Healthy Fit Goddess: January 2014

Friday, January 31, 2014

Friday Favorites

Favorite Event
Atomic Fission Fun with Girl Scouts

Favorite Workout
NTC Chicago Speakeasy

Favorite Activity
Painting at Both Sides

Favorite #tbt
San Diego in 2011
We're going there on vacation again next week! Yay sunshine!

Big thanks to Chicago Blogger Network and Refinery29 for featuring Healthy Fit Goddess on the 9 Chicago Blogs for Serious Health Inspiration!

What were your favorites this week?

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Working out the body and mind

I had a pretty eventful weekend but my two favorite things were working out the body with NTC Chicago and working out the mind with Both Sides.

The finale of NTC Week in Chicago was a speakeasy turned workout! Kate of The Four Percent and Emily of On Your Mark led us in a great NTC workout which was only enhanced by learning some moves from flappers. I'm not very coordinated but I still had fun!

There's Amanda from The Ghost Guest! She won my plus one giveaway for the NTC event! I'm excited to see what NTC Chicago has to offer us in February.

On Sunday, Ryan and I headed to Both Sides Art in the Pilsen area (southwest of the loop) for some art therapy. I met the owner, Meg Frazier, a couple years ago when she did a painting class for us at my friend's baby shower. She opened this studio as a multipurpose space for painting class, yoga, art shows, etc.

Painting seriously takes my mind off of everything. The name, Both Sides, means using both sides of the brain. Using my creative side in a different way than writing is so refreshing. I would compare doing art is as good for your mind as yoga is for your body. They are both relaxing, restorative, strengthening, and we usually don't find the time to do them. I know I need more art and yoga in my life!

Here's some close-ups of our paintings. Mine is of some mountains and Ryan's is of the Purdue bell tower with a sunset background. Both Sides has 3-hour BYOB painting classes every Thursday evening and Sunday afternoon, among other classes and events. There is also a Groupon available for the painting class right now!

Poll! Which painting do you like better?

How do you exercise and relax your mind?

Friday, January 24, 2014

Friday favorites

First of all, congrats to Amanda Topper of The Ghost Guest for winning the NTC Chicago giveaway!

Favorite Workout
#NTCfit at the new NTC Chicago

Favorite Breakfast
Vega Pumpkin Vanilla smoothie (recipe here)

Favorite Cat Pic
Follow #WhiskeyCat on Instagram!

Favorite Office
Google (see tour here)

What were your favorites this week?

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Google Chicago office tour

I got to tour the Google Chicago offices last week as part of a Loop networking event last week. It was fun to see how an innovative company designs their office to really improve their employees work lives. A new Google employee, Nicole, gave us the tour. Fun fact, she also writes Next Date Chicago. You know I love fellow bloggers :)

Each floor of the Google offices has a different theme. One is sports and fitness (my favorite) and another is Chicago neighborhoods. The office is very visually pleasing which I'm sure helps with creativity. The office space is also open but contains nooks for people to hold meetings or work/think quietly. There is even a fitness studio with classes and free weights and an indoor loop hallway/track that people can walk/run.

My absolute favorite part of the Google offices is that they serve free lunch and snacks that are healthy and tasty. I had the nacho bar with a side salad and vegan chili. All the ingredients in everything are clearly labeled. The majority of the food is healthy but there are some more savory options, as well, so people don't feel deprived. In the snack room, they actually set out the apples and healthy snacks on the counter but hide the candy bars in the cabinet. So, you're more likely to choose the healthier option that you can see.

Google really gets it. Free lunch that is nutritious but satisfying makes happy employees and happy employees are better and more productive employees. By providing lunch, employees are much less likely to go out and eat unhealthy fast food. They are thus more productive in the afternoon because they are not spending energy digesting bad foods. In addition, healthy employees aren't costing the company unnecessary medical insurance money. Seriously, if more companies used the Google model of simply providing healthy lunch and encouraging their employees to be active, they could make more money with productive employees and save more money with healthy employees.

How does your workplace cater to employees' health and wellness?

Today is the last day to enter my NTC Chicago GIVEAWAY!

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

NTC Chicago and GIVEAWAY!

Many of you know that I've been involved in the Nike Training Club (NTC) community in Chicago and led run club at NTC Lincoln Park. Well, I'm excited to tell you about the new transition from NTC LP to NTC Chicago. Nike is bringing free fitness and running events to everyone in Chicago and the grand opening of the new studio space at 673 N. Michigan (right next to the Niketown store) was last night! Here's some pics of the new space:

About 40 young women showed up for the opening and they had us write down our resolutions for 2014. This week in January is when everyone starts forgetting about their New Years Resolutions, so this was a good reminder. My resolution is to reach my Nike Fuel Band goal of 3000 at least six days a week. This is especially challenging for me because I work from home and need a reminder to move!

We then did an hour workout with some awesome NTC trainers and had a competition to see how many fuel points we could get. I got 1850 and came out in the top few! We each got a ticket to this Saturday's secret NTC event. I'm giving away my +1, more on that below!!

There's Jeana from FabFitChicago.com and I with our winning tickets and champagne to toast the grand opening!

GIVEAWAY!

To finish off NTC Week and the grand opening of NTC Chicago, there is a secret event on Saturday 1/25 that will involve getting fit and a party after. If it's anything like the WinterFit event last month, it will be a blast! And we might get some free Nike gear…

I'm giving away my plus one for my ticket to one of my readers! The event is at 4:30 PM on Saturday, January 25th, in the south loop area. You must live in or be visiting Chicago this weekend to enter, transportation is not provided. Male and female (and everything in between) welcome.

To enter, use the Rafflecopter widget below. You must comment on this post as a minimum to enter. Tell me what your fitness goals are this year! Then you can follow NTC Chicago and me and tweet for extra entries! If the widget doesn't work for whatever reason, just say so in your comment below and I will manually enter you.

Contest ends Thursday at midnight and I will announce the winner on Friday morning! Good luck and I'm excited to have fun and get #NTCfit with the winner on Saturday!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored by Nike/NTC but they did provide me with the tickets for Saturday's event and some of the pictures in this post. All text and opinions are my own.

Friday, January 17, 2014

Friday Favorites

Favorite Juice
Jamba Juice!

Favorite Trick
Make a cappuccino by blending your coffee and almond milk on high in a Vitamix
Thanks to Lindsay from The Garden Apartment for the tip!

Favorite Event
Windy City Bloggers meet up at Trellis!

Favorite View
Walking over the Chicago river

What were your favorites this week?

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Get your fruits and veggies with Jamba Juice!

I was invited to a fun event at Jamba Juice on Michigan Ave. in Chicago this morning where I got to learn all about including fruits and veggies in your diet. Of course I already know how important this is but I must confess that I have a hard time eating lots of fresh fruits and veggies during the winter months when all I want is hearty warm soup. I agree with Jamba Juice that smoothies and juices are a great way to get your daily servings and keep healthy.

A new smoothie at Jamba Juice is called the Kale-ribbean Breeze and it has 2 servings of veggies and 2.5 servings of fruit in just the small size. The color is a nice green (below) because there is a ton of kale in the smoothie! The cup below shows just how much kale goes in a small size. Chia seeds add an extra fatty acid punch and mangos make it taste good. (The recipe contains greek yogurt so make sure to ask for dairy-free).

Making some smoothies...

We got to try lots of samples!

So, Jamba Juice has an awesome giveaway right now! They're giving away a MILLION smoothies and juices to all customers. So you can purchase one every day (or multiple per day) until the million are given away. They've partnered with ISIS which is new app to pay by using your phone. So to get a free smoothie you just have to pay with the ISIS app!

Don't forget to eat your fruits and veggies this winter!