The Elf Diet

January 16, 2012 by 4 Comments

One of the coolest parts about having a healthy living blog is that every once in a while I get to try cool new healthy living stuff.

I’m trying a week of a meal delivery program, The Fresh Diet, out. The diet follows The Zone-esque model of 40%, 30% and 30% carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Depending on your age, gender, and activity level your caloric requirements are calculated and all your meals are prepared by magical elves that deliver it to your house while you’re sleeping.

I <3 elves.

Every morning (since last Friday) I’ve woken up, stumbled outside, cursed the Nordic gods and their vengeful winter, and found an insulated bag with ice packs carrying my food for the day. I honestly wasn’t expecting much in regard to taste, but the food is pretty decent. The program touts that it was developed by a Cordon Bleu-trained chef, which is probably true, but I wouldn’t necessarily say this is gourmet stuff. It is however easily edible. I don’t think I would be able to stay on something like this long-term, I like cooking and planning my own meals too much, but this is a great novelty—especially after the holidays.

The major boon to meal delivery (besides not having to do as many dishes or brave the grocery store) is the reminder about how important it is to plan ahead when you’re trying to lose weight. I have always found that when I’m trying to lose weight I have a much easier time of it, and better results, when I plan my meals out ahead of time. Here’s why: As soon as the word “diet” appears in my lexicon all I can think about is food. While my normal non-dieting day can consist of all sorts of thought patterns, my dieting brain only wants to eat and know when it can feast its senses and on what. Pre-planning my daily meals takes the thinking out of it. I already know what I’m going to eat next which means I don’t have to obsess over it. The second reason: I have a game plan for calories, and can plan my workouts accordingly.

The Pros: Easy-peasy think-free dieting. No calorie counting. Easy clean up. Elves!
The Cons: Random cravings must go unanswered. In order to keep it all as low in gluten as possible I’m eating way more meat than I like to. It’s a wee bit on the pricey side:


I’ll give you guys an update on my weeks results this weekend J

 

Breakfast


Breakfast quiche with pineapple

Snack 1


Olive tapenade on crostinis (not gluten-free)

Lunch


Grilled steak salad with horseradish dressing

Snack 2


Roasted Portobello mushroom with tomato, mozzarella, basil and vinaigrette

Dinner


London broil, asparagus, roasted mushrooms

Exercise: AM: Strength Training A Day-Chest, shoulders, biceps and abs; PM: 60-minute spin class

Kim

Filed Under: Daily Confessional Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

I’ll take a treadmill, hold the weirdness

September 3, 2011 by 1 Comment

As I’ve mentioned before, Crunch is sort of my patron saint of exercise. I’m lucky enough to have an all-access pass to their gyms in NYC, and I’ve definitely been making use of it. Especially since the magazine I’ve been working at is in Midtown East, and the fella lives on the Upper West Side. Since I’m hardly ever home, it’s nice to know there’s always a gym around to stumble into…and I love their classes! Having said that: I’ve been noticing a lot of really weird stuff at the gym lately.

Here are some of the things I just can’t wrap my head around:

  1. People who send email/text messages while they’re in spin class. I know that we’re all super busy and important, but it’s only 45-minutes! I consider my time at the gym ‘me time’, a time I can just unplug and focus on myself for a little while.
  2. Junk food at the gym. I’m not saying everyone needs to be a health nut, I just think it’s kind of strange/funny when people bring fast food into the gym with them. You know there’s a bunch of people that haven’t eaten for weeks just salivating while they watch you scarf down those fries! Yesterday I saw someone sipping a frappaccino in the weight room and literally laughed out loud. I couldn’t help it.
  3. Fitifying in street clothes. Look, I know Lululemon isn’t for everyone, but wearing jeans on the treadmill just seems like a recipe for disaster. They’re so heavy! My guess is people end up in jeans because they forgot their gym clothes at home, which I totally understand, but all I can think is “that guy is going to be walking around the rest of the day with swamp ass.”  The other day I saw someone working out in a velvet tube top with ruffles–Just say no to ‘The Jersey Shore’ fitness fashion line, people!

What are some of the weirdest things you’ve seen at the gym?

 

Breakfast


Grande no foam soy latte
banana

Lunch


I’m loving these all-veggie sushi rolls from Whole Foods!

Snack


Drug stores sell fresh fruit now.
The world is seriously changing!

Dinner


Stir-fry with broccoli, carrots, peanuts, tofu and brown rice

Exercise: 45-min Spinning class

Kim

Filed Under: Daily Confessional, Fitness Tagged With: , , , , ,

Gym vs Bar?

August 24, 2011 by 1 Comment

FYI: The gym is totally the new cool hangout spot.

I got a text from a friend today asking if I want to meet up tomorrow for an aerobics class. We’ve been trying to schedule time to hang out for a while now, and the gym seemed like a nice meeting spot that will not only make us feel social, but healthy. So tomorrow we’re meeting up for a lunch time spin class followed by a little actual lunch time.

She’s not the only one with this exciting idea, in the past couple of weeks I’ve had three friends ask for guest passes to my gym or to meet up in the weight room. Could it be that the gym is usurping the bar as the new place to meet up?

Or is it just because I’ve stopped drinking and my friends are trying to figure out what to do now? Either way I LOVE IT!!!!

I think it’s awesome to meet up for a little heavy breathing with a friend. It’s also really motivating; it’s pretty lame to phone in those lunges when your friend is staring right at you. If anything I push myself harder when I know people are watching me.

I could get used to the buddy system!

Do you work out with friends?

Breakfast


I hit up Starbucks for a little latte and writing time this morning
I also grabbed a bistro box with grapes, apple slices, cheese, an egg, peanut butter, and pita
No foam soy latte (my signature drink)

 

Sometime in the afternoon I started getting a stomach ache and my waist started to get seriously bloated. It’s probably just a gas pocket (my mom thinks everything is gas), but still, eating lunch didn’t seem particularly appealing. By the time dinner time rolled around I needed to eat something belly-ache or not.

Dinner


Veggie kabobs and an organic pork chop

 

Exercise: I ended up skipping my workout today. I blame tummy troubles.

Now I’m going to bed and hoping to wake up sans stomach woes.

Kim

Filed Under: Daily Confessional Tagged With: , , , ,

July Resolutions

July 1, 2011 by 1 Comment

 

Can we consider all of June null and consider July a Mulligan month?

June was rough for me in regard to managing expectations: personal and professional. I had a big bump in my workload, and because it’s summer my social life seemed to be a wee bit more demanding than usual. This month I’m going to do something I have never done: I’m going to renew my resolutions two-months in a row. Slightly tweaked, but for the most part the same resolutions, I’m ready to take July by the…fireworks. (Okay, that was lame)

July should run slightly smoother, I have a decent hang on my new writing job, and I’m not going into magazineland again until August. I still have class work (and I’ve signed up for another class starting 7/11) but those are things I need to learn to include into my daily workload better anyhow.

So, without further ado, here are my June July resolutions:

  1. Five workouts a week. Last month I aimed to do split day workouts to keep my energy level up. I still really like that idea, but I’m trying to be more realistic this month about my schedule.
  2. Small frequent meals. I tried this out at the beginning of last month, but eventually just reverted back to my three-meal a day ways. I’m not quite ready to give up this little experiment though. It may be time for me to accept that sometimes things take time, and I can’t always expect to get it right the first time.
  3. Last month I resolved to “Keep alcohol to once a week.” Luckily I’m no longer reviewing bars, so I’m going to try to cut back even more. Summer time often feels like an adventure in cocktail drinking, but I don’t have to drink because everyone else does. I’m 28, not 18, I shouldn’t be quite so susceptible to peer pressure at this age. Plus, alcohol is expensive, dehydrating, and calorie laden—I just don’t need it.
  4. Write a book. Not the whole thing, but I sort of have a deadline to get my chapter outline to my agent by the end of summer. I’m aiming to have one polished sample chapter ready to go by the end of July, and another by the end of August. I may not sell this book, but by golly I’m going to try.
  5. Group fitness. Last month I challenged myself to go to more classes. This month I’m keeping that challenge, and adding the challenge to apply to at least five gyms for subbing positions. Now that my CPR certification is in order, I can start pounding the pavement.

I’m also resolving to blog consistently again. June was full of a lot of late nights, early mornings, and crazy deadlines, but my little blog is like my diary at the end of the day. It’s an indulgence at the end of the day, and without it these past few weeks I’ve been feeling all sorts of cranky.

What are you resolving for July?

Kim

Filed Under: Resolutions Tagged With: , , , , , ,

She keeps going, and going, and going, and going, and going, and going, and going…

June 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Burnout: (noun) fatigue, frustration, or apathy resulting from prolonged stress, overwork, or intense activity.

Admitting that I’m not super-human has always been hard for me, but I have often found myself trying ever so strategically to ignore the tell-tale signs of burnout. I have always been seriously afraid of being considered lazy—which in many ways is a great motivator that has done amazing things for me personally and professionally. The one drawback is that there really is a threshold to how much I can handle for a prolonged period of time, and today as I sat staring blankly at my computer at a café, waiting for the words form for an article I was writing I said to my friend, “Sometimes I just don’t have any more words to write.”

Even with a daycation under my belt I have to admit that I’m feeling a wee bit fried these days. Between book research, writing, and an increase in freelance assignments the pressure has definitely on lately. Sometimes my brain just doesn’t want to cooperate with my plans. So as I sat there frustrated my friend Sarah, ever encouraging, reminded me that sometimes we just need a little time off and that needing to recharge isn’t something to feel guilty about. There was an analogy thrown in about fields and taking time to sit fallow in order to recharge the soil. I always appreciate a good analogy.

Then she asked what it was that I wanted to do, and I said “All I want to do lately is exercise and watch Netflix.” Basically, all I want to do is tune out. Now, it was perhaps suggested that I take a week off from working but let’s be honest, I don’t think I could afford a week of down time, but perhaps a day or two is worth the dip in pay in order to recharge the brain waves. So, I gave my brain the rest of the day off. I went for a 6-mile run/walk around Brooklyn and followed it with a 45-minute spin class, then I hit up my favorite Japanese restaurant for a little sushi takeout. Hey, if I’m going to give myself a break, I might as well get one from kitchen duty too!

Do you ever experience burnout?
How do you recharge your brain cells when they’re feeling all fuzzy?

Breakfast


I am totally OBSESSED with a local bakery/café in my neighborhood. All of their bread is fresh baked. That made an egg sandwich pretty darn tempting this morning.
Rye bread with egg whites, ham and swiss cheese
Iced coffee

Lunch


My new favorite wrap: tortilla with refried beans, veggie burger, avocado and hot sauce
Plum

Snack


Whole wheat mini bagel with PB & J
Orange juice

Dinner


Brown rice sushi

Kim

Filed Under: Daily Confessional Tagged With: , , , , ,

How I’m Spending Saturday

May 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Spandex Saturdays!

I spent today in Spin Instructor Orientation. Nine hours of alternating lecture and riding—not a bad way to spend a Saturday.
Now I have to do a little studying and take the certification exam.

What’s keeping you busy this weekend?

Kim

Filed Under: Fitness Tagged With: , ,

Who’s that Yogini?

May 9, 2011 by 2 Comments


Yoga anyone?

I saw this yogarific statue while wandering around the Rockefeller Center area over the weekend. It reminded me that I’ve been seriously neglecting my flexibility training. Maybe I’ll make time for a yoga class this week.

Also, look at the face. Does it remind you of anyone?

I must have seriously looked like a perv circling around a statue of an uber flexible woman wearing a teeny-tiny bikini, but I kept thinking that she looked familiar. Then it came to me, it’s Kate Moss.

No, seriously, it actually is Kate Moss. Apparently the artist, Marc Quinn has a whole series of Moss inspired yoga statues.

That’s weird, right?

Now I’m feeling all insecure about not having a yoga statue dedicated to me J. But, truth be told most of my time as of late has been spent on a spin bike in preparation for the instructor certification class. Maybe Mr. Quinn would like to sculpt me on a bike, I think I’ll write him a letter and tell him that should happen.

I had a nice weekend with the fam. As a thank you to my mom (and dad) for making me I made them come to Brooklyn for manual labor. They are some lucky folk, let me tell you. In fairness they volunteered. I’ve been nesting lately, and there was one final touch I wanted to make before I considered my bedroom redecoration done…I needed to paint.

I have never had a bedroom that wasn’t white. I’m way more excited about painting than is probably normal. But look, it’s done…



I finally have a grown up bedroom. I don’t think I have any more rooms that need redecorating, it looks like I’ll need a new (hopefully cheaper) mission in life.

I’m off to bed, I start my magazine job tomorrow! Wish me luck J

Breakfast


I had breakfast outside this morning. I’m not sure why I don’t do this more often.
Two eggs, lite whole wheat English muffin, strawberries

Lunch


Watermelon


Bagel thin with ham and Muenster cheese (it was a wee bit burnt)

Dinner

Salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, oven friend chicken, and parmesan peppercorn dressing

I took a crazy hard spin class tonight, it burned 900 calories–that’s unheard of!

Kim

Filed Under: Daily Confessional Tagged With: , ,

Countdown till Carbs

April 18, 2011 by 4 Comments

FYI the South Beach Diet has been around for thousands of years, the Jews invented it, it’s called Passover, and it is my least favorite holiday.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever fully expressed the full extent of my love for carby goodness, but eight days of no bread, pasta, rice, corn or soy derived anything, and legumes pretty much cuts out the majority of my feel good foods. I’m not sure who makes the rules about what is or is not edible, but I imagine that they don’t like me very much. Things are about to get super cranky up in here, because as of sundown it’s officially Passover.

In a way, a very small way that I’m trying to convince myself is awesome, I’m kind of excited. Basically I HAVE to eat cleanly this week. The majority of my junk foodie downfalls are on the do not eat list, this could be a good detox as I kick off operation hottest bridesmaid ever.

Speaking of mission hottest bridesmaid, I found a dress! Thank you all for your opinions and your advice. If you don’t mind I’d love to pass on your words of wisdom to my fellow maids J. Surprisingly, it was the second dress that ended up looking the best on me. I tried on a ton of dresses, but that one was the only one that looked great on me. Go figure. I’m actually really excited about it. Is it normal to be excited about a bridesmaid dress? I am actually pretty sure I could wear it again. Of course, everyone says that, but I really mean it.

Here’s the final outfit:

It’ll probably be a bit darker blue than this photo.

The accompanying footwear. I bought them today and have a feeling it’s going to be really hard to not wear them (re: ruin them) before November

 

I already have a plan of action for the gym based on this dress. Based on the neckline I want to spend some time focusing on building up my deltoid region a bit; and based on the cocktail length, I’ll spend a little more time doing calf exercises. I can’t help it, when I see clothes, I see muscle groups. Tonight, however, was all cardio. Sure, I should have gone to a Sedar (the traditional Passover dinner) but spin class seemed like more fun. It’s all about compromise; I’ll give up bread and pasta in honor of tradition, but I’m not quite ready to give up cardio.

Breakfast


Getting in my last bowl of oatmeal for a while, I threw in a little pineapple and coffee for good measure

Lunch


Panini made with whole wheat pita bread, roasted turkey, tomoto and lite mozzarella
Cucumber slices in balsamic vinegar

Dinner


Leven free dinner: salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, avocado, sunflower seeds, and turkey
Olive oil and vinegar

Kim

Filed Under: Daily Confessional Tagged With: , , , , ,

Winning, Like Charlie Sheen but Saner

April 8, 2011 by 1 Comment

I guess I’ve left you all waiting long enough to find out who won the Supreme 90 Day Giveaway. It was great reading all about your favorite exercise videos. It looks like I’m seriously neglecting my DVD collection by not owning Jillian Michaels’ 30-Day Shred.

I collected all of your comments, Facebook names/comments, Tweets and follows in a spread sheet in the order in which I got them, then used random.org to choose a winner.

And the winner is… [Read more...]

Kim

Filed Under: Daily Confessional Tagged With: , , , , ,

Deep Breaths and Magazine Fitness

April 4, 2011 by 1 Comment

Today I got a call from a recruiter, recruiting me for exactly the position I just left. One half of my brain said, “Ooh, a steady paycheck and health benefits. How exciting!” the other half threw a temper tantrum along the lines of “Whhhaaaaa, I don’t wanna go back!”

In this particular instance I’m more likely to listen to the temper tantrum side. Since leaving my day job I’ve been sooo much happier. Sure, I’ve had my stressful moments, but even those seem more manageable.

When I tried this a couple of years ago I was so scared of  my lack of security that I clawed my way right back into the world I was so excited to leave. I feel a lot more confident in my ability to make things work on my own terms now. I’m realistic and know that feeling may not last forever, but I’m willing to stand my ground while it does. So far I’m doing okay.

I’m going to have to keep reminding myself of this, because I’m pretty sure that once my health insurance bill shows up I’m going to have a minor heart attack (which will of course make me feel better about paying it).

Being grown up is scary. How come no one mentioned this back in the fourth grade?

One of the best parts of my new schedule is that it allows me to workout midday. The very awesometastic folks at Crunch read about my plight: not having access to spin classes before I re-certify as a Spin instructor, and have gifted me a membership to help me prepare! How totally amazing is that? I’m not just saying this because they’re currently my cardiovascular sugar daddy, but I’ve always loved Crunch gyms–they have amazing classes, and the (now non-existent) Crunch in Boston was where I first started Spinning, and where I really first started working out. Ooey-gooey warm feelings.

Anyhoo, I had an appointment in the early AM that left me rushing around like a whackadoo and eating my breakfast on the subway (gross!), but landed me about 40 seconds away from the gym. It’s funny, I haven’t run on a treadmill in a while; I used to love it, but I was seriously bored today. I decided to break my run up: 15-minutes pre weights, 15-minutes post weights. It broke up the monotony. I’m sort of glad the gym was mostly empty at that hour because I was totally walking around with the new specialty issue of Oxygen Magazine, trying out one of their weight routines. I probably looked ridiculous holding a magazine with one hand and a dumbbell with the other, but they have really good routines.

It says 28-days, but inside there are 3-months’ worth of routines.

This wasn’t the workout I was doing, they get harder as the months go by, and I’m on month one. There are no barbells yet, which is good; I need to work up to barbells emotionally J

I’m glad I got my workout in early because I spent the rest of the day feeling crappy and enjoying the wonders of Netflix.

 

Breakfast


Breakfast on the go: hard boiled egg and peach yogurt

Lunch


Brown rice pasta with broccoli, shrimp, and spaghetti sauce

Snack


Banana and almonds

Dinner


Chicken meatloaf (the word meatloaf wigs me out, the meatloaf itself was actually quite good), mashed cauliflower (I love this stuff!), steamed carrots

Kim

Filed Under: Daily Confessional Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
«Older Posts