Eat, Sweat, Smile

Fridays always make me think about getting away from it all, so I thought I’d take a look back at the little trip I took last week. As I mentioned earlier in the week, I recently left the City by the Bay-

for the bright lights of New York City-

 

Even though I’m a born and bred East Coaster, I moved to San Francisco after I graduated (almost five years ago, eek!)  because I didn’t think I could handle the hustle and bustle of New York. After going back last week, I think I might need to make a move .

It’d been about two years since I’d been back to THE CITY, so it was fun to fall in love all over again. What always amazes me is that there is so much to do on any given day.

While there, I attended the SELF Workout in the Park to act as escort to our LUNA vending machine-

And got stuck in a TORRENTIAL thunderstorm afterwards. California’s great and all, but I actually really miss weather like this!

I also miss random big city behavior-my co-worker was even nice enough to capture the moment when a random stranger huddled under my umbrella for a good five minutes-

When I wasn’t working or hanging out with strangers in the park, I proved that this wasn’t true-

by seeing all of my New York City friends who I have been neglecting to visit for so long. It was so much fun that I forgot to photo document it!

Although I did forget to harass my friends with cameras, I was able to capture my visit to a magical place called 16 Handles. If you’ve never been, you should go. This shop offers SIXTEEN flavors of frozen yogurt along with endless toppings. I decided to go against all reason and try it out (LACTOSE INTOLERANCE BE DAMNED!)

The after effects were totally worth it.

New York City, I miss you, but I’ll be back soon! (In two weeks to be exact).

So there you have it, a random post for a random Friday. Hope you have a great weekend!

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you know the following:

1) I work in PR 

2) I get to do some pretty cool things (like build the world’s longest picnic table)

3) I have some pretty awesome clients, one of which is LUNA Bar. Aside from the fact that I get to visit CLIF Bar and Company’s amazing HQ on a regular basis and have an endless supply of LUNA Bars at my disposal,

what I really love about LUNA is that the brand truly believes in the power of women and the power of healthy snacking, which is why we recently launched the Feed Your Strength…At Work! Facebook contest. The winner of the contest, which runs through June 30th, could win this- 

Yep, that’s right, a fully stocked LUNA vending machine for your office!

Feed Your Strength at Work is all about encouraging healthy workplace habits, so LUNA is encouraging fans to submit photos of themselves and their coworkers practicing healthy habits for a chance to win one of two aforementioned stocked vending machines. In addition, each winner will receive six one-on-one nutrition sessions with LUNA’s in-house dietitian to keep the healthy habits going.

Don’t worry, even if you can’t enter the contest (like yours truly) or you aren’t a grand prize winner, you can have a play date with the LUNA vending machine. If you’ve checked my Instagram lately, you probably saw that I recently traveled to New York City for the SELF Workout in the Park as part of the vending machine’s entourage (yes, it travels with a posse). The machine is making a nationwide tour with stops in San Diego, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco [see dates below]. If you’re in the area,  swing by to play with the machine, snack on some LUNA bars and pick up some cool LUNA schwag! Oh yeah, and to talk to me or one of my coworkers

Happy Snacking!

• New York, NY
  • Wanderlust Yoga in the City – June 9, 2013
  • SHE Summit – June 14 – 15, 2013
  • Solstice in Times Square – June 21, 2013
• Chicago, IL
  • SELF Workout in the Park – June 1, 2013
  • Wanderlust in the City – June 2, 2013
• San Francisco Bay Area, CA
  • Professional Women’s Conference – May 23, 2013
• Los Angeles, CA
  • Wanderlust in the City – June 30, 2013
• San Diego, CA 
  • Wine Chocolate & Cheese Festival, June 21, 2013

Disclosure: I was not reimbursed or compensated for this post although as mentioned earlier, LUNA is one of my clients. 

 

Yesterday I debuted Eat, Sweat, Smile’s facelift and today-

A Facebook page!

 

If you have a second, I’d love it if you liked my blog’s page!

 

I LOVE breakfast.

Breakfast at noon time, breakfast after school time, breakfast at supper time…I love breakfast food at any point of the day.

Despite the fact that I would love to eat breakfast in bed or at my kitchen table every single day, sometimes I don’t have the time for a leisurely morning meal and I have to breakfast to the office. But just because I have to sacrifice the ambiance side of the breakfast equation, doesn’t mean I have to sacrifice my favorite breakfast meals. 

Here are two of my favorite “on the go” breakfast that I prepare at home and cook at the office.

Behold-  

Here’s how you make it.

Ingredients

6 egg whites

2 cups sauteed spinach

3/4 c. sauteed veggie of your choice

 

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in a tupperware bowl. Make sure it’s sealed

2. When you arrive at your office, pour mixture into a bowl of your choice (in this case it’s the attractive office paperware) and microwave for 2 minutes or until done.

Enjoy!

 

So we’ve got the savory egg breakfast down, but you might be asking “What if I want a smoothie for breakfast, but my office doesn’t have a blender?”

Answer:

 

Also known as the SIAB, which is not to be confused with the other SIAB (Salad In A Bag).

But enough with nicknames, here’s how you do it. Remember, you can switch up the ingredients to your liking, but the general process is the same.

Ingredients

1 scoop protein powder

1 c. strawberries

1 c. almond milk

ice

Directions

1. In the morning, combine all smoothie ingredients in a blender and blend per usual.

2. Pour into a ziplock bag.

*Pro tip: Make sure the bag is sealed. No one likes a lunchbox mess.*

3. When you arrive at your place of business, place the bag in the freezer.

4. When you’re ready to indulge in an mid morning or afternoon smoothie delight, place the bag in the microwave and defrost for about 2 minutes or until some of the smoothie has melted but there are still frozen pieces and it’s cold to the touch (no one likes a warm smoothie)

5. Shake the bag to break up the frozen tip (remember the aforementioned pro tip-no on likes a smoothie all over the office kitchen), pour into a glass and enjoy.

So there are two easy tips to take your breakfast (or anytime meals) on the go!

 

Hope everyone had a great Monday and Tuesday is off to a swimming start.

Since this is a fitness blog and all, I thought it would be a good idea to start posting my plan for weekly workouts to keep myself accountable and give a little sneak peek into what I do every week. Athena at Fitness and Feta posts her weekly workout plans and I thought this was a great way to keep myself accountable and give you a sneak peek into what I do every week. Moreover, I think it’s so much fun to see how everyone else gets their sweat on from week to week. 

 

This week is going to present a little challenge since I’ll be on a plane most of Friday for a work trip (and on an early flight to boot) and working most of the day on Saturday. One of the other things I think you might notice is that I’ll be doing a longish run on Saturday (I’m SUPER excited that I’ll be running in NYC-no hills, at least compared to SF, sunshine and a change of scenery!!!) because I just got back to running after a bit of a hiatus and of course that means I went all in and signed up for this-

Now that I’ve given you a peek at the week ahead, I’ll take a step back and show you what I did for my workout yesterday.

Fiona woke me up I woke up bright and early on Monday so I could get in a quick 3 mile spin before work-

Much like Saturday’s 6 miler, my heart was POUNDING during the first two miles even though I wasn’t running very hard. Does this happen to anyone else when they run in the AM? I’m starting to think that I don’t really get warmed up until about two miles in, which is really unfortunate for shorter runs like this. Oh well.

On to the fun stuff. Yesterday was my first “real” CrossFit class with other people…and it was so much fun. I love that you get to buddy up and push each other to go further. Here was yesterday’s workout-

We started out with some hip openers and kettlebell swings and then found our 10 rep max for back squats.

After that we got to the meat of the workout which was 5 rounds of 3 minutes AMRAP of -

• Approx. 06 mi sprint (we sprinted to the end of our alley way and back)
• 3 kettlebell swings (I used 35 pounds)
• 5 pushups
• 7 knees to elbows

We got two minutes of rest in between each round. This workout was such a fun and super challenging! I’m quite competitive, so I really liked competing against other people and trying to beat the last round’s score (my score is the last one in the grid in the picture above). My weak point was definitely the knees to elbows-

It’s supposed to look like this-

but since I’m a newbie and this is a move that takes mastery, there was a lot of horizontal movement-so much so that one of the other girls in the class caught me when I dismounted because she was afraid I was going to fly across the room.

Regardless of my uneven bars like knees to bar technique, I loved it and my abs are feeling it.

So what are your workouts for the week? Do you plan your workouts in advance?

 

May?

It’s May already?

Well, before we jump forward, let’s take a look back at the month that was April. Although I took a bit of a hiatus for the beginning of the month, things are back in full swing, so here are a few of my favorites.

Favorite Posts: On Moving Forward & Taking Chances

Favorite Workout: Spartacus!

This left me waddling for days.

Favorite Eat: Meatless Meal

An Italian sandwich gone healthy and a side dish that is nutritious and delicious.

I really can’t believe we’re almost halfway through 2013! But we gotta get through May first…it’s going to be a crazy month!