It's been a while!! 

Where did we leave off?! I'm a bit frustrated that I haven't been able to keep up with this blog as much as I would have liked to this summer, but you know what? Life gets really freaking crazy sometimes!! I had next to no motivation to keep up with social media for the past month for a couple reasons. For one, creating recipes gets pretty expensive. Michael and I try to keep our grocery bill under $100 every week for the both of us, and there's not much wiggle room there for me to experiment with super cool ingredients. I'm starting to think however, that this could be more of an opportunity to create BUDGET friendly recipes with minimal ingredients. Aside from that, I had to go home for a while because some unexpected news hit my family like a truck. Everything is going to be totally a-okay, but cancer fucking sucks. My mom is as strong as a horse though, so I know this will be a bump in the road. I mean look at her, she's a boss. 

I've also been absolutely loving my job. It's a little physically exhausting so whenever I'm home I veg out instead of turn my brain on to write and do work (this needs to change). Along with my job as a Thrive trainer, I've been able to pick up some more Body Cycle spin classes and I will be starting at another studio, Unite Fitness real soon here! I'm psyched. I always know I made the right choice by switching to fitness full time when I wake up and have to decide which gym I want to train at that day...HA. Totally kidding, there's so much more to it (although it is a pretty sweet perk!)

Speaking of, last week I had such an awesome opportunity to be in a promo shoot for Idalis Velazquez's (@ivfitness on the IG) All In 18 Women's Health DVD! It was SUCH a blast. It was so lovely to meet her and see her in action! I also loved being able to see what goes into making a short video. SO MUCH. I finally kind of understand what my boyfriend does for a living now. The coolest part was that I got to share this experience with one of my own clients, Diana. She killed it. Here's some BTS action...

So thankful for that awesome opportunity. Now I've gotta get my shit together for a busy week at work. I should probably also start packing considering we're moving again next weekend! Packing would be a good idea. 

Okay everyone, have a great Monday. 

XO - Rach

How's your summer going?

Any big plans for the weekend?

You can't ask a big Jewish family to keep any secrets. Since March I was planning to go home to surprise my grandpa for his 75th birthday, with high hopes of pulling through with the surprise, but what was I thinking?! Of course my family can't do surprises. 

I flew home to Florida last weekend and as I was getting of the plane, my sister calls me from Israel, literally across the world to talk to me and the first thing she tells me is that my grandpa knows and the surprise is no more. Awesome. And my sister of all people who wasn't even in the country tells me! I think my family was going to try to play it off to make me feel better. Although it was ruined, it was still a blast. It's such a treat to go home to sunny florida and soak up family time, beach time and pool time. Happy birthday Poppies, I know you're reading this! Yes, I still call my grandpa Poppies. In fact, the whole family does. 

It was back to the grind this week! Can I just say how much I love my job again. I actually can't quite call it a job when I get to train freaking awesome people all day and teach group fitness. What is life?! I'm so grateful.  I had a client last week touch her toes for the first time ever in her life and she was so happy that she cried. And then I almost cried. Definitely one of my top trainer moments so far and I haven't been doing this for that long. This is why I get so excited to go to work everyday. It's the best. 

Raspberry Swirl Chocolate Chip Bread

[yumprint-recipe id='26']YUM! This bread is my favorite. It's easy to make and the swirl makes it feel oh, so fancy.

Have a great Wednesday beautiful people!

XO - Rach

Can your family keep a surprise a secret? 

Hello there!! It's definitely been a while since I've posted on here. It's funny, when I worked in advertising and I was on my phone and the computer ALL day long, and when I got home, the first thing I wanted to do was work on my blog and continue staring at screens. When I made my career switch into full time fitness, I thought it would fuel me to really work on my blog even MORE, and it actually did just the opposite. I'm truly happy going into work now and satisfied when I leave, and when I get home, I don't even want to look at the computer screen. It's very peaceful, but also kind of lazy? I love keeping up with the blog and I love the connections I've made through it, so I know that I need to strike a balance between my endeavors.  Speaking of blogging connections, I just attended Garden of Life's 2016 Blogger's Summit in West Palm Beach, FL, and it was incredible!! 

Garden of Life Blogger's Summit 2016

Garden of Life is the #1 brand in the natural products industry and I've been using their protein powders for a while now. I like them because it's very clear what you're putting into your body. All of the products are USDA certified organic, verified non-gmo, vegan, kosher, you name it! I'm not vegan, nor do I buy organic food, but I DO like to make sure my supplements and vitamins are totally clean, because there are so many supplements out there today that are not regulated and you just really have no idea if what you read on the label is what you're putting into your body. Besides that, I've been having a lot of digestive issues lately, so I've been trying to experiment with my diet a bit and making sure I get wholesome supplements is important. Anyway, I was able to tour the Garden of Life headquarters, meet with 9 other awesome lady bloggers and learn a whole lot about the products and the company as a whole! It was an incredible experience and I'm so grateful to partner with such an amazing brand. Here's a summary of our experience in photos! 

I love this inforgraphic - only 265 of the 26,000 supplement products on the market are certified organic and Non-GMO project verified. 72 of those 265 are Garden of Life products. Pretty interesting! 

All of the lovely bloggers!! From top left: Cassandra, Kathy, Moreya. Alex and Laura. Bottom left: Sophie, Angela, Karim and myself!

Traveling

This year I'm learning to take advantage of cheap flights and weekend getaways. When I graduated college last May, I literally moved to Philly that same week and started working. This summer I am taking advantage of some much needed time off! West Palm was wonderful, I'm heading home to Ft. Myers later this summer and Michael and I also have a week trip planned to DENVER. A WEEK!! SO stoked. I'm so grateful for the flexibility of my job, yet as a trainer, when I don't work, there's no income. Quickly learning the high importance of budgeting. 

Training

Just an update on my job - I love it. My clients rock and I'm amazed every day at their willingness to reach their goals! Here's a shot from a Thrive Olympics we had amongst all the trainers at different gyms. If theres one thing I've gotten a lot better at by demonstrating multiple times a day, it's push-ups! Do your push-ups, ladies. 

Have a lovely hump day :)

XO - Rach

Any travel plans coming up this summer?