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? 

Happy Monday, friends! And welcome, November (how did that happen?)  This past weekend was one to remember - I ran my first half marathon! And it wasn't that bad. My mom and her boyfriend also came to visit to cheer me and Chelsey on while we slogged ran. 

Chelsey and I headed to the expo after work on Friday to pick up our packets and a plethora of free stuff including a ton of mini Lara Bars. SCORE! After the expo we headed to Mercato, a fabulous Italian restaurant with homemade pasta. We both had amazing pasta dishes to carb up. No pics because we were too busy savoring :)

Race Day

Saturday morning rolled around and it was time to wake up at 5:30 a.m.! I made myself a bowl of oats with peanut butter, some coffee, and my mom and I made our way down to the race around 7:30 in the freezing cold. Chelsey and I were in coral 31, so we didn't actually start running until about 8:30. However, the sun came up once we started running and it felt great!

The first 8 miles are actually kind of a blur. They went by SO fast, there was a lot of adrenaline and we both felt really great. The first 5 miles were through the city and the remainder was a flat road along the river. Such a great course! 

Around the half way mark, my cousin Sara was working at the medical tent so she ran along with us for about a half mile and snapped some pics:  After mile 9 it became all mental. Everything felt great except my ankles - they were screaming! We just did everything we could to keep our minds off of the suck and finish strong. We finished in 2:26 and our goal was 2:30! And then the next day at the New York City Marathon (26.2 people!) the woman winner finished in 2:24! We may not be the fastest but we were happy to be running and having a blast. 

After chugging a chocolate milk at the finish line, we headed back to the hotel we were staying at for the weekend to shower and get some food. We ended up heading to Reading Terminal Market and stopping by The Original Turkey  for some fresh carved turkey club sandwiches. I inhaled mine in .000345 seconds. After refueling, we headed to the Field House Bar (home of the Philly Gator Club) to watch the Gators dominate the Bulldogs. 

We ended the night with dinner in Chinatown and I was passed out by 9:30. It was an awesome day and weekend. So glad that I could spend time with my family.

After SEVERAL jam-packed weekends, I'm totally looking forward to doing a lot of nothing next weekend :)

P.S. I didn't even end up listening to it, but I will share my half marathon playlist soon. I was really excited for it, but we had more fun chatting during the whole race.

XO -Rach

How was your weekend?

Have you run a half before? If not, would you ever want to?