In case you were living under a rock, the New Year is upon us. I went back and fourth on how I wanted to write my New Year post. I did a lot of reflecting and came to the realization that 2011 has been hugely bitter sweet in my world. There are so many things I loved and will miss about 2011 and so many things I am elated to say, “See ya, Bye!” to. I thought I would share with you the things I loved and will miss about this past year and the things I am SOOOOO OVER!  You guys ready?! Good!

Things I loved about 2011:

• Becoming friends with Lisa and Kristen! I have a blast with these girls- they are super fun, we have a lot in common (like getting joy out of taking awkward photos while stalking profession hockey players…can you see Brad Marchand in the background of this photo?!), and they are amazing friends. I am so lucky to have them in my life! Love you girlies!

So, you won’t believe how I am starting off 2012. I almost don’t either. With a fractured 5th metatarsal (bone in my foot) and a sprained ankle. There is no cool story. I didn’t break my foot running a super tough race or hiking a sweet ass mountain. I can’t even say I dropped a loaded bar on my foot while attempting to front squat an obscene amount of weight at Crossfit. I broke while….wait for it….

DANCING IN MY KITCHEN TO LADY GAGA! No, I am not lying. I was rocking out full force to Government Hooker.

When all of a sudden, I turned my ankle (the one I sprained a few months ago). I landed on the outside of my foot and snapped the bone, while re-spraining the ankle. My ankle was already weak from it’s previous sprain and me being it’s self-admitted stage mother, pushing it to get going when it really wanted to just hang out and heal, may of caught up to the poor thing. (Did I mention I was dancing in 4 inch heels?). Did I push it to get better too fast when it was originally sprained? Is that the reason this happened? Maybe. But I can’t take it back, so I am not going to beat myself up about it.

The 5th metatarsal is this little, but super important bone.

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It hurts A LOT! I am only taking motrin for the pain because to be honest, the idea of taking pain meds scares me. I have my own and very valid reasons for that. I have been directed to not put pressure on it until after the see a doctor that specializes in fractures of this kind, which will happen next week. I will find out from him if surgery is required. I really, really hope not.

So what has been tough about this?

1. I can’t really do much. I mean honestly, I am on crutches so when I need to get around I can’t carry anything in my hands. This sounds so simple, but it makes things super difficult. I can’t carry coffee from the kitchen to the next room, for example. I can’t carry my lunch from my office to the conference room where I eat with my co-workers.
2. I can’t drive. Yup! It is my driving foot! I can’t drive myself anywhere. I feel totally dependent on others.
3. I have to crawl up and down stairs…nuf said.
4. Showering….
5. I can’t run, Crossfit or practice yoga. I believe the first question I asked my doctor when I was told that my foot was broken was, “When can I run again?”. The long and short of it is, possibly about 4-6 weeks.
6. The pain. It keeps up up at night.
7. The crutches. My hands are sore from the crutches since it is all about balancing on my hands.

I am always trying to find a way to learn from bad experiences. I find it promotes personal resiliency. I force my friends, family and students to do this, so I require myself to do it as well. Here are my lessons learned….

• Don’t dance to Lady Gaga…Kidding!
• Allow yourself proper time to heal, it will help to avoid worse injury in the long run.
• Swallow your pride an ask for help. I was so worried about how I would get to work because I can’t drive. I  asked a co-worker  if she could help and is now driving me to and from work everyday. Without her I would be f**ked!
• It takes me longer to do EVERYTHING! From showering to walking to the bathroom. I need to be patient and prepare. I now get up an hour earlier in the morning (hello, 5 am!) to ensure I am ready in time.
• When people ask “Can I do something?” most of the time they mean it. Give them something to help you with. It takes a village, people!
• Try to see the bright side. I did allow myself a day or two to cry, whine and feel bad for myself. I am human. But honestly, it could be so much worse. SO MUCH WORSE! The bright side is, not matter what- I WILL be able to function normally again if I take care of my injury and follow doctors orders. That is a huge gift! Also, um…I got this hot new boot for free!!! Say what?!

If this boot is not the definition of sexy, I honestly don’t know what is…

Ok, gotta go to work… see you all later

Oh hey everyone!!! I hope this blog post finds you well and that you are all having an amazing holiday season!!! Mine has been busy and full of a lot of changes. As you may know, I started my full-time position as a high school guidance counselor and am seriously loving it so far. It is a lot to learn, but I find the more I learn the more I enjoy it! So what else have I been up to?

Well, for starters, racing in the frigid temps

Myself, Lisa and Maureen at the Jingle Bell run. Oh you know it was only 22 degrees, no big deal! Brrrrrr! The cold does make me fast though!

Ummmmm….let’s see what else. Oh yeah, being a new Auntie and loving it! My adorable niece Sophia Marie was born on December 18th, 2011 at 4:44pm. I was in the room to witness her beautiful (and somewhat dramatic) entrance into the world. It is certainly something I will never forget.

Here is Sophia, Auntie Ali and her proud Daddy (aka FFF Brother) just minutes after her birth.

Sophia and Nana (aka FFF Mom)

Sophia and Papa (aka FFF Dad)

Christmas Bow:

Sleepy Soph…

Ok….I know, enough photos of her already. Sorry, She is just the cutest little thing!!!

Oh…want to know what else I have been up to? Putting the finishing touches on and moving into our NEW HOUSE! Yup! It’s official we finally live in our new house! After over 2 years of planning and renovating we live here and it feels amazing!! It is still a little on the empty side in certain rooms, but that will require some time to figure out what we want to decorate and what not. I think Adam and I are still in the stage were we are beyond petrified to even put one hole in the wall! Here is the updated video tour of the Casa De FFF for your viewing pleasure!!! (pssst...notice the difference from my last house video?)

What do you think?! Worth all the time and stress? I think so

Oh and not top of that, we helped my brother, his girlfriend and the newborn (cute as a button) Sophia move into our old apartment. It has been a busy holiday season for us!!!

Great to catch up with you guys…I will see you all again soon!!!! xoxoxox

This evening my family and I gathered to celebrate FFF Mom’s birthday and decorate my parent’s Christmas tree. My mom, Adam and I prepared pizzas.

Cheese:

Prosciutto and mozzarella:

Veggie with whole wheat dough.

Can you take a guess which one I had? (hint…the one with the piece already missing)

There was also wine involved, obviously.

Once dinner was over we started working on the tree. Decorating the tree with my family is always fun. I love looking at all the ornaments from when my brother and I were little. There are always a lot of laughs…

I am pretty sure my dad was making fun of my brother right before this picture was taken. Clearly, I was amused. Pssssst- see my niece sitting there in Alicia’s belly?! I think she is almost ready to come and join this silly family

Here I am with my Tink ornament, my favorite one. I got it in Disney when I was 6 years old.

While we listening to Christmas Carols and decorated the tree, my Pa decided to play his harmonica for us!

Isn’t he seriously adorable?!

Once the tree was up, we sang Happy Birthday to FFF Mom and had cake!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

I also had something else to celebrate! Tomorrow I start my first of work at a NEW JOB! Not just any job, I am going to be a full-time Guidance Counselor at the school I have been interning at since September!!!! I will be there five days a week working as a Guidance Counselor and it will also count at my internship. I was so elated when the position was offered to me on Thursday of last week. It it proof that all things really do happen for a reason. I was told that so many times during the last 11 weeks and I really thought it was just something people say to make you feel better. But, sometimes things work out way better than expected.

Wish me luck as I start my dream job tomorrow!

“I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they’re right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.” 

- Marilyn Monroe 

I created this vlog today. Though I remain silent throughout it, it speaks volumes. Thanks! xoxoxox

Hey! How are you guys?! I had a great, but busy day. I spent a good part of my day working of stuff for my part-time job and the other part of my day caring for my Pa. It was brought to my attention after I left my mom and dad’s house that my Pa managed to eat four cupcakes without me knowing in the five and a half hours I spent taking care of him. Even though he has Alzheimer’s and barely knows who I am, the guy can still pull one over on me, I guess. It is things like that, that make me laugh and not feel so sad about his condition. It’s the little things in life

Breakfast this morning was a fried egg, veggie “bacon” and laughing cow sandwich on a whole wheat bagel thin with a clementine. How excited are you guys that it is clementine season again?! I love clementines!!!

I guess I was in the mood for sandwiches today because that is what I had for lunch too. I had turkey, spinach, goat cheese and red pepper spread on whole wheat pressed panini style with apple slices.

Dinner was pretty simple, but awesome. This morning at 7am I whipped together some ingredients to make a huge batch of spaghetti sauce and turkey meatballs. I put it all in my crockpot and let it cook for 8 hours. I am loving my crockpot lately. I love a sauce that cooks all day and the crockpot makes that so easy. I had whole wheat angel hair with sauce and two turkey meatballs topped with reduced fat parmesan cheese.

Around 7pm I met two friends at Panera for coffee. I had a long day and chatting with friends made for a great end to my day. I had a cup of coffee with half and half and my friend Nathalie and I split a bearclaw.

Superstitions:

Well, tomorrow is the first of the month, which means I will be spending my night reminding myself to say “Rabbit, Rabbit” FIRST thing tomorrow morning. I seriously ALWAYS forget and then I am convinced I will have bad luck for the rest of the month. This month, I feel like I could really use the good luck. For those of you unaware of this superstition, saying “Rabbit, Rabbit” first thing when you get out of bed on the first of every month you will have good luck all month long.

[source]

This all got me thinking about my other superstitions. I realized I am a pretty superstitious person. For example, instead of someone wishing me “Good Luck” it has to be “Break a Leg”, whether it’s in relation to a race or interview or what have you. This stems from my 10 years as a theater actress. In theater saying “Good Luck” is actually bad luck and “Break a Leg” is good luck. In case you are wondering I will also NOT say the name “Macbeth” in a theater either. That is a HUGE theater superstition.

[source]

I also have an eyelash superstition. If an eyelash of mine falls out I have to blow it off my finger and make a wish. If the eyelash doesn’t blow away in one breathe, it means I won’t get my wish.

And of course the old make a wish at 11:11 am and 11:11 pm. Whenever I look at the clock and realize that is the time, I make a wish.

[source]

Are you superstitious? if so, what are you superstitions? 

Don’t call it a come back….

Ok…you can if you want! Actually, you should! (Don’t worry- FFF Mom didn’t tell me to knock anyone out. She is way too sweet of a lady for that).

At the end of every year it occurs to me that my year usually has a common theme. Allow me to explain:

2008: The Year of the Big Changes- I got engaged and decided to return to school to started working on my M.Ed in School Counseling

Adam and I about an hour before he popped the question:

Silly photo Adam took of me on my first day of grad school with my bag heading out the door. We are nerds

2009: The Year of Working on Myself- I quit smoking, worked on my relationship with food, started running and started writing this blog!

2010: The Year of the Celebration - I got married, celebrated my best friend’s marriage with her and fulfilled two life-long dreams of visiting Italy and Greece as well as seeing Vatican City – all on my honeymoon.

My wedding 7/10/10:

After delivering my Matron of Honor speech at bestie May’s Wedding.

My honeymoon (When in Rome, right? )

Me in Saint Peter’s Square:

I don’t really plan my years to revolve around a theme, it just happens that way. While on a run yesterday, my first run post-sprained ankle, I realized 2011 is The Year of the Come Back. If you are a regular reader you are aware this year has been a though one for me:

• I was really sick at the beginning of the year, but didn’t really know how sick. As evidence, I ran the New York 13.1 half marathon whilst having a dangerously low blood count. I finally went to the doctor and was told I had internal bleeding, an ulcer and a severe iron deficiency. But….I CAME BACK! I got better through meds, rest and diet changes and got myself back into Half Marathon shape to PR that distance about 7 weeks after the NYC 13.1. So much better in fact, that I registered for my first full marathon that same day!!!!
• While marathon training I injured my left foot resulting in Plantar Fasciitis, a bone spur and several micro-fractures. Smart training and lots of rest at the end improved my condition enough that I got the green light from my doctors to run the marathon. But, of course, it did not stop there. Oh come on, this is me we are talking about. The day before my marathon was spent at the doctors with back pain and a high fever. I found out I had a urinary tract infection. I followed super specific instructions and….I CAME BACK!!!! I finished that marathon strong and happy (video evidence)!
• I suffered the post-marathon blues…it’s normal. To combat that I made my long-awaited return to Crossfit! Where I promptly sprained my ankle  But….I CAME BACK! Like I said, with a few weeks of rest and walking around in an unsightly air cast (I was the definition of “sexy” in that thing, let me tell ya ), I am back to running and Crossfitting this week.
• I got laid off. I still working on COME BACK with that , but there is a HUGLY EXCITING opportunity hanging in the balance that I should know about in the next few weeks so keep your fingers crossed for me! This unfortunately effected my life way more than I though and has caused me to have to battle my issues with depression and disordered eating here and there in the past few months. I am COMING BACK! 
• I am renovating a house! While this is super exciting, it is equally as stressful- especially since I don’t have a paying job (just an unpaid internship- which I LOVE). But, we are about 2 weeks away from move in, so the COME BACK in that regard is really close.
• I have had some family illnesses as well that have been tough on us all.

Wow! What a year, huh?! There was a lot of hardship but a lot of excitement and joy as well. Yesterday on my run I realized that even though things were and are still really hard right now, I have come back, I can come back and I will come back. That is the funny thing about running just when I start to feel hopeless, I lace up my shoes and spend a little time just me and the road. I eventually start to realize that I am so strong, smart and resilient that the COME BACK is going to happen. I am grateful that running had come into my life (thanks, 2009 Ali) and that being a runner has taught me so much about not only my physical strength but my mental strength as well. Afterall, homegirl ran 26.2 miles with 3 foot injuries, a UTI and a fever- I mean come on, there is nothing this girl can’t handle.

Thanks for still reading even though I have been gone for a little while. This is my COME BACK post. See you tomorrow!

Hey everyone! I hope your Friday is going well! Mine has been great! Hello, weekend!!!

Yesterday I woke up feeling pretty tired. I actually have had trouble sleeping for the past few night (no worries, I made up for it last night when I was in bed by 9am and slept like a baby). I had a pep in my step though because I was headed to my internship. I don’t write a lot about it, because I am not comfortable really sharing what I do there since I am working with High School kids and I like to maintain a little privacy about where I work and who I am working with. I am so appreciative of your respect and understanding of that. What I will say is that I am totally loving it. My internship has proven to me that this is the absolute right profession for me to be in. Every morning when I walk into school I think to myself, “I can’t want until I graduate in May and then have this be my life everyday!”. Hopefully that is, if I get a counseling job right out of school. There are minimal jobs available at the beginning of each school year. I am optimistic. I will cross that bridge when I arrive at it.

Anyhow…breakfast was liquid. I had a LARGE coffee (lack of sleep) and a green smoothie. Caffeine and superfoods are the perfect sure for this sleepy girl.

The Green Smoothie:

• Banana
• Spinach
• Flax seeds
• Strawberries
• Almond milk

Lunch was kind of thrown together from whatever pieces I could find. We are running low on groceries on the FFF household.

• Veggie burger
• Laughing cow
• Sandwich thin
• Apple
• Cocoa  Almonds
• Cocoa energy bites
• Pretzel thins

After school I worked on a freelance website development project I have been working on for the past week or so. At 6:30 I snacked on a mini peanut butter cookie Larabar as a pre-workout snack.

I went to the 7pm Crossfit class. I was a little nervous when I saw the workout because I knew it would be a lot of strain on my sprained ankle.

Here was the workout:

Warm-up:

3 rounds

• 10 squats
• 10 good mornings
• 10 jumping jacks
• 20 second third world squats

Strength:

5 back squats (65 pounds) – 3 sets

3 back squats (85 pounds) – 3 sets

1 back squats (100 pounds) – 3 sets – NEW BACK SQUAT MAX! Woooooo hoooooooo!

Metcon:

4 rounds:

• 25 four count flutter kicks
• 250 meter row
• 5 pistols right side
• 5 pistols left side
• 25 back extensions (25 lbs.)

First thing, I was so excited to have a new max of 100 pounds!!! I felt like Wonder Woman! I did the pistols on the right side assisted because I didn’t want to push my ankle too hard after I pushed it weight-wise with the squats. The workout was super fun! I am starting to realize I really, really rowing on the rowing machine. I am glad that Crossfit forced me to try the rowing machine because I have seen it at the gym for years and never really knew how to use it or thought I would like it.

Dinner was simple. I didn’t really feel like cooking (I wanted to watch American Horror Story )and Adam felt like eggs. I had a veggie bacon, egg whites and cheese sandwich on a whole wheat sandwich thin with apple sauce on the side.

What have your tried lately that you loved but didn’t expect? 

Hey! Long time no see! I have been pretty busy lately. I am spending 2 days a week at my internship and three days a week caring for my grandfather. I haven’t really written about this, but a few weeks ago, my Pa was sent to the hospital and spent a few weeks in there. He is not doing super well, and so my parents and I am splitting the time caring for him (the them doing most of the work because they are super human). I also haven’t blogged because I didn’t have much to say other than to whine about my stupid sprained ankle that has been annoying me for the last few weeks. No one likes a whiner, so I decided to keep it to myself.

Anyhow, my ankle has been feeling better, thanks to my air-cast. So I decided to head to Crossfit this morning to test a few things out.

1. My ankle’s ability to make a Crossfit comeback
2. My new hair-do’s ability to be functional at the gym

I was excited to hit the gym after over two weeks of sitting on the sofa like this:

(Adorable tube socks by Juicy Couture. Come on, you know you love them! They say “Bitter Sweet Couture”)

So this morning, I hopped out of bed at 6:30 am and headed to Crossfit for a 7am class. I did wear the air-cast during the workout to keep my ankle stable. I think I might invest in a sturdy brace for the gym and running, and just wear the cast when I am resting. While on my way out the door, I snacked on a mini cashew cookie Larabar for some pre-workout fuel.

When I arrived at the gym I saw that the workout of the day (WOD) was “The Dirty Dozen”. Man, oh man! I was a little intimidated!

The workout looked like this:

Warmup:

3 rounds-

• 250 meter row
• 10 windmills (8 kg kettlebell)
• 5 inchworms
• 10 side lunges (8kg kettlebell)
• 10 back extensions

WOD: The Dirty Dozen

• 25 walking lunges
• 20 pullups (with a band)
• 50 box jumps
• 20 double unders (60 single jumps)
• 25 ring dips (with a band)
• 30 kettlebell swings (14 kg)
• 30 ab mat sit-ups
• 20 hang squat cleans (25 and 20 pound dumbells)
• 30 wall ball shots (14 pounds)
• 3 rope climbs

Before I began the workout, I talked to the trainer, Logan, who suggested that instead of box jumps I do step-ups on the box. We both agreed that the pounding of jumping up and down would not be good for my ankle. The step ups took a lot more time, but that was fine- much better than damaging my ankle since it is almost healed.

So, the ankle held up MUCH better than I expected and I am glad that I tested it out . I did feel the “I haven’t worked out in over 2 weeks” exhaustion, but that will pass.

The other thing I was testing out for the first time at the gym was my hair cut . The one thing I was worried about once I cut 9 inches of hair off was how I would run or workout with this hair-do. There is NO WAY it can go into a pony tail. I pulled the front pieces up  to try to get as much hair out of my face as possiable. It helped, but working out with my hair down is something that is going to take getting used to. The back of my head got super sweaty and the hair was stuck to my neck. I know, attractive! Luckily, I could give a crap what I look like during a workout. Here is my hair post-workout. The pins stayed put, at least.

(great quality gym bathroom photo).

After my workout, I refueled with a coffee with half and half, and a green smoothie.

Smoothie ingrediants:

• 1 banana
• spinach
• vanilla protein powder
• spinach
• flax seeds
• frozen strawberries

I spent the late morning at my house dealing with a handful of minor crises. We are about a month out from move and the sh*t is really hitting the fan, let me tell ya! The stress is mounting and decisions need to be made really quickly. It is a lotl, but worth it! The rest of my day will be spent caring for my grandfather.

See you guys soon!

What have you been testing out lately? 

Today my lovely sister-in-law cut off nine inches of my hair! This is just the first pile. I believe there were 3 separate piles! It was time for a change. I have a lot of hair, but it is not very thick. So every now and then, I just want to chop it short. I am no stranger to short here (remember the post I wrote about all of the different styles and colors my hair has been?) I will say though, I don’t think it had ever been this short

Here I am right before the chop! My hair was half wet, half dry.

(How cute is my fur-nephew Bradly?)

I am not even going to pretend that I didn’t spend some of the time freaking out inside. With every chop I heard I got a little nervous. When Jen took out the clippers to buzz the back of my head a little bit, I had to breathe deep. It did help knowing I was in VERY capable hands, my sister-in-law is an amazing stylish and and works at Spa South of Boston  The end result is the shortest my hair has even been since I was probably a toddler, but I do love it! I am a big fan of the stacked bob. Here are some photos…

Sorry, they are not the best. It is really hard getting good photos of yourself. Especially when your hair is so short and your camera is so big! What do you think?!

While chatting with Jen, I had some leftover Portuguese Kale Soup that she made yesterday. Hair cut and soup? I love my sister-in-law

After the haircut, I headed home worked on laundry (like I promised) and did some work for my part-time job. Adam is working 7am-12am today, but did have a break for dinner so he came home I coated a few chicken tenders in egg whites and then rolled them in a whole wheat bread crumb and grated cheese mixture. I baked them at 380 degrees for about 20 minutes on each side. I also cut a bunch of brussle sprouts in half length-wise, then coated them in a little olive oil, garlic powder and some grated cheese. I baked then for about 40 minutes with the chicken, stirring them up a few times!  Perfection

Have you ever done anything drastic to your hair? Cut a lot off? Colored it a color totally different than you were used to? If so, what inspired you to do it and did you like it?