Trust the Timing of Life

After 3+ months of no running due to an injury, little activity with lots of Netflix, I finally dipped my toes back into running on a very cold January day with a two mile jog to my favorite park in Astoria. I stopped in the Socrates Sculpture Park to admire the winter-y scenery along the East River. At that moment, after months of missing out on early runs, jogs past the Christmas windows on 5th Ave, and most importantly sitting out the NYC Marathon, I was at peace with everything that happened. I've always heard, "everything happens for a reason," and I believe that if you slow down long enough to understand it all, it's definitely true.

Sometimes you just lose the spark. I admit my training last summer and fall for the NYC Marathon was anything but fun. Slogging through the heat on long runs, waking up early after working exhausting weddings, and giving up on social time just was no longer fun for me. I was wholly committed to running the marathon, but not as excited to do the work as I wanted to be. As a person who is driven by passion, it was hard for me to force myself to do the long runs that were a necessary part of training. Ironically, during the last 20 mile run of my training, which also happened to be one of the most fun and best times of my training cycle, I suffered a stress fracture. It was almost like the universe was telling me "wait, not yet." I deferred the marathon and struggled through several physically and mentally painful weeks leading up to the day I wouldn't be toeing the line in Staten Island.

However, the universe is always right in its timing. My parents flew in for marathon weekend and we had the time of our lives eating, drinking, seeing a Broadway show and ultimately cheering at the marathon. Originally, I had wanted to be as far away from the marathon course as possible on the big day, but my family urged me to attend and cheer on my friends and teammates. We went and saw the finish line the day before the race, and they hugged me as I cried for a few moments when the realization hit me that this wasn't my year to cross it. 

On Marathon morning we staked out a spot in Brooklyn and cheered on the elites and the throngs of runners. It really hit me when my training buddy Evi passed and I cried a few tears. The day couldn't have gone better as everyone had the race of their lives and I got to be with my teammates cheering on everyone's races. That day sparked my love of running once again.

Cheering in Brooklyn

When you really love something and can't do it, it hurts, but I think it also refills your tank. My running tank was pretty close to empty. Taking three months off to see friends I hadn't been able to make time for, actively pursuing my yoga practice, and traveling to Costa Rica on a retreat, all added fuel to my tank. Missing out on group runs, cheering friends in the Philadelphia Marathon, and having a ton of quality time on my couch truly allowed me the time to embrace my pain and understand how much I loved the sport. I had been moaning and groaning on early mornings, slogging through long runs, and counting down every mile until the runs were over. Ultimately, my injury was necessary for my running. I wouldn't have loved every moment of the NYC Marathon and maybe have even decided to continue running if I hadn't had the time to reflect while recovering from my injury.

Whippets Cheer Station in the Bronx

Therefore, I now embrace my running, and even more so the health of my running than ever before. I have learned I need to mentally be into it to enjoy it. I need to take care of my body and follow the plan that is best for me, even if others may be able to run more miles or faster than me. The longevity of running is truly based on the way you treat yourself and I want to treat myself well.

For now I have lots to look forward to and many more miles to run!

My Wellness Journey: The Early Years

My wellness journey has been a long and interesting path, this post might as well be put into a book; a feat I one day hope to accomplish to help inspire people to open their mind and their hearts to nutrition. This post will serve more so as an introduction to my overall way of thinking when it comes to nutrition and exercise, and I hope to share not just my knowledge on the subject but also my FEELINGS and the literature and people that inspire me to live the way I do. I think and live loudly.

 Summers spent in the great outdoors of North Carolina are my fondest memory

Horseback riding: I always talked the parents into it

I thank my childhood and the way I was raised to the person I have become today. I grew up in a small community in South Florida, and I was raised not eating red meat and with a solid mantra that movement and exercise was very important. My younger sister and I were always very active, taking yearly family trips to North Carolina where we played and hiked, playing outside everyday and learning to swim at the age of two, and we both began playing soccer early in elementary school. Luckily, growing up in Florida allowed me to be able to go outside all year round and wear shorts and bare feet almost everyday of the year. My youngest memories are from the kitchen table at our nightly family dinners and taking trips to the park around the corner to play.

I was a competitive figure skater for much of my later childhood/teenage years and was what you can call obsessed. I lived at my local ice arena (an odd sport you can say for a Floridian to take up.) I had some natural talent and progressed quickly once I began taking group lessons and soon got a coach who pushed me to train harder and to begin competing. Coming from a team sport based lifestyle, I learned to really thrive and enjoy relying on myself rather than a team to win and to grow. I incorporated cross training into my skating; doing conditioning off ice with my coach, group stroking classes to gain power and speed, and then he asked me to start doing 30 minute runs to build my endurance. I enjoyed these runs immensely, but saw them more as a tool for skating than as a sport itself. Little did I know that I would grow up to be a runner! I competed throughout High School and had to retire my Freshman year of college after winning my final competition; and it was great to go out with a bang. I do wish I still lived as close and had the time to skate, skating gave me so much in my life. It gave me the courage to try something new and the confidence to get out on the ice and give my all solo, it gave me a passion and a level of commitment and determination that I would carry with me through everything I do, a bond with my mother who continually traveled to competitions with me and supported all of my decisions, and a creative edge to make my programs and costumes to interpret the music and stories of my skating programs. I love figure skating and all that it gave me, and I miss it dearly!

The nutrition side of things was always inspired by my parents who taught us to eat healthily and very much plant based. We were extremely limited on sodas, processed foods, and desserts which formed my mindset I have today to live a vegan and plant based life while also allowing myself indulgences but in a limited fashion. I grew up eating no red meat as mentioned above, eating dairy/eggs/fish/turkey/chicken. At the ripe ole’ age of 12 I gave up my turkey and chicken after be-friending a chicken named Betsey at a friend’s home in North Carolina where we vacationed each year. Being raised to appreciate nature and animals not just as food but as living beings instilled in me a very sensitive and loving nature towards them. I am vegan today not for the health benefits (which are immense) but because I believe that animals have every right to life as humans and are not to be eaten as food. I like to say that I am vegan because I do not believe in any violence, nor cruelty.

After yo-yoing and not treating my body very well through some of High School and the beginning of college, I began researching more into nutrition and read the book Skinny Bitch which I can thank for changing my old mindset on nutrition and exercise. I cleaned up my life, threw away my packaged and processed meals I was living on in college housing and ventured into Whole Foods and began a running routine. Immediately I fell in love with whole food nutrition and running; like skating I only could rely on myself to push myself and to hit the pavement. And that was just the beginning of my random running kind of life ;)

Keep running friends~