I ended up getting out of work around 3 PM – SUPER early, hooray!  I wasn’t expecting to have that much free time this afternoon so I took advantage of it by taking myself to a manicure and pedicure.  :) I got Bubble Bath (peachy-pink) on my fingers and Belize-It-Or-Not (purpely mauve) on my toes.  Something I really love about NYC is how cheap manicures and pedicures are.  You can get a mani for $8 and a pedi for $23 if you know where to go.  It makes it really easy to get them regularly!  I love getting mani/pedis.  They make me feel very womanly, and like I’m taking care of myself.  Plus, a fresh manicure makes you feel more pulled together and compliments any outfit.

Anyway, afterwards I went to CP to get in a workout.  Before I got started I tried a new snack, Dr. Weil Chia Razz bar:

Pre Workout Snack was 180 calories, 35g carbs, 4g fat, and 2g protein.

Even though I’ve been LOVING CP, I’ve been having trouble staying focused on keeping a cardio groove going.  Today I started out doing weights on the treadmill but couldn’t keep it together.  I finally hopped on the Elliptical Trainer with one of my Podfitness workouts.  That was what I needed!  I just needed some focus and direction for my workout.  If there is a downside to CP it’s that it’s so big, there’s never many people around.  At NYSC, it was always so crowded – it felt like a rat race, yes, but there was a sense of comradarie I felt, plus it was motivating so see everyone else working out so hard.  Elliptical = 471 Calories Burned.

When I got home I made a quick dinner of a Chickpea Cutlet and some carrots.  I was going to boil the carrots, but I was too lazy. :)

Dinner was 320 calories, 26g carbs, 8g fat, and 17g protein.

Tonight I’m going out to a bar with my friend, Jeff, from college.  I’m planning on having one club soda and vodka.  I’ll give you the report tomorrow.  Have a great Friday!

Well, I’ve spent far too much time on New York Transportation today.  It took me a good 45 min to get to the NYSC with a pool, and I use the term ‘pool’ loosely.  It was a glorified bathtub at the end of a dank, dingy hallway with flickering florescent overhead lights.  Stereotypically scary.  So that was a wash.  Then it took me another 1.5 hrs to get home to my apt, grr. I’ve spent some time tonight looking into other gyms in the city with pool facilities – I’m thinking Chelsea Piers.  I’d love your opinion!

While out and around today, I had an apple, Chocolate Mint Clif bar, and 3 mini-muffins.  I was busy running errands so I completely forgot to snap photos.  So, ‘lunch’ was 581 calories, 107g carbs, 13g fat, and 14g protein.

I’ve been hungry all day!  When I came home, I had a slice of Cinnamon Raisin Ezekiel Bread with a tbsp of pb:

A little too burned. :) I had planned for this to be a Pre Workout Snack – but I was so annoyed with NYSC, I didn’t feel like going there again today.  Snack was 175 calories, 21g carbs, 9g fat, and 7g protein.

I didn’t want to make anything too intense tonight – looking for something low key.  I’ve seen tortilla pizzas around the blogs, and I wanted to try one.  I made a spinach, goat cheese, and summer squash pizza:

Some of the spinach crisped up really nice – maybe a spinach chip experiment is in the works?  I also had a half cup of Coconut Sorbet:

Dinner was 462 calories, 64g carbs, 18g fat, 12g protein.

I think I’m gonna head to bed early tonight, I think I’m coming down with something.  Night all!

Hey guys, quick post because I have to get to bed early so I can wake up for my 7 AM pilates class. I got out of work really late tonight, and went to Modell’s to get a bathing suit and swim goggles. I’ve been thinking about adding swimming to my workouts for a while, and I think I’ll kick it off this weekend! I’m really pleased that I’ve been expanding my workout routines – it’s really been very satisfying! My lunch was definitely too small – before I left work I had an iced coffee and a new flavor of Luna Bar: Chocolate Raspberry.

It was good, but not great – I could definitely taste both the chocolate and the raspberry, which I wasn’t expecting. Still, it could have been better. Snack was 190 calories, 27g carbs, 5g fat, and 9g protein.

When I got finally got back, I only had time for one thing: cook dinner or go to the gym. P told me to go to the gym (he knows how I get minus gym time :) ) so he ordered in sushi while I worked out. I did the Cardio Smorgasboard again, and I had an amazing workout! Awesome calorie burn! Cardio Smorgas = 558 calories burned.

Before I worked out, I had an Ezekiel English Muffin Cinnamon Raisin with a tbsp Almond Butter:

Pre Workout Snack was 175 calories, 21g carbs, 9g fat, and 7g protein.

The blog has allowed me to analyze my eating, and I’ve realized how often we eat out! I feel like that might be a product of New York – there’s always a new, delicious restaurant to try! I feel like I make good choice 90% of the time, so it’s okay. Let me know your thoughts…

For dinner, I had a bowl of miso (a great starter to fill up on) plus 2 salmon rolls, 4 tuna rolls, and 4 spinach rolls, and edamame.

Dinner was 387 calories, 50g carbs, 8g fat, and 31g protein.

Night all!

Well, this morning I was supposed to start my new 7 AM Pilates class – same teacher, same students, different time and location.  Well, I woke up at 6:15 and without even really thinking about it, my body said ‘ No, thank you’ and fell back asleep.  Ah well.  I would have loved to have gone to Pilates, but I’m working on listening to my body – and sometimes it doesn’t always respond the way I want it to!  So I’ll do my makeup class this Thursday, and start new classes next Tuesday.  P is headed out with some colleagues tonight, so I’ll have time to go to the gym, make a nice dinner, and catch up on my ’stories’.  I’m looking forward to a relaxing, calm night.  If I wasn’t so scared of NYC bathtubs (no matter how much you scrub them), I would take a bath. :)

For breakfast this morning, I tried the Strawberry Banana Oatmeal again, this time as legit oatmeal:

1/2c oatmeal

1/4c hemp milk

1/4c nonfat milk

1/2c water

vanilla

medium banana

5 strawberries

1 tbsp flax

MUCH better.  Downright delicious!  Breakfast was 325 calories, 58g carbs, 7g fat, and 12g protein.

So here we have the much anticipated Bumble and Bumble before and after pictures:

Before:

And after:

They didn’t take off too much length, just gave it a ton of shape.  I really love it.

Alright everyone, have a great day!

This morning went from calm and relaxing to crazy and stressful back to calm and relaxing again! Whew! Quite the whirlwind! I woke up early this morning for some gym time. It’s always easier for me to get up early on the weekends than the weekdays, not surprisingly. I meant to try a Z Bar for my Pre Workout Snack, but I forgot it on my way out the door, boo. This did give me an opportunity to analyze whether my Pre Workout Snacks are impacting the quality of my workouts, though. Although I had a wave of hunger hit me in the first 10 min of my workout, after that I was more concerned with exercise than my stomach. But overall I think it’s a positive thing to do, so I’m going to keep with it. But it’s always good to evaluate your methods consistently to make sure what worked a month ago is still working now, because that might not always be the case!

So I did more mixing it up at the gym this AM. 10 minutes on the stepmill, 10 minutes on the treadmill with the free weights, some mat time, AND a new machine, the Cardio Wave. I really liked this machine – it was a fun switch-up. It felt like roller blading or ice skating. And again, I didn’t have to move very fast to get a good sweat going. I’ve really liked exploring the different cardio machines – I’m going to keep switching it up! Cardio and weights = 438 calories burned.

I got home, showered, and dressed – P and I were headed to one of our favorite restaurants, CookShop, for brunch. But as we were just about to walk out the door for our 11:30 reservation – I realized I couldn’t find my wallet. Well, to make a long story short, we tore up the apt, called every police precinct in the city, went to my office, and STILL couldn’t find it. After a good amount of tears, and a phone call to Mommy, I finally went to report it and cancel my cards, and my cell phone died. I pulled out my company blackberry to make the call and found I had a message. An older couple, Ira and Martha, who have a stationary store a few buildings down from me, found my wallet on the street – I dropped it as I was getting out of the cab in the rain yesterday! They went door to door in every building in the street trying to find me, but couldn’t, so they left a message on my company blackberry, the number of which is on my business card which is in my wallet. They were on the way to Massachusetts for the weekend when they left the message yesterday, so after speaking with them this morning, I’m going there first thing Monday to get my wallet. I’m bringing them a huge batch of cookies, and I know where we’ll be getting all of our stationary from now on! Can you believe it???? How nice are they! It just goes to show that even in a big city like NYC, there are good Samaritans out there.

Peter, the poor thing who deals with me in hysterics, was smart and kind enough to push back our reservation, and we made it just in time at 12:30. I was planning on having an iced coffee, but Peter insisted we get cocktails after such a stressful morning – and I had to agree! I had a Mango Ginger Daiquiri, which had fresh mango, ginger, lime and rum. It was really good – very creamy.

I cannot hold my alcohol anymore! I was definitely toasted after this glass, which led to bad decisions later… But for an entree, I had three poached eggs, with a slice of sourdough and 2 strips bacon:

This was great! I also had a bite of P’s fish sandwich and about 8-10 of his french fries. :)

So combined with a stressful morning and alcohol, here comes my bad decision, which Peter gladly supported: dessert! I got the Lemon-Vanilla cheesecake with Lemon Sorbet and Blueberry Capote:

I also had a bite of P’s milk chocolate bread pudding, which I snapped a photo of for you guys:

Yum-o! Since this is brunch, and essentially two meals in one, I don’t feel too guilty for going overboard. And I don’t feel uncomfortably full or anything, so I’m happy. Brunch was…gulp…estimated at 1100 calories.

No real plans for the rest of Saturday, but a bunch of options! I’ll let you know what we come up with…happy Saturday!