The Decision.

Two blog posts in one week! See?! I’m already living up to my 5^th New Year’s Resolution!

So how was your week? I am thrilled it’s Friday. Tomorrow morning I’m heading down to New Orleans to visit one of my best friends from my Boston days for some much needed girl time. I am also heading down to the bayou to attend the 2013 Girls on the Run National Summit! Hanging out with 300+ like-minded women from all over the country for 3 days who are also passionate about running and Girls on the Run? Yes, please!

In other news, NYRR opened their Online Marathon Resolution Option System today, providing 2012 NYC Marathon entrants options for what do with our entry. Options included either getting a refund of the $255 entry fee, getting a non-complimentary guaranteed entry into the NYC Marathon for one of the next 3 years (requiring you to re-pay the $255 registration fee), or getting guaranteed entry into the 2013 NYC Half Marathon.

I chose the refund. (womp, womp) I am shocked that they even offered this considering I’m sure a majority of the registration fees were already spent by the time the race was cancelled. (I heard they were able to get insurance to cover this which is amazing.)

Kind of a bummer. Seems so final. I am just so uncertain what life will bring over the next 3 years and am not ready to commit to another marathon. I’m sure I’ll run the NYC Marathon someday – maybe for my 40^th birthday? I’m just not sure how I’ll get a number to run it – who knows if I’ll have a qualifying time again. But there are plenty of other marathons on my radar. Like, the Patagonia International Marathon. (ha) Seriously, how sweet would this be??

(Source)

Anyways. I have a recipe for you! This week I picked up some turkey cutlets from Trader Joe’s and tried out a marinade I’ve used before on pork chops. Came out delicious.

Honey Mustard Curry Marinade Turkey Cutlets

Ingredients:

1 Package Organic Turkey Cutlets

1 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard

1 Tablespoon Honey

½  Teaspoon Curry Powder

Directions: (it’s easy guys, relax)

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees

2. Combine dijon mustard, honey, and curry powder in a small bowl

3. Spoon marinade over turkey cutlets in a casserole dish

4. Bake for approximately 15 minutes, or until cutlets are cooked through!

Enjoyed with roasted brussels sprouts and a sweet potato with cinnamon! Perfect winter dinner.

Have a great weekend!

Q1: If you could run any marathon – what would it be?

Q2: What’s up for the weekend?

Begin Again.

Hello and Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a relaxing holiday and fun NYE. I personally love New Years because it’s also our anniversary!

3 years, baby! Officially old married couple. No?

With New Years comes reflection. I’m a huge resolution person. I make them any chance I get. Like for instance, in the Spring I’m all like, “Spring is a time of renewal. I should start flossing again.” It’s also important to reflect on past resolutions, recognize goals achieved, be honest with ourselves with failures, and create some new ones. So let’s reflect shall we?

My 2012 New Year’s Resolutions were as follows:

1. Get some new products for NaturaStride. STATUS: Complete. Well, kind of. We did get some new products over 2012. But… you might have noticed some changes with the blog and website. Mainly, that Joe and I have chosen to disable our shop at NaturaStride.com for the time being. Trying out our favorite natural nutrition products has always been a passion of ours. Gathering these products to offer on NaturaStride was an incredibly rewarding process that has since opened other doors for us. Because of this, we have decided to suspend the site for now while we focus our energy on other projects. One thing I love the most about New Years is the ability to reflect back on the past year and consider all the surprises life has brought. Each year, many events happen that I couldn’t have even fathomed the year prior.  So although we are stepping away from the retail aspect of NaturaStride, we are excited for what the next year has in store for us in terms of our other projects, or projects we haven’t even thought of yet. Do I consider it a failure? Absolutely not. I have learned so much from starting my company and am positive these lessons will benefit me in future endeavors. Oh, and don’t worry. This blog is going is staying put!

2. Run a bunch of cool races including the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler, Broad Street, Good Neighbor Day 15k, Philly RNR Half Marathon, and the Vegas RNR Half Marathon. STATUS: Uh, FAIL. Haha. We all know how that turned out. Like I said, life is full of surprises.

3. Run a FULL marathon. STATUS: COMPLETE!!! I feel like this one trumps all the rest. This resolution should actually read, “Acquire double pelvis stress fracture, recover, and then qualify for Boston.”

4. Continue to learn Greek: STATUS: Working on it! I finished Rosetta Stone Greek Level 1 last year and am halfway through Level 2. Although I put it on the back burner during the craziness that was this past fall, I’m excited to get back into the swing.

Okay, now we’re ready to establish some new resolutions. So here we go:

2013 New Year’s Resolutions:

1. Help bring Girls on the Run to at least 5 schools in Philadelphia in 2013: This is huge, this is what I want  2013 to be all about. We are so close to starting our first season at two schools here in Philly. I can’t WAIT. Finally. We hope to expand to 5 schools in the Fall. GOTR has been keeping me incredibly busy and I absolutely love it. I am actually heading down to the GOTR National Summit in New Orleans this weekend to meet over 300 other directors and coaches from all over the county.

2. Teach at least 5 Vinyasa Classes per week: Now that I’m registered, I hope to teach at a bunch of studios throughout the city if I can! Starting in February, I’ll be teaching at Dana Hot Yoga in Glenside on Saturday mornings at 10:00 AM!

3. Finish Rosetta Stone Greek Levels 2 and 3.

4. Running Goal: TBD. I am finally beginning to MISS racing since completing the marathon. I have not decided yet what I want 2013 to bring for me for running (we all know how planning went last year, ha). I am still deciding what to do as far as my NYC Marathon option – although I have a feeling I will take the refund. Maybe I’ll run NYC when I turn 40. In the meantime, I have plenty of other bucket list marathons including Big Sur, Chicago, etc. Hopefully I can get an entry into Boston in 2014 with my BQ as well. But I’ll figure it out.

5. Blog more! Promise!

 So that’s that.

Q: Are you a resolution person? If so, spill it!