Exercise Addict

My beloved Fall has kicked me on my ass this week.

Forgive my lack of posting as I’ve been laid up or go right to bed once I come home. My goal, with all this, is to start something and keep it going, no matter how busy life gets or what life throws at you.

For the first time ever, I think (because it takes a lot to get me into a Dr’s office) I had a 24 hour flu combined with terrible allergies. Yup, I sure am self diagnosing myself! Poor Stevie came down with the same thing and we were laid up in bed. I slept for 18 hours. 18 hours! 

The last few weeks it has been absolute misery getting out of bed. Even when my mind is awake my body has been refusing to go with it. Part of training, I suppose? Has this happened to anyone else?

My friends and family say that one terrible character trait of mine shines bright when my body gives up on me and that is being stubborn.

Hi. My name is Sarah and I’m stubborn. 

I don’t meant to be, I really don’t, but I can only lounge around for so long when I start feeling bad about myself. I could be getting work done, taking a walk to explore my neighborhood, RUNNING! I get it. The point of being sick is to surrender yourself to your bed and let those white blood cells do their healing. But does that burn calories? No. Will it help my training? Absolutely not. Is any of this rational thing. HELL NO!

Yet it is how I think. I can’t help it. I took off of work on Wednesday and after waking up at 12 to get us breakfast, I told myself, “F this. I’m going to do my planned four miles — just after a quick nap”. Five hours later I realized that wasn’t happening as I had completely passed out. Steve was eyeing me and even though I could certainly out run him any day of the week, I decided to listen to my body and just chill out. 

I made myself busy by making “Jewish Penicillin” as my Dad calls it, also known as homemade soup. There was no matzah meal in my local grocery, which was highly disturbing, so I had to do with whole wheat noodles. I used some fresh herbs from my friend’s garden and veggies. Oh the power of poultry. A few sips immediately made me feel better. I also stuffed my bod with all kinds of veggies and green juices. Vitamins and nutrients do wonders!

Still needing to do more, I decided to get a head start of dinner the next day but throwing pork shoulder, a jar of all  natural BBQ sauce, diced onions and a can of light beer in my slow cooker. Set that bad boy on low for 12 hours and it was perfection. One less thing to worry about for the week. Back to bed at 10, no way I wasn’t going to work the next day.

I woke up feeling great but made sure to drink tons of fluids along with fruits and veggies. I laced up on my lunch break thinking, I’ll go as far as I’m able:

7.00 in 1:00:14

I was shocked and felt amazing. I kept this on the low, in fear that friends would yell at me, but I did it damnit and most importantly, I felt wonderful.

I received a Self magazine in the mail, I was awarded a year subscription after attending their event in Central Park (holler for SWAG!) and read an article about being addicted to exercise. I scoffed at the title but as I had nothing else to do on my commute home, I read it and was promptly shut up.

Crap. I might be addicted to exercise. 

I fit all the criteria: feeling bad about missing a work out, constantly worried about gaining weight, losing muscle mass, letting exercise interfere with your social life. I started feeling terrible about beating myself up about missing one day to be sick. Has this training taken over my soul?

The mind is a powerful thing. Exercise is a powerful thing. Exercising produces endorphins to make the mind happy. It is an easy feeling to become addicted to. Letting it impact your day-to-day life and well being, well, thats something to check yourself on. 

I will not ruin my training by missing a day. I will not gain weight after enjoying a burger. I will not tarnish my social life and relationships by letting training be number 1. 

This is my new mantra. I love exercising and eating well. That is something I will not stop. Ever. Regulation is key. Listening to yourself is key and giving yourself a pat on the back for getting through any work out, let alone a 31 mile week, is worth celebrating. 

This overcast Friday morning I planned to do a 6 mile run to compensate for Wed. I did:

5.02 miles in 45:38 + 1hour vinyasa flow

and I am absolutely, completely okay with that. Somedays you got it, other days you don’t. I will enjoy my burger and beer with my fiancé tonight and feel damn good about it.

You’re amazing. Treat yo’ self! 

 

 

 

Weekend Review

One of the most challenging obstacles to face when training for a marathon is how to deal with exhaustion.

Sometimes it really knocks you down and defeats you. Other times if catches up with you and really wreaks havoc on your mind and body. The latter has been true in my case. 

Every morning of last week was an epic struggle to get out of bed let alone get through the work day AND excercise. I am starting to realize that I am not super human, that indeed what I am working towards is challenging. I get that in theory, but in practice its really damn frustrating when my brain is not up to speed with my body. Stupid body!

I decided to spend the night in on Friday, something that has been happening more frequently these days. These marathon training programs should say *CAUTION: This WILL prevent you from having much of a social life*

I decided to whip together one of my favorite quick meals, baked ziti with ground turkey. It’s so easy to find yourself submitting to delivery.com on the weekends and I want to do whatever I can to change that terrible habit. Real food is Good food! Plus carboloading AND leftovers for lunch? Win win.

 

My best friend in the whole world and soon to be international entertainer, Elyse, gave Steve and I a lovely bath soap set for our engagement party. She insisted that these soaps were fantastic particularly for RELAXING. She of course stared me straight in the eye when she said relaxing as she knows better than most that this is something I do not do. Stress is my middle name! Something I am working on… you know when I’m not busy working, planning a wedding and running 30 miles a week. I ran a bath and threw in one of the Lush lavender soap bombs and it was HEAVEN. That with some Billie Holiday really hit this spot. I did not know how worn down and stressed I was until I sunk into the tub. Maybe there is something to this whole relaxation thing after all!

Lush lavender bath bomb!

Bed early and woke up to another phenomenal Fall morning to tackle my long run. Unfortunately, even with my killer bath, I was crazy sore from yoga and my feet ached from this week of running. I powered through.

15.02 miles in 2:31:24

Because of the soreness, this long run was significantly harder than last weeks, but I did not need to stop except to have some water and really felt the strongest I have been in this whole process. 

Mins after I hopped out of the shower, my ladies joined me on the bed for a serious nap time session. Best. Nap. EVER!

 

Sunday came and I completed an easy 3.01 in 26.30. I hate when they say “easy” run. This was not easy, my joints were still tight from the long run and the Sun was really making himself known. I powered through.

Of course, life loves to throw you a curve ball and now that dreaded early Fall cold has crept its way into our household. 

Normally, I would panic but this weekend of relaxing I have come to realize that life never gives you anything you can’t handle. I am blessed the ability to purchase food, cook, have cuddle time with sexy cats and awesome friends that remind me to step back and take a damn chill pill — or a lovely bath.

Remember you only get one body! Treat it right!

NEW SHOES!

There was a time, long ago, where I was a bit of a shoe addict. I’m talking like 150 pairs. Now, in my defense, I worked at 3 shoe stores exclusively to get me through college so there were discounts involved. Then I moved into a studio and had to purge aka the worst evening of my life. 

A big reason I loved to buy shoes is that no matter what shape you are in or your size, your shoe size generally stays the same. As a former overweight lady, shopping for clothes was not an enjoyable experience, in fact, it was down right miserable at times. 

Nowadays, I seem to have the opposite problem. Clothes shopping is crazy fun and I can’t lie and say that I don’t smile every time i pick up a size 2 dress and size 4 pant since 3 years ago I was a 10 and 12 respectively. Shoe shopping has become a nightmare as I 1. I live in NY and have to have comfortable shoes and 2. I run so my feet are in a perpetual state of hurt.

These days I have less than a dozen shoes which I think is remarkable and I look long and hard to find comfortable yet chic options. Luckily, as a runner clocking in no less than 20 miles a week, I’ve had to invest a good deal in great sneakers. I never would have thought I would have gotten excited about running shoes and forgo the new season boot shopping, but that has happened.

My newest shoes have come in and I couldn’t be more pleased! 

 

These are the Saucony Triumph 10 and they are my favorite shoes to date. These are replacing the exact same shoe, except my last ones were neon orange, which I thought was so original but 4/5 runnings I see have neon orange shoes. Grr. So now I’m all about the Bubble Gum pink!

These pretty guys welcomed me back after an easy lunch run:

7.01 in 1:02:54

A beautiful day here in NYC and the park was crowded with runners and bikers — and not one neon bubble gum pink shoes in sight! 🙂

It’s the little things, right?

 

Did I Mention I’m a Foodie?

Maybe I’m getting a little out of hand with all this Fall stuff so soon.

Oh well, SUE ME! I love it.

Stevie’s favorite meal of mine is Beef Stew, though I can not take credit for the recipe, that belongs to Paula Deen.

Why is there a picture of a gorgeous cat, you say? That would be my oldest cat Paula Deen. Now before you make that face, let me explain. Almost 5 years ago, I went into a Petco deciding that I wanted to foster a cat. I asked for whichever cat was in here the longest and that was Paula. Paula? A name for a cat? Kinda strange I thought. She was 2 years old and terrified of people. But what was I going to do, change this poor traumatized cat’s name? I couldn’t. The first few weeks did not go very well. She hid most of the time and did not enjoy being touched. Quickly though, she would join me on the bed, every time inching a little closer. We became best buds. I like to think we found each other. Being the broke college student I was, I only had network channels and the Food Network at that time. The food channel was often on as most of those hosts quite literally taught me how to cook. Paula Deen was one of them, say what you want about her now, but the woman can throw down. So there we were, me and my new cat Paula, watching Paula Deen and I though, damn it, you are going to be her namesake. They were both loud, loved to eat and were both plump at the time. It was fitting.

Moving on to the stew. Certain recipes, I believe, can not be faked. I lived off of packaged food for quite some time and beef stew was always an option. I did not realize how gross it was until I made the real thing and let me tell you, if you haven’t made this delicious creation on a cool evening, you are missing out.

Behold, the reason why Steve is marrying me:

I made sure to have tons of veggies throughout the day to compensate for this rich bit of goodness. Sometimes you need some good ol’ comfort food to soothe the soul after a Monday.

Yesterday, my beloved treated me to a impromptu dinner out at our next door neighbors, the phenomenal new restaurant The Bounty. Since we usually cook our meals, we haven’t had many opportunities to frequent this establishment but as I love my neighborhood of Greenpoint BK and I ADORE this restaurant, I had to plug it a bit. I have had every entree on their menu and it is all fabulous. Cooked with such care and beautiful, fresh ingredients, every bite is joyous. We both had the roasted chicken with onion soubise and arugula (my absolute FAVORITE veggie on the planet) salad and it was sublime. The service is another bonus, our glasses were never empty and we were welcomed warmly. We are blessed to have such awesome neighbors who happen to throw down in the kitchen. My parents raised me right and taught me not to take my phone out EVER at dinner, so I have enclosed a photo of this killer meal from their Instagram. Warning, this photo my cause excessive drooling. Thanks Bounty. See you ASAP!

While I devoured that chicken with no doggie bag to bring home, I luckily had some extra beef stew which makes great protein rich leftover which I had today after a solid tempo run this Wednesday Two-a-Day:

4.57 in 40:31

Yoga later with my fabulous teacher to round out the hump day. A pretty cat, stew and solid exercise to start the week. Life is GOOD!

What deliciousness have you cooked up this week? Remember that food is fuel and fuel is meant to be burned off!

Monday Shumday

Lets be honest. Mondays are hard. The weekend either ends with us longing for more or beats us up, leaving us in a miserable toxic state or both.

Even if you have one of those rare occurrences where you are productive AND relaxed over the weekend, the Monday commute with all the sleepy depressed faces can really bring you down.

As it gets cooler and darker, Mondays will become increasingly challenging, and for some, Fall beings a downward spiral into Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) which becomes increasingly challenging the closer we approach the winter doldrums. While I luckily do not suffer from SAD, I know many who do, including my overworked mother. And I think we all deal with it in some way. After all, its hard to get motivated to rise and “shine” when its dark out and that comforter is just SO comfy its practically begging to be held.

Eons ago, when I was in High School, I refused to get out of bed on Mondays. My mother, the eternal optimist, would come into my room singing, encouraging me to have a great start to the week. I scowled, threw the covers over my head and hit the snooze button. Minutes later, my older brother would come in, turn on the lights and rip the covers off of me. What an ass making me go to school, but it was the only thing that worked. Over the years, I have tried to develop strategies to fix this problem. After all, we all want to start off on the right foot! Now that we are entering a new season and a new week, here are some tips to get through it and tools to deal with the SAD before it knocks you down.

Yoga– Just do it. You read about it all the time, its really cool to flip upside down and challenge yourself. Also, you will really hate this blog if you don’t like reading about yoga. Most importantly, believe it or not, you release toxins. The best lessons I have are when I am partook in one to many alcoholic beverages and/or binged on fast food. They suck, I hate every second, but its as though your body was given a reset. I always go to yoga on Monday and Fridays. One to prepare for the weekend the other to fix the weekend. Try it for a week, I’d love to say “I told ya so”.

Break Your Fast Healthfully– Feed your body what it needs. If you do, you’ll find that your brain will catch up with you and you will WANT what the temple NEEDS. Fruit, veggies and protein are how I like to begin my day. My favorite and most healthy recipe is my Tropical Green Smoothie. Complete with 1 frozen banana, handful of spinach, mango and pineapple with a scoop of greek yogurt. Mix that bad boy up and you are ready to conquer the world! Or at the very least, will stay full and feel great ’till lunch. Which brings me to lunch…

Make Your Slow-Cooker Your Best Bud– It is challenging to break bad habits. After a weekend of eating out or ordering in, it can be really easy to slip back into that. I admit that I almost forgot that I had a slow cooker. It was packed deep away in my cabinet since last winter. Not anymore! While it is easy to slap together that PB and J, why not give your body something wonderful. I found this AMAZING Taco Chicken Bowl recipe  which is inexpensive, ridiculous simple and totally hit the spot for lunch. Throw it all in there Sunday afternoon, set out for lunch(es) for the week and freeze some for a lazy day. I served mine with some brown rice and avocado and let me tell you, its a winner.

Water – DRINK IT! We are made up of 60% water. Those beers you had during football Sunday did not do anything to keep you hydrated, quite the opposite. Rule of thumb, drink a glass of water before you eat anything and always keep water at your desk. You’ll find yourself sipping all day and feeling great.

Change It Up – We usually are so beat by the end of Mondays we dont’ want to do much more than plop down in front of the tv and tune out. Weekends are not just for fun, we only have a limited time on this Earth. Go to a movie, take an evening stroll, go to a show. You’d be amazed how lovely Mondays can be.

Remember, your body is your temple. Treat it right, it’ll return the favor. Promise.

Do It All Sunday

I thought a lot about lounging in front of the TV watching the games and angrily checking my fantasy scores every 5 mins. Maybe it was the delicious egg scramble I may never know but today was am extremely productive day.

The day before the work week is always hard to exercise. We all have errands, plans with friends, or just plans with the couch and remote. I’ve found as I’m getting older (BLAH) that the best way to start the week to prepare for the dreaded morning alarm is to get a great workout in, buy and prepare some healthy foods and detox from the weekend with several glasses of water.

But what about relaxing? What about football???

Today I decided to get in some circuits. Best part about circuits? Is you can get a solid workout in almost anywhere.

I meed to watch football on Sunday so I decided to do my circuit workout in front of the TV
My circuit went as follows, 15 reps 3 sets,
40 jumping jacks
30 sit ups
20 squats
10 push-ups
One arm kettle ball (each side)
Around the body pass kettle ball
Swings kettle ball
Figure eight kettle ball
Deadlift kettle ball

I finished that off with 2 miles of speed work during halftime. Knowing we desperately needed to go food shopping to fill the fridge with healthy pretty fruits and veggies, I brought some money with me and took care of that errand after my run.

Added workout bonus, carrying 25 lbs of groceries .75 miles!

Lunch tomorrow is in the slow cooker, yoga clothes picked out and in a bag. Time to enjoy the rest of the evening!

Keep your Sundays healthy and productive!

Even Haggy got her workout in!

Weekend Fall Bliss

Fall has made it’s appearance this weekend here in New York.

And it’s AWESOME!

If you haven’t had the experience to be here in the Fall, I suggest you do whatever you can to get here in the next month and a half! People are more pleasant, it’s is the ideal temperature, especially for runners and nothing beats the crisp crunching of newly fallen leaves.

This weekend I just had to make the best out of my favorite season.

It started with my long run on Saturday morning. My long runs have been rough the last couple of weeks. I have a hard time keeping a slow and even pace. Even when I think I’m moving at turtle speeds, I’m still at around a 9 minute mile and get burnt out half way. Luckily, this run was different. It was perfect.

Thank you season/weather gods for treating me to such lovely conditions! 67, sunny with just enough clouds. A runners heaven.

14.01 in 2:12

My time would have been significantly better if I didn’t get lost in SOHO but I felt strong and approached the run with ease. I also made sure to put on slower tunes to help with my pace. Nothing like a ballad to help you put on the breaks.

Overall, I must say that every long run I daydream of marathon day and just how accomplished I will feel crossing the finish line after putting in months of hard work. I find myself becoming emotional just thinking about it. Nothing pushes you more than your own will!

That brings us to Sunday, another beautiful day when we rest and enjoy that intoxicating sport that is football. Wanting to start the new week right, I made my go-to Sunday meal, an egg scramble. I love making scrambles because one, its a great substitute for going out to brunch where you often have mystery ingredients and way too much fat. Two, because its inexpensive and super easy.

Today’s scramble had potatoes, onions, yellow and orange peppers ( my favorite ), spinach, chicken breast (cold cut) and, of course, eggs, 3 whole, 2 egg whites.

This protein packed breakfast dish keeps you full and energized for hours without feeling bogged down.

Oh and yes, since its fall, a Skim Pumpkin Spice Latte was a must.

What’s your favorite Sunday meal?

Train for Rain

After finally getting a good night of sleep I couldn’t wait to run! Until I saw that temptress, the snooze button.

Not a problem, I’ll just run on my lunch break. I love having the privilege of taking a run through Central Park. It’s often the highlight of the day.

Only, Mother Nature had other plans for me. After an excellent 4 miles, the skies went black and sheets of water quickly assaulted me.

Drenched, cold and being eaten alive by mosquitos, I was even more determined to push through strong. Not to mention desperate to get into dry clothes.

6.02 in 53:52

Sarah 1 Mother Nature 0

Wednesday Two-a-Days Kick my Asana

Oh NYC, you evil humid mistress.

Fall, my favorite season, should be here by now, but of course, in true NYC fashion, we get one last assault of heat, humidity and the lovely smell garbage, concrete and B.O in the air. Ahh, lovely NYC.

So when I woke up today and was sweating through my clothes even with AC on, I was not looking forward to my morning run. Three snoozes later I begrudgingly laced up and went out.

Bam. That first wave of heat. Ugh, it’s like running through pudding.

I start off feeling great, which never is usually the case. I find that it’s the hardest the first couple of miles until I find my perfect little running heaven of even breathing and solid stride.

4.41 miles in 40:02

Not bad. But damn was I miserable.

I came home and chugged 55 solid onces of water in probably 3 mins. Cold shower and on with the day.

Only nope.

I left the house with my pink fuzzy house slippers on. Only to then come back in, put on real shoes and pick up my empty laundry bag instead of the full bag of garbage.

Clearly this run kicked my ass and is making me remember it. Or forget it, as it were.

All day, water water water. Nope, still feel like crap. Tea. Nada. Green juice.

Yes!

Rejuvenated by my favorite juice “Get Your Green On” from Juice Generation. I know, the name is dope, but don’t even think about stealing it. That ish is trademarked.

It has kale, spinach, mint, pineapple and apple and it is gooooood. Go out RIGHT NOW if you are near one and thank me later.

Then.

Yoga.

Now, some people see yoga as this do nothing activity. I challenge anyone who thinks that to come to my teachers class at NY Loved Yoga at 6:30 on Wednesdays.

I have never. And I mean not even when I recently ran 12 miles on an 80 degree humid NYC day, sweat so much in my life. No matter where I’m at in my training and practice, this chick makes you WORK and you will feel it the next day.

Normally after her classes I feel bruised and beaten yet phenomenal at the same time, tonight was just agony. That damn run, THIS STUPID HUMIDITY!

Training. Some days you kick your asana more than others. Breathe through it.

Or just be like me and treat yourself to some much deserved frozen yogurt.

9/11

We all have a story.

Where we were, what we were doing, who told us. All different but feelings the same. Shock, horror, confusion, fear and despair are just a few. As we look back on such a horrifically memorable day, I can’t help but think of how fascinating the human condition really is.

Twelve years ago, a friend of mine approached while I was heading to Biology saying, “planes are flying into the World Trade Center!” It didn’t make much sense to me, but by the look on her face I knew she wasn’t far off. As the bell rung, our teacher explained what was happening as students were sobbing, praying and impatiently waiting to hear from their families in the city, or, in many cases, their parents who worked at the WTC.

Our teacher tried to keep some semblance of normalcy, by teaching us about osmosis, of all things, but no one paid attention. One by one, my peers were taken out of the classroom to speak to their parents who had called the school to say they were alright. A few students, unfortunately, did not receive this call and every 9/11, I think of them and my heart sinks.

I have lived in NYC for the past 8 years and every year this day presents its emotional challenges. My fellow commuters are eerily quiet, somber even. Its hard to feel like you can even start the day happily knowing that families all over the country and still reeling from this senseless act that stole their loved ones. The other emotion is fear. We all live in our own bubble, us New Yorkers, places to go, people to see, jobs to be done. We hardly think about the fact that we are in many ways, the center of the country, the ideal target. It is almost impossible not to think about the next instance of terror.

Scrolling through my Newsfeed and Tweets I am pleased to know that people are taking time out of their day to pay homage to the innocent victims thank the selfless heros of that day and the days following. And I urge you to keep it up, not just today, but everyday.

Let us not forget to give thanks and appreciation for the lives we have, for our well-being as well as our families. Let us be eternally grateful for those who put others first while we strive to be like them.  On this day we reflect on horrible circumstances, we use tragedy, as human beings, to become better, to evolve.

So on this day, I encourage you to compliment a stranger, share a smile and just give a little love. The world becomes better when WE become better.