Grits in the City - Fitness. Family. Food.

Hope you enjoy all these as much as I do!

race recap: 2021 virtual disney princess half marathon

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I have a long history with runDisney’s Disney Princess Half Marathon that thus far hadn’t led to crossing a finish line. Quarantine, however, gave me a unique opportunity to finally get to do it in my own way!

The History

Around 10 years ago, I decided I was going to get into running. Why not? I lived in Manhattan. There were so many places I could go. Running is cheap (or so I thought.) I wouldn’t need a gym membership! I just needed my own two feet and the open road! So much win!

Fail. Almost immediately I thought it would be a great idea to join Paragon’s mixed level group in Union Square for a run one week. I’d love to know how long we ran. Definitely longer consecutively than I had ever done at that point in time. We ran over to a track on the East Side down around Chinatown. Once there, we did drills. We ran around the track. I felt so excited and strong… until I woke up the next morning and couldn’t walk. Not exaggerating at all. My knees were completely shot and I ended up in PT for two months, unable to even leave my home to go to work. They gradually built me back up to running on a treadmill. I remember them asking if this was my normal pace, to which I’d responded “but I’m not really a runner!” Rehabbing a running injury when I wasn’t truly a runner yet just added to my frustration.

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anniversary celebration at summit house

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We recently celebrated our sixth anniversary! It unfortunately fell on a Monday and the weekend prior we had sick kids, so we ended up celebrating the weekend after. We had a reservation to dine outside at Summit House in Summit, NJ, but of course the weather had other plans this past weekend, raining on and off for a lot of it. They called to let us know that they were closing the outside dining but they could shift us to indoors. So, for the first time in almost 16 months, we ate indoors.

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athleisure review: free people movement

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The fact is that I would like to own just about every item Free People has in their Free People Movement line. I started with one thing that caught my eye from one of the Peloton instructors wearing it. Then I found a number of other shirts that I loved … and here we are. I can’t do their shorts because they don’t seem to understand yet how awesome and necessary pockets are for running shorts. I won’t buy anything any more without them. But their tops? Aces.

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june faves

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I would say I can’t believe June is almost gone but a 97 degree day has totally underscored that we are clearly into summertime. This Bama native though far prefers warm to cool temps, so I’ll take it.

One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London

Recent Read: One to Watch

I can’t seem to get away from Bachelor Nation, can I? During the off-season, I couldn’t resist reading One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London. The show is trying to make some efforts to diversify all the people on it – both in front of and behind the camera. But there’s been one thing they’ve yet to address – body size.

The cast has always been very thin so this book centers on a different take, with a plus sized fashion blogger being the lead of a show called Main Squeeze. She agrees to go on the show on the heels of a painful breakup and what ensues is an imaginative take on a very familiar show, down to producer manipulation, surprise suitors and lots there (as always) for the wrong reasons.

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teneral cellars love is love wine collection

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This post was sponsored by Teneral Cellars as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.

I love wine. I love wine with a story and purpose even more. When I learned about the Teneral Cellars Love is Love collection, I had to try it and was excited to get to introduce some of my good friends from my book club to the collection as well. Teneral Cellars is a California based winery focused on women’s causes and inclusion within the industry. Their wines are sustainably farmed, so love that it’s such a clean alternative.

Teneral Cellars has no tasting room, so that means they’re focused on bringing all the elements of that tasting room to their customers regardless of location. I especially love that each of their releases is linked to a cause, with 10% of profits going to support women’s empowerment causes.

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6 tips from 16 years of blogging

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I started blogging on Blogspot back in 2005 when I lived in DC. My blog was called District Belle and it was all about my life as a single girl having fun in the city. It was when blogging was really taking off and some of the posts like this one about our trash can being stolen from our Capital Hill row house were picked up by the local paper. I moved to New York City, I decided it was time to change that up with a new name and a new focus.

I launched Grits in the City back in 2007, choosing instead to focus on food. For a number of years, I focused solely on food — mostly dining out in the city sprinkled in with a few recipes here and there. When I moved to the suburbs and became a parent several years back, I broadened that a bit to lifestyle in general – food, family and fitness.

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mama’s got this: discussing the unknown with your kids

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I’m back with episode 4 of the Mama’s Got This Podcast. This time, I’m tackling a bit one – discussing the unknown with our little ones. As parents, we have to learn how to maneuver so many challenging and unexpected things. How though can you manage to do that when you don’t always know the answer yourself?

In this episode, I’m joined by Danet Peterson. Danet is a mother of 3, ranging from ages 18 months to 7. She’s been married 10 years and was diagnosed last year with ocular melanoma. You can find her on Instagram as @myjoyfitjourney, where she very honestly shares about her journey through the process and tune in as well for The Resilient Joy Podcast. She’s currently part of a clinical trial and is balancing that with being a mom and supporting her family through it all as well.

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the hunt for housing in a covid-19 world

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It has been five years since we ended our last rental in Manhattan in favor of becoming homeowners in the ‘burbs. We wanted more space, our own place and to finally leave behind the land of all white walls.

It’s an interesting time though. Rental incentives have been on the rise in the NYC metro area with complexes looking to lure in new tenants. With the option to work from home, many have chosen over the last year plus to leave the city in favor of the suburbs or countryside. But will the trend last?

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memorial day sales

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As always, there are a number of great sales happening this weekend. Here’s a rundown of some of the ones that I’ve come across that are worth a look in case, like me, you realized you need a few things to round out your warmer weather wardrobe.

Women’s Clothing

Woman is wearing a slightly flared denim skirt with patchwork on it, from Free People on sale for Memorial Day

Free People is offering free express shipping right now for orders $150+ in their app as well as free regular shipping and returns on their website. They have so many cute things. Love these pink high rise Just Breathe leggings and these Kira platform sneakers. This patchwork denim miniskirt is gorgeous. It’s part of their care line, which is made in a way to reduce our footprint. The skirt is made from reconstructed denim and reused denim off cuts.

Anthropologie has an extra 40% off of their sale items. This vibrant blue one shoulder shirt from BB Dakota caught my eye! Gorgeous. Also like this vibrant sequined Eva Franco blouse, this ruffled babydoll top and this Rifle Paper Company Air Pods Case.

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race recap: run the vineyards federal twist 10k

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I have been skimming past race invites for a while but happened to take a look when a last minute reminder came in for this one. I like the Run the Vineyards series because you get to check out a bunch of vineyards (loosely) in the area, try some different wines and explore a different part of the state. The only one I’ve done so far was the Laurita 5K back in 2019. A lot of them end up being around 2 hours away but when I saw this one was less than an hour drive away and came just after the 2 week mark of being fully vaccinated, I decided I was in!

I got everything together the night before. For any runs or races over an hour, I’ve been pulling out the gels. This time, it was the CLIF margarita shot blocks (love them) and water with Liquid IV (I split these and just do half a pack — otherwise they’re just too sweet for me.)

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