The Bus Climbs the Mountain for Me...

Today I took the bus because I didn't feel like climbing the mountains home. It made me think of how much lazier I have become since I moved here in January. In a lot of ways I have my act together but when it comes to forcing myself to walk home my motivation is a little lacking lately. This little act of taking the bus is such a slippery slope. Now I know that maybe that seems a little dramatic but its important to realize that thats how it starts, one little change in the routine at a time. By pushing yourself even when you don't want to you gain a sense of accomplishment when you've completed it. Back to the mountains for example, when I finally make it to the top, even though it is usually panting, sweaty, and gross, I still feel like I climbed a small mountain for mankind!

So on that note I am going to make a concerted effort to walk home each night no matter how exhausted I am. Each of those walks uphill add up and really make a difference in the long run and the time outside is really important as well. I mean today was a beautiful day and I still didn't walk home and enjoy the sunshine! So come on San Francisco, climb those mountains with me!

Mmmmm.... H20

I know, I know... People are always saying that "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" or that you should drink 8 glasses of water every single day. Recently I have been trying to drink more water since I know that I should be with all this running and working out. So for the last month I have been carrying my lime green Nalgene around with me that says "Refill not Landfill" pretty much everywhere I go... In fact when I left it at the Zumba place I headed back and around and made sure to grab it up again. The point of this rambling post is that if you start carrying around a re-fillable water bottle (better for the environment) with you everywhere and make it part of your routine. By keeping it with you you will inevitably start drinking more water and its amazing how one day you will see how much better you feel because of it, or at least thats how it works for me.

Here is a little bit of info I've gleaned from the world wide web about why we need to drink more water. Our bodies are made up of 60-70% water which helps regulate our body temperatures. It also helps carry the nutrients that we get from that apple a day throughout our entire body. This is especially important when you are an active individual because you need those nutrients to fuel your body so that you can find your limits and push past them. 

Basically the moral of the story is drink more water!

Presenting!... Crunch

I have been a member of Crunch pretty much since I moved here and have to admit that I love and hate the place. I mean, the space is incredible because it is a renovated theater where they play movies on a big screen, the mood lighting makes it seem cooler, and there really is a great energy about the place. Not only are there a lot of beautiful people running around but there are some really interesting and friendly people on staff. When I first moved to San Francisco in January I made friends with a lot of the people that work there and its still great to go in there where they shout my name wrong as a running joke.... I used to wonder if it was really a joke until they started saying it right occasionally...

However, despite how much I have developed relationships with these people and how much better that makes my gym experience, I have some issues. While the space is unique and interesting the equipment is just old. A lot of the machines are just not up to the standards that the $80.00 a month membership requires. The equipment if just not up to par and they need to spend some time updating it or lower the price of membership. They also need to focus on the locker room/bathrooms. I think I have seen only about 5 people use the showers as a space where they can get ready for wherever they need to go. In general most people are like me where they plan to go back to their apartment to shower and get dressed even though they will be walking straight back to Polk when done.

That being said when they have a class going on the place really does come alive. I find that even if I am not taking a class I still push harder because of the energy that seems to radiate throughout the place. Its incredible to see and I think it even beats my theory that when there are action movies on people work out harder (@ least I do!). So despite my frustrations with the equipment I still think it is a great place to go and every time I get a huge welcome from all the people that work there it holds me accountable so that I show up again!

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution...

For all of you out there reading I want to encourage you to support Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. I have started to follow what he is doing and its truly inspirational. He is giving an outside perspective on America's health problems and starting from one small town and working towards the bigger, scary goal that is the whole of United States.

Those of you that aren't aware of what I am talking about here is a little synopsis. Jamie Oliver is better known as the Naked Chef and he has made his way to Huntington, West Virginia. Huntington was named the most unhealthy town in America but there are so many health problems across the country, it could have been any other town. I'm not saying that this show and revolution is going to fix all of problems that we have but I do think that it is going to make a difference. There are so many children that grow up with processed foods and believing that that is the way they are supposed to eat. The children don't know any better and basically we are killing them because we are teaching them bad habits that will shorten their lifespan. And the lives that they will be living will be less satisfying and filled with unnecessary trials. So take a look at the link: http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution/petition and sign the petition or make a donation to start the food revolution and help make a change for the future.

Oh my, I love Pomelos...

This weekend was wonderful and involved baby goats at the farmers' market and a lot of sunshine. What I am even more excited about than the big hunk of fresh goat cheese I have already started to delve into is my discovery of the pomelo. The pomelo is basically a massive grapefruit about the size of my head that is sweet and delicious... so basically you don't need to add the massive amounts of sugar you do to the normal grapefruit. However Morgan, my new friend and introducer of the pomelo, said that the health benefits were the same as that of the grapefruit. So I decided to look into what exactly the health benefits are and why so many are willing to force down what we all know can be bitter and nasty (the bitter and nasty thing being the grapefruit and not the sweet/delicious pomelo).

Heres the skinny:

• Vitamin C, a must for all of us growing boys and girls
• Helps lower cholesterol which everyone needs to watch out for 
• This could be stretching it but it has nutrients that prolong lifespan
• Drinking 8 oz of grapefruit juice or eating half a grapefruit a day blocks enzymes and speeds up the way our bodies burn fat
• Fights cold symptoms for anyone else out there that is as perpetually ill as I am
• Can help prevent heart disease which is always a good thing
• And this magic fruit also helps prevent certain types of cancer

Now who wouldn't want to add a grapefruit a day to their life? Oh wait... me, because they are way too bitter for my addicted-to-sweets taste buds. And since my solution has arrived with the mild and delicious pomelo I could not be more excited. So here are a couple tips for buying a pomelo: you want it to be super dense (aka heavy for its size) and it should have a fragrant sweet smell. (I told you I only had a couple...) Anyway I found mine at the farmers' market and on a sunny day and I suggest you do the same because it made it taste all the better!

The Method is in the Bar....

For about a month in Pasadena I did the BarMethod and after a couple months back in San Francisco I decided to go for it again. When I started in Pasadena I noticed a change in my whole body. As a curvy girl I felt like the definition I've been working on for years was finally coming through and that I was on my way towards a leaner me. However since I moved to San Francisco pretty much jobless it was a little outside of my price range as it runs a little higher than most.

After a couple months I checked the pricing over and over hoping that the price was magically going to lower and then all of a sudden it did! They have a new auto-renewal package that is only $165 (down from $220!). So I am now into my second month back at the BarMethod and I can now reach past my toes to the ground, easily get my leg up on that bar, and feel like I am constantly pushing my body to the limits. In fact I am going tomorrow afternoon before I head to work at lululemon athletica (its going to be an over the top day with TRX and BarMethod but I am so ready!... I think)

So I was trying to figure out why it is that I love the BarMethod so much besides the fab-figure I'm working on. It mixes pilates and ballet to elongate your muscles and adds the breathing and relaxation of yoga. My favorite part is at the end after you have tucked your booty as much as it can be tucked and you sit up after stretching out your legs, and just breath. Deep breaths that are so refreshing with calming music and mood lighting... I am pretty sure that from the minute I walk into that room I am waiting for those last couple minutes of just relaxing.

TRX + Me = Interesting...

On Wednesday I finally made it to TRX... I may or may not have slept in last week when I meant to go but like I said, you can't beat yourself up about it. So I walked down there thinking that the video looked intense and this could be pretty scary for the uncoordinated person that I am. I show up, the straps are hanging all around the room like some torture session and I'm thinking to myself that this could get interesting...

We start off with a warm up and its basically going through some of the simpler steps and getting the feel of working with the TRX bands. Alexis, the instructor, was great in helping me figure out how to move the straps around so that they are even and that way you don't end up lopsided throughout the routines. (And I'm not just saying that because she said she would check out my blog....) Also by placing your feet in different spots you can challenge yourself so that you can always push yourself to the next level and you won't get bored. And if you were getting bored and if you had been in my class you would have seen me practically fall over and laughing about a third of the time....

Despite that, all in all I was sweating, having fun, and I felt that by the end I had had a great workout. It is really a great class if you like to work out with a friend and you are at different levels because you just move your feet around and no one has to be the wiser if you're taking it a little easier on yourself... I am planning on going tomorrow morning and hopefully my muscles will be slightly less stiff...I have been looking for a class that is similar to a boot camp in that you get some cardio as well as work on those guns!

Zumba!

I chose to add the image to the right because I think it is hilarious.... granted not as hilarious as watching me and my friend Joanna actually Zumba, but close. This was my second Zumba experience and I have to say I love it! The steps are easy (for most people), the energy is high, and the workout is great. You sweat through the whole thing and shake your booty hopefully to the rhythm but as long as you have a smile on your face who cares? This workout is more about letting your work day, week, or month go and having fun. I think that Joanna and I are going to make this a weekly exercise date, I'm not sure if it will always be Zumba but I am pretty sure it will be a blast.

Has anyone out there tried Zumba or are you interested in trying it? The best place to go is zumba.com because it shows you all the classes for every day of the week and time around your zip code. So now there is no excuse, get out there and Zumba!

The Biggest Loser...

 So I just got back from a Zumba class which I will talk about in another post but I sat down and started watching the Biggest Loser pretty much right as I get home. This show inspires me every season and helps re-motivate me when I get down on my workouts..... which happens more often than I care to admit. Its all about not getting upset with yourself and getting back on track because when you get down and angry at yourself then your missing the reason why you workout. I workout to be healthy, feel powerful and sexy, and also because it is how I conquered my own weight goals.

Until about 14 years old I had a health problem. I was about 220 lbs and, granted, I was a tall girl but lets get real, a girl in the 200s in her early teens? Not healthy. I can remember the day when I went to the doctor and he said that I had cholesterol problems and needed to lose weight. This was at the physical we had to have for freshmen year of high school. High school, I had even entered the scariest time of most young girls lives where they are thrown into the hormonal and judgmental years that most people have years of therapy to get over. Well mine an even more unique experience as I went to an all girls Catholic boarding school.

Once I made it to Santa Catalina I felt like I didn't fit in. You could literally count the girls that didn't have Barbie as a role model and sadly I was one of them. That is not where I hit the "ah-ha" moment however because I didn't see myself as any different from the girls around me... or at least not the point where I was. In fact, I even gained another 10 lbs to get to the ripe number of 220 after my grandfather passed away my first month there.

Then January 1st hit and I decided to make a change. I'm not sure what the exact moment was but I felt that I needed to change my life. I wasn't going to be in the back seat and I just made the decision an started working out. I threw myself wholeheartedly into being healthy and never looked back. It was never "Am I going to work out today?" but "When am I going to work out today?" In fact I got so into working out that I spent all of my downtime, after homework was done of course, watching DVDs and became a huge movie fan. I don't think it was until college where I found that balance of how to integrate working out, career, and a social life all into one. Each time I move around or go on vacation it always takes me sometime to readjust and refocus on what is important to me. I am now in that stage and am working on creating that balance here in San Francisco. Some weeks are going to be better than others but just knowing that I always figure it out eventually and that the people on the Biggest Loser can do just keeps me going.

So to end this longer than usual post, I ask you to get out there and try a class or just do something that you haven't done before.

TRX Training Center

Tomorrow morning I am going all out for my first TRX class. I have my brother's wedding coming up so it is pretty much time to keep on my marathon goal and get on it.... plus tomorrow is day 2 of the bridesmaid dress hunt! I am very excited and feeling pumped to try something new. It is so important to mix things up and push yourself to the limits to find out what you're made of. Granted if they have me doing the position in the first photo to the left.... that could be interesting. However this seems like a very dynamic exercise with a lot of different challenges, my main one being balance so cross your fingers!

Just breathe....

This past Wednesday night we hosted a yoga and wellness seminar at our lululemon athletica Grant avenue store. It was very educational and also gave me a chance to breathe. The focus of the seminar was on taking the time to check in with your body. With all of the work I have been doing and trying to squeeze in runs with Bar Method and normal gym time, it was great to just look inside and feel my breath. I really suggest closing your eyes, taking deep breaths, and just focusing on your breathing. It just makes you feel centered and relaxed. I am so excited for the next on Wednesday night!