Day 1: La Bamba

Today is the first of my 100 day challenge. Whoop whoop! To jumpstart my metabolism and get my body in the best starting condition it can be in, I'm participating in what's called the La Bamba cleanse. It's a 3-day cleanse done with Herbalife products* that helps you lose 5-7lbs and reduce your body fat percentage. Before anyone freaks out, it is not a starvation diet.

Day 1 requirements:

-2 gallons of water

-8 servings of Herbalife Beverage Mix (Wild Berry or Peach Mango--your choice)

-2 teaspoons Herbal Tea Concentrate (any flavor)

-2 fl oz Herbal Aloe Concentrate (Mango tastes better than Original)

Mix all ingredients together an drink throughout the day, and don't eat or drink anything extra except Herbalife supplements, if you take them. 

Keep in mind that each serving of Beverage Mix has 15g of protein in it, and 8 servings comes to 120g of protein during day 1. Your body is not starving. This liquid is actually working to clean out your kidneys and rid them of any partially broken down protein particles and glucagon that might be stored.

I mixed the drink in a 2 quart pitcher, so I had to make 4 batches throughout the day, so I divided everything by 4. You might want to mix the ingredients in two 1 gallon jugs for easier transportation. Thankfully, it's -6 in Minnesota, so my car can double as a refrigerator if I need it too! I can definitely tell you to expect to use the restroom A LOT. 2 gallons of liquid is double what I normally consume, and they're not kidding about cleaning out your kidneys. 

A word of caution: don't work out during day 1. I made that mistake today. Crossfit was a huge struggle. I feel fine now that I've had a 2 hour nap and some time to write this post, but my workout was definitely tougher to get through than it normally is. I would recommend starting La Bamba on a day that you can relax and spend the day watching Netflix or something. 

Starting stats: 23.5% body fat, 94lb lean muscle mass

*If you are interested in trying this cleanse, shoot me an email for more information on how to get Herbalife products shipped right to your front door!

Growing Pains

August was without a doubt my favorite month of summer. I spent most of the end of June through August training for the YWCA women's sprint triathlon with my friend Sheireen, which couldn't have been better timing for me.

Yep. We're matching...we were in a Buddy Wave together, so of course we had to do it! People kept thinking we were sisters! Which is pretty funny since we really don't look alike. 

This race was more than just a reason to physically push myself. This race helped me to understand that I really can accomplish anything I set my mind to. I had a lot of personal stuff to deal with in the weeks leading up to the race, and it was during this time that I learned more about myself than I thought I would.

Being an extermely independent person can be difficult. I'm the one people go to for help, but I have a hard time asking for help myself. Sheireen, this race, other friends, and my family helped me to see that I have such a strong safety net of people surrounding me, and I'm ashamed to say that it took me so long to realize it. Better late than never I guess, right? Anyway, enough of the sappy stuff.

Sheireen and I set our goal time for our first sprint triathlon. We decided that 2:00:00 was manageable for a 500m swim, a 15.5 mile bike, and 5k run. On top of that, we decided that we would put in our best effort to stay moving the whole time and try our best not to walk or stop at any point in the race unless one of us was injured.

Shout out to my good friend Jen for dragging her two adorable toddlers and her mother out to support us! Oh, and Jen gets photo cred for the picture below, too! She's Wonder Woman in disguise, I tell you.

Crossing the finish line was so exciting, emotional, and thrilling. Indescribable, really. I would love to do this race again. It was so empowering! Off the record, I would highly recommend the YWCA Women's Sprint Triathlon, especially if it's your first race!

Check out this link for more information on the 2014 YWCA Women's Triathlon!

Working Hard or Hardly Working?

The answer: working hard, with a good amount of hardly working. Consulting projects are well underway and very time consuming. Coaching is picking up as we head out to dance camp, and choreography and workshops start popping up this month. But first, a little bit of play time. :)

My family upheld the tradition of staying in my grandfather's condo on the beach over the 4th of July. A beautiful view from the condo. We had a ton of time together as a family and got to spend more time than usual with my grandparents and aunt.

My mom and I love these little shops near the condo. We always find some cool stuff. This time we found a gift for my dad...

...yep, that is a fully functioning vintage traffic light. Why you ask? Well my dad loves everything having to do with cars and road signs. My parents' garage walls are covered with vintage oil signs, oil jars, and old license plates from his "toy cars" that he collected and sold over the years. Pretty cool, huh?

That next week, my brother and I got to experience a concert by Kenny Chesney with performances by Kasey Musgraves and Zac Brown Band at Target Field in Minneapolis, MN. 

Aww, sibling love. :) 

Outdoor concerts are absolutely amazing. And this one was no exception. It was an awesome July night in downtown Minneapolis, country music in the air, and cowboy hats and cowboy boots everywhere. (Pardon the rhyming..) 

Truth be told, I enjoyed Zac Brown Band the most out of all the acts. The next person who finds me ZBB tickets to purchase will be my new best friend. I've been listening to them nonstop since that concert. The Zac Brown Band station on Pandora is phenomenal. Just saying :)

Like I said, there was some "work" that went along with the "play"...if you want to call it work. I had the opportunity to spend time with the wonderful Karl Mundt a few times this summer. I assisted him with dance workshops across the country and even helped him choreograph a few routines! 

Another "first" of this summer was my first visit to Portland, OR with Shelby, Courtney, and Karl. Yep, we were on a rooftop restaurant...pretty sweet! Portland was a beautiful city, and I loved being able to teach dance to high school and college students in the same week with some amazing coworkers. I'm not sure that I'm cut out to live on the west coast, but I'd definitely visit again. (Spoiler alert! I may or may not have visited again in October to choreograph the University of Oregon's nationals routine for 2014! Videos to follow, post-nationals of course!)

I've been so blessed to have all of these opportunities, and I'm so thankful for each and every experience I've had this summer.

Skydiving and Camping

This summer was one for the books. About a couple weeks after returning from Italy, I threw myself into 4 part time jobs: 2 consulting projects, coaching dance team, and choreographing dance routines across the country. But man, was it awesome! In all the spare moments (that I had to fight for) this summer, I found a couple petty awesome things to do.

Three of my good friends surprised me with a weekend in Duluth, MN--I've never really been to Duluth, so I was pretty excited to get away for the weekend. We left on a Friday night and spent the night in Superior and went out on the town. In the morning, all three of them were acting really weird and wouldn't tell me what was going on, except that we had to be at WalMart by noon on Saturday. Which was odd, considering one of the friends on the trip detests WalMart, and I mean really detests WalMart. Sure enough, we didn't go to WalMart at noon. We wound up at Skydive Superior!! Yep, first timer here.

That's right! We jumped out of this plane that had only 1 seat: for the pilot...

My spiffy 1980's, yet "Zeenon Girl of the 21st Century" skydiving suit...I just had to document it. 

Once all of us had our adrenaline rush, my friends informed me that we were going camping--I've also never camped in my life. The best part? I'm the planner in my group of friends, so they had not reserved a plot, nor did they pack bring sleeping bags or tents. Off to WalMart we went...despite James' disgust (sorry for outing you, Briggs!)

Once we had all of our gear, we headed to Gooseberry falls to find a spot to camp, and what do you know...all full. But a woman told us about a camping spot that was a free for all off a dirt road. As long as we could find a spot to camp, the space was ours and we could stay for the night. The catch was that we had to hike "a mile or so" to the designated areas. Us city slickers were pretty excited when we arrived. Nobody had camped in the woods before. They had always found a natural park...or what ever you call those places...where you can pay for a camping space.

The "mile or so" turned into what felt like 5...all uphill. And not to sound like everyone's grandmother with the "when I was little I walked 20 miles to school in the snow uphill both ways!"...but it kind of felt like that. Nobody knew where we were going, but we just followed the path for 2 hours until we came to the camp site.

I like to think of myself as a female handyman (would I be a handywoman?...I digress) so I volunteered to build the tents. 

Not too shabby for a first timer huh? 

We had about 2 hours of sunlight left when we arrived so we scrambled for firewood. We were the only group out in the woods that night, and we didn't buy firewood to bring with us since the woman at Gooseberry Falls swore that we could find wood laying along the trail. There was plenty laying around, except it rained the night before...wet firewood=smoky mess.

We got creative using tortilla chips for kindling but that only lasted us so long. With the sun rapidly setting and almost no firewood, we resorted to using our iPhones as flashlights...which drained our batteries quickly. Kelsey and I started getting scared at the thought of something bad happening to us and not having cell phones to call for help if we needed it. 

I think that was the earliest we've ever gone to sleep on a Saturday night, and it was purely out of fear. I'm terrified of the dark, and I've seen way too many horror movies that involve college age kids camping in the wilderness. I was NOT having it. 

We woke up in the morning and visited the Split Rock Lighthouse...

...and the harbor 

All in all, it was an awesome weekend with some awesome people. I got to explore the beautiful city of Duluth, MN and experience a lot of "firsts" with some of my best friends. 

Do What You Love

I live in the Twin Cities where I attend a competitive college, and for the past couple weeks I've been struggling with the daunting task of finding an internship for the summer. After weeks and weeks of searching, it got to be March and I have ONE interview set up before the end of the semester (more to come on that next week!)

That being said, the interview is next week, so I've had a lot of time to stress and worry about all the little things that could go wrong: 
  --What happens if I don't get the internship? 
  --Everyone else gets internships their Junior year. 
  --Will I still be able to get a steady job after graduation? 
  --What if I have to move back in with my parents? 
  --What if I end up living there the rest of my life?
(*not that there's anything wrong with all of that. It's just not where I see myself in 5 years*)

Anyway. Here's the bottom line:

And the rest will follow.

Thanks to this image (and Pinterest for access to these images) I forced myself to stop worrying about internships and decided to focus on the things I love: dance, yoga, and my friends.

Because in the end...

So yes. I mean to tell you that the less you worry the more confident you are. The more confident you are, the more you put yourself in what could be considered uncomfortable situations--asking that guy (or girl) out for drinks, or making a new friend at a coffee shop, or simply making more time for yourself. Here's how that went for me.

Although I may not have a secured internship at this point, here's what has happened over the past month and a half:
-It was recently announced an that I am an assistant coach for a local high school dance team
-I am able to focus more heavily on my coursework
-I will be traveling to Italy to study abroad for a month (many more posts to come on that)
-Upon my return from Italy, I will be traveling the US teaching and choreographing dance with an independent choreographer and good friend of mine. 
          (and getting paid to do it! Score!)

If that's not success, I don't know what is. I'm doing what I love to do: dancing, making time for myself on my yoga mat each day, and surrounding myself with the best people I know...and I'm without a doubt happier now than when I hovered over my planner stressed about all the things I can and can't control.

It's very easy for us to focus on the one bad thing that isn't going the way we planned and ignore the great things that are happening around us. This is definitely one of those "stop and smell the roses" type of situations.

We are given so much in this life, and we have so much to be thankful for. Take a deep breath today and no matter how hard it is, just stop worrying...even if you have to force yourself to do so. Let yourself find peace among the chaos and be thankful for the little things in life :)

The Beginning

Hey Everyone!

Here's to new beginnings! Super cheesy, I know...after some serious self reflection I decided to kind of make a new start for myself...because I'm still in college and I can do that sort of stuff :)

I decided that through this time of change and growth, I wanted to go ahead and document it all! There are so many blogs out there right now...style blogs, weight loss blogs, millions of tumblr accounts...so I'm just going to be me for now and see if I fit into one of the blogging "molds" that exist today. "Food, Fun, and Fitness" seems to fit my crazy busy lifestyle right now. 

Anyway, here I am. Here you are. Let's get on with the show!