Home Improvements & cheribundi Giveaway Winner

A giveaway winner has been selected! But first, some home improvement chatter...

Home Improvements
A few weeks ago, I got the urge to clean up our apartment and really start making it more "homey." Sourabh and I have been in Manhattan for 2 1/2 years now and yet we really haven't done much to make our string of apartments into a home. I think part of that is budget. Right now, we'd rather get IKEA furniture and enjoy some dinners out, save for school, etc. But another part is that I'm kind of terrible at decorating and always feel overwhelmed at the idea of figuring out .

After my burst of tidying (post-manicure... not the best timing, but the $15 manicure emerged unscathed! Win!), I have started decorating a bit more, checking out Michael's and Home Goods from time to time for some inexpensive decorations that will make our apartment feel more lived-in.

A few additions here: flowers in the vase (I had it lying around empty forever!) and a basket for keys and mail (that's Bea, I think she's nesting).

I'll let you know if an egg appears

One of my favorite new purchases was this $15 shoe rack from Amazon. As a student with a .edu address, you can get Amazon Prime free for one year and then for $35 after that, and given how cheap things are on Amazon in comparison to New York stores, it's a totally worthwhile investment for us. The amount we've saved on paper towels alone pays for the annual fee. There are also some streaming perks you get as a Prime member, but since we DVR everything I haven't checked that out. With Prime, two-day shipping is free and often items arrive the next day for NYC residents.

heels are on a hanging shelf since, as a 5'9" girl, I just don't wear them that much 

Ok, enough of my addiction to Amazon Prime. Previously, this closet was a jumble of shoes on top of each other (I forgot to take a before picture, oops). Now, they're nicely stacked and we can actually see our shoes! I think keeping things organized is one of the easiest ways to make things look nicer and more put together.

I picked up this fall-colored "faux" flower arrangement at 60% off for only $8 from Michael's the other day. You can see them right when you come in, so it's a nice welcome home.

faux sounds better than fake, right? 

This is actually an older purchase, but one I'm really happy about: a basket for storing workout gear. I have mats, weights, boxing gloves, foam roller and balls, jumping rope, and some workout DVD's in there. It would all look so messy if it weren't stashed neatly in a basket in the corner.

oh look, it's Rome the Foam! yes, I named the foam roller, remember? stop laughing at me. 

I've been checking out Pinterest for more ideas and plan to do more using holiday decorations once Thanksgiving is over.

cheribundi Giveaway Winner!

Thanks to everyone who entered my first giveaway! As I explained last week, every individual entry was worth $2 of donations to two Sandy Relief charities. Megan also donated $10, which netted her two extra entries.

The winner is Ray!! Congrats on winning a 12-pack of cheribundi's delicious tart cherry juices. Please email me your contact info so I can be sure you get your prize! (I will select another winner on Monday if I don't hear from Ray by then.)

I am even more excited to announce that, despite not getting the full 50 entries, my parents will be donating the full $50, as will I. With Megan's donation, that means $110 was raised!! Two local charities that are very much in need of assistance, the Stephen Siller Foundation and the New Jersey Relief Fund, each received $55.

Stephen Sillers Foundation donation receipt

New Jersey Relief Fund donation receipt

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway, and thank you to cheribundi for reaching out to me about reviewing their product and being so generous with this giveaway. I'm hoping to do more giveaways in the future, so keep a look out!

How long did it take you to start making your apartment/house feel more like "home" (or have you even started yet)? Any tips for decorating on a budget?

Cheribundi Review & Giveaway + Sandy Fundraiser

I am SO excited to announce my first giveaway and fundraiser! Read on for a review of cheribundi's delicious tart cherry juices and a chance to win a 12-pack -- and to help victims of Hurricane Sandy!

Cheribundi
After my half-marathon, my quads were very sore. Two loops of the Central Park road and its many, many hills left them destroyed. I tweeted at cheribundi, asking where I could find their cherry juice, and they were very helpful, telling me exactly where in my local Whole Foods I could find their products. I snagged one, loved it, and thanked them for their help.

The reason I was looking for tart cherry juice was that, according to health studies, tart cherry juice is "an excellent and natural way to help minimize muscle soreness." (source) For particularly strenuous exercise, it should be taken both before and after the event that is likely to cause soreness.

A few days later, cheribundi reached out and asked if I'd like a case of all their flavors to review. Um, free delicious cherry juice? Yes, please! About a week later, it arrived at my apartment. Unfortunately, I was still stuck in Washington State due to Hurricane Sandy, so I couldn't get my hands on the juice until I got back on November 1.

I immediately started trying out the different kinds of juices. I've mentioned before that I don't like to review things that I don't like. If I am offended by a shop's service or find a workout to be dangerous in some way, I would likely mention it, but I'm not going to dedicate a post to putting down a product, gym, or store simply because I didn't like it.

With that said, I was so happy that I honestly liked all of the juices and could happily write a review of cheribundi's products.

Here's what cheribundi has to say about its products:
Our proprietary juicing process, which was developed with Cornell University, bottles all of the good nutrients of tart cherries rather than boil them away. The phytonutrients, vitamins and minerals in cheribundi will keep you feeling great and living life to the fullest. After our cherries are harvested, they're processed gently so that when you drink cheribundi it's like eating the cherries straight off the tree. Our juice is never from concentrate, cheribundi is all-natural and orchard-fresh tasting.

Our Tru Cherry juice packs fifty cherries into a short 8oz bottle. (We know because we counted them.) From there we add just enough water and apple juice to make it palate-perfect. Of course, to create the benefits of Skinny Cherry we decrease the cherries slightly and sweeten with natural Stevia. To get the benefits of Whey Cherry into a bottle, we add whey protein.

Our tart cherries are harvested at the peak of ripeness to capture as much of the bright cherry color as possible. They taste better and have more powerful phytonutrients than other superfruits. That includes the trendy pomegranate, the acai berry, grapes or blueberries. Rich with nutrients, tart cherries can help you recover from exercise, sleep better, and in general, live life to the fullest because you feel better. The Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity rating for cheribundi is higher than other juices - that means our juice has a better ability to absorb and neutralize free radicals.

The Review

This is my favorite of the cheribundi flavors. It's 130 calories of deliciously sweet and sour tart cherry juice. There's a bit of apple juice to cut the sourness of the cherries, but it's purely cherry and apple juice.

I also really liked the Skinny Cherry, although its taste is not quite as intense; it's 65% juice because it uses stevia to naturally sweeten and water to cut the calories to 90.

 

I love a good ginger kick in my juice, so I also am a big fan of the ginger cherry juice. Again, it's 100% juice -- cherry, apple, and ginger juice. I love the spicy edge that the ginger adds to the normal tang of the cherry juice.

This protein-enhanced juice is a great post-workout drink since it adds protein for muscle building to the muscle recovery benefits of tart cherry juice. The drink is slightly grainy tasting because of the whey protein, but the tastiness of the cherry juice compensates for it.

Confession: I don't love chocolate. Don't get me wrong, I can get down with a great flourless chocolate cake, and I'm never going to turn down a fudgy brownie (I will, in fact, inhale it), but chocolate isn't my favorite flavor ever. So I just didn't love this drink. The cacao adds a nice depth to the juice, but it still has that slightly grainy taste that the whey cherry has without the benefit of 8 grams of protein. If you're a chocolate lover I'd try this one out, but for me it just wasn't my favorite.

I have definitely noticed less muscle soreness since I started drinking these. Call it the placebo effect, but it seems to be working! Plus, they're a great natural dessert because I love the sweet and sour taste as a close to my meal.

The Fundraiser
The recovery from Hurricane Sandy is ongoing. The destruction was horrific and very, very real. I know we tend to think the news media overplays things in order to gain viewership, but having seen candid photos from friends and fellow bloggers, the devastation in many areas was absolutely terrible. If you've read posts from bloggers like Megan or Ashley, natives of Staten Island and New Jersey, respectively, then you know how bad it is. Our fellow citizens need our help.

I've donated to a local organization and the Red Cross, but I would like to give more to support Hurricane Sandy victims. I feel so incredibly lucky that my little New York family escaped Sandy unscathed.

After speaking with Megan and Ashley, I settled on two local organizations to which I'll donate the proceeds of this giveaway. I am going to donate half of the total amount raised to the Stephen Siller Foundation, a local Staten Island organization, and half to the New Jersey Relief Fund.

The Giveaway
Cheribundi has generously offered to give another pack full of their delicious juices to the winner of my giveaway, so you can taste the different types and decide on your favorite as well. Here's how the giveaway will work:

• (1) You get one entry simply by commenting on this post and answering the question, "do you have a favorite pre- or post-workout snack or drink?"
• (2) You can get one additional entry if you tweet about this giveaway and comment with your tweet and Twitter handle here.
• Please tweet: "I just entered a #giveaway to win a 12-pack of @cheribundi from @jensbestlife and helped donate to #SandyRelief http://bit.ly/YL8M4m"
• (3) You can help, too!! You'll get extra entries for donating to my fundraising page!
• 1 additional entry for donating $5
• 2 entries for donating $10
• 3 entries for donating $15
• 4 entries for donating $20
• 5 entries for donating $25

Here's how you're helping just by leaving a comment and entering the giveaway!

• I'll match each entry dollar for dollar, up to $50 for the first 50 individual entries. 
• My parents have been kind enough to agree to match this amount, for a maximum donation of $100 from us. 
• REMEMBER: you can still enter if there are more than 50 individual entries. I simply won't match your entry with $1.

Please note -- the beneficiary is "me" because I cannot split the funds between two organizations otherwise. Rest assured that I will donate half the funds to both organizations and will post a screen cap of the donation receipt once I make the donations so you know nothing shady is happening.

The winner will be randomly chosen after the giveaway closes on November 14, 2012, giving you a week to enter!

Question: do you have a favorite pre- or post-workout drink or snack?

I was not compensated for this post by Cheribundi. I received only a free pack of their juices to review. All opinions are my own.

Volunteering, Basketball, Cold Runs, and Election Tuesday

It's been a very busy past two days, but they've been wonderful and have, once again, served as a reminder of how much I love New York. It still seems odd to be getting back to a normal routine after last week, but here goes.

I almost cried when I saw the huge crowd of people clamoring to donate items and help victims of Sandy on Sunday afternoon. I love New Yorkers!

Volunteering for Sandy victims
Unfortunately, I live very far from the areas that were hardest hit and without subways, it's pretty difficult for me to get to the Far Rockaways or Staten Island. However, I was able to help out a little bit by sorting through donations at a drop off point on the Upper West Side on Monday morning.

the basement of Riverside Church, where volunteers were sorting donations 

A small FYI if you are interested in donating -- food (non-perishables), water, batteries, cleaning supplies, and cold weather outdoor gear are all very much needed. Glittery '80s prom dresses and used thongs are not (yes, I picked up both of those going through donations). I'm sure people's hearts are in the right place, but needless donations only create more work for volunteers and mean a longer wait between donating an item and it getting to those who need the items.

Lovely Local Find - Columbus Natural Food
This is crazy, but I'd never stopped in the health food store right across the street from my building. I know, I am ridiculous. I finally dropped in to grab a quick lunch yesterday and promptly smacked myself for not checking it out sooner. Columbus Natural Food rocks!

fresh green juice and homemade soup across the street from me? yessssss 

I got a delicious green juice, a small salad, and kale chips (yummm). Can't wait to go back and explore the store more when I have time!

Barclays Center
Sourabh and I are big basketball fans. Although we root for the Knicks, we're always up for a good basketball game. Sourabh was checking out ticket prices on eBay for Monday night's Brooklyn Nets vs Minnesota Timberwolves game and found $60 tickets that were--no joke--three rows from the floor in the corner. We've learned that you can get some great tickets for really affordable prices if you check eBay the day of a game, especially approaching a few hours before start time.

I'm sure this doesn't look as good in daylight, but at night it looks really cool! 

The new Barclays Center is gorgeous, at least at night. The inside is really terrific with great views from all over. It was a bit chilly, but I think it just needs to work out a few kinks as it was only the arena's second Nets game.

action shot! ok, my camera sucks, but look -- Deron Williams taking a shot!

 We went to the Barclays Center with a friend of Sourabh's who is a Timberwolves fan, and enjoyed some delicious arena concessions pre-game. I can't lie, despite having a 90% healthy tooth, I am a huge sucker for greasy, disgusting arena food. I had some of Sourabh's fries and enjoyed a great bowl of nachos from Calexico (with real guacamole, roasted corn, and black beans).

requisite couple shot

We are totally spoiled for life. No way we could afford these tickets for a Knicks game, but the view was so amazing, I'm not sure I'll be able to go to another regular nosebleed basketball game!

Random note: I didn't take a picture, but free tattoos--yes, you read that right: real, permanent tattoos--were being given near the bar at the arena.

Early morning running with blog friends
I met Abby a few weeks ago at a Refine Method event hosted by Dori, and after a late night Twitter session, we decided to run this morning together. Holy crap IT WAS COLD. I feel even luckier that our apartment was unaffected by the hurricane -- I cannot imagine being without heat with this sudden temperature drop.

beautiful early morning Central Park -- Sandy didn't steal all the leaves! 

Thank you, Abby, for getting my ass out of bed early this morning! It was so beautiful in Central Park and was so nice to have a running buddy to keep me going in the cold. You are going to be SO amazing at the Philly Marathon in less than two weeks!!

it might look sunny, but it was COLD

Unfortunately he cold air appeared to trigger some sort of asthmatic breathing, and I'd forgotten I had to be at the class I'm a TA for a bit earlier due to cancellations last week, so I had to leave before we finished a complete loop of Central Park. The breathing got really bad on Cat Hill, so apparently I'm going to need to either get used to the cold air or get an inhaler if I want to run a winter half-marathon (spoiler: I'm going to run a winter half-marathon, details to come). Still, 5.5 miles in beautiful Central Park to start my Election Tuesday? Not bad.

SO pretty out this morning

Voting!
I did a different kind of exercising later in the morning -- exercising my right to vote! There was actually very little exercise involved, since I had to stand in line for about 20 minutes before I could get in to vote, which took another 25 minutes.

this was the front part of the line for my voting center -- I didn't realize voting in NYC would be so crowded!
(source)

However, while waiting, I met some adorable older women who were so enthusiastic about voting that it made the wait worthwhile. One of them wanted a picture taken of herself outside the voting booth because she was so excited to be voting for Obama again. They were a lot of fun to stand by and made the wait a lot less painful (and it actually was painful because of the cold!).

It was especially nice to vote after being turned away from donating blood. My iron counts are apparently a bit low, unfortunately, so I couldn't give. I've never been able to donate, which has only made me more nervous every time I go in, building up the process in my mind.

"why can't I vote?" asks Mason
(disclaimer: I do not actually believe my dog has thoughts like this) 

Tonight, Sourabh and I are watching the election results come in over a bottle of Gewurtztraminer, one of my (and my mom's) favorite white wines.

Bits and Pieces

Getting back to New York
All day on Wednesday, I obsessively checked Frontier Air's website to see if my flight was still scheduled for Thursday. I called and waited for 10 minutes to talk to a real person twice, just so I could confirm that yes, I would be flying home on Thursday. Since I live more than two hours from the airport and my flight was at 6:15 AM on Thursday, my family drove me down to a hotel by the airport.

rainy last day in Washington

After a fitful four hours of sleep (and a bowl of $20 soup because there was an unlisted $10 delivery fee, what?), I woke up at 4:15 AM to head over to the airport for my flight. I still didn't know if it would take off, or if I'd get stuck on my layover in Denver, since I was flying into LaGuardia and if you saw the pictures of the airport post-Sandy, you know how bad LGA was looking Tuesday morning (it was under several feet of water). But I was extremely lucky, and LGA was open for business on Thursday.

After a looooong taxi ride (they were checking to make sure there were three people in vehicles other than taxis on the RFK Bridge), I was finally home. It was only a week, but being separated during the craziness of Hurricane Sandy made it seem a lot longer, so I was incredibly grateful to be home and see Sourabh and our pets. I missed the warm fuzzies!

I missed this little guy! it's cold enough that he needs his coat now, I swear, I'm not just putting clothes on him for fun 

I am so grateful...
In the wake of Sandy, I have been feeling so grateful for so many things. Grateful for my wonderful family back in Washington State, who I was with during the storm. Grateful for Sourabh and our little "family" here, comprised of silly little critters that brighten our days. Grateful for my health -- posts like this from Abby remind me of how lucky I am to have a strong, (relatively) healthy body.

I am so grateful to live in New York City. I appreciate the city's beauty so much more when I run through it, and being a runner has helped me meet lots of wonderful New Yorkers I'd never have met otherwise. On Friday, I met up with Katherine, who was a downtown refugee staying nearby for a few days, and we went for a run around the perimeter of Central Park (it was still closed then). Then on Saturday, Lynette and I met at Columbus Circle and ran the Central Park loop before enjoying lunch at Le Pain Quotidien.

I feel odd posting about normal, everyday life when so many people's lives have been irrevocably changed by the storm. But I know that me not going back to my regular routine--when there's nothing preventing me from doing so--doesn't really help anyone. In fact, going shopping and tipping well at local places that would have lost business for at least several days if not the entire week is a big help to local businesses for whom losing a week's worth of revenue can be devastating.

With that said...

Ways to help
For those of us who were lucky enough to escape the storm without any harm, or who live outside the storm-affected area, there are a lot of ways to help out.

NYC Service has a lot of information on places to volunteer and where to donate. The Wall Street Journal's Metropolis blog also has a great rundown of ways to help. And of course, you can always donate to the Red Cross for disaster relief or the Mayor's Fund for New York City.

If you want to run and help
The running community has been hit with a lot of controversy over the past week as the NYC Marathon was first announced as going forward, then canceled in the face of heated criticism. Unfortunately, a lot of anger was directed at runners, as opposed to those organizing the race.

Since I was never going to run this marathon, I'm not sure I'm in any position to comment about the marathon, but I would like to say that the New York runners I've met and those who I follow virtually via their blogs and Twitter are active volunteers who are the opposite of solitary, selfish loners. They are people who contribute so much to their communities.

Running may seem selfish to some, who don't understand how there can be a community feeling to something that seems like a solitary activity. But once you join a run club or run a race, you begin to see how runners come together even as each one's effort is their own. The encouragement and solidarity runners have with each other is a really wonderful part of running.

(source)

I have been so happy to see how runners have come together in the wake of this crisis. Many met at the Staten Island ferry this morning -- dressed in their marathon colors -- and headed over to help repair the devastation the Island has suffered.

Daily Mile has a great Run for NYC concept, where you donate and then run a distance. I donated $25 and am going to try to get in 26.2 miles over the next week. I'm not sure I'll get it all in, but it's a great goal to reach for and a neat idea! Running in New York has more significance for me than ever as I feel like I've gained a deeper appreciation for the city.