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Growing up in Oregon, I constantly heard wise words from my mother like "lets recycle that," "you can walk," "don't use too much water," "whole wheat is better than white," "no dessert if you don't eat your vegetables," "dark lettuce is better for you than light," "paper over plastic," "don't leave anything behind" and so much more. Her healthy ways got me into many sports and helped turn me into a record-setting track athlete. In 2006, my mother lost a 3 year battle with Lou Gehrig's Disease; something nobody would have ever expected. That was right around the time I joined the Surfrider Foundation in San Diego and had my first child, whom she never met. Now 10 years have passed since losing my mother, yet volunteering for the Surfrider Foundation, and becoming a mother, I've noticed her words have come through clearer than ever. In addition to personal training and triathlon coaching, I have done some blogging to help our planet, and improve lives. I hope you enjoy my content, and join me in my journey for a cleaner planet and promoting happier, healthier lives!

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

How Do You Get to School?

The 2015/2016 school year has begun!  What's your preferred method of travel?  Here's some money-saving eco-friendly solutions:

-Ride the bus
-Ride a bike
-Ride a scooter
-Ride a skateboard
-Walk or jog

Please let me know if you've got other ideas that don't require gasoline!

We live over a mile away, and there is no bus, so for now, our method of travel is scooters.  We would prefer riding bikes, but there's a district-wide ban of bicycles for kids under 4th grade.  (Scooters are not mentioned in the rules.;)  Of course I am horribly opposed to the rule, and working with many other parents to see how we can change this policy.

So lets compare riding bikes to driving a car:

Biking: Free (once you have a bike), burns calories instead of gas, helps kids wake up and be alert for class, prevents obesity, when accompanied by a parent, it's an excellent opportunity to learn rules of the road, traffic signs, right vs left (if you say we stay to the right with our bikes, kids associate that side with R), promotes a lifelong lesson of healthy and money-saving travel

Driving: Kids and parents are at rest, parents burn gas instead of calories, vehicles pollute the environment, vehicles cause traffic congestion around schools, excess of vehicles make crossing the street at the school more dangerous (even for those who rode in a car because parking gets backed up 1/2 mile or more), kids aren't as alert when they get to the classroom

If you search the web, you'll see there are many bike bans out there, and many fighting it.  It may actually be more of a liability to have a bike ban than to allow bikes!  In a court of law, it takes away parents Constitutional Rights to raise children the way they want, forcing them to either walk or waste money driving.  The good news is, some schools promote riding bikes with award systems!  What if all schools did this?  Think of the affect it would have on our country's obesity epidemic?

If you bike, walk, roll or travel in any other way than driving, we'd love to know!  Thank you for helping the environment!!

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

The Gift of the Tropics...

Oh, its been ages since I've posted.  Life of a Mom, athlete, and Coach makes it so.  Yes, I've been doing a lot of triathlon training and coaching since the fall.  What a perfect fit for someone with young kids, who can't take a full-time job (or could, but the pay isn't worth the childcare.)  So the "free-time" is filled with either writing training plans, working with athletes, or doing my own workouts.  Been eating a close to vegan diet, minimizing all dairy, avoiding meat, except some wild fish.  Feeling great eating lots of plant-based meals.

On to the "Gift," my husband's company sent him to Hawaii to teach a class... which happened to overlap the kids' spring break.  So we got to join him!  Oh, how thankful we are!!  Though he had to work the weekdays, we explored a lot!  A few things I wanted to share:

Riding a Bus
-You can get almost anywhere on Oahu with the Bus! (Check out app "DaBus")
-Traffic on the island can be a MESS!  (So take the bus if you can.)
-There is much more beautiful nature than you can ever see in a week.
-You can camp your way around the island if you are that brave.
-Rental houses are a much better deal than hotels.
-If you stay in Waikiki, you're missing out on the culture.
-You can get wonderful fruits and veggies at fresh fruit stands and Farmer's Markets.
From a North Shore fruit stand
-Coconuts can be mailed directly (as long as they don't have a single hole.) ;)


Another important topic, which this blog relates so much, is treatment towards nature, particularly the animals.  It seems when people go to Hawaii, they all want to TOUCH turtles, dolphins, fish, or other creatures.  Yes, when it's been a dream to see these beautiful creatures in nature, it is tempting to reach out an feel them.  BUT, as we quickly discovered, with all the tourists searching for them, there aren't many safe places for these animals to go.  When we finally saw a turtle, it was surrounded by tourists touching it, while it seemed distraught, trying to escape.  It did, and we did not even go close enough to take a picture of that one (to spare it extra misery).

And then, we found this one.  Notice everyone obeys the "look but don't touch" rule...

Here's a couple more photos of the nature we enjoyed...

Kailua Beach

Olomana Ridge hike.  (The real peak is too steep for young kids)
Our son with the state fish "Humahuma-nukanuka-a-pua'a"
















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-Aloha!