An insider's guide to the perfect Chicago girls' weekend

This past weekend my friend Kaite flew into the city from her little town in the tippytop of northern Wisconsin to visit our  friend Kathleen and me. The three of us originally found each other through the magic of Instagram, drawn to our shared love of health and fitness, nature, and the trials and tribulations of navigating life as complicated late 20-into-30-somethings. We hadn’t all been together since Labor Day weekend last summer, when Kathleen and I road-tripped up to Bayfield to see Kaite’s world. That was the first weekend after I quit my job at the zoo, and so much has happened in the last eight months! It felt amazing to catch up and explore the city, and the weather ended up being spectacular, warm, breezy, sunny, 70’s and 80’s. It felt like summer! 

Kathleen and I have both lived in Chicago for a few years now (crazy!), so we basically packed our favorite things to do and see in the city into two epic days and nights. Lots of walking and adventures interspersed with wine and deep conversations on life. Perfection!

I absolutely love my city, especially in the late spring when the flowers and trees are exploding into color and the weather is warming up but just before the official crazy tourist season kicks into gear. There are endless places to go, restaurants to try, shops to visit, and sights to see, and it can be extremely overwhelming if you’re visiting for the first time! We skipped the typical tourist sights (the “bean,” Millenium Park, museums, Michigan Ave, deep dish pizza) this weekend, although they’re always fun too. Here are just a few of my recommendations for an epic girls' weekend...aka a quick snapshot of my life in Chicago crammed into 2 days.

If you came to visit me for a couple of days in May, this is how it would go...

DAY ONE || SATURDAY

We crashed at Kathleen’s condo in Lincoln Park Friday night, so Saturday morning we were up bright and early for a barre class at her studio, Pure Barre River North! We decided to walk the three miles to the studio, stopping for some coffee and passing through the Green City Market.

After a killer class in which we felt more like floundering baby deer than elegant ballerinas (omg those tiny pulses are no joke), we quickly freshened ourselves up and walked over to Beatrix for brunch! I ordered an egg white omelette with tomatoes, turkey bacon, and whole grain toast with a side of green juice and it was quite possibly the best breakfast meal I’ve ever had. Maybe anything would have tasted like ambrosia after such an intense workout...but Beatrix is a must-stop for brunch in River North! The menu is full of healthy options and the atmosphere is bright and beautiful.

We hopped on a bus back up to Lincoln Park and walked around Nature Boardwalk and through the Lincoln Park Zoo. This is my happy place, an oasis in the middle of the city, and the zoo is one of the best (and the oldest!) in the country. Plus it’s free! I might be biased, but it’s beautifully landscaped, full of historic buildings, and places a big behind the scenes emphasis on local and global conservation initiatives, animal behavior research, and education.

If you walk through the zoo, you also have to stop into the Lincoln Park Conservatory right next door to bask in the tropical wonderland of the giant palms, ferns, orchids, and flowering plants. Another one of my favorite nature spots is the Alfred Caldwell Lily Pond, a hidden oasis off of Fulletron Avenue, right next to the entrance to the zoo parking lot. It’s a historic garden featuring a Frank Lloyd Wright pagoda and even a redwood tree!

After walking a bajillion miles, we were desperately in need of another break so we stopped by Trader Joe’s to pick up veggies, hummus, pita chips, guacamole, and cheese and meandered our way over to the lakefront for a picnic! When the weather is beautiful, a lake visit is non-negotiable, and Kathleen and I have perfected the art of the picnic. Diversey Harbor is our favorite spot, there’s ample parking and unbeatable views of the skyline.

After recuperating from our hyper-active morning with a few glasses of rose and snacks, we cleaned up and headed over to Wicker Park for the evening! This is one of my favorite neighborhoods. There are so many fun boutiques, bars, restaurants, and the best people watching! We ended up going to Bluelight for after dinner drinks. I had never been there but was pleasantly surprised! It has a really fun diner themed atmosphere, board games, and delicious martinis. We ended up playing Jenga and Never Have I Ever until midnight, when I literally couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer.

DAY TWO || SUNDAY

Sunday was supposed to be cloudy and thunderstorm-y, but we woke up to another beautiful day! After some yoga and stretching at home (ouch, barre…) we met up at Frasca for a patio brunch. EPIC. This is one of my favorite restaurants for pizza, and the brunch is amazing! I got a delicous egg sandwich and Kathleen got the breakfast pizza. I can’t wait to go back with Ben!

Seriously. I WANT IT!

After brunch we walked through Roscoe Village, full of adorable shops and more brunch restaurants, and then made our way over to Southport for shopping. Wicker Park is good for vintage and indie boutiques, and Southport is good for specialty brand names and fun chains. David’s Tea, Paper Source, Anthropologie, Athleta, and Lululemon are my faves!

Sunburned and tired, we wandered over to Kathleen’s place again for rose and snacks on her deck. Ben met us again for dinner at Standard Market Grill, one of our favorite go-to places for amazing salads, delicious burgers, and a solid beer and wine list! I had a steak salad and a delicious Wyders Pear cider. After dinner we had to make a stop at my all time favorite froyo place, Forever Yogurt.

Aaaaand that’s how you pack three months worth of fun into two days! I think I’m still recovering.

I’m planning to share more of my favorite places and things to do here in Chicago, especially as summer gets rolling and Ben finishes school. Summer in the city is heaven!

Have you been to Chicago? What are some of your favorite things to do?

xo Anna

Chocolate Superfood Breakfast Pudding

After years and years of being paranoid about gaining back my weight and feeling controlled by my food choices and the number on the scale, I feel like I'm finally hitting my groove with this healthy balance thing! I'm eating intuitively, not stressing out about meal plans, I've trashed my scale, I'm making good choices based on how I want to FEEL, finally getting off the weekend yo-yo guilt trip cycle of self sabotage and "ruining" my progress, and I am finally free to relax, trust myself, and enjoy life! I have so many tips and delicious recipes I want to share. But then every time I open my blog I end up venting a super personal and emotional essay straight from my heart haha.

I'm just going through a huge life phase of self discovery, and I need a place to let it all out! I do have a big picture vague idea of where I want to take this blog, but for now it's probably going to be a platform for me to share my journey as I figure out who I really am, what I'm doing with my life, and as I build my career as a wellness/life coach and creative entrepreneur from the inside out. I'm going to stop pretending that I need to have it all figured out, and embrace the hot mess phase I'm in right now, the awkward, adolescent, in-the-trenches phase of Self Employment Year One!

Yup. I'm a hot mess, determined to turn my mess into some sort of message ;)

I still have so many delicious healthy recipes to post though! Starting with this one. 

Backstory: I've been drinking Shakeology every day for the past 14 months, and it's completely changed my health. I haven't been sick ONCE in over a year, not even a cold, my cravings are under control, my energy levels are through the roof, it's just SO DANG DELICIOUS. But sometimes I do get sick of drinking a smoothie and need to mix it up, so I get creative and make random bars, energy bites, or mugcakes with it.

Here's my latest non-smoothie creation! It tastes like dessert, but packs a concentrated nutrient punch of vitamins, superfoods, healthy carbs, protein, digestive enzymes, and who cares about the details. It's pudding! Chocolate for breakfast, guilt free, because we all deserve that.

Oh AND it's 21 Day Fix Approved. Your abs can thank me later.

Chocolate Superfood Breakfast Pudding

Serves 1
[1 yellow, 1 red, 1 orange on 21 Day Fix]

INGREDIENTS

- 1 c. unsweetened almond milk
- 1 T chia seeds (I get them at Aldi now !!)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/3 c. oats
- 1 scoop chocolate Shakeology (can use any flavor!)
- sprinkle of granola (optional)

DIRECTIONS

• The night before, combine milk, chia, cinnamon, oats in a covered tupperware or jar and soak in the fridge overnight. (If you forget, it's totally fine to mix it all in the morning! The oats and chia will just be a little chewier.)
• In the morning, stir in Shakeology, top with granola, enjoy immediately!

Have you ever tried Shakeology? Shoot me an email if you're interested in trying packets!

xo Anna

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. 

Perfectionism

It's 10:42 in the morning on a random Wednesday.

I'm sitting in my neighborhood Starbucks trying to muster the courage to dive back into B-School, the online business and marketing course I invested in two months ago. I started it, and then got overwhelmed and put it on the backburner for a month, even though deep down I know that this is what I need to do in order to take my business, blog, confidence, and LIFE to the next level.

The truth is, I know I'm ready. I know I have everything I need to be successful already inside me, I trust that I'm in the right place and that my story is unfolding perfectly according to the bigger plan and that I'm fully supported in love by God and the universe and all higher powers etc etc blahblah insert all the scripture and Pinterest quotes. I know that for the first time in my life I'm completely 100% in alignment with my purpose and myself, my higher calling if you will. I know exactly what I need to do, and I know it will make me so happy.

AND YET.

I am so afraid to grow into my potential.

On Monday night I delivered a webinar to my Beachbody coaching team, my family, my friends. It was a pretty big stepping stone for me because it was the first time I made a powerpoint and delivered an "official" training presentation to the entire team of 3,500 coaches. It was an opportunity for me to share my story and process everything I've learned through the rollercoaster of my first fourteen months of coaching.

What did I talk about? How to own your life, your business, your success. How to believe in yourself. After a year of struggle and hard work and good old trial and error failing forward, I've reached a tipping point in my business where on paper I'm successful and safe. Other coaches are looking up to me as a leader. I don't have to feel desperate or hustle anymore, I can relax and flow, but it's still so much easier for me to preach than practice. It's SO much easier for me to tell my coaches and my team that they're limitless and capable of achieving their dreams than it is for me to believe in my own abilities.

I'm a professional dream enabler and inspire-r. But I'm limiting myself by not truly enabling my own dreams because I'm so used to the struggle, I'm used to feeling small and holding myself back.

The most powerful thing I'm learning from coaching and being an entrepreneur is that we are truly our own worst critics.

It breaks my heart when I see strong, beautiful, powerful women hold themselves back from feeling successful and fulfilled in my challenge groups and on my team. The worst part is that I'm right there with them, terrified of failure yet even more terrified of growing and changing, so I hold myself back whenever I feel close to a scary breakthrough that means change.

I struggle with perfectionism so much, and I'm realizing that it's been with me my entire life. This internal pressure to perform, to succeed, to live up to my own expectations that I set ridiculously high, and I ignore the incredible goodness that’s right in front of me because I'm never satisfied, I never feel "enough," the self hatred when I am paralyzed by overwhelm and fear. It's a daily battle of me vs. me.

My first memory of feeling negatively anxious was my first day of 1st grade. I was SIX YEARS OLD.

My family had moved into a big new house in a new development, so the bus forgot to pick me up and my mom had to drive me into school. I only arrived about 20 minutes late, but I’ll never forget how I felt when I walked into the classroom. You see, in kindergarten we all sat together at long tables and shared all of our school supplies. First grade was the first time I was assigned my very own desk, the first time I was expected to take ownership of my own space. My teacher was also brand new, fresh out of student teaching and full of creative ideas. She had put cardboard boxes, the flat kind that you see at grocery stores to store cans, into the top storage section of our desks to use like a drawer. When I walked into the classroom with my backpack stuffed full of new crayons, markers, pencils, glue sticks, and notebooks, wide eyed and excited to start the new school year, all the other students were situated, busily working away with their school supplies packed away, it looked like they already knew what they were doing.

I remember feeling lost and overwhelmed and confused. I was afraid to ask my teacher for help because I didn’t want to seem dumb, but I had no idea what I was supposed to do with all my school supplies! What was supposed to go in the cardboard drawer? What was supposed to go in the larger space below? It’s the first memory I have of feeling anxious and afraid of doing something wrong.

That anxiety has followed me my entire life.

An intense pressure to succeed, to perform, to live up to expectations.

I HATE feeling incompetent, I hate being a beginner, I hate my first year of any new job or program because I am vulnerable. Deep down I think I’ve always known that my parents will be proud of me no matter what, but I want to be proud of myself. I’ve always been my own worst critic. Driven, ambitious, yet paralyzed by fear and doubtful that I’ll ever be good enough to achieve the things I see other people achieving in work and business and fitness and life. So I put on a mask, watch from the sidelines, am consumed by bitterness and jealousy, and hide behind labels. Straight A student, teacher’s pet, achiever, now I'm being labeled as a "top coach" on my team! I am desperate to be instantly successful at everything I do, and go through the motions to numb and hide my insecurities.

When I’m not instantly successful, I feel like a massive failure. I feel worthless. I doubt myself, doubt that I’ll ever really be good enough to amount to anything. I’m blinded to my actual success and achievements, because the more I achieve, the higher the bar is set. Nothing is ever enough and I hold myself back from trying new things that I really really want to do, because I’m afraid I won’t be able to be good enough. Things like painting, calligraphy, completely owning my Etsy shop and becoming an artist. Things like completing online business courses, taking ownership of my blog and newsletter, taking ownership of my Beachbody business and treating it seriously. I procrastinate and postpone and hide by reading more, learning more, training my coaches more, consuming more inspiration when in reality I need to sit down and do the hard work.

My whole life, I've just accepted that I'm "supposed" to feel overwhelmed and anxious and unsatisfied if I want to be successful. I have to drown myself in endless busy work and ignore what my heart and soul are SCREAMING FOR because if I'm not being "productive" I am going to fail. On the inside I'm screaming for fulfillment, for space, for quiet, for time to think and read and paint and be creative and explore and do things for the sake of doing them, not for the sake of producing something.

But FINALLY I'm learning that workaholism and perfectionism are real, they're things I battle daily but they do not define me.

They're behaviors I adopt to block myself from acknowledging my true inner self, because being vulnerable and opening up even to yourself is the hardest thing ever. Can you relate to the cycle of self-sabotage? Are you afraid to make a change in your life because it goes against the status quo? You are not alone.

Over the past few months I've hit a tipping point, decided that I am enough, and I'm not going to tolerate self directed negative energy, guilt, fear and shame anymore. The Fear will always be with me, but it doesn't have to control me.

I've been working through The Artist's Way since March, a 12-week creative recovery course for anyone who feels blocked, overwhelmed, frustrated with themselves. It's helping me accept myself for who I am, and love ALL sides of myself, the good and the bad. I'm learning to back off and trust myself, to give myself space, to truly take OWNERSHIP of my life, my success, my happiness, and my story. It's changing my life by allowing me to finally accept and love myself for who I am. I've started surrounding myself with people who can push me and lift me up.

I’m accepting that true success, a legacy, a creative business, takes a LIFETIME to create and it’s going to take time, and that’s ok.

I don’t have to do it all at once, and success is a feeling, not a destination. As long as I’m trying my best, and have freedom to spend time and be present with my husband, family, friends, faith, I am successful. It’s not about achievement, it’s about the process, the journey.

I'm learning that were created to be joyful. Life isn't meant to be a soul-sucking grind. We weren't meant to waste away our time working for someone else's agenda. Your dreams of happiness, freedom, control aren't "unrealistic" just because they go against society's mold or labels you've put on yourself. You have the power to take control if you're not happy, because the power that already exists within you is stronger than any fear.

You CAN change. You can change your habits, your friends, your body, your career path, your life. You deserve to feel 100% completely in love with your body and your life! Don’t hold yourself back by the space that exists between where you are now and where you want to be. Live in that space, in the possibility, in the questions, in the journey.

Changing your life begins with changing your relationship with yourself. It starts by one tiny, simple decision...deciding that you're worth more, and that you’re not settling for anything less than fulfillment and joy. 

xo Anna