Coach Summit 2015

This post about Beachbody Summit has been such a long time coming. Life got in the way of writing it and didn't want to half-ass it because it was such an incredible experience - so finally, months later, here is the full scoop!

The City

Nashville is an incredible city - unlike anywhere I've ever been! There is music EVERYWHERE. In every bar, every nook and cranny, even playing out of boxes on street corners. It is AMAZING. And somehow every band is better than the last band you saw. The quality of the musicians there is unreal and for me it didn't even really matter that I'm not a huge country music fan - I just loved being immersed in music everywhere I went.



Southern hospitality is REAL. I learned that during a short stay in Georgia a few years ago, but this was solidified for me while we were visiting. From the staff everywhere, servers, hotel concierge, uber drivers, men who asked me to dance while we were out to the various people that we met - southern hospitality is legit!

The night life is a lot of fun. We went to a number of different places (each with awesome music) but my very favourite was Acme. They had a beautiful rooftop patio and an awesome band on the main floor where we danced the night away.

The Community

Connecting with my team and all sorts of awesome coaches was a gift.

Being the token Canadian on my coach's team, I often feel disconnected all the way up here! I talk to these ladies every day, but I don't actually get to see them and hug them very often. It was so wonderful to hang out with them for 3 days straight and be surrounded by 24,000 other awesome coaches who are out there helping others and doing great things in their business.

The Event

Summit was nothing short of phenomenal. I was on cloud 9 from the minute I arrived to the second I got back to Toronto. We attended 2 awesome events in the stadium where the Tennessee Titans play and 2 others in the area where the Nashville Predators play - where else can you house 24,000 coaches?!

These events were full of inspiration, information and another awesome opportunity to connect with fellow coaches. We got to see some wonderful speakers including Simon Sinek, Chalene Johnson, Dewitt Jones and a whole slew of top Beachbody coaches and executives. I felt like a little sponge, furiously taking notes and photos trying to absorb as much information as I possibly could. During the closing ceremonies we got to witness some of the very best fireworks I've ever seen and it was a beautiful way to end our time there.

The Food

While we were at the conference a lot of the time, I did have a chance to try out some great Nashville restaurants in between sessions, on our evenings out and on my Nashville exploration day before I headed home! Some of the highlights included brunch at Biscuit Love, stellar peaches at the farmers' market, southern BBQ, iced tea and treats at Barista Parlor, vegan cupcakes at Khan's Desserts and an incredible meal at Avo,  Nashville's very first raw restaurant!

And what Beachbody event would be complete without a Shakeology bar? I even got to try out some of the new Shakeology Boosts when they launched at Summit.

The Workouts

We each got to pick 2 workouts while we were at Summit and of COURSE I wanted to work out with my love, Shaun T! Insanity is what started this whole coaching journey for me so that was the obvious choice, and Cize was actually coming out while we were in Nashville, so I thought that would be super fun!

My Insanity workout was nearly the first thing I did while I was in Nashville. After getting up at 3:30am a busy morning of travel and 2 flights, I arrived, dropped my things at the hotel, went to registration, stopped for a group photo and then busted my butt for Insanity. The program IS called Insanity so it seemed fitting for it to be under insane circumstances...

It was all sorts of amazing.

I also got to try out Cize the following day. The workout was PACKED because everyone was so stoked for the workout to launch! I absolutely LOVE Cize -- a workout that doesn't feel like work because you're dancing?!? YES!!

I am so thankful that I had the chance to take this trip. I earned my ticket to Summit by being a Success Starter (which means that I hit certain milestones in my first three months as a coach) which was so cool! I've already got my ticket for next summer's summit and am really looking forward to being back in Nashville with my team again!!

Do you want to join me in Nashville this summer? Become a coach on my team and let's talk about how you could earn your own free ticket to Nashville!

Weekend Adventures

This weekend I had a lot of 'me' time and I feel like it was well deserved. July was an amazing month, but boy was it busy! After Fringe, I was basically in the city for less than a week. I took off to Nashville for an incredible experience at Summit, came home for 4 days and then got back on a plane to go to Alberta for 10 days. I'll be blogging more about both of those trips -- I can't wait to share all that I learned / saw / did / experienced - ahhhh!!

My weekend started off with a super fun party in the east end of the city to celebrate the first birthday of the Confidential Musical Theatre Project. I've had the pleasure of performing in 2 shows with this company and both have helped me grow as a performer! It's an exhilarating (and terrifying) experience that I think every actor should pursue. I got to sing "I Still Believe in Love" from They're Playing Our Song and broadcasted it live on Periscope (you can follow me @ashleydtl to catch those sorts of things!) It was an awesome night and I had a blast connecting with fellow performers and reflecting on all that has happened in a year!

The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing. Since I moved to the west end of Toronto (after being an east ender for a loooong time) I've been discovering all sorts of great places in my hood to substitute all of my old haunts. I decided to explore Roncesvalles on Saturday as I was looking for a dress to wear to a wedding in September.

Most of my wardrobe comes from Damzels and I had wanted to visit the west end location for some time - it did not disappoint! I found myself trying on countless dresses and had to choose between a bunch of dresses for the wedding. I found a beautiful green dress to wear and also grabbed a sweet bamboo t-shirt that is so soft! I love the service when I go to Damzels and always leave happy.

Since it was a 'me' day, I treated myself to a quickie mani at The Ten Spot and enjoyed some huevos rancheros for brunch at The Ace. 

In between brunching & my manicure, I checked out all sorts of neat little stores on Roncesvalles and had a lovely afternoon! I picked up some awesome cards at Scout and coveted some beautiful jewelry and handbags at Frock. After I nearly walked all the way down to Queen Street, I walked back up to where I had parked my bicycle and biked to the Junction in the sunshine to get a cupcake at Bunners.

Peaches and cream? Heck, yes!

It was a perfect day to be out on my bicycle and walking in the sunshine, exploring different neighbourhoods that are close to me. I maybe capped all of that off with a nap - that's what weekends are for, right?!

How was your weekend? Do you have any favourite spots in the west end of Toronto?

Fringe 2015

I have to say that Fringe is always one of my favourite times of year - it's kind of like Christmas for actors. You stay out late, see old friends and rush from venue to venue taking in as many shows as your schedule will allow - I love it! With nearly 150 shows happening right now, there truly is something for everyone and a week into the Fringe I am feeling oh-so-inspired.

I started off by seeing People Suck for its opening night last Wednesday which was a great way to kick off the festival! The premise is simple - sometimes people suck - and the cast delivered that message through some very funny songs and physical humour. There was a Gilbert & Sullivan-esque number about grammar that I found especially enjoyable and revelled in all the different ways that people can be terrible. My friend Megan (who I connected with YEARS ago through a message board back in the day) co-wrote and starred in the show and it made me so proud to see her shine! They've been getting great reviews and have had a few sold out shows, which is all kinds of awesome!!

I knew that I would spend most of Saturday engaging in Fringe activities, but I didn't anticipate pushing through 11 hours of musical adventures! I spent the early part of my day in the Annex Theatre, being inspired once again by mega talented friends in Adventures of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl with Rebecca Perry and Starry Notions with Ryan G. Hinds. Rebecca has been all over the Fringe circuit over the last couple of years and is about to embark on an incredible adventure to Edinburgh for their Fringe. She is so talented and works like crazy - it's just so great to see. Before Fringe I had seen glimpses of performances by Ryan G. Hinds, but never a full show -- gah, I was missing out! He is so charismatic, hilarious and rocks glitter lips like it's nobody's business. His show gave me feelings in my eyes and I was captivated by his performance (and especially loved his homage to Disney villain, Ursula)

I spent my afternoon enjoying time with friends, having snacks and got to see Rounding the Bend and I'm Right Here before the day was done. I loved hearing wonderful female harmonies performed by a very talented cast in Rounding the Bend and was reminded of the impact that social media has on our lives in I'm Right Here. Four shows felt like a pretty solid day and I had the chance to see lots of lovely friends in the Fringe tent that evening. 

On Sunday I saw Summerland and I loved every second. 

With a cast of 100 students, this show reminded me of why I decided to go to musical theatre college. I had tears in my eyes for most of the 90 minutes and probably could have easily watched 90 minutes more. So much raw talent. Awesome musical arrangements. Beautiful dancing. A magical story. So special. I was a bit of a wreck at the end of the show and have sung its praises to anyone who will listen since Sunday afternoon. Part of what I love about the Fringe is that for $10 you can be treated to an epic piece of theatre and entertainment that transports you to another world for a moment in your life. I would go see it again in a heartbeat just to feel all the feelings again. Sum-mer-land. 

I also had the pleasure of seeing Sword Play: A Play of Swords on Sunday night. It was the perfect way to end the weekend with a lot of laughing and memories of my very first Nintendo back in the 80's. 

My Fringe adventures will continue this week! Now that word of mouth is spreading and many reviews have come out, I've narrowed down my picks and booked advance tickets to a few shows. I can't wait to see Morro and Jasp Do Puberty (they're always fab), The Orchid and the Crow (Daniel Tobias is an outstanding performer and it will be great to see him in a very different kind of show) and The Dinner Table which is a site-specific show with only 12 audience members and some of the city's best storytellers + dinner. 

There is still time to get out and see some incredible theatre and party it up in the Fringe tent! Follow along with the #FringeTO hashtag and enjoy some of the amazing talent that is gracing stages all over Toronto this week!! 

Off to NYC

I've got my passport, my sparkly ticket and too many dresses packed, and I'm ready to head to NYC tomorrow morning!! 

 

This trip has been in the works since my birthday in April and I couldn't be more excited to head to my favourite city with my very favourite person! Corbin and I had such a wonderful time last year, I'm really looking forward to a repeat.

I will be tweeting, instagramming and Facebooking our adventures which will include 3 shows, (Honeymoon In Vegas, Disenchanted and 1 TBD with Side Show and Curious Incident of the Dog at Night Time being high on my list!), an Islanders game, visits with friends, incredible food, the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade and some Black Friday shopping! I've been plotting our days for a little while and am stoked for our adventures. It's always a tough balance when you travel, between visiting previously discovered favourite places and making time to explore new ones. I'm hoping this trip has a good balance of both.


There will most certainly be a blog post about the trip when we are back, but in the meantime feel free to follow along on social media. I think there will be a lot of squeals and smiley faces!

Are you planning any Black Friday shopping? How do you balance between old and new places when traveling?

Vegan Eats in Ottawa

Two weeks ago, Corbin and I took a little road trip to Ottawa! I really wanted to visit because my best friend Mel is moving across the world this week, and I wanted to give her a hug before she left. Some sweet friends of Corbin's also just moved to Ottawa, so the whole thing seemed like a great excuse for an adventure!

We spent a lot of time visiting and catching up with our friends, and planned a couple fun meals out to enjoy some highly recommended vegan restaurants. On the Saturday night we headed to Zen Kitchen with my friend Laura for dinner.

Zen Kitchen is a gourmet vegan restaurant that recently reopened after undergoing a change in owners. I started drooling over their vegan and gluten free friendly menu for about 24 hours before we actually arrived - everything sounded so good!

We decided on the black bean cakes and crispy mushroom appetizer to start.

The black bean cakes had good flavor, but were a bit dry. They came with a really tasty side of corn chips, salsa, guacamole and cashew sour cream which we really enjoyed. The crispy mushrooms were a hit! The dipping sauces made them even better. I wish I could eat these all the time.

For our mains, Laura had the Caesar salad (complete with polenta croutons and tofu), Corbin had the Royal Zen Burger and I got the lemon scented gnocchi. While everyone's meals looked, smelled and tasted delicious, I won the dinner round. The gnocchi was sublime. From the well cooked veggies, to the mushroom-leek cream sauce, I was in heaven. I loved every bite, especially since gnocchi isn't something I get to eat very often!

The dessert menu looked awesome, but the peanut butter and chocolate pie had caught my eye when I was perusing the menu on the drive up to Ottawa. All 3 of us decided to get it and we were not disappointed. It was absolutely delicious!! Unlike many peanut butter and chocolate desserts, this one was more peanut butter than chocolate, which I really liked. It had a great gluten free crust and was topped with coconut cream. I want to go back just so I can eat this pie again!



Overall it was a really lovely meal. The service was great and they were very diligent about my gluten intolerance, which I really appreciated! Definitely a fancier dinner out that we would normally do, but certainly nice as a treat with amazing company.

We had plans for brunch with Mel and her partner on Sunday morning and she suggested we go to Cafe My House.



I understand that they recently moved to a new location on Wellington Street West and I loved everything about the decor. It was so cute inside! Since it was a nice weekend, we scored a sweet table on the back patio for our brunch.

This was another menu I had been checking out in advance, though I still found it difficult to choose because everything sounded amazing! I started with the Cacao Latte, which was really good, though a little sweet for me.


I decided on the Chipotle BLT mostly because it had a waffle bun. Holy wow.

It was AWESOME. Also, gigantic. But so good. I loved every bite.



Everyone else enjoyed their meals and I would certainly love to go back there to try the dinner menu sometime.

Over dinner the night before, Laura had mentioned a vegan bakery where she had enjoyed the most amazing cupcake and we decided to check it out! Auntie Loo's Treats is Ottawa's first 100% vegan bakery. They have an amazing selection of cupcakes, donuts, squares and buns with a small selection of gluten free items. We had a great visit to the shop and scored some treats for the ride home.

We spent the afternoon in the sunshine at a Provincial Park and I got to give Mel all sorts of hugs. It's been awhile since we've lived in the same city, but this move is going to be a HUGE change and because she's my best friend I want the best for her. I'm so glad we were able to sneak in a visit and have some lovely time together before she left. Love that girl!

The vegan scene in Ottawa is up and coming and it's neat to try out some new places each time I visit. It was an incredible weekend with some wonderful people and some really delicious food!

Adventures in New York

It's been more than two months since my latest trip to NYC, but unfortunately it's taken me this long to get this post up! While unfortunate that it's taken me this long, it's lovely to reminisce of such a lovely visit to my favourite city with my favourite person!

After visiting NYC twice a year in 2011 and 2012, I was itching to go by fall 2013. Corbin had never really had a proper visit to New York, so we decided to go together in November. There was a bunch of things happening around that time that I wanted to go to and so many restaurants that I wanted to visited and Corbin told me to go ahead and plan the itinerary - so fun! Here are some of the highlights from our time there.

Amazing Meals

The food in New York is always a highlight for me. I love adding to my list of incredible Ashley-friendly restaurants and visiting  all of my favourites. This trip certainly did not disappoint!! On our first day we stopped at two of my very favourites: Sun in Bloom and Pure Food and Wine. We had a wonderful brunch at Sun in Bloom as soon as we arrived and it was totally worth the jaunt to Brooklyn!

Amazing sweet potato soup, breakfast burritos and scrambled tofu were gobbled up and enjoyed immensely. Our dinner at Pure that night was beyond words; everything was phenomenal and worth the 2 year wait since I had last eaten there.

Everything at Pure was unbelievably delicious from the kale salad and raw cheese plate to our tamales and Pure's signature zucchini and heirloom tomato lasagna and our epic desserts along with sangria. It was such a special, memorable meal and Corbin's first experience with gourmet raw food. Writing about it makes me want to hop on a plane and go eat there right now... Other amazing meals included more trips to Brooklyn for Buttermilk Channel

and two visits to Champs (yes, it was that good!)

as well as a lovely breakfast at Peacefood Cafe on our last day. New York was good to our tummies and so easily Ashley (and Corbin!) friendly.

Wonderful Treats

The treats that we had in New York deserve their own description - they were so good!! We ended up making two visits to Babycakes because we couldn't get enough!

Round one included a pumpkin eclair, cookie sandwich, churro and samoa donut. Round two had another cookie sandwich, a scrumptious scone and a pumpkin chip loaf that Corbin was adamant about getting (he said it was delicious!) I think it would be really difficult to pick a favourite from all the treats we sampled as everything was so delicious! Babycakes is just heavenly, but probably good that it's far away from my daily existence so I can only go there for treats when I'm in the city! The other noteworthy treat that we had was at Chloe's Soft Serve Fruit.

It is an awesome alternative to froyo or ice cream that is made with fresh frozen fruit and therefore has no dairy or gluten and is crazy delicious!! So many flavor options and toppings make for a really awesome and allergen friendly dessert. It's been on my list for awhile, and I will definitely be going back again and again!!

Incredible Theatre

I always feel inspired by the calibre of theatre and performers in NYC and this trip was no exception. There were some really cool shows happening while we were there and we really enjoyed everything we saw. Part of the reason we went to NYC over that weekend was because Jason Robert Brown was doing a concert at 54 Below. JRB is one of my very favourite musical theatre composers and it was wonderful to finally see him in concert and get to meet him (briefly!) after the show.

He played songs from so many of my favourite shows (The Last Five Years! Songs for a New World!) as well as some from shows that are on their way to Broadway (or should be!) He had an amazing group of singers with him and a stellar band; it was a great night. We also got to see Bernadette Peters in A Bed and A Chair which was really awesome.

She is such a talent and I loved Wynton Marsalis' arrangements of Sondheim with a full jazz orchestra and the rest of the cast including Cyrille Aimée, Jeremy Jordan and. Norm Lewis. I also made my third visit to The McKittrick Hotel for Sleep No More and it still continues to be the most captivating piece of theatre I've ever experienced. It was Corbin's first time and it was really cool to discuss our different experiences and approaches to the show. The ambiance at the McKittrick before and after the show was incredible and we just loved the jazz bands playing throughout. Before we left Toronto, I received a Facebook invite from Drew Gasparini for an industry reading of his show Crazy Just Like Me starring some phenomenal performers (Alex Brightman! Jason Gotay! Andrew Kober!) and was ultra stoked to realize that it was happening while we were there. Both Corbin and I adored this show. It was funny and smart with such a talented cast and great music. It's already won some awards from various festivals it has been a part of and I can't wait to see where it goes. I felt so blessed to see so much great theatre while we were there and certainly felt inspired to up the ante in my own work!

Adventures and Magical Moments

Corbin and I are pretty good at having a lot of fun together and New York was just an even bigger playground for us! We had the best time exploring the city and discovering things together. We visited with some lovely friends including the always delightful Sheryl (complete with her NYC Marathon medal!!)

We ventured to a New York Islanders game,

experienced the MOMA (for free!), walked along the Highline, navigated the NYC Metro and discovered all sorts of cute art

made all sorts of new friends and frolicked in Central Park (complete with a photo shoot - thanks Corbin!). 

I often feel that extraordinary things happen when I'm in New York and this trip with Corbin proved this theory to be true once again. All sorts of really neat, magical things kept happening to us in the city. We found parking everywhere (super close to wherever we were going). We were upgraded to the dining room at 54 Below and got to sit DIRECTLY IN FRONT of Jason Robert Brown. We experienced the city at the top of an incredible rooftop in Washington Heights. When we walked into Peacefood Cafe one of our very favourite songs was playing. Simply wonderful.

All of these things + the amazing adventures, theatre, treats and meals culminated into an unforgettable trip with my love and I can't wait for us to travel more and head back to NYC together for more fun!!