An Apple a Day (or Four)

I eat at least an apple a day. I think they are the perfect snack because they are 1. delicious, 2. easily portable, and 3. tasty at any time of day. Apples are high in fiber, which keeps you full. This means that the 95 calories you consume from eating a medium-sized apple is going to keep you going longer than if you spent those 95 calories on crackers or chips. Sometimes I slice an apple and spread a Laughing Cow Light cheese wedge (35 calories) onto the slices. My students are impressed that I can do this with a plastic knife. I'm badass, I know.

I like tart apples, so I'm usually a Granny Smith or McIntosh girl. After the Turkey Trot last week, my mother and I stopped at the Jericho Cider Mill and I stocked up on McIntosh for the week, but I also grabbed a few Winesap apples. I tried one today on the drive home from jury duty. I'm talented at eating while driving. You should see what I can do with a container of Greek yogurt at 50 miles an hour. The Winesap is a large, crunchy variety. It has the satisfying consistency of those red apples you used to get at school snack time, but none of that dry, icky taste. Winesap are crisp, tart apples - can we say perfect for afternoon snack?

Eww, I Hope No One Saw That

I planned ahead and booked a bike for this morning's spin class with Craig Eisenberg 26 hours in advance using the MYEQ iPhone app. Yes, I booked a bike at 6:30am the day before while still in bed. It's really hard to get a bike for this 8:30 am class on Sunday morning at Great Neck. Craig's popularity has skyrocketed, and for good reason. His studio cycling class is never boring and he plays great music. He makes you work and keeps you excited to be there. I burned 645 calories in 60 minutes today.

Now I woke up feeling very thirsty this morning. Whenever I eat a big pasta dinner like I did last night, I wake up feeling like I hiked through the desert without any water. I guess I might have over-hydrated a little bit because after one particularly large gulp, I felt a little hiccup. This coincided with a sprint up the (imaginary) hill, and suddenly I felt liquid coming out of my lips. I used my superhuman reflexes to grab one of the bajillion towels I keep on the handlebars to catch the flow, but honestly, how gross is that? I spit up in the middle of spin class, infant-style.

We all know how paranoid I am that people are watching me, and to be honest, I don't think it's paranoia if it's really happening. Anyway, I was convinced that everyone in the room saw yellow liquid spew from my mouth and were disgusted that I was still in class. In my defense, 1. it all ended up on the towel, 2. it's not like I was sick and infecting others, 3. people spit and throw up all the time during running races, 4. only losers give up. After carefully staring at my fellow cyclers using the mirrored walls to see all angles of the room, I deduced that no one was horrified enough to complain and refocused on the task at hand. My favorite part is the three sprints home during the last five minutes of class anyway.

Waldorf Turkey Salad

We had a lot of leftover turkey this year so I made a Waldorf Turkey Salad.

1/2 Granny Smith apple chopped

10 large green grapes halved

1 stalk celery chopped

leftover turkey

chopped walnuts

glazed walnuts

1 container of nonfat Fage Greek yogurt 

salt (I just shook the salt shaker over the mixing bowl)

Mix all of the ingredients together and refrigerate.

Toast an Ezekiel 4:9 English muffin and spoon Waldorf Turkey Salad on top.

This is not an entirely clean recipe because of the glazed walnuts, but I thought they would add a little pizzaz. You can omit these if you'd like. Some recipes for Waldorf salads ask for honey, which you could include to make the dish a little sweeter.

Sweat the Turkey Out!

Today I am thankful for Yves Maco and his Post Turkey-Day 2 Super Master Classes. Fusion Fitness hosted today's workout extravaganza at their studio in Great Neck. I cannot even begin to describe the overwhelming feelings of joy I experienced from getting to kickbox for seventy whole minutes. It might be the day after Thanksgiving, but I'm feeling like its Christmas.


The seventy-minute dance class was awesome. Now we know that I dance like a chicken. My Latin roots desert me when it's time to shake it, and no amount of practice has improved my shimmy. This is okay, because I just close my eyes and let my fitness alter-ego take over. In my mind I look like LL Cool J, and I dance like Michael Jackson. Yes, my alter-ego is a large black man. It makes me feel sexy.


One woman brought her daughter to dance class, and this little girl has skills. After getting over my feelings of extreme jealousy, I realized this child was an asset because I could follow her when I inevitably got confused and started tripping over my own feet. One day I will be able to move like a backup dancer in a hip hop video, but until that day, I'll just go to have fun.

Garden City Turkey Trot

Team RUNNUR completed its first Garden City Turkey Trot today.  In its 33rd year, the GC Turkey Trot had the most participants ever with more than 3,000 runners. The five mile race began at St. Paul's School and followed a scenic course through Garden City. Spectators lined the course shouting encouraging words, waving signs and noisemakers, and even playing the Rocky theme song. This is my favorite race I've ran up to date.

I was very excited for this race and put a lot of effort into my running outfit. When you look good, you feel good, and when you feel good, you do good. I wore one of my C9 sports bras (so comfortable) with my new Under Armour pullover. I went old school with a pair of Nike spandex I've had since my days on the Choate cross country team. I also wore an old pair of running sneakers (Nikes), hoping that the lighter-weight shoe would be more efficient than those Lunar Glides I've been wearing. I think I made good choices because I felt comfortable throughout the 5 mile run, although the spandex did ride up around mile 2.

The positive energy at this race was awesome. My legs were getting heavy as I started the fifth mile, but then these little girls yelled out, "You can do it!" and "Girl Power!" Realizing I was the only girl in this pack of runners, I didn't want to disappoint them and dug deep to push forward. Then a man told us we were only 200 yards from the finish line and I dug even deeper to give it my all. I came in at 37:23.2. I was 350th out of the 3,168 runners who completed the course. I would have preferred to come in under 36 minutes, but now I know my goal for next year.

I am also really psyched that I ran into a friend from college at the race. He's not a native Long Islander and I didn't expect to see him there. This was the best way to start Thanksgiving and I plan on trotting every year from now on.


Team RUNNUR before the race began.



Saturday Morning Impact!

As a result of waking up at 5 am for work, I've lost all ability to sleep in to a normal hour on my days off. On Saturdays I wake up at 7. Yes, the time you wake up to go to work. This Saturday I was up cleaning my bathroom by 7:15. I reorganized my closets. I washed the underside of my kitchen cabinets.

After I was done scrubbing my apartment, I got dressed for the gym. I decided I should get my money's worth and use my boxing gloves again. I have white Everlast gloves that I bought last winter. They've made it out of their case twice. My gym schedule is booked as it is... it's hard to attend four different classes at 6pm on Tuesdays. That's why I got excited when I saw that Impact! is offered from 10-10:45 on Saturday mornings at the Equinox at 85th and 3rd.

The instructor was late because of traffic or parking. Someone from management sent a trainer in to warm the class up. Unfortunately he got sparing confused with the cardio expectations of group fitness junkies and I thought this one lady was about to eat his head. Right when it looked like a violent outburst was guaranteed to erupt, the instructor arrived. Her name is Abby and I liked her. I've been to Impact! before with other instructors, and I must admit that I didn't really enjoy it. Abby took the time to correct form instead of working out on her own bag.

My partner had a lot of patience, and a sick roundhouse. If you're going to go, try to find someone who looks about your fitness level to share a bag with because it's no fun when you're pinned in the corner because you can't keep up.

If it's too cold to run, I'd go again.

Half Marathon on March 6th

I signed up for the Half Marathon being held in Prospect Park, Brooklyn on Sunday, March 6th. If you're interested in running this race, get at me for details. The registration is free. We could get t-shirts...

Powerstrike!

Last night I stayed for Powerstrike! after Titan Method. I went to this class once last year but got so frustrated I never stayed again. I am not a very graceful or coordinated person, and rely a lot on muscle memory to get through classes. I practice moves I'm unsure of outside of class. It took me months to master the moves in Yves' cardio kickboxing class and now my body immediately wants to do those sequences.

Taking some time off from cardio kickboxing (I desperately miss it) helped me to follow along with Omar's instructions. I find the timing weird and definitely need to work on the punches so that I can do better next week. I just don't get the random pauses.

I had a lot of fun though and it was a good lower abs workout. Since I can no longer attend Yves' classes, my lower abs have gotten soft. I hate crunches and get much better results from kicks and twists. Powerstrike! and other workouts that feature punching are wonderful for toning your arms. I could definitely feel it in my triceps today when I was writing on the board.

Total calories burned for Titan Method and Powerstrike!: 1,225 calories

How Else Do You Pull 18 Hour Days?

Out of all the bizarre things you can see people doing on the subway, it seems my taking my afternoon fat burning pills catches people's attention. Ignore the drunk, potentially schizophrenic cross-dresser but stare at the teacher who is simply trying to boost her gym energy. No really, that makes sense.

I am currently taking Lipo-6 Black Hers made by Nutrex. I had started taking them for a week when I caught the flu (or partied too hard...who knows) and took a hiatus. I'm down six pounds so it seems that these things work but I don't know for sure yet because I didn't take them consistently.

The directions say to take three pills in the morning and three pills in the afternoon. Pills must be taken at least thirty minutes before a meal and not within six hours of bedtime. You're also not supposed to consume caffeinated beverages. Hah! Fat chance!

This is how I take them. I wake up at 5 and swallow a Ritalin before I bother turning off my alarm. I eat breakfast by 5:30am. I drink a cup of tea or a cup of coffee at my apartment; sometimes I drink both. I leave for the train and get to work by 7am. I take the first three pills when I reach my classroom. At 8, I walk to the 3rd floor to join the coffee crew where I fill up a 16 oz mug with coffee, which I drink throughout the morning. If the day particularly sucks or I stayed up watching Criminal Minds/searching for home invaders in my studio apartment, I'll make a cup or two using the coffee maker I keep in my classroom. I take another Ritalin and the second dose of fat burners between 3pm and 4pm. Then I hit up the gym. I usually have another cup of tea when I get back home. Despite blatantly ignoring the warning, I feel perfectly fine. I have the energy I need to hike up to the 4th floor six times a day, micromanage twenty-five children, and workout for an hour on six hours of sleep.

Standard Evening

Did I really blackout binge eat sugar snap peas? Yes. Yes I did. Apparently there's a reason I don't start drinking at 6 pm anymore. After consuming way too many Bitburgers at the Standard Biergarten and making a stop at some bar in Gramercy, I was home and hungry. Saturday is my cheat day and I had housed a delicious Lenny's C5 (prosciutto, mozzarella, roasted red peppers, and Granny Smith apples on Ciabatta) at 5:30 pm so it's not like I was starving. Stumbling around my studio and successfully getting myself out of my skintight jeans and Tara Jarmon boots took a lot out of me and made me want a snack. I ignored the crackers, decided against the fruit, and blatantly did not see the peanut butter (I'll eat that shit with a spoon) and chose plain sugar snap peas. Clearly I'm even more health-conscious after I've poisoned my liver for seven consecutive hours. On that note, I'm going back to bed.

First Love

Back in 2007 when I first joined Equinox, I fell in love with step aerobics. Unfortunately step is popular with women of a certain age who don't work, which is why it is usually only offered during the middle of the day.

Yesterday I had off of work for Veterans Day (thank you to all the men and women who have risked or given their lives to keep us free!) and got to hit up Wayne Standaloft's Cardio Step class at 54th and 2nd. It was everything I dreamed of and more. The choreography was fast-paced and a little challenging. I am definitely out of practice and I tripped a few times. All those turns are confusing!

Step is a great cardio workout. In 47 minutes (class started late) I burned over 650 calories with my maximum heart rate hitting 201 bpm. Try doing that on a treadmill. You'd be bored out of your mind and crying for mercy. Wayne's class is a new In Shape Out of Mind favorite and is highly recommended.

The Importance of Dental Hygiene

You might have a great body, but if your smile is lacking, I'm not interested. Nothing is hotter than a great set of teeth. Take care of them!

My dentist and I are kind of obsessed with one another. Dr. Wong is quite impressed that I have worn my retainers for the past ten years. Orthodontia is expensive and painful; why mess it up? On Saturday I went by the office to pick up my new retainers and Dr. Wong had a present for me.

A mold of my teeth!

How awesome!

To have your very own blindingly white near-perfect smile, you can do what I do to care for my teeth.

I brush at least twice a day. Bring a toothbrush to work and brush your teeth after lunch. Your breath will smell fresh and your teeth will be clean.

Floss morning and night. I got in the habit with those floss sticks - so simple and convenient. Now I have progressed to regular floss. I like mint.

If you drink coffee or dark soda you should rinse your mouth with water when you're done to help prevent stains. I bleach my teeth with Twilight Teeth. A Twilight Teeth set comes with a mouthguard and a vial of UV-light activated teeth bleach. You apply it before entering a tanning bed and it will dramatically whiten your teeth. The special "laser" bleaching available at your dentist isn't really a laser at all; it's a UV light source. Instead of $400, you can pay $17 for 6 months worth of Twilight Teeth.

You probably won't have a smile as nice as mine, but you can have a healthy, attractive mouth with a little time and effort.

Feeling like Mariah post-"Butterfly" Debacle

After the custodian found me sleeping on the reading rug on Monday, I realized that I might need medical attention. I dragged my ass to work on Tuesday, went to vote (that was a hassle and a half), and then visited the neighborhood Doc in the Duane Reade. I was ordered to get in bed and stay there for the rest of the week.

Day 1 I stayed in bed and caught up on three weeks of soap operas.

Day 2 I moved to the couch and watched all of my DVR'd Private Practices and WB, oops CW 11 shows. I finished a book.

Day 3 I migrated to my parents' house the night before so I spent the ENTIRE day sleeping. Woke up to eat like a true fat kid.

This morning I woke up like a new person. My under-eye circles have almost disappeared. I haven't looked this good since college. I went for a run outside, got a haircut, and went for a manicure. Unfortunately I am now suffering debilitating anxiety about returning to work. I now understand why Mariah checked herself into that hospital after she found out that she is a horrible actress.