about

Hello! And welcome to Just Because She Can.

The Blog:

You’ll be hearing a lot about…

• Biking, running, yoga, eating, living, adventure, travel.
• Living alone in my first studio ever!
• My brand new pretty road bike.
• Triathlon training at some point (hopefully soon).
• Attempting to cook healthy once a week.

The Basics:

• Originally from Southern California and moved to New York 2 years ago.
• I’m 26.
• I danced for the majority of my life, somewhat competitively, but now it’s just a great hobby.
• I dabble in photography.
• I have the best group of friends anyone could ask for.
• I love food.
• I want to be a yoga instructor.
• I have Rheumatoid Arthritis.
• I believe life is a gift and we should embrace, enjoy and live it!

A few loves:

• Photography
• Yoga
• Biking
• Hiking
• Snowboarding
• Food
• Music
• Friends
• Traveling

I love being active.  I danced from childhood through college.  As dance turned into more of a hobby, I became obsessed with indoor cycling and the sweat, music and energy of each class. During my funemployment in Santa Monica post college I found myself constantly going to yoga and that kept me sane during the job hunt. When I moved to NY I fell in love with running in the park, found new yoga studios, tried Bar Method for a few months, and recently bought a real road bike! I call her Blueberry Sunshine. My current schedule is a mix of ZogSports work coed basketball, hip hop on Tuesdays, yoga, biking the park, indoor cycling, random runs and the every so often Bar Method DVD.

Somewhere between college dancing and discovering yoga I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis.  RA is an autoimmune disease, which means my immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue.  When not treated it causes extreme joint pain and inflammation.  It took about a year to actually diagnose me. The joint pain spread throughout my body, some weeks worse than others, and it got to a point where I couldn’t really walk without tears, had to start my car with two hands, and couldn’t lift my arms to get dressed. Throughout the achy year I still pushed forward with my activities and resorted to swimming when I couldn’t do much else. Luckily I was diagnosed in September 2007 and have been 100% since (thanks to a lot of medication). I think I’m so active because I know what it feels like to not really be able to walk or run or jump and I’m really lucky there is medical insurance and medication that allows me to live a normal life.

So… why do I run, walk, swim, bike, dance, jump, stretch, laugh, travel, love, hug, smile?

Because I can.

I hope you ENJOY my blog!