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?

I’ve written before about how I have trouble stopping to smell the metaphorical roses. I’ve always known that I’m the type of person that needs to make a conscious effort to slow down. Otherwise, I end up doing too much and getting burnt out. It wasn’t until last week that I realized that I really need to make more of an effort to “smell the roses” though.

To give some background on this, I struggled with a few stress-related health issues in high school. It took a lot of work, but I eventually got rid of them… up until recently when they resurfaced. In the past month or two, I’ve noticed some changes in my body. Two of them have been discussed on this blog: sleep and stomach problems. The other one is a little too embarrassing for me to be comfortable mentioning online, but it also affected me in high school.

Last Tuesday, I went to my doctor’s office to ask about my recent health problems. She suggested that the the sleep problem may be due to light in my apartment in the morning, which I definitely agree with. She also mentioned that the stomach problem could be a problem with my diet, specifically eating too much fruit and vegetables! Shocking, I know. I know that getting too much fiber can cause digestion problems, but I really didn’t think that I was getting too much. She didn’t totally nix my idea that my stomach problems could be due to stress too, but she did suggest making some small modifications to my diet and seeing how that affects me. Lastly, she confirmed that my suspicions that my more embarrassing problem was caused by stress. She gave me a request form to get my bloodwork done to find out if there could be any hormone issues going on and also a recommendation for a dermatologist in the area. So we’ll see!

With that said, it’s become very clear to me that I need to work on reducing my stress levels and to help me do so, I’m setting some health-related June goals for myself!

Goals for June

- Go to yoga

My gym has yoga classes, but I almost never go. I always prefer to lift weights, run, or row, but I think this would be better for both my fitness in general and my mind. I think I may join in on Courtney’s June Yoga challenge to help me meet this goal, actually!

- Take rest days

This is something I have trouble with. Meg’s recent post about taking more rest days really hit a note with me. I definitely don’t take enough rest days, even when I feel my body needs it. Instead, I often just force myself to push through it, though I’ll know I’ll be better the next day if I do.

I also want to apply this to Sleep and Repeat! Since I started this blog, I’ve felt like I need to share every food-related photo or fitness-related experience I have, which I realized is actually kind of an absurd goal for me. I took a break from the blog this weekend because 1. I didn’t have much to share and 2. I had plans for a rest weekend following my doctor’s recommendations about my stress levels. So as much as I love sharing my life, I’m going to try and pull back and take “rest days” from the blog a little more often as well.

- Eat more balanced

I generally eat very healthy, but according to my doctor, I also need to work on eating more balanced in general. She suggested that I might be getting too many veggies and fruit, so I’m going to try and cut back a little on both and see if that helps my stomach issues.

- Improve my work-life balance

Last week, I worked two 11-hour days. Way too much! It’s not what I’m used to at all. I haven’t mentioned this before since I try to stay away from real-life talk on the blog, but my boss and I are changing groups and our new group manager is a crazy workaholic. I’m talking 6 am to 10 pm days. Insane, I know. I absolutely am not ready for that to happen to me. Luckily, I have the coolest boss ever and he is really understanding of it being my first year in a full-time job. Usually when he offers to let me leave early (early being a relative term to my usual 6 pm leave time), I turn him down. I’m not unwilling to work and I want to make a good impression, but one of my goals is to take him up on that offer a little more in the interest of finding a better work-life balance.

And I’m leaving the June goals at that for now.

Dinner

Tonight’s dinner was a new creation that I think I’ll be throwing together for quick dinners more often: a hummus egg wrap!

Ugly photo, I know. But trust me, it was delicious and super quick! I just slathered a whole wheat tortilla with red pepper hummus, then topped it with spinach, an egg (cooked in the microwave), and a sprinkle of goat cheese. It was literally done in five minutes! The perfect speedy after-work meal.

Just finishing up The Bachelorette and I can’t wait to see who gets booted! I’m loving Arie, Jef, and Sean. Obvious choices, I know. But what can I say, I’m a sucker for reality TV editing. If you’re watching, who are your favorites?

I’m playing TV catchup tonight! I’m especially excited for the Survivor finale and Celebrity Apprentice. What can I say, I’m a total sucker for crappy reality TV.

Anyway, I had some seriously yummy food today! And I just realized that I use the word “yummy” a lot on this blog. On top of “delicious” and “tasty.” Whoops. But what are you going to do when you write a food and fitness blog? I guess I need to brush up on my thesaurus use!

Now, here are two of my YUMMY eats from today!

Lunch

For lunch, I hopped over to Hi-So Thai with my boss and two work friends. It’s a great little Thai place with a pretty good lunch special and within walking distance from work. And therefore, the perfect lunch spot.

My boss and our friend Steve ordered their usual, the pineapple fried rice.

I ordered the drunken noodles with chicken, which were a little more oily than I would’ve liked, but super spicy and good! And the portion was a lot smaller than what you normally get at Thai restaurants, so I didn’t feel too guilty clearing my plate.

And our friend Brian ordered the chicken pad thai, which I didn’t manage to get a picture of.

Dinner

All I snacked on the afternoon was some fruit, which wasn’t quite substantial enough. I got home from work a little before 6:30 and was huuungry!

My mom is seriously incredible at Chinese cooking and she brought me some of her Chinese-style empanadas when my family came up for Mother’s Day dinner yesterday. I don’t actually know if they have a name in Chinese, but we just call them “bing,” which is sort of a blanket term for lots of pan-fried things. I think the technical translation would be “pancake” though.

On the side, I had some of my leftover roasted grape, walnut, and goat cheese quinoa. It was still good!

Inside these empanada-type things is egg, scallions, Chinese vermicelli, and some tiny dried shrimp. It was hard to get a good photo, but trust me, it was YUMMY! And yes, I’m now embracing my overuse of that word.

One of my goals for this year is to get my mom to teach me how to make some of the amazing things she does! Her Chinese breakfast bread and homemade scallion pancakes are famous among our family friends. And she doesn’t even use recipes for most of it – she just manages to experiment in the kitchen and get what she wants in one or two tries!

As for my own cooking journey, I actually didn’t really learn how to cook until last year when I lived off-campus my senior year of college. My mom has always been impatient and unfortunately, I inherited the trait from her. So her attempts to teach me how to cook were somewhat disastrous! But now that I know the basics and a little more, I’m hoping it’ll be easier for us to get along in the kitchen.

Sleep tight!

The NCAA final game was painful to watch!

Kansas just couldn’t keep up. My March madness turned to March sadness while watching that $510 slip through my fingers. Ah well, there’s always next year!

On another note, my lovely roommate decided to tackle a fun little DIY project while the game was on: making a homemade orange peel candle!

DIY orange peel candle

It took us about fifteen matches or so to get it lit… but success at last! Visit Apartment Therapy to learn how to make your own.

Isn’t it pretty? Smelled great too!