Big Thank You.

Hey friends! Just wanted to check in with you all. Still alive and kicking. I am in Maryland getting ready for the wrath of Miss Hurricane Sandy! The marathon was a tough one but I finished! Just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to all of you for the sweet blog comments and posts on Twitter and Facebook, they meant a lot and I thought of all of your encouraging words during the hard parts of the race. Recap to come! For photos from the marathon check me out on instagram- thedancingrunner. Hope you have a marvelous week and those of you on the east coast, be safe and God Bless! -Chelsea

The next big leap.

“A true master once told me only those who can internally see who they want to become, and painfully long for it, can achieve their potential. Being human is art, and expanding potential afflicts us. Be grateful for your discomfort with your current condition; that discontent lies at the heart of motivation, passion and growth. Without glimpsing what you want to become next you could not continue to evolve. Only when we don’t pine for growth should we worry, for then no matter how hard we try, we go nowhere quickly. You are feeling exactly what you need to be feeling to take the next big leap. Just remember, when you feel this again, after you’ve succeeded at overcoming the impending transformation, you feel this way because it is your power, your ability to change. Too few have it because current life can squelch our internal light. Treasure it. Share it.”

Scott Sonnon, CEO RMAX International, Coach and Creator of CST, TACFIT via Allison English

Gratitude Thursdays.

So, it has been a while but I think I am way overdue for a Gratitude Thursday. Why the word gratitude, you say? I just like that word I guess. But I feel that it is so important to take a moment to remember to be appreciative of all of the things around you. It adds happiness and meaning to your life. When I get up to greet my day every morning, before I leave my apartment, I sit in my car and I thank God for everyone in my life and I wish them joy, peace of mind, and strength. I also pray for those that are sick in their body, broken, and hurting. I pray for their healing and restoration. Whatever your faith may be, I just believe it is important to be thankful and bring your light to a world that can be so dark at times. Anyway, deep I know. I digress. I wrote a post on this not too long ago, so I thought I would keep this whole attitude of gratitude going.

So, without further ado…

I am grateful for music.

I go through phases with different types of music. Some days I am feeling more hip hop, some days more mellow R&B, other days pop music. But music always inspires me. It helps me write better, run faster, dance with more expression, and just makes me happy. Whenever I’m having a bad day I just turn on some music and have a little dance party and all of my troubles go away. Simple as that? Yep.

And…I think it’s always important to just breathe.

I am grateful for quiet moments.

I honestly do not know how some people manage having lots of noise and commotion around them all of the time. For some people, being alone is difficult, but for me, I find peace in being alone. Not sure if this has something to do with the fact that I’m an only child or what. Don’t get me wrong, I love people, but I think it’s important to turn it all off sometimes and collect your thoughts. I just need me some “me time” every once in a while.

Reflecting...

I am grateful for CEP compression sleeves.

So can I just say how thankful I am for these babies? CEP, you are a total lifesaver. So, last night, after I taught dance class I was feeling a little achy. (Does it have to do something with running 13.1 back to back a few short days ago? Quite possibly.) So I put ‘em on. I honestly think they have magical powers or something. Needless to say I slept in them and I have them on now under my leggings and boots.

sorry for the footsies photo. at least I have a pedicure!

I am grateful for the Starbucks coffee place by my job. 

Since it’s where everybody knows my name! I love the baristas there, they are always so perky and friendly, and even know my coffee order and get it right every time. Could it have something to do with the fact that I go there everyday? Probably so. Does it help that they upgraded my coffee order to a venti today and still charged me for the smaller grande size? Absolutely.

I am grateful for moments to let loose with my good friends.

Let’s face it, life can be stressful and it’s always nice when you can kick back with your buddies and have a good time. I really enjoy getting together with my friends, be it by just having a cup of coffee or mimosas over brunch, or for a night out on the town. I am looking forward to some good times with a few friends this weekend. Cheers to that!

Celebrating life

I am grateful for my upcoming vacation / marathon trip to Galveston.

So excited to be running my 4th marathon in roughly 4 weeks! I am already planning for my looooong run which will be next weekend, 3 weeks out from the race. I have fleeting thoughts of a shiny new PR but will mostly be doing this one for fun and we’ll see what happens! Since it is going to be a fun mardi gras themed race I am working on getting my outfit together. What do you think, tutu, mask? Feather boa?

pink tutu. Target! they also have other fun colors. my next purchase will be the purple one. I wear a size 10-12 in little girls sizes still, apparently.

Now it’s your turn, what are you grateful for today? 

We Need a Resolution.

Happy Wednesday to you! I am drinking my grande bold Starbucks coffee and grooving out to the Erykah Badu station on my Pandora…nothing like a little neo soul / R&B to get the workday rockin’ and rollin’.

Most of the time I like to rock out to something more upbeat but this morning I’m feeling mellow…if only incense were allowed in the office…

My morning started with a 4 mile run watching the sun rise. It was beautiful and quiet in my neighborhood. It was nice to get up and running since I had taken off the day after the NY Double. Typically after running a hard race I like to get a massage lasting anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes. It really helps aid in recovery. I pretty much swear by massages. Once a month, every month! It’s how I stay spunky and bendy.

After my run I had some oatmeal with peanut butter and honey. A bowl of oatmeal on a chilly morning = always satisfying…

Speaking of spunky/bendy, tonight I will be teaching Danceaton at 24 Hour Fitness if anyone wants to come out! It will be a good time. A lot of calories will be burned and lots of yelling and dropping down low will ensue. 6:30 pm – 24 Hour Fitness in Murphy, TX. So if you are a member in the area and want to see me make a spectacle of myself I suggest you be there. If not, sorry you miss out.

everybody put your hands in the AYER!!!

So…lots of people have been making posts about New Year’s Resolutions and such…and I haven’t had much to say on the subject since I don’t really make any serious ones…perhaps it’s due to laziness, my A.D.D. – not sure. So I decided that it is a new year and I’m being a slacker. So I should at least jot down a few things I want to work on for 2012. Just because.

I should probably mention that I was inspired to make this list from Giuliana Rancic’s blog post “A New Kind of New Year’s Resolution”. So, here goes.

*Color my hair a funky color. Why? Because I can. 

*Buy a pair of colorful and/or sparkly pumps (and actually wear them…)

these pumps were made for walking (or running?)

*Sing loud in the shower without abandon. Wait – I do this already…

*Run in my neighborhood barefoot.

*Try a recipe with tofu in it. This looks yummy…

quinoa + tofu...a seemingly perfect pair.

*Run a half marathon trail race – doing this in MARCH! See the “Upcoming Races” list at the top right.

*Pick someone each week or each month who you love and write them a note of appreciation and thanks (especially parents, teachers, and mentors)

*Play hooky from work. It will still be there when you get back. (hopefully)

*Turn off facebook/twitter/whatever your social media platform and go visit that friend in person.

*Travel somewhere new. It doesn’t matter if it’s 2 or 20 hours away, just make sure you get there and explore. A new mall doesn’t count.

*Surround myself with more uplifting, positive individuals. 

*Eat 2 desserts without any regret (and fine, hit the gym a little harder tomorrow.)

Do you make new year’s resolutions? If so what are they? 

Easy Weeknight Dinners: Goat Cheese Shrimp Quesadillas.

Thank God it’s Friday!! Well, mine at least. Today I will be a busy little bee in the office, making some last minute tweaks to a few promos for the new year and then I’m OUT! I am SO excited to be doing back to back half marathons this weekend…taking on a crazy challenge but one that I can definitely tackle! It will be a lot of fun! I am sure I will be fueled with lots of this stuff…

yup. pretty much.

Since it’s been a while since I’ve done an installment of Easy Weeknight Dinners, I figured it’s about time for another one! I am all about saving some time in the kitchen, especially when I get home in the evenings from an invigorating workout and cooking is the last thing that I want to do! So this is one of my go-to’s when I want some tasty Latin cuisine that is healthy and easy. I adopted this recipe from my girl over at Eat Live Run. I love the combination of the shrimp, goat cheese and the kick of cayenne spice!

Shrimp and Goat Cheese Quesadillas – from Eat Live Run

serves 2

Ingredients:

4 flour tortillas (I use the Mission – Carb Balance soft taco tortillas)

8 raw shrimp (frozen or fresh, deveined with tails off)

1/2 cup frozen sauteed pepper and onion mix

1/2 cup shredded pepperjack cheese (I substituted this cheese w/ Laughing Cow Queso Fresco cheese for a creamy kick. Delicioso!)

1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese

pinch of chili powder

pinch of salt

pinch of cayenne

salsa and avocado slices for serving

Directions:

Heat up the frozen bell pepper and onion mix in a skillet over high heat for about a minute. Transfer to a small bowl and set aside.

In the same skillet, spray with cooking spray and crank up the heat to high. Add the shrimp and cook quickly for about thirty seconds. Add the cayenne pepper, salt and chili powder and toss to coat. Immediately take off heat (shrimp cook fast!).

Scatter pepperjack cheese (or spread the laughing cow) and goat cheese on two tortillas and then top each with four cooked shrimp and a little bit of the onion and pepper mix.

Lay other tortillas on top and cook each in a greased skillet over medium heat until the cheese has melted and the tortillas are golden brown and crispy.

Let cool and then cut into four slices. Serve with avocado slices and salsa.

And yes, I use paper plates. Cuz I’m classy like that.

Time: 10 minutes

Gratitude.

So since it’s November, and that lovely holiday called Thanksgiving is coming up…I have decided to jot down a few reasons why I’m thankful for Thursday, and everyday really. In the hustle of bustle of everyday life…I think it is easy to lose sight of the fact that we have so much to be grateful for…so many blessings that we are surrounded by that we often at times tend to take for granted. So I am dedicating this blog post to those very things.

Word of the day…

Gratitude.

Today…I am thankful for family.

I am thankful for my mom, who listens to my daily rambling. Sometimes I call her just to vent and talk about the work day, or my up and down roller coaster feelings. She always puts up with it no matter what, and often comes back with wise advice. I am also thankful for our every Saturday morning brunches. Talking over things with a mimosa in hand always makes life a lot brighter. Love ya mama.

I am also thankful for my sweet dad, who I wish I could spend more time with. He lives in Houston, so we mostly stay in touch via the phone. Hopefully before the year is up me and Eric will be doing a weekend trip to go visit him and spend some time with him. I am happy to report that his health is on the up and up as of late. Thank you for your continued prayers and thoughts, they really mean a lot.

silly bunch

I am thankful for great girlfriends.

I do not know honestly what I would do without a great group of girlfriends. Near and far, I have made some pretty incredible friendships and made close bonds with so many strong and positive women. Through disappointments, victories,  boyfriend drama, job stress, we have stayed close through thick and thin. For that I am so thankful and truly cherish these friendships I have with these women.

love this girl.

I am thankful for a job that I love. 

After working in local news for three rough, stressful years (with deadlines and insane night-shift hours to boot) God has blessed me with my dream job as a producer in Christian television. I have had the opportunity to write for Emmy award-winning programming, meet awesome inspirational people, and finally work normal people hours. It is a refreshing environment to be in and I hope that I continue to grow and impact the lives of the viewers that we broadcast to worldwide.

I am thankful for my ability to stay active. 

Through the means of health and fitness I have not only made friends with supportive, encouraging people, but I have been able to utilize my knowledge of health and fitness to help other people reach their goals. Who knew that 5 or so years ago, when I started out on my weight loss journey (I was, at one point, nearly 70 pounds heavier! More on that later) that I would be able to use my testimony to help other people. I lost the weight through diet and exercise and, a short time after started training for half marathons, and then used that as a stepping stone to run my first marathon. I never in my life thought I would be able to run a HALF marathon, let alone marathon. These things seemed far out of my reach some short three years ago. Then, God blessed me with an opportunity to further use my knowledge of fitness to teach dance class at 24 Hour Fitness. I love being able to encourage people and push them far beyond what they ever thought would be possible. Because, you know what? I’ve been there. And I know how much it matters to hear an encouraging word and how those words and thoughts can help someone get that much closer to their goals.

Now it’s your turn. What are you thankful for today? 

Easy Weeknight Dinners: Quinoa with Broccoli & Feta.

Good morning! I finally got in a run this morning. It’s been over a week. I’m slacking big time, I know! It felt good to get outside once again. My legs were a little heavy from Bodypump class last night but other than that I felt fresh. The runner is back in business!

Today I’ll be busy on my writing game at work while sipping on this tea. Amazing, go get some.

Tonight, I’ll be teaching Danceaton at the 24 Hour Fitness club off of Central & Royal Ln in Dallas at 7pm. Come sweat it out with me if you’re in the area!

I have been in a lull lately with my cooking and have decided to shake things up a bit. I have been wanting to try quinoa for the longest time so I went and bought some from the natural foods store yesterday. After Bodypump last night I went home to get cookin’.

This was super easy to make! I really enjoy the taste of quinoa and can’t wait to try more recipes.

Here’s what I used:

Dry quinoa (from the bulk section at the natural foods store)

Crumbled feta cheese

Steamed broccoli

Olive Oil (a couple dashes)

Cumin (just a dash)

Garlic powder (I was a little generous with mine but it just depends on how much garlic you like)

A dash of salt and pepper

Boil your quinoa for a couple of minutes and then place on medium low and/or simmer for 15-20 minutes. Stir, but not too often. Let it sit and get fluffy. (Fluffy quinoa = yummy quinoa!) Take out and sauté in olive oil, garlic powder, cumin. Add feta cheese and top with broccoli. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Voila! Serve!

I Did It.

So I have had a few days to recover from Sunday’s marathon. Boy, were those days needed! Tomorrow is my last day here in Washington D.C. and then I’ll be headed back to Dallas. I have thoroughly enjoyed my stay here and I almost don’t want to leave! I have gotten to spend some time with so many amazing long lost friends from college. Some of them I haven’t seen in years. It has been nice to reminisce with them and catch up on their lives. One of my best friends got engaged the other day, I am so happy for her!! Congrats Aditi!!!

I am guessing you want to hear a little bit about how the race went, huh? It was absolutely the best marathon experience I’ve had thus far. Yes, I am a little bit bias considering my finish time, but I loved everything about this race. It was the only marathon I’ve done so far that I can honestly say I want to do again. The Marines, awesome volunteers, beautiful mouments and sights along the course, and even down to the runners who support each other along the way really made this one memorable.

Me and my running buddy Laurie flew in Friday and headed over via the Metro to our hotel to drop off our bags, then to the expo to pick up our packets. The Marines gave us our bibs then we went and got our race shirts and did some shopping at the Brooks store. The expo had a lot of great booths, and it was hard not to want to stay in there forever but we made our way out of there.

We were real low key on Friday and ate dinner at the hotel. We stayed at the Capitol Skyline Hotel, and we got a beautiful room overlooking the capitol.

I enjoyed my stay at the hotel but in my opinion it was a little overpriced for the small amount of amenities that they offered. Anyway, I did like the low key-ness of the restaurant. We met a few people at the hotel running the marathon which was cool. Saturday night they even had an Italian buffet for a decent price for the runners. I laid out my clothes after that and got ready for the big day on Sunday.

Sunday morning, race day. I must say I was a little bit bummed because a couple of nights before I accidently dropped my ipod shuffle in the bathroom sink. Awesome, right? Perfect timing. Even after putting it in rice and doing all of those tricks to dry it out…no music. Anyway, so I decided I was going to suck it up and how many long training runs have I done sans the ipod? Like, a bunch. So I decided that music was not going to be my handicap and I had better quit crying and get over it.

Laurie and I took the metro up to the race site which proved to be the perfect way to travel there! I really like how organized the public transportation is in D.C. We got there quickly without the stress of having to drive. It was freezing that morning, temps in the 30s! So I decided against my skirt and went with my hoodie, leggings and compression socks. They worked out perfectly.

We went to line up and the gun went off. It only took us about 3 minutes to pass the start, which I was happy about. We got right near the 4 hour finish corral area which worked out great.

Pretty much the first 5 or so miles the runners were packed and it did not thin out. So I took that to my advantage and made sure to hold back a bit with my pace. I was just about at 9 minute pace at the 10K and was feeling good, and feeling like I was holding back just right. Since I didn’t have my ipod, I decided I would really take in the sights around me, and even talk to some of the runners who were at my pace. One guy I talked to was running his 20th marathon. It was amazing to hear some of the runner’s stories…something I would not have been able to do had I been wearing my ipod. Everyone was so cordial, and encouraging towards one another. Even when the wheelchair athletes went by the runners would say “on your left” or “make a hole!!” for them to get by. I thought that was so cool.

When I hit 30K, I was surprised at how amazing I was feeling. I had picked up my pace to about an 8:45 and felt like I could hold on to it. It was great that I felt like I hadn’t hit a wall or wanted to slow down. Just seeing all of the runners and how determined everyone looked was so motivating. Even at the water stops, the Marines would say “keep it up! you’re doing great!” and it would be just what you needed to hear to keep trucking.

I hit mile 20 and we were on a bridge with a little bit of an incline and a long stretch of road. I started feeling a little tired here but knew I was almost done. So I started talking to myself. Out loud. I didn’t really care who was listening. So I started repeating Phillippians 4:13 to myself and calling out the names of all of the people who I was running for. My dad who has been sick as of late, my late aunt who was an avid runner…all of the people I wanted to be strong for. And it worked…it gave me the determination I needed to keep going. Towards the end…around mile 24-25, I saw people struggling and I encouraged them and told them to keep going, and they encouraged me.

Finally, I saw the finish straight ahead. The finish had one of the biggest uphills, although it was short lived. At that point I was just running off of adrenaline. I finished strong and gave it all I had.

I can definitely say I fought the hardest during this race and felt mentally stronger than I’ve ever felt during a race. I am not sure if it was the Marines, the runners around me, or what that made me feel that way. But I felt it, the whole way. I didn’t want to stop, no matter how tired I was, I ignored all of those thoughts of being tired and kept pushing. Yeah, I definitely felt sore afterwards (and until today, had to go down the stairs backwards) but I wouldn’t change a thing about it. It just so happens that I nailed my sub 4 hour time goal with a finish time of 3:54.

Marathon number 3 is in the books.

I did it.