Trufit Pilates

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  • Sunday Snap Recap: July 11-17th

    Happy Sunday! I was up and off on a walk bright and early this morning…My eye situation is still questionable so I unfortunately didnt want to risk biking from Philly to AC with the crew from my gym nor do I want to infect everyone else. So until tomorrow all of my workouts are from home.

    This week was busy. I am still trying to desperately get the hang of ‘vlogging’. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it is pretty much talking to the camera about your day instead of typing it out…little did I know, there are more rules and regulations involved…hang in there while I figure it out. If you haven’t taken a look yet, there are two videos up and ready to go…again I don’t have any idea what I am doing so be kind.

    Monday I started testing out a cleanse//nutrition plan…which I stopped on Friday. I will put together a full review and why programs don’t work for me. But long story short, I feel like I get more nutrients in my diet when I’m not on a program. I eat a lot more off a plan and to be honest I am not a three meals a day kind of girl. I like five-six smaller ones…half of which are all veggies. Also, this may be just me but I hate feeling like I’m ‘cheating’ on a cleanse for taking a second helping of brussels sprouts. Nutrition programs just aren’t for me. That being said, I will continue to use the products from this company because I really do like them. I would recommend this program to people who are just learning the in’s and out’s of healthy eating. More on that next week!

    I have you every heard of a 23 year old with pink eye? Me either…until Wednesday. Also, FYI antibiotic eyes burn. Wednesday//Thursday I didn’t want to leave the house with nasty looking eye balls so I spent the day pulling together content for the blog, practicing editing videos and watching Mary Kate and Ashely movies.

    Before you get into the pictures, I was asked to give a little run down on How to Use Snapchat. (If you are under 27 years old you can skip this part)

    First of all, you need to download the app and make an account. Got that? Okay so now your phone looks like it is ready to take a picture…See the ghost icon in the centered at the top of your screen? Press it. Next, hit add friends. Then click “Add from Address Book” now pick the people that you want to add. Once, you have friends, and they have added you back, you can start sending them snaps. Take a picture (or selfie), press the blue arrow at the bottom right hand corner and pick who you want to send it to. Do you want all your friends to see it? Make sure you add it to “My Story”. How do you do the puppy filter? Turn on the front facing camera and hold your finger down on your face… a bunch of filters pop up. So easy, so fun!

    I hope you guys had a great weekend! Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

    xoxo,

    K

  • Love Yourselfie Series: Week 1

    Good Morning! Happy Saturday! I have a lot going on this week but I am excited to share with you that I officially posted my very first YouTube video last night….If you click on the link you will see my week didnt go exactly as I had planned…also please know that I have not had ANY education in video making//editing..this is a work in progress.

    Today is the first day of my Love Yourselfie Series and I have chosen two people who I believe have been killin’ it lately. These two women have been working very very hard and I think both of the deserve a major shout out.

    First, I am going to start out with my mom.

    I know, I know everyone thinks their mom is a rockstar. Hear me out, In February my bad ass mom was promoted to a Vice President at her company.  Instead of parading around super proud of herself she decided she wanted to keep it quiet…for months. I totally respect that, but she deserves a ton of recognition. Especially because for the last month she has been working so so so hard. Guys, I am talking alarm ringing at 5am working until 4am the next morning, no days off, no weekends…and somehow there is still a home cooked meal on the table. (Of course Dad and I help, but she is usually cooking on a conference call along side us).

    Even though she is constantly on calls and working, she still somehow never misses anything. She would be on calls at lax tournaments, on the 4th of July, at 930pm on Sunday nights but she still is present. She is truly incredible. I watch her do these things everyday and wonder how one single person could be that hardworking. So momma drama, I know we tell you every single day how hard you are working but I think the world deserves to know the type of woman, mother, wife and employee you are. Everything you have in life, you earned through hard work. Thank you to you and Dad for setting that example for the boys and I.

    PS: both those amazing pictures were taken by Corinne at Silverbox Creative Studio during our Christmas card photoshoot. Why was the theme ultra glam//poppin’ bottles in the wood? Pat and Colleen celebrated their 25 wedding anniversary and we (Corinne and I) decided it was necessary to do it big.

    My next and final nominee for the launch of the Love Yourselfie Series is my friend Alex. I met Alex my very first week of nursing school. It was a Wednesday and we happen to sit a lab table with a group of people who soon became my rocks through it all. What makes Alex so incredible is her sense of humor, twisted and wildly inappropriate, exactly how I like it.

    Nursing school is torture for everyone…no one get out alive without a few major breakdowns. Alex had her moments but she pushed through. One day, during our hardest semester, she walked into class and had major Resting Bitch Face. I teased her about it, naturally, because that is our relationship. She told me her stomach was killing her but she stayed the entire three hour lecture…Later that night she was having her appendix removed in emergency surgery. The next week she was back in action (minus carrying her backpack but luckily she has good friends ).

    Since graduating nursing school in May she has officially passed her NCLEX so she is an RN!!!! She has been working out and eating right on top of everything else she is doing and I couldn’t be more proud of her! Most days she has her workout in before I do and she is always sending snapchats of her healthy meals (including TPB recipes) Love you Al and I am so proud of you!

    I really want you have YOUR friends, family and loved ones featured on Love Yourselfie so write me a love note to thepilatesblonde@gmail.com with a picture of your superstar and you might just see here featured here next Saturday!!

    xoxo,

    K

  • You Asked About: My Bed

    Hello Gorgeous!

    Im writing to you from my bed for two reasons; one because I can and two because I am trying a new cleanse//nutrition plan situation to review for you and I’m feeling the caffeine withdrawal. (If you know me, you know coffee is my soulmate…like I cant live without her so this next month or so is going to be rough).

    However, this chillin//workin in bed situation brings me to the very topic I get the most emails about…my bed. I wasn’t expecting you girls to want to know all about my bed, but I get it…it is glam yet super cozy. The story behind this bed is equal parts funny and disastrous so I figured I would share it with you.

    Soooooo when I decided to launch TPB, I was adamant that I was doing this whole thing on my own (Currently listening to Me, Myself and I by my girl Beyoncé). I saved for months to hire all the right people for my website but also to redesign my room. With a very specific look in mind, I painted my pink and dark brown walls WHITE. While I was letting the paint dry I spent hours searching for the perfect furniture on countless websites. I found my desk on Overstock. I spent my time off of work drive to HomeGoods, Pier 1 and different Target locations on the hunt for the pieces I had dreamed up in my head.

    I was walking through HomeGoods one day in search of a gold bar cart to use as a nightstand. I turned down an aisle and see a soft gray upholstered headboard in the distance. I see her and I map out my plan to get to this diamond in the rough through a sea of end tables, couches and one seven foot tall Native American statute (strange but true). Have you ever noticed that when you are in a store like HomeGoods if another shopper can sense you want something they try and grab it before you can get there…I couldn’t let that happen to my dream bed. I causally (yet quickly) approach the headboard. The tag said she was $135. SOLD. I buy her and pull my Jeep up on the curb to load this thing into the back. A very sweet lady who happened to be walking by, probably in her late 60s//early 70s,  and I got this thing loaded in my car and I was off.

    Excited, I ran into my dad’s office (he works from home) to show him this beauty I got for a total steal. He sees it and says, “How do you hang it up?” Well, there was a reason this gorgeous headboard was on sale and that was because it didn’t have any hardware to hang on a wall and there was no way to attach it to a bed frame. Whoops.

    Regardless I was still really proud of myself and decided I was totally fine with a mattress on the floor as long as my headboard was chic. Fast forward to my parents coming home from a grad party to find my mattress on the floor with a headboard that was too big behind it…Apparently that couldn’t happen. Which lead to them offering to buy my a big beautiful bed and me in tears because then I wasn’t doing this project on my own.

    Eventually I caved, the tears dried and the my bed was my birthday gift (thanks mom and dad). Now I have an even better bed, that was put together by deliver guys and I didn’t have to sneak it up the stairs while my family was out of the house…everyone wins.

    As you can tell I have a thing for pillows…I used to require 17, but Im growing as a person and taming my selective OCD and cut it back to 15. My comforter is from Urban Outfitters circa two summers ago…It was the one I took to college (Pro Tip: Queen size comforter on your dorm bed makes it look extra glam). Im just as obsessed with it as I was the day I got it.

    Welllll that is all I have for you ladies. These new workouts I am testing out for you are insane…20 minutes and you are dunzo (read in Kristin Cavallari’s voice). I will tell you all about them on Friday after I try the method on all my muscle groups…spoiler alert this sh!t works. Im off to talk a walk with my pups and eat.

    PS: While being stubborn trying to move my old headboard into my room by myself I stepped on a hammer and cut my foot open. Because I love you here is a pic post injury//pre perfectly styled pillows. Please ignore the typo and bad lighting… It was late and I was in a lotttttt of pain. Enjoy.

    xoxo,

    K

  • My Story: Back to School

    During the summer it was easy to pretend that I wasn’t sick. I could make up excuses for why I wasn’t playing manhunt or run the bases when my body wasn’t strong enough. Sleeping until noon was normal for any 13 year old so my days in bed weren’t viewed as strange. I even went to a camp for other kids with Arthritis, but I still wasn’t excepting of my disease. I wasn’t like those kids. I didn’t wear my disease on my sleeve (yet) so there was no point in me being there. Those kids seemed to enjoy being sick and most of the time it felt like they were battling it out for who was the sickest… a fight I would gladly lose. I didn’t have the same war stories they did and I didn’t want them. I wanted to be back home where I could talk about shopping and nail polish instead of pain and pills.

    The best part about that summer was I could hide. I was too young to drive and my parents both had big important jobs so they couldn’t drive me to my friends houses whenever I pleased. I always was able to come up with a believable excuse to stay home when I just couldn’t handle leaving the house.

    Then school started.

    There was no denying that I was different. Yes, everyone had heard of my diagnosis, but it wasn’t real until September. All of a sudden I was never at school. I was always coming down with strep throat or a stomach virus or a stupid cold that would knock me on my butt. My immune system was shot and couldn’t handle middle school germs. There were weekends where chemo got the best of me and there was no way I could make it through the school day. On top of that, my joints had never hurt more. Being sick was all I could think about and I was starting to understand all those kids at camp. My life started revolving around my disease. I felt trapped in my house and confined to my bed because well, I was.

    I was falling behind in school both academically and socially. Most of my teachers were understanding (one however was not). I had a tutor come to the house a few days a week to make sure I was getting the vital content to pass the grade. I was lucky enough that my tutor was the learning support teacher. She was my number one cheerleader and my voice at school (outside my parents of course). She would spend her entire weekend with me teaching and testing me. On my good days, the days I actually went to school I spent the day in her office. I wasn’t exposed to as many germs, plus going to my classes where I was super behind was equal parts humiliating and devastating. On my bad days we would work at my kitchen table or sometimes even in my room. I can’t thank her enough for all that she has done for me, Mrs. Todd if you are reading this, Thank you so very much.

    Around this same time I had a visit to see Dr. Sherry, I told him about the pain and how it was only getting worse. I told him about how much school I was missing because I was always sick. Like I had said before, treating chronic illness is a guessing game and we had gotten the formula right yet. After another head-to-toe exam complete with a comedy act, he sat down.

    He told mom and I that the handful of drugs I was currently taking were just not enough. He added in a biologic drug. This medication meant two more shots a week (that is three if you are counting, plus the dozens of pills I was taking a day). I already hated my chemo shots, the last thing I wanted was more. I felt as thought I just couldn’t win, I was so fed up with the seemingly never-ending changes that I cried. The only place I allowed myself to breakdown and feel sorry for myself was the hour I was at the doctors every three months. Everywhere else I was strong and a fighter. I was fine outside the hospital walls but inside them I was constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop, which it seemed to always do. I cried until the nurse handed my mom the information packet on my newest treatment. They I pulled myself together and walked through the halls to our car with puffy, reddened eyes. I put on my sunglasses and took a deep breath as we exited the parking garage. If I could handle everything I had so far two more shots wasn’t going to break me.

    I hope you guys had a great start to your week! You know I love Mondays. I am trying some new workouts this week and a new nutrition plan that I cant wait to tell you about. I have been adding in a 40-ish minute walk to my morning routine and it totally sets the pace for my entire day. I hope you enjoyed the next piece to My Story… during next weeks posts things start to get a little crazier. It is very Real Housewives meets Gossip Girl. You don’t want to miss it.

    xoxo,

    K