Working Out Away From Home

I've spent a lot of this year on the road, at hotels and traveling for business.  It's not always easy to run when you're away from home.  Ideally, you'd stay in a great area where they have sidewalks and no crime.  However, that just doesn't happen.  When I visited New Orleans earlier this year I'm sad to say I told told by hotel staff that under no circumstances should I go out alone to run.  (A whole group was required.)

So, what do I do to stay healthy and fit when I'm on the road?  The first thing is knowing that some days are just too busy for a workout.  It will happen that I'm on the road for 12 hours, or presenting and working and it's just too much to fit into a day.  When I'm traveling for business, I need to be fresh, sharp and full of energy, so sometimes a workout isn't in my best interest.

Secondly, I always try to see the city so I end up doing a lot of walking around.  I do take public transportation when I need to cover a large distance but I'd prefer to see it all on foot.

I always check out the hotel gym before I leave home.  I try to plan out my workouts in advanced based on their equipment.  I check the hours of operation and any rules they have posted.  I also check if there is a pool where I could swim or classes to attend.

When I can run in a new city I make sure to take my GPS watch so I have a record of my time and distance traveled. Sometimes the hotel desk will give you a map of where to run. It's always a good idea to ask them. Also, tell someone where you are going for safety.

While I always bring workout clothes with me, some hotels have them to rent.  The Westin will bring you New Balance shoes and clothes to use for the day for just $5.

If all else fails, I bring a travel yoga mat and a prerecorded class taught by my usual yoga instructor and I try to carve out a piece of my hotel room to do yoga in.  It's not always perfect, but eating healthy, stain optimistic and really enjoying my travels makes it fun and keeps everything fresh and new.

Virginia Women's Business Conference

Recently I was lucky enough to speak at the Virginia Women's Business Conference.  This is the 5th year they have run the conference and it has grown in size every year.  They contacted me ages ago about presenting and I accepted as soon as I could.  As it does, the time flew and before I knew it the day arrived to leave.

We stayed at the Landsdown Resort in Virginia and it was lovely.  The hotel was enormous and can house multiple conferences, weddings and events at once.  With multiple pools, restaurants and even conference rooms, it was a huge building to navigate.  However, on day one I found a little niche of the lobby to enjoy my coffee and sit by the fire and get some work done.  Who doesn't love a hotel with free coffee all morning?

Me at sunset at Arlington

The newest memorial, decimated to MLK

I spoke in the afternoon to a large group of business women who had great energy.  The group had lots of amazing questions and were ready and willing to learn and dive right into my questions and activities.

I love presenting to people who want more information on getting organized.  Once they know that it doesn't require them to make their home look like Pottery Barn or give  up every waking minute to color code and label, they cam embrace it.  For most people, they have simply thought about organizing wrong before and it's changing their mindset that can be life changing.

Matt and I ate at some of our favorite DC restaurants (Gordon Beirsh, La Sandia, and even a local Thai place).  We toured the mall, visited the monuments and the museums.  It was COLD on one of the days so we even moved the car once to stay close and warm.

It was the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy Assassination so Arlington was packed but it was amazing to be there on such a historic event.

Arlington at sunset

The Capitol Building

Ron Burgundy's Famous Suit

We were also able to visit the temporary exhibit at the Newseum called Anchorman.  It showcases lots of costumes, props and stories from the original Anchorman movie.  While it's a parody on real news, it was a great exhibit, really fun to see and overall, the whole trip was kind of a big deal.

This is my last business trip of the year.  I'm already looking forward to booking speaking engagements all over the country next year!

Showers of Happiness

I was recently lucky enough to be asked to be in a bridal party.  The other bridesmaid and myself worked for months, hundreds of miles apart from each other to plan a bridal shower with a navy and pink nautical theme.  We had a lot of laughs and everything came together for us. Here are a few pictures from the big event.

Here I am with the bride to be and the Maid of Honor.  

I love these ladies!

This is the gift table.  We had scratch off tickets and a basket full of prizes to give away.  The favors were anchor shaped bottle openers.  We mailed out recipe cards and best wishes cards ahead of time and people returned them to us at the shower.  It was great reading what people wrote!  Some are serious, others funny and this group of ladies has some great recipes!

This was an idea I came up with after writing a blog post about inexpensive date nights.  Everyone wrote down their idea for a date night on a stick and we sent it home with the bride and groom.  Some are funny, others sweet and some are R rated!

I bought cupcakes from my favorite bakery.  Red velvet. I then topped them with home made navy and blue anchor picks.  

Noizy Headphone Review

We all know I love to run.  And I've been looking for a great pair of headphones for what seems like forever.  I finally got everything I was looking for in Noizy's blue tooth headphones.  

They connect to your phone, iPod or other music device via blue tooth so there are no wires.  They fit nicely in your ears and they come with lots of various earbud styles and "tips".  The headphones allow you to control your music (volume, play, forward, etc) and you can even make a phone call with these.  I love these for conference calls!  Instead of holding a phone to my ear I can take notes or type!  

I love that these don't get tangled in my dog's leash when I am walking her.  Many headphones are too long and with a leash, a jacket in the fall and winter and headphones, tangles become commonplace.  These are an amazing gift for someone looking to get fit in the new year or the runner on your list.  I love these, how light weight they are and how fabulous the sound is.  They are cute and even come in pink!

Toronto

Sorry I've been so quiet lately!  We've been out of the country :)
Okay, just Canada…but it was a great trip!

We started off in Niagara falls.  My husband had never been and it was a great place to see again as an adult.  (I hadn't been since high school.)

We had an amazing hotel room that overlooked the falls.  With the cold air and the mist, we actually had a better view from the room.  We ate dinner at an amazing Crepe place.

Then next day we moved onto Toronto and right before we hit the border I realized my passport was expired!  Turns out you can still cross the border, thank goodness!

We immediately started exploring and went to some Canadian stores :)
Our hotel room was in the heart of the entertainment and financial district so the restaurants were amazing.  We had so many great meals!

We visit the hockey hall of fame.  My husband loves hockey and he was thrilled!  This is in fact, a FAKE Stanley cup, but we still posed for a photo with it :)

At the CN Tower there is a glass floor that looks straight down at the ground.  It was really cool.  Not everyone wants to walk on it and their reactions are often hilarious.

My badge at the Professional Organizers of Canada Conference.  This was the real reason for our trip.  I spoke with another organizer on digital filing and organization.  The audience was great and I always love presenting.

This is just one example of an amazing meal we had.  This one, a chicken pot pie, was from a restaurant called Elephant and Castle.

Matt looking at the Stanley cup and soon realizing it's a fake.  

The view of Toronto from the CN Tower.  It was a great view and an amazingly clean city with healthy and friendly people.  We had a lot of amazing food, great views and we got to see the Red Sox win the World Series in our hotel room :)

Another great road trip in the books and another great speaking engagement.  I'm so thankful I have a fellow road tripper who loves coming along for the ride and that I have a career that takes me to such great places.