Moy River Bed & Breakfast

We recently went on a grand adventure to and through Ireland. We went all about the country and stayed at all different kind of places: hotel chains, B&Bs, fancy hotels, and hostels. We got a great taste of it all, but one place that we stayed at stood out above and beyond: Moy River Bed & Breakfast. It’s in County Sligo, nestled up against the Ox Mountains and Moy River. We would recommend this Bed & Breakfast to any person traveling Ireland (except perhaps a big family with lots of little ones). It was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.

It’s charming, beautiful, and very Irish, but most importantly, it has the best hosts. Pat McCarrick and Rita Normanly own this lovely bed & breakfast and I say it’s lovely because they are lovely. We arrived quite late to the B&B due to some car issues, but both of them were awake to greet us and show us our room. More than that, they insisted on giving us tea and some treats after a long drive despite how late it was. We sat around their fireplace and got to know each other. We learned more about Ireland, about the local area, and about them. It was such a nice time and it still stands out in my mind.

May242018

We Flew WOW Air and Here’s What Happened

If you’ve been keeping up with our social media and the blog, you’ll know that we just returned from our honeymoon in Ireland. We’re not rich and we needed to save some money on the trip. I had set a watch for cheap flights on the app called Hopper and lo and behold, cheap flights appeared. The only thing was…it was WOW Air. We had heard horror stories about WOW Air so we were a little apprehensive, but the price was too good to beat. After scouring over a million different reviews of the budget airline, I made a decision and bought the tickets.

I was able to put it out of my mind for a little, but as the trip neared closer and closer, my worry grew again. Would we be cramped up like cattle, starving and parched? Would it be the worst flight of our lives? Would it ruin our trip? All of these things passed through my mind, but I kept remembering how much money we had saved by going with them. I also asked around with my friends and got mixed reviews. Basically, the advice was to manage your expectations. So we did. We went into the flight expecting it to be the worst in our lives. We flew four flights with them: two at 9 hours and two at 2.5 hours. Let’s break it down.

May232018

Our Honeymoon in Ireland

You may have noticed that we have been absent for a good bit here on the blog. However, if you follow any of our social media accounts, you would know it was because we were honeymooning in Ireland! Yes, we got married two years ago, but a late honeymoon is better than a non-existent one, wouldn’t you say? We had a 16-hour layover in Iceland since we flew WOW Air (more to come on that airline later), so we got to explore Keflavik very briefly. Then we were back on the plane, sleep-deprived and body-confused, and arrived in Dublin in the morning. Look at our map below to see our exact route–starting in Dublin and going north then counter-clockwise the WHOLE island. We’ll share with you pictures for now based on each location (of course we can’t show every little place, we did lots of driving and saw lots of things!), we hope you enjoy!

Iceland

Apr042018

Our Top Travel Tips

We KNOW that you’ve seen a lot from us. Over the course of NEARLY 1200 posts/articles on the site, we’ve covered lots, but have stuck to our roots (food and fitness) for the most part. We’ve had guest posts from bloggers/writers all over the world and partnered with some really exciting companies (Silk; Optimum Nutrition) but there haven’t been many major changes.

While we only want to boost the quality of our content (more innovative workouts and recipes!), we’ve also been considering and working on other projects lately. There will be transitions, but Hungry & Fit will never be forgotten and we’ll make sure it is here for years to come. With that being said, there has been a trend over the years, where we’ve continued to receive tons of questions related to…

TRAVEL!

Feb232018

How to Keep Up Your Workout Routine When Traveling (MOTIVATION!)

This doesn’t include one of our notorious hotel workouts. This doesn’t have a ton of exercises and numbers. You won’t find any programming here: No sets, reps, rest, etc. This is strictly motivational and completely intended to help you remember that you can make up as many excuses as you want, but you can also take them away. It is all on you.

Mar102015

Education from Traveling as an American

In the Unites States, it feels like we are the center of the world. There is no second language and everyone knows or should know (in American opinion) English. We know we are a powerful country and certain unconscious thoughts feed into your mind because of that. And these thoughts will bleed out when traveling internationally, too, and sometimes it’s not pretty for either party. I’ve been traveling since I was a baby (a mother from New Zealand will do that), but I never started to realize my own American spoiled nature until recent travel experiences. Even though I consider myself an open-minded and culturally-sensitive person, some American travel habits can be just plain dumb. You can learn a lot from traveling as an American–about yourself, your habits, and other cultures.

Chris’ favorite burger place in NZ

Jun052014

Our Vacation in Pictures (LA)

Sorry for the big lapse in posts! Here are our excuses…

Excited to see my parents!

Omusubi (Sunny Blue)

Freshest of fruits

LA Street Art

Family timez

In n Out

Hungry taking creepy pics of me sleeping on the beach

Bad bad sunburns

Post beach-ness

Ramen!

Promenade

PIE

Hungry got interviewed by a Japanese reporter of course…

Airport food…

Jan242014

Air New Zealand Review

Wonderful, as far as I’m concerned. There are several factors to this. In my adult life, I’ve used Air New Zealand twice to New Zealand, and both times it has been fantastic. 12-hour flights aren’t easy, but Air New Zealand definitely makes it easier. I’m surprised at the fortitude and endurance the flight attendants have for the whole entirety of the flight. Let’s go over the reasons why Air New Zealand rocks.

View from inside the airplane just getting into New Zealand

1. 75 movie choices. Yes, seventy-five. Usually you have to pay for even one movie, but here you get 75! They range from Despicable Me 2 to Whale Rider to 2 Guns. My goal is to usually watch one or two movies before attempting a sleep and then finishing with one when I wake up. Chris unfortunately watches like four our five and doesn’t get sleep. Go team.

2. Meals of decent to good quality. I know this doesn’t exactly sound like a compliment, but it is! Usually airplane food is blargh! But Air New Zealand does it well. I never had a stomach ache and everything tasted good, especially breakfast! Oh and both are free.

3. An epic safety video. I mean epic. It was completely Lord of the Rings/Hobbit-ed out! Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits galore! Even Peter Jackson made an appearance! It was such a good surprise. We were laughing the whole time. One of the few times I actually pay attention to airplane safety features. Last time I rode Air New Zealand it was Richard Simmons, which was of course hilarious.

4. No baggage fees. Yep. I couldn’t believe this one either. We did have to pay them going from America, but not back! It was so nice! Especially refreshing after Frontier now charges for carry-on items! Can you say rip-off!

5. Wonderful attendants. How would you feel serving a bunch of annoying Americans for 12 hours stuck in a small space high up in the sky? I would definitely not be cheery and helpful as all the Kiwi attendants were. They show that they care about the service you’re getting and want to help you best they can. Like the Kiwi people, they are friendly, laid back, and good-humored.

6. Wellington Airport. I know this doesn’t necessarily count, but still. Check out the post. It’s awesome.

7. Free New Zealand wine. I can’t tell you how upset I was when I realized the wine was free and I didn’t take it! I couldn’t help but laugh when they were carrying the leftover bottles in the morning, saying “Wine, anyone?” Plus, New Zealand wine is among the best I’ve had. Before I didn’t like white wine, now I do! Yeah if this isn’t a perk of an airline, I don’t know what is.

Those are just a few reasons why Air New Zealand knocks it out of the park. And yet another reason to visit New Zealand. If you’re going to fly to New Zealand, choose your Kiwi airline and you won’t regret it. It’s the best way to spend those 12 hours locked in an aircraft. And as always…stay hungry and fit!

Dec302013

Safe and Sound in New Zealand! #travel

We made it! We finally arrived after 12 hours of flying and another of customs. We’re a little groggy (Chris is actually sleeping on the couch right now), but we’ve made it! Just in case you wondered where we’ve run off to…we are here in New Zealand for two weeks for a cousin’s wedding and to explore both islands! Some of you know I’m half-Kiwi, meaning that my mum is from New Zealand. We are very excited for this trip. My mum, dad, brother, and his girlfriend will be arriving tomorrow. My aunt picked us up and we are just getting acclimated. This post is going to be picture-heavy. Just of things we did in California and things we’ve just done in New Zealand! Here goes…

In NZ at a park across the way!

Let’s start with Christmas in Santa Monica, California (my hometown). We arrived Christmas Eve and boy did it go fast. We saw lots of family and friends, ate tons of good food, and got in fun workouts. Christmas loot was incredible this year, some of the standouts were the Jawbone UP, a mixer, Star Wars CCG cards, Amazon gift cards, oh and…A GOPRO!!!!!! Yeah Chris went a little overboard this year in terms of presents, so so excited to use the GoPro in New Zealand. We actually got footage of us “surfing” (there were no waves that day), and you’ll see it once I learn how to edit it.

Just arrived in Cali

Star Wars cards…super rare!

Jawbone UP…records movement, sleeping, and eating. A wrist band.

GoPro!!

Joys of opening packs

This was at a delicious Christmas Eve party with my family…Chris eating children of course

Gotta love Santa Monica..

In N Out…

Bay Cities!!

Mum’s homemade breakfast

Japanese food with Sophie and Kai

Epic Tekka Don

Time to move onto workouts…we did some improvising home workouts

Some at the beach with friends…

Rope climbing!

He got all the way up

And don’t forget the surf!

Beautiful picture from the GoPro camera

The five days in California went by incredibly fast, but I’m not surprised. Then on Sunday night, we loaded our stuff into a car, Dad dropped us off at the airport and we were on our way to New Zealand! We arrived to New Zealand Tuesday @ 5:30am. Yes, Tuesday…we skipped Monday! 18 hour time difference plus 12 hour flight will do that to you I guess. Here’s a few pictures from the journey so far…

Mum and I with travel pillows

Had to get this journal for the trip

Food at LAX

Airplane food, not bad!

Little itty bitty beginning of sunrise

They don’t refrigerate eggs here!

Chris’ epic kiwi breakfast

Going for a walk

New Zealand is just pretty

We hope to update you as often as we can, depending on internet of course. Probably the hardest part of all of this is being away from the cats for so long, but it helps to know that they are in good hands in Boulder. We are in Auckland now but will soon be travelling south. So excited to be here with Chris and my huge kiwi family for this trip. We are going to have lots of great food and find fun creative ways to workout on the road. Happy New Years!! As always…stay hungry and fit!

Sep042013

We’re Baaaack (Sorry!)

We have just arrived back from a nice 5-day vacation on the magical East Coast! We went out to visit Chris’ family (he’s from New Jersey/New York) and also see some friends. We had planned to prepare posts for each day ahead of time…but obviously that didn’t work. We have a little pathetic excuse, that there was no wifi we were able to get onto in the house…but still, sorry! I hope this post of deliciousness and friends will help you forgive us. It will be picture-heavy and text-light.

It was an early start to the Wednesday of us flying out–6:30am flight called for a 3:15am wake-up. We drove the car over to the airport and had a nice smooth ride, stopping briefly in Minneapolis before arriving at Newark. Since everyone who could pick us up were working, we decided to take it slow and just take public transportation back to Chris’ town, Midland Park, New Jersey. We got to the train station, his mum picked us up and we had an early first dinner of some good Chinese food. Two hours and a chiropractic appointment later, we had another dinner with his brother at a great thin-crust pizza. We finished that night off with some great Van Dyk’s ice cream and played video games all night with a good friend, Po.

Po & Chris, ice cream buds

On Thursday, we wake up bright and early (not getting much more than 5 hours sleep…who sleeps on vacation, right?) and pack in the car with Chris’ mum to visit Chris’ sister in Pennsylvania, right outside of Philadelphia. And grabbed delicious bagel sandwiches on the way! It was a great day of relaxation, visiting Chris’ niece, adorable puppy, spending quality family time, and watching movies like Hotel Transylvania and Puss in Boots. We didn’t get home until around midnight and collapsed right to sleep.

Chris and his niece on a walk

Puppppyyyyyy

On Friday, it was another early-wake-up day for us because we were visiting the city–New York! We had a great day seeing lots of friends from college. We found our way to my friend Mary Kate via bus and had a great breakfast with her before she headed into her super awesome 60 Minutes work. Then we took the good old 1 train uptown to the college where we met, Manhattan College. We got to meet up with some friends who still are attending, some who drove in for the day just to see us, and our old bosses. Chris got to fit in a leg workout while I hung out with my old JustPeace (a social justice club I led) club while they held an event. I got to see Kathleen and Hilary here.

Times Square, crazy to be back

Yum

hi!

Roomates 4 lyfe

My boss (Lois), Kathleen, and I

Quad livin’

Sweaty buds

After that (still Friday), we grabbed Kathleen and kidnapped her back downtown where we forced her to see The Grandmaster (review coming soon), which was pretty epic at one of our favorite indie theatres at Lincoln Center. We walked around Central Park for a bit before walking down to the famous Halal Cart which came from humble beginnings but is now 3 carts deep. We chowed down on some platters and then met up with Allan to go to the Yankee game. It was a lot of fun and we got great seats! Pretty good game too–2 of Chris’ favorite players hit homers. We then got a ride back to New Jersey, had some ice cream, then went to sleep.

Central Park walk

Chowing on Halal–thanks for the pic, Kathleen

DROOL.

Yankee game

On Saturday, we actually slept in! All the way until 9am! I know–crazy. While we waited for our friend, Allan, to wake up, we went and visited Abma’s Farm for some baked goods and sheep humor. After that, and he still wasn’t up, we went to the local Wildlife Conservatory which has beautiful paths and only animals that need rehabilitation. We finally met Allan, Jane Kim (a friend of Chris’) and her boyfriend at a new place in town for “brunch” (…at 12:30pm). Although we were wary about prices and reviews, it turned out to be delicious and a great time! We walked around town afterwards, got some boba, and hung out at the Ridgewood Park. We then grabbed a Tony’s Pizza to eat the next day (because they would be closed on Sunday). Later that night, Chris’ whole family went out to hibachi and it was delicious! Then after, we of course got more ice cream and went to sleep.

This sheep had the deepest voice ever…creepy

Beautiful nature walk

My delicious breakfast burrito at brunch

Friends

Best pizza I’ve ever had

Hibachi!

We have another late morning wake-up on Sunday, this time around 8:30. I decide to go for a easy-paced run in the morning while we get started on the day. We basically spent the entire day visiting Chris’ many aunts and uncles–it was really nice to meet all of them as I hadn’t met many before. That night we met up with Pablo and Brit (Chris’ close friends) and we drove 15 miles to go to East, a restaurant with sushi on a conveyor belt. Delicious! We then watched Here Comes the Boom (surprisingly awesome movie) and, of course, got some more ice cream.

Nom nom nom

Now it’s Monday, and we’re wondering how this vacation is already over! However…our flight wasn’t until 7pm so we had a good amount of time to spend with friends before we took off. We had a nice breakfast with Pablo and Brit that morning while we waited for Allan and Po to roll out of bed. I got way too much food…brie-stuffed french toast, eggs, home fries, and toast! We then meet up with everyone else and to everyone’s disappointment, Chris coerces us to go see the Percy Jackson movie. Okay maybe not coerced, but reactions were definitely amusing. After that movie, we all piled into cars and rushed to Mitsuwa (which will be getting its own post), which is a magical place that makes you feel like you’ve stepped into Japan. Once we gobble down some delicious food, Allan is nice enough to take us down to JFK in Labor Day traffic. We owe him a big one.

Brie-stuffed french toast. yup.

And that was our trip! We had a pleasant flight and watched Great Gatsby (review coming soon) to make the 4.5 hours go by quickly. We are still catching up on sleep, and apologize again for the lack of posts, but here we come on full throttle! I’m probably forgetting a lot in this post, but I did what I could from memory! Make sure you travel to stay hungry and fit!