I had to have a bag of Blue Diamond Almonds with me on my Dirty Girl Road Trip!

As most of you folks know, my mission and vision throughout this entire fitness journey is to inspire someone (everyone) to renew their minds about what it means to be fit and healthy, which I hope will lead to a renewed life. A big part of this journey toward health is being sure we pay attention to our hearts and make good food choices. Let’s face it, what goes into our bodies will directly affect our hearts. The more junk we eat, the harder our hearts have to work to keep us alive. Not to mention the fact that heart disease is the number one killer of Americans (especially us women), so it goes to show we’ve got some changes to make. I refuse to be a part of that negative statistic.

See that little AHA check mark? That means it's heart-healthy!

One of my favorite things to eat, that I know is a great choice for my heart health, is almonds. I’m pretty sure I tweet about eating almonds at least once a day. They are full of Omega-3′s, fiber and protein and they go with everything! Blended in smoothies, sprinkled on salads, atop my favorite frozen yogurt, almonds are just an amazing food. My favorite brand of almonds has been Blue Diamond for a very long time. And now it will never leave the top of my almond list because Blue Diamond Almonds have been certified by the American Heart Association (AHA) as a heart-healthy food. So now, when I eat my daily ration of almonds, I’m guaranteed to be eating a food that’s great for my heart. Awesome!

Blue Diamond Almonds come in so many different and absolutely yummy flavors. The AHA has approved these 6 as heart-healthy:

• Whole Natural (my favorite!!!)
• Roasted Salted
• Low Sodium
• Sea Salt
• No Salt
• Honey Dijon

I keep the 1lb bag of Blue Diamond Whole Natural Almonds with me in my gym bag. They always come through for me when I’m starving at work or just need something to occupy my mouth while I cook dinner. And that 1lb bag usually lasts me an entire week.

Oh Blue Diamond Almonds, you're so good to my heart.

Great companies like the American Heart Association are dedicated to helping us make the right choices when it comes to the food we eat. They’ve set up very strict guidelines for what a heart-healthy food should be so when you see that AHA Heart-Check mark on any food package, you know you’re making a good choice. I’m so glad the almonds I’m practically addicted to will have a party for my heart. I hope my BFF doesn’t mind me saying but these almonds are like my best friend.

Speaking of parties, if you want more info about Blue Diamond Almonds or you just love being on Twitter and interacting with cool companies , join the FitFluential #BlueDiamond Twitter party this Monday, May 21 at 8pm CST. I’ll be there and there will be prizes! Be sure you’re following FitFluential in case you win! See you there!

What are your favorite snacks? Are almonds at the top of your list?

Be Renewed!

FTC Disclosure: FitFluential LLC compensated me for this campaign. All opinions are my own.

It’s been a long time since I’ve repeatedly used the exclamations:

Awesome!

Wow!

I had a blast!

So much fun!

That was cool!

all in one weekend. And that’s a great thing!

The video below is a nice little montage of how much fun I had at my very first Dirty Girl Mud Run in Indianapolis, IN and my road trip with the new Chevy Sonic. I got to meet some of my fellow FitFluentials Heidi of BananaBuzzBomb (and her sister) and Julie of ROJRunning. Heidi and I immediately hugged each other while I was in line to get my bib. We couldn’t wait to get started. So great to meet you ladies!

I recruited my best friend, Shanna to run with it with me. We took on the mud and dirt like champs! Matching bright green outfits and all! I’d definitely recommend the Dirty Girl Mud Run to any woman who’s ever thought about trying something different when it comes to their running experience. I never faced a moment where I couldn’t be myself. There was support and camaraderie everywhere. The run supports an amazing cause: The National Breast Cancer Foundation and I was so happy to be a part of it all. There are lots more Dirty Girl runs coming up across the country, (Chicago in June!)  check out the list here.

HUGE thank you to Heidi for being the group videographer and photog. Thanks for the pictures, Heidi!

MEGA thank you to FitFluential for presenting me with this awesome opportunity. I love my FitFluential family!

GIGANTIC thank you to the nicest people in the world at Chevrolet for letting me borrow the Sonic. I couldn’t have asked for a better road trip experience!

And now, without further delay…

Be Renewed!

FTC Disclosure: FitFluential LLC compensated me for this campaign. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The lady standing beside me in the picture above is the person God chose to birth me into this world. There’s so much I could write about her, and I could gush about how amazing she is, but I’d rather just share a few parts of me that I get directly from her.

Dancing Machine

My mom and her afro. High School Senior picture 1973

I dance in the car. I dance in the kitchen. I dance in the shower. I dance in grocery stores, in the cereal aisle when I hear a good groove come on. I dance at public events and properly embarrass my friends. All of this is because of my dancing machine of a mother. My mom can groove, y’all. And back in the day, she grooved so much and so well, she used to win dance contests at the disco. She’d study the latest moves (from Soul Train of course) and bring them to the disco, perfecting them and polishing them with her own style. Everyone of the cousins my mom grew up with and was close with still talks about her dance contests and how she’d show out, beating everyone and then take them all out to dinner afterward with her winnings. I can just imagine her on the dance floor with her freshly picked afro, bell bottoms and go-go boots.

She taught me how to do the Chicago Step and The Spank. Her favorite dancing music is by Peter Brown or Parliament Funkadelic. And please don’t forget her main man James Brown. My love of any and all old school music comes from her. I’m pretty sure my soul belongs in the 70′s.

Quiet Storm

Observant, prayerful, strategic and resilient. Over the years and through different experiences those four words have described me and how I choose to handle things to a T. In observing my mother and listening to her tell me stories about her stint in Memphis after her mother passed away, or how she took care of my older brother when the odds seemed against her, those four words in their truest form describe her as well and I mirror her without even knowing it. There are times when I see pain or concern in my moms eyes one minute and the next she’s laughing and dancing again. She has an understanding about God and life and the way things work that I may never know until I have a child. But the way she handles life’s mountains and valleys is more than admirable.

Always smiling.

Style File

I’m not sure if I have a specific sense of style. I like so many different things and don’t tend to pick up on the latest trends until it’s a little too late. Usually by the time I go buy it, everyone else is over it. In any case, looking good and feeling confident in whatever style I choose to rock has become my ultimate goal. If I feel good in it, I’m going with it. But it took a lot of years of confidence-building to get to that point. It wasn’t until our most recent trip to Memphis, TN did I notice this same “feel good, go with it” characteristic in my mother. To me, she’s always been stylish and LOVES clothes, shoes and jewelry (always “borrowing” mine) but as she strutted around my cousin’s house in her crisp, white suit, polished white shoes and big, wide-brimmed white hat, it hit me just how happy she was to look and feel good about herself. She radiates with joy and smiles. Close friends have told me they notice that about me too.

I get my goofiness from her. I get my voice from her. I get my need to make people laugh and smile from her. I hope that as she’s reading this she comes to understand that every characteristic I’ve gotten from her and listed in this post is important to me. I plan to develop them and never forget their roots.

Still smiling. See where I get it from?

I love you, mom.

Happy Mother’s Day.

“Me? A mud run? Never! Why would I want to run a whole 5K through some mud?”

Those were the exact words I said about 2 years ago when a friend of mine mentioned she’d be interested in doing a mud run and suggested I do it with her. But as I progressed as a runner by participating in different races and events, it dawned on me that maybe my friend was on to something. That there was lots more out there besides just running, getting a medal, a cool t-shirt and some Gatorade.

Now, if I was going to do a mud run, I wanted to choose wisely. And sometimes that can be a little hard considering some of the pictures and slogans I’d seen for some of them. I’ll admit, I was still a bit on the “oh hell no” side. But along comes the “Dirty Girl” Mud Run and I was instantly intrigued.

Gettin' down and dirty!

Fitfluential asked us ambassadors a few months ago who’d be interested in doing a mud run called the “Dirty Girl” and since I’d promised myself I’d stop being scared to do things and just go for it, I raised my hand. I’ll be completing my first mud run with Dirty Girl this Saturday, May 12 in Indianapolis at Live Nation’s Klipsch Music Center. After I checked out the website, I was SOLD!

Three reasons why:

1) First of all, it’s a women-only event so I don’t have to worry about getting elbowed in the teeth by some big, burly dude. To me, a race or event like this is always more relaxing and fun when I know I can let loose and be myself.

2) Second, women of all athletic and fitness abilities are able to do it because the obstacles are designed to be challenging but manageable. If I had to scale a 20-foot wall, soaked in mud and full of splinters, I’m pretty sure I’d have to pass on the this race. But, Go Dirty Girl isn’t like that at all. I like that it’s geared toward being non-intimidating and just plain fun.

3) Third, and probably the best reason why this race is so awesome: a portion of the proceeds from Dirty Girl registration fees are donated to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. This cause and disease definitely hit home for me and I’m so glad it’s going to such a great cause. As an added bonus, if you are a breast cancer survivor, you can register for free. That is just awesome.

AND…on top of all that… In order to make my trip down to Indianapolis from Chicago a lot more fun, Chevy is giving me their all-new Sonic to make my road trip the most awesome ever. Chevy’s tagline for the Sonic is “Let’s Do This” – that is just perfect for this adventure I’m about to take into mud run territory. My first mud run? Let’s do this!

I’ll be tweeting and Facebook-ing and Instagram-ing all of my experiences with the Dirty Girl race this weekend so be sure to follow me for all the happenings.

Oh and for all of my Chicago folks, there’s a Dirty Girl mud run coming in June and July! Check it out here!

FTC Disclosure: FitFluential LLC compensated me for this campaign. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

It’s running season! Most of us have already taken to the streets, paths and pavement to achieve our running goals for the year. Whether you’re running your first 5K or your 12th marathon. I’m so excited about what’s to come and can’t wait to hit some of the races and events I’ve been planning for this year. I’ve gotten a few questions lately on building a good foundation as a runner. My body has also reminded me that I need to do some foundation building to continue to be strong and prevent injury (especially my knees).

So… instead of keeping all my goodies about strength training to myself, I decided to do a video! The video includes just a few strength building exercises for your quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes. Those muscles, when strong and solid, help you become a much more efficient and injury free runner.

In the video, I show you the basic ways to do each exercise. The workouts below will give you a few different ways to actually make these exercises into a workout routine, using either timed sets, modified tabata sets or intervals. Check it out!

*Note: SLSR = “Strong Legs, Strong Runner” abbreviated*

SLSR Workout #1: Timed Set

Optional equipment: 5 or 10lb weights, jump rope

Repeat this workout 2 times through.

SLSR Workout #2: Intervals (slightly advanced)

Optional equipment: 5 or 10lb weights

SLSR Workout #3: Modified Tabata

Optional equipment: 5 or 10lb weights

That’s it! Hope you enjoyed the video and the workouts! Leave a comment below if you have any questions or ideas for more strength exercises for runners. Thanks!

Be Renewed!

Athleta's new Chicago location in Lakeview.

I’ve been a fan of Athleta for years. And I almost distinctly remember when Athleta first came out with it’s line of clothing for female athletes about 12 years ago. I was immediately a fan probably only because it was a Gap, Inc. product and I loved the Gap. Over the years, I kept my fan status after buying more than a few products for my extremely active lifestyle. But not until yesterday’s event did I really learn about Athleta’s vision for women in general and for this amazing new store.

I was very happy to have been invited to this exclusive event and to have the chance to talk to Tess Roering, Vice President of Marketing, about Athleta’s vision for Chicago.

Here’s what she had to say:

By women athletes, for women athletes

When I asked Tess what’s different about Athleta compared to similar brands and athletic clothes, the above phrase stood out the most. “Our products are designed by women athletes for women athletes. We go out and test them and make sure their working the way we want. We note what we like and what we don’t like and use that feedback for the design. It’s also the breadth of the incredible line of products. Swimming, running, yoga, tennis, cycling, skiing, cross country skiing. You name it, we have it. To top it all off, we have the BEST performance fabric and details. Everything is built from the ground up to be exactly what a woman is going to want.” Based on just that explanation…I’m SOLD!

Bright colors, beautiful designs, versatile clothing for every woman

Why Chicago?

It has to be said that Chicago is one of the greatest cities in the world! Am I biased? Yes, I am. Who doesn’t love Chicago? (Don’t answer that.)  So, bringing this incredible line of athletic clothing to life here is only right. “Athleta chose Chicago because of the huge demographic of customers here that are buying our products. Chicago is a very active community that likes to look good. Just because I’m going out for a run doesn’t mean I have to look a mess,” stated Tess. I couldn’t agree more.

Yoga Gear

And we can all agree that having a physical store to be able to try things on is always good. Ordering online is tricky. Especially for tall, lanky folks like me. I usually avoid buying workout pants online because they never fit well. Even when I think I’ve got a brand’s measurements right, I somehow end up with “flooding” pants. Athleta also has a really cool and convenient perk where you can take your new gear in for any alterations they may need.  Need your pants longer or shorter? Done. Want your shirt a little tighter? Done. Gotta love that.

Swim, Yoga, Gym...something for everyone.

Perks for Fitness Professionals

Now, you know I was extra intrigued to hear that Athleta offers so much for fitness professionals like myself. Yoga instructors, personal trainers, group exercise instructors, bootcamp drill sergeants – those whose passion is to bring people into a healthy lifestyle, can enjoy a 30% off discount on all their purchases. But it doesn’t end there. Tess stated, “Athleta will open the store and allow instructors to hold classes there. Everything is on wheels so they just roll everything away and use the space, ” Tess says. How cool is that? Great way to expand your customer base. I love that Athleta thinks of it’s community of consumers is such a creative way.

Beautiful yoga demonstrations inside and in front of the store.

There’s pretty much something for any and every female athlete at Athleta. She can find FREE fitness and yoga classes each week to continue her healthy and active lifestyle. Cute, stylish and useful workout clothes that may even make her workout more fun. I’m pretty sure I’ll be visiting Athleta a lot. Summer is coming and they always have the cutest bathing suits.

Athleta’s official store opening is today at 9:00am. They are located at 3415 N. Southport Ave. in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. Follow them on Twitter too: @athleta_chicago. Happy shopping and welcome to Chicago, Athleta!

More pictures of the store and the event below:

Tess Roering and myself.

“If you have a body, you are an athlete.” – Bill Bowerman

When it comes to useful, helpful and extremely motivating technology, Nike has done it again…

On February 29th, also known as Leap Day, I had the awesome opportunity to join Nike Chicago and about 30 other athletes and everyday people, to try out the Nike+ FuelBand. And let me tell you, I am in love!

I arrived at an exclusive location dressed in Nike workout gear that was sent to my house earlier that day. I didn’t know what to expect at all. The evening started out with a very informative presentation on exactly how and why Nike came up with the concept of the FuelBand and how it works. Then…we went to go try it out…AT SOLDIER FIELD!

Now, wait, let me back up a bit…

How Does It Work?

The band tracks every single movement you make and gives you points or “fuel” for them. Things like dancing, basketball, walking, football, running around with your kids, walking through the grocery store, a high intensity workout… ANY movement, you get fuel. Everyday, you set a fuel goal to meet. An average day’s activity would be about 2000-2500 fuel. While a day with more movement like running or working out would be about 4000 fuel. 

It also tracks your steps, calories and time. You can check the progress toward your goal by hitting a button on your FuelBand. One of the coolest aspects of this Nike+ FuelBand is you can sync the band to your iPhone, iPod touch and the Nike+ FuelBand website. You can also challenge your friends to meet a certain fuel goal, see what time of day you did the most movement and adjust your fuel goal for the next day. Was making it to 2000 fuel too easy? Challenge yourself to make 3000 or 4000 the next day.

Soldier Field, Robbie Gould and a Whole ‘Lotta Awesome

So, we were broken up into groups and we headed on over to Soldier Field to try out the FuelBands. All of our bands were set to meet 1,000 fuel for the evening. Much to our surprise, we were brought into the visitor’s locker room to meet the ever-amazing, most accurate kicker in the history of the Chicago Bears, Robbie Gould!

Bears Kicker Robbie Gould telling us about his FuelBand experience as an athlete.

Then onward to the field. We were taken through three stations designed to keep us moving the entire time. We caught touchdown passes, kicked field goals (instructed by Robbie himself) and did football ladder drills. I was so motivated to move! I wanted to meet my goal so bad because I’m so competitive with myself. While I was waiting in line to go through all the drills, I was doing jumping jacks, dancing and running in place. Somehow, that fuelband had me SO motivated to move, which is exactly the point.

That's me on the left running to catch a touchdown pass. I caught it too!

Making It Count

After all the football excitement at Soldier Field, it was back to the secret location to keep moving and see how close we were to our 1,000 fuel goal. Most people had only reached between 700-800 fuel, including me. But lucky for us, Nike invited Chicago choreographer BraveMov of Brave Movement Dance Training  to keep the party going. He taught us some really cool dance steps and we danced and sweated and had so much fun. Just about every 5 minutes or so, I was checking my FuelBand to see how close I was to meeting my goal.

After the dancing, we finished up the night by syncing our FuelBands to an iPod touch. It was so exciting to see that we’d met our goals. I definitely felt like I’d earned all 1,000 of my fuel points. I put in work!

What I love most about the Nike+ FuelBand…

…is it’s goal is to make ANYONE an athlete. It makes it so that all of the hard work a person puts into their workout, or just their everyday lives, gets accounted for and rewarded. If you’re following me on Twitter (hint, hint) you may have noticed I’ve been tweeting with the #FitFluential hashtag, as well as #MakeItCount. When I post my plans, meals and workouts for the day, I want to know what my twitter family is doing to make it count, and so does Nike. If you’re walking, it counts. If you play with your kids, it counts. If you do some yoga, it counts. Walking from your car to the grocery store? Yup, that counts too. You really do earn your fuel and that’s the beauty of it.

I am very excited about what Nike+ is doing with this really cool technology. It definitely revolutionizes the fitness movement by getting more than just runners a chance to see how awesome they are as athletes. Very soon, existing Nike+ users will be able to visit just one website to sync both their Nike+ (the chip in their shoe) and their FuelBand. Want to see what else counts? Check out this hilarious video:

Right now, the Nike+ FuelBands are sold out online, but be on the lookout on Nike’s Twitter and Facebook pages for special announcements regarding their limited availability. They are priced at $149, but if you ask me, it’s WELL worth the investment. Now, get out there and earn your fuel.

Be Renewed!

Congratulations to…. YoliFitTIU!

Yoli, please email me at renisha@renewedfitness.org to claim your 2 new Sparkly Soul headbands! Yay!

To pick the winner I used a random number generator which made it much easier than what I was GOING to do to pick the winners… (print out the comments, cut them into strips, throw them in a hat and pick one out. Crazy, I know…)

Thank you to all of you who entered my first giveaway. I can’t wait to do more!

OH! And from now until March 1st, Sparkly Soul is offering my readers 15% off their order if they use the code: FITFLUENTIAL. So, go take advantage!

Be Renewed!

Hey fitness fanatics! I’m waaaaayyy too excited about this post today. It’s my first giveaway! And I’m giving away something that I totally fell in love with when I tried it. Sparkly Soul Headbands! If you’ve never heard of them, you should definitely head on over to their site to check them out. (And of course, continue reading so you can enter the giveaway and get some!)

Now, we can all relate to the fact that we NEVER want to be fiddling around with our hair while we workout. It’s annoying. It’s distracting. It’s rude! But Sparkly Soul has just the ticket:

“a non-slip….yes, REALLY non-slip patent pending design makes certain that your headbands stay in place – no matter how intense your sports or fitness activity.”

- www.sparklysoul.com

The company was created by a marathoner and triathlete for all the women who find their strength and soul while pushing themselves to their athletic limits. And those of you who may be concerned about breakage, Sparkly Soul guarantees these headbands will not break your hair off. That’s good news!

My first go-round in trying out these really cute headbands was when I went to take an intro class at the Monkey Bar Gym. And yes, it is exactly what it sounds like. We did all types of jungle gym, playground stuff all in the name of functional strength training. I wore my silver, smaller width headband for this venture. Pulled my hair back into a ponytail and popped that baby on:

So cute and stylish!

During the intro class that day we did cartwheels, somersaults, backward rolls, skipping, push-ups, pull-ups, planks, bear crawls, squats and all kinds of other functional movements involving nothing but body weight. It was dope and I definitely pushed myself to the limit. My headband stayed intact and didn’t move an inch the entire time. Even during the front and backward rolls. Was it really non-slip? Yup!

And then the ultimate test… could it hold back the afro? If you know me, or have seen some of my TwitPics, you know I have HUGE hair (as you can see in the picture below). So I had to see whether or not Sparkly Soul headbands would stand the test of holding back my hair, staying put, and being stylish and cute. Well…

Before...

After! Blue Sparkly Soul on afro ponytail. Worked well!

After I put it on, I ran around the house a little bit, twirled my head around and have my self a headache trying to get the thing to budge…it wouldn’t!

All in all, these headbands are everything! I love them! They do the job they’re supposed to and they’re cute! I picked the blue (in 5/8 of an inch) and silver (in 3/8 of an inch) colors, but they come in 10 other colors too.

Love these!

And now, without further ado…

The Giveaway!

The folks at Sparkly Soul do not want to keep all this sparkle and soul to themselves, so here’s your chance to get your hands on some! Sparkly Soul will send the winner a thin one AND a wide one in YOUR favorite colors!

Here’s how to enter to win:

**You can do all of these to enter multiple times and increase your chance of winning**

1. Head on over to www.sparklysoul.com and tell me which headband color is your favorite in the comments below.
2. Tweet about this giveaway: “I want to win a @SPARKLYSOULINC non-slip headband from @RenewedFitness! Enter to win here: http://renewedfitness.org/sparklysoul” (tell me you did in the comments)
3. Subscribe to this blog.
4. Tell me in the comments below what you do everyday to maintain your sparkle and feed your soul. Be creative!

That’s it! You can enter the giveaway as many times as you want until 10pm, Wednesday, February 22nd. I’ll announce the winner on Thursday, February 23rd. YAY! Aaaaaand…GO!

Be Renewed!

*photo from www.latimesblogs.latimes.com

It hit me so hard.

It had to be a joke. Or a rumor. It wasn’t real.

I frantically searched for a real headline or some kind of legit breaking news. But I honestly didn’t want to see it. Not in big, bold, official letters. But I did, “Whitney Houston, 48, found dead.”

Wait, what? How? What happened?

I broke down crying immediately. Overtaken by grief and disbelief. Again, frantically searching for someone to say it wasn’t true. My mind flooded with memories as my TV flooded with pictures of Whitney.

She was so beautiful.

For me, Whitney Houston embodied one of the greatest examples of what we ALL experience through this journey. Success, triumph, defeat, struggle, resilience, denial, disappointment and love. I watched her with grace. If there was a celebrity I constantly prayed for or thought of, it was Whitney. I was always praying she’d bounce back and not just with a music career. That somehow her personal journey to truly get back to herself would end in overwhelming success in being in a better state of mind and body. Selfishly, I wanted the “old Whitney” back.

Tears well up in my eyes again as I think about how much I wanted to be like Whitney. Sing like her. To open my mouth and have angels sing through me. I remember being in middle school and my best friend and I would put on “The Bodyguard” soundtrack so we could “practice” all the songs and perform them. For who? We didn’t know. We just wanted to be like Whitney. (I was always Whitney during our “Queen of the Night” performance. You couldn’t tell me nothin!)

My freshman year in high school, I joined the praise dance team at my church. The very first song we practiced and performed for the church was “I Love the Lord” from the Preacher’s Wife soundtrack. I was only about 13, but when I was at home and at church with the song on repeat, learning the moves and remembering my routine, Whitney’s voice and prayer woke up my understanding of God. It was as if Whitney, herself, assured me that the God I believed in would always be there for me. And He is. Each time we performed it, at the end, I’d be crying so hard. That song filled my heart with so much hope. And now, I only want to hear Whitney sing it in her beautiful voice. Whitney loved the Lord and that love was easy to see and feel.

While I still can’t fully swallow this news, my heart is so broken for Bobbi Kristina, Whitney’s mother Cissy and her close friends. Those who saw and knew Whitney’s heart and witnessed her repeatedly rise and fall, my sadness is for them. They’ll never be the same. WE’LL never be the same. We are now without an angel here on earth. Whitney has gone to rest peacefully with the Lord. And I find a sliver of peace in that. I’ve stopped trying to figure out why this particular celebrity death has hit me so hard and why I’m so hurt. The fact is, Whitney meant a lot to me. She showed me that if I have a gift, live in it with all my might. She showed me that when you display your talent, it should be effortless. Your gift should speak to people and change them forever. Whitney taught me that success and money don’t get rid of your demons and that the journey back to normalcy doesn’t come instantly.

I love you, Whitney. I’ll miss you. Rest in eternal peace.