Let Diet-to-Go help you Get Your Summer Skinny on with a Little Common-Sense!

If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I’ve talked about Diet-to-Go’s easy meal program in the past. As a part of their Ambassador Program they asked me to try out their meals again and share my thoughts with you on them. I selected the Vegetarian meal plan because I’m not a real big meat eater unless it’s the occasional steak or shrimp kind of deal. I love my veggies and my crazy schedule loves Diet-to-Go and how easy it makes my life at meal planning and preparation.

See?!?! Who doesn’t love common sense healthy meals with no fuss?

Before I get into the meals (which will be a longer review later this weekend) I wanted to again remind you to join their June Sweepstakes promotion. Head on over to their Facebook page and check it out. Don’t forget to “Like” their page also.

You have an awesome chance to win some prizes. Five lucky folks could win one week of free meals and the grand prize winner could win a whole month of free meals!! Can you imagine?!?! An entire month of no cooking, no grocery shopping or meal planning and prep!?!? It’s like a vacation the idea is so thrilling to me since my kitchen became a fun killer with my new work schedule. So please check out the sweepstakes and enter.

Diet-to-Go is also hosting a Summer DietBet game. The game will launch on June 28th and run for 28 days. You weigh in and submit a photo to be verified at the start and end of the game. For anyone who is shy or worried, don’t be! You can keep your weight and the photos confidential so only you see them. The cost to join is $25 and if you “win” your “diet bet” by losing 4% of your weight you spilt the total pot of money with the winners. It’s really simple and fun. Winners could also win a $50 gift card from Diet-to-Go.

Another way to interact with this great company is through Google + Community: “Common-Sense Healthy Living” Now admittedly, I am pretty new at the whole Google + Community, lots of sharing and circles which could make a newbie tech person like me a little dizzy, but I suggest you check it out. There are lots of great tips, articles and information to help keep you motivated to slim down in a healthy way.

And while we’re at it, Diet-to-Go is letting us as Ambassadors share some of the savings with you our readers. For a limited time only we can share a “gift card” with you which is good for $50 off a week of meals. What better way to give them a try and save some cash for things like a cute new swim suit or summer shoes??

So what are you waiting for?? Diet-to-Go saved me hours of kitchen time the first time I reviewed their delicious meals (I am totally not kidding about that statement!) and that time savings continues again. I can’t wait to share with you the new meals I’ve gotten to try this time.

I received a week of meals to review as my compensation and all thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.

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Vacation and Paying Rent

Lots of things have been happening here as per the “Sneakers, Bananas and Spears” life model. Lots of run-racing, clean eating – making sure I get my monies worth out of my Vitamix and writing in between jobs and mom-responsibilities. So on our vacation over Memorial Day I had plenty of time to ponder my next steps between rest stops and eating handfuls of Teddy grahams, which incidentally are the best snack ever. I’m finally looking forward to the daunting task of editing and formatting my book (yes I wrote a book, where have you been?). Mostly she’s been sitting in a word document saying snarky teenage crap and I’ve decided that this “baby” of mine needs to start paying rent. So I’m kicking her out of the nest. Soon. If I don’t revert and bite all my nails off nervously in the process. See I wrote this book with the full intention of it being a hip, awesome “Tom Clancy” -esque thriller… but as luck would have it, my characters decided they wanted a little action together *gasp* and so now they are waaaaayyyy more romantically involved than I planned for them to be. *sigh* Jerks just can’t keep thier clothes on and honestly, parts of it embarrass me!

Anyway some fun highlights from our Vacation in the Fingerlakes, specifically Seneca Lake…

Because you always need an awesome, badass looking cat in a bike shop. I think I need to name this cat and add him to one of my stories. He’s so beautiful and intense looking. His personality just screams, “Come in my bike shop and I will scratch you up.”

Some of our friends hate cheese, but in our house we love it. So tell me, where do you find Cheese? Apparently, here. No. I mean, over there. To the RIGHT!!!! LOL

GO BANANAS! My daughter loved watching these kids more than she did me, although I did hear her cheering me on at one sweet point. There were four of them originally, but two finished much later. I couldn’t help myself and needed my picture with these banana kids. This was taken at the Corning, NY Glassfest 8k. Check out my super cool glass “medal.” I don’t run many 8k distances and at first I could have sworn it was closer to 4 miles than 5, but hey, what’s another mile?? I PR’d at 36:52 and kept my pace around 7:24. I thought I was going to hurl my breakfast post run in the freezing cold but I managed to hold on and keep it classy. 🙂

On our way home, we took a boat ride on Seneca Lake and then finished it by going to Watkins Glen Falls. Pretty little town we hope to come back too as it has so much to do and see in the surrounding areas, especially if you love wine as much as I do. It was fun up until my lovely child decided that on a slippery stone staircase it was a fabulous time for a muddy temper tantrum… I swear people get crazy nosey when your kid freaks out and all I wanted to do was leave, but we were stuck traversing the path with a screaming child flailing her arms and legs. *pfft* From this moment forward I have vowed to torture her by forcing her attendance at running events and museums until she is 18. In fact, I think we need to go back to Corning and walk through the Glass Museum since they only let me browse the gift shop. Enjoy those apples kid.

In other news, I have a winner for my Malya Rosa headband contest. Yay for Theresa S.! She gets to pick out her favorite design to enjoy and wear. More news will be forth coming as an Ambassador for Diet-to-Go’s June campaign as it gets underway. (Contests, twitter parties and such!) Hopefully a book teaser will appear here over the weekend. Who knows? *snicker*

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It’s been rough, Wednesday.

I want a do over this week. Seriously. I know some people pray for the weekend and Friday to come quicker but I just want a redo of the last few days given every strange thing that’s happened. I had my post about my injured foot and my not so stellar 10k race this past weekend all ready to go and then BAM! Computer foshizzle nonsense. *sigh* I suppose it could be a sign of things to come but I’m not really all out negative in the dumps like that. Sunday was such a lovely Mother’s Day and then… well I don’t know where we all fell off the wagon… So let’s recap what’s happened since Monday:

A near mugging after work. I can’t make this shit up.

My child has awoken twice in a row at “5 God awful AM” and the first time it was because she peed in the bed and needed a bath before school. The second was due to “spiders” scaring her out of bed. All I know is that it’s gotta be the right kind of 5 o’clock somewhere and time for a drink. I really didn’t need that time for sleeping anyway.

I’ve been working 16 hour days. Okay, that’s not really new, but I’m less thrilled to be doing it this week. My body is tired and I just don’t have enough hours in the day to get everything done.

I’ve had to defer my marathon plans this weekend. Yup. Deferred. The deferral doesn’t even have to do with my injured foot so I’m really disappointed to not be out there.

So while things have not exactly been peaches and cream in my neck of the woods I can’t say it’s been absolutely terrible. I just have to focus on getting my A game back. Bigger and better things are out there, I just have to focus on getting there. *sigh* This is just a bump in the road.

What do you peeps do when your sails have been tested by the rough waters?

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Daring Greatly

I have been asked many times how I do what I do, or rather how do I fit ALL I do into such a short time span of 24 hours. The truth is, I don’t. Well, okay that’s not entirely true either. I am a perfectionist who feels like the world is often screwing me over because I really need an extra 6 hours in my day to really do what I want to and NEED to do. *whine* I’ll be honest, there’s a LOT of delegating and a LOT of complaining when things don’t go the way I planned. *bitch* It’s because I have high expectations of myself and probably unrealistic expectations of others. *complain* I’m not saying this is all bad but I do tend to put a LOT of extra stuff on my plate and then say “oh shit” I can’t possibly get ALL of this done in the next hour. I’m sure we all have those moments from time to time. *duh* I’m trying to cut back on the “oh shit my balanced plate is overfull and I just dropped wine on a white carpet feeling.” *bullshit* It’s been hard but slowly a work in progress.

What does this have to do with my love for running, because we all thought this was a running blog?

*AHEM* Well sometimes I just need to realign myself. Yes, this is still a running blog but running is probably only 1/8 of who I am. I’d like it to be more but try explaining that to my family, my job(s), my non-running friends, my volunteer work, my furry cat babies, my graduate school program, ect…

I’m not kidding when I say other things must and have been given up to make it all work. Quick showers or sometimes the occassional wh*re bath when I’m rushing to pick up the monkey, grocery shop and make dinner in under an hour some nights. Eating? yeah I can eat but I don’t have time to really sit down, I’ve probably eaten my dinner as it cooked *insert food poisoning joke here* and cleaned up while everyone else is sitting down. Laundry… I have a basket from two weeks ago I have yet to fold. No joke. In fact I ransacked it this morning for matching underthings to wear because I refuse to wear mismatched underthings. I have SOME civilities left… I lift weights and do cardio while the monkey has sabotaged TV time in between commercials. I run early, I run late, heck if I could give up sleeping 5-6 hours a night I’d probably run long during that time. And yet somehow I love my impossibly crazy life with an infectious desire to keep doing it this way.

I can’t really explain how it works, but you find a way to do what you love when you can. A very wise friend told me that if you work hard enough, want things enough you can have whatever you want in this life, provided you can accept not having everything. Hmm. I think I could live with that. I’m slowly working towards my longterm goals. I’m making things happen but along the way I’m discovering what I do and what I don’t want and as I do that I disgard and let go peacefully of the things that have less meaning to me and my values and pick up the things that I truly believe in. I may not be able to tell you now where I see myself in five years any more than I could have guessed that I would be here in this moment five years prior but I know that every moment was not wasted and was spent passionately pursuing something I valued.

So for all the people who ask me “How do you do it all?” *Well… I keep my superwoman cape in my purse, dry cleaned of course hanging up…* No I don’t. LOL I’ve come to accept that I can only do my best efforts from the time I wake up each day in a positive frame of mind to the time I collapse in bed at night. I’ve accepted that sometimes days will be shit and that you have to stand up and keep going. I’m not going to dress rehersal the bad stuff, I’ve got too much good stuff going for me.

My suggestion is that if you love your busy over filled life make sure you’re atleast somewhat organized. No. I seriously mean that. Don’t do what I’ve done in the past and show up at meetings at the wrong time and place or forget deadlines on projects. Otherwise you might suddenly find yourself with a lack of income streaming in and more “free time” than you planned for. 🙂

1. Get your shit together the night before. Work bag/gym bag/outfit/kid stuff/lunches/ect… I don’t care if it cuts into your 4-5-6 hours of sleep. You will not remember to pack A, B, or C at 6am.

2. Lists will become your friend. Invest in post-it notes and steal packs of them from the office. (Um… I’m kidding about the theft part, you know that right?)

3. Revise said list daily.

4. Not being organized will cut into your finances. Think about that. You barely have time to spend your discrentionary funds as it is, but wouldn’t it be nice to blow it on a swanky vacation if you play your cards right?

5. Clean up your relationships, friendships, and professional contacts. Sometimes *unfortunately* the people in your life have an expiration date. Deal with it or deal with oodles of drama. You choose.

6. Have you made a bucket list? A new year’s resolution? Are you actually doing it? Either start pursuing those passions or you’re bullshitting yourself and everyone around you. Interesting people get shit done, the boring people make excuses and those folks never get invited a second time to the party.

7. Since I don’t have an extra 6 hours in the day, I suggest meal planning. Single or not this by far saves boatloads of time. Nobody is asking what we’re eating. Make use of the crockpot and frozen veggies. I plan breakfasts, lunches/dinners/leftovers around the weekly schedual.

8. Mind your own business. I don’t care if you like watching “train wrecks” from afar, I mean who doesn’t? But don’t jump in thinking you’re going to be helpful. That’s why I cut the cable and the Bravo channel and those needy friends, it was seriously killing my time between 9pm-11pm.

9. Check out the smartphone aps, there are tons to help keep you organized with bell dinging reminders but do whatever will ultimately work for you. I have one for grocery food shopping to target sales, my calendar, my calorie intake, sleep cycle, kindle, ect.

10. Dare Greatly. Be a participant in life. For all the people who are failing to thrive, stagnant in thier dreams and bitching about what you are doing currently. Ignore them. Let go of their negativity, what credibility could they possibly have when they haven’t done anything of interest or importance? They are the joy suckers in your life. So are you going to get in the arena and participate or sit on the sidelines?

I know a LOT of this sounds harsh, but what truth isn’t? If I didn’t stick to my principles I would never get a run in or have the patience to parent a three year old and survive. Anyone who is a parent probably goes through this and none of what I just mentioned is a surprise to them, but I also urge you to not give up on what you are passionate about. Being a good parent also means being good to yourself! It means planning “me” time and “adult” time with your partner. A happy you, makes a happy kid. For those without kids this is your time hustle, baby. Check off that bucket list double time. 🙂 I’ll hop down from my soap box now… I’ve got a 30k race to prep for this weekend and a marathon in T-minus two months. I will leave you with this excellent quote from Teddy Roosevelt which I use to remind myself why I do what I do and how I get it done.

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.” Teddy Roosevelt, speaking at the Sorbonne in Paris, April 23, 1910

Copious amounts of coffee also help…

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A Sparkly Spring (SparklySoul Headband Review) and an overhaul here at all things SBS! Including my first Giveaway!

To say that things have been insanely crazy around here is an understatement! Between January and now nearly the end of February it’s been nothing but an overhaul. Personally, professionally, fitness and health wise, and now my daughter turning three…?? I don’t know where to even begin? I plan to post seperately about my monkey’s birthday party to give you the special day details. We celebrated an awesome budget friendly Sesame Street bash purely decorated by moi. Fun games and even a homemade pinata. (Let me just say that sucker was hard to destroy and needed some “Big Kid” assistance.) Now that our house has been inundated with toys, toys and more toys, I have a huge project ahead of me to purge all the outgrown stuff.

I wonder where she learned to be so organized…?

I will have to wait sometime between naps and bedtime, otherwise this could be a huge fight over territorial rights. So… in an effort to maintain my sanity and treat myself, I decided to go through my bucket list of “love me” items I wished to purchase for myself. Valentine’s was approaching and I needed some seriously L-O-V-E. The Mister around here is not big on the holiday… I have even more reason to treat myself, tee hee! I was browsing my list and made a few purchases, one of them being a Rainbow headband from SPARKLYSOUL. Rainbows are not just for unicorn hunters! Ladies be prepared for a headband of awesomeness!

I love the pretty, girly sparkle!

O M G
Is this not the cutest headband ever? I swear I have a funny shaped head and this headband was AMAZING! It stayed on securely during a 12 mile run, chasing my daughter non-stop and a full day of work in my office. I can’t say enough good things about this headband. I ordered it on a Tuesday and it arrived two days later. Speedy delivery! (No Unicorns involved!) What more could you ask for? The company makes a ton of sparkly colors and two different sizes. A thin headband in 3/8 of and inch and a thicker headband in 5/8 of an inch. I plan to purchase these throughout the year for friends, family and fellow moms-to-be because seriously this would have been perfect while giving birth! And even for my daughter’s school teachers.

I give these headbands 5 out of 5 Sneakers for their durability and comfort all day long.
5 out of 5 Bananas because they are just so darn cute and pretty!
And 5 out of 5 Spears because I have had so many people compliment my fashionable headband.

Because I love these headbands and believe in their awesomeness so much, I am giving away one Rainbow headband just like the one I am wearing above. You choose between the thin or the thick band and I will purchase it and send it to you! 🙂 I was not compensated by SparklySoulInc in anyway and these opinions are entirely my own. Please see the rafflecopter widget below for entry details. Best of Luck to the winner!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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CNTRL+ALT+DELETE

As I’ve been trolling the interwebs recently, (mostly pinterest) I keep coming across various images of: Control + Alt + Delete. You know… it’s the infamous three finger salute you can give your snarky computer, even people and situations in your life. I was so worried my New Year, New Me was on a downhill roll earlier this week I was bound and determined to make the rest of the week better by shifting gears and pulling the e-brake on my negative thinking. I wanted to be productive and damn it all, on my terms. So as I feverishly await the arrival of my semester books for school, arrange the family schedule, fill the crockpot and try desperately to get my child awake and to school on time (all before 6 am) I’m left wondering what control if any I have in all of this. I got up early, ate a hearty breakfast, consulted my “to do” list and yet the fates continued to conspired against me… my one needed school book is somewhere in the mail and we were late to school and the errands on my “to do” list can only be done during the hours of 9-5 while I’m at work, doing that whole work think…

Damn you fates…

Damn you…

On the brightside, I’m practicing my patience. No I’m not. Who are we kidding? I’ve already redone my “to do” list several times this morning trying to carve out more of this non-existant time.
So there you have it. I’m redoing today as well. This is probably why I thought yesterday was Thursday ALL DAY and so in fact today is actually Thursday. I made it to the gym as planned yesterday, but today I fell of the wagon minus the glass of wine. However, there’s still time and an indoor bike trainer with my name on it tonight. Weights to be flung and planks to suffer through. Happily suffered through… huffing and grunting the whole time.

What can I control today? Only Me.

What can I alter today? Only Me.

What can I delete today? Only the things I deem not worth worrying about.

So much wisdom in a three finger salute…

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One of those days…

Today began like many did back in 2012 for me… I woke up late and ultimately I’ve already screwed myself for the rest of the day. No Gym workout, no premade lunch, no clothes laid out and of course a little snow squall to make my 1.5 hour commute even more of a trial… Winter blows. On top of this, I start my first semester as a student again in a post-graduate program. So now I’m even paying other people to torture me needlessly. Now I don’t see this as the end of the world or anything catastrosphic, just another pain in the ass I can add to my to-do list of stuff. Pfft. I’m dreaming of spring, long runs and fun races. Free time… Heck, who I am kidding? I don’t think I had free time since I quit the track team mid-season my senior year of high school in the midst of my teenage angst and that lasted about oh… three months before I started college. I’m sure there is probably an FDA regulated pill created to fix this but I’m sure I don’t have time to figure that out. Back to my rant, so while this was more of a common occurrance for me in 2012, I’m going to think that today is just a fluke and get back to my to-do list, grocery planning, 3 year old party planning, work assignments to check off and the list literally goes on… I think my favourite carebear pen is even mocking me today. He doesn’t care. Honeybadgers don’t care. Why should I care?

If you could let go of something, what would it be and how would that free up space in your mind to pursue the things you truly love?

I’ve just outlined the rest of my week and I’m going to try and be more flexible, but I am GOING to the gym tomorrow and tonight I am GOING to prepack and plan my stuff for the rest of the week. I think reorganizing will “free” up that disappointed space about the crap I didn’t do yesterday… 2013, it is ON!

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Acts of God lead to my unholy procrastination

Some of you might have noticed that today should have been my “Exam from Hell”… But due to an unfortunate Act of God or some other higher hurricane creating power I now have even more time to suffer and study for this exam. I was in a panic on Monday because I kept calling the testing facility with this sinking feeling that it might not be open due to the wide spread power outages and flooding in the area. Well, I was right and called Pearsons to reschedule since I hadn’t gotten the cancellation email just yet… that was Monday. I got the email late Tuesday night saying the testing site was closed. UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!! Seriously? I wanted to burn this test book already. With the winter temperatures since the Nor’Bastard snow storm I don’t know if we can afford to heat the house like this until March… It’s been stressful, distracting, putting me in a terrible mood at home. I don’t like myself like this and I can imagine my family doesn’t either. 20 more days… 20 more days… I’m sure many of you have been there before, stressed about an upcoming event that could bring alot of potential and open doors to you both professionally and personally. I think I tried every procrastination technique available, shopping, eating, race planning… cleaning, sleeping… ect. A good friend of mine and colleague put things into perspective by asking me what the worst possible outcome was and what was I afraid of?

The worst thing that could happen is that I fail the exam and I have to retake it. I’m afraid people might think less of me if I don’t pass this exam.

That’s it?!?!

Yeah, pretty much.

And then I gave this whole exam some more thought, like what/who people will think less of me? Why should their opinion matter? Any job I might apply to in the future isn’t going to ask how many times I took the exam anyway, they don’t even ask for my school transcripts now… It’s more like, “You have a degree and student loan debt? Me too, great, you got the job!” So while I’m studying and refreshing material from my graduate school days that I never even use/apply in my job, I’m thinking of this as a stepping stone. There’s no backup plan here, I’m not checking the schedule to see when I could “retake” this exam when I fail because I am going to make that simply NOT AN OPTION.

So just like I would train for a race, I’m going to have to buckle down the next twenty days and give it my all. Really squeeze out the discipline. Uhh which I know I can be terrible at, but the payoff will be so much greater. I won’t pass the exam if I don’t put the time in, just like I won’t finish a race unless I put the miles in. Only way to “git er done.”

Although, today’s act of procrastination might leave you wondering how I finished graduate school in the first place…
Isn’t he cute? Instead of buying a turkey hat for my 5k soon to be PR race, I’m going to make one to attach to one of my winter beanie hats. What??!!? I assure you this project will take no time at all from my studying… I think. So stay tuned for more updates on my PR gobble hat!!

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Sandy Relief

As we brace ourselves today for another beating from Mother Nature, I wanted to express my gratitude to those who have offered to help and shared in so many ways during the past week and a half. It has been overwhelming to see so many people come together and an opportunity for us to teach our children many important life lessons such as patience and tolerance. I am sure in the days, weeks and months to follow many more needs will be identified but I wanted to provide some ideas and places to go/offer/volunteer your time.

1. I started by identifying local shelters that were taking clothing donations. There is probably a contact already set up in your community through your police/fire/human service agency which is already mobilized to help. Many people lost everything and so I am collecting winter clothing donations from friends, family, runners, co-workers to drop off at shelter drop offs. I’m dividing my efforts between the shore (the place of many of my childhood summers growning up) and Staten Island (my mother’s childhood home). This is just from my closet… There are many other KEY items needed by those affected by Hurricane Sandy. Many people are in need of new socks, underwear, jackets and waterproof shoes. Consider donating race shirts/clothing you never wear, toiletry items such as the hotel shampoos and soaps you probably forgot about, contact/saline solution, hair brushes, toothbrushes and tooth paste, towels. Many shelters have also asked for tubes of chapstick, clothing detergent and toilet paper. Alot of things we probably take for granted on a daily basis. The Red Cross number can direct you to shelters in need.

2. Some shelters have set up a http://www.amazon.com account or wishlist so if you want to have items shipped to a shelter in need directly, this is another way to help. Again common KEY items to include would be things like shovels, rakes, construction grade garbage bags, gloves, boots, protective masks, bleach and other cleaning supplies.

3. Non-perishable foods; canned vegetables, soups, pasta, peanut butter, ect and bottled water. Many food pantries are seeking these and other items.

4. Bringing hot food/coffee to volunteers working at sites or shelters, good food is always appreciated but try to call ahead, sometimes they get alot of food early in the day and then don’t have very much for later shifts of volunteers. Spread out the love. 🙂

5. Baby items. Again, many things we tend to forget about such as baby wipes, diapers, clothing, jackets, small toys. Possibly car seats or playpens.

6. Pet items. Dry or canned food. Kitty litter. Toys. Possibly crates are needed at pet friendly shelter sites. So many animal shelters in the areas hit hardest were affected terribly and have lost alot of stockpiled items, the Humane Society for Animals can help you find a shelter most in need.

7. Warming items. Things like blankets, sleeping bags, disposable hand/feet warmers, winter jackets, hats, gloves.

8. Your Time, spend an afternoon helping to clean up a site, cook at a shelter, offer hot showers, a cup of coffee/tea, charge their cellphone, offer to check on an aging individual if you are closeby and the family can’t get to them, babysit a child for parents who have to fill out FEMA paperwork or put their affairs in order. Ask them what would be helpful to their specific situation. Just giving someone respite from their day is an incredible source of emotional support.

9. Your Money. Many organizations (such as the Red Cross) are taking financial donations to help those affected by Sandy. I will list them below. Please make sure you check each site to verify it is a 501c3 organization which is donating the proceeds specifically to the area you intend for it to go. I would hope people would not take advantage of others but better to be safe than sorry.

10. Reach out to other human service agencies such as domestic violence shelters, homeless shelters and teen homes which may have been evacuated or destroyed by the hurricane. Many of those folks have even less resources to help them with the aftermath.

11. Support the areas in the coming weeks, months and year by attending events. I plan to run races in the NJ shore area and fundraise through my running efforts. So far I have signed up for the NJ Marathon and I’m encouraging many others in my running club to incorporate those races as well in their training/racing plans.

RESOURCE LIST

The Foodbank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties
Donations accepted through their website: http://www.foodbankmoc.org/, or checks can be mailed to: The FoodBank of Monmouth & Ocean Counties – A Member of Feeding America. 3300 Route 66, Neptune NJ 07753.

United Way of Monmouth County
Donations accepted online at: http://www.uwmonmouth.org/give, or checks can be mailed to: United Way of Monmouth County, 1415 Wyckoff Road, Farmingdale, NJ 07727 (Please make checks payable to United Way of Monmouth County.)

The Salvation Army Asbury Park
Checks can be mailed to The Salvation Army Asbury Park, 605 Asbury Avenue, Asbury Park, NJ 07712 or donations can be made through their website: http://www.use.salvationarmy.org/use/www_use_nj.nsf/vw-sublinks/286E342F9D5A48DA8525756E005CC330?openDocument

The Monmouth County SPCA
Checks can be mailed to: Monmouth County SPCA, 260 Wall Street, P.O. Box 93, Eatontown, NJ 07724, donations can be made online at: http://monmouthcountyspca.org/support/donate/, or you can visit their Facebook Page.

Project Paul (food pantry)
Donations accepted through the web at: http://www.projpaul.org/howtohelp.html or checks can be mailed to: Project Paul, 211 Carr Avenue, Keansburg, NJ 07734

Catholic Charities
Checks can be mailed to: Catholic Charities, Diocese of Trenton, 383 West State St., Trenton, NJ 08618. Please indicate that your donation is for Hurricane Sandy or donations accepted online at: http://www.catholiccharitiestrenton.org/cc3/index.php?page=online-donations.

The Red Cross
Donate to the Red Cross by Texting the word “Redcross” to 90999 to make a $10 donation or donations are accepted through the web at: https://www.redcross.org/donate

Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation
Donations accepted through their website: http://www.tunneltotowers.org/ They have a specific Hurricane Sandy Relief Donation site.

Sandy NJ Relief Fund
Donations accepted through their website: http://www.sandynjrelieffund.org

NJ State Volunteer Hotline
1-800-JERSEY-7

Staten Island Recovers
This website will help match you to volunteering and donating needs in Staten Island and NY. Please go to: http://www.statenisland.recovers.org

FEMA
Various ways to volunteer and get more information regarding Hurricane Sandy efforts can be found at the federal website here: http://www.fema.gov/sandy

I hope everyone can find a managable way to to give just a little bit more of them selves. How do you plan to give back/volunteer?

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Jersey Strong

I had posted a few weeks back about running the Reach the Beach NJ relay and finishing the race in Seaside Hieghts. I am so devestated that my childhood fun place once filled with memories of running into the ocean, sand between my toes, eating saltwater taffy and riding the coaster at the amusement park is now something I can never really share the same way with my daughter. Mother Nature really took a beating out on the coast of NJ and NY. My mother’s childhood home of Staten Island will also never be the same, areas completed decimated. It’s one of those humbling experiences that I think hits us at the core, so primally painful that words often escape how we really feel about the event. As I watched alot of the news coverage I was often brought to tears thinking about friends and family who were affected far more than I was and are still, a week later without power, heat and hot water. Even running through my neighborhood was tough, seeing darkened streets, empty houses, the only sounds are humming generators. I happened to see some footage that included the PATH in Hoboken which had been my travel route to graduate school in the city for many years… It was like seeing something out of movie, I didn’t want to believe something so crazy as the tunnel filling with water but it happened… I guess it really is true that when Jim Cantore rolls into town, you better be prepared for an ungodly shit storm. To top off all the chaos this Hurricane caused in the last week, we had a 2.0 Earthquake hit Ringwood, NJ and now some Nor’easter is expected to hit tomorrow and Thursday. Already alot of people are being re-evacuated from low lying areas along the coast. Maybe we should move to Canada?? I guess the best thing to do is try to use this past week as an opportunity for a learning experience. Number one on my list is that running in a Hurricane is probably not the best idea given that trees and power lines could come down and knock you out (a woman was killed in NJ by a falling tree while she was out running), bicycle trainers still work in the dark as do wieghts and yoga mats. I didn’t get many running miles in but the ones I did were not really quality miles persay. Nah, let’s be serious for a minute,
I actually did learn a number of things:
1. I can keep a fire moderately going in the stove. If you can make fire, you instantly become the most popular kid at the party.
2. Generators are great, but you have to follow the directions and adhere to ALL safety precautions when operating them.
3. When stocking up on food/water/supplies its good to go early, better to be over prepared then not at all.
4. Make sure to ALWAYS have spare candles, flashlights (headlamps), batteries, water, gatorade, granola bars, dried fruit, sweet potatoes (super food with long shelf life), pasta/rice if you can cook (on a gas stove or grill/range top BBQ), energy gels/GU’s (never know when you need those calories), peanut butter, crackers, packaged tuna/chicken, canned soups that can be eaten cold (preferably with a bean base and not meat). Anything else you couldn’t live without?
5. Entertaining children without electricity is an art form. Kids get bored and you WILL run out of songs, things to color/draw and stories to tell.
6. Fill tubs and buckets with water if needed to flush toilets and for washing.
7. Following that, our recent gas shortage due to no power really taught me patience. Waiting 2.5 hours in a line for gas seems crazy, but in the days since I’ve only had to wait 30 minutes and it seems like nothing at all.
8. When the refridgerator is not on, the second it reaches above 40 degrees your food is begining to go bad and grow bacteria! After 3 rounds of food poisoning this summer I am super careful to not eat anything remotely suspicious. If things have begun to defrost from the freezer see if you can cook them first to avoid having to throw it out but if not then eater beware.
9. If you anticipate a black on scale with the show Revolution, try charging up your phones, kindles, ect… I found that once the cable was gone, my smartphone was my only link to the outside world.
10. Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, practice kindness. Everyone is having their limits tested and tempers are easy to flare. We’re doing the best we can in new emotional territory. Offer to charge phones/electronics if you have power and someone is without. Offer a warm space or hot water for washing to friends and family. A nice meal can go a long way in giving comfort. I met neighbors on my block whose names I didn’t know the last three years and now we can share a few laughs.

I learned how resilient, spirited and strong my fellow Garden Staters truely are and that when a crisis hits we can pull together and overcome anything. Together we will “Restore the Shore” and build a new sense of normal from this mess. For those on the east coast, what did you learn about yourself in the past week? I will post resources to help donate and volunteer later tonight.

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