All You Need is Love

Unrelated title post. I'll just never stop loving that song. <3

Tuesday night I went to a great yelp event at Loi. It started off a little shaky because my friend was an hour and a half late... I didn't know anyone so I just snagged a corner spot at a table and started chugging wine. A little while I noticed a girl near me who seemed to be alone as well. In a very awkward pick-up line moment she asked if this was my first yelp event. A few glasses of wine later, I made a new friend :-)

The night was awesome, with some delicious Greek wine...

And delectable Greek bites... my favorite, shown here... octopus in a balsamic sauce:

Today is Day 7 of Les Mills Combat. Technically it should be my rest day but since I took it upon myself to take an addition "rest day" on Monday... I'm pretty sure I will be skipping today's rest.

Overall I don't really feel like I even need the rest. The sorest part of my body is my upper back, the area right under my neck and between my shoulder blades. I honestly didn't even know I had muscles there, but all this punching is making me feel muscles in many new places...

And let's end with some countdowns....

6 work days left to the last day of school. That includes 1 full planning day and 3 half days... so really... 

3.5 days left of teaching!!!!

24 days left til Grenada

That will be me: that little one walking into the water during a beautiful Grenada beach sunset

A new feeling

Today I am so anxious to get home and workout! I honestly don't think I've ever felt this anxious/excited to do a workout before. I guess I'm just mad at myself that I already got off track after doing 4 days of LMC. Sunday was actually my rest day, but yesterday I skipped. I was SO tired (after being kept up all night from Marvin's snores) and actually had a small fever. It was only like 99.8 but I felt extremely hot/cold and in no mindset to workout. Plus, the last time I worked out when I was over tied, I threw my back out. There's a fine line between pushing yourself and knowing your limits. Its hard for me to know sometimes if I should just tough it out or let myself skip.

In other news, the new apartment we're (hopefully) getting is soooo much closer to work.

Here's google maps data:

Driving: 1.1mi (6 min)
Walking 1.0mi (18 min)

I just cannot IMAGINE being able to walk to work!!! Right now my morning commute is about 25 min (car) without traffic. My afternoon commute ranges from 30min-120min (not including ooking for parking.) There's always afternoon traffic. I will still have my car for two more years so I will most likely be doing  a mix of driving and walking. Unless of course, I jump on the new citibike craze:

Which I wont. Because I can't imagine that biking is any safer than driving in NYC.

Monday Funday

In an attempt to make my Mondays more enjoyable, I think I'm going to start a Monday Funday post. Monday Funday posts will cover all things cool, cute, delicious, or just... fun!

1) Bakery on Main Gluten-free Granola

I don't eat a gluten free diet, but I do LOVE granola. Unfortunately granola packs a healthy punch but is also pretty high in fat and calories. This gluten-free version is slightly lower calorie and fat, and has this awesome crunchy texture. It also honestly tastes like apple pie. I cannot get enough.

2) "Upstairs" at the Kimberly Hotel

This weekend I finally visited a rooftop bar I've been hearing about for awhile. "Upstairs" at the Kimberly Hotel. I just LOVED the hanging lights and of course, the gorgeous view. One day, when I have my own house and backyard, I will definitely be stringing those lights

3) My Bridesmaid dress!

I'm in my friend Ava's wedding and she ordered us these convertible dresses from Etsy. It is pretty much one giant piece of fabric but the fabric is soft, light, and a great color. Best of all you can twist it and wrap it around your body into whatever style benefits you most! Ava tried some style on me and I can say this is the first time I actually DID not feel fat in a bridesmaid dress. We definitely have to do some work with shoes and jewelry, but I think it looks so cute!

LMC Day 1

I did it!

I planned to start on Wednesday, but the DVD player Marvin gave me didn't work :-( So instead of doing some other non-DVD needed workout, I wallowed on the couch and drank a glass of wine. So silly but that was the choice I made, and I'm sticking with it.

So last night I brought my laptop home from work so that I could use it to play the video. First I watched the  "Basics" DVD in which they go through the specifics of all the different moves that are needed for each workout. It was soooo boring and slow, about 45 minutes long. I felt like I was wasting time so I wound up just skipping the last 15 minutes.

The first video was called Combat 30. So far, I have mixed feelings:

Like
-The music, they do some remixes of popular dance/house songs and it works for me
-The instructors. I don't know why, but they just seem more "real" than the Insanity instructors. They dress less skimpy and their bodies are more "normal" looking. There's also one girl that does all the moves modified, which I really like because some I just can't do.
-The fact that there was no "on-the-floor" moves (like Level 1 drills) and minimal jumping.
-Stamina, I was able to go through the whole workout with stopping! LMC is definitely MUCH easier than Insanity stamina wise, but some of the moves are a little tricky, which I'll get to later.

Dislike/Unsure
-I don't really have a list, but most of the workout is circuits of punch/kick combinations. Some of them are pretty tricky and I felt like a klutz doing them. I wasn't even sure if they were actually working... There was this one jump-kick that I literally could not get, and finally when I did it I felt soooo good, I felt like a real ninja! Lol, not really, but it was satisfying and surprising to feel myself doing something like this:

Hump Day

After all my talk in the past two blogs, I didn't do Day 1 of LMC yesterday!!!!! But this time, I may actually have a valid reason. I got an email about an apartment late Monday night, and then yesterday morning the tenant emailed me asking to stop by at 4:30. So I met Marvin there straight from work... after spending an hour or so at the apartment we decided to walk around and explore the neighborhood, which eventually led to dinner and drinks. By the time we got back to the UES, it was 8:30, and we had to walk/run to H&M so Marvin could buy a shirt for work today! By the time we finally got back to my apartment and changed out of our work clothes, it was almost 10pm. There was no way I was doing any sort of workout.

Successes:

1 - We ate dinner at this little Cuban restaurant, and I got probably the healthiest thing on the menu: shrimp, avocado and mango salad. It was delicious but I really wanted some sort of taco with rice and beans!

2 - It happened to be happy hour, and the bar offered $4 mojitos and margaritas. I love both of those things but instead chose 2 Negra Modelos (170 cal each). Not good, but not terrible.

3 - We might have found an apartment!!!!

4 - Throughout the night, we probably walked at least 2 miles. I was wearing my work sandals and my feet were killing me by nighttime

Fails:

1 - Not starting LMC

2 - Not starting LMC on a Tuesday, which now messes up my schedule of having rest days on Friday & Monday. I really, really still want to have those rest days, so I might have to play with the schedule again... which sucks considering I didn't even start the program yet!

3 - I stayed up late and hardly slept, now I'm exhausted and already dreading working out tonight.

*possibly* my new apartment. I love the outside :)

Fitness is a battle. Welcome to the front line.

I wanted a fresh post to focus solely on my excitement for starting LMC.

So starting tomorrow, goodbye Shaun T. and hello Rachel and Dan. Before I move on from Insanity, I want to say a few things.

1) I really love Shaun T. He's cute, funny, and has a great body of course. I love how he pumped me up during the workouts but also took breaks, just like the rest of us. I'm sad to say goodbye to him for now.

2) Insanity rocks. I'm not knocking the program at all. It just that its designed to be done in a 60-day period, not stretched out over 4-5 months. The moves and the music have started to bore me (mentally, not physically). Also, with all the jumping and squatting, my knees started hurting.

3) I never finished Insanity completely. I completed approx 6 weeks before I started messing around with the schedule and skipping workouts. I know if I would have done the 60 days straight through, I would have gotten some real results. I am happy with my results because I think they match the effort I put in.

4) I'm glad I have the Insanity files forever, because I totally will go back to the program in the future.

Now...Why I'm excited about LMC:

1) Les Mills Combat is a martial-arts-based cardio workout. It incorporates self-defense moves over a range of practices like boxing, capoeira and Muay Thai. I like the idea that the moves I'll be doing are actually useful and real, as opposed to the ridiculous looking Insanity moves.

2) The music. I've read a lot of reviews that talk about the music being really dance/techno/upbeat. Some people hate it and others love it. That's the kind of music I listen to when working out so I'm really excited about it. The insanity music was kind of dull elevator music. Not upbeat at all.

3) I actually have the DVDs. Being able to watch the program on my tv gives me more space and better viewing options than propping up my laptop on my couch or bed.

4) Less jumping. Supposedly, LMC is a lot better on your joints and knees. I guess that's all subjective but we'll see.

5) Two rest days. LMC comes with three different 60-day schedules to choose from. They all have the same workouts but differ in degrees of intensity. I think the first one will be fine for me, and it incorporates two rest days as opposed to one. The 6 day schedule with Insanity was really hard for me to follow.

Hungover and LMC

Today, I am severely paying for Sunday Funday. Yesterday for some absurd reason I took my body on a 10-hour eating and drinking binge through Boozy brunch at Macondo, to cocktails, appetizers and more champagne at Chris Santos' Beauty and Essex, to cans of Tecate at Hotel Chantelle, to german beers and sausages at Lorely, finally, to pizza on my couch from Italian Village.

Currently, I am feeling every aspect of a hangover including but not limited to a killer headache that started around 2am. Despite some of my usual hangover cures (orange gatorade, diet pepsi, a turkey sandwich, coffee frappacino) I am still feeling terrible. At this point, a good night's sleep will most likely be the only cure.

On a more positive note, I am very excited to have received my brand new beachbody program in the mail today: Les July Mills Combat (affectionately known as LMC). After a ton of research I decided on LMC post Insanity due to the positive reviews, low cost (comparative to other programs), intensity level, and low maintenance (no weights or anything needed, just like Insanity). I also got an old dvd player from Marvin so I'm really excited to be able to watch the DVDs on my tv as opposed to propping my laptop on my bed.

I planned on "starting fresh" with LMC today and going all out for the next 60 days... really embracing the whole my body is a temple mantra by sticking to the 60 day fitness plan and sacrificing other body ruining pastimes. But I've encountered two problems. 1) The current physical and emotional state of my body: not good. There is no way I will be starting today. BUT - LMC comes with three different schedules, and the one I like the best incorporates two rest days. If I start tomorrow, my rest days will be every Friday and Monday, which are the days I hate working out the MOST so that works out well.

The second problem I've encountered is my Grenada trip occurring on July 8th. July 7th puts me at Day 38, nowhere near finishing the program. I didn't even realize how close my upcoming trip was, and unfortunately this prevents me from completing the 30 day program and "celebrating" in Grenada like I wanted to. I immediately felt myself thinking "maybe I should just wait until I come back" but really, I can't. I want to get in better shape NOW. If I stop on July 7th and pick back up again the 19th then I will finish the program on August 9th. This is AFTER the first wedding I'm on (8/1) and right before Erin's bachelorette (8/9). So what does this mean?

1) I have to go ahead with starting the program tomorrow anyway. I cannot skip ANY days until July 8th unless I'm sick.

2) I have to either follow the eating plan the program recommends or follow my own 1500 calorie 40/30/20 carb/protein/fat ratio diet. This INCLUDES weekends.

3) No alcohol unless absolutely dire. Dire circumstances include:

• Some sort of open bar event
• Another social event with groups of friends centered around drinking (brunch, happy hour, etc)

4) In the above dire circumstances I will only drink LIMITED servings of white wine, low cal beer, or some other grosser tasting low cal drink (vodka soda).

5) In the above mentioned "social events" I will ONLY choose smart eating choices. For these next 38 days, no splurging.

6) On the weekends, Marvin and I will NOT drink a bottle of wine for no reason. Marvin and I will either cook or order healthy takeout.

These things don't sound too hard but for me, they actually are really hard. I love summer in the city and I love, love, love being off of work and getting to take advantage of happy hours, outdoor drinking, picnics, trying new restaurants, etc. But I need to remember that this "strictness" is only temporary and will be well worth it.