments }Hello. I hope Monday was kind to you. I hit one of those, “Ahhhh…there is so much going on right now that I can’t focus on anything anymore” moments around 5 p.m. so I evacuated my office to go for a run. It was sunny and mid-fifties and the next couple of days are supposed [...]
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Pausing
February 19, 2013 { 13 comments }It seems I’m having to really work for this vacation as this week is off the charts busy. Recently, I’ve tried to drop the whole, “oh my god I’m so busy” thing. I say yes to (most of) the things that make me (off the charts) busy. Honestly though who isn’t “busy?” The things that [...]
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More Rest & More Food Please
February 7, 2013 { 19 comments }Hello and happy Thursday! It’s been a while since I’ve shared any Sullie shots on the blog and she’s been extra cute as always so here are two pictures I posted to Facebook and Instagram today. I have been obsessed with Instagram lately. I am also pretty obsessed with Sullie’s frog legs. The girl has [...]