Sweating Around Town

Greetings from my Manhattan apartment. I’m here for the next few days doing a job interview, cleaning my apartment, seeing some shows and saying goodbye to my city before the big california adventure in two weeks (!!!!!!!!!) It is definitely odd to be an alumni in NYU-land on the second day of school, I can’t believe I’m old enough to have graduated college!

Day 5 Share pictures of your favourite place to workout

My favorite place to run is my parents’ neighborhood:

My favorite places to sweat in the city are:

the trapeze rig

Yoga Vida

[source]

and Crunch

[source]

my favorite places to workout in Westchester are:

the awesome gym I belong to there…

[couldn’t find a good picture]

and getting my butt kicked at my local park 3 days a week at boot camp…

I feel like an exercise whore… I like to spread my sweaty love around to various locations throughout New York State….

Anyone else out there an exercise whore like myself 🙂 spreading their sweaty lovin’ around?

the not first day of school

excuse me while I go cry over the fact that NYU is starting classes today and I’m not. I am the nerdy kind of girl who loves school- I love learning new things and taking fascinating classes. It’s reasons like this that I am going to start working on grad school  and post bacc applications this Fall– I like school too much.

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I spent Labor Day with the boy seeing Mike Birbiglia’s movie “Sleep Walk With Me”

[source]

We both LOVED it. Mike Birbiglia is a funny funny guy and used his stand up routine about his bouts of sleepwalking to create the premiss for this movie which follows an up and coming comedian, his rocky long term relationship and his tendency to act out his dreams. It’s only playing at smaller, independent movie theaters at the moment, but I highly recommend you take the time to see it.

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today is day 4 of Fitness cheerleader’s Blogger Writing Challenge 

Day 4 Describe your typical training schedule for a week

I’m not one of those people that pre-schedules my workouts. I make a rough plan for the week of group fitness classes I would like to take, but often life gets in the way. Since I’m the kind of freak that likes working out, ultimately I know I will work out most days of the week, even if it’s not what I had planned. Basically I attend whatever group fitness classes fit into my schedule or run when I can’t make it to a class.

During the summer I had a pretty good routine going: 3 mornings a week I would attend an hour long, exhausting boot camp before work. The other 2 mornings I would run as part of training for the 5k I did at the end of the summer. At camp I did a lot of cardio being a mock zumba instructor for the kiddies and at night I would take a group fitness class if I didn’t have plans with friends– usually zumba or kickboxing.

Nowadays I’ve been attending boot camp most mornings and also going to the gym for the usual zumba, kickboxing and body pump. I’m sure once I’m in California I will adjust my fitness routine to fit classes out there to get a good mix of cardio, strength and yoga, in addition to running a lot which will utilize the beautiful weather and scenery…

My fitness goal every week is to workout 6 days a week with different levels of intensity and 1 rest day.

What’s your typical training schedule for a week?

labor day

Happy Labor Day everyone!

Hope you are having a nice last hoorah of summer. I don’t have a barbeque to go to so I’m substituting with a vegan boca burger made on the stove. Not quite the same as a delicious turkey burger hot off a grill…

I spent the majority of yesterday afternoon choreographing and writing down Zumba dances.

I am TERRIBLE at memorizing dances and have to write down every step of choreography I come up with.

Thank god I have a bunch of songs & dances that I know pretty well from classes I’ve attended dozens of times, but I am trying to build my repertoire so when I arrive in California I have a bunch of playlists ready to go. The Zumba instructor DVDs have become my best friend– every month Zumba sends a CD with new songs and every other month they also include a DVD with choreography ideas. Super helpful for a new instructor trying to put together an hours worth of choreography.

I already booked my first “zumba audition” in California. It’s really hard to pick the best 15 minutes worth of dances to showcase myself as an instructor.

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Today is day 3 of Fitness Cheerleaders Blogging Challenge

Day 3 Do you take any vitamins or supplements? If so, which ones and why?

I used to take adult gummy vitamins but haven’t recently. My real reasoning is because they taste good, my health reasoning is because I could probably use the vitamin boost in my diet.

I also take melatonin at night to help me fall asleep. Perhaps it’s the placebo effect making me sleepy, but I swear these things are magical. After struggling with insomnia since I was little, for the first time in my life I can fall asleep easily but I don’t wake up groggy like from other sleep aids.

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Hope everyone has a great labor day!

Pump It Up

I have a new fitness love. At first I was “meh” about him, but I decided to give him a second chance, and he has won me over.

It’s body pump

 

So what exactly is body pump?

Body Pump is a group fitness class focusing on strength training with a barbell. It’s kind of like the zumba of strength training in a sense that the songs have exactly the same moves each time. Each track focuses on a different body part: there’s a squat song, a chest song, biceps, triceps, lunges, abs, etc. It doesn’t matter which instructor you have, the moves to the songs are already pre-choreographed and the same with each instructor.

What I love about it:

-I like the predictability and continuity = every class is the same no matter which instructor you have.

-I know I will get an intense full body work out every time.

– Its incredibly difficult depending on how much weight you put on the bar

 What I dislike about it: 

-I wish the warmup included a bit more cardio to get my heart rate up.

-Body Pump isn’t exactly injury friendly– as someone with rotator cuff issues

-I imagine it can get boring, like if a Zumba instructor only had 1 playlist. While the songs and exercises might be great, doing the same thing over and over again can get boring.

– Changing the weights after every song makes me incredibly anxious- I feel like I’m racing to get weights on the bar. I’m also still learning what weight is best for each body part so I’m constantly adjusting during a song.

Overall

Body Pump is a great strength training workout. It’s been a fun class to add to my daily routine, even if it makes me feel like a weakling.

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Today is the second day of September which makes the second day of Fitness Cheerleader’s Blogger Writing Challenge

Day 2 Share your thoughts and feelings about Lance Armstrong’s lifetime ban and loss of titles 

I will admit, I have not fully read up on the specifics of what happened, but I do know that overall his titles have been taken away because of taking performance enhancing drugs. I have mixed feelings about the whole situations– while I think it is unfair to athletes who worked hard and did not take anything to enhance their performances, I also think it is cruel to completely strip Armstrong of his titles.

It is hard to know what would have happened without those drugs– would he still would have won? Banning him is the appropriate gesture since in a sense he cheated, but I think ultimately he still won those races. I am sure there are plenty of other athletes who have also taken performance enhancing drugs yet have not be striped of their titles because it has not been investigated.

I honestly don’t know what is the right or wrong thing to do in this situation.

“summer has come and passed”

the mega green day fan in me cannot resist quoting this song on September 1st….

ahhhh September. It is a very odd feeling to be entering the month of September even though technically my summer is not ending. I am not going back to school. I am not going back to work. If anything, my “vacation” has only begun, in a little over 2 weeks I will be living the sweet life in California.

Even though I will be enjoying the sunshine until my California vacation ends in November, I’ve been trying to enjoy the summery activities of New York like…

…riding my bike for the first time in 5 years.

Not too far away from my parent’s house there’s a beautiful, well-kept bike trail.

I can’t believe I waited this long to dust off my old bike and hit this awesome trail

I rode about 9 miles. I forgot how much I love riding a bike outdoors.

…seeing Jimmy Buffett at Jones Beach

I’ve been attending Jimmy Buffett concerts with my family since I was 3 months old. While we’ve skipped a few summers, my family guessed that the four of us have gone together around 20 times. That’s alotta singing along to Margaritaville. It was the perfect weather to be at Jones Beach doing something my whole family loves. Rock and roll family bonding is the best.

…and yesterday the boy and I went kayaking on the lake where my grandparents

I can’t even tell you the last time I went kayaking but it was the perfect way to spend a sunny New York afternoon.

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I’m sad that New York summer is ending, but definitely looking forward to spending my fall lounging on the beach in Los Angeles 🙂

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For the month of September I will be participating in Fitness Cheerleader’s  blogger writing challenge. I invited you to join me in the challenge as well!

Todays prompt:
Day 1 Describe your pre and post workout routine

More often than not I exercise in the morning. Before leaving the house I usually eat a luna bar and a half or full peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat bread, depending on how long I’ll be out for.

After a morning work out I head over to starbucks to feed my caffeine addiction with a chai or coffee. During a grueling workout I dream about that chai— it’s what motivates me during burpees and other killer exercises….

how about you, what’s your pre & post workout routine?

funemployment

greetings from week two of funemployment!

perks of funemployment: I finally had time to get my nails did!
the color combo reminds me of the 80’s. and it matched one of my sundresses! win win.

 

I am attempting to apply for jobs in California. The only problem is I have approximately zero skillz or qualifications. Under special skills on my resume should read “choreographing outrageously cheesy  and embarrassing dances for co-workers”

I wish there was a job where that was literally all I had to do…

Funemployment means lots of free time.  Unfortunately I go stir crazy with lots of free time and no routine or schedule. I’ve reverted back to my college ways of writing out a super detailed and specific outline of my week. Highlights for this week include: seeing the Dark Knight Rises again (since I fell asleep the first time…), hopefully a beach trip, MY FIRST TRAPEZE CLASS IN 5 MONTHS, a mall excursion, a family outing to see Jimmy Buffett, and of course lots of schweaty workouts.

As always, one of my big goals is to cook more often. I tend to eat out a lot more than I would like to admit. With all this free time, and the humungous kitchen at my parents house, it means I have no excuses.

Here’s what I’ve been eating this week:

a brand new vegan overnight oats recipe

While I love the usual recipe I use, this was a tasty, dairy-free alternative. It’s great for super ripe bananas that are too mushy to be cut up. As always, I added some peanut butter and pb puffins. I also drizzled some extra honey on top. Delicious.

dairy free quesadilla 

quesadillas have always been one of my go-to foods. They are super easy to make and have a lot of fun variations. Since I cut back on the dairy consumption I’ve missed these cheesy treats.

Daiya dairy free cheese is an excellent alternative. Using the mozzarella flavor I made my favorite combination of cheese and sliced turkey with hummus on the side.

I look forward to more experimenting with daiya as a cheese alternative.

chicken francais

the boy and I attempting to make chicken frances once more. While the first time was decently successful and delicious, we wanted to double batter the chicken this time for an even better dish.

yummy success

paired with an appetizer salad and some whole grain linguini it was one awesome dinner.

almond pancakes

I spent all of Spring semester consuming greek yogurt pancakes like it was my job. While I love ’em, they aren’t dairy free. So now I present my new pancake love: PB Finger’s Almond Pancakes.

I’ll warn ya, they are a bit dry, but dipped in maple syrup they are perfect. I’ve been loving these filling bad boys after an intense morning of boot camp. Definitely keeps me full.

 

I’m hoping to have enough “go to” recipes and easy to make dishes that can keep me going in California without relying on take out (although I will have to give in and get some veggie grill sometimes)

any suggestions on what kind of job will allow me to choreograph more cheesy 90’s dances?

life after it all

my summer job is over, and that means getting back in touch with the real world and enjoying that beautiful thing called FREE TIME.

things I haven’t done in foreverrrrr:
go to a yoga class in Westchester

ahhh, it felt ah-mazing to stretch my poor beat up body… but it also hurt so good. My shoulder is less than thrilled now. Some poses came back easily with muscle memory, other poses felt foreign to my body.

the boy and I hit a huge milestone in our relationship….

our one year anniversary! (and I got him to smile in a picture, not an easy task…)

we spent last weekend in the city and saw the lion king on broadway. Actually… that was my long overdue Valentine’s/ 6 month gift… but better late than never, eh?

On our actual 1 year anniversary we headed back to the burbs for a fancy dinner (hence our spiffy outfits) at The Kittlehouse in Chappaqua, NY.

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It has almost been a week since my summer job as the dance specialist at a day cam,ended but I’m still recovering.

Recovering from the physical demand of dancing my butt off for hours a day on cement floor and screaming still my voice was hoarse.

Recovering from the constant anxiety that I should be choreographing and working harder during any downtime in my schedule.

Recovering from the exhausting schedule. up at 6AM, out the door to workout by 6:30, starbucks, camp by 8:15, work til 4, socialize and/or workout, pray I go to bed by midnight.

Recovering from the crap I consumed all summer long– I couldn’t resist a midmorning cookie at camp, anytime someone brought dunkin donuts munchkins, homemade treats and vegan ice cream….

In the whirlwind week since work ended I am trying to give attention to all those things I neglected for 8 weeks– my overall health, my abused body, my ugly chipped nail polish, my eyebrows in need of a good waxing, my voice and my yoga mat that is collecting dust. It’s time to take control of my life again in these few weeks before I leave for California.

How do I create schedule and routine when I have literally no plans from now until September 19th? I don’t do well without routine.

and lastly, I have the greatest friends/ coworkers ever. They willingly do my silly choreography in front of the whole camp ❤ imma miss stuff like this the most about camp.

The 5K: Then and Now

Tomorrow I will once again be running the Damon Runyon 5K at Yankee Stadium. While I am still far from a runner, I am more confident in my ability to run 3.1 miles than I was last year. I don’t know much about running but I did learn from the mistakes I made last year.

with my padre before starting the race

the Training
2011: I ran on the treadmill and only the treadmill. Big mistake. The second the race began last year I realized I had no idea how to pace myself since I always relied on the treadmill’s speed to guide me. I did not have a training plan either, I simply tried to walk/run a couple of days a week and prove to myself that I could keep moving for 3.1 miles

2012: I’ve been running both on the treadmill, on my high school’s track and mainly outside in my neighborhood. I have learned how to pace myself and maintain a running state for 30 minutes. I used the couch to 5k training plan via the get running app.

this has been a hugeeee help and I cannot recommend it enough to 5K-ers. It slowly works up your running endurance week by week. I especially love the app because I can still listen to music on my iPod while hearing the commands of when to walk and run.

I am honestly amazed that I can now run 30 minutes without stopping. I never thought that was possible

The Shoes

2011: The sneakers I trained in were not the sneakers I raced in. Big mistake. I was caught in a bit of a pickle last year because I am very strict about wearing my “gym shoes” indoors and only indoors. I didn’t want to wear them for the outside race, so I wore an old pair of sneakers from high school. This wasn’t such a comfy decision.

2012: I went to a running store to have my foot fitted for running shoes specific to my needs. I’ve been wearing them for all my runs ever since and LOVE my new brooks.

The Music

2011: I listened to American Idiot broadway cast recordings and more American Idiot for all my running needs. That is actually how I paced myself– when the music was fast I ran fast, when the music was slow I walked. While I have approximately 20 variations of American Idiot on Broadway (yes, I am obsessed) this got boring fast, but I couldn’t imagine running to any other music since I had such a pattern with American Idiot

2012: I switch up my playlist daily. My playlists have consisted of a bunch of songs that I am currently loving or that pump me up

 

My theory is have 2 or 3 songs that are guaranteed an energy boost in between some filler songs. For example, whenever Favorite Son or LA X comes on I find myself pushing harder and running a little bit faster. When I’ve been making playlists I put a lot of extra songs in between the “guaranteed energy” ones so I can switch it up depending on my mood. 

 

Ultimately my attitude and goals are different this year. I’ve been training hard all summer and amazing myself with what I can achieve thanks to a little bit of training. While Sunday may be the actual race, I feel like I’ve already accomplished the goals I was going for. Never in my life did I think I could run steadily for 30 minutes. That to me is far more thrilling than whatever amount of time it takes me to cross the finish line

 

sweaty siblings at the finish line

Happiness Is…

• my best friend’s bridal shower

trapeze styling, of course

• what could have been a lame saturday night turned hilarious because of good friends and people that work at the bowling alley poking fun at me
  

  yes, I bowled with bumpers. judge away

• being less than a week away from the Runyon 5k at Yankee stadium…. and knowing that I am actually prepared to run it this time
  
• Zumba-ing to “Piragua”, a song from one of my favorite musicals “In the Heights”
• taking a well deserved shower after a long monday of 6:45AM bootcamp, day camp and zumba
• watching the olympics every spare moment I have. Seriously, I’m obsessed with these athletes and all their stories
• a beautiful storm
  
• knowing that in a little over a month I will be living with my best friend in California

but even better is the feeling that there is no where else I want to be right now than here, in good ol’ suburbia with this boy

and these people

I have the rest of my life to live in the city — taking a million group fitness classes at crunch, going to cheap yoga down the street, walking around Central Park, eating vegan ice cream, seeing Broadway shows and loving Manhattan unconditionally.
But I only have one summer where I’m 22, and essentially enjoying the last bit of childhood. The last time I get to work at camp where friendships are instant and I get to spend all night with the people I work all day with.

There comes a time every summer when I become obsessed with my friends and don’t want this feeling to end
That inevitable time has come. While I am super excited for what is next, I also know I need to enjoy what I have right now while I can. 2 more weeks of camp, about a month and a half til California. Here’s to savoring every last bit of this summer.

how time flies

It’s already week 5 of camp, y’all? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE. More than halfway through the camp season and I’m still learning staff members names….

When this summer began I started referring to it as “the last summer of childhood”. yes, I am 22, and the last summer of childhood should have happened approximately 4 years ago, but I am dead serious about this concept. It is the last summer quite possibly in my life that I will have a true summer. As much as I would secretly love to work at camps for the rest of my life, I sadly have the enter the real world of full time work for minimum wage and with no summer vacation.

While I am the least reckless, rebellious, exciting person ever, it is necessary to push myself outside my comfort zone and do things a bit on the wild side. There is a totally valid point to YOLO: you do in fact only live once, so why always play is so safe?

It all began with this

seeing the dark knight rises at midnight in the middle of a work week? Eh, not the brightest. But I can only be irresponsible and reckless for so much longer…

The midnight showing was brought to you by CAFFEINE

unfortunately starbucks in suburbia closes around 9PM, so I had to actually make coffee. Lemme tell you, this cup of coffee was absolutely necessary. Even so, I still managed to fall asleep during the movie. Multiple times. Talking about the movie with my friends feels like recapping a party I blacked out during. I kept going “WAIT, THAT HAPPENED?” So let this be a lesson to you all, don’t work a full camp day and expect to stay up for a 3 hour movie at midnight.

Thanks to the midnight showing I didn’t make it home til 3:30AM. Silly me ambitiously set the alarm for 6AM  thinking I would actually be functional for bootcamp. LOLZ. I am a believer in no excuses when it comes to working out, however the exception to the rule is exhaustion. It is more important to listen to my body and what it needed. 6AM bootcamp would have been a silly mistake.

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post midnight showing was a full day of camp followed by a lovely weekend in the city with the boy.

the jam packed mini-vacation began with seeing Fela on Broadway. 2 years ago I saw the original broadway production and loved the energetic, emotional story of african musician Fela Kuti . This production is technically the tour making a pit stop on broadway for a few weeks. The touring production definitely matches the powerful original version.

Saturday was spent loving the beautiful weather in central park.

 

a bonus for the weekend was getting to see my very good friend Jenna on her 22nd birthday. We have a long history of spending summers together both at day camp and sleep away camp.

Saturday night was another broadway show, Bring it On the musical! I’ve been anxiously waiting to see this musical for over 2 years now! Back when I was 10 I was obsessed and watched the movie every single day on pay per view. An added bonus is that the creative team who wrote and directed the musical are some of my favorite broadway people EVER. It’s like they put together my dream team to create Bring it On. The musical does not follow the same story line as the movie, but has a similar style. I think people who like the movie will also enjoy the humor of the musical. I was thoroughly impressed with the musical especially the crazy cheerleading stunts. My hero Lin Manuel Miranda was also sitting in the row in front of me taking notes– made the whole theater experience even more magical.

Being in Manhattan also means being surrounded by delicious food all weekend long. The boy and I made sure to hit up as many of our favorite places as we could cram into the weekend. I also discovered a new favorite dessert place

 

meet STOGO, my new dairy-free obsession. Being an ice cream addict, but currently dairy-free I’ve been crying a bit missing my favorite frozen treat. Only a few blocks away from my apartment is STOGO, the greatest thing ever. I chose the coconut based chocolate chip vanilla and soy based salted caramel pecan. Both were good, but the vanilla was a bit bland after the outrageously awesome taste of the caramel. The boy refused to try it since it was dairy free and he thought it was weird. More ice cream for me 🙂

and what would a trip into the city be without a class at Yoga Vida! My body was crying for a yoga class, since I’ve been a bad bad yogi and haven’t gone to class since the first day of camp 4 weeks ago. oooh it felt so good to have a sweaty vinyasa class. I miss it so much. It is amazing what the body doesn’t forgot– the wise corrections and words of all my various yoga teachers and the things I realized when I did 21 yoga classes in 22 days only a mere 2 months ago.

there is nothing more lovely than walking in union square after a delightful yoga class with a soy chai latte

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returning to the city briefly makes me realize how much I miss it and how that island has become my home. the second I opened the door to my apartment I felt a sense of being home that I don’t think I will ever feel in suburbia

as much as I would have loved to stay in the city, it was time to back to my other home, my parents home.

after being on a workout break, it was time to kick my own ass again when I got back to the ‘burbs.

ugh, a dreaded 25 minute run.

but the weather was lovely at my old high schools track, a nice breezy evening

and I made a killer playlist of green day, katy perry and ska tunes to keep me moving.

So I kept on running

for 25 minutes.

the longest I have ever run without stopping in my entire life.

#proof

and really, it wasn’t so bad! Okay, maybe it was a bit rough during it at times, but it was all about not stopping. Knowing that I could do it even I wanted to stop because it was difficult. It didn’t matter how fast I ran, just that I was running for the full 25 minutes. And it was a bit glorious to know I accomplished something– something I have never done before. After feeling so brought down by my injury for the past few months, this feeling of accomplishment is even more rewarding..

now I have to mentally prepare myself for 2 more 25 minute runs this week. EEEEEEK

here’s to week 5 and the second half of camp. the last summer of childhood continues!