Holiday Giving Gift Guide 2011

Posted on December 22, 2011 | Leave a comment

Christmas is close and I’m getting excited!  Since this time of year is the spirit of giving I’ve put together a holiday gift guide.  The nonprofits/organizations/do-gooders I’ve listed below are some of my favorite causes!  Included are ways to give back either as a gift in honor of friend or family member for the holidays or just because.  Here are some gifts that keep on giving…

Heiffer International - Everyone knows this organization!  I love flipping through their catalogues and looking at their website.  What’s great about Heiffer is their gifts truly are gifts that keep on giving in the communities that receive them.  You can choose to give animals from camels to bees to families all over the world.  Recipients agree to give any offspring of their animals to other needy families in their community, taking the gift even further.

Heifer International

Operation Christmas Child - Through the Samaritan’s Purse, this campaign  involves filling a shoebox full of age-appropriate goodies to be sent around the world to children in need.  You choose whether the gift will be for a boy or girl and what age group you’d like to shop for (2-4, 5-9, or 10-14).  I remember doing this with my mom through our church and having so much fun picking out gifts that would all fit in a shoebox!  The drop-off time period for this has passed but the website is still taking donations to help with shipping costs.

OCC Processing 1

Kiva - Kiva is an organization that many of you who are into microloans have heard about.  The way they work is by soliciting small loans (generally $25 +) to be given to individuals around the world to help them start or improve their own businesses and get on their feet.  Profiles of borrowers feature a picture, short biography including their business goal, the goal of money they’d like to raise, repayment term, and milestones.  You get your money back in the form of Kiva Credit which you can then put toward another person in need, give to Kiva,  or cash out (they boast a 98.96% repayment rate on their website).  You can also buy a Kiva card that works as a gift certificate! 

Kiva Logo

Jolkona - I recently discovered this nonprofit, nearly all volunteer microloan website and I love it!  Similar to Kiva, you can donate to a variety of causes all over the world.  Rather than donating directly to an individual or family, you are giving to a program in need.  The minimum donation for each is cause is different and donors receive email updates about the specific individual/family/community their donation benefited.  The great thing about Jolkona is you can start your own fundraising campaign for a special occasion, set a fundraising goal, and invite friends and family to benefit one of your favorite projects they have listed.  What a great way to celebrate a special occasion!  There is also a carbon calculator on the site where you can calculate how many Jolkona Green Credits it would take to offset your footprint.  They also have gift cards.This oliday give the gift of Impact!

TOMS – Buy a pair of TOMS shoes as a gift!  Every time you buy a pair of shoes to take home you are also buying another pair for a kid in need.  Sometimes all they need is a pair of shoes in order to get to school and to avoid infections!  With all of their cool styles and designs, there is something for everyone. TOMS also recently started an eyewear line, where every pair of sunglasses bought also gives sight to 1 person in Nepal, Tibet, or Cambodia either through medical treatment, prescription glasses, or surgery.  Crazy fact from their website – 80% of the world’s blindness is avoidable.  I went to hear Blake Mycoskie, founder/CEO of TOMS when he came to NC State University a few years ago.  He was very well-spoken, passionate, and talked to a full house about having a business model based on giving.  Love TOMS.

our movement

Donate to one of your favorite causes or a friend’s favorite cause – Most nonprofits have holiday campaigns or special ways to donate and make someone feel special.  Some may send a card to the person whom you are donating for or a small gift.  Some of my favorite organizations doing this are Stop Hunger Now, Trees Atlanta, and the Georgia Lions Lighthouse Foundation.

And just for fun….The Case Foundation is doing a #GoodSpotting campaign where you can upload photos of people (or yourself!) in your community doing good with the #GoodSpotting hashtag.  Check our their Facebook page to get inspired with the photos people are submitting!  You can also enter to win $500 and $5000 for your favorite charity by tomorrow just by liking their Facebook page. 

There are a million and one ways to give back, especially over the holidays that sometimes I find it overwhelming! 

Do you find yourself donating more over the holidays?  What are your favorite organizations to benefit?

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Reindeer Run 5K – Pittsboro, NC

Posted on December 17, 2011 | 1 Comment

Yay!  I ran a 5K last weekend!

But before I get into how 17 members of my family completely beasted on a local (to hometown) 5K in NC, I’ll give you the rest of my sadly neglected weekly rundowns that happened leading up to the race.  But don’t get too excited because they were not all that impressive.  Too late for regrets, though!

11-14:  Hot Core Power class at Decatur Yoga & Pilates  + run (5m warm-up walk, 5R, 3W, 10R)

**you’ll notice that I kinda stopped following the Couch to 5K plan and started doing my own intervals

11-15:  5m warm-up walk, 8R, 5W, 8R + Pilates DVD Stretch 10-min segment

11-16:  Pilates class at DY&P – I tried out a new instructor.  The class was difficult but I didn’t like how loudly she talked and that she snapped her fingers at us while she counted out reps.

11-18:  Hot Vinyasa class at DY&P – Loved this class!  Definitely more my kind of yoga.  It was quickly paced and my muscles were shaking and sore by the end.  Loved it.

11-21 & 11-28:  Pilates class at DY&P with my favorite instructor, Janet!  Her class is always full and she has many dedicated regulars.  I will miss her since my month of unlimited classes is up (it was over as of the last day of November).

**I honestly cannot remember the rest of my workouts because I didn’t write them down.  I know I did at least another 3 runs with 2 10-min runs separated by a 5-min walk.  I only did 1 run the week of the race – on Monday.  Definitely should have done more than that….and for longer.

Reindeer Run 5K in Pittsboro, NC on Dec.

This was a really awesome race.  My parents, my brothers-in-law, and my sister, Bekah, all got up early to make the 45-minute drive to Pittsboro and meet the rest of the family at the race.  The Reindeer Run is relatively small with about 125 runners….and 17 of them were my family members!  My mom had gotten all of us into the race since she has been training for it for the past few months with a program from our church, Run for God.   They were all out there as well with their family members and wearing their red T-shirts.

My cousin, Katie, and me

In the car on the way to the race I realized I had forgotten both my stopwatch and water.  Boo.  My plan had been to run as much of the race as I could and to have my stopwatch to motivate me in moving faster.

Since it was such a small race, all the runners/walkers were lined up at the start line in no real order.  An announcer made a long and confusing explanation of the course before firing the gun for us to start.  Luckily the course was really easy to follow, with lots of signs pointing runners in the right direction and a few volunteers scattered around to give everyone a boost.

I lost most of my family members (some ahead of me, some behind) after the 1st half mile and ended up running/walking much of the race by myself.  I proudly ran the first mile and half before stopping to walk for the first time.  I walked an estimated 2-3 minutes before starting to run again.  I ran/walked the entire race, but spent more time running than not.   :)

The one thing I wish I had was water.  There were no water stations along the race and since I didn’t bring any of my own I hadn’t had much before the race.  Now I know what not to forget!  My jacket was also pretty heavy.  I wore it since it was so cold outside but I wish I had a lighter workout jacket instead of my heavier definitely-not-made-for-running-in jacket.

I finished the race running the last 1/2 mile and was pretty proud!  My time was 36:53.51.  My family members who already finished were cheering and then I joined them to cheer the rest of our family and the other runners.

My dad about to cross the finish line.

I am so proud of my family!  We had never done anything like this before!  I think we had at least 1 family member in every age group, 3 cousins going home with awards, 1 cousin who won the entire race, an uncle who walked 3.1 miles for the first time after being diagnosed with diabetes, a strong little cousin who did the whole thing on crutches, and my mom who ran the entire race without stopping with 2 of her friends from her training program!  Whew!

My uncle Bill and Zoe finishing it up.  Zoe is tough and got a lot of cheers when she finished!

The whole family walking my uncle Johnny and aunt Nancy to the finish line.

I’m glad my first 5K in a while was with my family at a small race near home!  Made the whole thing less intimidating and more exciting since we were all there together.  I’m also pretty happy with my time since I didn’t do all the training runs that I should have done.  It will be a good time to beat for my next race!  I definitely learned that I need to push myself a lot harder and that I can run more than I give myself credit for.

Also a big thanks to a few friends who came out solely to cheer us on and made this great sign:

To see an awesome race video my dad made, see below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bWucUErMcA

Way to go, family!

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Posted in Couch to 5K, Health Challenges, Race, Weekly Total

Review – The Great Penguin Rescue

Posted on November 26, 2011 | Leave a comment

I read this book recently…actually got it through the local library….and I really loved it.  I flew through it, actually.

The Great Penguin Rescue is by Dyan DeNapoli, a woman who, at the time, was employed by Boston’s New England Aquarium where she worked taking care of their penguin colony.

This was the first book about any disaster relief/rescue/recovery effort, animal or otherwise, that I’ve read.  The book is Dyan’s account of the rescue efforts that occurred in Cape Town, South Africa, after the major oil spill in the summer of 2000.  What was unique about this spill in particular was that it was at the worst possible location – between 2 islands off the coast where ~40 percent of the world’s population of endangered African penguins call their habitat.

Penguin experts from zoos and aquariums across the world, including Dyan, came to help manage the never-before-seen huge recovery effort as well as thousands of volunteers.  Over 19,000 penguins were being cared for in a huge warehouse.

It was crazy to me, the amount of organization, time and hard work it would take to successfully rehabilitate this many penguins.  Even with thousands of volunteers, the effort would be huge – having to train the volunteers on how to handle/force-feed/bathe penguins and hope they keep coming back! FYI:  In the statistics section in the back it noted that the work the volunteers did and the hours they put in translates to US $11,120,000!

This book is definitely a must-read for anyone who is interested in disaster relief for animals, endangered species, or just likes a good book.  It includes pictures of what was going on over in Cape Town as well as statistics on EVERYTHING related to the rehabilitation (including how many pilchards the penguins ate – it’s 400 tons).

Read it.

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Posted in Animal Rescue, Reading, Review, Volunteering

O You! 2011 Conference in Atlanta

Posted on November 22, 2011 | 1 Comment

Okay so I’m late (again!) but here goes my wrap-up of the O You! Conference in Atlanta on October 15 that I attended along with my 2 older sisters and my mom.  Yay!

The 4 of us got up reeeally early and made it to the Georgia World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta after stopping for Krispy Kreme coffee.  We made it by 7 a.m. on Saturday morning, parked, and stood in the insanely large line that was wrapping around the side courtyard while waiting for the doors to open.

Even though it took us a few minutes of walking in circles to find the end of the line, it was actually a really efficient process and pretty well organized by event staff.

Me, Rebekah, Mama, and Molly

Once me made it inside we joined the throngs of women (and a few men) to get our schedule cards.  My mom had signed us up for a group when she got our tickets:

We were pretty excited about our schedule.  They didn’t say beforehand which of “Oprah’s people” would be leading each session so it was a bit of a guessing game.  I was especially excited about “Finding Your Passion”.

But first was the opening remarks with Gayle King and Lisa Ling.

Where we received our first freebies of the day:

A super awesome pen, reusable bag, and a notebook that also contained bios and interviews with the speakers for the day.

We had pretty good seats in the center but I still couldn’t zoom in far enough to get a good picture of Gayle.  This is her speaking on the big TV screen!  She introduced Lisa Ling:

Lisa was the keynote speaker to get the day started and she was great.  I’m a big fan of hers.  She mainly spoke about 3 stories that deal with some pretty serious issues including sex trafficking and an ex-con moving on with his life after completing his prison sentence.  A DVD in our freebie bag that we received at the end of the day contained a glimpse at her new show for the OWN network, Our America, that debuted this fall.  It was excellent – about military families moving on and finding healing post- deployment and it definitely made me tear up.

We also heard from Suze Orman, Martha Beck, and Dr. Oz with “May We Help You”, where they each went over some of their little nuggets of wisdom.  One thing I liked from Suze -> live below your means but within your needs.

Next on our schedule after the opening remarks was our first session of the day, Finding Your Passion.

Making our way to the designated room was a challenge:

Finding Your Passion was great….and definitely appropriate for me at least since I change my mind on what I want to do with my life on a daily basis.  It was facilitated by a few of Oprah’s people – Martha Beck (life coach), Donna Brazile (political strategist and professor), and Suze Orman (author, motivational speaker, tv host).

Suze Orman was definitely my favorite.  She is hilarious (I own her book, The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, & Broke) and has a very straight forward no-nonsense way of speaking…or really, yelling.  Honestly since it’s been so long since the conference and I didn’t take the best notes, I couldn’t really say what each of them said….

But the gist of it was figure out what you want to do and find a way to do it without making stupid money decisions (that last part was from Suze).

After Finding Your Passion we had lunch outside.  It was so good and we had so much!  For those interested, lunch was included in the $125 ticket price along with the freebies we got throughout the day.  The founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Nancy Brinker,  was there speaking while everyone ate.  Unfortunately I couldn’t really hear what she was saying over all the conversation and my own chewing.

^ They hole-punched our cards after we got lunch.

After lunch we walked around a bit inside.  There were a ton of booths set up from various sponsors:  there was a Truvia area where we got strawberries sprinkled with the sweetener and a few drinks.  There were the Kleenex ladies who gave us a Kleenex and a sucker…and the Vitamin world booth where we each scored a bag with this:

Score!

We then stood in line for free SPANX!  Probably the best thing ever.  The creator of Spanx actually told her story for the Find Your Passion workshop, talking about how she did it on the side until she was finally able to quit her day  job and devote herself to the business full-time.

Our afternoon workshop was Your Stuff, Your Story with Nate Berkus and Peter Walsh.  It was a lot like what I used to watch on HGTV when I had cable…so I liked it.  They both used real examples from the audience to illustrate their points about getting rid of clutter, organizing your home better, and making sure everything in your home was a reflection of you and your family instead of just “stuff”.  All good points.

I should clean my room.

After this workshop we went back to the big room that we started the day in and low and behold…….

Our giftbags!  What a sweet deal.  I don’t have the full list of everything but here’s a peek at the contents:

…And then we went home.  Just kidding.  Oprah Winfrey was introduced by Gayle!  And we actually saw her!

Despite all the sweating, (from Gayle and Oprah, not me! – they had bright lights on them) it was really great to hear Oprah speak live and in person.  She talked for about 30 minutes before taking questions from the audience.  And man, was she preachin it!  I’ll let you hear her for yourselves:

I know not everyone loves Oprah.  What do you think about Oprah?  Miss her show?  Like her speech from O You!?

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Weekly Total 11/13

Posted on November 18, 2011 | 1 Comment

Okay, here is what happened last week:

Monday 11/7:  I don’t work on Monday’s so I have more time to do things I really want to do!  My roommate and I made it to 2 classes at Decatur Yoga & Pilates.  We did the afternoon Bikram 60 class, took a break to grab supper at Mellow Mushroom, then went to the evening 1 hr Pilates class (same instructor as the week before).

This was my first bikram experience and it was intense.  Bikram yoga is different than other hot yoga classes – the room is hotter at 103-105 degrees and there are designated poses .  The traditional 90 minute class is a series of 26 postures repeated twice and 2 breathing exercises.  This 60 minute class that we took had just one set of the 26 postures, held a little bit longer.  I was pooped afterwards.   And drenched in sweat.  And I got a little dizzy on a few of the inverse poses….mostly camel (this pose is so hard for me!).

The dreaded camel:

Yowza.

So why would you do bikram yoga?  The heat/humidity of the room allows your body to feel more limber so you can go deeper into the stretches and poses.  It’s also good for your health of course.

Thursday 11/10:  It’s a miracle!  I actually woke up early enough to do a run before work.  Granted, I was going to work at 10 a.m. instead of the usual 8 a.m.  At this point I am still on the 5m warm-up walk, 5m run, 3m walk, 5m run, 3m walk, 5m run = Total 26 min

My legs had no idea why they working so hard that early in the morning but I really liked getting it out of the way and running when it’s light outside.  With the time change by the time I get home from work it’s already dark.

Saturday 11/12:  Early 1 hr Pilates class at DY&P.  New instructor, new style…and I liked it.  It went back to the very basics and simple, but difficult movements.  I like the ideas behind pilates….and it’s handy that I can go to class and not really have to take a shower afterwards.  Yep, I just admitted to not taking a shower after working out.

Then….I traveled to Kings Mountain, NC for my little cousin’s 1 year birthday where a group of us started a game of kickball in the yard!  It ended up being gingers/blondes versus brunettes and I’m pretty sure the ginger/blondes won. However, running in dressy booties is not the best attire for running bases.  I felt a twinge in my ankle and later I decided to diagnose it as a sprain.  My ankle is huge!  It looks like there’s a golf ball stuck under my skin and it hurts to flex and point.  Good news is it doesn’t hurt to walk or run so it hasn’t actually caused me a lot of problems.  Yay!

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Posted in All Posts, Couch to 5K, Pilates, Weekly Total, Yoga

Weekly Total – 11/6/11

Posted on November 8, 2011 | Leave a comment

Okay, I’m not doing so great on the weekly totals.  Chalk it up to 2 weeks where I only did 1 (ONE!) of the Week 5 workouts because of the usual excuses – went to NC, then to TN, lots of work, aaand lots of homework.  Ouch….so I’m still working on Week 5 of Couch to 5K.  Week 5 has another 3 runs, this time of varying running times.

In addition to doing the running I (along with my roommate) have signed up for a $35 trial at Decatur Yoga & Pilates for unlimited classes for 30 days.  It is only for new students who have never attended a class with them and it is such a great deal!  Yoga/pilates classes are pretty expensive across the board so this, along with the previous deal I tried with the Passport to Prana, is the way I can work this in without completely killing my wallet.

Here’s what happened last week:

Monday 10/31 (Happy late Halloween by the way!) - Did the 1st run of C25K Week 5:  5m warm-up walk, 5m jog, 3m walk, 5m jog, 3m walk, 5m jog

I felt pretty good for this run (and for the one I did just like it during my 2-week hiatus).  I like running for 5m and I think I could do more.  The running plan for Week 5 has me doing this as the 1st run, then it jumps to 2 8-min runs, and then the final run of the week is supposed to be 22 min.  I’m not sure how I feel about this!  My body could probably handle it but running for me is more of a mental struggle.  Since I’ve moved to Decatur I still have not unpacked my iPod and I’ve actually noticed that I prefer doing the runs without music.  This might change if I ever get past 25 minutes out there!

Took 1 hr pilates class at DY&P – challenging

Tuesday 11/1 - 1 hr 15 min Hot Core Power class at DY&P

This was my 1st experience with hot yoga.  I have never sweated this much in my life.  Body parts that I didn’t realize produced sweat were dripping.  At one point I glanced over my shoulder and saw a puddle of sweat just sitting there.  It’s cool though, every one is doing it.  The room was set to a humid 100 degrees.  Usually I do not deal well with heat but luckily, the heat did loosen me up pretty quickly and I felt so relaxed and limber afterwards.  Not to mention sore.  Definitely prepare by drinking lots of water before and after hot yoga if you ever decide to try it out!

Saturday 11/5 - 1 hr 15 min Hot Core Power at DY&P

Different instructor with not as clear instructions – but still a great class.

Sunday 11/6 - Volunteered for 5 hours (standing/running around) at a local wildlife animal rescue….okay it’s not the standard workout but I’m sore and so ready for bed afterwards.

This week I’m already doing better…and it’s only Tuesday!

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Weekly Total – Week 4 of C25K

Posted on October 19, 2011 | Leave a comment

Okay Week 4 of Couch to 5K, not bad.  A little painful, but I finished every run and actually felt pretty good afterwards.  Could it be endorphins?!

Here’s what happened last week:

Monday 10/11 – 50 minutes Pilates DVD

I’ve actually had this DVD for awhile.  It’s awesome.  There are 5 separate 10 minute workouts that with different focus areas.  You can either pick and choose which ones you want to do, and in which order, or do the whole thing all at once.

Monday I did the whole 50 minute routine.  It’s definitely challenging and I was pretty sore the next day.  Pilates is the type of exercising that looks easy and simple enough, but the small movements in the exercises are preeetty difficult!  I used my 5 lb weights for the arms segment but you should probably only use 2-3 lb weights with the type of exercises she does.  Otherwise it would be pretty hard on your neck and elbows.

Tuesday 10/12 - C25K Week 4 run

Okay here it is:  5m warm-up walk, 3m jog, 1.5m walk, 5m jog, 2.5m walk, 3m jog, 1.5m walk, 5m jog (Total = 26.5m)

I decided to go all the way to the end of the street in my neighborhood no matter what (about 2.5 miles there and back) so I finished the run before I was home and ended up walking back for about 15 minutes.  Not bad for such an increase in running time from Week 3.  Week 3 runs had a total of 9 minutes of running versus walking compared to Week 4′s total of 16 minutes!  Okay, maybe that doesn’t sound too terribly impressive, but I’m excited.  Especially since it turned out not to be as difficult as I thought it would be.

Friday 10/14 - C25K Week 4 run (same as above but without the extra walking tacked on)

Pilates DVD from Monday:  did the abs and the flexibility workouts

Saturday 10/15 - Stood on my feet all day in line for the many session at the O You! Conference here in Atlanta!  That’s right, I saw Oprah!  Although this technically is not a workout standing for long periods of time really does something to a body – it makes you tired and nap-ready.  Post to come tomorrow.

Monday 10/17 - C25K Week 4 run

I had hoped to complete the 3rd run before Monday but it the weekend caught up to me on Sunday and I crashed.

Not bad, not bad.  Notice the Zero bike time.  It was pouring rain all last week and I never took it out.  It’s supposed to clear up by the end of this week so hopefully I can plan for a good bike ride!

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