Ride With Pablo!

"You control your body. You control your speed. You control your power!"

Those are the words Pablo kept repeating last night and it really was motivational. Spin is hard, spin is tiring, but spin also forces you to go within yourself and find out how hard you can push yourself. And when you think you have pushed yourself far enough, go a little more. Spin makes you use your own body to build resistance against the bike - you control your ride and, just like Pablo said, you control your body. It's all mental. When the heat in the room is getting to be too much and the music is just too loud, and your muscles are sore and you can't climb that hill any higher (and you can't actually see the hill they want you to climb), you just have to remind yourself that there is an end, and the longer you push, the quicker the end will come!

Last night's class was hard and great! I hadn't been to a spin class since October so I knew this would be hard. I knew I would not be able to push myself as hard as I wanted to, but as long as I was there and moving my legs and sweating, I knew everything would be okay. I love that moment when Pablo gets on his bike and says "Hello! How is everyone doing? Tonight's going to be easy" because you just know, there is no such thing as easy when it comes to Pablo! When the lights dimmed and the music started playing, I lowered my head, turned up my resistance and just rode my bike. I rode the hill that Pablo told me we were going to ride and I got up out of the saddle when it became really tough, and sat down and pushed my legs faster to go downhill. The music was loud, emotions were strong and I was loving it! I couldn't think about anything at all. I sang along to the music in my head and just went with the flow. I love that Pablo rides with us and then he walks around the room and makes sure that everyone is doing okay - I love that he locks eyes with you and moves side to side standing in front of you while you move side to side on the bike. It's motivational and it's fun!

I had a lot of Weight Watchers Activity logged from the ride (5 points), but the fitbit did not do a good job. From the chart, it looks like I was barely moving during the 45 minute class, whereas the activelink tracked high activity levels. I only hit my steps goal on my walk home. I am glad that I use both to track my activity because sometimes the tracking does not make sense. Obviously last night's spin class was more activity than the fitbit shows since it is showing my walk to the class as more activity than the class itself.

I got home last night and made a quick dinner of a rice cake topped with avocado and maple ham. Dessert was what I was waiting for, but I needed some quick protein and fiber and good food right after my ride to refuel and help my muscles repair! Dessert was a baked chocolate cookie dough quest bar with arctic zero chocolate peanut butter ice cream! It was heavenly. And it kept me full the rest of the night - I didn't go into the kitchen once to snack and I didn't take a bite of Ryan's cereal for his late night snack! Tonight, I plan to make the quest banana boat! We have plenty of bananas at home and chocolate powdered peanut butter and so many flavors of quest bars to choose from! I am going to leave out the chocolate chips and only use half a quest bar to keep the points lower. Bananas are 3 WW points when you cook with them, so it makes the dessert an extra meal if I used a banana and a full quest bar. By only using half a bar, and using powdered peanut butter, my points are lowered, but the taste is still just as great (I hope)!

I didn't go to bar method this morning like I had planned. I got really used to sleeping in and having breakfast at home this week so I decided to do it one more day and get back into my routine Monday! For breakfast, instead of my usual egg white and oatmeal pancake, I made an omelette with ham and avocado (5 WW Points). Basically a recreation of dinner last night. And I added chia seeds for some extra "expansion" of the eggs and to make it more filling! It tasted so delicious and kept me full all morning! The avocado melted inside of the egg and became "cheesy." Tomorrow I will have my pancake since I need to be full all day before our 16-course tasting menu at Eleven Madison!

It's unbearably cold again today and I am so ready for this winter to end. It seems to be going on forever! It makes me not want to wake up early, workout, get out of bed, walk, or be outside. I miss going on a walk after dinner with Ryan, but it's too windy and too cold, and not fun! We would much rather stay inside watching TV. And as fun and comfy and warm as that is, it does not help with our activity. I can't wait for the warmer months to show up so we can get our butts moving again! Then we can walk and bike everywhere and then I'll be more motivated to get out of bed in the morning for bar method!

Tonight, we are going to stay in and watch a movie. I am ABSOLUTELY going to bar method tomorrow. It's our 1 year anniversary and I am going to bar to celebrate, just as I did 1 year ago! Then we have our amazing dinner to prepare ourselves for! They say it takes about 4 hours for the entire meal - so we have a reservation at 5:30pm and we plan to be there a long time! I know with a tasting menu the plates are small, and by spacing them out, I know we won't get "stuffed." I am dreaming about the food that we had at our wedding so I am so excited to be going back to Eleven Madison. It is such a treat to eat there and I can't wait to share it with my husband!

XO

A Morning Bar Class To Start The Day!

Tuesday, January 14th 7:30am w/Anna T.

Warm-up and Arms
Thigh
Seat
Abs
Back Dancing
Final stretch

It was an early morning and it was hard to wake up but I made it to the studio on time and looked forward to my morning class. Things are going great today as Ryan and I viewed a new apartment yesterday in Peter Cooper Village and our application was approved and we will be signing the lease tomorrow. It all seems so fast since we only just started thinking about looking, but welcome to NYC - nothing stays on the market long enough to think before you act. We are SO excited for the new/fresh start and I am excited to move back to the city. I grew up in the city and it will always be my home. I love Brooklyn in a way I never thought I would, and it was our first home together and it will always be close to our hearts. Ryan proposed on the Brooklyn Bridge promenade, we spent our first year of marriage in this apartment and we learned to live in a small space and enjoy each others company! But it's time for a change and a move will do us good! The apartment is 3 times the size of our current apartment and has a dishwasher, washer/dryer, and is located in Stuyvesant Town which boasts a fitness center, cafe, study, skating rink, summer movies in the park...it's a mini college campus and we will be joining a great community. I can see us here long term and loving it. I went to middle school across the street from our new apartment and I can't wait for the move to be real! The apartment is also so close to both of our offices that we can walk to/from work. I tested it yesterday and it was 30 minutes from my office and 15 from Ryan's. With all of the walking I did yesterday, I had 6 activity points....6!!!! I barely get 2 on a weekday. It felt great to be out and walking and not stuck at my desk. I can't wait to have a beautiful walk to work every morning (or more like walk home since I will still be commuting to and from Bar Method in the mornings).

It's a busy week and we have a family dinner tomorrow night at my parents and we were out late last night viewing the apartment so dinners have been short and sweet. Tonight might be portobello mushroom turkey burgers and a peanut butter chocolate nutribullet blast for dessert. Ryan made gluten free vanilla cupcakes with a homemade chocolate frosting Sunday night and they are delicious. I had one last night and it was so hard not to have a second. I am so impressed with his desire to cook, juice and bake and I see how happy he is with his lifestyle change. All of this will be so much easier too in our new apartment where we will have more kitchen space (and a dishwasher to clean the juicer and pots and pans so we are more inclined to cook and juice more often)!

Victoria sent me a link for a baked oatmeal muffin which I am going to try to make tonight as a breakfast prep. I have been eating the scrambled egg cups but I am craving oatmeal! I am going to add shredded coconut and chopped walnuts to the oats to sweeten them! I can't wait to share the recipe and photos (3 WW Points each).

Have a great day!

XO

Is this my same husband???

Night classes are just like morning classes...it's dark outside. Except the streets are more crowded, the stores are open, restaurants are busy and I am not alone waiting for the sun to rise. There is also a serious difference in the way my body feels when I take a night class. The studio is warmer having had classes all day so my body warmed up a lot faster and I was sweating and shaking immediately. I was more flexible tonight, able to push my thighs a little deeper, able to stretch a little farther and my body was warmed up and tight from sitting all day that it moved differently. Chair didn't scare me tonight because I had been sitting at my desk in that exact same position all day. Stretching felt like a relief and it felt so good. I am going to have to mix evening classes into my week because it is a different type of class. I would never give up my morning classes because I love having my workout done for the day and I love the group of people I workout with - I didn't know anyone in the evening class and I felt like I was intruding on their time. The class was filled and I had to use the teachers bar at the front of the class - you know the one where you think everyone is staring at you, but really we're all too deep in thought about the pain of our shaking thighs to even notice the person at the front of the class!

Wednesday, January 8th 6pm w/Lara M.

Warm-up and Arms
Thigh
Seat
Abs
Back Dancing
Final stretch

On my way to class tonight I hate half a Peanut Butter and Chocolate Quest Bar and ate the other half on my walk to the train. I don't know if it had actually warmed up or if my body was so warm from the class, but I decided to walk 15 minutes to the farther train stop. It felt good to be outside after being at the Bar Method studio all morning and evening and at work for 8 hours. Surprisingly, I still only had 2 WW Activity Points today. I had 13,000 steps, but it is shocking to see how little I move throughout the day. My biggest bursts of activity are walking to and from the train. I hope when it is warm I can improve my activity level. I love in the Spring and Fall when I can walk from Brooklyn to Bar Method across the Brooklyn Bridge.

I came home to find Ryan had eaten a walnut and gorgonzola salad for a light dinner before heading to the gym. I got home as he was making a juice and a rice cake with homemade egg salad. I was shocked, stunned by the change. Usually he would be making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with extra peanut butter, or eating a donut, bagel or multiple bowls of cereal. To see that he had hard boiled eggs, made a fresh orange juice and was making all of this on a rice cake, you can say I was speechless. He even measure 1 tsp mayo and 1 tsp dijon mustard rather than using a heeping tablespoon (or 2) or mayo. He said, "I can't even imagine how much mayo I usually use if this is 1 tsp." I told him that that's why I am also so conscious of nutrition facts and serving sizes because we all tend to over estimate the measurements and overeat unnecessary calories.

His evening juice was carrot, orange, broccoli and kale. I wanted to make broccoli for my lunch tomorrow, but I found out he used the last of it in his juice - my husband using broccoli in his juice, again I am at a loss for words!

His egg salad was 2 hard boiled eggs, 1 slice of trader joe's cheddar cheese, mesclun salad, pea shoots, 1 tsp dijon, 1 tsp mayo with 2 rice cakes. I tasted it - it was delicious. I was not only jealous of his breakfasts now, but his dinners as well! He said that with his breakfasts he will use rice cakes as well because he doesn't even need the heavy carbohydrates with a bagel, english muffin or blueberry muffin. We haven't had Thomas's bagels in our house for weeks! The juices are really filling him up too and he is thinking about having them as meal replacements! This cannot be my same husband who never cared about what he ate or how much and cringed when I said "please measure everything!" I have never been so happy to see Ryan care about the food that he is putting into his body now that he understands the nutritional benefits of food. Carbohydrates were filling him up temporarily but they didn't sustain his energy or provide any benefits. Now he is using food to fuel his body and his mind. I only hope I can eat as well as him now! He even wants to buy more fruits and vegetables for his juices tomorrow. My how things have changed!

I get to "sleep in" tomorrow and will have breakfast with Ryan. I guess I will have to be just as good as him and have a juice for breakfast (which I am excited about because I want to give my body a rest from the usual meals I have after morning Bar classes). Since he juiced the rest of the broccoli and kale, I might treat myself to Juice Generation Cashew Cheese Ravioli or Coconut Ceviche. It all depends on my work schedule and if I can take the time to travel uptown to the store location. Or maybe Ryan will inspire me and I will make egg salad for lunch with rice cakes :) Between my brother and Ryan's healthy eating habits, my choices are starting to look a bit unhealthy in comparison!

I hope everyone had a great day and is looking forward to the warm weather headed our way.

XO

Sunday Funday

I love Sunday. It's a fresh start to my week. It's when my weight watchers weekly points restart so I have a full 26 daily points and a new 49 extra weekly points. It's when mentally I tell myself that I am starting over, that whatever bad habits I had last week are in the past and this is a new week.

My week ended with a delicious family dinner - and I mean the whole family because Haley tried to steal Ryan's fish right off of his plate. She attacked him without any teeth or nails and fought him for that delicious dinner. And then she sulked off and rolled onto her back and looked really cute and who can say no to her!

Dinner was sautéed lemon pepper swordfish steaks, curry rice pilaf and carrots/cauliflower medley. 

Lemon Pepper Swordfish Steak

Servings: 2

* 2 swordfish steaks, 5-6 oz. each

* 2 tsp coconut oil

* salt and (lemon) pepper to taste

1) Season swordfish on both sides with salt and lemon pepper. Do not use a fork to flip the fish as it will cause it to loose juice and flavor. 

2) Heat pan over medium heat until hot. Add 2 tsp. of coconut oil

* coconut oil will be solid in the jar. Scrape a tsp and let it melt in the hot pan. 

* do not use too much oil with swordfish as it absorbs the oil very quickly while cooking. 

3) When the pan is hot, place swordfish steaks into pan. You will know the pan is hot enough when the oil sizzles when you add the fish. 

4). Cook for 4 minutes and flip. Again, use a pancake spatula to flip the fish and not a fork as all the juices will come out!

5) Cook for 3-4 more minutes and serve hot. 

*swordfish can easily over cook and will become very tough and not as good to eat.

We had Near East Rice Pilaf, curry as a side and Birdseye steamfresh cauliflower and carrot medley. The fish was perfectly cooked with the juices sweet and lemony. The curry flavor of the rice added some great spices to the plate and even though the plate looked like all yellow foods and lacked anything green, Ryan and I both enjoyed the dinner!

We finished eating and watched more episodes of Weeds and ate a big bowl of microwaveable light butter popcorn topped with Trader Joe Antioxidant Trek Mix (almond, cashew, cranberries), goji berries and chocolate covered pomegranates! The salty sweet combo was so satisfying!

Unfortunately, my stomach craved more a few hours later and of course since it was Saturday and I had extra weekly points left, I mentally allowed myself to have another dessert. I didn't actually need it, but the lack of activity this week has led me to over eat a bit. My weakness is late night cravings. Especially when Ryan is showering, I sneak a few bites of anything I can get, usually cereal or rice cakes, and pretend that because no one saw me eat it, it doesn't count...but I am only hurting myself and my own body by doing this. If I snack it, I track it! So last nights snack was a plain rice cake with nutella. Not the worst thing to eat, and took care of my chocolate addiction!

Today was an early morning. I wanted to start my week off right so I made it to the 8:30am Bar Method class with Anna Trepanier. I love her Sunday morning class- it's early, today it was cloudy, grey, cold, and who wants to be up that early on the last day of the weekend, but Anna is so bubbly and energetic that she makes the class a lot of fun and her outgoing personality makes me forget how much pain I am in from all of the shaking (most of the time)! And today I was shaking so much. My muscles felt so tight from relaxing all week and I definitely noticed that I was less flexible than usual. It was a tough class but I always feel so much better after!

Sunday January 5, 8:30am w/Anna T.

Warm-up and Arms

Thigh
Seat
Abs
Back Dancing
Final stretch

I love the Bar Method SoHo studio. It has become my second home. I love all the staff and clients and feel like we are a family. We share in birthdays, holidays, weddings, births... I crave class and the social aspect of being at the studio. I love waking up and being somewhere early in the morning that I love with friends and people I care about. I love all of our conversations or sometimes just sitting in the studio or in the lobby in silence waiting for class to start. We all share a common love for the workout and the energy at the studio is addictive. I went to the Boston studio 2 years ago when we were at Ryan's parents for Christmas. It isn't just SoHo, I felt love at a different studio too. It was like going to a home away from home! 

I love sharing my love for bar with as many people as I can because it has changed my life. The workout has changed my body and the community has changed my mind! A friend from college said she was taking her first bar class today because I have inspired her. It felt so good to know that I was helping people positively! I want to help people and effect people in a wonderful way! I really hope she loves the class she takes. I don't know what studio she is going to but barre classes have a lot of similarities and I hope she feels a great burn and the bar method shake! That shake lets you know you are deep in the muscle and that you are pushing your body to its limits and changing the shape of your muscles. You are warming your muscles and then stretching them to elongate and tone your body! 

I tried a pure barre class once but I didn't feel the same way I do with bar method. The teacher didn't take the time to introduce herself or know everyone's name. I didn't feel like she went around and adjusted me and fixed my position. I felt like I was going to hurt myself because I was not in the position correctly but she didn't take the time to adjust me. The class was fast and didn't focus on the stretching as much which is so essential to changing your body! At bar method, the teachers know every students name and even though it's weird to be called out in a room full of 25 other people, you feel acknowledged and present in the class. You are part of the community. And the teachers spend time adjusting students hands on so that we don't hurt ourselves. They're training is long and hard and it shows in their work and the time they take to understand how each exercise works different parts of our bodies!

After breakfast I walked to my parents apartment to see my brother. I stopped to pick up oats and egg whites and made us an egg white and oats pancake. I added chocolate protein powder to his because he said he was headed out to the gym soon. It was fun to spend some time alone with my brother and eat breakfast. He was surprised at how good breakfast was and how easy!

Ryan texted me that for breakfast he made an orange and apple juice! I was so happy to hear that he was juicing even without me home making him do it!! After you "detox" and clear the junk out of your system, your body starts craving real food. The artificial sugars and carbs make us sick. They are not nutritional so even though they satisfy us in the moment, they do nothing for our bodies so we tend to over eat because we don't receive enough fiber and protein to stay full for a long period of time. Ryan's body is getting rid of gluten and is ready for real fruits and more fiber. He had an udi's blueberry muffin too and 1 cup of apple chex gluten free cereal to go with his juice (he actually measured the cup which he never does- he is starting to understand the importance of reading and understanding nutrition labels)!

After breakfast I carefully made my way home to help Ryan with the laundry - the streets are so icy I was sliding everywhere. It's a workout all on its own just not to slip and fall!

Lunch was perfect. Ryan wanted another juice so we juiced kale, apple, celery, cucumber, grapes, beet and pineapple. It was so sweet and was a great green juice that we will absolutely be making more often. We also made tuna salad with mustard (instead of mayo), balsamic vinegar, egg whites and Trader Joe's healthy chopped 8 vegetables (broccoli, peppers, radish, celery...). Sometimes it is worth paying for the convenience of having the vegetables pre-chopped. If it saves me time I am more likely to eat healthy!  The tuna salad was 1 point (2 oz. premium albacore tuna in water) with 7 back to nature gluten free white cheddar crackers (1 point), baby carrots and the juice (4 points). I sometimes like to add avocado to my tuna in place of mayo. 

Ryan wanted to buy more fruit for morning juices so we headed back out to Trader Joe's. I hope there is enough room in our fridge for all of these healthy foods! I am so happy though that he wants to eat better and better his health that I will help him any way I can!

We also stopped at key foods while we were out and I was so surprised to see a Gluten free shelf in the middle of the store! I was pleasantly surprised because it made shopping a bit easier but it was also sad to see how few items there were in comparison to the rest of the store. I just hope it expands and doesn't get smaller as the year goes on and the fad diet of going gluten free dies down as everyone forgets their New Years resolutions. It's a lifestyle change, not a diet and it takes time, effort and determination!

Tonights dinner is chicken piccata made with almond meal instead of flour!

Ryan prepped the salads. I admit to be a control freak in the kitchen because I like to measure everything, but it's fun to have Ryan in the kitchen with me and helping cook. Salads are also 0 points so he can't mess it up ;)

Gluten Free Chicken Piccata

Servings: 4

Weight Watchers Points: 7

1 pound chicken breasts

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

1/2 cup Swanson's Chicken Broth (not all broth is gluten free so check before you buy)

1/4 cup almond meal

1/4 cup drained capers

3 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Salt and pepper to taste

1) Wrap the chicken breast in saran wrap and pound it thin. You want it to be about  1/4 inch thick and make sure it is pounded evenly to ensure even cooking. Repeat with all pieces. 

2) Spread 1/4 cup almond meal on a plate. Season with salt and pepper and mix. If you prefer you can season each piece of chicken separately. 

3) One piece at a time, dredge one side of the chicken in the almond meal. Flip and coat the other side. Repeat with all pieces. 

4) Heat pan over medium heat. Add 1 tbsp olive oil until oil is sizzling and hot

5) Add chicken to the pan and cook for 4 minutes on the first side. Flip and cook for another 4 minutes. You don't want to over cook chicken because it will taste rubbery!

6) Remove chicken from the pan and place on a plate. You can cover to keep them warm, but they will be returned to the pan to heat once more before serving. 

7) Add 1 tbsp butter to the pan and let it melt.  Don't let it brown because you don't want it to burn.

8) Add 1/2 cup chicken broth, 1/4 cup capers and the lemon juice to the pan. 

9) Stir the liquid and be sure to scrape any brown bits from the side of the pan. Let it simmer until the liquid reduces to about half.

10) Add the chicken back to the pan and heat on each side for an additional minute. 

Serve chicken and drizzle sauce over each piece. 

*we did not have capers so they were left out of our dish tonight. 

Ryan said dinner was so delicious and he can't wait to have it again. He also said it was such an easy dinner to make!! We had left over curry rice that we served as a side and Ryan's salad rounded out a perfect Sunday night dinner. Haley didn't fight us for it this time but we still gave her a piece! Now she's on our bed surrounding herself with all of our clean clothes. So when I show up to bar tomorrow morning covered in white fur, you will all know why!

Today's activity was a success. I walked a lot this morning to Bar Method and then to my parents. I get off the train at Chambers street which is 3 subway stops away from Bar Method and a good 15 minute walk. It's good to warm up before my exercise and get extra activity in - especially when it's been so cold and I didn't know what else we would be doing today. I walked from bar to my parents apartment which was another 30 minutes because I had to walk so slow with the icy streets. And with all of the grocery shopping we did today, my fitbit calculated 14,321 steps and my activity link said I got an extra 3 activity points. My daily activity points are 2 so today is an improvement over the past few days. We got out of the house and moved a lot and I feel so much better!

Ryan is watching the Green Bay Packers game tonight so I am going to enjoy some mindless reality TV and get to bed early for my 5:15am Bar Method wake up call. 

Goodnight!