Posts in Happiness
A Fantastic Philly Weekend

When your best friends from childhood come to visit for a long weekend, you do all the tourist things, eat all the food and drink all the beer. My best friends Hailey, Elizabeth and Melissa came to visit me in Philly this past weekend and it couldn’t have been a better weekend. The weather was PERFECT and I was able to show them literally almost every Philly neighborhood. I didn’t think we would fit as much in but we did a lot!

 They all got here Thursday night and on Friday morning we started our adventures in Rittenhouse Square. 

Rittenhouse Square | Philadelphia

After Rittenhouse Square, we headed down to Reading Terminal Market for a delicious lunch and 4th Street Famous Cookies (so damn good).

4th Street Famous Cookies | Reading Terminal Market, Philadelphia

 After a large lunch, we walked up to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to run up the Rocky Stairs  lay in the sun at the top of the Rocky Steps before I made them all take my 4:30 spin class.

Philadelphia Museum of Art

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After a quick recharge in the sun, we made our way to Body Cycle Studio for my class! You know true friends when they take your cycle class on vacation… 

Body Cycle Studio | Philadelphia

Caught in action...

Body Cycle Studio | Philadelphia

On Friday night we started at Independence Beer Garden (Hallelujah so happy it’s back open!!), danced at Fado and ended Ubering to Big Ass Slices for some Big Ass Slices of pizza. No pics here because pizza was our priority. Let’s just say my early Saturday morning at work was quite a challenge.

On Saturday when I got off of work, we roamed around the Italian Market for some Philly Cheesesteaks from Geno’s and some cannolis. A true Philly meal. After that we head over to Old City, Society Hill and Race Street Pier. We were totally exhausted after Saturday so we head back to my neighborhood to finish off the night with margaritas and Mexican food at a cute little place near my apartment.

On Sunday we were citied out so we went on a little hike through the Wissahickon Trail…

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It was a good ass weekend!! I already miss my girls and I’m so happy they could all make it up to visit :)

XO - Rach

How was your weekend? 

What's your favorite city to visit?

Pizza, Spin, Puppies, Music, Beer, Coffee...

Not in that order, though! Happy Monday friends. As you can tell from the title of this post, my mind hasn't had much focus in the past couple weeks when it comes to blogging. Work has been very busy and FUN and it's stealing all of my effort. I love my job so much, you guys. It doesn't feel like work!! The hours are long, I get home late, but I leave every day with a big fat smile.  Since I don't have a recipe, a workout or a super deep motivational speech to share, I'm going to share some weekend shenanigans and what I've been loving lately. 

Pizza

I think that Philly should be known for it's pizza rather than Philly cheesesteaks. The pizza here is so damn good. Michael and indulged in a pie from Slice. We got half Hawaiin and half Florentine. I have to say, Michael's choice of Hawaiian was better than my half. The best part about the meal is that we got to bring our own beer. These BYOB laws in Pennsylvania are still blowing my mind - it's awesome! 

Slic Pizza, Rittenhouse Square

Beer

Michael and I are most likely moving to Conshohocken when our lease is up in the summer and there's this amazing little bar and beer store there called the Boathouse. We went to tour a couple apartments and had to stop to pick up a few brews. If you haven't tried Ballast Point beers, you're missing out. They have a brand new one called the Habanero Sculpin and it's INCREDIBLE. It's spicy and hoppy and has so much flavor. Try it out. It was great with the pizza but I could really enjoy it with some tacos or chips and guac. 

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Puppies!!! 

We pet sit an ADORABLE pup this weekend. We want a dog so bad but can't seem to bite the bullet yet. There's this app called Rover that's basically like Airbnb for dogs. Michael created a profile and we got our first request to watch a dog on Saturday night. Her name is Hanna Montana. She is a 4 year old pit bull and was just the sweetest girl ever. She had a lot of energy, but we tired her out with a long 4 mile walk yesterday!

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Come on, look at that face!! For now, Rover will satisfy the puppy withdrawals I have been feeling. 

Spin

Although I'm at City Fitness full time as a trainer, I have been LOVING subbing more classes at Body Cycle Studio. Indoor cycling will always be my favorite group fitness class to teach. I'm serious, sometimes I get chills. Am I crazy? Are there any other spin-obsessed people or instructors who can relate? I program all of my Spin profiles to the music and when the playlist is on point and the energy of the class is high, it just feels incredible. I've been able to sub at least 1-2 classes per week, but I'm real excited to take on my first permanent class soon in the next couple months! 

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Music

And on that note, here's the playlist that's been rocking my world this past week. Candyman by Aloe Blacc and Zedd is my new favorite song, FYI. 

Coffee

Iced coffee to be exact. Michael makes iced coffee in the French press and it's out of this world. I make bad stale coffee in the coffee pot that is not out of this world, so we turned that into coffee ice cubes for the ice coffee. GENIUS IDEA!! 

French Press Ice Cofee with Cofee Ice Cubes | ahealthfulheart.com

And I believe that's all I have for this morning! 

XO - Rach

Let's chat...

 

Are you a dog or cat person?

Hot or iced coffee?

Favorite beer?

Favorite pizza?

Favorite song lately?

Monday Motivation: Face Your Fears.

Face your fears: Monday Motivation | ahealthfulheart.com

Let me ask you this: when was the last time you did something that scared you? Maybe it was just last night getting that cockroach out of your apartment (ew, good for you, I'm still deathly afraid) or maybe it was a few months ago when you took on a new project at work that you were a little apprehensive about. No matter how big or small the feat, it is so important that we get outside of our comfort zones and tackle our fears.

Get ready to laugh. Friday was my day off and Michael took a half day, so he took me skiing at a mountain nearby. I've never been skiing before, but I was really excited and thought I would be able to pick up on it quickly. After all, I would say I'm in shape, I used to water ski all the time and I have pretty good balance. It couldn't possibly be that hard, right?

I get my skis on, and I freeze up (no pun intended). I'm like a drunk child trying to walk and failing miserably. You guys, it took me about 20 minutes just to get over to the lift...this whole skiing thing did NOT come naturally at all!!! I looked up at the slope above (a bunny slope, at that) and I was SCARED. Freaked the eff out. I don't do heights and I don't do rollercoasters, so the thought of gaining speed and cruising down the slope made my heart race. 

Fast forward, we get on the lift. We're halfway up and I just break down. Literally start crying out of no where. I just thought, "I can't do this." If you've ever seen the Kardashian episode where Kim breaks down before going zip lining, that was me. Quite accurately. (Fast forward to :11 please..)

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqzU0-lW4M8[/embed]

If it wasn't for Michael there telling me what I always preach, "YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU PUT YOUR MIND TO," I would have given up. So I'm crying and manage to hop of the ski lift and wipe out. Michael starts teaching me how to cruise down and I just keep falling. And crying. I cried like four times. This shit was HARD. I was about to give up, and Michael just looks at me and tells me to "have some damn faith in myself" and it just clicked - I NEEDED to do it. There was no turning back because it wasn't like I could just walk down. So I get up and just keep repeating in my head "you can do this, it's okay." So I did it. It took a long ass time, I probably fell about 25 times and I WISH I had video to see how much of an idiot I looked like. But I made it down the slope. And then I immediately ran up to the bar for a beer. PHEW!!  

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So the moral of the story is: I desperately need some ski lessons FACE YOUR DAMN FEARS!! No matter how much something scares you, when you get to the other side and conquer that fear, it only makes you that much stronger. 

I hope you enjoyed this story. Have a wonderful week, everyone and break down those obstacles.

XO- Rach

When was the last time you overcame a big fear?

Is there a motto or saying that helps you get through tough times?