Eat, Sweat, Smile

Activewear USA recently contacted me asking if I’d like to review their site and clothes. I had never heard of the site before, but I like activewear and I love the USA, so I thought why not.

 

I had a chance to check out the website and find out a bit more about the brand. Activewear USA was founded by mom, fitness enthusiast and entrepreneur Avi Woolman who quit her job as a software developer to that would offer largest selection of high performance, stylish yoga and fitness activewear. And boy do they have a large selection.

The site carries over 120 activewear brands including some of my personal favorites like Lucy, Alo, Nux and Patagonia. When they contacted me about reviewing the site, I was excited to see what they would send for me to try on since they only asked a few questions about my workout style. When the package arrived I found a top from VATA, a company that I’d never heard of before.

The top  was a cute color, had a supportive bra and the fabric felt great. Definitely something I’d wear again.

 

The pants were another story…

They were too big and the style wasn’t my personal preference, but you win some, you lose some.

Even though I had no control over my pants selection on Activewear USA, YOU DO! Use the code AWD13051 for a 10% discount code you can use on anything you want! Better yet, if you’re a certified fitness instructor of any kind, email Service@activewearusa.com, tell them I sent you and you can get a 15% discount. Shop and sweat away folks!

Also while I”m in review mode, I thought I would do a quick well deserved review for a top that I’ve loved (and run in) for about a year now. I mentioned earlier in the post that Activewear USA carries Lucy and the Lucy Activewear Crossback top is one of my absolute favorites. I love it so much that I even violated gym rules and took sketchy selfies while I was wearing it yesterday-

Lucy Crossback tank, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways-

1) A built in bra that actually is comfortable AND keeps the girls in place. This is the only built in bra top I run in.

2) A big back pocket that fits my iPhone 5, money and keys. Great for longer runs.

3) Breathable and wicking. There are mesh panels in the back of the top and in built into the bra so you never get sweaty. The material is also wicking so you’re comfortable and never feel like a sweaty mess.

Here’s to you Lucy Crossback tanktop! Now go pick up one on ActivewearUSA

ActivewearUSA provided me with product to review. I reviewed the Lucy Activewear shirt because I love it that much!

I recently started posting my weekly workout schedule to keep myself accountable and share what I’m up to when it comes to sweating.

If you’re interested in week one’s workouts, check out this post. I’m happy to report that I was able to complete all of my workouts (including a lovely run through Central Park), though there were a few changes as to which workouts occurred on certain days. As long as it gets done right?

Since I was a little behind due to my travels, I wasn’t able to post a workout plan, but here’s what I did last week in case you’re interested-

Plus a seven mile run on Sunday.

If you can read my chicken scratch, you’ll see that I had to shuffle things again, but once again…getting it done is all that matters.

Well we’re on to a new week, so here’s the plan-

Git’er done!

What’s your workout plan for the week?

Since I actually did a few fun things this weekend, I thought I’d do a little recap action.

FRIDAY

Apparently, this week marks the beginning of Cross Fit regionals, so our box is doing the same workouts as the pros. Friday’s workout turned out to be Jackie…and Jackie is a you know what.

When I came into the box, I saw this on the board-

When I saw this workout, I was pumped for two reasons:

1) It was the first to involve erging and as an ex-rower I had a bit of an advantage

2) It consisted of three exercises, so it couldn’t be that hard, right?

WRONG. This workout humbled me and was definitely my first “holy crap this is kicking my butt” Cross Fit workout.

As suspected, rowing was fine since it’s was like re-living the pain cave glory days of indoor training-

THEN, came the thrusters.

This was my first time doing thrusters and I hope to never do them again (but of course I will). If you’re unfamiliar with this move, it starts off by assuming a low squat position with a 35 pound barbell on your shoulders-

and then, as if that’s not fun enough, you thrust (get the name now?) the bar over your head…FIFTY TIMES.

I had to take mini-breaks in between sets, but I managed to get it done.

The final kicker for Jackie is that there are 30 pull ups at the end. I used a black resistance band for assistance because I don’t have kipping form down yet and there’s no way I could do 30 unassisted pull-ups. Notice that there are no pictures of the photos-trust me, you don’t want to see that.

When all was said and done I finished in 10:31 and I thought my arms were going to fall off. Aside from the pain, what I loved about this workout is that it’s one you could do on your own at the gym. Try it!

After peeling myself off the floor, I made my way to a friend’s office happy hour where I chugged water like a champ. I then proceded to hit up the Whole Foods salad bar (probably because I didn’t think I could use my arms)

and parked myself on the couch to watch Friends with Benefits with Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis.

If you haven’t seen it yet, you should-it’s definitely a rom-com but I thought it was smart and funny. And who doesn’t love Justin?!

SATURDAY

Kept is very low key. The craziest thing I did was load up on tea at my favorite place-

SUNDAY

I started off the day way too early with a 7 mile run around my city.

Although I didn’t appreciate the lack of sleep, I did appreciate the city being very quiet before getting swept up in Bay to Breakers madness. If you’re not familiar with it, Bay to Breakers is a 100 hundred and some odd year old foot race where people dress up in crazy costumes and San Francisco turns into one big party.

No really, it turns into one big street party-

I’ve skipped the festivities for the past two years because it can be a bit overwhelming, but if you can’t beat ‘em, at least join ‘em…after enjoying a rooftop mimosa (or two) with friends-

I kept things low key and spent a few hours checking out the crazy Bay to Breakers costumes while walking the race course-if you’re ever in town for the event, definitely check it out (and call me for a mimosa)! After getting our fill of costumes (and lack there of-lots of naked people running around!), Rosie, Pat and I made our way back to our neck of the woods and finished the day with lunch at brewery and soaking up the sun in a nearby park.

Why can’t every day be the weekend?!

 

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?