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Ocean Water Swimming

I am a water person. My mom swam laps every day when I was in utero. I grew up in Maine in the lakes region knowing that there was always a place to hop in the water. Summers were spent at the beach (lake) and every year we would go to Hilton Head Island, SC for a few weeks. There I got to have the luxury of endless hours in the warm ocean (vs the Maine ocean where swimming was more like forcing yourself to stay in long enough to get numb, paddle around and head in).

Hilton Head is where I got really comfortable in the water. My entire family and I would body surf, swim, get tossed around, ground up and spit out by big waves. Then we would build epic sand castles and eat a lot of watermelon and the best peaches in the world.

Race Report She.is.Beautiful 10k Race, March 17, 2013, Santa Cruz, CA

I’m a destination race junky, meaning that I prefer to run my races in other places as a way to get out of town, have a little vacation, see somewhere new. This year I decided to do a local Santa Cruz 10K because last year I volunteered for it and was inspired by the message of the race.

The mantra at She.Is.Beautiful: "I believe in sweating everyday. I believe running with your friends is better than therapy. I believe the happy girls are the beautiful girls. I believe strong is pretty."

I believe this, too.

My training for this race was a little different than most of my running races. The last time I ran 6 miles was on Thanksgiving, however I have been in a Nu2Tri triathlon training group, so my overall training has changed dramatically. I do much less running, but am consistently doing either running, biking, swimming or yoga 6 days a week.

My 31st birthday in pictures! I spent 3 days with my mom, aunt and friend cross country skiing in the Maine woods. We stayed at the Maine Huts and Trails Flagstaff Lake Hut for two nights and spent the days skiing around. The huts are off the grid and provide hot meals, a beautiful common room with a fire place and cozy bunk rooms.

 Here I am on the morning of my birthday! We skied in 2 miles with our overnight packs.

My mom Martha, my mom's college roommate Marty, and my aunt Peg. These women are incredible, adventurous, wise and fun! (Two years ago we all hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon).

 It was really cold - it ranged from 7-27 degrees over the 3 days.

Organic vs Conventional Produce

If you are what you eat, it's important to be choosy about the quality of what you eat.  Every thing we put in our bodies becomes the building blocks of our cells, tissues, bones, systems and plays a role in our overall health and how we feel.

The produce section of at the grocery store provides us option of conventionally and organically grown foods.  As plants grow, they suck up the nutrients and substances from the soil. Most large-scale farming relies on chemicals to produce large crop yields, and their practices have depleted the soil of many of the natural minerals and nutrients, leaving the produce full of pollutants and agrochemicals. Some of the health risks associated with high consumption of these toxins are cancer, developmental and reproductive toxicity, neurotoxicity, hormone disruption and ADHD in children.