I’m Going to Wanderlust

IMAGE CREDIT // AbbeyLey

My friends Glenna, Sharon and I have been talking about going to the Wanderlust Festival since early this year.  We all met years ago doing marathons with Team in Training, so to say we’re all pretty active and athletic is an understatement.  While we all enjoy yoga, I wouldn’t describe us as die-hard yogis.  I haven’t been able to go as often as I used to now that I’m Crossfitting.  Glenna and Sharon however both practice yoga as supplements to their current race training.

This past week we finally booked the trip and made it official.  I’m so excited!  We all went out for dinner on Monday and decided on activities to book together, which include Ashtanga (my personal favorite style of yoga), paddle boarding, sunset hikes, lectures, and even hip-hop yoga!  There also should be some yummy vegan eats according to the event’s website.

We’re making it a long weekend and leaving Thursday evening after work, doing the festival on Friday and Saturday, and on Sunday exploring the town and later leaving that afternoon.  The weather in June should make for a perfect road trip, and from what I hear the scenery in Vermont is not to be missed.  I’ve never been to Vermont so I’m really looking forward to it.

Are you going to Wanderlust?  If so, let me know.  Maybe I’ll see you there!

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Crazy About Crossfit

image: www.thrustr.tumblr.com

I fairly recently changed up my workout routine and have been doing Crossfit. For those of you unfamiliar with Crossfit, here’s the definition per the official website.

CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide.

Our program delivers a fitness that is, by design, broad, general, and inclusive. Our specialty is not specializing. Combat, survival, many sports, and life reward this kind of fitness and, on average, punish the specialist.

The CrossFit program is designed for universal scalability making it the perfect application for any committed individual regardless of experience. We’ve used our same routines for elderly individuals with heart disease and cage fighters one month out from televised bouts. We scale load and intensity; we don’t change programs.

The needs of Olympic athletes and our grandparents differ by degree not kind. Our terrorist hunters, skiers, mountain bike riders and housewives have found their best fitness from the same regimen.

Thousands of athletes worldwide have followed our workouts posted daily on this site and distinguished themselves in combat, the streets, the ring, stadiums, gyms and homes.

By the description, I know it sounds really intimidating and I’m not going to lie, it’s not an easy program. In fact, I waltzed into the “intro” class figuring it would be a cakewalk due to working out regularly and being a fixture at my gym. Boy was I wrong. The intro class knocked me on my ass. Though I near wanted to vomit, I was instantly hooked and signed up for the On-Ramp program.

On-Ramp is a mandatory beginner program you have to take before you start the standard classes. In On-Ramp, they review all the highly technical Olympic weightlifting moves as well as proper form for standard calisthenics like push ups and squats. I started in October and my On-Ramp finished up the end of that month. Ever since, I’ve been going to the standard classes three to four times a week.

image: www.list09.com

My favorite part of the program by far is the olympic style lifting. I love how highly technical it is. There’s also something extremely satisfying about being able to lift weight that’s heavier than what you believe you can.

So far, the results have been nothing short of amazing. initially, I didn’t lose weight. I gained close to 10 pounds which I believe was all muscle. Issue though was suddenly none of my clothes fit (hence, no outfit posts recently). So although I was getting crazy strong and fit, I was living in leggings and anything stretchy being nothing, even my dresses fit. I was in near tears this past New Years after the realization only one of my dresses fit appropriately enough to wear out in public.

On January 2nd my box (Crossfit lingo for “gym”) launched a 6 week Paleo challenge. Paleo and vegan usually do not mix, but all in all my box is really supportive of it’s vegan community so for that aspect I’m really lucky. I’m not going to get too into Paleo or the challenge right now being I have enough to say about it to warrant its own post, but let’s just say participating in the Paleo challenge has taken my Crossfit performance to another level. I’ve increased most of my lifts anywhere between 15-20 pounds and my fitness levels have sored. I’ve also started to get really lean. Remember those 10 pounds I put on? They’re now gone plus some more as well as inches. And it’s been less than 6 weeks! So vegans, don’t dismiss Paleo! There are ways to do it and stay vegan, which I’ll share later in another post.

So the box’s Paleo challenge included eating foods approved on the program along with doing the popular Angie workout at the start of the challenge and then again after. This is to test to see how much your fitness has progressed. You also have to commit to having before and after photos taken. The challenge ends for me this Wednesday, so stay tuned for another post on my results along with easy ways to eat Paleo and vegan.

Needless to say, I’m now somewhat obsessed with Crossfit. Expect to see it as a regular feature on the blog as I progress with my training. I need another outlet besides boring Jim to death talking about it all the time!

Do you Crossfit? If so, I’d love to hear about it! I’d also love to hear any feedback my readers may have on posts you’d like to see on Crossfit as well, so if you have any suggestions hit me up.

Color Run NYC

 

I am so excited to have gotten a spot in the NYC Color Run 5k!!! I had heard about this race a while ago and have patiently been waiting for them to release the info on the much anticipated NYC run dates and registration. When I finally received the notice registration had opened, I immediately signed up. Good thing I did, the Saturday run sold out within the hour!

I’ve run lots of races ranging from marathons, half marathons, 10k’s and more. This one looks way more fun than anything I’ve ever done before. You start off the race wearing all white and totally clean. By the time you end the race, you’re covered head to toe in a rainbow of colored powder!

There still may be slots available for the Sunday run, and you can register by clicking here. If you got a slot for the Saturday race, be sure to say hi if you see me, I’ll be there!

Vegan Manicures

Probably the only really girly thing I like to go do is get a mani-pedi.  I always feel way more put together when my nails are done.  It’s weird.  Otherwise I’m pretty much a total tomboy.  My clothes need to feel like pajamas and my makeup and hair can’t take longer than five minutes.

Even before going vegan, it’s always concerned me how many chemicals are used in nail care products.  Most all the self-care products I use are organic and vegan.  Though there are a few salons in NYC that offer organic vegan manicures, like the Green Spa, they’re a bit out of the way for me to make it a normal occurence.  So instead over the past several months I’ve been searching for eco-friendly vegan nail products I could use at home to do my mani-pedis myself.

I was so excited to see the Time Out New York Vegan Style Guide listed a new bath and body shop in my neighborhood called Skinny Skinny.  After checking out their website, I saw they stock the full line of Priti NYC nail products.  I could get not only vegan, chemical free nail polish but also nail polish remover!  Score!

This past weekend while walking the dog with my hubby we passed the store and I ran in quick to pick up a few things.  I got two polish colors.  I allowed my husband to pick out one he’d like to see me wear (and he picked bright, florescent neon pink), and I picked out silver.  Ever since seeing Andy’s silver manicure on her blog this past week I’ve been obsessed with it.  I also picked up Priti NYC’s soy based polish remover.

Sunday night I went ahead and gave myself my first mani-pedi in ages.  I was beyond happy with the results as well as the quality of these awesome, eco and vegan friendly nail products.  They were super easy to use and apply and I didn’t even really need a base or top coat.

I’m totally planninng on stocking up on a variety of their polishes so I can change up my manicure look more often.  What are your favorite nail colors for spring?  Any suggestions on colors for me to pick up?