Being that I'm on vacation this week traveling up the gorgeous Cali coast, I thought it'd be fitting to take a break from food and fitness to share a post about a new room I just redid in my house with a travel & adventure theme. This room serves as my exercise room for when I do at-home workouts - housing all of my fitness equipment like my bike trainer, dumbbells, yoga mats, stretching/foam rolling/recovery toys, workout DVDs, etc. It also serves as a guest room when we have visitors in town, and is the room where Adam's closet resides (...because I refuse to share the walk-in closet in our master bedroom!). Before we redid it, the room was dingy looking and plain... and now I kind of love the space! It seems like I've always moved into places in a hurry, decorated ... [Read More]
travel
2015 Holiday Vacation Highlights
Hi friends, and Happy New Year! I had 12 days off of work for my holiday break, and not surprisingly, it just zoomed by. My hubby and I flew to the East coast to spend the holidays with our families in Jersey, and had a packed schedule full of fun. I had set up a few blog posts that published while I was out of town, and really took a break from blogging, email, and my computer in general. I also only posted a few times on social media the entire trip. I love being connected, but it was a much needed break. I thought it'd be fun to recap my holiday break today and share what I've been up to. Let's get to it! We spent Christmas at my parents' house. I made a bunch of dishes for the holiday, including this healthier apple crumb pie (recipe via Making Thyme for ... [Read More]
My 2015 Favorites
With 2015 drawing to a close, I love looking back at the year and thinking about all of my favorite travels and adventures, as well as my most memorable recipes and workouts of the year. I thought it'd be fun today to take a look back and highlight those memories. Let's get to it! My Favorite Adventures & Travel... Wine Tasting in the Santa Ynez Valley Bachelorette Partying in Miami A Trip to Lundberg Farms During their Rice Harvest August Adventures Back Home in Jersey (my birthday, hubby's birthday, best friend's wedding & more!) Ladies' Night in NYC with my fellow foodie friend Danielle Visiting Solvang, California’s Taste of Denmark Anniversary Celebration in Temecula Wine Country Weekend Escape to Big Bear Lake My Favorite ... [Read More]
A Day in Baja, Mexico [Travel Recap]
Living in the San Diego area, crossing the border into Mexico has been long on my bucket list... and last weekend, I finally got to check it off! As an American, the concept of being able to just hop over a country border by land is interesting to me. It's not something I've gotten to do very much. In my European travels, I've crossed borders in trains and busses, but I barely have known when I've crossed into another country since it's not necessary to go through customs between European Union countries... but the idea of literally walking over a border? Intriguing! The 4-day Thanksgiving weekend seemed like the perfect chance to spend a day exploring Baja. I've found that there are two categories of Southern California residents when it comes to Baja travel: a.) ones who ... [Read More]
What Makes You Fit? {Biking in Austria}
"Are you fit?" "Did you say that you workout?" These were the questions our tour guide was shouting to me as I struggled to keep up with him and my husband biking through the hills of Austria. We had booked a bike tour in hopes of seeing more of the beautiful Austria countryside and getting some leisurely exercise in during our vacation there, but I wasn't so prepared to be huffing and puffing with my heart rate at a sky-high level. Our guide was a little man in his 60s, originally from somewhere in Asia, who seemed to be in good shape for his age and told us he exercised daily. While I already knew that my husband was stronger and faster on a bike than I was from our bike date workouts through the hills of California, I wasn't really expecting our guide to be as hardcore of ... [Read More]
A Trip to Lundberg Family Farms in NorCal During their Rice Harvest
“LEAVE THE LAND BETTER THAN YOU FOUND IT.” - ALBERT LUNDBERG Supporting companies that make it their main priority to create their products in a way that is responsible and with their customers' best interest at heart is important to me. I love getting to know more about companies, whose running them, and what's going on behind the scenes. This is one of the big reasons why I love buying food at local farmers' markets, nabbing produce from the farm stand down the street from me, and attending events where I get to learn firsthand about how food is made with love. That's why when Lundberg Family Farms recently contacted me inviting me to visit their farm in Northern California during their rice harvest, I jumped at the chance. Lundberg is an organic, non-GMO certified maker of all ... [Read More]