CoacHELL(Y)A [recap]

Peace, Love, Coachella

After a weekend of living young, wild and free at Coachella 2012, I'm exhausted, but feeling surprisingly well! It was an invigorating and lively 3 days full of bouncing to the beats, walking the Empire Polo Fields,  laughing with friends, exploring new music and having an unforgettably wonderful time. To my delight, there were lots of health and fitness highlights throughout the weekend... and in the end, I think it's completely possible to lead a fit life while enjoying fantastically fun adventures like a music festival. 

Grubbing Guide

I experienced 2 main kinds of eating at Coachella:

(1) Off-Time Eating:

This is the eating you do when you're not at the Empire Polo Fields getting your groove on. Whether you're camping, staying in an RV, house or hotel, or otherwise, you'll likely be eating sometime before and/or after you're at the fields. I was lucky enough to go with a group of amazing women who also maintain healthy lifestyles, so bringing a variety of good snacks was surprisingly easy! Granted, I finished pretty much an entire bag of peanut butter M&M's in addition to a variety of healthy treats, but I'm only human, right? Some of the stuff we had on hand and enjoyed was:

Turkey Burgers

Apples and Bananas

Quinoa Salad (homemade by the incredible Brooke Merlo @mizmers)

Mixed Bean & Veggie Salad  (homemade by the incredible Brooke Merlo @mizmers)

Granola Bars

Trail Mix

Whole Cooked Chicken

(2) On the Scene Eating:

This is the eating that you do while at the polo fields enjoying a long day of music and madness. Luckily for you and your fit life, everything is a complete rip off, so it's easy to avoid overeating if you're watching your money at all. Same goes for alcohol... don't want to drink too much? Don't bring so much cash! I love simple solutions! In terms of the food choices themselves, I was most excited and impressed by the wrap options! One day I got a Tofu Wrap and another day I got a Tempe Wrap - yum!

In Motion

Oh man did we get a workout outside the gym this weekend! Between getting from your resting place to the polo fields, standing for endless amounts of time, and dancing until you can't dance anymore, I'd say Coachella is a pretty great way to get exercise. If I make it there again next year or any other, I'm going to wear a pedometer just for fun. After all the dust settled, I counted at least 9-10 hours a day for 3 days straight of intense walking, dancing, and general movement... beats sitting behind a desk for any number of days, that's for sure!

Hydrate & Rejuvenate

It's no secret that staying hydrated is critical. Thankfully, our group fully understood and embraced the hydration requirement and kept a cooler full of water bottles next to our cooler of alcoholic beverages. Not only that, but we also brought refillable water bottles to the fields with us and filled them up at every opportunity possible. It doesn't stop there though! In addition to hydrating, we all took our vitamins, which helped us wake up each morning feeling fresh and ready to go! 

Letting Go

Letting go and having fun was by far the best health feature of the weekend. I often get caught up is the hustle bustle of life, and forget the importance of balancing all of that out with a good time. I never want to get so extreme into eating right and working out that I forget to have fun and let loose. Yes, you should indulge in moderation and keep yourself in check to some degree, but you owe it to yourself to live and feel YOUNG, WILD & FREE!

...until next year...

Happy Coachella!