the perfect NYC day

I know it’s still the morning, but I declare today my perfect New York City day. The sun is shining, I’ve already had a great morning, and I have even better plans for the afternoon.

Let’s back it up to last night. After seeing Evita on Broadway I was craving something fresh and juicy… and therefore broke my “no grocery shopping pact” and went to Whole Foods.

Besides picking up some apples and kettlecorn popcorn (I couldn’t resist) I also bought some single serving Vega protein packets to try

I’ve been meaning to try Vega products for awhile, it’s sounds like a great dairy-free protein powder. Has anyone tried out this product? I’m curious what the best way to make a smooth would be. I’m thinking almond milk, frozen banana and a packet would be delicious.

I wasn’t lying when I said my fridge was a sad sight. But look, now there’s at least almond milk in there!

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this morning I woke up bright and early to make my way uptown to Crunch on 83rd street for LaBlast, one of my favorite classes with one of my favorite instructors, Carol. The dance based class reminds me a lot of Zumba, it’s a follow the instructor through intense cardio routines type of formula. In Lablast you do more of a combination– 8 or so mini parts which create a whole dance. In zumba you repeat the same moves during the same parts of the song (for example the chorus is always the same move).

It’s a super fun and sweaty workout for both dancers and non-dancers. It also helps that Carol is an awesome instructor, she has an abundance of energy and a contagious smile. I couldn’t ask for a better way to sweat in the morning.

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after a lovely dance class I was craving my favorite new york breakfast– a bagel from the amazing Bagel Bob’s. I have such a carb addiction…..

I firmly believe though that a little treat and food splurge is okay– I’m all about moderation. Since I’ve been away from NYC and therefore their far superior bagels, I convinced myself I totes deserved that delicious bagel today. Ah, Kayla Reasoning.

Since I try to eat dairy-free as much as possible, I decided to try the tofu-cream cheese. More reasons to love NYC bagels– the bagel places sell tofu-cream cheese as an option.

the verdict?

I love this stuff! The consistency is the same cool creaminess as normal cream cheese. It is less flavorful compared to the dairy stuff, but on tasty, flavorful bagel it definitely does the trick!!!

Next up today I’m going to a trapeze class (number 2 since coming back from injury!!!!) and then the boy comes into the city for the weekend.

and lastly, day 7 of the blog challenge

Day 7 What’s your favourite strength move?

I’ve always loved a good forearm planks.

 

[source]

what’s your favorite strength move?

the last hoorahs of college and 21

uh, graduabirthday is TOMORROW? WHAT. it feels like just yesterday I was an itty bitty freshman (and by itty bitty I mean the exact same height as I am now…) moving into Hayden Hall with my parents, anxious and excited to begin my college journey. In some ways it went by super fast, in other ways it has definitely been four long years.

This awkward limbo week with no homework or finals has been absolutely crazy with workouts, yoga, friends visiting, end of year parties, and a brief trip home to Westchester.

Here’s what’s been going down, and how the challenge is going:

Thursday (day 10)

Day 10 was a $1 Karma Yoga class at Yoga Vida. $1 yoga? sweeeeeet. The class is taught by a recent graduate of the yoga teacher program. I am deeply considering attending the teacher training at Vida in the near future, so it was awesome to see the final product of the program and take a class with one of the new teachers. The class was pretty basic, no crazy inversions, but that is perfect for me and my arm at the moment. It gave me a really good feeling about the teacher training program and even more incentive to sign up in the future.

Thursday night was my friends birthday and a trip to DINO BBQ! nom nom nom. I’ve never been to Dino BBQ, but people are OBSESSED with this place. I’m not a huge bbq gal, but this food was awesome, the portions were epic, and the price was great for college students. I highly recommend taking this trip way up town for some delicious food

bbq chicken, totes worth the food baby

Friday (day 11)

Woahhhh we’re half way there!

Friday’s class was a super awesome and inspirational one at yoga vida. The instructor explained that we are going to focus on “pratyahara” today. She explained it as going from the inside out instead of the other way around. So often we look for happiness in outside things– possessions, boyfriends, material goods, etc, when really we are our own source of happiness.

I really connect with this concept, especially after reading “The Happiness Project” last summer and taking “The Science of Happiness” at nyu this semester. It is easy to blame other things for our unhappiness. I had always been super convinced that having a boyfriend would make me happy and solve all my problems. Last summer I realized though that in order to even “get” the boyfriend, to make that connection with someone else, I had to be happy to begin with. I am seriously convinced that this is why my boyfriend and I did get together at the end of last summer- happy people are simply more attractive, more fun to be around, and the people you want to have a relationship with. If I hadn’t spent the summer laughing, smiling, confident and focusing on having the greatest summer of my life, I don’t think this relationship would have happened.

This is also true with material goods– We all want the newest iPhone, the best gadgets, things that we think will make us happy. But then an even newer, better version comes out, and we are once again sad.

I am a strong believer than money does not bring happiness. You can own all the possessions in the world, but nothing can buy that true key to happiness– human connection, and the ability to find happiness from within.

What I wonder is, does that mean outside things can’t also ultimately make us “sad” or the opposite of happy?

I know death, trauma, etc, can make us unhappy (and justifiably so), but if going on that principle of finding happiness from within, does that also mean we can only find sadness from within?

Saturday (day 12)

Day 12 was a sleep walking through class kinda class. I just kept telling myself to push through.

Sunday (day 13)

On sunday I decided to stay after zumba for Buddha Belly at Crunch. The class was a sort of yogalates fusion combing moves from both vocabularies. While I enjoyed the class, I slightly regretted not going to one of the vinyasa classes I am more accustomed to. I found myself stressed about not doing the moves and poses correctly since a lot of them were new to me, compared to when I can go into full on “I AM FOCUSING ON MY BREATH” mode in a flow class because I know ultimately how to position my body

And it was mothers day! On Friday I left flowers and cupcakes in my parents apartment to surprise them when they arrived that night. I absolutely adore my mama and cannot even begin to thank her for putting up with me…..

For mothers day my family did what my family does best– we went to see a broadway musical! For the past 10 years we have been mega fans of the incredibly talented Raul Esparza, so we knew seeing his new show “Leap of Faith” would be something that made the whole family happy.

Ironically we ended up with tickets to the closing performance of the show. My family loved the show, based on the movie, that reminded us a lot of “The Music Man” meets the energy of Footloose. so sad to see it close

Even better than the show was stagedooring afterwards, where Raul recognized my brother and I. You know you’ve stagedoored too many times with the actor remembers you….

ya know, two NYU Tisch, Playwrights Horizons Graduates 🙂

can’t wait to see what his next project is

Monday (day 14)

When I decided to do a 22 Day Yoga Challenge I knew there were some possible “problem days”. One is tomorrow, Graduabirthday, because I am still not sure how the timing will work out with everything.

The other problem? Knowing I would finally be getting my shoulder checked out and a less than pleasant arthogram.

As someone will a bit of a needle phobia the thought of having a needle stuck into my shoulder joint made me queasy when I found out about the procedure a month ago. While the MRI part didn’t scare me (ya know, just lie in a machine and listen to showtunes, no big!) I was incredibly anxious about getting the dye injected into my shoulder.

Day 14 was my version of Yoga, willing myself to not going into full panic attack mode, keeping my body relaxed, and remaining as calm as possible to make the procedure easier for both the doctor and myself. I like to think that this is what the whole challenge as been about, finding a way to cope with anxiety inducing situations while avoiding full on freak outs.

and I did it! and being the “teachers pet” that I am, I was super happy when the anesthesiologist told my mom I did a really good job. Gold star for Kayla.

In the height of pain I zoned out and went through every trapeze trick I have ever done, visualizing what I looked like and hearing the commands. When that failed me I also sang in my head my favorite musical from childhood, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat”.

I am okay now, my shoulder is still a bit sore from the procedure, so I decided not to go to yoga at all yesterday.

In my opinion this is not failing my challenge, because physically I cannot go to a yoga class in this condition, and ultimately I felt I still practiced what a class would have given me.

Ironic part of the procedure? While listening to showtunes in the MRI machine (I love how they give you a choice of music stations… and I love how I am probably the only person that picks the showtunes station) “What I Did for Love” from A Chorus Line came on. A song about getting injured doing something you love, in the show it is about what happens if your dance career is over. For me, it’s the song I’ve been singing to myself about performing and trapeze since I got injured. super freaky.

So 8 weeks later, I found out I have tendonitis in my right rotator cuff. The good news? I don’t need surgery. And physical therapy starts monday. the road to recovery begins

Back in the city at night I hung out with my bestie David before he headed back to the West Coast.

we enjoyed an INCREDIBLE meal at Red Bamboo, this delicious vegetarian restaurant in the village

above is my coconut “chicken”. delish. David had an asian “beef” dish which was also delish. Even though I eat chicken and turkey, I still really enjoy vegetarian food. My big suggestion is enjoy the dish for what it is, not what it is trying to imitate.

TODAY (Tuesday)
and today. I set my super early alarm, ambitiously hoping to go to early morning vinyasa at Yoga Vida. While I was wide awake and ready to go at 6:15, my arm is still a bit sore from the injection. I decided to wait and see if my arm is a bit less sore to do a yoga class tonight

Instead, I went to LaBlast and Pilates Fusion at Crunch Christopher street. I must say I was SUPER impressed with everything there. The gym is spread out and not crowded, the people in class were seriously the loveliest I have taken a group fitness class with recently, and Carol was awesome about making sure I was doing okay with my lame arm. Two thumbs up for this mornings sweat.

 

 

and now, tomorrows the big day! Turning 22 and graduating!

a lil’ sneaky peak at what’s in store:

I get to wear that… uh lovely… purple tent all week!

“is this just lust, or could it be the dawning”

got some early graduabirthday gifts from my bestie David

look familiar?

uh wow, everyone else has a pretty tough act to follow 🙂

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Successful Day 6 & 7 of my 22 day yoga challenge!

thoughts from day 6 (vinyasa @ yoga vida)

— IT WAS SUNNY OUT!

hello glorious sunday weather. you were very appreciated!

— I couldn’t help but wonder, will I get bored of this by day 22? At the beginning of class I had the “didn’t I just go to yoga” feeling, like when you watch the same episode of a TV show twice in a short period of time. While I don’t know how I will feel on day 22, as day 6 went on I felt anything but bored with the class. There is still so much to be explored with each pose and things I simply cannot do but hope to some day.

— oh hey, I finally learned how to correctly do a shoulder stand! My toes have been hovering over my face instead of away from it. It is amazing when you click into the correct position after doing a pose incorrectly day after day, you feel the shift of energy and the “a-ha, this feels awesome” moment.

–I tend to get obsessed with things– boys, broadway shows, trapeze, and now yoga…. but I hope this is one of those obsessions that last longer, because I am definitely benefitting from it mentally and physically

thoughts from day 7 (sunrise salutation @ crunch)

— Today I technically didn’t have to be anywhere until 2:30pm. I kept my permanent 6:15AM monday alarm, if I seriously wasn’t motivated I would allow myself to go back to sleep– there was plenty of other yoga class I could take before 2:30. At 6AM i bolted awake, did I miss my alarm? Do I really now have an internal clock that goes off that early!? oh god, I know it is still a few days til I turn 22, but am I getting that old?

— After taking lots of afternoon classes, most of them post dancing and sweating in other capacities, a morning class felt SO WEIRD. At first I was wondering why my body wasn’t being bendy, but hey it’s 7AM, you just woke up.

— My mind kept telling my body “this IS the best you can do right now”. It is how I pushed through the soggy, sweaty class this morning, reminding myself that as long as I was doing the best I could do, it didn’t matter what things and variations I wasn’t doing.

One week into the challenge and I’m going strong!

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After yoga this morning I decided to try out LaBlast at Crunch. Online description: Created by world champion and ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” dancer and choreographer Louis Van Amstel, this class will lead you through various dance genres combining exhilarating body movements and creative fitness routines to burn fat and blast away calories. No experience and no partner necessary.

I get oddly nervous before taking a new fitness class, wondering if it is going to kick my butt, if it is going to be too easy or if it is not gonna be my cup of tea. I was pleasantly surprised to LOVE LaBlast. It follows a similar formula as zumba. The big difference is the sequence of the choreography. In zumba you match the part of the song to dance moves– so every time you hear the chorus, you do the same choreography. In LaBlast we did 8 or so steps repeating the full set throughout the song. The dance styles were also similar to zumba, both include cha-cha, salsa and swing. I loved that like zumba the steps were constantly changing, if you messed up whatever you’ll probably get another shot. I like fitness dance classes that don’t feel like a competition, it is about the sweat, not mastering choreography. It was the perfect 45 minutes of cardio that I was craving– something fun and more motivating than the treadmill.

I high recommend LaBlast to lovers of zumba and other dance fitness variations.

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Considering I didn’t have class or homework all day it was a jam packed day of yoga, LaBlast, guitar lessons and my final college performance– a musical theater cabaret. It is so weird to now REALLY be done with my last show at college. So happy to have a relatively free week now where my biggest concern is what yoga class to take….

And one final final thought, I ampraying the weather gods keep May 16th sunny and warm– I do not want rain at Yankee stadium for graduabirthday!

(yes I checked the weather at 6:28AM! May 16th was finally on the 10 day weather forecast)