Category Archives: Fitness

Hour by Hour

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So… today. I’m owning the crap out of it. I never really know what to do with myself on Mondays. I don’t teach, so basically I feel like an utterly useless member of society.

I did a few loads of laundry, caught up with a high school friend over lunch, ran 7.5 miles with Lauren in the AM, watched more episodes of Pretty Little Liars than I care to admit on Netflix (the acting is borderline painful but the storyline is so damn addicting I can’t stop watching – seriously WHO IS A?!), had a DOH-mestic fail (Colleen I feel you) at twice-baked sweet potatoes that turned into mashed potatoes once I demolished/shredded the “shells” (not my fault they’re so “fragile”), and passed out on the couch at approximately 10:17pm last night.

Today I was determined to be more productive. (ie: Less Pretty Little Liars, more get off the couch and out from under the fluffy blanket and contribute to society.)

6am – Boyfriend has a conference call. Takes it from home. I sleep through it.

7:48am – Begrudgingly get out of bed. Prep French Press for coffee. Try out Newman’s Own Organic Almond Biscotti coffee with my morning yogurt bowl (0% Chobani – cheaper than Fage yesterday, raspberries, Cinnamon Roll Granola (replaced the oil with applesauce), 1T almond butter).

Look at all that delicious, crunchy, Peanut Buttery goodness!

(Far too hungry this morning to take a photo. Just replace the blueberries with raspberries and we’re in business.)

I’m not usually a huge fan of flavored coffees, but this one knocked it out of the park. (Although I may mix French Roast with the Almond Biscotti to get a milder flavor as an everyday thing.)

8:48am - Drop boyfriend at work. Spare him the perils and horrors of the MUNI system.

9:07am – Arrive at gym. Plan to run 7 miles. Get really, really into the latest Runner’s World and By Invitation Only. Run 10 miles. At an 8:25 average pace.

11am - Hit Safeway for baking supplies

12-2:30pm - Catch up on e-mails, make a massive green smoothie for post-run fuel (original almond milk, frozen mangos, lots of spinach, 1T chia seeds, 1T almond butter). Top with far too much Cinnamon Chex to admit on this blog (they taste eerily exactly like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and are GF!). Gag at the thought of store-bought almond butter. Not even close to the good stuff.

Bake the ish out of the afternoon. Brown Butter White Chocolate Pretzel Blondies (Cassie these were such a hit last time they were requested for this weekend’s travels!), Banana White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies, (I’ve now made these somewhere around 87 times), and Toasted Cinnamon Agave Almond Butter.

Sample about 11 of each of the above. Lunch has never tasted so good. Balanced it out with a veggie burger and some leftover quinoa mixed with mushrooms, scallions and a soy sauce/olive oil/toasted sesame oil “dressing”.

Bathe. (You’re welcome.)

3:30pm - Head out to teach. 4 classes in 4 hours. Grande iced coffee becomes a necessary survival tactic.

4:15-8:15pm - Teach Pilates. Make them sweaty. Really sweaty. Sweat marks on the shirts sweaty.

8:48pm - Quick dinner of rotisserie chicken quinoa bowls (cooked it in chicken broth, added in fresh rosemary, red pepper flakes, shallot, salt/pepper, goat cheese, balsamic/olive oil). It’s occurred to me I ate too much quinoa today.

Oh. Does that sound too healthy?

Ben and Jerry’s Greek Fro Yo for dessert. Balance right?

10:39pm - Crash into bed before waking up far, far too early for teaching at 6 and 7 am tomorrow morning. (This hasn’t exactly happened yet, but being that it’s 9:44pm already, I really don’t foresee myself lasting more than another hour.)

Last great thing you baked/cooked/ate? Tell me tell me tell me. (I’m clearly still hungry.)

Hope your Tuesday went well! Enjoy your evening! :)

The Weekend, Briefly

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And just like that, it’s Monday again.

The past couple of weeks have been crazy – between teaching, running back-and-forth between studios, traveling, running and life itself. After a blast of a weekend in Tahoe and rafting last weekend, and then an awesome 4th of July at Fort Mason Park and then at a friends restaurant for dinner/drinks/fireworks, we were absolutely wiped out come Friday evening.

Also, the weather was awesome.

The right (yesterday) and left (4th of July) photos are the difference about 96 hours makes. Happy Summer?

So it was decided this weekend would be dedicated to relaxing, sleeping, relaxing, eating, drinking wine, watching movies, and relaxing.

Mission freaking accomplished.

We watched 21 Jump Street (hysterical) and Safe House (awesome twist at the end). We tried a delicious Coppola 2009 Zinfandel (for like $7.99 at Safeway – steal!) We ate homemade, delicious meals. We relaxed the ish out of this entire weekend.

Gluten-free toast, goat cheese, smoked salmon and sunny-side-up eggs are my new favorite weekend breakfast. GF pizza would be my new favorite dinner. It’s probably a good thing I run fairly often.

In addition to stuffing my face this weekend, there was running. (There’s a big surprise.)

Monday – 11 miles treadmill

Tuesday – 7.5 miles trail

Wednesday – REST

Thursday – 8 miles treadmill

Friday – 5 miles treadmill

Saturday – 3 miles outside

Sunday – 6 miles treadmill

Grand Total For the Week: 40.5

I know I mentioned (or screamed it from the metaphorical-rooftops since we are no longer allowed onto ours) that I wanted to start increasing my base to about 50 miles a week… but it just wasn’t happening this week. Way too much happening. I’m more than OK with 40. Especially coupled with teaching 10 pilates classes a week. Last year at this time, I’m pretty sure I was probably running…. 7 mile weeks. And that would be considered a peak week for me.

Actually last year at this time my stance on running a marathon was “no effing way in hell”.

I’ve officially got 3 weeks left before CIM/PLEASEGODLETMESUB3:35 training begins.

Feeling about 10 trillion times better than I was at this point last year.

The weekend ended with a sashimi FEAST with boyfriend and his mom. I decided about 2 weeks ago that I’m in love/obsessed with sashimi. I used to be a strictly nigiri/roll kinds girl. Now I get on board with the sashimi and feel instantly more cultured/cool.

I jumped on board with the hamachi last night.

There is a FANTASTIC fish market in Japantown for all you SF-ers (I think there’s one in San Jose as well)… sashimi grade fish for about a fraction of the price you’d get it for in a restaurant. This spread I’d estimate cost about $50. A sashimi sampler at any sushi place I’ve been to yields you about 6 pieces of fish for roughly $27. So. Much. Better. At. Home.

Clearly I was still hungry for dessert so this happened.

Not sorry.

Just so good.

Off to tackle Monday! I have 7.5 miles already under my belt thanks to an early AM run date with the lovely Lauren and I’m ready to get to the to-do list!

Have a lovely day!

Best part (food or otherwise) of your weekend?

Pilates, Run, Eat, Bake

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Happy Thursday! Or in my case – FRIDAY! :)

Sorry I’ll stop rubbing it in now.

Boyfriend and I are heading up to Tahoe with a few friends for a weekend of sun, Chambers punch, hiking, lake-ing, and relaxation. Can’t even wait.

This morning started out, once again, in the 5am hour.

After another vicious mosquito attack (boyfriend was the victim this time) around 3am (seriously how are they getting into our apartment?! And where is it hiding exactly?), the 5:15 alarm came way, way too quickly.

I hustled to get to the studio, taught the 6:20 and 7:10am class, and then hustled right home to inhale my breakfast. Breakfast was a standard yogurt bowl (yogurt, berries, almond butter, granola)… with a twist.

Homemade Cinnamon Roll Granola.

Cassie you are a genius.

I followed the recipe almost exactly – the only change I made was subbing the 3T of oil for 3T of unsweetened applesauce. Honestly I couldn’t tell a difference. Oh also, I didn’t make the glaze, but chalk that up to pure laziness.

I immediately inhaled about 3 handfuls upon taking it out of the oven and I was more than a little generous in dishing it out into my yogurt bowl this morning.

Joking. But I definitely got heavy handed.

After breakfast, and dropping boyfriend at work (I try to spare him the horrors of public transportation whenever possible), I headed to the gym with the intention of running give or take 5 miles. I finished Gone Girl (excellent book, not a fan of the ending), around mile 4, and started By Invitation Only, about the founders of Gilt Groupe. SO GOOD SO FAR. Did you know they both went to Harvard undergrad and Harvard Business School? And that one of them had a hand in launching/starting eBay Canada and eBay Motors? I most definitely did not.

The book is so good that I stayed on the treadmill for 6 more miles. Ending just shy of the 90 minute mark with 10 miles under my belt. 30 miles thus far for the week. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get any miles in while in Tahoe so I wanted to get to at least 30 miles before we head up. I figure I can maybe squeeze in an hour run when we get home on Sunday, but if not… we’ll just consider this a step-back week. ;-)

I met boyfriend and the Whole Foods hot bar for lunch, and then ran some errands before coming home and making Brown Butter White Chocolate Pretzel Blondies (again Cassie you are brilliant) to bring up to Tahoe with us.

These are in no way healthy, nor are they in any way gluten-free. But they smell so darn good, I’ll be sacrificing a wee bit of gluten to enjoy one (or four) of these babies over the weekend.

Whole Foods Finds

It’s baaaaack! If you haven’t checked out the previous finds you can do so here and here.

While at Whole Foods today… a few new discoveries happened.

Agave Sticks

Remember honey sticks when you were younger? Think those… only filled with agave. For under $2. Yes please.

(And yes, they do also carry honey sticks, and yes they taste just like they did when you were 11 years old.)

Annie’s Fruit Snacks

I’ll be real – this is the third box/flavor we’ve gone through. These things are so freaking good. It all started when I started taking gummy vitamins (do not judge me), and I started sneaking ~3 a day instead of the recommended 2. (And going against the recommendation of “do not take more than advised”. Woops.)

Boyfriend brought home the all-natural, organic, sweetened with fruit juice fruit snacks.

And we’ve never looked back.

With that, I’m off to teach one last class of the day then head up to Tahoe!

Have a lovely weekend everyone :)

Barre Pro + Good Health Gone Viral

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Last night I had an… interesting night of sleep. It was pretty warm out so I (very uncharacteristically) was not bundled up to my neck in layers of down comforter and duvet. I got hot, and stuck my arms out, circa midnight I would estimate.

Around 3am, I woke up with a start, my arms itching like crazy. Still half-asleep I thought to myself “I’ll kill that little bastard mosquito in the morning.”

Two minutes later I felt something on my face.

Four minutes after that I’d had enough and bolted up and into the bathroom.

“AHHHHHH that little shit bit me on the inside of my lip!“

Boyfriend, in all of his 3:27am glory found this to be hysterically funny. I looked like I got punched in the face/was given a dose of Novocaine on one side of my face meant for an animal the size of an elephant.

Not the face, not the face, not the face.

After thoroughly checking the entire apartment for traces of the virus-carrying parasite (mosquito), I was pleasantly surprised to see it had met its (more-than) timely demise, as a result of me slapping myself in the face when I felt the little bastard on my freshly exfoliated face.

I popped a Benadryl (for the antihistamine benefits as well as the sleep-inducing ones), pulled the covers up to my ears, cursed the entire species of mosquitos, dropped a few f-bombs, and went back to sleep before waking up at 7:33am for an 8am surf inspired Barre Pro class.

I looked in the mirror and winced. The left side of my mouth drooped down, and was so puffy on the inside, I imagine it’s how one feels after getting sucker punched in the face.

I made it up to the studio, told everyone who would listen that yes I am aware my mouth looks like they OD-ed me on Novocaine, and no they didn’t, and yes it’s the result of a vicious mosquito attack.

I have a confession – I’ve never taken a Barre class before at my studio. Bar Method with all of its “tucking” scarred me for life. This class though… kicked my booty. I loved it.

Barre classes have always intimidates me because I a) have no coordination and b) have no rhythm. (You should have seen me in dance classes in high school.) Today, I felt really comfortable, and the always wonderful Tricia walked us through each exercise before we began, and then proceeded to do it with us (which in my opinion really helps to get the moves down correctly), and I had a great time. My legs felt like jello when I left, and I felt like my entire lack of coordination didn’t hinder me at all. It helped that she put together an entire surf-inspired playlist (think Beach Boys and Jimmy Buffet) and I was rocking out in my head the entire time.

I was dripping sweat (you’re welcome for the visual) and had such a fantastic workout. Luckily I’ve already convinced a great friend (coughALIcough) to join me next week. I promise you La Boulange coffee after :)

(photo by Tricia)

(Sidebar: Speaking of La Boulange, I popped in for an iced coffee this morning, and frantically asked the manager if they would be changing anything about their coffee now that Starbucks paid $100 million for quality coffee owns them. Answer: Yes, they are changing their coffee and it will be a La Boulange-Starbucks blend. My friends it’s time to stock up on La Boulange coffee beans now and freeze them. I hope boyfriend doesn’t mind missing out on the freezer space.) ;-)

Good Health Gone Viral

I have this wonderful friend that I met through our previous company, and I am VERY excited for her and all of the new adventures she is taking – she’s started a blog, and is in the process of starting a business in the health and wellness space, called Blume. We ran the Kaiser Half-Marathon together, and she is an amazing resource into health topics and conversation, and writes really thought provoking-articles. I love it already.
A brief idea of what it’s all about:
Every single person on the planet has a health story. We all want to share and discover healthy tips easily and quickly with our friends. Where do we notoriously look first? The internet. But we don’t have a medical Google, or a Facebook, or a Pinterest, or an Amazon in a single integrated and trusted place. Blume is that destination. For U.

Today is a catalyst in getting Blume off the ground and I need YOUR help to get the buzz going. I’ve launched a landing page where my goal is to collect as many email addresses as possible. Not 50, not 100, not 500, but thousands. Yes, thousands! And I can’t do without you.

So, here’s how you can help:

  1. Enter your email address in the landing page here. You will then be prompted to share the landing page on Facebook and/or LinkedIn. This is what will make ALL the difference! 
  2. “Like” my Facebook page here and join the conversation as you see fit.
  3. Follow my blog here.

If you have a minute, she (and I – this will be such an amazing resource for everyone!) would so appreciate if you could enter your email address on her landing page and like her Facebook page.

Thanks everyone! :)

The Weekend, Briefly

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Hello hello. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! What was the best part?

Ours started off pretty relaxing – pizza, beer and movies. (Let it be known I made it about 17 minutes into the movie before I was out like a light on the couch.) We picked up a 4-pack (apparently they make those?) of gluten-free beer, and I have to say, I was a fan. If you try it – don’t go into it thinking it’s going to taste as prefect as a Corona- because it won’t. At all. But for a beer made with zero wheat? I’d buy the (so very overpriced) 4-pack again!

What was not GF? The pizza. We had a Whole Wheat Trader Joe’s dough, and I didn’t feel like making a seperate trip for some GF dough. So I ate it. (Also let it be known this was my absolute, hands-down, best homemade pizza of my career.) The key (we think) was letting the dough sit out for an hour, using a 4-cheese blend, and spreading pesto on the crust. Perfection my friends.

My taste buds were all “YEAH! Gluten! This crust is so darn good”, and my stomach was like “Eff you, I will destroy you tomorrow”. The taste buds won the battle, but the stomach won the war. I’ll just leave it at that.

Saturday morning started early with Jaime on our favorite 7.5 trail loop (the weather was gorgeous in SF that day), and then boyfriend and I helped his mom move some boxes (my shoulders were feeling it the next day!), walked to Crissy Field for a graduation BBQ (congrats Nurse April!), and I, shockingly enough, crashed out on the couch around 10pm.

Yesterday we slept in, I taught two classes (hope you people are sore today!) and then we headed to the ‘burbs to celebrate my dad with some US Open/NBA Finals/Red Sox game viewing.

But I should add there were not one, but two perfect pups at the studio this morning.

We enjoyed a grilled father’s day spread – grilled corn, tri-tip, wild salmon, and a spinach/strawberry/almond/goat cheese salad with a homemade strawberry dressing. I scraped my plate clean it was so darn good. Well done (as always!) mom.

No trip home is complete without a reference/mention/viewing of/talking about the Red Sox.

Speaking of teaching - I LOVE IT. Seriously, I look forward to my classes. I love putting together choreography, and leading people through a kick-ass workout. I can’t wait for my classes this week.

Which are:

Thursday AM - 6:20, 7:10 (there are showers/blowdryers at the studio if you want to come in before work and head to work straight after!)

Sunday AM- 11am, 12pm – Marina

Come in for a class!

Run

This morning I headed to the gym and ran 11 miles at an 8:20 average pace.  (I had 2 People Magazines to get through, and a very big interest in both Drew Barrymore and Matthew McConaghey’s weddings. Also it appears that Reese Witherspoon is the most popular person in Hollywood since she got the invites to both of these festivities. In case you’re wondering yes I do ponder things like this. In your face Ryan Phillipe).

I felt fantastic. I ran the first few miles at an 8:34 pace and then once I was warmed up, I felt confident and strong… so I decided to push my limits a bit. I ran the last mile and a half at 8:03 and bumped the last quarter-mile to a 7:44 pace. I swear my legs have probably been able to do this all along and it really was my stubborn, you-can’t-run-fast mind that was holding me back. Push your limits friends… you are capable of more than you think. Maybe it feels uncomfortable (and yes, it probably will at least the first couple of times), but once you feel everything begin to click and fall into place – the overwhelming feeling of satisfaction, and that “I DID IT” is more-than-worth any excess huffing and puffing and “holy sh!t this pace hurts and I want to slow down to make it more comfortable.”

Just try it. (Then tell me how it went – I’m right there with you… telling my mind to STFU so my legs can just run.)

At the end of my run I still felt strong, and my legs definitely had something left in them. I decided not to push it, since I want to run hard and strong all week, and to leave it at that. Still though, I couldn’t help but be both impressed/proud of myself for holding a pace I never would have imagined I could hold… for 11 miles. Watch your back CIM.

On the way home, “You Gotta Be” by Desree came on the radio. Am I the only one that loved the movie “The Object of My Affection” starring Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd and thinks of that movie every time I hear that song?

Also the little girl who plays Jennifer Aniston’s daughter/sings the song? Haley Dunphee from Modern Family. Tell me that didn’t just blow your mind. (Link to the video is here)

Anyway.

I refueled after my run with one of my homemade veggie burgers on brown rice bread (dense consistency but I actually really liked it toasted with goat cheese!), and my favorite salad ever – Trader Joe’s Super Spinach. Highly recommended for an on-the-go, bring-to-work lunch. Or if you just like convenience. Like me. It’s got spinach, pumpkin seeds, edamame, garbanzo beans, dried cranberries, shredded carrots (like so thin you don’t know they’re there), and quinoa with a seriously addictive ginger carrot miso dressing. Oh it also has cherry tomatoes but I (obviously) pick those out and forget they exist.

Hit the spot.

I don’t teach today so I took the afternoon to clean the entire apartment top-to-bottom (I contemplated eating my snack off the floors they are sparkling), run errands, and organize myself for the week ahead. I teach Thurs-Sunday this week, and I know it’s going to get busy.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Do you have any Father’s Day traditions?

Did you race this weekend? Workout? What’d you do?

Ever try gluten-free beer?