Missy Maintains » The Lite Choice

The IntenSati Situation

MissyMaintains — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 15:10:33 +0000

Morning! I just got back from an awesome intenSati class with Mari!We were up at 4:45 in the morning again for our 6:30 am class! Crazy but worth it. Unfortunately I’m not sure if I can go 4 days a week now. Last week I mentioned that I may not be able to participate in the July Warrior Challenge. The final decision was no. I am still very upset. The rules of the challenge said that you would have to attend 4 intenSati classes a week for the month of July. Two of the classes had to be morning classes. It also said that you cannot participate in a challenge twice. I did participate in one back in January but I figured I would apply anyway just in case they had extra room. I thought that I would have a chance at getting in since it was summer and the challenge involved 6:30 am classes! Turns out there are 90 people in the challenge! Who knew? Anyway, a day after I applied, I was accepted. In fact, I got this email 3 times:

CONGRATULATIONS!! You have been accepted to our Warrior Challenge Rise & Shine!

Your Team name is Team Determination!

We are looking forward to meeting you and supporting you on having an awesome summer!

Go to satilife.com to order an IntenSatiDVD for a friend before July 2nd. We recommend intention and power. Send us your invoice number to verify you have ordered the dvd no later than July 2nd.

I was excited and figured they had enough room for me! I was extra excited when I found out Mari got in too! Mari and I planned our first class together last Friday morning. As I got on the subway at 5 am on Friday, I saw an email on my phone. It said:

Hi Melissa,

You were in a prior challenge.
Requirements:
Only open to non members who have never participated in previous challenges. If you despute it could you let us know how?

Thank you,
The Sati Life Team

This was sent to me at 12:30 am the night before the first class! I would have been fine with the whole thing if they had never accepted me in the first place. As soon as I got the acceptance email, I put my gym membership on hold! I also spent $23.00 for the intenSati DVD that I was required to purchase. They should have checked to see who was in previous challenges as soon as people applied. Instead they just accepted people right away and checked the night before. I was able to attend the kick-off class but my name was taken off the list after that. I emailed the Sati-Life Team and told them my situation. I explained that I put my gym membership on hold after they accepted me so now I was stuck with nowhere to workout for a whole month. I also said that I wanted to review the challenge on my blog and asked if there was any way they could make an exception. They still said no.

Luckily I still have some other options. Even though they rejected me, they were very nice about it. They gave me all of the instructor’s emails and said that I could try to get on their guest lists. As soon as I heard this, I emailed 3 different teachers and asked if I could be added to their guest list for classes this week. All of the teachers said yes! I was able to go last night and this morning. I am also on the list for Friday and Sunday morning. I am good to go this week but I am kind of worried about the rest of the weeks in July. I’m not sure how often they let you on a guest list. I will definitely email them again for next week though and give it a shot. Luckily I have a 10-pack of Core Fusion classes as a backup plan! I think I should be fine!

Wooh…I think I got a workout just from typing that story! Let’s move onto some eats from yesterday. I know this looks nasty….

…but it was delicious! That brown stuff is apple butter! It gave my mushroom omelet a deliciously, sweet flavor.

Lunch was another wrap!

Tuna, lettuce, and Eggland’s Best hard boiled eggs. I made a ton of hard boiled eggs last week so I’ve been trying to figure out new ways to use them!

As I mentioned before, I went to intenSati after work with Mari. We were both starving afterwards and Whole Foods happened to be down the street! I made a nice big salad of course.

It contained yucca fries, quinoa, kale, bok choy, sweet potatoes, beets, etc. Mari got some great looking sushi! I am getting it next time!

I always crave soft serve after Whole Foods so I finished the night with The Lite Choice!

I got half Vanilla and half Chocoleche with crunchies. It never gets old. I needed the cold dessert because my air conditioning is broken so I had to sleep in a 90 degree room. Luckily my dad is coming to New York later to save the day. He used to own an air conditioning business so I am good to go! Okay, I am off to go chug some more coffee! I’ve been awake for way too long!

1) Besides going to the gym, what other kind of workouts do you enjoy?

2) What is your favorite way to use hard boiled eggs?

Enjoy the Fireworks With a Free Sample of Scoopstachio!

MissyMaintains — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 14:00:47 +0000

Hello! Hope everyone is having a nice 4th of July weekend so far! You guys should be out celebrating instead of reading blogs! I’m probably downing a pitcher of sangria right now! Sometimes it is necessary to schedule posts in advance to allow drinking time. Just kidding…maybe. Before you go party, I wanted to fill you in on a new promotion going on at The Lite Choice!

TLC and Scoop St. came together to create a delicious new flavor called Scoopstachio. This flavor is made with USDA Organic Pistachio and Fresh Ground Peanut Swirls!

The promotion will be held starting today, July 3rd and will end July 31st.All corporate stores will offer the “Scoopstachio” flavor for three days straight. After that, the flavors will be offered randomly at the same stores.

The Lite Choice has placed voting ballots so you may “Vote to Win” outrageous prizes just by answering what you think of “Scoopstachio”. TLC will have the final drawing on the 31st of July, but every week they will randomly choose a ballot that will win a FREE cup or cone.

Be sure to stop by TLC today to give it a try! Don’t forget to vote to be entered to win the following prizes:

Now go grab some Scoopstachio, and then a margarita, and enjoy your 4th of July! Don’t forget to enter my Walmart Giftcard Giveaway!

The First Low-Carbon Restaurant!

MissyMaintains — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 13:00:44 +0000

Last night I had the opportunity to try the “planet’s first low-carbon, vegetarian restaurant” called Otarian. I won a gift certificate from Foodbuzz to visit the restaurant during it’s opening week. A few things that make Otarian different:

Locally sourced ingredients with a no-air freight policy.
All-vegetarian menu to reduce CO2 emissions.
Used oil is turned into bio-fuel.
All packaging is recyclable or compostable.
Everything in the restaurant, down to the floor and seating, is made from reclaimed materials.

I went with Monique since I remembered that she told me she entered the contest and few weeks ago and was dying to try it out for herself! We went around 5:00 on a Sunday night so the restaurant was pretty empty. The decor was really modern and unique.

Before we walked in, we got to try samples of the Potato Onion O Dill (filled with potatoes, cheese, onions and dill). It was delicious! I thought about taking a 2nd sample but Mo reminded me not to be greedy

We checked out the menu and wanted pretty much everything! We decided to order a few things to share.

We were wondering why they didn’t use dishes and silverware but then saw that all of the containers were compostable. I guess running a dishwasher all day would be worse for the environment!

We chose 3 items:

The Avocado Tomato Mozzarella Salad with Pesto Dressing:

The Roasted Vegetable Lasagna:

And the Portobello Mushroom Burger:

I started with half of the salad and half of the lasagna.

They were both delicious! The salad was especially amazing because of the pesto dressing. Mo and I both wanted to buy a big bottle to take home! I love that the menu tells you what items are vegan, gluten-free, kid-friendly! The menu also tells you the Otarian Carbon Saving, the amount of Otarian carbon, and a meat comparison. For example, beef lasagna uses 5.21 kg carbon, the veggie lasagna uses 2.58 kg, so the saving is 2.63 kg. Definitely makes you feel good about eating there!

The star of the dinner was the Portobello Mushroom burger. Check this out:

It was layered in the delicious pesto and mayo, and topped with lettuce, tomato, onions, and cheese. Amazing! We found out later that we could have requested vegan mayo! I would come back anytime just for this burger.

We finished everything and threw out our containers in the special compost bin

We were both very impressed with Otarian. The food came out super quick, the prices were reasonable, and the food was delicious. I love what they are doing to help the environment. Hopefully many more restaurants will follow their model. They have one location in London and two in New York. Hopefully I can make it there every now and then during my lunch break!

After dinner we decided to find a Lite Choice for some dessert! Luckily there was one a few blocks away. I got a mix of Dark Chocolate Truffle and French Vanilla with crunchies.

I always get very excited to see my sign in the stores! I post a “Weekly Wellness Tip” at the start of every week.

Mo told the girl behind the counter that I was Missy from the sign and she got all excited! She asked if she could have her picture with me. I felt all special lol.

We used the special “TLC Twitter code” and got a free water bottle too! Little things like that are exciting! P.S- Don’t forget to take the TLC Survey for a chance to win a $20.00 gift certificate!

Stay tuned for a Greenworks Cleaners giveaway tomorrow!

Take the Survey and Win!

MissyMaintains — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 13:57:56 +0000

Happy Friday! I wanted to let you guys know about an opportunity to win a $20.00 gift certificate to The Lite Choice!

All you have to do is take a short survey to be eligible to win one of five $20 gift certificates!! Just click the link below! I promise it will only take 5 minutes of your time!

SURVEY

You have until May 7th to take the survey. Please answer all of the questions. Your feedback will really help the company to improve. There is also a question about where you would like to see TLC open next for all of you out of towners!

As an extra incentive, the first 5 people to take the survey will win a coupon for a free cup or cone!

Just let me know you took it below and I will check with TLC as well! Thanks for your help!! Be back soon with some highlights from the past couple of days!

Single Supper Clubs?

Will the Margaritas Pass the Test?

MissyMaintains — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:41:34 +0000

Hello! Yesterday was a nice and healthy day..until dinner. That’s usually the story of my life so it’s okay! Margaritas were involved but did you expect anything less in this warm weather?

After my morning gym session I picked up some pineapple cottage cheese for breakfast.

I’ve never had it with pineapple but really enjoyed it. There were little chunks throughout the container. I also had some ~~crack espresso~~ Click Espresso to drink. Love this stuff. It has 15 grams of protein and wakes me right up!

I also snacked on an apple later in the morning.

During lunch I walked around a little and tried to get a 30 minute tan! I also stopped at Westside Market and created my own salad.

It had chickpeas, broccoli, goat cheese, and pesto chicken. Delicious.

After work I got my taxes done. They were very generous to me this year because of my tuition bill! I decided to go celebrate with some margaritas! I met a friend and we wandered around near Union Square until we found a cute Mexican restaurant called EL Cantinero. It had an outside patio which I was very excited about.

We were trying to get a shot of the patio without people thinking we were taking pictures of them eating!

We were served chips and salsa of course. I was dying of hunger so I may have went a little overboard on the chips.

We weren’t even halfway through the basket and the server brought us a fresh basket of chips without even asking if we wanted more. Nice service!

I was debating between a margarita and sangria but decided I needed to see if any margarita could compare to the one at 5 Burro! I went with Mango.

At first I thought it was not as strong as the one at 5 Burro. I ended up being very wrong. This one was very refreshing and not too sweet. I downed it..a little too fast!

I got the Vegetarian Fajitas. I had to see if these could compare to 5 Burro’s fajitas too!

I loved how pretty the plate was! The orange slices gave the dish a nice touch. There was also tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, celery, carrots, lettuce, and peppers, and avocado slices. I love giant piles of veggies!! They were less greasy than the veggies at 5 Burro which was nice. I do prefer the zucchini and mushrooms at 5 Burro instead of celery and carrots but this was still very impressive. There were too many onions once I got to the bottom of the pile so I took that was my cue to stop eating!

The dish also came with Spanish rice and flour wraps but I skipped those since I had plenty of chips before the meal.

Sorry about the finger. The tequila was setting in.

Halfway through my meal I ordered another margarita. Totally not necessary. I went with Blackberry this time!

It was delicious but I could only drink half. Missy not able to finish a drink?? That should probably tell you something about how strong the drinks were!

Overall I was very impressed by El Cantinero. The prices were a little steeper than 5 Burro but the food was delicious, the drinks were strong, and the service was great! The outdoor patio was a nice bonus as well.

I’m not sure how I ate dessert because I was stuffed but I guess I can never be too full for The Lite Choice! Cookies N’ Cream softs serve is always a wonderful way to end the night.

Hmm… I guess we can disregard yesterday’s post about continuing on my Passover diet! I did wake up for the gym again today at least! I did 35 minutes on the elliptical and 15 minutes on the treadmill. I ran for 7 of the minutes until I got a cramp. Very annoying. Tonight I am also going to Core Fusion with a blog reader so margaritas and soft serve are fine in my book!

P.S. CALL FOR GUEST BLOGGERS! I am going on vacation next week and do not plan on bringing my laptop so let me know if you interested in doing a guest post! Have a good one!

Margaritas and Lite Choice Meetup (Giveaway!)

MissyMaintains — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:00:58 +0000

Hope everyone had a nice weekend! I did not let the rain and wind get in my way of margaritas at 5 Burros! I ran there on Saturday to meet my fellow Queens blog friends, Mari and Mo! Mo already had a head start on her raspberry margarita so I immediately ordered one for myself but with apricot.

It was delicious as always but I got jipped out of an animal toy! Boo. I went with the Vegetable Mexican salad since it was amazing last time I was there.

I love how high they pile those veggies!!

Mo was very excited about her Steak Tacos!

Mari got the Shrimp Mexican salad which also looked delicious!

Mari and I shared a side of guacamole. It was creamy heaven.

We all decided to get a 2nd drink even though one was probably enough! This time I got a froggie!

We got very crazy and loud by the end of the meal! Those drinks always do the trick!

It was still pretty early when we were done so we stumbled over to Barnes N’ Noble!

I think everyone got really annoyed by us. Probably not the smartest idea to wander around a book store after drinking 2 margaritas.

We decided to continue our adventures at The Lite Choice!! The weather will never stop us from eating their soft serve! We were very happy to see our girl Stephanie working behind the counter. She was so helpful and friendly the last time all of us blog girls stumbled in!

I got Oreo’s N’ Cream of course! So good!

Mari got caramel with crumbled cone topping. Yum!

Very fun day!

Yes, time for another Lite Choice Giveaway!

If you would like to be entered, just write, “ENTER ME!” at the end of your comment. 3 readers will win a coupon for a free cup or cone this Thursday, March 18th.

If you are not entering, let me know what your favorite part of the weekend was! Have a good day!

The Lite Choice Free Cup/Cone Giveaway!

MissyMaintains — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:58:01 +0000

Hello! It is Monday which means it is time to giveaway 3 more coupons for a free cup or cone to The Lite Choice! First I want to introduce you to their brand new flavor!

They just came out with Chocolate Covered Strawberry! It is organic and only 90 calories per serving. I plan to try it this week so I will report back to everyone and let you know how it is! It sounds delicious and makes the perfect treat for Valentine’s Day!

Giveaway Time!

3 readers will win a coupon that is good for one free cup or cone! They do not expire until December of 2010 so you have a whole year to stop by a TLC location! I am going to count all the entries I received from the last 3 weeks. Here are some more ways to win!

How to Enter:

1) Leave me a comment telling me your favorite Valentine’s Day treat!

2) Become a fan of TLC on Facebook and on the left, click on “suggest to friends”. Please send to at least 5 friends and let me know below. You will get 1 entry per friend. Be honest please!

3) Become a fan of Missy Maintains on Facebook! Please also suggest to at least 5 friends. You may suggest it to as many people as you like. A winner last week got 79 entries this way

4) Tweet about this giveaway. Write, “@MissyMaintains is giving away 3 @thelitechoice coupons! Check it out!”

I will choose 3 winners this Thursday, Febuary 11th!

Good luck!

Blogger Meetup

MissyMaintains — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:41:39 +0000

Last night, I had the opportunity to meet some of my favorite bloggers! I was very excited when we decided to go to a restaurant in Queens! I suggested my favorite Mexican place, 5 Burro Cafe! Everyone agreed since I always rave about their margaritas and food!

I volunteered to go there early and put our name in since it is always packed there! I got a Mango Margarita while I waited! I got a new toy…Franky the Frog!

Check out the drink next to me…a Shark Attack!

My collection is growing and growing!

Finally all of the girls arrived and the bloggers took over the restaurant!

At the meetup:

Monique from Food Snob, Missy from Missy Maintains, Julie from Julie GoLean, Dawn from Dawn Dishes It Out, Jen from Pieces of Me, Joanne from Eats Well With Others, Mari from Namaste Mari, and Sarah from Mom on the Run.

Sarah was in town from Connecticut so we decided to have a meetup! The only girl I’ve met before was Mari so it was great to meet so many new girls! Mo and I discovered that we both lived in Queens about a year ago and never met till last night for some reason! I stalk Julie’s blog so it was great finally meeting her! Dawn went to the Institute of Integrative Nutrition so she offered me some great advice since I start there this month! We all had so much to talk about!

We started with 2 baskets of chips! Us health conscious girls did not do too much damage with them!

Mo and I told everyone how great the fajitas are there so almost the whole table got some variation of them! Julie got a Grilled Shrimp salad which looked amazing too! I will be getting that next time! I got the Shrimp Fajitas.

We took tons of pictures! Everyone thought our table was a little nuts!

My fajitas were great! I got 2 more Corona Lights after the margarita

We had so much fun! I love blogger meetups since they are like blind dates yet you know everything there is to know about the person!

The night got even better after dinner! The awesome folks at The Lite Choice heard we were having a meetup and invited us to their location in Forest Hills for dessert! They usually close at 8:00 but they stayed open an extra hour just for us!! We all got to choose any complimentary flavor of our choice!!

The girl working behind the counter (Stephanie) was really great! We thanked her million times for working late for us! She was a sweetheart and very helpful!

We got to choose any of the following flavors!

I went with my usual, Oreos N’ Cream!!

It was extra good last night! There were big chunks of Oreos! I love that Stephanie asked if I wanted extra vanilla on top. Yum!

Julie loved her Chocolate Mint!

Mo loved her cup of Snickers! Mo brought her boyfriend back an O’Henry since his name is Henry!

Mari and Joanne got Dulce de Leche. Joanne described her soft serve as, “a cup of heaven.” Sarah loved her Milky Way and was very excited to bring her husband back a cup of White Mint!

We loved every flavor and plan to have many more meetups at The Lite Choice.

The Lite Choice Free Cup/Cone Winners!

MissyMaintains — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:36:37 +0000

I will randomly choose 3 more winners to win a free cup/cone coupon to The Lite Choice!

This week’s winners are……

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:

26- Melanie: “Rocky Road!”
7- Nicole: “I have got to go there! I think white chocolate raspberry would sound good!”
60- Rebecca: “I want them to start taking over more Tasti-d-lite’s since the “ice cream” there is soo fake! preferably the location on 29th and 3rd…the website says there is a location on 28th and park and IT DOESN’T EXIST ANYMORE! i need to find one close to my house, i want to try it soo badly!”

Timestamp: 2010-01-28 14:25:38 UTC

Congrats to the winners! Please e-mail me your addresses so I can send out your coupons!

If you did not win this week, don’t worry! I will be giving out 3 more coupons next week! Stay tuned!!!

Be sure to check out the $40.00 Gift Certificate Giveaway at The Lite Choice!!
Check out Mari’s and Monique’s post about their TLC tour last night!

Beet It!

MissyMaintains — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:40:25 +0000

Good Morning! I woke up bright and early today for a Core Fusion class! I met Dori and another girl name Mercedes who is also participating in the challenge. Mercedes will actually be giving me a private cooking lesson this Sunday since I won it from Dori’s charity auction! We are in the process of planning our menu More details to come!

I was very excited for the class since Elizabeth, the co-founder of Core Fusion and girl in the videos was the teacher! I was expecting it to be extremely challenging like her husband, Fred Devito’s classes are. It was tough but not much harder than some of the other classes I’ve taken. Don’t get me wrong; my legs are very sore and they were shaking like crazy but I did not get to the point of tears. The time flew by and it was 8:00 before I knew it! It is nice to have it all done for the day.

Back to yesterday….

I started off the day with a repeat bowl of oats!

Nature’s Path instant oats with banana, Fage, and goji berries. I can’t believe I never added yogurt to my oats before. So good.

For lunch I found a new place with all of these great looking wraps in the Chelsea Market. I got a Grilled Veggie whole wheat wrap.

It had mozzarella, sun dried tomatoes, squash, and balsamic dressing. It was good but there was way too much dressing in there. I don’t like when everything is soaking wet. It was very filling and I never felt the urge to snack the rest of the day!

After work I went to inTensati. It was a substitute but happened to be my favorite teacher! She is always so full of energy and so happy. Another great class!

I went to a different Equinox from the night before but this one also happened to be next to a Whole Foods! I have no food at home so I decided to get it again!

I got:

Roasted broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts
Seaweed salad
Baked tofu
Detox salad
Beets
Carrots
Peppers

It’s funny because I really thought I hated beets but all of the sudden I like them. I’m not sure if I could eat them in big slices but I really like them shredded up in my salad. I have to try juicing with them!

There happened to be a Lite Choice nearby so of course I stopped in. I got Oreos N’ Cream. I love knowing that they can make any flavor I want now.

It was good but slightly lacking in the Oreo department. Maybe I am just greedy with my beloved Oreos! I used to order Cookies N’ Cream Blizzards from Dairy Queen with extra Oreos in the middle and on top! They already have plenty in there as is! I was also 30 pounds heavier so I am better off with my Lite Choice

Speaking of The Lite Choice, I am choosing 3 more winners for a free cup/cone tomorrow! Enter here!

1) Is there a food you used to hate but love now?

2) What is your favorite ice cream topping?

Bye Bye!