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Staying Healthy While Traveling

Good morning and happy Tuesday friends! I hope you guys are having a good week.

This week I am going to try something a bit different. I am going to go back to my blogging roots in order to help me stay accountable. As you all know, I believe in finding healthy moderation in order to live a healthy, happier life. This week as I am in Cincinnati for three days of business meetings and then heading back down to Avalon for a few more days at the beach, checking in with you guys more frequently during the week, on a more personal level, will help keep me accountable and continue to make strides with this month’s goals of getting back to a place of strength and confidence.

When I landed in Cincinnati yesterday at 12:45pm I headed directly to the Cincinnati Airport’s food court in search of a healthy lunch option. The new Chick-Fil-A Grilled Market salad was a great solution as the fresh berries provide a burst of Summer flavor and the cabbage provides some fun crunch. Even though the salad is only 320 calories, the 14 grams of fat and 26 grams of protein helped keep me full until dinner. Since I knew my afternoon would involve back to back meetings, I grabbed a medium fruit cup to snack on later in the afternoon.

Chick-fil-a market salad

When our meetings ended at 5:30 a group of us walked a few blocks to Igby’s for happy hour with some of our fellow team members. Due to the bar’s large size, we were able to snag a space for our group in the back that made our happy hour feel more like a private party. Their $5 happy hour was the perfect way to end the day and kick off a few days of team meetings.

Sotto cincinnati

After happy hour my friend Amy and I headed next door to Sotto for dinner. It’s always wonderful to catch up with my best friend when I’m in Cincinnati for business since she lives and works in our Cincinnati office. Due to multiple meetings and conventions in Cincinnati this week, we weren’t sure Sotto would have any availability. But, luckily since we were a party of two, we were able to sit at their chef’s bar.  The atmosphere of Sotto is what I would call intimate Italian chic and the service is top notch. The chef we spoke to from across the chef’s bar was able to recommend a dish from every section based on our love of seafood and desire to sample a few of their signature dishes. We each sipped on their Nebbiolo wine while sharing three dishes:

  • Baby bibb – apple honey dressing, croutons, olives, feta, pignoli
  • Squid ink linguine – rock shrimp, tomato, spinach, spicy breadcrumbs
  • Wood-fired branzino w/ swiss chard & grilled lemon

Unexpectedly, the branzino dish stole the show. I am still thinking about how Bo and I can recreate the flavorful branzino dish at home. The swiss chard was perfectly seasoned and paired perfectly with the lemon branzino. The fish was tender and flaky while the skin was grilled to a perfect level of crisp. While the meal was not cheap, every single dish was five stars and executed perfectly. I will definitely return to Sotto again soon!

By the time I checked into my hotel around 8:45 I could barely keep my eyes open. Instead of staying up and doing work I collapsed in bed. I decided that I would be more efficient after a good night’s sleep even if that meant setting my alarm for 4:45 AM.

This morning I woke up after eight hours of sleep feeling like a new person! It’s amazing what sleep can do for the body. Since my calf is still in quite a bit of pain due to the road rash from Sunday’s fall, I opted to do a hotel room workout instead of running outside. I skimmed over my hotel room workout board on Pinterest before settling on a combination of these two workouts:

hotel room workout

I am going to be in non-stop meetings today so my two goals are to stay hydrated and avoid falling into the “meeting food trap.” Our catered meetings at the office tend to have lots of desserts and sweet treats which I would rarely eat during the day. Since I know we have a delicious team dinner tonight, I am going to stick to small, healthy, protein-filled meals throughout the day with some fruit for sweetness.

Your turn – What is your favorite way to work out when traveling? Do you have a favorite travel or hotel room workout? 

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A Weekend in Avalon

Sunset in Avalon

Last night as the sunset, we said “see you later” to Avalon, New Jersey and headed back to NYC for three days of work.

It is hard to describe the joy we experienced this weekend as 11 people crammed into a small, bay facing shore house in Avalon for 48-hours. You know those weekends that you just want to enjoy as long as possible, hoping that it won’t come to an end? That was this weekend.   Even though the air conditioning didn’t exactly work and there was only one bathroom, the laughter was constant, the dock served as a second living room and a jump into the ocean waves or off the dock was the perfect way to cool down. In fact, I don’t think any of us would change a thing about the weekend. It was so wonderful to create new memories with the group. Here is a hilarious picture from 1996 that the cousins (Bo, Meg, Sarah and Katie) recreated last night before we drove back to NYC.

cousins 1996

cousins 2016

Many shore rentals, including ours, are Saturday to Saturday, which means that we didn’t leave for the shore until bright and early Saturday morning. We left Brooklyn at 6 AM with hopes of being in Avalon by 9, allowing us to enjoy a full beach day. Our plan worked perfectly and we were exploring the area on two wheels, with iced coffee in hand, by 9:30.

Bike riding through Avalon

Since the rest of the group wouldn’t arrive until Saturday afternoon, we spent Saturday squeezing in a few activities. Bo and I took a surfing lesson together before meeting Russell and Meg at Primo Hoagies for huge, delicious hoagies. Their special, fresh bread was delicious and exactly the way I like it – crispy on the outside and chewy inside.

Surfing in Avalon

Primo Hoagie

Avalon Dunes

After lunch we spent the afternoon relaxing on the beach, body surfing through the waves and taking an afternoon beach nap before hopping on our bikes in search of a cool treat. Opened in 1957, Avalon Freeze was Meg and Bo’s favorite dessert spot growing up and I now understand the obsession.  This chocolate chip cookie cone was filled with soft vanilla ice cream then dipped in rainbow jimmies (sprinkles) and peanut butter crunchies.

Avalon freeze

We spent the rest of Saturday catching up with everyone, jumping off the dock and enjoying a late dinner. Bo’s mom brought a batch of her famous sauce and paired it with fresh shrimp, sausage, pasta, garlic bread and italian salads for our first meal together. After the day of fresh air and a dockside beers, our group was fast asleep by 10pm.

Bo and I kicked off Sunday with a long run which allowed him to give me a tour of Avalon and Stone Harbor.  Unfortunately the sightseeing combined with an uneven sidewalk resulted in a pretty nasty spill across the sidewalk and pebbles during mile 2. It looked worse than it felt and we were able to continue through our run until reaching our finish line – the beach!

Falling when running

Avalon long run

After our run, I spent the rest of the day relaxing on the dock. When I wasn’t reading, I was hanging doing cannon balls off the dock, stand up paddle boarding and laughing as we used tubes and boogie boards as makeshift floats. We headed back inside every hour to enjoy a brief break from the sun and follow the British Open golf tournament which ended up being far more exciting than anyone imagined!

Avalon dock picture

Late in the afternoon we took one last bicycle tour of the island together, heading to Stone Harbor to explore and visit some favorite spots. We played video games and skeet ball at the arcade, treated ourselves to local fudge, and explored the shops before riding back home for a final dinner with everyone and heading back to New York City.  Luckily, I only have to make it through three busy work days in Cincinnati before Bo and I get to head back to Avalon for a long weekend with his cousin and parents.

Avalon and Stone Harbor Recommendations: 

 

 

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Strong and Confident

Today I saw a headline in an email I received from BlogHer urging people to stop overthinking their blogs and just write.

blogher

source

As simple as this statement is, it spoke to me on many levels. It came exactly at the right moment. Within my Apple Notes app, I have a list of 28 blog post ideas that I have wanted to write over the past six months. The topics that this list covers ranges but one thing remains the same as I review the list every few days as I add something else. They are all still relevant to my readers, but they each take preparation to write. Whether it is photography or research, I can rationalize the reason each one has yet to be published.

When I saw this headline, I convinced myself that instead of hemming and hawing over a topic that ran through my head earlier today I would put “fingers to keyboard” and just let the words flow.

While trying to pass time, during an inordinately long commute home today, I perused the 11,535 photographs I have on my phone. I used the search bar to see what I was doing this week last year. Suddenly I saw images of our temporary housing, Fresh Direct orders, Central Park long runs and my first few ClassPass classes.

central park long rid

A year ago living in New York City was fresh and new. Everything that we’d missed for two years while living abroad, was suddenly at our fingertips. Our temporary housing was in Times Square, a neighborhood we despised so much, we spent as much time as possible exploring other places either by foot or bicycle. I found myself taking long bike rides in Central Park just to get away from the noise of our 21st-floor apartment.

As I skimmed over the photographs, one stopped my thumb from swiping forward.

sports bra long run

On the screen was a strong, confident young woman running through Central Park. I remember this run as if it was yesterday. We’d slept until 11:30 after being out late with friends the previous night. Instead of rescheduling our long run for the next day, I convinced Bo to lace up his shoes and head to Central Park for a six-mile run. Many of those miles were pure misery – dehydration from the past night’s cocktails, humidity and tourists crowding Central Park’s paths. Regardless of the heat and humidity, I smiled the entire run, as I was exuding a confidence I’d never felt before. I was running in a sports bra, through New York’s busiest park, without a care in the world. I felt strong and confident as I put one foot in front of the other.  Without the constraining fabric of a tank top, I felt free.

While some people desire a bikini body this Summer, I want to return to a place of strength and confidence. Many people who saw this image on Instagram today didn’t read the caption and assumed this is the Ashley Diamond of today. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. Our first year in NYC has been a roller coaster that hasn’t always provided the time or capacity to focus on me. But, just two weeks into my new monthly training plan, I can already feel the strength coming back. I look forward to sharing this journey with you guys as I unlock the strength and confidence I exuded last year. This Sunday, during our weekend at the shore, will be the perfect time to bring the sports bra long run!

With that, here’s a glimpse at this month’s workouts thus far:

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