Power breakfast

I've been getting to work early recently in order to make it in time for...

breakfast!

The office cafeteria serves warm breakfast until 9:30 every morning.

My fave:
- egg whites
- avocado
- Greek yogurt with granola and berries

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!

Speedball Sunday

Every Sunday, when I can manage to get up before 9:30am, I go speedball class.

Speedball is a great combination of cardio and muscular endurance, and I get a great workout every time I go. It's a challenging workout where you hold a medicine ball throughout the class for 45 minutes. It really works your core, and I'm usually sore for a day or two afterwards.

Here's a glimpse into the class.

I like to go to the class on Sundays to let any leftover stress out of my body before the weekend ends, and to make sure my body is tired enough to go to sleep at the end of the day in preparation for the work week.

Today, I went to the class, then consumed all the calories I'd burned in class by going out for crepes and mimosas with a friend in Chelsea afterwards. Hope you all enjoyed the weekend!

Zen Saturday

I spent almost 7 hours today at Loop of the Loom, a saori weaving studio in the Upper East Side in Manhattan. Saori is a zen weaving methodology, where nothing is wrong: there are no rules, and you can express yourself however way you choose to. I needed this break after a stressful week at work and after hearing about the news of the crisis in Japan.

I decided to go with a warm, red theme today, with a sunrise in mind.

This is what the finished product looks like:


The plan is to use this as a table runner or a decoration for a few months, and to sew this into a cardigan or shawl when fall comes. I recommend saori to anyone that like arts and crafts -- you'll be able to create a beautiful piece of art in a few hours!

Eating my heart out Friday

I woke up this morning to the terrible news about the crisis in Japan. In between my meetings and highest priority meetings today, I spent much of the day trying to track down my family and friends in Japan and gathering information through Twitter and Google.

Stress makes me eat.

This was my lunch from the cafeteria:

By dinner time, I had gotten confirmation that most of my friends and family were fine. I met up with my friend for dinner at Little Owl, a cute restaurant in Greenwich Village. It's difficult to get reservations there, so we were psyched. This is what we ordered:

• bibb & beets -- salad with yellow beets garnished with pumpkin seeds
  
• gravy meatball sliders
• grilled arctic char
• side of mushrooms and asparagus
• apple crisp with ice cream

We closed the night with lattes at Cafe Angelique. Too bad we were too full for another dessert! Cafe Angelique has delicious sweets to much on.

I walked home thinking how lucky I am to be able to live a life like this in New York City.

Visit the American Red Cross website to make donations to support the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Zen at work

My shoulders have been tense recently. The pain has eased a little since I started personal training, but increased hours at work have countered the positive effects of building up muscle.

In order to help the situation, I got a massage today at work. It's great that there are certified massage therapists at work!

TRX training

Yesterday, I talked about how I've been doing a few different things to de-stress, including working out regularly with a personal trainer and workout buddy. A few weeks ago, I started working with a trainer for the first time in close to 2 years.

What sold me on the idea of working with a trainer?

TRX.

To those of you who haven't done this before, this is what TRX suspension training could look like:


For me, TRX is a great workout for my core and upper body. My trainer has a background in dance, yoga, and pilates in addition to TRX, and we've been working well together. My abs and arms are still sore from this morning's workout! It's tough getting up before 6am to get to the gym, but I think (I hope!) I'll be thankful when beach season comes.

Zen weaving

My job can be stressful at times, and the hours can be long. Since I started a new job a month ago, the last few weeks have been especially intense. In order to keep myself sane and happy, I've been doing a few things:

• work out regularly with a trainer and work out buddy
• get massages
• check out new restaurants in NYC
  
• spend quality time with friends

Today, I added to this list with a phone call to Loop of the Loom, a hand-weaving studio that specializes in Saori, a Zen art. I reserved a loom for six straight hours on Saturday so that I could weave in peace, away from computers and TV's.

This is my creation from last year (not the sheep, the scarf).


I'm looking forward to a peaceful Saturday away from modern technology.

What should I weave? I'm thinking either a chunky scarf in shades of blue or grey, or a light, spring scarf in shades of light grey and white with a touch of silver. Any ideas?

Dinner at Work Monday

I left the office today at 5:45pm in order to meet my trainer for a personal training session. I took my laptop with me, since I had unfinished work that needed to be done by the tomorrow. By the time I got out of the gym at 8pm, I was exhausted and did not feel like taking my heavy laptop home with me.

So I decided to... go back to work.

Yes, that makes a ton of sense. I felt too tired to carry the laptop home with me, so I decided to work in the office instead. What a lovely life I lead.

Before opening up all my spreadsheets, I ran to the cafeteria at work to grab dinner. This is what I had today:

- arctic char
- butternut squash
- edamame salad with carrots
- grilled califlower

Not bad for cafeteria dinner, eh?

Now, off to finish off some calculations!

Meatball Sunday

One of my favorite places to eat in New York is The Meatball Shop on the Lower East Side. It's a small, casual restaurant that serves delicious meatballs and dessert. With the tagline "We make balls" and items on their menus like naked balls, the place drives fun (and R-rated) conversations whenever I go.

Since we were a group of six arriving on a Sunday afternoon, we had to wait for 40 minutes to be seated (the restaurant doesn't take reservations), but the food was worth the wait as usual. I feasted on the daily special naked balls with spicy meat sauce. Today's special was steak, bacon and cheddar. Steak AND bacon. Can't go wrong there.


I was pretty full by the time I finished the meatballs and sides (kale with sofrito, broccoli, and mashed potatoes) but I had to order dessert. The Meatball Shop's ice cream sandwiches are to die for! I've stopped by in the past just to get dessert. I picked out a chocolate chip cookie and brownie cookie with mint ice cream (with real mint leaves!) to finish up my meal.


A great way to end the weekend!