Pre-TBEX - Toronto Photo Walk

Prior to the start of the recent TBEX conference, I had the chance to go on what turned out to be a very strange Photo Walk of Toronto. I found it to be strange because the group was relatively large at about 25 participants, and the Photo Walk leader didn't tell us anything about what we were shooting. Even now, I have no idea what half of the sights we visited are called! The tour was also supposed to include tips and tricks for taking photos, but I felt that if you didn't have a DSLR, than none of the information that was given was relevant to you. There must be tips that point-and-shoot users can incorporate, right?

I did get some good photos out of the walk even if I didn't get much information about taking photos or about Toronto itself. I tried to Google search some of the buildings to see if I could identify any of them and had some luck. If you can identify any of them, please tell me in the comments section and I will be very grateful! 

Here is one of the buildings that I was able to identify! This is the main hall of Union Station.

One thing that came up quite often during my trip planning was the fact that Toronto is undergoing a ton of construction. They weren't kidding. There was construction everywhere!

With all of the new construction sites around, there is bound to be more contrasting structures sharing the same cityscape in the future. The Clock Tower of Toronto's Old City Hall is one such structure from the past.

CN Tower is sort of the iconic landmark in Toronto's skyline. It was once the tallest structure in the world. Whenever I wasn't sure if I was heading in the right direction, I just needed to look up and see where CN Tower was to get my bearings again.

I loved the interior of Brookfield Place because of all of the natural light that it brings in. The lines are also quite beautiful.

Architecture wasn't the only thing I noticed on my photo walk. There were also everyday pieces of Toronto living that I was able to capture, such as their BIXI bike shares.

 And their public transportation system, which includes red streetcars like this.

And their colorful post boxes.

I thought the Photo Walk was pretty much a wash. I didn't feel like I got anything more out of it than I could have gotten had I just picked up a guidebook and led myself on a walking tour of Downtown.

Disclosure: I attended this photo walk free of charge as an attendee of TBEX. All opinions are my own. Read my full disclosure here. 

Week in Review (June 3 to 9, 2013) + {Product Review} RunGuard Sensitive Anti-Chafe

This weekend, Raisin Bread and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary in Maine! We visited Acadia National Park and I definitely ate my fill of lobster! We did lots of hiking, ate a ton and spent some quality time together. The weather wasn't great, but we were still able to make the most of it. Expect to hear more about Maine later. For now, here is a sneak peek at the natural beauty of Acadia. This photo was taken from Schooner Head Overlook.

I recently started incorporating a new product into my everyday runs and now I can't imagine running without it. At first, I wasn't sure what to do with RunGuard because I don't really experience a lot of chafing in areas, like underarms or thighs, that many other runners do. After considering how to use RunGuard for a while, it finally dawned on me that my arches experience a lot of abrasion during my long runs and actually feel quite raw afterwards. I've been applying RunGuard Sensitive to my arches before my runs ever since and I must admit that my arches have never felt better and haven't needed time to heal after my runs! Another thing that makes RunGuard great is that it contains added moisturizers and natural ingredients, and it's water-proof and sweat-proof. I'm super happy that I discovered this product especially with my hard core Dumbo training coming up. My feeties are going to need it! 

Speaking of training, my schedule fell off the last two weeks with all of my traveling. I am also really sad that I haven't been able to fit any yoga in and I have definitely missed it.  The next several weeks should be more conducive to following my training plan and I need to get back on track!

Here is a look at the last week:

Monday: walked around Toronto a lot
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: ran 2.4 miles
Thursday: rest
Friday: hiked 6.1 miles
Saturday: hiked 4.1 miles
Sunday: rest

Total yoga this week: 0 times
Total mileage this week: 2.4 miles
Total mileage this year: 158.66 miles

Disclosure: I received a sample of RunGuard Sensitive from #RunChat and RunGuard. All opinions are my own. Read my full disclosure here. 

Posted with Blogsy

The Biggest Loser RunWalk 10K/5K is Coming to Washington, DC

Image Credit: Biggest Loser RunWalk

In a little more than a month, The Biggest Loser RunWalk will be coming to the RFK Stadium Fair Grounds in our nation's capital! I'm uber excited to run in this inaugural event for a bunch of reasons. The biggest reason though is because I'm slightly addicted to watching The Biggest Loser. I find the show to be so inspirational. Watching the contestants go through their journeys helps to remind me that I'm not the only one who struggles to manage their fitness and that no matter how far you get, working out is still really, really hard sometimes! Plus, who doesn't love to watch Jillian and Bob work their magic!

Another reason I am looking forward to The Biggest Loser RunWalk is because the race organizers have really created an event that is inclusive to runners and walkers of all stripes. There will be a 10K, 5K and 1 mile kids fun run, plus there are award divisions for runners and walkers in both distances! How cool is that? So whether you are super speedy or want to challenge yourself with your first walk, there is something for you.

If that isn't enough, registered participants will receive items including The Bigger Loser Finisher's Medals and free downloadable race photos. Both of these items are practically unheard of in the local races I know of! Also, Gail Lee from Season 13, Michael Dorsey from Season 14 and Dan and Jackie Evans from Season 5 will be in attendance!

Hope to see you there too!

Event Date: Sunday, July 14, 2013
Online registration closes: July 10, 2013

For more details, visit:
Website: The Biggest Loser RunWalk
Twitter: @BiggestLoserRW
Facebook: BiggestLoserRunWalk

Disclosure: I received complimentary race registration from The Biggest Loser RunWalk. All opinions are my own. Read my full disclosure here. 

Week in Review (May 27 to June 2, 2013)

This Week in Review is coming to you one day late. I am writing to you from a Starbucks in Toronto. Will be heading to the airport shortly! It has been a successful and busy weekend and I am looking forward to being back home, especially because I get to see Raisin Bread! You'll be hearing more from me about my trip but for now, here is what the last week looked like.

I ran my first ever virtual race, the Run for OKC through Anywhere 5K, on Thursday evening, and I got a PR (personal record). I decided to do the race on the treadmill for that reason in particular. I'll be running in a few more virtual races in the fall and winter, so I think I'll have a better idea at that time on how I feel about virtual racing. They seemed to be a good alternative to me for fitting in races whenever I wanted to complete them.

Monday: Daily Burn: Yoga 2 (40 minutes) + Ran 2.06 miles
Tuesday: Pilates Reformer Mixed Level Class (1 hour)
Wednesday: Daily Burn: Metabolic Maximizer (30 minutes)
Thursday: Run for OKC Anywhere5K
Friday: lots of walking around Toronto
Saturday: rest
Sunday: lots of walking around Toronto

Hope you all had enjoyable weekends and your weeks are off to a great start!

Posted with Blogsy

Got A Health Goal? Make it SMART!

Happy Monday! If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you may know that I am still in Toronto for TBEX 2013. While I'm away, I will be handing over Will Write 4 Travel to Michelle Pino for the day. Michelle is coming to us from the Skana Spa at Turning Stone Resort in upstate New York, and she will be sharing with us some tips and inspiration on how to make and achieve our fitness goals. Big thanks to Michelle!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With National Physical Fitness and Sports Month ending last week, there is no better time than the present to start thinking about how you can begin living a well rounded, happier and healthier life. Many people want to become healthier and even establish goals to make it happen, but if you find yourself unable to keep your own fitness goals, you should probably make them SMART. Here's how: 

Specific 

This first word references the importance of making sure that your goal is clear rather than general or vague. To determine whether your goal is specific, see if it can answer: 

What am I attempting to accomplish?

Measurable

This second word references your need to establish concrete criteria that will be used to measure your journey towards accomplishing your goal. If you don't have a goal that is measurable, you will not be able to determine if you are making successful progress towards accomplishing it. 

Attainable 

This third word references the importance of establishing goals that are realistic and therefore possible to attain. It should not involve unreasonable expectations such as requiring that you be able to run a mile within a week despite the fact that you have no history of consistent exercise.  

Relevant 

This fourth word references the fact that your goal has to matter. An example of a goal that wouldn't matter would be an obese individual who wants to lose weight making a commitment to complete her homework before ten pm each evening. While this goal is specific, measurable, and attainable, it does not directly pertain to the subject's attempt to shed extra pounds. 

Time-bound 

This fifth word references the fact that your goal should have a target date. This is important because establishing deadlines enables you to focus your mental and physical efforts on completing the goal before or on the due date. If it is effective, a time-bound question will be able to answer questions like:

When?

What can I do today?  

No matter what your goal, creating an inspiration board can help you meet it. It provides a personalized visual outline of your strategy. For fitspiration, look through the web, in magazines and in your personal photo collection and gather images that motivate you to improve your health.

Here’s an example:

Photos:

1) I’ve started to golf as a way to spend more time outdoors. The resort near my work is a great option because I go with a big group, half of us can do 9 holes and then go grab a bite at one of restaurants of the resort, and the rest of the group can golf the full 18 holes. (Source: NY golf resort)

2) I’m really inspired by yoga for a number of reasons. Yoga focuses the mind and body, teaching ourselves to find a spiritual balance. I also love that yoga can be done anywhere, even the beach! The beach is so relaxing, a great place for yoga or walking. (Source: Beach Yoga)

3) Since I am not very athletic, simple activities like bike riding are a fun way to stay active without doing anything too strenuous on the body. I love beach bikes with the big baskets! (Source: Bike )

4) Last spring I started learning more about gardening. I enjoy being in the garden and watching blooms take life as the warmer weather approached. Lilacs are one of my favorite flowers, plus they smell wonderful! (Source: Lilac Flowers)

5) What better way to boost motivation than to treat yourself to some fabulous workout gear or a fresh pair of new kicks?  Bright colored apparel, like these Asics from Zappos, is very popular for the warm weather and motivation! (Source: Sneakers)

While establishing and accomplishing goals geared towards getting you fit may seem complex or even impossible, the task doesn't have to be difficult. By implementing the SMART goal principles outlined above, you can begin shedding pounds and toning up in no time. Good luck!

Michelle Pino has provided these tips in hopes of educating others on how to lead a more organized and less stressful life. Michelle believes a more organized approach to tasks will result in more completed goals. Her hobbies include crafting, reading and learning about healthy lifestyles. Michelle is thankful to have had the opportunity to work with Irene and together share their ideas on “­­­­­­­­­Will Write 4 Travel.”

Cross-Country Drive: Great Smokey Mountains and To Our New Home

Our last full road trip day was a long one! We were planning to have breakfast at the Loveless Cafe, but the wait was so long that I wound up ordering lunch. Starvation central. Of course, we had to also order a plate of their fluffy, buttery biscuits. I had their dark meat fried chicken with green beans and hashbrown casserole. Although the food was scrumptious, the wait brought the whole experience down several notches. 

 From there we said good-bye to Nashville and headed towards Great Smokey Mountains National Park, where we did a driving tour. Some of the sights we saw along the way were historical buildings, Clingmans Dome Observation Tower and lots of beautiful views.

We went to the top of the observation tower and were rewarded with this breathtaking sky.

We left the park pretty late and still had a long ways to drive for the night. We made a pit stop in the strangest town I think I have ever been to: Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. We needed something to eat, so we stumbled in to the Old Mill Restaurant, which was likewise odd. Our dinner, which I don't have photographic evidence of, consisted of a main dish plus a cup of corn chowder, corn fritters, side salad, mashed potatoes, green beans and dessert. What the what? 

From Pigeon Forge, we still had another two and a half hour drive to reach Marion, Virginia, our stop for the night. The town of Marion is super cute and we stayed in an adorable hotel called the General Francis Marion.

The final leg of our drive would take us to our final destination, Arlington, Virginia. This has been my home for almost three years now.

But first, we had to stop for lunch in Harrisonburg, Virginia. After many days of eating heavy, Southern cooking, I was happy to have a vegetarian meal at the Little Grill Collective. I had the Go Ask Alyce (a wrap of falafel and veggie with tahini dressing). We have actually returned to this restaurant on other occasions, like on our drive back from West Virginia.

Two hours later we finally made it! Well, that concludes my "cross-country" drive. Thanks for looking back on it with me!

Loveless Cafe
8400 Tennessee 100
Nashville, TN 37221

Old Mill Restaurant
64 Old Mill Avenue
Pigeon Forge, TN 37863

Little Grill Collective
621 North Main Street
Harrisonburg, VA 22802

How this Newbie is Gearing Up for TBEX 2013

 

In just a few days, I will be traveling to Toronto to attend my first travel blogging conference and my second blogging conference.

There are two main reasons why I am hoping to get more out of TBEX than I got out of BlogHer 2012.

• It's much smaller. TBEX recently surpassed 1,000 registrants, making it the largest TBEX in history. In contrast, BlogHer 2012 was the largest BlogHer ever with 5,000 attendees. It's no wonder I felt lost in the crowd and lost in general.
• It's more niche. While attendees will certainly have their own niches within the travel niche, we are all, at the most basic level, travel bloggers. BlogHer is a conference for women bloggers. With such a broad audience, what that seemed to be interpreted as was that women bloggers = mommy bloggers. No offense to mommy bloggers or companies wanting to work with mommy bloggers, but some women bloggers aren't mommies and if they are mommies, not all of them are mommy bloggers. I found that many of the people I met at BlogHer and the sessions/events I attended didn't align with what my blog is about. I am hoping the sessions and key notes at TBEX will be much more relevant to me and my blog. More importantly, I am hoping the people I meet will be individuals who I can relate to and can relate to my blog.

To prepare for my trip, I've been doing the usual research I do when visiting a new city, but I have also been utilizing content on TBEX's blog to get myself and my blog ready. Here are some of the posts that I have found most useful:

Conference:

A Newbie's Guide to TBEX 

How to Prepare & Pitch for TBEX Speed Dating

Have You Followed Up?

Post TBEX Follow Up & Organization

Social Media:

4 Social Media Sins (And How You Can Find Absolution)

Three Ways for Bloggers to Get More Out of Social Media

7 Social Media Tools & Technology Tips for Travel Bloggers

Industry:

9 Criteria for Getting Invited on Travel Blog Trips

5 Reasons Your Sponsorship Pitch Failed

Blogging:

Take a Marketing Tip from Major Brands & Write Creative Briefs

10 Ways to Build Your Blogging Audience Before & After You Hit Publish

9 Tips for Travel Bloggers with a Day Job

Having a Blog Positioning Statement Could Make You a Better Storyteller

My new business cards arrived in the mail and I am partially packed and ready to go. Can't wait to tell you about my trip to TBEX and Toronto! 

Cross-country Drive - Through the Deep South to Nashville

After our day of fun in New Orleans, it was time to move on with another 500-plus mile drive for the day, with our destination being Nashville. With it being July 4th, we hoped to make it in time to see some fireworks and live music. First, we had to make it through Mississippi and Alabama.

We didn't have any places for lunch picked out since we didn't know how far along we would be, so we wound up eating at Outback!

We made pretty good time today and were able to check into the fabulous Hutton Hotel before it was dark out.

Our original plans didn't pan out so we wound up at a sports bar-ish establishment that I can't remember the name of. The fried chicken shack I wanted to go to was closed and it was impossible to get a cab downtown. Thus, we were stuck with mediocre food.

We also had grand plans to visit a couple of bars away from downtown, but apparently, these bars all decided to be closed on the 4th of July. We had such bad luck in Nashville! So with an air of defeat, we went back to our hotel, watched fireworks out of the window and enjoyed our big comfy bed.

Week in Review (May 20 to 26, 2013)

Source 

"On thy grave the rain shall fall from the eyes of a mighty nation!

                       Long as the sun doth shine upon it

                       Shall glow the goodly pine upon it,

                       Long as the stars do gleam upon it

                       Shall memory come to dream upon it."

                                            --- Thomas William Parsons, For One Who Fell in Battle

I hope everyone has been enjoying their long weekends. I encourage you to take some time today to remember what Memorial Day is all about and remember our fallen veterans.

This week was rather quiet on the social front so I had plenty of time to fit in my workouts. I will be traveling to Toronto later this week for my second blogging conference (more on that later). I'm planning to fit in some activities that will allow me to be active while enjoying the city's sights.

For now, here is what this week looked like: 

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: Ran 2.62 miles + Daily Burn: Yoga 6 (60 minutes)

Wednesday: Body Sculpt class (45 minutes)

Thursday: Ran 2.05 miles

Friday: Daily Burn: DB15 Yoga (15 minutes)

Saturday: Daily Burn: Cardio Sculpt (30 minutes)

Sunday: Ran 4.23 miles + Daily Burn: Yoga 1 (35 minutes)

Total yoga this week: 3 times
Total mileage this week: 8.9 miles
Total mileage this year: 151.1 miles

Happy Monday! 

Business School Graduation!

After three long years, I graduated from Business School this past weekend with my MBA. My whole family came into town to see me walk across that stage. Thank you so much, family, for taking the time out of your lives to celebrate with me! 

On Friday morning, we all met up for brunch at Ted's Bulletin in Eastern Market. I ordered a couple of side dishes because I wasn't very hungry. I had biscuits and gravy and hash browns. The restaurant is apparently known for its housemade pop tarts, which I thought were a little too bready and sprinkely. 

Next, we spent about an hour at the United States Botanic Garden to see some beautiful flowers. 

Then it was time to head home to get changed for the School of Business graduation. I'm somewhere in there! 

We actually sneaked out of the ceremony after everyone in my degree was called so that we could take photos. Oh, the beauty of having cell phones. Definitely wasn't an option when I graduated from high school or undergrad!

There was a reception after the ceremony with some light fare, including cupcakes decorated with the GW logo!

For dinner, we went to Zentan for some very expensive Asian fusion. A few of the dishes we ordered were the escolar, pekin chicken and the panna cotta for dessert. 

The next morning my siblings and I took our mom to her belated Mother's Day brunch at the Tabard Inn, one of my favorite brunch places in DC. 

We shared a plate of their famous doughnuts and whipped cream. I also ordered the corned beef hash with poached eggs. Yummy!

 

For the afternoon, we spent a few hours at the National Zoo, seeing some of my favorite animals. We were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the pandas!

One of my favorite areas of the zoo turned out to be the Invertebrates House. The sea creatures were so colorful. I could just stare at them all day. 

We rounded out the day with dinner at Village Bistro in the Court House area of Arlington. I ate here once before and didn't remember any of my first experience. Either that or it has changed considerably since then. They are very heavy on fish dishes and had varieties that I have not seen on any other menus in DC. Hello, opah? It was really cool. I ordered the monkfish and pistachio cheesecake for dessert. 

The family had to return to their respective homes the next day. It was so great to spend the weekend with them, and I hope they had fun! 

Ted's Bulletin
505 8th Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003

Zentan
1155 14th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005

Tabard Inn
1739 N Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036

Village Bistro
1723 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22209