Spinning

I have a weird relationship with spinning. I'll go a bunch of times, think that I am all into it, and then I don't go for 6 months or more. I went to two spin classes last week. On Friday I went to Cycle Tech with Melissa Soss and on Saturday I went to Studio Cycling with Damian Vella. I wish I could explain to you the difference between Studio Cycling and classes with fancier names, but honestly, it's all the same to me. My favorite spin instructor is Craig Eisenberg. His enthusiasm is contagious, which is really helpful when you are huffing and puffing up an imaginary hill and praying to the fitness gods that the class will end.

I never invested in a pair of cycling shoes. I hear that they make all the difference and I would probably have more efficient peddling strokes. Tim McNamara, also an Equinox cycling instructor, recommends Pearl Izumi shoes. He also says that Zappos.com is a good place to order cycling shoes from because you can order a pair in multiple sizes and return the ones that don't fit free of charge.

Sun Salutations with No Sun

So I'm not really a yoga person, but today I decided to go to Vinyasa Flow Yoga taught by Michael Aronoff. My legs have been feeling super tight lately and I have been having trouble sleeping. I've never gone to one of Michael's classes before, but he is a knowledgeable instructor and I really enjoyed it.

Today I learned that you are supposed to pick something you are grateful for when practicing sun salutations. I picked my sister. I haven't really liked my sister in the past, and I know the feeling was mutual. However, she and I have gotten along better this summer and we spent an awesome day together at the beach on Saturday. I don't think I take enough time each day to be grateful for the wonderful people and things I have in my life. If you find yourself rushing from one chaotic event to another, trade a yoga class for your normal cardio, and do some sun salutations for someone you love.

Tap & Track

I have started using my favorite iPhone app Tap & Track again. This app really helped me to hold myself accountable and lose a lot of weight this past winter and spring.
The program is very simple. You input your weight and choose a weight-loss or weight-gain program, i.e. lose 1/2 lb a week, lose 1 lb a week, gain 1 lb a week et cetera, and the app tells you how many calories you can eat that day. There are thousands of foods in the database to choose from that you add to your log. One of the newer features is a list of supermarket brand foods. It's so easy to add brand-name snack foods or your favorite cereal.
I use the Biggest Loser brand food scale to measure out items that don't come in packaged servings.  Today I ate sliced banana and sliced peaches with Fage Total yogurt. The container of yogurt said 90 calories, but I measured out my fruit slices and weighed them in grams. A food scale also makes buying in bulk much simpler. When I buy the big container of Fage yogurt, I'm obviously not going to eat the entire thing in one sitting. I can put a few spoonfuls into a bowl and figure out how many calories my serving is. The Biggest Loser food scale has a tare function, which is great for weighing out salads. You just hit tare between each ingredient and then you don't have to dirty a whole load of dishes to measure everything out.
Tap & Track has an Add Exercise function.  You choose from a list of exercises and input the duration of the activity and it calculates the number of calories you burned.  The app then recalculates how many calories you have remaining for the day.  I now use the Quick Add Calories because I get a more accurate calculation from using my heart rate monitor, but if I go for a long walk or do a fun activity, I still choose from the list.
For $3.99, this program more than pays for itself in the long run.

I actually am out of my mind.

This evening I went to the Equinox in Great Neck. Yes, I know I ran 4 miles this morning. I started with Yves' 45 minute Total Body Sculpt class. I want to push myself and develop bigger arm muscles, so today I sucked it up and threw a set of 12 lb weights out with my normal 5s, 8s, and 10s. I was able to do most of the heavy weight exercises using the 12s. I knew not to even try to do flys with them though because I ended up hurting myself when I first started using 10 lb weights. There's being insane and then there's being stupid. If I have to miss workouts because I injured myself, I get really pissed.
The hour of Cardio Kickboxing came next. I was really psyched because my friend T was there and we worked out in the front together. She motivates me to work harder. I am really impressed by how good she looks these days. Yves' kickboxing class is an amazing workout because it targets every part of your body. He added resistance bands to our mat work and I'm sure I'm going to feel it in my glutes tomorrow.
Yves' Dance Fusion class in on Tuesday nights. I don't like any of his other dance classes, but I love this one. I don't know if it's the people or the routines, but it always puts me in a good mood. I always end up leaving in the middle of the other dance classes in an awful mood. I blame the people. I am a horrible dancer and it's not like I don't know it. I stay in the back, try to stay out of people's way, and laugh at myself the entire time. Dance Fusion lets me work on improving my rhythm.  It's been slow progress.
I finished up my workout with a few sets on the abductor and adductor machines. This older gentleman was incredibly impressed that I had 185 lbs on the machine. He asked if I were a jock. I had to say no, even though I was very tempted to say yes. I burned 1,600 calories at the gym according to my Polar FT7. I burned a little over 400 calories running, but I don't trust the iPod as much as my HRM so I round down. All in all, 2,000 calories burned from exercise is something to smile about.
I had 16 ounces of coffee and a protein shake made with almond milk before I went to the gym (205 calories) so I figured I should have a substantial dinner. Not eating enough actually screws with your metabolism and you thwart your weight loss efforts. My family had tacos for their dinner so I used the leftover ingredients to create this:

So I ate my dinner out of a mixing bowl.  Shoot me.
Please ignore my cat Coly's behind in the background.

Nike+ iPod

Back in February I bought myself a new iPod Nano and a new pair of Nike+ running sneakers.  Then I used them twice and that was the end of that.  My successful Central Park run has inspired me to start getting my money's worth out of my running gear.

On Thursday I ran 11.23 miles according to my iPod.  I am out on Long Island and I thought it was going to be a pleasant experience.  Unfortunately the village of Matinecock is not meant for outdoor running and I spent a good portion of my run trying not to get run over.  I ran back towards Mill River Road and then continued my run into the town of Oyster Bay.  I hit the 10 mile mark when I reached CVS on Route 106 and managed to struggle through the remaining 1.23 miles home.  My feet were so torn up after this experience that I hobbled myself into Angel Tip Nails for a pedicure the next day.

Today I decided that I would go over to the Vernon School track to calibrate my iPod.  This turned out to be a failure.  The distance markers on the track didn't match up to the distances on my iPod.  If anyone knows what I am doing wrong, I would greatly appreciate some feedback.  I am going to be mighty disappointed if I find out that I did not in fact run 11.23 miles on Thursday.  Although I was unable to calibrate the sensor, I did run 4 miles.  I then walked around my block as a cool down.

I'm looking for a running partner for the month of August.  If you're interested in running with me in Central Park or along the East River, send me a note.