Random | Keeping up with Kate

The Art of Thank You

Posted on June 2, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

When was the last time you wrote a Thank You note? I spent about an hour writing Thank You notes as part of a customer retention initiative at work on Friday. I wrote about 10 of them. I do this every month – it was something my company started last year and something I believe is important and unique. Our company target is 5 per mont – I’ve asked my team to complete 10 per month. I often wonder what the people on the other end think when they receive a thank you note from me or one of my co-workers?

When I was writing on Friday, I took some time in between writing (and giving my hand a rest – you get writers cramp since we spend so much time on computers now) to reflect on how was feeling – I’ll have to say pretty darn good. It was nice to sit down and personally write out the Thank You notes to our customers. Life seems to be moving so fast now adays – (I can’t believe it is already June) – that we don’t stop to appreciate the people around us. I have an opportunity in my life to change that…

I’ve been writing Thank You notes for as long as I can remember – a rule in our house growing up was you had to send a Thank You note for any gifts you received. As I got older I wasn’t made to do it, but my Mom definately had it ingrained in me (in case you are wondering I think this is a great thing). As I write this I recall Thank You notes my Mom would receive from her Uncle Ted – he learned to say Thank You on his mother’s knee (he wrote this at least once). I have fond family memories when Uncle Ted would join us for family events at Easter and Thanksgiving. He was a kind, sweet, old fashioned man who was very good to my Mom and her sisters growing up.

Back to the Thank You notes – I don’t recall when, but my Mom gave me a book called The Thank You Book by Robyn Freedman Spizman and I haven’t ever really looked at it. I pulled it out this morning and was leafing through it. I plan on adding it to my reading list this week – it is a short read. I’ll share with you what I learn.

My goal for summer of 2013 (adding to my Summer Bucket List) is to write 2 Thank You notes per week for the people who have done a great job at work, helped me or done something nice. Ideally these will be handwritten Thank You notes vs. sending an email. I think it means so much more receiving it something in the mail vs. all the junk mail and bills we all receive everyday – a little gem.

“One can never pay in gratitude; one can only pay ‘in kind’ somewhere else in life” – Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Ice Cream, Ice Cream, We all SCREAM for ICE CREAM

Posted on June 1, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

I have loved ice cream for as long as I can remember. When I would go to my Mom-Mom’s and Pop-Pop’s – there was always a 1/2 gallon of REAL Breyer’s Vanilla ice cream. For years, our house only had Breyer’s ice cream in it – we branched out and tried other flavors beside vanilla too. 🙂

Fast forward to 2013 and it is hot as blazes for June 1st – feels more like August 1st. I’ve been doing ‘chores’ all day and wanted some ice cream tonight. I was originally going to hit the drive-thru at Dairy Queen for a Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard (small). I decided I’d go get some Breyer’s Ice Cream with peanut butter cup, chocolate cookie dough or chocolate chip – since I would know the ingredients. Boy was I wrong! I find the Breyer’s with peanut butter cup and it says it is made with Light Ice Cream (and lots of other stuff) – there are so many ingregdients in it – there was the mention of Sugar – 11xs! So then I decided to look at the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Chocolate Chip – both made with Frozen Dairy Dessert – with both having at least 3 types of Sugars. Needless to say I was disgusted and disappointed in Breyer’s. What has happened to Breyer’s?

Off I went to the Turkey Hill section – they had ice cream with similar ingredients until I spied Turkey Hill All Natural Ice Cream – I picked the Salted Caramel – 6 ingredients: cream, milk, sugar, caramel, vanilla and salt! The sugar content is higher than I normally get – next time I’ll try the Coffee – 3 less grams of sugar.

So how was the ice cream? It was yummy (a touch sweeter than it needed to be – but still yummy)! I enjoyed it as I watched the opening of Libeled Lady (1936) on TCM.

And in case you haven’t figured it out – I will be purchasing the Turkey Hill All Natural from now on.

Stay cool!

Road Warriors

Posted on May 31, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

I was traveling last week to Chicago. I’m in awe of Road Warriors. What is a Road Warrior? Per a Google search – 75% travel is equal to the road warrior being away from home all week days except Friday; 50% travel is equal to 2.5 days of the 5 day work week. However, an easier calculation is simply on average there are 20 work days in a month, divide that into the number of days you are not at home.

Why am I in awe of them? I’m in awe of the ones who have figured out how to balance staying in a hotel, eating healthy and getting workouts in consistently. I was a bit of a Road Warrior from 2001 – 2003 and I’ll be honest I never could figure out the balance.

Nowadays, I travel once a week every few months (more the first part of the year). I am diligent in packing my workout clothes; however, many times my workout on my trip is carrying the extra clothes and sneakers in my bag. For example, the big kick-off meeting I run every March – I was in Chicago for almost an entire week – I never saw the inside of the hotel gym – I was working 14+ hours / day – so sleep was my priority!

So once again last week, I packed my workout clothes and sneakers. The first day I walked a lot in the airport – so I sort of chalked that up as my ‘workout’. The next day it didn’t happen. I was committed on Day 3 to get my workout in and I succeeded! I was down in the teeny hotel gym bright and early with a great interval training session (a bit longer version of a HIIT workout) – it was awesome. Then I did some arms and ab work. It was a nice soaking workout. I will chalk this up as a WIN for me! Better late then never. 🙂

Workout DONE!

Near the end of my workout, a co-worker of mine comes in to get her workout in for the day (and she is a Road Warrior – and she worked out the day before too!) The kicker to this little side story was before our meeting started she mentioned that it was great seeing me in the gym and I was ‘sweating like a man‘ (note: I believe we were the only two in the group at that hotel that made it to the gym that morning!) – I was a touch embarrassed and a little proud (as I worked pretty darn hard) (and actually didn’t lug my stuff around for nothing)!

So off to O’Hare I went to try and fly standby (post meeting) – I did not have the luck of the Irish that day, but thought I would share how I relaxed while waiting (trying to take it a little bit like a ‘Road Warrior’) (note: not lugging the sneakers in the bag this time either).

Chillaxin’ at ORD

I think if I ever become a ‘Road Warrior’ again – I know I would do so much better with everything I’ve put in place the last few years. If it took me time to figure out the balance – at least I’d get some sort of a workout lugging the extra workout clothes around! 🙂

Have a great Friday!

Sleeping with my iPhone – it isn’t what you think!:-)

Posted on May 2, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

I’ve had my iPhone for over a year now and one of the first apps that I downloaded (based on another blogger’s recommendation) was Sleep Cycle. http://www.sleepcycle.com/

Sleep Cycle icon on my phone – next to the SFDC Chatter icon – yes I had a lot of unopened email! 🙂

Sleep Cycle (per the app intro) – used a wake up phase (30 minutes by default) that ends at your desired alarm time. During the phase Sleep Cycle will monitor your body to wake you softly when you are in the lightest possible sleep state. Sleep Cycle uses the iPhone accelerometer to sense your movement as you sleep. You place your iPhone upside down on your mattress. Mine is always on airplane mode when I use it – not text or email alerts when I’m trying to sleep.

I had a great night sleep Tuesday night – 100% quality! I’ve only had one other 100% night sleep and both times they were days when I did YOGA!

100% Sleep Quality Night!

You can notes based on some of your daily habits to see how they impact your sleep pattern. I only added this in the last 6 – 8 months. Here is a view of what the graphs look like – stress (dah) negatively impacts my sleep pattern.

Yoga and Eating Late have a positive impact on my sleep pattern – stressful day – not so much!

Hardbody/Worked are the same activity, tea is herbal and good hydration has a slight advantage over low.

At first I was skeptical about this app, however, I can tell you I see how it changes and when I work up Wednesday morning I really felt refreshed. Just wish I had a lot more 100% night sleeps – most of mine nights hover around the 80% + /- area.

3 month sleep quality %

You can check out lots of trends. I also found out I really need 7 1/2 – 8 hours of quality sleep – good news is I’m really close to that goal on average.

Average Hours per night and other interesting data points.

I think this is very insightful as I continue to learn more and more about myself and how sleep impacts my ability to function and lose weight. Sleep it does the body good! (or in my case – GREAT)!!

2013 Happenings…

Posted on February 18, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

I know I’ve been just terrible with my updates over the last few months. Thought I’d share some 2013 happenings…

A quiet Happy New Year
Got to be a NYC tourist to see the Christmas Tree – going after New Year’s definitely is a bonus – no crowds (and had a great dinner at Virgil’s – best BBQ in NYC – it is good stuff).

Rockefeller Center Tree – 2012 – 2013

Met up with friends post Christmas Tree visit to a really cool pub – Cassidy’s Pub (loved the accents – bonus) – extra bonus – walked outside and hailed a cab in mere seconds! (seriously – fastest I’ve ever gotten a cab).
Traveled to NYC for a quick work trip and had a chance to catch up with some work friends – a nice meal and a quick drink at The Perfect Pint.
PSU vs. VT Hockey game in Philly with good friends – bonus – PSU WON!!

We WIN!

Completed 100 push-ups during our Million Dollar Baby inspired workout at BP (such a sense of accomplishment)
Girls Night Out Wine Party – great friends, time, food and of course wine. New favorites: Layer Cake Malbec ($16.99) and Chateau Bonnet Bordeaux ($14.99)

Layer Cake and Chateau Bonnet – yummy

Drove down to OCNJ – first time down since Superstorm Sandy. OCNJ didn’t get hit anywhere near as hard as other areas of the Jersey Shore – still damage -stood on a dune at 52nd street – it was a small pile of sand – in awe of mother nature.
Held our 6th Annual Bowl Over Cancer Event to Benefit THON – Raised $2.5K FTK
Hanging with my niece and nephew – such a fun time.
THON raising $12.3M for the Four Diamonds Fund – to date over $100M raised since 1977. For more information on THON go to http://www.thon.org

Inspire Tomorrow’s Miracles

Have a fabulous week!

Never a Prouder Moment…

Posted on February 17, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

Never a prouder moment to be a Penn Stater than on THON weekend. This year THON (the largest student run philanthropy in the world) raised $12,374,034.46 for the Four Diamonds Fund in a hope to find a cure for pediatric cancer!! Since 1977, THON has donated over $100M to the Four Diamonds Fund (with this year’s fundraising). To learn more about THON or to donate to THON14 go to http://www.thon.org!

Inspire Tomorrow’s Miracles

THON has grown throughout the years. When I was at Penn State it was held in the White Building (the same place where I took my aerobics gym class), then it moved to Rec Hall (where the Volleyball teams plan now) and then moved to it’s current location – The Bryce Jordan Center. There were times this weekend where the wait to get into the BJC was over 3 hours long and this morning due to capacity issues they stopped allowing people to enter – pretty amazing!

I followed posts throughout the weekend, watched the live stream online and then spent the last two hours watching THON today – I caught Family Hour – which is where the families who benefit from the Four Diamonds Fund share their stories – about their kids who are in remission and the ones who are now angels. So very moving – not a dry eye in the BJC nor at my house!

For the Kids! (FTK)

An oldie but a goodie

Posted on January 20, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

Sorry I’ve been gone for awhile…the end of 2012 was a bit crazy both from a work and personal standpoint. So to get me back in the groove – thought I’d pull out and oldie but a goodie smoothie recipe – the Cinnamon Roll Smoothie!

This has got to be my favorite smoothie – it really tastes like a cinnamon roll. My favorite cinnamon rolls or what we call them – sticky buns are from Harner’s Bakery at The West Shore Farmer’s Market in Lemoyne, PA (I go for the mini stickies with nuts – can you say YUM!!)

So here is the recipe for a healthier version (and trust me I get the real thing every once in a while):

Cinnamon Roll Smoothie

1 cup almond milk (unsweetened and organic) (I use Trader Joe’s)
1 cup coconut water (I like Zico – make sure it is the natural – no sugar added)
1 scoop of protein mix (I use Prograde Vanilla) (http://ryanlee.getprograde.com/protein-powder.html
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 pinch sea salt (I use Himalayan Sea Salt)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract or 1-2 pitted dates
1 tablespoon pecans (I usually add a bit more too)
Stevia to taste (I used 1/2 a packet)
2 ice cubes (optional)

Put ingredients into VitaMix or a Blender and mix until smooth. Pour into a nice tall glass and enjoy!

What do you think?

PS: My breakfast drink of choice this weekend!

PSU vs. WI – 2012

Posted on December 1, 2012 by keepingupwithkate91

Last week was the final game of the PSU Football 2012 season. I won’t go into the details as to why – you know.

It was a cold and windy day (with snow flurries making an appearance too). Did I say cold and windy? – boy it sure was! It was so windy, my canopy was a no go (and I left if there as the wind bent the frame and put holes in the tarp) and I couldn’t get my heater to work. Thank goodness for the group from Altoona and Allentown – we hung out with them to stay out of the wind (and got my heater to work).

It was a great day for a final football game in November – Big 10 Football. We got into the game early as it was Senior Day (a favorite game of mine). This year it was special since this year’s Seniors truly showed what it mean to be Leaders and what Success with Honor really means. Here is a great tribute to them prior to the game and a tribute to the entire team – 2012 will always be remembered in the Stadium not for an undefeated season or a championship but because they stayed and due to their leadership and commitment have showed all of us what ONE TEAM really means!

The game was exciting (and did I mention cold?). Although at halftime I had the best HOT CHOCOLATE EVER!! After lots of back and forth and a great show of force of the defense the game was TIED and we went into OT. PSU had the first possession and put 3 points on the board. WI had a chance to tie with a field goal and it went wide left. The jubilation that erupted in the stadium was amazing (I can’t find the right words to describe)!

The singing of the Alma Mater with the team, students and fans was the best ever! And BOB closed it out with a WE ARE… and he was met with a resounding PENN STATE!

I’ve been a Penn State fan for as long as I can remember. I remember watching the 1986 championship game against Miami – the interception at the end of the game was amazing. Penn State wasn’t the best team when I was in college, but my Senior year in 1990 – I remember watching the team beat undefeated (& #1) ND (at Southbend) on a 13 inch tv with my roommate – and the celebration downtown was awesome! I still have The Daily Collegian from the following Monday. Another favorite was the 2005 game against OSU – my favorite game in the stadium (until now) – it was the time for us to prove we were BACK and the stadium was rockin’. I’m so glad my brother and I were there to watch it together. Another memory is the 2008 PSU vs. MSU game – a great football day – cold, snowy, Senior Day and in the end a Big 10 Championship and a trip to the Rose Bowl (and another great trip with my brother). As I remember all of those great games and personal memories – I have to say that last Saturday is now my favorite PSU game – not only for the WIN (what a way to end a season), but because the Penn State family pulled together – the Players, Coaches, Staff, Cheerleaders and Blue Band needed the Alums and Fans as much as we needed them. We fed off of each others energy! And in the end – adults had a chance to learn from some young men – 31 Seniors to be exact about Leadership, Commitment and Success with Honor! For the Glory!!

WE ARE…

PS: Here is a link the the Football Letter published by the Penn State Alumni Association and written by John Black: http://www.imakenews.com/footballletter/e_article002572182.cfm?x=blN4tl6,b2VBTTNL

What happened to September?

Posted on September 30, 2012 by keepingupwithkate91

Have you missed me? I can’t believe how fast time flies. I know it has something to do with getting older. Where did September go?

Here is what I’ve been up to this past month via my weekends:

I started off the month heading to Central PA and PSU’s season opener against Ohio with my Mom. We had a great time – it was an emotional day too. We didn’t walk away with a win – but I’m so glad I was there.
The second weekend of the month was my birthday weekend – where I just chilled out at home, relaxed, had some reflexology and went out with friends.
Back to Happy Valley for the PSU vs. Navy game with my college friends. The group keeps getting smaller each year, but we always pick up like it is was just yesterday we were in college. I’m sure there will be a time when we are all able to get the larger group together. It was a great time, great win, great way to show our American pride – a great weekend overall!
Back to Happy Valley for the PSU vs. Temple game with my college roommates from my Junior year. We had so much fun. We hit a lot of our favorite spots, enjoyed the game (and stayed dry during the little bit of rain), got our picture taken at the LION and as a reward got some Creamery Ice Cream.
Milestone Alert – Monday afternoon I went back to the Nutritionist – happy to say I’m down 11 pounds since May! Wahoo!! He is pleased with my progress. And I haven’t missed out on enjoying the festivities of the weekends in September. PS: Although I am a bit impatient – I have to remember ‘Slow and Steady Wins the Race’! 🙂
And this last weekend of September – I chilled out at home most of the time – watched the game with friends and joined some other friends for dinner Saturday night.

Hope you had a great September – sorry to see Summer go – but if it has to go I’m sure glad Fall follows!

Ready for a fun and busy October!

Names I’ve been called lately – all in good fun!

Posted on June 3, 2012 by keepingupwithkate91

At work for the past year they launch a SprintGetFit challenge. It gets the competitive juices flowing plus it is great as we all become healthier. This time around, I’m the team captain. You can have a team of up to 11 people (we have 9) and they ask you to track weight, steps walked and minutes exercise – you have to compete in at least on category (and everything is private). The program runs from May 14th – July 8th.

One part of the program allows everyone to issue daily challenges. A challenge could be to walk or run for 30 minutes, yoga, drink 64 ozs of water, complete your favorite exercise and even record your results (and yes that is a challenge) (and there are prizes for this program). I decided this time around, I would take this a lot more seriously – especially since I’m a team captain. I’ve leveraged some of my boot camp experience to issue a little more challenging ‘challenges’. Here is an example of one of them: 30 minutes of exercise, 10 push-ups, 10 sit-ups and 2 30 second planks. Here are some of the comments from my team (and btw I love it): ‘Taskmaster’, ‘Are you crazy?’, ‘Always up for a ‘D’ Challenge’, ‘I hate planks, but I will do them’, ‘Fun for all’. At least they are reviewing the challenges right? And even doing them. It helps me hold myself accountable and provides additional motivation! (I shared the comments with my trainer and she loved it – she even volunteered to help me with challenges – some of my team reads this blog too – hmmmm – maybe I’ll take her up on her offer 🙂 )!

I’ve even put out some easier challenges as well – here was Friday’s: Drink at least 64 ozs of water (not ice tea or crystal light – pure water) and 30 minutes of your favorite exercise. Even got some people not in our group to accept the challenge. I think the team was glad to see I went a little easy on Friday.

Then I posted Saturday’s challenge (which I didn’t get to until tonight): Set the clock for 15 minutes and do the following (record your rounds): 5 bicep curls, 5 tricep kickbacks, 5 walking lunges (I had to do high knees), 10 Jumping Jacks (modified mine), 10 full sit-ups (with a weight) and 10 squats. Rest/Hydrate as needed. All exercises requiring weights I used 8 lbs weights – I just got 6 rounds in! Whew – and worked up a great sweat!

Have a fantastic week!!

PS: Hope you enjoy the two posts in 1 day!