Get Moving, Christchurch!: The Breeze Walking Festival

We managed to pick up this coveted little guide just in time for the warm weather. The Breeze Walking Festival Guide is an annual calendar of walking quick trips, treks and a few journeys that will get you and the family up and moving now. Events run 27 September - 5 October, with a few even running until 12 October. Embrace this beautiful weather and take a hike!
Grab your handy little walking festival guide today which includes a convenient pull-out calendar of events while you're out and about or click here for more information.

The Power Of Flowers

It was over an absurd conversation that the positive benefits of flowers was questioned. This notion was quickly obliterated by an avid gardener with a degree in horticulture and another flower adorer. That would be me. I find the beauty of flowers to be powerful for the body, mind and spirit so the team at Real Life would like to offer you some very powerful visual healing. 

Enjoy.

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Craving more eye candy? Visit our food blog where you will find gorgeous photography and recipes for all your taste buds. Click here to check out the latest from Savory Salvations today!

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Slip, Slap, Slop & Wrap This Summer

We spend quite a bit of time having fun in the sun. The beach is only a quarter of an hour away and each and every time we head to the golden sands and glistening blue beaches we are prepared to protect ourselves against the sun's damaging UV rays. We love a great pair of summer shades but it takes a bit more than that to stay healthy at the beach. Slip, slap, slop and wrap. That is the credo by which we live by in our house now that we have been educated by Surf Life Saving New Zealand about the benefits and necessary steps to take while enjoying the beach. In order to reinforce sun safety, we found this poster to compare animals natural tendencies to protect themselves from the sun and helps us to also remember what we need to protect ourselves.

We took these few shots today to demonstrate some cool ways to stay sun smart this summer.

Skin cancer is preventable with just a few easy steps to keep your skin protected. Use the poster above for a start and remember, if we begin these steps while our children are still young, we will develop lifelong habits that will keep us healthy while enjoying the sun. Our new skin protection product of choice is Skinnies. It is quick- drying, long lasting, and you only need a little bit to go a looong way. It is also paraben and preservative free. With an SPF 30 even after a good swim, we were sold. It's especially good to put as few chemicals as possible on your little ones so shop wisely for a good sunblock that avoids the metals and strong smells that are laden in traditional sunblocks. 

Wherever you are in the world, make the most of your time in the sun and please protect yourself. 

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Simple Daily Beauty

As a blogger and member of a few Insider circles of elite magazines and organizations, I come across all kinds of beauty products and samples to try out and shop for. When we were offered the chance to submit our "Beauty Tips", I chose to feature some of my absolute favorite products that help me get through each day. Kiehl's, Chanel and Clarisonic are just a few of the luxury brands I trust for my body. I am a writer, mother, and wife and have just as little time as the next person but that is not an excuse for flailing in the beauty department. I keep it manageable in order to maintain my beauty routine. Nothing fancy. Just a simple beauty routine & tips that can be managed every day. Busy moms usually let themselves go before the children and the husband will miss a beat. It is time to refocus on ourselves and my Daily Beauty Top 5 will keep you healthy & looking gorgeous every day.

Shop the our personal choice beauty picks in our online boutique!

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Stressed Out? Then Work Out.

Well here is some real life for you. We have all been stressed. I am stressed. My husband's stressed. My kids, too. Poor wee things. I also think that the world is stressed. Elections, insurance fraud, financial collapses, natural disasters. It's all too much really and the world is suffering. Well, instead of feeling sorry for myself I have decided to take advice from an old doctor. This doctor is of a rare breed. Old school if you will. He was my doctor my whole entire life and actually still is. He is really very good and if you can have a pure and honest doctor for life, I suggest you stick with him or her because it's always good to have a doctor around. So this particular doctor always had this particular set of advice for me my whole entire life, "When you are feeling down or a little sick, go and workout. A good run is good for anything". I followed this advice and did what I was told but what I was seeing around me seemed unfair. My friends got to take bubble gum flavored syrups and chew orange flavored tablets. What did my siblings and I do? Suffer through stuffy noses and sore throats while going out for a walk or run. Truth be told, it always worked.  I am not suggesting that you hit the gym with the sweats and a fever. Please don't actually because you would infect the world and contagious germs should absolutely not be shared. We didn't run for hours or until fatigued while sick. But when we were feeling low, were under educational pressure, or feeling just a bit blah- working out was the natural remedy. Getting your blood moving, heart pumping, and lungs working to capacity somehow enlivens your body and gives you a serious altering affect which has healing affects on the body. This I know from experience alone but if you want to go look it up here for facts you are more than welcome. (Sleep has just as much or more healing capabilities than a workout so be sure to get plenty of this, too.) So, I am absolutely not a doctor but if you are looking for a good all natural way to feel better then get physical. This workout is great at beating stress and may even get you pumped to start your New Year's Resolutions early. Be sure to also drink plenty of water to keep hydrated. Not into working out like Ms. Fit Lady below? Take a walk, do some yoga or go for a swim and then...have a big fat nap. It may just put a smile on your face. I'm smiling just thinking about the nap part.

Workout images courtesy of CNSS & Conde Nast

Run Girl Run: A Real Running Jouney

This is a featured guest post from Lena Carpenter who usually writes all about her food adventures and love of wine for our sister blog Savory Salvations. We invited Lena to share her amazing story of running and health perseverance with us on Real Life Salvations.

One of the benefits of growing up in a small Texas town was the ability for a regular girl with limited athletic ability to join any sports team her heart so desired. With that being said, if I were to pick one person in my family who was the least athletic while I was growing up, I would immediately choose myself. Despite this I can honestly say my younger sister and I had an active life regardless of my lack of sports activities. With a big backyard equipped with a volleyball net, basketball hoop, large swing set, along with bikes and scooters that we would ride around the dirt roads we grew up on. I have vivid memories of us playing outside as we grew up and though we didn’t realize it – we were adding exercise to our daily activities.

Like most women, time went on and I left the nest for college and my physical activity and exercise began to dwindle. Towards the end of my collegiate career I gained an internship at a business that was fast paced and required constant physical activity. As I mentioned in my introductory post, I have been blessed with a naturally thin physique for most of my life. However, after I graduated from university life and left my fast paced internship for a regular desk job, I immediately began to notice that a lack of physical activity was catching up with me in a way it never had in my younger years. My metabolism was slowing down, so for the first time in my life I joined a gym and slowly started adding some moderate jogging to my workout. As I began building endurance with jogs, my progress was interrupted with an injury to my cervical spine. Eventually this injury would require surgery and months of physical therapy followed. Immediate exercise was out of the question. Slowly, I began to add exercise back to my routine but a return to jogging was not an option as the impact would create a great deal of pain at this point. For several years even walking long distances was difficult.

Beach to Bay Run's amazing views

I credit Bikram Yoga with giving me a therapeutic and effective exercise program post-surgery. The heated room (105 degrees) and 26 posture series gave me the strength and flexibility I had lost due to my injury. In fact – I eventually gained more strength and endurance than I ever had before! A few years ago I decided to join a gym again and began adding weight training to strengthen my upper body, as my muscles were still weak around my cervical region. Years of rehabilitation and a focus on exercise had finally paid off and almost a year ago I decided to return to the track where I had started jogging pre-injury.

Lena with sister Dr. Kristina Valadez, P.T.

 I recall running one lap straight with no pain resulting and excitedly sharing the news with my sister, a physical therapist, and my brother-in-law. My brother in law happens to be a stellar athlete, competing in several triathlons per year with an Ironman scheduled in a few months. Some of my best friends have also started competing in these physically demanding races, and I happily hold the title of cheerleader at the events! Watching these competitions has secretly created a desire over the last year to compete in an event of my own – specifically a run. Several months ago my sister (the athlete in our family) approached me about joining her team for Beach to Bay – a Texas relay marathon that happens to be the largest in the US. I immediately accepted, seeing this as an opportunity to prove to myself that I am in fact, stronger than I have ever been – post or pre surgery. With two months to train, I began immediately and returned to the jogging track I had begun running at prior to my injury. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could run 1.25 miles without stopping – a great feat for a “non-athlete” like myself.

For the first month I continued to train on this track – pushing myself to go further each time. For new runners like myself, I found this was an easy and effective way to track my progress since the distance was easily measurable. After a month of running three times a week, I was up to 4 miles - .2 miles away from the distance I was to run in the relay. I then moved my training to my neighboring roads and added another element to assist me with tracking my progress – Runkeeper is a free app available for iPhone, which maps your distance and calculates the speed of your run (minutes/mi). This app has proven to be a vital part of my training, allowing me the ability to gain greater insight on my progress from run to run. Finally, on May 19^th the big day arrived and the cheerleader finally became the competitor. Despite heat in the high 90’s, I proudly finished my 4.2 miles (5^th leg of the relay) in 44 minutes!

Beach to Bay 2012 running team The Six Non-Blondes

So why the departure from my typical food chatter on Savory Salvations to discuss my running journey? The simple truth is that exercise and sound eating habits are both essential to good health. It is my hope that a non-athlete like myself can potentially inspire other non-athletes to pursue your own exercise program – running or otherwise.

The fact is – if I can do it, anyone can!