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In the spirit of Giving Tuesday, I wanted to highl

In the spirit of Giving Tuesday, I wanted to highlight a local charity that goes great lengths to include everybody in the engaging world of sport and wellness: the Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association.

The primary goal of GLASA is to support the development and well-being of youth, adults and injured military veterans who have physical or visual disabilities.

I have chosen to run the 2022 Chicago Marathon (the real one this time!🤞🏼) once again in support of GLASA because they align perfectly with my passion for helping others through movement and fitness. Which, if you know me at all, is a pretty big part of my life. Swipe to see some progress pics of the my first (and unfortunately) virtual, masked marathon last year 😅☠️

To read more about my mission to help GLASA or donate, visit www.tinyurl.com/HPGLASA
Your donations go 100% to this incredible organization and your generosity fuels my soul and 2022 training runs! 🏃🏼‍♀️🙏🏼

#givingtuesday #mychicagomarathon #TeamGLASA #adaptivesports

Thank(full)🌲🏔💛

“It’s not a phase, mom!”🤦🏻‍♀️👻

What’s actually scary is that most of this “costume” came directly from my closet 😂

To a weekend full of endless laughter and hush pup

To a weekend full of endless laughter and hush puppies 💙☀️🍤🐶🆙#DOMPS #pupitup

I love a chance to celebrate some love 💛

I love a chance to celebrate some love 💛

Four years ago we felt the magic of that perfect S

Four years ago we felt the magic of that perfect September day, and now we relive it every moment 🤍✨

Blame it on the a-a-a-altitude ⛰✨

Blame it on the a-a-a-altitude ⛰✨

Orange you glad we got away for the weekend? 🍊🌴☀️

…in her pursuit for women’s rights 🗣 And,

…in her pursuit for women’s rights 🗣

And, in growing vegetables in a major city 🫑🍅

Professional tailgaters 🏙🍕

Professional tailgaters 🏙🍕

#selfcaresunday means buying that damn shirt that

#selfcaresunday means buying that damn shirt that Instagram has been targeting you with for 6 weeks 🐸

Me: off to Carlsbad! ✌🏼 Also me: *Googles how

Me: off to Carlsbad! ✌🏼
Also me: *Googles how to fly a Boeing 737* 😳🛫

Very athletic 🍻🇮🇸

Very athletic 🍻🇮🇸

Charley Brown. You came into our lives so unexpect

Charley Brown.
You came into our lives so unexpectedly. I was a high schooler finishing up a shift at Panera when I saw you and your sister Lucy’s face on a home-made flyer on the community bulletin board and fell hard. Our family and lives felt content without a dog, but you would change all of that. Me and dad and Chris begged mom and when she held you for the first time at your foster’s house, you wrapped your little paws around her so sweetly. We fell hard.

You sat on Matt’s lap as you drove to your new forever home and instantly bonded. You’d soon grow to get way more excited to see him than any of us (sometimes a little too excited), but he loved you the same. You were quick to learn everything and instantly fit in at home. You loved to pick on Chris, play with dad, bug mom, and love on me. It was the best. You saw Chris and I go through proms, graduations, and a little less of us when we were in college, but it made the times at home that much better. You were at my wedding shower!

Over the years your hair grew wilder and your face became more white with life. You became the king of the road and traveled across 6 states to get to your new home in Spokane, WA, where you’d chase quails in the yard and puff at the UPS guy. You loved it there. You aged peacefully while encountering obstacles, but mom and dad were always there. And recently you drove with mom and dad across the country to Sarasota, where you learned what true retirement is like.

And tonight, you retired to the best life. Thank you for giving us a piece of our life we didn’t know we had been missing for years. We love you and we’ll always have you with us, wup. 💛

Not always proud of America, but proud to be a par

Not always proud of America, but proud to be a part of the generation pushing for better. And for putting on regular clothes today. 🇺🇸

After a wild moving weekend of broken storage lock

After a wild moving weekend of broken storage lockers, tornados, historic flooding, and impossible U-Hauls, 5 years have turned into forever.

To our new permanent home in Chicago, we say, “L Yes.”
✶ ✶ ✶ ✶

HP, CPT. 🏋🏼‍♀️💪🏼📜

HP, CPT. 🏋🏼‍♀️💪🏼📜

Over the dune for ya 🌙⛰

Over the dune for ya 🌙⛰

Snorkel Sunday 🥽🐠

Snorkel Sunday 🥽🐠

HAPPY GOTCHA DAY! Clark has been in our lives for

HAPPY GOTCHA DAY!

Clark has been in our lives for a full year now! It has been incredibly rewarding, testing, and FUN growing with this big boy in the big city. We love his noises and aloof personality. It’s been so great getting to know his goofy self as he grows older, more colorful, and much, much bigger 😂 Thanks to @felinescanines for rescuing us the best boy!

➡️ Swipe for the “before!” And #adoptdontshop

Side effects have included: • unexpected happy t

Side effects have included:
• unexpected happy tears
• explosive sense of joy and relief
• overwhelming appreciation for science

#getvaccienated #getbacktonormalcy

I posted a photo just like this one year ago. Jus

I posted a photo just like this one year ago.

Just a year. But what a year.

Despite living in Chicago for as long as we have, our uniquely awesome Lakeview home saw us in a whole new light. We added a member to our family, while also not getting to see our own. We endured a pandemic, demonstrations, riots, and peace all while trying to maintain our sanity and make a difference. We ordered in delicious food but hardly stepped foot in the neighborhood restaurants or bars. And we made lifelong friends who really never saw us without a mask.

We’ll never forget this place that saw SO much of us (like, 24/7/365, lol) and the only reason we are leaving is that we were ready for something to really call our own — our first “real” home in Edgewater!

But until then we are taking a brief layover at the in-laws until closing week. See you again soon, and permanently, Chicago!

I’ve reached that point where I bought myself so

I’ve reached that point where I bought myself some pizza earrings and did an entire dressed up photoshoot with them.

I’m fine. 🙃🍕

✨ Let your light shine ✨ It’s been really e

✨ Let your light shine ✨

It’s been really enlightening and, frankly, shocking to see all of the incredible strong women and friends I know open up about their eating disorders this week. So many of these people are business moguls or badass mothers or community heroes that many only see as the strong individuals that they are. But what happens when that person’s own foundation is crumbling because society says she needs to look a certain way or “bounce back?” I’ll tell you.

I struggled for years with an unhealthy relationship with food and obsession with exercise. I only saw my reflection as a girl with thicker thighs than my friends. And that is certainly not to say that my people did not have struggles of their own, but instead of looking forward to college social outings or parties, I was anxiously thinking about how many calories I’d be consuming and how hard I’d have to work the next day to cancel it out. For almost a full year I ate protein bars for breakfast and lunch – as in, one split in half for each meal so I wouldn’t consume as many calories. I had a safe word made up to text my now-husband if I was considering purging the food I ate so he could help talk me out of it. I would even make gallons of a stupid lemon dandelion tea cleanse concoctions and lie to my roommates that it was just a big batch of flavored water.

Those fluke GOOD days where I was feeling confident about myself or “didn’t care,” I’d go socialize, drink and inevitably eat a ton of bar food that night. And the next morning, while my amazing friends would laugh recapping our night, I would embarrassingly slip away to the gym to start the sweat. I hate to think about all of the laughs I missed out on those years because I was too concerned with f*cking CALORIES.

But, as I’ve seen across social media, there are so many warriors in this battle. And for many, the battle continues.

- continued in the comments -

I get it, working out at home can be ruff 🐾

I get it, working out at home can be ruff 🐾

It’s our brindled boy’s first birthday! 🎉

It’s our brindled boy’s first birthday! 🎉

While we don’t know what his first 3 months were like, we know now that he is a pretzel snatching, noise making, bed romping big boy who has filled our lives with laughter, howls, and hair 😂 We love you and love learning with you, Clark! 🐾

Double tap for birthday boops!

Hey Chicago, what do you say? Let’s go play in t

Hey Chicago, what do you say?
Let’s go play in the snow today ☃️🌨

I drew a fish. For fun! 🐠This is a Mandarin Dra

Know what sparks the light in you. Then, use that

Know what sparks the light in you. Then, use that light to illuminate the world. ✨
- Oprah Winfrey

...also thank you to my class packed with inspirational people for letting me take this mid-exercise 😂

Yesterday was a loss for so many, but our family a

Yesterday was a loss for so many, but our family also is mourning the loss of our incredible uncle Ted. He was a guy unlike anyone I’ve ever met. A spit-fire, quick to let you know if you’ve put on weight or wear too much makeup. But one of the kindest souls all the same. After all his years of traveling, he told me the only way he would come to my wedding was if I got married in his backyard in Berea, Ohio 🤣

He is the man behind my family’s love for hockey, as he was the Athletic Trainer for the New Jersey Devils in the 90s. He gifted me a NJ Devils bib at my birth and my first jersey when I was a toddler. His home was full of hockey memorabilia with rows and rows of signed jerseys. “Take one of those home!” he’d say every visit. He had friends across every team across every country. At one point his name graced the mighty Stanley Cup and he would happily let anyone off the street try on his sparkling Stanley Cup ring.

My strongest memories of him are him recalling his days walking around the mall trying to talk to girls with the team or feeding his dog Jack (one of the pet portraits I did early this year) an entire can of green beans as he lit up a cigar. Now, he and Jack are reunited once again.

Everyone wishes they had that one relative with all the crazy stories, and I’m lucky enough to have one of my own. We’ll miss ya, Ted! 🖤❤️

It’s obvious that this start to a new year is di

It’s obvious that this start to a new year is different than all others. People hoping to put their wellness at the forefront are are faced with closed gyms and studios.

Though the virtual atmosphere is different than that packed group fitness class, you can still do GREAT workouts at home. You’ll hear me say this a lot in my classes, but I can’t think of a better time for a beginner or returning veteran to take that first step: no fighting over space to work out, no awkward stares over sweat stains, no fumbling through moves, no pressure, no judgement.

Since getting my classes slashed in March, I’ve been hustling HARD putting together a library of over 25 pre-recorded workouts, with several added weekly. I know coming up with exercises to do at home with limited equipment is no fun – that’s where I come in. See for yourself at https://tinyurl.com/HPSFitness.

If you prefer the LIVE virtual setting, I’m incredibly lucky to teach 4 virtual classes weekly through @lifestart Their on-demand platform is only $14.99/month for unlimited classes and offers several free ones on Instagram. And of course, my juicy Yoga Sculpt class with @runn_chicago on Mondays at 5:30pm, which also has a virtual package AND in-studio equipment rental! I also run a Friends & Fam class Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon – message me if you’d like the link.

Many of us are in this state of limbo where our makeshift home offices are also our home gyms. No camera? No problem. I’m not the instructor with my face in the screen watching you work out — I’m doing it right along with you as if we ARE all together.

That’s a lot of information – but I hope it reinforces that I am passionate about what I do for others. I’ve been teaching for over 10 years and virtually for 10 months. And on top of all this screen time, I am also studying for my Personal Trainer Certification to take things to the next level. My 2021 resolution was to start taking client as early as spring 👀

So you decide: are you going to let 2021 be another 2020 or are you going to grab it and bench press it? 💪🏼

2020 ➡️ 2021.

Find shelter in the magic of the holiday season.🐾✨

The 2020 Pink Fam Christmas Card featuring our adorable adopted shelter pups!🎄

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