I guess this posting once every two or three weeks thing is just… my thing now. I think I’m okay with that.

My last three weeks of workouts!
Monday, 4/8: Rip Ride (6:30 pm with Christianne, 60 min)
Tuesday, 4/9: Uplift Strength (6:30 pm with Liz, 55 min) – I loved this class. It was really upper body heavy, which is exactly what I wanted on the warmest day so far this year. Tank top season, here I come!
Wednesday, 4/10: Reinvention Chair (6:30 pm with Rachel, 55 min) – My first class with Rachel at Chaise23! She has so much energy and I was sweating like crazy with the small specific movements.
Thursday, 4/11: Flybarre (7 am with Kara, 60 min) – I’m quickly learning that any class with Kara is killer. This one was murder on my legs, but hey, that’s what I came for!
Friday, 4/12: Rest
Saturday, 4/13: Rest
Sunday, 4/14: Rest

Monday, 4/15: Flybarre (7 am with Khori, 60 min) – Killer class! It felt so good to work hard after three days of rest.
Tuesday, 4/16: Rip Ride (7:30 pm with Kira, 60 min) – Kira was on fire! Awesome class with incredible energy. We went almost fifteen minutes over and my heart rate monitor read 748 calories! Now that’s a workout.
Wednesday, 4/17: Flybarre (7 am with Todd, 60 min) & Uplift Workout & Wine: Book Club (6:30 pm with Shannon, 55 min) – I decided to take Flybarre on a whim the night before. And with serendipitous timing, I got my favorite mat! It turned out to be kind of a gross morning but Todd’s energy is infectious and got me going. On the flip side, I’d been planning to go to Uplift’s Book Club for a few weeks now but didn’t finish the book (Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In), unfortunately. It didn’t matter too much because the whole discussion ended up being more about feminism and our own experiences than anything else. It was an empowering night with the badass women of Uplift!
Thursday, 4/18: SLT (6:30 pm with Liz, 50 min) & Flybarre (8:15 pm with Todd, 60 min) – I met Liz at Uplift last week and really wanted to try her SLT class. She hit the core hard, as every SLT class does. My class with Todd after was excellent as always. I left especially happy after because Todd pulled me aside at the end to tell me how much I’ve improved since I started going to Flybarre. Always nice to hear!
Friday, 4/19: DJ Ride (8 pm with Dyan & Kira, 60 min) – Two of my favorites teaching together. Um, yes, of course. Not only were they hilarious together, but having a live DJ there took the energy over the edge. Loved it!
Saturday, 4/20: Flybarre (8:15 am with Kara, 60 min) & Uplifting Strength (9:30 am with Michelle, 55 min) – Oof. I’m gonna have to try to get into Kara’s 9:30 am classes on Saturday from now on because the 8:15 class is seriously stressful. Last week, my train was running late and they gave my mat away. This week, I managed to get off the train and call around 8:12 so I kept my mat but I rushed in last minute at 8:16. Oh well. Still a fantastic workout! I followed it up with Michelle’s strength class at Uplift, which was killer. She threw a lot of moves I hadn’t see before in there. Love!
Sunday, 4/21: TRX/Stretch (9 am with Katherine, 60 min) – My first time at Pedal NYC through the Classtivity passport and my first time trying TRX! I got a good workout in, but it was kind of hard to start because um, I have some serious trust issues and didn’t trust the skinny yellow straps. Also, I was a little hungover and a lot tired. But no accidents were had, so I may just venture back into TRX territory soon!

Monday, 4/22: Rest – This day was such a fail. I’d planned to go to 7 am Flybarre but couldn’t get up. Then I wanted to go to 6:30 Refine after work, but I missed the bus and knew I couldn’t make it after that. Whoops.
Tuesday, 4/23: Flybarre (7 am with Shay) & Uplifting Strength (6:30 pm with Liz) – I love Liz and her Uplifting Strength class. Girl knows her stuff. Thos class really effective and I like a lot of the moves she gives for the cardio tabata drills. We did half-burpees with a push-up for tabata which was fun. And we did 3 1/2 minutes of plank and plank variations at the end for abs. I didn’t think I’d make it but I actually had to cheat surprisingly little. Yay!
Wednesday, 4/24: Nalini Method (6:45 pm with Rupa) – My first time here, courtesy of Classtivity! I bought a LivingSocial deal for five classes here a while back so I’ll be back soon.
Thursday, 4/25: Real Ride (7 am with Kristen) & Flybarre (7 pm with Todd) – I have no idea why I hasn’t been back to Kristin’s class since the very first class I ever took at Revolve. That class had been awesome and so was this one! We rode Carson Pass and I had so much fun.
Friday, 4/26: Rest – I woke up late and missed Michelle’s Uplifting Strength class. Yeah, the alarm has not been my friend lately…
Saturday, 4/27: Zumba – I was visiting my parents so I went with my mom to her Zumba class which was… not a workout. I thought I was doing okay following along, but it just didn’t get me sweating.
Sunday, 4/28: Rest

I realized something yesterday that struck me as kind of weird. I did Flybarre in the morning, but didn’t book a class after work because I had the feeling that it was going to be a long day. Sure enough, I got stuck at work until 6. For my Jersey-commuting self, that’s basically the worst time to be ready to leave the office for a workout. It’s too late to get to a 6:30 class, but too early for a 7:30 class (I’m highly impatient and hate waiting). Anyway, I was kind of antsy from work and knew I didn’t feel like waiting an hour and a half for a 7:30 class. I spent a few minutes looking for a class at 7, but couldn’t find anything so I decided to just go straight home from work. This is when the kind of weird thing happened. I got on the light rail to go home and took out my phone and kept looking up classes at 7:30 that I could go to. I just really wanted it to work out. I didn’t feel super stressed or like I had a ton of energy to burn off either, so I have no idea why. I just really wanted to even though I knew I should just go home, save the money on the class, and relax.

Anyway, if you told me a year ago that in a year, I’d be convincing myself out of working out, I’d probably laugh in your face and then feel bad about my level of fitness and go binge eat some chips. I definitely didn’t enjoy working out the way I do now, but at the time, I was working out in a gym alone and hadn’t discovered group fitness yet. I’m glad that I’ve made so much progress and don’t feel like I’ll be stopping anytime soon. Group exercise feels like an important part of my life now, which is awesome because I feel that it’s given me so much of the purpose that I was missing a year ago.

Self-reflective moment over.

On another note, my hip has not improved since I received the cortisone injection in my left hip two and a half weeks ago. My doctor said it could take up to a week to start improving, but could take up to two weeks. Today makes three weeks since I had the injection, and I’m sad to report that I’ve seen no progress. It still pops with every step I take when walking which doesn’t hurt, but is annoying. I was hoping to be ready to start running again sometime in May, so not seeing much progress is frustrating. Equally frustrating is the fact that my doctor explicitly told me to let her know how the hip was doing in two weeks. I called her office and left a message for her last week, but didn’t hear back. When I called again this week, I was told that she wasn’t in the office and would be back next week. Oy.

And lastly, I bought a $300 masticating juicer over the weekend! It’s the Omega VRT350. I almost couldn’t justify spending so much money on it, but then I realized that I probably spend that much money on juice in two months right now anyway. Sooooo yeah.

Juice prep: three apples, four stalks of celery, a few cups of spinach, half of a lemon, and a tiny bit of ginger.

Using my Omega VRT350 to make green juice!

Excited to stock up on produce this weekend and try some more juice recipes!

And on another tangent, that is the Arrested Development box set on the right side of that second picture. I am PSYCHED for the season to start on Netflix at the end of this month – it will be awesome! Anyone else excited?

Spring weather at last! It just makes me want to get out there and run (but we’ll get to that later).

Short shorts season indeed. The ladies at Uplift know what’s up!

Before I forget, let’s recap what will hopefully be my last few cold-weather workouts for the year:
Monday, 3/25: Flybarre (6:45 pm with Todd, 60 min)
Tuesday, 3/26: Rip Ride (7:30 pm with Kira, 60 min) – This class started out kind of rough for me. I got stuck at work really late and didn’t get to Revolve until maybe 10 minutes before the class. I rushed to change and forgot to put my contacts in… fail. My glasses were slipping so badly that I had to take them off during the first spin segment and then run out during the first arms segment to put my contacts on in the lobby. I was a little shaken but fine after that and Kira rocked it as usual!
Wednesday, 3/27: Flybarre (6:45 pm with Amanda, 60 min)
Thursday, 3/28: Flybarre (5:45 pm with Todd, 60 min) – This was a really awesome Thrift Shop-themed class! Lots of Macklemore and Flywheel was collecting donations for Housing Works. I’d planned to follow this one up with Kira’s Rip Ride at 7:30, but got called in to a work event as I was leaving Flywheel. Blah.
Friday, 3/29: Fly 45 (9:30 am with Kari, 45 min) & Flybarre (10:30 am with Kara, 60 min) – I was super excited for my first spin class at Flywheel and my first Flybarre class with Fly’s master instructor Kara! No disappointments here, both classes were amazing and left me wanting more. Just, uhhh, not that day.
Saturday, 3/30: Uplift Cardio (10:30 am with Steph, 55 min) – My first time taking Steph’s class at Uplift! It was crazy hard and I was out of breath the whole time. I almost passed out like five times, which is the sign of a good class.
Sunday, 3/31: Body Ride (12:45 pm with Jason, 45 min) – I stayed out way too late the night before so I was a littttle hungover. Keep in mind that I don’t drink much anymore so hungover for me means a slight headache and being tired (which means not getting the full 7+ hours of sleep that I like to get). Still not the best combination with Revolve’s pulsing sound system… but I survived and felt good after!

Monday, 4/1: Rest
Tuesday, 4/2: Therapy & Rip Ride (7:30 pm with Christianne, 60 min) – This one is up there as one of the best classes I’ve ever been in. I felt so strong after my rest day, the room had great energy, and Christianne really pushed it. It was a really hard class (I was ready to be done after the first spin segment), but I loved every minute of it.
Wednesday, 4/3: Uplift Strength (6:30 pm with Chelsea, 55 min) – Fantastic class and evening spent with some serious inspiring ladies at Uplift! They were celebrating their first anniversary with champagne and treats. More on this one in a future Uplift review post.
Thursday, 4/4: Rest – I was not a happy camper. I’d planned to go to Chaise23 on my Classtivity passport but got stuck at work and totally missed it. Luckily, the folks at Classtivity and Chaise are absolute saints and let me try a class there again.
Friday, 4/5: Pure Barre (6:30 am with Jessica, 60 min) & Real Ride (5:30 pm with Steph, 45 min) – I tried Pure Barre on the Classtivity passport and thought I would love it since I love barre classes. I didn’t feel that challenged throughout the class though and really wanted a lot more after my impromptu rest day the day before. Luckily, Steph’s Body Ride still had some bikes left and I wasn’t too busy at work so I jetted out early to catch her Girl Power Happy Hour. Let’s just say that she had me when she started the class off with “No Scrubs” by TLC and then threw in my request, “Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood midway through. I love music I can sing along to!
Saturday, 4/6: Abs & Arms (8:30 am with Amanda, 50 min) & Rip Ride (10:30 am with Kira, 60 min) – I’d planned to go to Kara’s Flybarre class at 8:15 on Saturday, but unfortunately, the PATH train was running late (what else is new). I got there at 8:15 sharp but they’d already given away my mat. Luckily, SLT Soho had a spot left so I didn’t have to waste an early weekend commute to the city! It was a special Abs & Arms class with the proceeds going to S.E.A.K. Foundation. I do not lie when I say I still had trouble sitting up in bed this morning, a full three days later. It hurts so good!
Sunday, 4/7:  Flybarre (10:45 am with Ted, 60 min) & Cardio Chair Express (12:30 pm with Seiji, 40 min) – My first class with Ted at Flybarre! He led a seriously hard class with a lot of new-to-me moves! I especially struggled through the abs portion after my torture session at SLT the day before. I was able to reschedule my Chaise23 class from Thursday for Sunday when a last minute spot opened up. Full review of that studio and the pilates chair to come, but let’s just say that I loved it and have already planned my next two workouts there!

The workout plan for this week!

Monday, 4/8: Rip Ride at Revolve
Tuesday, 4/9: Uplifting Strength
Wednesday, 4/10: Reinvention Chair at Chaise23
Thursday, 4/11: Flybarre
Friday, 4/12: Rest
Saturday, 4/13: Rest
Sunday, 4/14: Rip Ride at Revolve or Rest (depending on how I feel)

As you can see, I’ve planned for more rest this week than I ever usually do. It’s because I’m finally taking care of my hip popping this Thursday.

A little background: My left hip started popping in October last year. I saw an orthopedist for it and she told me to stop running and recommended getting a shot to reduce inflammation. I wanted to try physical therapy first though, so I’ve been going to PT for my hip for the past two months or so. It hasn’t helped at all, which has been disappointing. I’m going to see my doctor this Thursday and expect to get the cortisone shot in my hip to finally reduce the inflammation and stop the popping – hallelujah! I’m excited it’ll finally be gone but also a little nervous. Big needles are not my friend.

Anyway, the last time my doctor suggested the shot, she told me I’d have to rest my hip for about three days after getting it. Hence, REST (aka catch up on Arrested Development time). But I have some grand ole plans for when the rest is over… running! I’ll definitely have to ease back into it since it’s been over seven months (WHOA), but yay! I’m very excited nonetheless.

Also, since I will be on prescribed rest this weekend, I’ve decided to also do a two-day juice cleanse! I’ve been trying to do one for a while, but I normally never want to put exercising on hold for it. The timing is especially perfect because my stomach has been acting up lately and I also haven’t been eating as well. Plus I’ve been excessively snacking on the weekends just because I have free time. Time to do something good for my body and get back on track!

Since I decided last-minute to do this cleanse, my options were somewhat limited. I looked into all the “buzzy” cleanses like Blueprint, Organic Avenue, Cooler Cleanse, etc., but finally settled on Terri, a vegan restaurant in Chelsea. I love their smoothies, juices, and wraps (their buffalo “chicken” wrap is one of my favorite post-workout meals lately!), so I have a good feeling about it. I’ll be writing a full review afterwards!

Terri’s buffalo “chicken” wrap – that’s the stuff.

Yuuuum. I’m sure it’ll be hard to resist some of that Terri deliciousness when I go pick up my cleanse on Saturday morning. Bye for now!

I have two weeks worth of workouts to catch you up on today. Whoops.

Here’s how the last two weeks went:
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Revolve Rip Ride (7:30 pm, 60 min)
Wednesday: Barre Fusion (7:45 pm, 60 min) – I really wanted to love this class, but there really wasn’t as much barre as I’d hoped for. I was expecting a pretty typical barre class, with slightly more time spent on stretching and maybe a sun salutation or two but instead it seemed more like a straight vinyasa yoga class to me.
Thursday: Bowchickawowow Flybarre (5:45 pm, 60 min) & Revolve Red Hot Rip Ride (7:30 pm, 60 min) – I normally don’t double up on weekdays but I couldn’t resist this particular day! Two of my favorite classes were doing Valentine’s Day themes. Flybarre had a bowchickawowow class full of sexy music and Rip Ride had a ladies’ only class and playlist. Such a fun day!
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Rip Ride (10:30 am, 60 min) & Flybarre (1:15 pm, 60 min)
Sunday: Flybarre (4 pm, 60 min)

Monday: Flybarre (9:30 am, 60 min) & Body Ride (12:30 pm, 45 min) – Can I have every Monday off, please? It’s too fun. The Flybarre class was a blast with Shay, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite Flybarre instructors. She’s so cheery but with a laidback cool vibe. And Christianne’s class after that was incredible too. I was really feeling that day’s music.
Tuesday: Rip Ride (7:30 pm, 60 min)
Wednesday: Body Ride (7 am, 45 min) & Flybarre (6:45 pm, 60 min) – After a lot of back and forth on Jason’s Body Ride on Wednesday morning, I’d decided not to go the night before. But I just so happened to have insomnia that day and woke up at like 6 am so I went and rocked it out. It was an awesome way to finish out my unlimited month at Revolve. I would’ve skipped Flybarre after work but I was already past the free cancel period so I went anyway. I tried a new-to-me instructor this time, Amanda, and she was really upbeat and fun. No regrets.
Thursday: Rest – This is what the title refers to. I reluctantly took this planned rest day, even though I didn’t want to.
Friday: Revolve DJ Ride (7:30 pm, 60 min) – I really liked this ride. They had a live DJ and both Christianne and Kristin were teaching. Both are amazing and it was awesome!
Saturday: Rip Ride (10:30 am, 60 min) & Flybarre (12 pm, 60 min) – Rip Ride was amazing as always. I tried another new-to-me Flybarre instructor, Khori, and she was awesome! The triceps work was especially tough.
Sunday: Flybarre (4 pm, 60 min) – This class is quickly becoming my Sunday afternoon staple. Love it.

Recently, I’ve had a lot of trouble with rest days. As in, I don’t want to take them because my workouts are the perfect form of stress relief and too much fun. Though I really should take more for the sake of my bank account. Those expensive classes really add up.

Anyway, last week, I’d planned to take a rest day on Thursday but I wasn’t too excited about it. What made it even harder to stick to taking my planned rest day was my schedule for that day. My boss and I spent the day recruiting for interns, which meant the day started early and ended early. Usually I’m busy with work so I jump at any chance I get to get to classes during work hours and beat the after-work or before-work crowd. I got home around 3:30, so of course, I was so, so tempted to squeeze in a late afternoon Flybarre class, but ultimately, I decided it would be better to stick to my rest day.

I felt like I was wasting my free time, which annoyed me at the time, but in retrospect, it was a really smart decision. It gave my body time to recover from from my workouts earlier in the week and I felt strong at Revolve’s DJ Ride on Friday night.

My lesson learned for the week: rest days are your friend!

And just to include some color in this post, last night I went to Plataforma in the city for a work dinner and their salad bar is just as unbelievable as people say. For those who haven’t heard of it, it’s a rodizio (Brazilian BBQ) place, but their salad bar is supposedly so great that it even draws vegetarians. Truth!

One of these things is not like the others…
Sunday: Local Barre
Monday: Local Barre
Tuesday: Local Barre
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Rest
Friday: Local Barre
Saturday: Core Fusion Barre

See it?

I mentioned in my last post that I’m kind of obsessed with Local Barre in Hoboken lately. Well, yesterday I had plans to go and even though I woke up early enough to make their morning classes, I was being lazy and it just wasn’t going to happen. Instead I decided to try one of Exhale’s afternoon Core Fusion Barre classes.

It actually worked out perfectly because I’ve been curious about other studios’ interpretations of the Lotte Berk method compared to Local Barre’s anyway. There are about ten or so different studios in the city that offer barre classes and Exhale is one of the more popular ones.

I found Exhale’s class to be pretty similar to Local Barre’s, though not as challenging overall. I did get that signature barre burn a few times, but most of the sprints were shorter than I’m used to and didn’t feel that hard, especially the thigh section. Exhale’s glute section is a lot different from Local Barre’s in that we did most of it while sitting on the floor. The ab section was different too and I just didn’t get it. Maybe I wasn’t doing it right but it felt awkward and didn’t burn at all. I remember having some trouble with the movements at my first few Local Barre classes too, so it could just be that I need more time at Exhale to get the hang of their methods.

That being said, my arms are a little sore today, especially my triceps. Yay! No complaints at all here – in my opinion, there’s nothing like some muscle soreness to let you know you worked hard! I didn’t feel that the arms section was that hard but something the instructor was doing was clearly working. Their Core Fusion series also includes cardio, sports, and yoga classes, which I’d like to try even though it’s a bit of trek for me (especially compared to Local Barre).

Oh and another benefit of going to Exhale? I was in the city and passed about a million chopped salad places on my way back to the PATH. Mmmm. I really love these make-your-own-salad type places… I wish there was one closer to me. I had a magnificent mix of mesclun, avocado, cherry tomatoes, craisins, bleu cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette.

And going back to the theme of switching it up, you’ll notice my blog looks a lot different. It’s had a major facelift! Let me know what you think.