It was pretty amazing walking around New York yesterday. I celebrated Pride Day for the first time since living in NYC. I started my day off with an intenSati class where we did a special pride series (and 110 pushups!!) I then went to the parade, had margaritas at Rosa Mexicano, and ended my night at a gay rave! There was so much love in the air all day. I will let my pictures do most of the talking today.

Hello!

A little Jersey Shore for you

Popchips Pride!

Represent!

I have a secret dream of becoming a DJ…not so secret anymore!

Hello again popchips!

My kind of party!!

Did you celebrate Pride Day yesterday?

Related posts:

1. Margarita Pride
2. Night at the Jersey Shore!
3. Macaroni Grill Winner, Blogger Core Fusion Class, Gobo Dinner!

I had such a crazy but fun weekend! I got to participate in all of the ING NYC Marathon activities even though I was not an actual runner. It all started on Saturday when I went to the Marathon Expo. Nissan invited a few bloggers to attend to learn more about the 100% electric Nissan LEAF since it was the official sponsor. I was excited when I found out Mari got the invitation as well! We met in Queens and took the subway together to the Javits Center.

We walked in and spotted Dori volunteering!

I delivered her some water and walked around the expo since we were a bit early for the Nissan event. I would like to know where they get off charging $3.75 for a bottle of water! They are just asking for all of the runners to be dehydrated the day before the race! Crazy!

My new goal in life is to run the Jamaica marathon!

I could at least do the 10K! That would be amazing!!

Eventually we met  Jess, Lauren, Patty, and Tracy to learn more about the Nissan Leaf.

I learned a few fun facts about the car:

• 100% electric – no gas required
• Zero tailpipe emissions/Zero Emissions Vehicle
• partially recycled light gray cloth seat fabric
• range – 100 miles/charge based upon US EPA LA4 City cycle²
• speeds up to 90 mph
• 5 passengers, 5 doors

My favorite thing about the car is that the seats are made out of recycled water bottles! They are starting to open up stations to charge the car battery all across the country. Very cool.

Bloggers in action…

Ryan Hall was in the Nissan booth signing autographs! Mari and I just admired him from a distance….until we found out we were going to meet him!!

He is such a cutie!

We also spotted a guy from So You Think You Can Dance!!

How do I see two people from that show in the same month? Love it.

Eventually two cars picked us up from the expo and took us to our next destination!

We did a little…ahem…sightseeing….

We ended up at Strala Yoga studio which is owned by Tara Stiles!

Our original email from Nissan said:

· Exclusive Yoga Session with Tara Stiles: One of our Nissan Masters, nationally-known Tara Stiles will provide a private meditative yoga session at her studio, Strala Yoga

I was really excited to meet Tara Stiles.  A few days later, the email from Nissan changed to this:

· Exclusive Yoga Session with Mike Taylor

o    Mike Taylor, husband to one of our Nissan Master, Tara Stiles, will be holding a private meditative yoga session at Tara’s studio Strala Yoga. Mike will speaking on Tara’s participation in the Master the Shift Program, and will be available for a brief Q&A session.

This email really made me think we would be sitting in the studio listening to Mike speak for a while. I also assumed we would just be doing a brief meditative session. There was nothing in the email about bringing yoga clothes. We also should have been warned to bring water. We got there and were instructed to change into our yoga clothes and get yoga mats! What?? About half of us had to do the class in jeans.

I made it work….

My stretchy jeans came in handy! Mike spoke to us in the beginning about the studio and how they really focus on yoga for athletes there.

It ended up being an hour and a half intense yoga class!! I wish they would have told us this!! It was amazing besides having to worry about my jeans running up my ass the whole time.

Mike was a great teacher and really explained the benefits of every move. The highlight of the class was the head massage he gave us during Savasana! He came over to me several times to adjust my positioning. I really loved the class. I definitely want to go back there so that I can enjoy the class in actual yoga attire.

After yoga, we got back in the cars and headed to the Marathon Eve dinner in Central Park! One of the cars got in an accident on the way there. Luckily everyone was okay! We made it to the dinner and didn’t even have to wait in the hour long line! They hooked us up with V.I.P. dinner tickets!

We were all dying of hunger! I could not wait for the pasta!

Free beer! I was happy!

I enjoyed some cheesy pasta, chicken and rice, salad, and vegetables! Delicious!

Eventually Mari and I made it home after getting lost in Central Park for a while. We got a nice view of the fireworks on our walk back to the subway! I ended up with lots of great swag!

Nissan gave us each a long-sleeved shirt and I got the rest of the food from the stands at the expo. They originally promised us “an exclusive swag bag filled with Subway coupons and other healthy items.” I have no idea what happened to that but I felt better when we each won bleacher seats for the marathon finish line!

Nissan was supposed to have a raffle for the tickets but since some bloggers did not show up, we all won! So exciting!!

I met Mari and her boy back at the subway bright and early on Sunday!

Our seats were amazing! They provided us with lots of entertainment during the race!

We saw marching bands, cheerleaders, break dancers, roller skaters, and jump ropers!

I spy the Nissan LEAF!

It was so exciting to watch the runners and see the look of accomplishment on all of their faces.

It was FREEZING but well worth it!

We warmed up with some 5 Burro Cafe margaritas after!!

And some Veggie Fajitas!!

Congrats to all of the runners and thanks to Nissan for a great weekend!

Did you watch the marathon this weekend? Do you plan on running one at some point in your life?

The winner of the MyBlogSpark Progresso Soup and Fitness Ball Giveaway is….Brandi!! She said, “I have always wanted to try a fitness ball but haven’t had a chance. I just do basic crunches and stuff to try and work my abs. I also use some machines at the gym.”

Congrats! Please email me your address! Have a great day!

Related posts:

1. NYC Marathon Day!
2. City Harvest Winner and Weekend!
3. Weekend Favorites

Hello! Where do I even begin about the weekend I had? It all started with one of these…..

Friday night was Mari’s birthday dinner at 5 Burro… of course! There were 5 of us there. It was Mari, Me, Mo, Carol, and Gigi. Carol was visiting from California so it was nice to finally meet her! There was about a 45 minute wait to be seated so we all got pretty buzzed from the margaritas before dinner. I actually had to send my first one back…tragedy! I ordered an Apricot margarita but it was all ice on top and syrup on the bottom. The ice and syrup would not mix! It looked a mess! Not a typical 5 Burro margarita. I went with the Strawberry instead since it was premade and could not be messed up.

Gigi, Mari, Me

I decided to stick with something healthy for dinner since those frozen margaritas are the complete opposite of healthy! I got the Grilled Shrimp salad.

I have to give credit to Mari for all of these pictures. Mine are gone forever. More on that later.

Mari and I split the guacamole to top over our salads. It was perfect!

Enjoying margarita number 2….

The table next to us definitely started to get annoyed because there were a million cameras going off at once! That’s what happens when you bring 4 bloggers to a restaurant together. The other table behind us did not mind and offered to take some pictures for us!

We decided to continue the celebration so we headed next door to another bar. We ordered some birthday shots. 1 birthday shot turned into 8 or 9 birthday shots.

They were all girly shots and seemed weak so we kept ordering more! Probably not that best idea! It was really fun though! Eventually we drank enough and headed our separate ways. The next part of the night went from amazing to awful….

The bar was only 2 subway stops away from my apartment. I went to get on the train and asked some guy if it was going local or express. You never know at that time of night. The guy told me it was local so I believed him and got on. Of course, the train went express and went 4 stops past mine! Once the train finally stopped, I got off to turn around and go back towards my apartment. It was 100 degrees underground and I was tired and pretty tipsy. I needed a local train again but an express train came. I did not feel like waiting for the local so I decided to take it back to where I started and just get in a cab or walk home. I got back to where the bar was and saw one of those black town car cabs. I got in. He asked me how much I wanted to pay. I said $5.00. He said $7.00. I said fine. He drove me the 5 minutes to my apartment. He asked for a $6.00 tip on top of the $7.00!!. I think he was trying to trick me. Whatever. I did not fall for it.  Anyway, that part is not too important! I just dislike cabs.

I finally got home and dumped out my purse to find my Droid. I was supposed to call Mari and Mo to tell them I got home okay. The phone was not in my purse.  I dumped it out about 5 more times and looked everywhere but there was no phone. I started hysterically crying and ran outside to find the cab but he was long gone. I think I left it on his seat or it fell out of my purse. I walked down the street to find a pay phone and saw some cops. I cried to them about how my phone was gone and asked if I could borrow theirs. Instead, they put me in the back of their cop car to see if we could find the cab. I knew I would never find him since he was in a black car but we drove back to where I got in the cab anyway. No luck. Luckily that was my first time in the back of a cop car…and hopefully the last!  They drove me around for a little until they got a call about an assault.  They told me I had to get out so they left me a block or two away from my apartment. I really don’t think that was too smart of them to leave a drunk crying girl on the street!  I still wanted to at least call someone so I decided to walk towards CVS since I knew it was open 24 hours. The guy let me borrow his cell phone and I left a few voice mails to let everyone know I was alive. I tried calling my phone but it was dead of course. I walked back home with no phone but luckily still had my apartment keys!! I felt lost with no form of communication. I don’t even have a working laptop right now! I realized I could get online through my iPod touch so I was able to email Mari to let her know I was okay! What a night!!

The next morning I was supposed to be at school at 9:00.  I decided I needed to just sleep and then go to Verizon in the morning. There was no way I was sitting in school all day feeling sick and worrying about my phone. I felt kind of guilty missing my 2nd to last day of school but I had already completed all of the graduation requirements so it was not a huge deal. I went to Verizon and ordered a new Droid but they are on back order. Luckily I have insurance but still had to pay $90! Ugh. I activated an old phone for now. This will be Droid #3 in one month. So sad. I dropped my first one after 2 weeks of owning it and cracked the screen. I am horrible with technology! I will NOT lose or break the third one!!!

I stayed in on Saturday because I did not want to risk missing my last day of school on Sunday! Yes, I celebrated National Tequila Day a bit too early!! Luckily I did not miss much on Saturday. Class on Sunday was a lot of fun. We did not have an official graduation ceremony or anything but received diplomas and danced a lot!

It is official!

It is kind of embarrassing to talk about how I graduated as a certified health coach in the same post as the story above!! Oh well, I am human and it was a very special occasion. Accidents happen!

After class, I celebrated with Dori and Kristine at a bar called Banc. We split a pitcher of the Cucumber Splash: Fresh Lime Juice, Simple Syrup, Fresh Cucumber House Infused Absolut Vodka, Mint Garnish, On the Rocks.

It was so refreshing! Next we headed over to a cute restaurant called Penelope for some dinner. Kristine goes there all the time and raved about the Veggie Burger! I had to get it!

She was right! It was delicious! There was this amazing pesto mayo on the English muffin! Loved it!

Dori got the FBLT (fakin’ bacon, avocado, lettuce, tomato with black pepper balsamic mayo on sourdough).

We loved it there! Now that I am done with school, we are going to make it a Sunday tradition to go to Core Fusion followed by drinks and dinner! Besides my phone drama, it was a really fun weekend!

1) Have you ever lost your phone? I want to hear stories!

Related posts:

1. Birthday Margaritas!
2. My Birthday Weekend!
3. Bridal Party, Birthday Party, Blog Meetup!

Morning! It’s Fridayyyyy! I’m on a little exercise high from intenSati this morning. The class today today was labeled, “HCB” on the schedule (high calorie burn!) It was intense but amazing as always. I did not wear my heart rate monitor but Mari burned 690 calories! Our awesome instructor, Natalia, mixed our routine up a little today and made us do everything backwards with sprints mixed in. Loved it. Mari and I stayed after and did some arm exercises with free weights. We were asking Natalia what else she does besides intenSati because she has such an amazing body! Of course us food bloggers asked her what she usually eats as well!! I am so grateful that she let me on her guest list this whole month! I have one more week at Equinox on guest lists and then I need to figure out what to do. I really want to join Equinox so that I can continue intenSati! Nothing at New Yorks Sports Club excites me like intenSati does! It is about $100 extra dollars a month though so I would need to cut back on something big! We’ll see! I have this debate with myself almost every month! I do think it would be worth it because I leave there feeling so happy every day. They also have a million other great classes too. I have a week to decide so I will keep thinking about it.

After class today, I refueled with a delicious breakfast sandwich from the deli nearby. I got egg whites, mushrooms, spinach, and feta cheese on whole wheat toast.

I also got a beer iced coffee!

Last night after work I went to intenSati again! I told you I was an addict. It was a great, hot class! The air was broken but hey…more of a detox right? I love that we were twice as loud yelling the affirmations at 6:30 this morning than at 6:30 last night. There was just so much energy today. Maybe because it is Friday? I liked the trancy, fast music today too!

Mari and I headed over to Whole Foods for dinner last night after class. I made a salad beast!

It contained vegan tuna salad, steamed kale, bean salad, zucchini, edamame, broccoli, quinoa, feta cheese, and probably 5 other things! We both wanted something sweet afterwards so we decided to go to The Lite Choice! There is one in Union Square where we were but we decided to walk 2 avenues further so we could use my Living Social coupon. I bought a coupon for 8 servings of TLC for half price! We got to the 7th Avenue location and it was closed because of an electrical failure. We decided to walk another 10 blocks to the 23rd street location. They did not take my coupon but it was completely worth the $4.00!

I got 1/2 Chocolate and 1/2 Scoopstachio with crunchies. Scoopstachio is their brand new flavor so I had to try it! It tasted like a mix of peanut butter and mint. I loved all the different flavors going on in my cup! We decided to walk while eating so we ended up walking another mile and a half to the subway! We like our exercise!

In other news, I can now write A.A.D.P next to my name! I got my certificate for the American Associatian of Drugless Practioners yesterday! I also graduate from Integrative Nutrition this weekend! It went by so fast! I am officially a health coach and am offering free one-hour health consultations so let me know if you are interested! We can do it over the phone if you don’t live in New York. You can also sign up for my health coaching newsletter below for more wellness tips and recipes.

Sign up for my Email Newsletter

Besides school this weekend, I have a Core Fusion class planned, Mari’s birthday dinner at 5 Burro, and some other celebrations since tomorrow is National Tequila Day! Can’t wait!

1) Are you planning on celebrating National Tequila Day tomorrow? I plan to celebrate all weekend!!

2) How do you like your coffee? Lately I’ve been getting iced coffee with soy milk from the deli. No sugar necessary!

Thanks for reading! Have a nice weekend!

Related posts:

1. The IntenSati Situation
2. Giveaway Winners and IntenSati Workouts!
3. Pizza and Beer!

I’m sure you guys all know my love for Mexican and margaritas by now. I put the only two Mexican restaurants in my neighborhood to test this weekend. On Friday I went to 5 Burro and on Saturday I went to Garcia’s. I was not planning on having Mexican 2 nights in a row but it is kind of tough to find a decent restaurant where I live. I refuse to eat at Friday’s and Applebee’s again (even if their drinks are half-priced!) I tried Garcia’s back in October of 2009 (thank you blog) and remembered the food being pretty decent. Garcia’s is one of the only restaurants with outdoor seating in the area so that was the determining factor in trying it again.

5 Burro Cafe never disappoints me. It is nice to know that I only need one frozen margaritas to feel tipsy there. It is hard to get drunk for just $8.00 in
New York these days.

At other restaurants, I order a margarita on the rocks with silver tequila since it is a lot less calories. I learned that at 5 Burro, non-frozen margaritas are $1.00 more and half the size so I need 2 or 3 to get drunk. I decided to just stick with 1 frozen margarita there since I know how strong they are.

I went with the Lobster Mexican Salad as my main course.

I love how generous they are with their lobster . I am always impressed by how fresh and delicious it tastes for a Mexican restaurant! My friend and I shared some rice and beans on the side.

We also got some guacamole. Perfect salad!!

My friend ordered the spicy sausage 5 Burro Quesadilla. I had a taste and it was delicious!

Sometimes the food can take a little long at 5 Burro but on Friday the service was great. We were there at 6:00 which is earlier than usual so that could be why. I wish 5 Burro had outdoor seating like Garcia’s!

We ate at Garcia’s around 9:30 pm so we got a seat outside right away. I decided to order a margarita on the rocks because I was not sure how the frozen drinks would compare to the ones at 5 Burro. I asked for a large margarita with silver tequila since silver is a little healthier than gold.  On the menu it said the margarita was $11.00. Our server said okay but came back 2 minutes later and told me the only silver tequila they had was Patron so the drink would cost $28.00. I was not paying $17.00 extra dollars for silver tequila! I could buy an entire dinner for $28.0o somewhere else! She told me the drinks had 4 shots of tequila. I still was not paying almost $30 for a drink so I went with the house tequila instead.

The drink did not even taste that strong but whatever. I went with the Vegetarian Fajitas for dinner.

Hello grease!  The fajitas were so much greasier than the ones at 5 Burro. I enjoyed some rice and beans on the side. I asked for extra guacamole instead of sour cream. The waitress said that the meal already came with guacamole. Did she not understtand that I wanted extra? Ugh. I did not argue.

My friend ordered the Mexican pizza but the waitress said they ran out of the sausauge (the main topping of the pizza). Instead she got Steak Fajitas which was also extremely greasy.

I needed more alcohol since my large margarita with “4 shots” did nothing so I played it safe and got a Corona Light.

The meal ended up costing double what we payed at 5 Burro the night before. I will never go back there. I don’t know where they get off charging so much for weak drinks and lower quality food. Glad I gave it one more try though! Looks like I am sticking with my 5 Burro Cafe forever!

1) What is your favorite Mexican restaurant?

2) What do you do if you have a bad restaurant experience? Write a letter? Blog about it? Never go back?

I am choosing the Michael Season’s Chip Giveaway! winner tomorrow!

Check out by post on Hollaback Health about 6 ways to get your readers involved!

Related posts:

1. 5 Burro Cafe and Tequila Fun!
2. NYE and Five Burro Cafe!
3. Will the Margaritas Pass the Test?