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The Non-Hunger Diaries: How I Eat And Move {Part 2 of 2}

Today’s post is a continuation of Monday’s post on how I eat. Today’s topic: How I move! If you’re curious about the Non-Hunger Diaries title, see this response.

A Chillax Workout Routine

I’ve been talking up my new gym a lot lately, but I haven’t turned into your typical gym rat. Update – I have actually quit the gym. I tend to stick to milder workouts like yoga, pilates, ballet, and Nia (my new favorite workout). Not to say that these things are always “mild” – but they’re definitely customizable. You can work at the level that you’re comfortable with for that day and not feel guilty about not giving it your all.

I like to fit in some kind of movement each and every day so I’m never hesitant to take a step back in class and stick with the lower level option. In yoga I always take a few extra child’s poses; in Zumba or other cardio classes I never go full intensity for the whole hour. It’s not what feels good for my body so I just don’t do it. On the other hand if you do love giving it your all in class, go for it! (Just make sure you take a break sometimes.) For me, I enjoy moderate exercise every single day. It keeps me healthy (body and mind).

I walk for exercise anywhere from 1-4 miles a day. It’s so important to listen to your body and give it rest. I will always think that walking is the best form of exercise (as long as you have proper form) but in a city of smelly streets, sometimes it gets to be not so fun, and it’s also getting cold. For most of history humans did lots of low intensity “exercise” all day long – we were not built to go full out for an hour and sit on our butts the rest of the day. (This is why I love Nia.)

Other linkies on exercise:

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That’s all, folks.

What’s your workout routine like? Have you found something that works for your body?

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My Little Piece of Heaven: Pilates and Green Oat Bran

Exercise of the day: first 25 minutes of Crunch: Super SlimDown (with Ellen Barrett, of course). It was a combination of dynamic yoga and pilates. The last bit included one of my favorite pilates exercises: little piece of heaven. I also walked home from work (1.4 miles).

Little piece of heaven is a pilates/yoga move – you do a pushup on your knees, then hinge back to the hips; come forward again and lower down. Repeat. Your back stays in the same line the whole time. It feels oh-so-good and it works your triceps as well as stretches your lower back.

The other little piece of heaven in my day today was something I’m sure HEAB would approve of – protein powder green oat bran. (Green because my protein powder is green! Not because of veggies.)

I haven’t been eating oat bran regularly since last summer when I was eating bowls upon bowls of blended green oat bran (oat bran blended with spinach usually) and protein powder oat bran (I like this protein powder). Fortunately oat bran is not a harmful addiction so I may start up again.

Ingredients for Voluminous Green Protein Oat Bran

  • 2/3 cup oat bran
  • 2 cups water (extra water makes VOLUMINOUS oat bran)
  • 1ish tablespoons protein powder (mine is green)
  • salt (a few dashes)
  • honey post-cooking

Of course I put my oat bran in the freezer after I cook it so that it hardens up and gets chewy. Always have oat bran after it has cooled. I don’t like it hot and mushy.

Do you like oat bran? What’s your favorite way to eat it?

Apparently oat bran makes good baby food. My mom tells me that she used to cook me oat bran as a baby and blend raisins in it to sweeten it – probably why I love it so much now.

Happy weekend 🙂

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Hot In The City: Grilled Cheese!

It is HOT in New York. HOT HOT HOT. Currently (8pm) my weather widget says:

95 degrees F (35 C). What is the best thing to do on a hot day? Get your nails done of course! (I actually had these done yesterday, which was almost as hot.)

This is a “UV manicure” which is supposed to last up to 2 weeks. We’ll just see about that. If it does I will never go back to regular manis, which only last 2 days for me. So far it hasn’t chipped, so it’s off to a good start 😉 The woman put a kind of gel on my nails that hardened; then she put on the color. I love dark nails – I always go for dark red/brown/purple, even in the summer. I think I will do purple for the wedding (it’ll be tasteful). Speaking of the wedding…

We got Bobby’s wedding band today. It’s very nice but you’ll have to wait until after the wedding to see it.

Oh, this is a food blog? Okay! Here is my lunch:

It’s a grilled cheese sandwich with tomatoes. I put it in Mr. George Foreman before I left for work. It was a li’l soggy by lunchtime but still yummy.

Ingredients

I made Bobby a similar sandwich this weekend – just grilled chicken (love you, George) with tomato; sauces were mayonnaise and teriyaki sauce… (same bread and tomato as mine):

He liked it.

Exercise of the day: Pick Your Level: Weight Loss Pilates with Ellen Barrett (Netflix). Walk home from work (1.4 miles). Walk to Tiffany’s and to dinner (Chipotle) (1.5 miles).

Was it hot where you live? What did you do to beat the heat?

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Some Fun (Free) Exercise Routines (Videos)

My bachelorette weekend was great 🙂

I haven’t mentioned (or updated about) my whole “Operation Wedding” routine in a while, but I have been keeping up with it. I’ve definitely noticed changes in my body that I am happy with! Here are some exercise videos that will (quickly) get you lean and toned:

  • Bootcamp Calorie Burn (with Kendell Hogan – a dude). I know I’ve mentioned this one before. I just did it this morning. It’s 30 minutes and it’s a killer workout if you don’t have much time. All cardio, very sweaty, awesome encouraging instructor. Definitely check it out.
  • Crunch: Fat-Burning Pilates (free streaming from Netflix; with Ellen Barrett). This routine is about 40 minutes total. It has 2 parts – standing and mat work. I usually just do the standing bit (just under 30 minutes) which is basically cardio pilates. I am sweaty by the end, but not panting. Definitely good for getting the perfect body shape – long, lean muscles; sculpted tummy; lean arms, etc…
  • Crunch: Super Slimdown (free streaming from Netflix; with Ellen Barrett). Another Ellen Barrett! This is a mix of pilates and yoga; it’s very dynamic yoga (not many long holds). It’s around 40 minutes. I usually do the first part (more yoga-oriented and kind of cario-ish). I think this is my favorite of all the videos I’ve done recently.
  • Pick Your Level: Weight Loss Pilates (free streaming from Netflix; with Ellen Barrett). This is just over 30 minutes. If you’ve ever done a “pick your level” workout before, you’ll know they’re all similar. Ellen demonstrates each move at 3 different levels. I usually do level 3 to make it hard. This is another workout that’s great for toning – it’s a little bit of cardio, but not that much. Some is standing and some is mat work. I really like this because of Ellen Barrett – she is my new favorite instructor.

There are a few other Netflix videos that I’ve done, but these are the ones that are actually worth mentioning. I will recommend against 10-minutes solution: Kickbox Bootcamp – this will give you weirdly shaped muscles in all the wrong places.

My focus recently has been on a combo of cardio, pilates, and yoga. And not too much – I never do more than 45 minutes in a day and I don’t do them every day. I don’t know why this works so well for me! I also try to get in 1-2 miles of walking each day.

The other thing that’s helped me (a lot) is Bran Crispbread. I snack on them after dinner. They satisfy my urge to munch without compromising my waistline. They are definitely what I would call “diet food” (cardboard) but they are not that bad. They have just 12 calories a piece (they’re the size of a notecard).

I like them with guacamole or spreadable cheese. They’re also good topped with cream cheese and jam. And they have free shipping right now if you want to order some. They’re a little pricy but I am always down to try anything and I will probably even order more.

What’s your favorite workout video? Have you ever had bran crispbread?

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Review: intenSati (cardio class & warrior challenge) AND yoga AND pilates (Equinox gym)

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was applying for the Warrior Challenge – well, I got in! I get a free 1-month pass to Equinox gyms in Manhattan and I have to dedicate myself to taking 3 intenSati classes each week. What’s intenSati, you ask? I’ll explain.

IntenSati is a super high-energy cardio workout that has elements of kickboxing, aerobics, dance, yoga, martial arts, and strength training. It is ridiculously intense. It’s a 60 minute workout and I bet you burn upwards of 500 calories in one session. It’s not just a high-energy workout though: while you work out you yell positive affirmations that will hopefully spill over into other areas of your life.

It was created by Patricia Moreno, a very strong and inspiring NYC fitness guru. She just wrote a book!

Okay, the positive affirmations thing sounded a little weird to me. I walked into the orientation on Sunday and I was kind of apprehensive. Is this religious? Is it weird and cult-y? It was NOT. Not at all. We started the workout and we were yelling things like, “I am ready to be stronger,” “I am ready to go further,” “No more excuses!”, “I am not afraid!”. I have never been one to believe in that “power of positive thinking” stuff, but I think I might be changing my mind. It’s kind of working 🙂

Anyway, I went to the orientation class on Sunday, and it was a little over an hour. Before class started I met up with Missy so I felt much more at ease knowing I had a blogger friend with me. Patricia Moreno was actually leading us! The class starts out with some dynamic stretching (deep squats, etc…) and you learn 2 poses. 1) Ready (essentially mountain pose); and 2) Warrior (essentially a wide squat with arms outstretched).

mountain warrior

That part took maybe 5-10 minutes. Then we started doing amazingly crazy cardio stuff and yelling for about 45 minutes. Sweat was pouring down my body (I don’t sweat). Then we did yoga-like strength-dancing for about 10-15 minutes, and we ended with more stretching (5-10 minutes). This class was a little bit longer than usual because it was the orientation class.

Yesterday (Monday) I was going to wake up for the early morning class, but I was exhausted. I decided to do a class after work at the Equinox by my apartment (63rd and Lex). This intenSati class was 60 minutes and it was led by Erika Shannon. She led us through the same dynamic stretching, and then we started the cardio craziness. This cardio only lasted about 30 minutes, then we did about 15-20 minutes of strength, and a few minutes of stretching at the end. It was still an amazing workout even though it was slightly shorter than Sunday’s class. After the craziness Erika made us hold “warrior” for about 2 minutes! After the intensity (intenSati?) of the craziness this was really hard – I was sweating so much, but it felt amazing.

Missy and I were a little bit crazy and we decided to stay for Erika’s Hip Hop class (just 45 minutes). It was 30 minutes of dancing and then 15 minutes of strength. I was pretty tired from intenSati, but managed to keep up my energy for the duration of the class. I definitely prefer intenSati because I look like a dork when I try to do hip hop.

Missy has 2 really good reviews on her blog, too:

Today I went to Equinox again to take 2 more classes: Pilates/Bartenieff Fusion with Laura Ward and then Slow Flow Yoga with Maja Sidebaeck. I was about 10 minutes late to pilates and felt bad, but I thought the class was great. Yoga was really nice as well – it was very flowy and exactly how I would lead a class. Definitely going back.

I also LOVE the Equinox showers. I think I’ll just shower there from now on. They have great shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and lotion… and they have razors, q-tips, deodorant, hair products, mouth wash, and probably a bajillion other things I didn’t see. I have this horrible feeling that I’m going to sign up with Equinox after the challenge is over.

I am now going to go do some work and crash into bed. Later, peeps! Go drink some water!

What’s your favorite killer workout?