Breast Cancer

Yoga on the Steps 2017: MIMM 109

May 22, 2017 by Alicia Leave a Comment

Hey there and happy Monday!! I am coming at you from Philadelphia today. I will be heading back to Binghamton this afternoon, but enjoyed a weekend in Philadelphia to attend the Yoga on the Steps event, staying at my friend, Rachael’s new house and walking A LOT. My steps were kind of slacking on Wednesday through Friday due to the heat and already doing yoga or weightlifting during the day, but I definitely made up for it this weekend.

On Saturday morning I drove down to Philadelphia for the weekend so I could participate in Yoga on the Steps Reach and Raise event on Sunday. I drove to the King of Prussia area and stopped in Wegmans for a small salad for lunch. Then I headed to the King of Prussia mall to walk around a bit and check out some stores before heading to Rachael’s house for the weekend. Of course I ran into a parade and event near her house and spent 20 minutes circling to find parking, but it was great once I arrived. We walked around the festival. I even got to weld a bit which I haven’t done since my high school welding class. Let’s just say it wasn’t a nice weld, but the guy said the piece would definitely stay together so there’s that.

From there, we ended up grabbing an early dinner of chips and guac and a burrito for me. It was only 5pm when we FINISHED dinner so we decided to walk down by the river all the way to Penn’s landing and a bit beyond.

We grabbed dessert along the way and I got an iced tea as well.

waterfront snack time — sugar cookie and iced tea

I think we walked about 4 miles from Rachael’s house which then meant it was a long walk back. We didn’t get back until 9:30. Basically, constant walking for 4 hours.

We got back and relaxed a bit and then it was time to head to bed.

Sunday morning I got up at 6:45 so I could eat breakfast and start heading into center city at 7:15. I found my way to the train and took it down to 15^th street and then walked to the art museum. There was so much new construction and the walk to the art museum seemed to take longer as I zig zagged my way to open sidewalks.

I got there shortly after 8 which was perfect to check in and then meet up with my friends from last year. The event started at 9:30, so we took some pictures and enjoyed the sunshine beforehand.

We were then led through a short meditation of mindfulness, heard from a few speakers and then did our yoga practice. The event had around 2,000 people and I just feel like it is so powerful to practice yoga with that many people. Plus the money raised goes to Living Beyond Breast Cancer, a great non profit organization to help women and men diagnosed with breast cancer.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather on Sunday. It was absolutely beautiful!! Afterwards, I enjoyed chatting with my friends and eating snacks provided.

yoga on the steps 2017 2 — gauc salad and granola bar and pretzels

In the afternoon, I enjoyed my second lunch at Rachael’s house and then we went for another walk, but only for about 2 hours. We ended with some vegan ice cream made from coconut milk and then got pizza next door because the smell was too good to pass up.

coconut milk ice cream — lemon lavender ice cream made with coconut milk

Finally in the evening, Rachael and her husband made some veggies, because we didn’t eat enough food apparently. I enjoyed a bit of down time doing some writing and then it was time to wind down for the evening.

I’m so happy I got to come down for Yoga on the Steps. The drive from Binghamton isn’t too bad so I think I will plan to attend next year as well. It’s also nice now to visit Philly, a city I got to know over the 2.5 years I lived there.

Linking up with Katie for MIMM.

What’s one fun thing you did this weekend?

Yoga on the Steps 2016 MIMM#71

May 16, 2016 by Alicia 4 Comments

Hey there! Did you have a good weekend?

I kicked off the weekend by grabbing a donut and then heading to yoga, because that’s what yogis do right? Eat donuts and then do yoga, haha. I have been craving a cupcake for a couple weeks now but I was doing low carb for a few weeks and testing myself and doing pretty well so I thought I would wait until the end of week 4 only to find that the cupcake truck wasn’t on the schedule for May and discovered that my favorite cupcake place in the city in Philadelphia closed. I’m not sure when but I was looking up Philly Cupcake and discovered it closed this year. So I ended up with a donut from my favorite place in Reading Terminal, Beiler’s Bakery and it hit the spot for now.

This time at yoga there was one other person and me, so not quite a private class, but close. It honestly feels so great to go to a yoga class again. Despite being a teacher now, I am not the best at practicing at home. However, now that the weather is warming up, I have been trying to do some flows outside when possible. My thing is that cement and solid floors is what I need, practicing on my carpeted space isn’t the same, but I deal for now. The theme on Friday was awareness and I connected with it a lot especially after practice. I got home around 8pm but decided to go for a walk as it was a beautiful evening. This is what I posted to Instagram, my personal account @ilabk (I also have a separate blog account @bridgesthroughlife)

“The theme in the yoga class I went to tonight was awareness. While I was at the train station I helped a blind person get on the train, I thought about how she has to be so aware of all the sounds around her, aware of the stops on the train to know when to get off, she cant just look out the window to know. When I got home, I was more aware of just how green everything is now. It felt like it took forever for the green to arrive but after all the rain the grass has been growing so quickly. The humidity in the air with that spring smell. It’s the perfect night for a walk. I dropped off my bags turned around and headed out. I noticed two boys kicking a soccer ball in the field (their mom was nearby) which has a light layer of fog on top. I noticed the quarter moon shining brightly above my head and as the sun sets, the pink clouds wave through the sky. I feel so at peace in this moment (despite typing this as I walk)”

A wonderful evening it was. Then Saturday I ran errands, went swimming, stopped for a Five Guys burger (did you know it’s national burger month?) as I was craving one and then was so full I didn’t even really eat dinner. I did some meal prep for the week though knowing my time on Sunday would be limited.

Now to the big event of the weekend, Yoga on the Steps (Reach and Raise). This was my third year participating. The weather was not as nice as previous years but we all braved the cold, 50 degrees. It was nice when the sun came out. I meant some wonderful people that sat next to me. They kindly took pictures for me before practicing. I also enjoyed the partner work as always. I go to events on my own because I want to go to them and I don’t always have someone to go with, but yoga events in particular, I have found so many kind and welcoming people, you never feel alone.

The end of the practice was absolutely perfect, as we laid down for final savasana, it was chilly and the sun was behind a giant cloud. A few breaths in and the sun came out from behind that cloud and shone down on us. Warmth spread through your body like a warm and fuzzy hug. It was a magical savasana.

Afterwards, I grabbed some snacks and headed to the train. I was so excited to get into my warm apartment and change into pjs, eat, finish some meal prepping and spend some time on the couch watching tv and coloring. It had been so long since I colored. It was nice to have so much relaxing time on the weekend. I may have even gotten a little bored, which hasn’t happened in a long time. I was thankful for all the down time though as next weekend will be plenty busy and this week I have a lot going on in the evenings. Hopefully I am nice and rested to tackle the week.

Oh it was also national chocolate chip day yesterday. I celebrated with this mug cake.

What is one thing you did this weekend?

What do you enjoy doing to relax? I like to read, color and watch tv.

Busy Yoga Filled Weekend: MIMM #31

May 18, 2015 by Alicia Leave a Comment

Happy Monday!! Just one week before Memorial day and I just have a 4 day work week since I am heading to Chicago on Friday for the long weekend. YAY! I have so many things I want to do at home in a short amount of time and hope I can get to most of them. I should probably start packing too….but that’s getting off topic here.

My weekend went by way too quickly!! I was hardly home and my train is currently down due to the derailment last week so that has made it a bit more difficult since I had some yoga in the city this weekend.

Friday evening, I headed to the Phillies game after work. He had an extra ticket after a couple people backed out. One thing about me is that I am a planner. I like to know what is going to happen, when, but life doesn’t work that way. Being a planner, I am very good at saying “no” to things. I don’t know if that comes with being a planner, but in my mind it does. Being that I didn’t have plans for Friday night other than to lay around on the couch or on the patio and I don’t know when I would get another opportunity to go to a Phillies game, I decided to say yes. So I went to my very first baseball game (sorry Chicago…) and saw the Phillies play. We were in a party suite too! I mean that is the only way I go to games (like when I went to the Bulls game and Blackhawks game with my last company). What comes with watching sports is drinking and I will say I don’t drink. This means I also remember stuff people say when they are drunk…but what I enjoy are the chicken fingers and cookies. There were tubs of popcorn and I ate some, then the container just sat there and I started talking to a couple sitting next me after they mentioned I had so much self control with the popcorn. I am really not a salt lover (I guess growing up with plain food has a bonus to it) but it a plate of cookies is in front of me, it is a different story. Luckily those were at other tables.

Funny story about the photo on the left. I asked to borrow someone’s glasses (these glasses are like the mascot) to take a picture. She said “sure go get your phone” and then I pull out my ipad for the photo because the quality will be better and she goes “what is this?!?” as it clearly was not the phone she was expecting. Wow we were laughing for so long. You can’t see my mouth in the picture but I was laughing while she took like 4 photos. Phones are convenient for taking photos, but I still like my regular point and shoot camera. Since I didn’t have that, I was happy to have my ipad with me for a bit of a better photo. That is definitely my favorite photo of the night. Oh and the Phillies won so that was good also.

It was a late night as my boss and I headed on the subway to center city and then I hopped into a cab to my car at the other train station. I swear every time I take a cab, the cab driver has no idea where to take me, but after 5 minutes of repeating my destination, he finally understood at least and I finally made it home around 11:45, took a shower and headed to bed.

Saturday morning I work up to my alarm at 7:30. I wish I could have slept in with my late night Friday, but I had to leave at 9 and get ready for Yoga on the Banks and a potluck with my yoga studio that I trained at. So I threw together a quick bean salad in the morning to bring and ate breakfast and left shortly after 9 to drive to the area I used to live by and park at that train station, since my train was down and headed into the city. As I was on the train, I felt right at home, the stops of the places that I knew for my first 11 months living in Philly.

It was a great morning for Yoga on the Banks. Maybe I will get tan this year with all my time outside. I put on loads of sunscreen since I burn easily though. After some yoga, I headed to the potluck, hoping the bean salad didn’t warm up too much in my car for a couple hours. It turned out fine and while people were in their normal everyday clothes (which was weird to see since you always see them in yoga clothes at the studio), I was in yoga clothes since I came from yoga lol.

The potluck was until 3 but a few of us stayed until 4 just talking and having a great time! I didn’t take any pictures but it was at my wonderful yoga teacher’s house and people just came and went as they pleased pretty much. I wanted to leave around 4 since it was a 45 minute drive home for me and again sooo much traffic, but that is also because I pass through the city so it eventually opened up.

So there was my Saturday, I was out from 9-5…geez sounds like work, but at least it was really enjoyable. I had a small dinner at home and spent the evening relaxing with some writing and reading.

Sunday morning I got up at 5:15am!! I know that is not the time to be waking up on Sunday but I had to head out at 6am to my old town to park my car and take the train at 6:57 to the city for Yoga on the Steps. I was glad I took the first train too since the steps filled up quickly. The whole top of the steps was off limits due to a giant tent being there, my guess is a wedding was there Saturday evening, so instead some yogis got to put their mats in the street along Benjamin Franklin Parkway which was cool. I sat on the step with the band and the stage so I had a great view.

The event began at 9:30 with a few people speaking and then the yoga class started at 10 and the clouds were finally moving away and the sun was coming out. I was applying sunscreen like crazy but I still got burned along my tank top straps on my shoulders and back.

After the class, they had some snacks. The food wasn’t as great as last year when they had make your own salads, but they did have guacamole and chips which everyone was after. After snacking, I headed over to Whole Foods down the street since I needed a couple things and I wanted a bit more food and water, so I ate a kale salad there before heading to the train station back to my car. Then it was time for some grocery shopping before heading home.

I got some meat marinating and cleaned up and then made some stir fry like dish for dinner.

The rest of the evening was uneventful and I used the bit of time before bed to relax.

Thank you Katie for hosting!

Treat Yourself Tuesday #10

October 14, 2014 by Alicia 4 Comments

Hey guys!! A short post on a few of my treats from the last week. Thank you Becky for hosting and reminding us to treat ourselves 🙂

Firstly, on Friday, I caved and got a cupcake. I haven’t had a cupcake since August as I have been saving money. When I saw a smores cupcake on the menu at the cupcake truck, I had to get it. Well it was between that and pumpkin spice…so basically deciding between summer and fall right? Anyway I decided to try the smores because I never got my smores cupcake in the summer. I am not sure why they decided to put it on the menu in October…

As tasty as the cupcake was and a great fuel for my swim after work, it was a bit disappointing. For one, it had too much frosting so I had to scrap some off and two, there was not enough graham cracker. They just sprinkled graham cracker crumbs on the frosting. I have had a better smores cupcake where they did a graham cracker crust on the bottom and prefer that. However I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered melted Hershey’s in the middle.

On Saturday I went to Target and while walking by the DVD section, I saw this for under $5 and had to get it. Two movies in one!! I find I have been buying more DVDs lately since I don’t have cable… [side note: Miss Congeniality was the first PG13 movie I watched]

I also picked up some of these to try as they were on sale. They are delicious by the way.

On Sunday, I decided to order a new water bottle. I figure I need a back up and my Camelbak straw always gets like moldy after a couple days…yeah it’s gross…but since I only use it for water and I clean it every few days, I have lived with it. I used to have an Under Armour water bottle like this but left it at the gym one day. Bonus, it was free shipping since this water bottle supports breast cancer.

I also treated myself to some yoga and reading outside in the sun on Sunday. Have to soak up that sun before winter.

I love how steady I feel in crow pose these days. I feel my fingers making small adjustments just like when I am doing balance poses and standing and my toes make small adjustments, but I feel very steady. Amazing to see how far I have come because in March of this year I couldn’t even hold crow for a split second. Also had to do my bridge pose too. Trying to practice it more to get my hands closer to my feet.