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?

Related posts:

1. IntenSati Addict and AADP Certified!
2. New Challenge: intenSati Warrior!
3. Core Fusion Sale & New Challenge!

Hello! I have a few exciting things to talk about today.

1) Core Fusion!

Exhale Spa is currently on sale at Rue La La! That means Core Fusion classes are much cheaper than usual! You guys all know that I’ve been waiting for this for months since I can’t afford a normal membership. I am very excited to start going again! I was in some major Core Fusion withdrawal!  The sale goes on for 2 more days if you are interested! I plan on going a ton in August since I am starting a new challenge in July…

2) New intenSati Summer Warrior Challenge!

You may remember my January intenSati Challenge!I was required to take 3 intenSati classes per week. I also got a free month pass to Equinox gym! I loved the class and was sad when it was over! As soon as I heard about the July challenge, I applied and got accepted a few days later! This one is going to be a little more intense than the last one! I have to go to 4 intenSati classes per week and 2 of them have to be morning classes! The morning classes are at 6:30 am which means I will have to wake up at 5:00 in the morning! Luckily Mari also got accepted so she will be responsible for making sure I get my butt out of bed! Thank you Mari, lol. I get a month pass to Equinox again so I put my NYSC membership on hold for now. I can’t wait for all of the amazing classes at Equinox. I have to admit that I am extra excited for their fancy showers again! My first class is this Friday morning!

3) New Contest from Dove!

Dove gofresh just got better with a boost of NutriumMoisture™.  To celebrate, Dove has launched its “Better Than Ever Contest.”  The contest asks you to share what in your life is better than ever and submit a “before” photo and a “now” photo in one of the categories below, and then explain why your life is better than ever!

Categories:

Play: Have you gone from bunking up in hostels to staying in quality hotels? Have your vacations gone from spring break to lifetime adventures with family and friends? Tell us how you’ve enhanced your passions.

Love: Did you exchange a burn-out boyfriend for a loving man? College parties for dinner parties? Show us how your relationships have evolved.

Live: You used to microwave mac n’ cheese but now you cook meals made from scratch. You used to share an apartment but now you’re decorating your own pad. Show us how your living has gone from surviving to stylin’.

Style: Have you upgraded your hairstyle? Traded trucker hats for ballet flats? Show us how you’ve come into your own when it comes to style.
 
One Grand Prize winner will receive a spa and adventure getawayfor two to Sedona, Arizona, plus $1,000 to use towards making your or someone else’s life better (Think: charitable contributions, gifts, or anything that makes the world a better place!). Runner-Up prizes such as a Nintendo Wii™, Sony® BRAVIA® Theatre System, gift cards to Home Depot, Crate & Barrel and Sephora will also be given to four winners, one from each of the categories Love, Live, Play, and Style.

I thought you guys might be interested in this one! I would love a spa and adventure getaway!!! Good luck to those who enter!

4) Yesterday’s Eats!

I am still doing great with last week’s goals by making breakfast, lunch, and dinner at home. I even went to bed at 10:30 Sunday and Monday night! I am still tired every morning but feel a little better! Yesterday for breakfast I made PB & Co Dark Chocolate Dreams and a banana on a Nature’s Pride whole wheat bun.

Heaven! The buns are so big and fluffy! This breakfast kept me full for 4 hours which was nice too!

For lunch I made a wrap using my roasted veggies from Sunday night! I added Sabra Caramelized Onion hummus.

I packed some kale chips on the side using my cool EasyLunchBox! Great lunch!

I went to the gym after work and did 45 minutes on the elliptical. I also did 3 sets of biceps, shoulders, and back using a body bar. Oh, and I did a plank and some push ups. I always get proud of myself when I do this stuff on my own and not in a class!

I had a few roasted veggies left to use for dinner so I knew I was going to make a big salad. I found some salmon cakes in my freezer to top my salad with.

I made 5 salmon bites and added avocado, veggies, and hummus.

Delicious! I was not completely satisfied so I had a huge bowl of grapes for dessert! I added some chocolate brownie crumbles and whipped cream on top. That did the trick!

Well I am off. Gotta go buy my Core Fusion classes! Wahoo!

1) Are you taking on any new challenges in July?
2) What is your favorite “healthy” dessert?

Related posts:

1. Core Fusion Energy Flow
2. Core Fusion Meetup and Pasta!
3. Core Fusion Cardio!

Hello! Hope everyone is having a nice day so far! I am going to share some photos from the weekend since the birthday celebrations continued!

Friday

I had plans to go to a bar called Maya with Dori, my friend Kaity, and a few others. After writing my end of the week reflections last Friday, I decided it would be a nice idea to walk to the bar. I looked it up and it said it was 3.2 miles and would take an hour and 15 minutes. I got out of work early and it was a beautiful day out so why not? For those of you who are familiar with New York, I walked from Chelsea to the Upper East Side. It took about an hour and definitely made me thirsty for a mango margarita!

Maya has great happy hour specials. The margaritas were half-priced and the appetizers were just $3.00. We ended up ordering some guacamole for the table. It was delicious!

I also split 2 appetizers with Kaity. They were tiny but delicious! No wonder they were just $3.00! We split the Huarache Vegetariano: huitlacoche, mushrooms, goat cheese, and salsa verde on crispy flatbread.

Yum! I love anything with mushrooms and goat cheese! We also split a chicken taco. I wasn’t as crazy about this.

I had about 4 margaritas by the time we were done!

Dori and I.

Kaity and I.

We went to one more bar afterwards. We were all starving by the end of the night since the appetizers were so small so we went to the diner. Dori and I split an omelet with mushrooms, avocado, and cheddar cheese.

My plate:

Very fun night! Love all that melted cheese. Yumm.

Saturday

I had my actual birthday party at a rooftop bar called Highbar. I stopped and grabbed something to eat before the party. I figured it was the smart thing to do before drinking all day! I got the West Coast Vegetarian wrap from Pax Foods.

It contained chick peas, sundried tomatoes, watercress, fresh alfalfa sprouts, avocado and goat cheese all inside a whole wheat wrap. Perfect!

I got to Highbar at 2:00pm since there was an open bar from 2:00 to 3:00! The bar was so nice! We had a view of the cruise ships!

I got the best margarita ever! It was a Watermelon Mint Margarita! I stuck with these most of the day. So refreshing!

The open bar was for Smirnoff Ice. I had one or two of them. I don’t think I’ve seen one of those since college!

We also got vodka infused watermelon!!

Best thing ever.

We drank for about 5 hours and eventually left so we could eat some dinner! We ended up at Vynl. We started with the Vegetable Dumplings.

Dori and I decided to get 2 entrees and split them because we could not decide!

We got the Grilled Vegetable Goat Cheese wrap.

We also got the Veggie Burger sandwich.

My plate! Sorry for the blur. Guess the alcohol was setting in! The fries were amazing of course! Aren’t they always after drinking?

Sunday

I had plans to go home to Philly for Father’s Day. Somehow I woke up earlier than necessary so I decided to attempt a run. My 5K is in 2 days so I wanted to see if I could run 3 miles. Did I make it? No. I blame it on drinking the day before for hours and the 90 degree weather. I also failed to bring water with me. I maybe ran 2 miles and had to stop and walk. I did the whole run/walk thing for 4 miles total. I think I’ll be fine on Thursday though. We’ll see! Eventually I took the train home and brought Daisy along to keep me company.

I layed out by our pool all day.

My dad kept handing me these! Maybe I should come home more often.

I’d say it was a fun filled weekend! Back to reality now. I have some fun events after work every night this week so stay tuned for some recaps! Have a good one!

One day left to enter my Culturelle T-Shirt Giveaway!

Related posts:

1. And the Challenge Continues….
2. Mexican and Ice Cream Fiesta!
3. Thirsty Thursday

Happy Thursday! It is the last day of the work week for me!!! Remember the bachelorette party I went to in Puerto Rico a month ago? Saturday is the wedding! She is the first of my friends to get married so it is pretty exciting. Tomorrow is manicure/pedicure day and the wedding rehearsal. I will make sure to take lots of pictures of course! I also have some guest posts lined up so be sure to check back! Now for some eats from yesterday…

I couldn’t decide what to have for breakfast. I remembered that I had a bunch of coupons from Self Workout in the Park for $5.00 off a $10.00 purchase at Energy Kitchen! I did not want the coupons to go to waste so I decided to order breakfast and lunch. For breakfast I got egg whites with mushrooms and broccoli on a multigrain wrap.

They really do have the best breakfast ever.

Every month something new is on special there for lunch. Last month the burgers were $5.00. This month the wraps are $5.00. I went with the California Wrap. It has hummus, guacamole, roasted red peppers, and sprouts.

I didn’t love it the first time I tried it a few months ago because it seemed a little watery. This time the hummus was much creamier. The breakfast wrap was $4.99 and lunch was $5.00. I was one cent short from being able to use the coupon!! I’m sure they do that on purpose. I decided to get a bag of Soy Crisps to make it over $10.00.

Both wraps plus the chips ended up being $8.00 with the coupon. Not too bad. They gave me another coupon for $5.00 off a wrap too! Looks like I’ll be getting another free wrap this month.

A few hours later, I received this email:

They are giving out more free wraps tonight! So fun!

I went to the gym after work and did 45 minutes on the elliptical. I was craving a nice big salad after all of the wraps and chips so I stopped at Whole Foods for dinner.

I threw in a little bit of everything! The star of the salad was the yucca fries. They taste so much better than normal fries to me! I need to make them one day.

I got home and had an intense craving for some ice cream! I decided not to fight it and just stop at the store and get some. I found this little single serve container of Skinny Cow!

I am obsessed with Cookies ‘N Cream so this was perfect. It is just 150 calories for a nice size serving. Just don’t look at the ingredient list. Not good! I could have bought a normal size container of soy ice cream with better ingredients but I have no control and would have ate the whole thing. I need single serve containers when it comes to ice cream. I usually don’t keep it in the house at all. I just won’t be buying this very often in the future! At least Daisy enjoyed it It was delicious and the perfect treat. Well I am off! Don’t forget to enter to win SmartSole Exercise Insoles! I will be choosing the winner tomorrow!

1) Do you prefer single serving containers for control or bulk containers?
2) Are there any foods you have to keep out of the house?

Related posts:

1. Hungry Girl Book Signing and Free Energy Kitchen Lunch!
2. Sicky Eats!
3. The Pizza Diet!

Hello! Hope everyone had a nice weekend! The hot weather made me happy! My weekend consisted of a Bat Mitzvah, drinking at night, and relaxing. Sounds good to me! Let’s talk about how to make some healthy choices at an event like a Bat Mitzvah with many unhealthy, tempting options all day!

That morning I went to the gym and did 45 minutes on the elliptical. It is always a good idea to get a nice workout in if you think you want to indulge at the event. I think it is totally fine to have a few treats at events like this since you most likely don’t get to eat this stuff every day. I also knew there was an open bar so I tried to go for the healthier options during the event! Always have to save room for those drinks!

After the service, there was tons of cookies, brownies, and fruit. I was starving for lunch by this time so I did not want to fill up on too many cookies. Instead I opted for fruit, coffee, and a piece of the chocolate below.

The chocolate tasted like Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies! Amazing!

Once it was time to eat I ran over to the salad bar first and filled my plate! Strawberries are amazing during this time of year! I love summer.

Eventually I made my way to the open bar. I started with a glass of wine. No, that is not ice cream next to my wine. It is mashed potatoes! So pretty. They also had bacon, cheese, sour cream, etc. to top over the potatoes but I skipped all of that.

I also had a piece of chicken stuffed with spinach. I had a small piece of steak as well for some extra protein but don’t know what happened to that picture!

There was also a pasta bar, pizza, chicken fingers, and ravioli. I was still a little hungry so I opted for another salad with some fries on the side.

I had a Blue Moon as well! (Or maybe 3 of them).

They had a “make your own sundae” bar for dessert. I was stuffed from 3 Blue Moons so I skipped dessert. Sometimes alcohol is my top priority!

I took the train back to New York just in time to meet some friends from college! They were all visiting from Maryland. I hadn’t seen a few of them in 3 years so it was an amazing time!We met at a Tapas restaurant in the Village called Sala. I had a few glasses of Sangria, a salad, and shrimp dish. It was really nice there!

We continued on to a few more bars. Dori joined us for the festivities! We enjoyed some $14.00 (crazy) pear and mango martinis at a beautiful rooftop bar! I had to warn all of my Maryland friends that drinks would not be $3.00 like they were used to! Gotta love New York!

Dori and I ended the night with omelets at a diner at 2:00 in the morning! I am thankful for Twitter  because it helped Dori and I remember the events that occurred that night!! See @dysterious’ timeline if you are interested. It will give you a nice laugh.

Sunday was a lazy day. I went to Piu Bello for a nice greasy lunch to cure the hangover.

I got the Vegetarian wrap with avocado, goat cheese, and olives. I kind of forgot there were olives in there and had to pick them out! They are my least favorite food. Other than that the wrap and fries were both amazing! It felt great to sit outside in the 80 degree weather! I consider moving to Florida more and more every day.

Piu Bello is known for their gelato so I got Cookies N’ Cream!

I got home and spent the rest of the day checking out computer desks at Simplydesks.com. I will be doing a review of an item from the website very soon! I can’t decide between a new office chair or little portable laptop desk! We’ll see.

Great weekend! The Bat Mitzvah made me miss my own 10 years ago! I gave out really cool boxers that said, “I had a Sunsational  time at Missy’s Bat Mitzvah! I’ve always been obsessed with tropical hot weather! One of these days I will get some pictures on here from that day. I had thick bangs and braces. Typical.

1) What are your tips for eating healthy at a big event?

2) What was your 80′s hair style?

• Stay tuned for a Thriv shirt giveaway tomorrow!
• Take the The Lite Choice Survey for a chance to win a $20.00 gift certificate!

Related posts:

1. Do Not Stick Plastic Spoons in Blenders!
2. Salads, Soft Serve, and 1/2 Marathons!
3. Bridal Party, Birthday Party, Blog Meetup!

Hey everyone! Random Friday night post here! I have school early tomorrow but don’t feel like sleeping yet. Probably because I just had this…..

1/2 Cheesecake and 1/2 Vanilla with crunchies. Dori texted me and told me she got some so I copied. Oh and if you didn’t take the TLC Survey yet…do it now and then come back to my blog when you are done! Thanks!!

Before my lovely soft serve, I had this crazy Whole Foods salad:

Apparently it was huge. The lady checking me out said, “You gonna eat all that??”

Um…I just got done 50 minutes on the elliptical right before so hell yes I am eating it all.

Anyway, half of the salad is lettuce. The other half is vegan chicken salad, detox salad, cabbage, quinoa, kale, chickpeas, seaweed salad, and cauliflower. The cashier still believed I was eating way too much. Whatever… hope she goes home and enjoys her McDonald’s.

Sorry, I just get really pissed off when employees comment on how much or what I am eating. They should be happy I am spending $11.00 dollars on a salad! Usually I keep it around $7.00 but I was pretty famished from my workout so yeah; I decided to sample one of everything from the salad bar.

Back to today:

I had a lovely lunch date with Marina at our usual, Sea Thai. I started off with my wonderful free appetizer, the roasted tofu salad with peanut dressing. Love it.

I went with the grilled chicken breast with green vegetables for my main dish. Now this was a big portion!

The sauce was a delicious mix of sweet and spicy. I loved it but could only finish half! Marina and I gossiped about men as usual. Nice little escape from the work day!

So what other exciting events have occurred since I came back from Puerto Rico?? Hmm… sushi with my roommate!

We started with some edamame.

I let her pick all of the sushi this time! I did choose a salmon avocado roll at least. Oh and the brown rice on the sushi was all me.

We also got an eel avocado roll, a shrimp tempura dynamite roll, and some other shrimp roll. Don’t remember names too well. Check out this ONE roll:

Amazing.

Last night I went to a happy hour with my friend Amanda. We went to MacDougal’s in the West Village.

We played pool and darts with her boyfriend and his friend. I definitely lost both games but that just meant I got to drink more!

I came home and made some crazy drunken dinner. Turkey bacon, omelet, laughing cow, and a burnt wrap. I set the fire alarm off too. I can’t even cook sober so I don’t know why I thought this would be a smart idea.

The only other exciting thing worth mentioning tonight is Wiggles and Daisy. They are slowly becoming friends.

They sleep on both sides of me Alright I am off! Gotta wake up for nutrition school all early! Have a good weekend!

1) Do you get pissed when employees comment on what or how much you are eating?

2) What is easy to cook when drunk?

Related posts:

1. Salad Heaven and Meetup!
2. Sushi and Saki Triple Date!
3. Salads, Soft Serve, and 1/2 Marathons!

Hey everyone! Hope you had a nice weekend! This weekend was my 3rd weekend of school! It was tough waking up after Dori’s birthday but I did make it there (after some espresso of course).

I made sure to have a filling breakfast since we are not allowed to eat in the Jazz at Lincoln Center. I stopped at a deli near my apartment and got a veggie egg white omelet with whole wheat toast. Perfect after a night of drinking!

We got there and were told that on Saturday we would have a speaker that felt very strongly about the importance of eating animals and animal fats. Sunday would be completely opposite and we would have a vegan speaker. It was great to hear both sides of the story. I will try to share the key points with you guys!

Sally Fallon Morell was the speaker for animal products. She is the author of Eat Fat Lose Fat and President of the Weston A. Price Foundation. She had 3 main principles for a nourished diet and vibrant health.

1) No refined or denatured foods (refined sugar, high fructose corn syrup, skim and low fat milk, white flour, refined vegetable oils, pasteurized milk, hydrogenated fats, isolated protein powders, artificial sweeteners).

2) Every diet will contain animal foods (fish and shellfish, birds, red meat, milk products, eggs)

She said the following nutrients are only in animal products: Vitamin A, D, B 12, Cholesterol, Very Long Chain Supersaturated fat acids (AA, EPA, DHA).

3) Nutrient Density- Primitive diets contain 4 times the calcium and other minerals and 10 times the fat-soluble vitamins as the modern American diet.

Sources of Vitamin A and D: fish eggs, fish liver, fish liver oil, fish heads, shell fish, oily fish, grass-fed land animals, insects, butter, cream, egg yolks, liver, animal fat

Vitamin A is needed for: protein assimilation, calcium assimilation, proper growth, prevention of birth defects, proper function of the glands, thyroid function, immune system function, stress and sex hormone production, eyes, skin, and bones.

MYTH

She also mentioned that most people think you can get enough Vitamin D by standing in the sun for 10 minutes a day. In reality, UVB iS only available MID-DAY during the SUMMER months.

Vitamin D is needed for: healthy bones, proper growth, mineral metabolism, muscle tone, healthy skin, insulin production, immune system, nervous system, cell function, feel good chemicals, longevity.

Synthetic Vitamin D2- made from vegetarian sources.

-has the oppostite  effect to animal source D3
-causes softening of the bones and hardening of organs arteries
-found in soy milk, oat milk, rice milk, almond milk

She was also very about drinking raw milk:

• It digests itself, enzymes and carrier proteins in raw milk ensure all nutrients are absorbed
• No energy required to digest raw milk,
• Friendly bacteria in milk aid digestion.

She said she drinks raw milk every day and uses 1/2 a stick of butter in her oatmeal every day! She said it helps with her hypoglycemia. She made a lot more points about the nutrients in animal fats. I don’t know that I’d agree with everything but it was interesting to hear her.

For lunch I had the Vegetarian Delight from Lenny’s. I got this last time I had class and it was the best wrap ever. I think I will be getting it every single time.

After school I went to Core Fusion Cardio and then to happy hour at Applebee’s. I had 2 SkinnyBee Margaritas (100 calories each).

I also had a side salad to start.

I got the Grilled Shrimp and Island Rice for my main course (290 calories). Even after my lecture at class, I still asked for my broccoli with no butter

On Sunday I woke up bright and early for day two! I made my own omelet since I had some extra time in the morning.

Mushroom omelet on an Ezekiel wrap with Laughing Cow Cheese! Yum! I also had some Click Espresso to drink. I can’t stay awake in class without some caffeine!

Sunday morning started off with Harvel Hendrix, the author of Getting the Love You Want: A Guide For Couples.He spoke about what relationships and how important it is to be loved. Drugs, food, and money will not fill the hole in some one’s heart; love will. He said negativity is a toxin in relationships that is behind every physical and emotional symptom. We need to fill the void, get rid of negativity, and fill it with gratitude.

After his wonderful talk, a Zumba teacher came out on stage! She used to be a student at IIN. All of the sudden the strobe lights started flashing, the music started blasting, and we get to dance to 3 songs!! It was so much fun. I loved watching all the guys in the class do the hip rolls and shimmies, lol. I took some video!

Every school should have exercise breaks like this!!

After some dancing, we learned about the Blood Type Diet and Personality types. I will give a little summary of the Blood Type Diet.

Type O- strong, aggressive, eats red meat, likes intense exercise.

Type A- community oriented, often on vegan diets, enjoy yoga or tai chi

Type B- can eat dairy, yogurt, etc

Type AB- balance between A & B, adaptive

I’m not sure what blood type I am but I found this pretty interesting. This is obviously not true for everyone but they recommend trying out these foods based on your blood type and seeing how you feel. Of course quantity matters and the type of dairy or meat (organic, no growth hormones, etc).

During my lunch break, I went to Core Fusion! I get an hour and a half so I decided to leave class 20 minutes early so I could work out during break. It was a great class and definitely gave me some energy for the rest of the afternoon.

I had 15 minutes to grab lunch after so I quickly ran into Subway and got a turkey sub.

The speaker in the afternoon was Dr. Neal Bernard, author of Food For Life. He discussed the nutrients in plant based diets.

Protein: beans, grains vegetables
Calcium: beans and greens, fortified foods
Vitamin B12: fortified foods, supplements

He showed us a lot of different studies. One woman had awful menstrual cramps to the point where she could not get out of bed. She went on a low fat, high fiber, vegan diet and the pain duration and intensity drastically fell. He showed us the direct relationship between an increase in milk and an increase in prostate cancer as well.

He said that 1 cup of soy milk led to a 30% less risk of breast cancer but beware of soy protein isolate (found in meat substitutes and protein drinks).

He also said 1 in 3 kids are overweight, 1 in 3 will have diabetes, 1 in 5 has abnormal cholesterol. He encouraged us to call Congress so that all schools offer at least one vegan option for kids.

We learned a lot more but I will leave it at that for now! I can also officially start seeing clients now. Pretty exciting! I just have to figure out where to find them!

For dinner I decided to make whole wheat pasta since Passover starts tonight! I will not be able to eat bread and grain products for the next week!

I liked that this pasta only had one ingredient!

I had a salad with peppers and mushrooms on the side.

I had a glass of red wine as well! Delicious!

Happy Passover to my fellow Jews! Have a good night!

Related posts:

1. More Fun at School and Skinny Margaritas!
2. Nutrition School and Blossom Dinner!
3. Guest Post: Dieting? Try These Easy Nutrition Tips!

Hello again! In case you missed it, the winner of the EatSmart Digital Scale was announced here!

iChange

I wanted to start this post off by thanking everyone who joined in on my iChange 30-day challenge group.  We’ve got 31 members so far which is awesome! So far I am finding the website really simple and fun to use. I already got a little comment from the RD about not eating any fruit yesterday! Oops! Usually I eat fruit with breakfast and after lunch so this was a rare occasion! I am not used to tracking everything I eat with calorie counts so it will take some getting used to. I kind of cheated and estimated a lot of things yesterday  I do really love how easy it is to interact with other group members! There is still time to join if you are interested. Just head here: www.ichange.com/partners/missymaintains.

Subway Adventures

On a less positive note, I need to tell you my crazy subway ride today! The morning started off really well. I was up bright and early (5:30 am) for Core Fusion! I went last night too so I was impressed that I was able to wake up again today. Last night was tough since I hadn’t been there in over a week but today was much better. I loved the teacher and felt like I got a great workout in. Despite the awful weather, I was in a good mood after such a nice class….until the subway!

I was standing there holding my purse, gym bag, and iPod while listening to my Paul Van Dyke house music.  This ghetto woman gets on and pushes me to get by me. The train is very crowded by the way. She says with an attitude, “EXCUSE YOUR BAG!” 

I say, “What am I supposed to do with it??”

She says,”I said excuse your bag, you fuc**n illiterate bitch!”

I ignore her and she continues to curse me out and call me illiterate. First of all….who the hell says excuse your bag? Why would you not say, “Excuse me!” Any respectful person would say that after bumping into another person. Second, how am I illiterate for asking what I should do with my bag? I guess she does not know what illiterate really means. Next time I’ll be sure to make a special pathway for her so she can enter the train without touching anyone. I had so much I wanted to say back but I figured I should avoid fist fights first thing on a Friday morning. Love it. Okay, that was my rant for the day.

Yummy Food!

I’ve been lazy about taking pictures of every meal so I will just show you some favorites from the past few days!

Lunch on Wednesday:

Pesto tofu and chickpea salad from Westside Market. They have tons of little containers of prepared food that always looks so good! This was delicious! I am a huge pesto fan all of the sudden!

Lunch on Monday and Thursday

There is a fruit and vegetable store in Chelsea Market that I go to a lot. You can basically fill your salad with everything possible and it will never cost more than $5 or $6 bucks! I got everything from beets to guacamole to tofu to chickpeas, etc. It was very pretty and fun!

Dinner on Wednesday and Thursday

Turkey and American on an Ezekiel wrap with hummus. I also had Kettle Cooked chips and cucumbers on the side for dipping into more hummus! This is always a fun and easy lunch or dinner for me. I’ve been slacking with my cooking. Maybe next week!

Lunch for Today!

Wild Alaskan Salmon with hummus and lettuce on an Ezekiel wrap. I did not eat it yet but this is what it looks like! I also made sure to bring an apple after no fruit yesterday!

I am excited for the weekend because I have Dori’s birthday tonight! We are also celebrating her first half marathon!! Many lychee martinis will be involved Tomorrow and Sunday is weekend 3 of school! Can’t wait!

1) Do you have any crazy subway, train, airplane, etc. stories?

2) Do you count calories?

Related posts:

1. Sicky Eats!
2. Weekly Workout Roundup
3. Dripping Hummus?

Hey everyone! I am back in New York after a great weekend in Maryland. I was at FitBloggin for 2 days and at my friend’s house on Sunday. For those of you who don’t know, FitBloggin’ is a conference for anyone who blogs about fitness, wellness, good food, and a healthy lifestyle. It was a great place to connect with other bloggers and learn more about social media and other health and wellness topics. I will start with a recap of Friday!

I had off from work so I went into the city nice and early to get my nails and hair done. I stopped at Pax Foods for some breakfast.

I got an egg white, mushroom, and cheese omelet on a whole wheat wrap. It was delicious!

After my nails, I took the train to my house in Philly to get my car. I picked up another wrap from Penn Station for the train ride.

I got a California wrap. It had lettuce, cucumber, tomato, avocado, and roasted red pepper. I got to Philly, picked up my car, and drove the rest of the way to Baltimore. I made it there by 5:30, just in time for the POMtini cocktail party!

We were served complimentary POMtinis. I had about 3 because I didn’t taste much alcohol in them!

It was great meeting so many bloggers!

After an hour at the party, a bunch of us decided to head to dinner because we were all starving. About 20 or 30 of us found a nearby restaurant. My hotel roommate, Jen from PriorFatGirl and I immediately got drinks at the bar while waiting for a table. We could not wait!

I got a vodka soda with a splash of cranberry.

We all sat outside and got very loud! It was nice to see that I am not the only health blogger who drinks a lot!

I got a house salad to start.

I got the vegetarian sandwich with avocado, fresh mozzarella, mushrooms, roasted red peppers, lettuce, and tomatoes. I asked for a whole wheat wrap instead of the white bread. It was delicious! I loved the huge chunks of avocado!

After dinner, Jen and I decided to call it an early night and head back to the room. We had a really pretty view!!

We ended up bonding and chatting for an hour before bed. It was great to finally meet her since I’ve been stalking her blog for a year now!

On Saturday there was a 5K walk/run but Jen and I decided to go to the hotel gym instead. I did about 25 minutes on this crazy elliptical machine and also did a few weight machines. I love working out in hotel gyms for some reason. It felt like a real vacation!

The event was sponsored by Quaker so of course we were served oatmeal for breakfast!

I made a bowl with cinnamon, dried cranberries, pecans, and banana.

I had some Starbucks and skim milk to drink! Perfect breakfast!

After breakfast I wandered around to meet people and get free stuff from all of the booths!

New Balance gave everyone really cute running shorts!

The conference had 2 talks at once so I chose the ones I thought would be most helpful to me. I started with a Search Engine Optimization session.

This was a bit technical and confusing for me but I learned a few helpful tips about WordPress.

Next I went to Get Noticed: How to Pitch to Traditional Media.

This one was not too helpful because they talked about how to pitch your stories to local TV. I thought it would be more about getting into magazines and freelance writing.  They did tell some funny stories about people trying to get on TV and in the paper.

Eventually it was lunch time and I was starving!! I started with delicious mushroom soup.

I also got a grilled veggie sandwich and filled the rest of my plate with salad, asparagus, eggplant, squash, and mushrooms. It was all very good!

Dessert was fruit and Jell-O since Jell-O was another sponsor.

I met Melissa from Crunches for Cupcakes! She was really nice and we ended up spending the whole day together!

I was also excited to spend the day with Julie from Cheese and Cookies! It was great meeting her since I read her blog every day!

The next breakout session was Beyond the Blog: Getting Published. It was nice to hear Caitlin speak about how she got her Operation Beautiful book deal. All of the panelists gave great tips on how to write a proposal and shop around for an agent.

We snacked on some delicious raw snacks from the Pure2Raw twins. I had another cup of coffee since it was a long day!

The final breakout session was about how to earn money through blogging.

The day ended with a Jell-O reception. We got to try their new Mousse Temptations.

I tried the Dark Chocolate Mousse. It was very good!

I also had some sushi rolls for dinner.

I did not stay in the hotel that night because my best friend from college lives in Maryland so I spent the rest of the weekend with her! We went to a bar in Federal Hill Saturday night. There was Bubblegum vodka involved so I don’t have too many memories from the night!

The weekend was so much fun! It was great to meet everyone. I have about 20 new blogs I need to check out now!! We left with some awesome goodie bags.

Thank you to Roni for planning such a wonderful event! I’m really excited to try all of my new goodies! Stay tuned for some giveaways as well!

Related posts:

1. Bridal Party, Birthday Party, Blog Meetup!
2. Dripping Hummus?
3. Drunk Chinese Food and Dance Parties!

Good Morning! This weather makes me happy. I like being able to walk outside for an hour during lunch! Today I am going to do a continuation of my weekend at school. I made a big breakfast before I left the house to make sure I could last all morning.

1 egg and 2 egg whites with mushrooms, vegan mozzarella cheese, and ketchup on an Ezekiel wrap. It was delicious and did the trick at keeping me full for a while!

I got to school at 9 and immediatly knew it was going to be a good day when we were told a celebrity personal trainer would be working with us first. The trainer was Joel Harper, creator of the Fit Pack Workout DVD.

We were told to get up out of our chairs for a 15 minute workout! We started doing all kinds of moves like neck rolls, hip rolls, jumping up and down, etc. Imagine 1100 people in a huge theatre doing hip rolls. It was a lot of fun! He also showed us some stretches we could do while sitting which felt very nice. It was a great way to start the morning.

Next our teacher spoke to us about vegetarian diets and how to reduce animal foods. He spoke about some of the reasons people go on these diets- Mad Cow disease, genetic engineering, animal rights, and/or to live longer. He also mentioned that some people end up going on the “junk food vegetarian diet.” There are plenty of foods that do not contain meat but are also artificial junk. I liked this line that he said,”You do not want to be cruel to animals but you do not want to be cruel to your own body either.”

He said most A or B blood types are less dependant on animal foods. Quinoa and beans are great sources of protein for vegetarians. Beans can be “challenging” for some people so he recommends using smaller beans, cooking them well done, adding no salt, soaking the beans, adding spices, or eating refried beans.

Cravings

Next we talked about some reasons people get cravings. I found these pretty helpful and could relate to a lot of them:

• Not enough water
• Primary food (missing love, exercise, meaningful career, relationship). 
• Balance between yin & yang (inside coming out). For example, if I craved ice cream as a child, I will want it more now because it will give me comfort because of my relationship with that food. Very true by the way!
• If you don’t have food for a while and then have it, you will crave it more now.
• Cravings by season (summer-ice cream, winter-animal food)
• Lack of nutrients (crave salt because of lack of minerals)
• Crave non-nutritional forms of energy (alcohol, coffee)
• Hormonal (chocolate before menstruation)

Next Arthur Agatson, author of the South Beach Diet spoke to us. I was pretty excited about this one! If you’ve read my “About Me” section before, you would know that I originally lost a lot of weight after reading this book. I never knew about whole grains, refined sugars, and the glycemic index before reading it.  This was not just a diet for me. It really changed my entire way of eating right before I entered college. I kind of wanted to give him a giant hug! His talk was a lot of graphs and science so I won’t get into it too much but it was fun to hear him speak.

Lunch!

I walked over to Lenny’s Sub Shop and got the best wrap EVER.

Look how pretty! I got the Vegetarian Delight: Avocado, romaine, tomato, carrot, cucumber, alfalfa sprouts, red cabbage, sweet peppers & honey mustard

With some soy crisps on the side. This was seriously the perfect wrap. I loved all the pretty layers and the delicious honey mustard! I might be back every time I have school!

Later in the afternoon, Lynn Goldstein spoke to us. She is a registered dietitian and also went to Integrative Nutrition. She went through each of her sessions and what she spoke about with clients. She showed us how to calculate body weight, calories, body fat, etc. She spoke a lot about digestive issues as well. If you guys want me to get into more detail let me know. That could be a whole separate post in itself! I know everyone wants to learn more about constipation, IBS, and gas! It was cool to see how she incorporates what she learned at IIN with her nutrition practice. She focuses more on primary foods when with her clients (mood, energy, relationships, energy, and stress etc).

The highlight of Sunday was when our teacher told us to get up and stretch. We do this several times throughout the day along with deep breathing. This time he told us to start jumping up and down. All of the sudden the lights go off, strobe lights start flashing, and he starts blasting, “The World is Mine!” (Techno song that I love). Everyone just starts dancing and going crazy! There was so much energy in the room. I’ve never had so much fun at school.

After class, I went to Core Fusion and then Applebees for dinner! The first thing I saw on the table was this:

The Skinny “Bee” Margarita! Love it!

It tasted great! Hard to believe it was just 100 calories! I started with a house salad.

I got something from a new section on the menu “under 500 calories.” I got  
Seasoned, grilled shrimp skewers on citrus island rice served with seasonal vegetables. This was 330 calories I think? Kind of hard to believe when I saw how big it was!

The shrimp was delicious! The sauce was a little spicy but nothing I could not handle. The broccoli was good but a little buttery. I ate 2 rows of shrimp and saved one for dinner yesterday! Yum!

I have some homework so I am off!

1) Do you like reading about what I learned in school? Do you want more/less detail from my notes?

2) What is your favorite thing to get at Applebee’s?

Related posts:

1. Weekend 3 at Nutrition School!
2. 1st Day of School!
3. Nutrition School and Blossom Dinner!