Since I’m in my last full-time semester at school, my life has been hectic. This weekend has been time for relaxation since me and the boyfriend adventured to St. Paul to attend a conference for my major. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) runs the conference and they set guidelines on physical activity for adults. I was required to go, but I’m really glad I did. Throughout the day I continually learned new information about health & wellness.

The conference took place at St. Catherine University in St. Paul. It was an absolutely gorgeous campus with beautiful brick buildings. I loved how small the campus was! Winona is a smaller campus too and I love that every building is within walking distance. We arrived at around 7:30 or so and just explored the building before the first speaker was supposed to appear.

In exploring the student union/Coeur de Catherine building, I found a Lucy Statue. The Peanuts hold a special place in my heart because the writer Charles Schultz is born and raised in Minnesota. There are various Peanut character statues scattered around St. Paul so if you’re in the area, try and find them all!

After finding our seats at the conference, we listened to the first two speakers talk about Interval Training. Research has concluded that Interval Training is as beneficial as endurance training. running or biking for an hour. So if running is exhausting and boring, try doing an Insanity class because you burn more calories and have plenty of health benefits.

The third speaker emphasized the dietary guidelines and how bacon may not be as bad for us as we were led to believe. There is so much we have learned about nutrition over the years. We used to think cholesterol was evil, but we are finding more research about how eating a lot of cholesterol doesn’t lead to heart disease. There is so much more research that needs to be done about nutrition.

It was a long day but it was cool to go to these speakers and comprehend all of the scientific information. Attending this conference proves to me that I’m in the right major and shows my passion for continually learning about physical activity and nutrition.

I’m so happy to announce my first OOTD blog post! I want to give a shoutout to my amazing and talented photographer roommate. She takes gorgeous photos. I have linked her Facebook page and her Instagram page down below so check it out! Even if you aren’t from the Minnesota area, she takes great photos to peruse. 

Anyway, this inspiration comes from the fact that Batman Vs. Superman opened this weekend. I have seen the movie and I don’t think it’s as bad as everyone makes it out to be. I hope to post my review eventually. I love these Batman leggings that I found. They are so comfy and they aren’t made out of spandex. Spandex leggings aren’t typically my favorite since they cling to my body. These leggings are mostly made of polyester and so they are more appropriate for lounging. 

My second favorite part of this outfit is my combat boots. When I consider my style identity, it doesn’t include heels. I work out often so it’s more beneficial to me to be in sneakers versus heels or sandals.

I absolutely love these pictures and don’t forget to check out my friend’s page.

Chloe Jane Photography Instagram: @ChloeJanePhotography

Yellow Tank Top: American Eagle

Batman Leggings: H&M

Black Cardigan: Target (boyfriend cardigan)

Combat Boots: Zappos.com Madden Girl Combat Boots.

I wanted to write something a little more personal on my blog today. I have hinted that I’m a college student and if you didn’t know already I study Exercise Science. It’s a little self-explanatory, but it mainly discusses how the body responds to exercise and the benefits of physical activity. It’s something I’m absolutely passionate about because physical activity has so many health benefits. I haven’t always been physically active, but I changed my ways and started including exercise into my routine about four years ago, so here’s my story behind how exercise really changed my life.

Growing up, I was a figure skater. I didn’t participate in any sports as I didn’t find something that I was passionate about. In middle school, I remember being embarrassed about having to run the mile. Running is an activity in that I have a love/hate relationship as a result. As I moved into high school, I didn’t pay much attention to what I ate. My friends would ask me to go to the gym and I declined. More than likely it was due to intimidation as I can definitely say at that age, my friends were more physically active than I was.

As I was coming to college, I did not want to gain the freshman 15. This is extremely vain and just typing this out makes me cringe. I was dedicated to exercise and I even used some of my graduation money to buy workout clothes.

I started by going to some of the fitness classes my college had to offer. They were fun! I would be sore for three days and it would be hard to walk. It probably wasn’t the best way to get started, but it worked. I started going to classes and my favorite was Turbo Kick. Kickboxing is such a fun workout and I recommend trying it. It was so fun that even though I was tired, I still enjoyed it. At first, I couldn’t get through the entire class. I had to stop and take breaks and wait for my heart rate to come down. Eventually, I was able to go through the entire class and I felt really proud of myself.

I pretty much did only cardio for about two years. In 2014, I decided to lift weights. I wanted to get stronger and once I got more into my major, I learned different techniques. This was slow and steady progress, but I can say that I definitely have gotten stronger not only in my arms but my back and chest. I have also been able to use the bench press something I would not have dreamed of when I entered school.

Exercise changed my life. Ever since adding exercise, I have felt more secure with my own body. I feel sexy, strong, and powerful. Besides that, my stress has been lower. It’s easier to walk up a flight of stairs or even to be on my feet running errands all day. I can carry groceries up to my apartment without my arms burning.

Anyway, to wrap up this post, I just want to say that it’s never too late to start becoming physically active. Physical activity really has a lot of health benefits and it doesn’t have to be done at the gym! It can be a simple walk/bike ride or doing an activity in the comfort of your own home. I really am not trying to over exaggerate but Exercise was life-changing for me.

The weekend always flies by way too quickly. I’m sitting writing a blog post on a Sunday night before I head to work. I will say that this weekend was a blast and I’m so glad I was able to leave Winona for a day. It’s funny how when I leave my college town my stress levels drop. I have a lab practical tomorrow, but I don’t feel nearly as nervous as I did before I left for home.

This weekend almost didn’t happen. On Friday night, I noticed my tire looked flat so my boyfriend offered to fill my tires for me. He came back and said my tire was flat and that I might need to replace the tires. I called for a towing company Saturday morning and as it turns out there was nothing wrong with the tire. Apparently, the screw came loose which made my tire flat. Thank goodness because now I could head for the city.

Me and my two best friends purchased tickets to a Mardi Gras pub crawl. We got all dressed up and took an Uber to the first bar: The Fremont. We got a free mask which was kind of fun. I saw no one dressed up though. I was wearing green and yellow beads and my friend drew on a mask with eyeliner. We met up with some friends and it was a great night filled with dancing and drinks.

I love taking pictures because pictures and the memories associated with them will last forever. Here were some pictures that I took of the event. Overall I don’t recommend paying for pub crawls, instead just go bar hopping if you want a night out.

Happy Valentine’s Day! I for one have spent the entire day working on homework and practicing blood pressure for a lab practical exam. Yesterday though, I spent the entire day with my boyfriend and it was a great time for us to spend together. Also, I got to see Deadpool and I will talk more about that later.

The first part of our day was spent getting coffee. Me and my boyfriend have really bonded over our mutual love of coffee. Blue Heron Coffeehouse is a really nice coffee shop attached to a bookstore. It was a good atmosphere with great coffee. Next on the list was Bloedows. Bloedows is a great donut and pastry shop in my college town. I had this amazing apple turnover which of course led to me getting crumbs all over myself so that’s good.

After the donuts, we went wine tasting. I have never participated in wine tasting before, but in Wisconsin, there’s this beautiful winery so we went there. I tend to like sweeter wine, but I had this dry white wine that was pretty decent too. You get three free wine tastings so me and the boyfriend just switched our glasses to try different kinds.

Then I finally got to see Deadpool.

It was everything that I wanted it to be. The fight scenes were killer, especially the opening with the highway scene. Also, the deaths are pretty gruesome but I was expecting that going into this movie. I’m already eagerly awaiting the sequel plus Deadpool’s appearance in the other X-Men movies.

Overall my Valentine’s Day weekend was super nice and romantic.

Last semester, I was approached by a couple friends to start a Doctor Who club on our college campus. I’m the current secretary so I just send emails about meetings and such. We got our club ratified and we have at least 20-30 members right now. A huge part of my college experience has been participating in clubs on campus. I have been the secretary of the Astronomy Club for a year or two now and I have met many unique individuals because of it. I also got to meet someone from NASA!

I’m so glad to be a part of this club. A fun fact is that a former WSU employee started a Doctor Who club way back in the 80s but it dissolved due to the cancellation of the show. So the fact that I’m a part of bringing this club back to life is neat. Our first meeting is tomorrow and I’m pretty excited to see some new faces of people who love this show as much as I do.

What I hope to see with this club is watching the older doctors since I haven’t really seen any. Especially Tom Baker because apparently, he was an amazing Timelord. I also hope to get the members to go to Console Room this summer. I went last year and it was a blast. It was great to hear panels all Doctor Who.

When I was at the club fair, I got some looks. I mean most people don’t really know much about Doctor Who. Plus our officers including myself are super energetic in promoting this club. Those looks don’t really bother me because this show is amazing and I love showing my love for something regardless of what people think. Plus we had alien balloons at our booth, so how neat is that?

The holiday season has passed and it was a nice couple of days filled with Christmas cookies and socializing. Although, the holidays are very tough for me because I miss my dad and I wish he was here.

My dad was easily my best friend. He drove me to the bookstore, went to all of my school plays and he was the radio announcer at all my ice shows. My world changed in 2005 when I came home from a field trip and found out my dad had been diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. Pancreatic cancer has one of the lowest survival rates. It’s also rather difficult to treat because surgery is out of the question. The pancreas is surrounded by the liver and the gall bladder so the metastasis rate is naturally high (metastasis = cancer spreading). He died a year after his diagnosis. I look at how lucky I am that he survived a year. 9 years have passed since his passing and I still get emotional about various things. I don’t think that feeling will ever go away because my dad was such an important part of my life and he still is. Those who know what it’s like going through the holiday season without a family member know this feeling.

Even though I miss my dad, I try to not let that affect my holidays. Christmas Eve is always spent with my mom’s side of the family. Christmas is spent with my dad’s side and we go ice skating and eat a lot of food. As for presents this year, I am loaded on fuzzy socks, have gift cards to do some shopping with and I’m currently reading Firefight which I received this Christmas. Overall this holiday season was pretty great.

My year is coming to an end so I decided to do a recap post on an event that I should have blogged about months ago. In way older posts, I mentioned my trip to the Electric Forest music festival in June 2015. I have been wanting to make a blog post for a while, but I kept forgetting and now, I have decided to talk about my experience. Electric Forest was an interesting experience and I’m glad that I went.

Way back in March this year, my best friend showed me this music festival. Now I’m the first one to say I’m not an impulsive person, but me and my friend both bought tickets after a week of finding out about this festival. This would be my first music festival ever! Electric Forest is in Rothbury, Michigan which is approximately 10 hours from my home. The weeks started ticking away and the date of the festival was approaching. After numerous hours spent packing, we were ready to go. The drive definitely felt long at parts. I drove the first half and when it came to Chicago I handed the wheel over. One distinct memory of the drive was horrible traffic on I94 towards Detroit. They were forcing four lanes of traffic into one exit and I thought the traffic would never end.

On the day of the music festival, we got up early and waited in line to get in. We were in line for close to three maybe even four hours when my car shut off. Panic set in and I tried to turn my car back on, but nothing. Tears rushed down my face as a couple other people rushed to help push my car off to the side. One thing that the Forests advertise is how everyone feels like a family. I can attest to that because so many people came over asking how to help and if I was okay. Unfortunately, we had to carry all of our camping stuff to our campsite which took forever. The first person I called was my mom and thank god for my car insurance which has roadside assistance, we were able to call for a tow. My car not working definitely put a damper on the festival. I wish I could say the car had no impact on my experience there, but unfortunately not.

To sum up this post, here were my favorite memories of the Forest.

• Sherwood Forest The forest itself was mystical! The dragon above is actually made entirely out of CDs with lights on the inside. The entrance to the forest is amazing too. My favorite were these yellow lights that reminded me of tetrahedral dice (my nerd is showing) These lights were stunning and were one of my favorite parts of the forest.
• Seeing Skrillex at 1:00 AM because we slept through some of his performances.
• Waiting in line to get into the Forest and taking pictures while waiting
• The totems! People were carrying these totems which basically were pictures taped onto sticks. It was a huge thing there. Of course, I appreciated all the geeky ones but I took quite a few pictures of those.
• Seeing Borgeous on Thursday and being literally in the middle of the crowd.
• Going to this kind of gross water park
• Camping
• Playing beer darts with friends.
• Our camping neighbors

Due to my car being fixed and the mechanic closed on Sunday, we had to stay another night that wasn’t planned. Eventually, we called the mechanic and they said nothing was wrong with my car which was great because I couldn’t imagine paying hundreds of dollars for them to repair my car. My car took us the 10 hours home and let me tell you, I have never been so happy to be at my house.

And that was my experience in the Forest! Electric Forest was a fun experience and I think if you haven’t been to a music festival, definitely go. I probably won’t go to the Forest again at least not for a while. I’m glad I was impulsive enough to take a chance and check this event out. I will definitely have many memories that I won’t forget.

Now that final is over and done, I can finally focus on the holiday spirit. Yesterday, the holiday train rolled into Winona and it was a nice mood boost. The train was decorated with an assortment of lights and there was Christmas music being blasted. It was a nice needed holiday event to help engage me in the Christmas season.

Christmas is always a great time because I’m able to catch up with family members from both sides. I also do a lot of figure skating over break. For those who don’t know, I have been figure skating since I was 6. I took lessons for about 10 years or so. Learning to skate is like riding a bike, it’s something you don’t forget. Sure, I can’t do waltz jumps anymore, but I’m still steady on the ice. Every Christmas, my family gets together to go ice skating. It’s a fantastic tradition that I remember when I was little.

I read a lot of blog posts about people posting their Christmas lists and cool items that they want. Now that I’m older, I realize I never truly need anything for Christmas besides my family, friends, cups of coffee, an endless supply of books, and peace.