Back to Work!

The 2 months that I took off from Corporate America to study and work part time at REI while I worked on  becoming a personal trainer has been amazing! I have had so much time to spend with my family and do things that most folks my age don't have the luxury to do. Don't get me wrong studying was hard and it is a never ending process in this industry; I will always have to retake my certification, learn new moves and of course get my nutritionist cert but the time off from a high stress job to reach a milestone in my journey of becoming what I want to be is awesome! Thank you super fantastic Husband!!


During my time off last week my Aunt Barbara from California was in town and all of us ladies headed out to Occoquan VA for afternoon tea.  I am a huge tea drinker (no coffee for me) and I have never actually gone to tea. SOOO much fun, this place The Pink Bicycle tea room was absolutely adorable. As we waited for our table we each got to pick a hat for the day, you can't see it in the photos but mine had a pretty sweet veil in back. 


We each got a cure little tea pot with the tea we requested...by the end of this I was about to float away on tea!

MMMMMMmmmmm Finger Sandwiches and Lemon Bars. I love Lemon Bars so gooey and delicious.

Ladies who lunch photos (My Mom, Me and Aunt Barbara)

Mutti is the hippest Grandmother in the world!

All of us at the table enjoying each others company

Here I am ready for my first official day of work as a Personal Trainer! Sport and Health here I come! I am so excited to work at this Gym, I see so much opportunity with applying my Personal Training knowledge, my soon to come Nutrition Certification and hopefully my Group Exercise Certification. More to come about my first day later.

NASM Certified Personal Trainer!

I have officially passed my NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine) Certified Personal Training Exam! I can now train all the people out there who want to lose weight and get in shape! I am ready to conquer the world...all I need now is a job. 

I have a workshop starting tomorrow that will help prepare me to perform all the exercises and instruct others how to do them properly. Can't wait to meet some other folks in the industry and hopefully learn from their experiences. I have been training one client, pre-certification, which has helped me a great deal in applying all the concepts I've learned from assessing his physical fitness capabilities to designing a workout and pushing him through it.


I plan to start applying for jobs next week and reaching out to the contacts that I have met in the past few months for their recommendations but until then here are some things that I have been doing:
Traveling to see Manchester United take on the Philadelphia Freedom with Brent...as you can see we sat in a boat load of traffic and we weren't happy about it.

But we finally arrived!

We also attended the Beach Boys Concert at WolfTrap.  Beach Balls Everywhere!!!

Another great thing about time off is all the time I get to spend at home with Brent and make super fantastic lunches like this one. 

Roasted Beet and Carrot Salad!

In a bowl combine:

- Chopped Carrots (About 15 Baby Carrots)

- Fresh Peeled Beets (8 Small)

- 4 Garlic cloves sliced

- 1 big handful of fresh parsley

- Sea Salt and Pepper to Taste

- 1 Tbl of olive oil

Put it all on a roasting pan for 25 minutes at 400 degrees.

Place on a bed of lettuce with a 1/2 a chopped orange and a 1/2 cup of cabbage

These days of always seeing each other will make it very hard to go back to working an 8 hour day out of the house. But the time will come....soon!