143.

No, not I love you. Although I do.

143 is the weight I saw when I hopped on the scale yesterday, meaning I’ve gained about five pounds.

I mentioned it to a friend at happy hour last night and realized when I said it out loud, that really, five pounds isn’t all that much. And it’s not. And it still puts me in a healthy weight range for my height.

But considering that I put on a lot of weight in my early 20s by “eh, it’s just five pounds,” over and over again, I want to nip any weight gain in the bud. I know it’s a slippery slope for me.

I also stubbornly thought that once I’d beat that weight-loss thing, I’d be done. I say stubbornly, not naively, because I know how biologically hard it is to lose weight and keep it off. But I was—and still am—determined to not be that statistic.

139 was my goal weight of a 50-pound weight loss, and for the past two years, I’ve been hovering somewhere between 136-139. 140 was the line I drew in the sand for the weight I wouldn’t surpass.

Gratuitous beach photo to break up otherwise serious post.

If I were otherwise happy with my body right now, I’d care a lot less about that number on the scale, honestly. But the number on the scale and the unhappiness about my flabby abs is obviously directly correlated. I also went to put on a pair of jeans for my New Balance event the other night and a few pairs of my jeans were way too snug to comfortably wear. I felt like a fraud representing a fitness brand when I didn’t feel so fit myself.

I’ve been making a real effort to clean up my meals, but I know exactly where the other calories are sneaking in—and what’s lacking.

In pretty list format:

Sneaky Calories:

• Lattes/soy mistos: I feel like dieting healthy eating 101 is not to drink your calories, right? And I know better than to get all those sugary “coffee” drinks or drink soda or other sugary drinks, but there’s a Starbucks in my office building, and their regular coffee is way too strong for my weak jerk of a stomach, so I’ve been getting soy lattes or soy mistos in the morning. Yum, but each of those have 100 calories or more.
• Nuts. Okay, duh, nuts are high in fat/calories, but they’re good fats, right? Well, no good-for-you food (except maybe lettuce?) is good for you if you eat too much of it. I have no concept of portion control when it comes to nuts, and I remain especially powerless in the face of my favorite trail mix from Trader Joe’s—the almonds, cashews and dark chocolate one. I have a thing of almonds at my desk at work, and until last week, I always kept a bag of that trail mix in my fridge, and I graze mindlessly at both.
• Dark chocolate: I always have a thing of dark chocolate in my fridge, and I will walk past and break off a square without thinking.
• Wine: I love wine (and beer), but after a glass or two, I’ve been having a hard time saying no to bar food.

None of those things above are that bad on their own (err, except for maybe bar food), but combined, quite a few more calories are sneaking in.

And the below are lacking:

Greens. I just don’t have enough.

Fruits. Again, I just don’t have enough. Nuts aren’t a bad snack, but they would be more balanced if I had some fruit with them.

So, here’s to more fruits and veggies and less drinking calories and letting the small indulgences add up.

If you’ve lost a lot of weight, have you been able to keep it off?

Original Article

New Balance Fall Preview and the Return of the Tempo

First of all, apologies if you saw a version of this earlier. I meant to save as a draft, but published by accident.

Yesterday, I had an awesome client event. New Balance had their fall press preview, and I worked at it for a few hours.

We showed quite a few lines of shoes, but there was one that I was dying to try—the RC 1600s.

First of all, they’re GORGEOUS. I value my knees and not injuring them, so I don’t pick my shoes based on looks, but these are one good-looking pair of shoes.

And they’re made for marathoners. They’re racing shoes built for people racing distances anywhere up to 26.2. (It just so happens I’ll be doing that again in October!) They’re lightweight (less than 5 ounces) and have a shorter heel-to-toe drop.

I have never worn racing shoes before, and honestly, I’m not sure if I ever would have bought them, but I decided to take them out on a tempo run this morning. One mile warm-up, two miles tempo (8:20, 7:56!), one mile cool-down.

They were awesome. The first mile it felt a bit odd wearing such a light shoe with a thin sole, but after that, it felt great. I could definitely feel how a lighter shoe helped my legs power through.

The tempo run was also amazing, too. So far, so good on my #RWrunstreak. 4 for 4. For the past few months, I’ve had no desire to do any sort of speed work at all, but knowing I’m starting marathon training next month, I’m starting to add it back in to prepare my body for what’s to come. (Dear body: a lot of running. Some of it as fast as you possibly can.)

We also showed the RC 5000s—the lightest shoe ever. The women’s version weighs 2.7 ounces!

They’re made for short-distance racing and speed workouts. (And are also gorgeous.)

Do you (or would you ever) wear racing shoes?

Original Article

Orange You Glad…

…this isn’t a post about Reach the Beach?

I had so much fun, but it’s nice to get back to regular blogging. Sort of. I leave for a fabulous long weekend at the beach TONIGHT! I’m going to the Outer Banks with friends—for the fifth Memorial Day in a row—and driving down to DC tonight and OBX tomorrow.

I’m really excited to collapse on the beach tomorrow, because I feel like I’m still catching up from sleep from last weekend. I’ve been a complete fail at waking up to work out, but I still managed to get a good workout in Tuesday night and last night.

Tuesday, I did 20 minutes of super-sweaty intervals on the Stairmaster, and last night I had a lovely run while out at my parents’.

The Stairmaster is something I did often while losing weight, and I forgot what a good workout it is. I mean, hoisting your body weight over and over again for 20 minutes is no joke.

Last night, I went out to my parents’ to borrow a car to drive down to the Outer Banks. I hadn’t woken up in time to work out before work yesterday, so I told my mom that as soon as I got home, I was going to run. I didn’t give myself or her a choice. Once I walked in the door, I dropped my bags and immediately changed into my workout clothes, because I knew I wouldn’t otherwise do it.

There’s a huge hill coming out of their street, and I tackled it head-on. After running on hilly terrain all last weekend, I was far less afraid of tackling hills. Tuesday’s tough-but-awesome workout reminded me that I need to push myself more in my workouts than I have been lately, so after that first tough mile, I kept picking it up.

I came back, and my mom had an awesome dinner of scallops, sweet potatoes and spinach for me.

So, a few weeks ago, I said I really wanted to lose a few pounds before going to the beach this weekend. Three weeks later, and the scale’s only down a pound and I tried on a bikini last night and was still really unhappy with what I saw. I’m disappointed in myself, but at least I feel like I’m making progress.

Save for this week, I’m back in a much better workout routine. I’ve introduced strength training back into my life. It’s no longer as much a puzzle to get my workouts in, making me wonder how I thought it was so hard just a few months ago, as my schedule hasn’t gotten any lighter.

And now that the routine is back, I’m craving the intensity. I want the hard workouts, not just because they will make me thinner (which they will, if I don’t eat back everything I burned…), but because I miss pushing myself.

But I’m ready.

(Which is great, because I have a marathon coming up that I’m coming for.)

I’m back in a better place than I’ve been lately, and I’m ready to kick ass.

I’ve had a great week at work, and considering that last year as I left for OBX, I knew I was probably going to get laid off the week after (and I did..), I am just really thankful to be employed at all, much less at a rewarding job.

Tonight I’ll be driving to DC and tomorrow, down to OBX.

I have a feeling I’ll be talked into another long bike ride, so I’m sure I’ll be back at some point with another post.

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND! Are you doing anything fun?

Original Article

Inside the New Balance Factory and Sports Research Lab

So this is one of my last Reach the Beach-related posts…probably. There’s a few more things about the race still on my mind that I may blog about, but I’ll at least spare you a few days!

One of the other really cool things we did was go on a tour of the New Balance factory in Lawrence, Mass.—about 40 minutes outside of Boston.

While this tour would have been interesting to me just as a blogger who was interested in running, it also held special meaning to me for a few other reasons.

First of all, they’re my client, so it was completely invaluable to learn more about the background of the company I’m working with. The past six months, I’ve loved working on this account, but seeing the factory in person really brought it all to life and made me feel even more connected with NB.

Secondly, until recently, my dad owned a textile factory in NJ, despite most of his competition going over to China—so New Balance’s commitment to American manufacturing really makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

The facility in Lawrence we went to is one of New Balance’s five U.S. factories. The company is committed to manufacturing 25 percent of its shoes in the U.S—which is 25 percent more than any other American running shoe company.

While this is obviously good for keeping jobs here, it also helps the company because its retail partners can maintain a lower inventory at any time, since the shoes aren’t coming as far. It also means that if you customize 990s or 993s online, you can get them on your doorstep within a week.

Sarah made a very important phone call from the lobby before our tour started.

Safety first—we had to wear these safety goggles and closed-toed shoes.

And…yeah. Our New Balance and RTB friends quickly realized what a pack of bloggers means: lots of “can you take a picture with my camera?”

[photo via Jack at pixelwiremedia.com / rtbrelay.com]

The shoes’ uppers are constructed from synthetics and pigskin sourced from Maine and cut by hand.

They are cut down, and then the Ns are sewn on. (The shoes we saw being made are the 990s, the company’s heritage shoe.)

The upper is then formed before the sole is put on. Once the sole is put on, the shoe is put in heat to form the shape. It’s then put through a metal detector to make sure there are no pieces of metal in the shoe.

Ta-da!

In this factory, the 990, 812 walking shoe and 706 walking shoe are produced. (Walking is a big market for New Balance’s U.S.-made shoes.)

I also thought the corporate culture I saw in the factory was really interesting.

Every year, each associate is responsible for coming up with a problem-solving idea, which is then displayed on this wall.

There was also this poster on the eight deadly wastes, one of which is “unused associate creativity.” The company really values the contributions of everyone.

After the tour, we went down to the Sports Research Lab, which interacts with and tests athletes from high school athletes and runners from local running clubs to elite Team New Balance runners.

It was really freaking cool. We started off trying out a device that measures how your foot distributes weight, aka the loading rate.

You step on this…

And it spits out this graph, which also shows your arches. It can’t show height, but it shoes whether they’re long or not. I think this graph is Sarah’s feet, but they said my arches were long. (Probably because I’m a bigfoot.)

Afterwards, they split us into three groups and rotated us among the stations.

We started off with the Glass Top Kistler Force Plate, which measures the forces people apply to the ground in all directions while a camera below the plate captures the foot landing. It’s one of the only glass top force plates in the United States.

I first walked over it and then ran over it.

The initial bump in this graph shows that I heel-struck a bit, but not too dramatically.

They had tons of competitors’ shoes to test.

Next, we went into the Smash Lab.

We learned that the more firm the foam, basically the more it protects your foot and leg. He showed us with a softer foam, and we saw the machine hit the foam harder and leave an indent. The stiffer foam absorbed more of the impact and didn’t leave an indent.

This MTS Mini Bionix System applies force and torque to simulate an athlete’s use of the shoe. It can replicate 6-8 weeks of wear in two to three days.

This machine measures traction, and how much force it takes to move the foot within the shoe.

[via Monica]

Next, we got to run on a treadmill to measure gait. Even for 30 seconds, running without a sports bra was…interesting.

DO YOU SEE THAT MIDFOOT STRIKE? It is a thing of beauty.

They explained, though, that it’s much easier to not heel-strike barefoot—hence the whole barefoot running trend and their Minimus line.

But still. I’m going to pretend I just have a pretty midfoot strike like that.

Finally, we learned about perception testing.

Do you see his weird goggles? We all have subconscious (and conscious) brand preferences. They found that if they brought in runners who were used to, say, Brooks, and asked them to try on a Brooks and a New Balance, if they could see them, they’d always pick Brooks. They also noticed that some people would always choose the shoe on their right foot, no matter what. So they started using these googles so their testers couldn’t see their feet.

They suggested, that if you’re trying on a few different pairs of shoes, to not just try one on each foot, but to switch the shoe on each foot so you don’t select the shoe you’re naturally biased towards.

And that’s it! Our tour concluded in their factory store, where I ended up buying the skirt I wore on my last leg. #thingsidontneed #notevenalittlebit

If you could go inside any company’s office/factory, what company would be? (Or what cool company have you been inside of?)

Original Article

Serious Reach the Beach Withdrawal

I’m stuck in a glass case of emotion right now.

I had an amazing weekend…and then it ended. I’m in some serious Reach the Beach withdrawal

When Tina asked if I wanted to be on a blogger relay team with her, I said yes immediately. I’d read lots of relay recaps and knew people had a ton of fun, but I didn’t quite get why.

I mean, being in a van for a million hours? (In our case, something like 32 hours.) Not showering after running and not eating regular meals? Running on no sleep after I’d already run 6 miles earlier in the day?

I didn’t get it. But I knew Tina would put together a fun team and so I hoped the race would be as fun as everyone else said it would be.

As the emails about the race became fast and furious, just what I was getting myself into started to take shape.

Reflective vests and headlamps? Crap, I really would be running in the dark.

Gallon-sized Ziploc bags for my clothes? Oh. If I don’t do that, every single thing in my bag will stink.

I knew there would be a lot of logistical challenges and a lot of fun, but I had no idea it was possible to be that happy for three straight days on that little sleep.

But it turns out when you put six high-energy ladies in a van, add in the the most awesome driver in the world, play Call Me, Maybe on repeat and have a huge challenge in front of you, it’s sort of amazing.

I also need to thank New Balance for helping us have the time of our lives. Tina has worked with New Balance in the past, and they were an official sponsor of the race, so we talked about seeing if there was any way they could work with our team.

They’re also one of my clients at work, so I put together a proposal of how we could work together and why I thought it would be a good investment. I put together a proposal that I thought could create a great event and experience without blowing my client’s budget, but the wonderful Kristen at New Balance absolutely went above and beyond with this experience, and I can’t thank her enough.

I haven’t been on an athletic team since high school, and I didn’t realize until this weekend how much I missed that camaraderie. From watching Monica freak out about her overnight leg to watching most of my van struggle yesterday through stomach issues, I wanted nothing more but for everyone to succeed and feel great. Running is an awesome solo sport, but I encourage anyone who has the chance to try running a relay.

There is no possible way to wrap up this weekend in one, or even two posts, so I’m going to have a few more posts going up this weekend recapping all the fun—so let me know if there’s anything specific you want to know about!

Original Article

Happy Mother’s Day!

Today I spent the day with my best friend.

The woman who was there when I took my first steps 28 years ago…

…and then who was there when I ran my first 26.2 26 years later.

The woman who has always taught me to follow my dreams.

The woman who would drop anything to help me out. And, in fact, has, on many many occasions. Her favorite story: at one point when I was really depressed living in D.C., I called her and just bawled into the phone. At the time, it seemed like everything that could go wrong was, and Bailey threw up on my phone and it pushed me over the edge. She jumped on a late-night train from NJ to DC and was there by 1am to just be there for me. I’ll never forget that…and she probably will never let me. ;)

The woman who is the best damn grandma any little dog could ever have. Having a dog as a busy single woman in NYC is not the easiest thing in the world, but having my mom close by makes things so much easier.

The woman who is so much more than just the woman who raised me—who is also my friend.

She’s also the woman who has the fiercest sweet tooth of anyone I know. We spent a lovely day together and capped it off with some cannoli from Stuffed Artisan Cannoli at Madison Square Eats. I had the birthday cake one, and it was amazing.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers, mothers-to-be and fur moms. I’m so thankful for my relationship with my mom and to live so near to her. I love you, Mom.

Original Article

Cinco de Derby

Oh hello there.

Cinco de Derby/my baby cousin’s first birthday are over, and I survived.

LOOK AT THIS LITTLE PEANUT! And look at my mom wearing white before Memorial Day! What a rebel.

Lexi’s not walking yet, but she bounces like no other in this little bouncy thing. It’s one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.

Mom, I know you like little ones, but you’re gonna have to wait quite a few years before I give you one. Sorry.

The food was all pretty heavy, so I didn’t have much—some meatballs, arroz con pollo, an empanada and a little pasta.

After hanging at the party for a few hours, it was time to get back to the city for Ashley’s Derby party. I missed the actual horse racing part of the party…oops.

This is the only picture I took at Ashley’s— but I guess I really liked the napkins? (Below photo courtesy of Ashley.)

Ashley, me and Melissa

After the party, we went out to a few more bars. I deliberately didn’t make plans this morning (despite Laura attempting to talk me into running a marathon today), but I woke up feeling just fine and have had a lovely little day. Thank god for being 29 and semi-responsible. I certainly don’t miss the rip-roaring hangovers from my early 20s.

It was way too nice out to stay inside, so I went to Madison Square Park to lay out for awhile (and so, it seems, did half of the rest of the city) and then went on my first bike ride of the year. It was some awesome me time.

CONGRATS TO EVERYONE WHO RACED TODAY! I had an awesome time reading your tweets…from bed.

Original Article

Why May is Going to Rock

Outside of work, Junior League has been consuming a lot of my time. We have two big events this week (both open to the public…hint, hint), and my committee has been working hard on the final PR push for these events, as well as wrapping up end-of-the-year stuff.

It seems weird that May is only 31 days, because I feel like I have more awesome stuff coming up this month than I’ve had all year.

May 3: Bags and Bubbles

Goal: DON’T buy a bag.

May 4: awesome event at Pure Yoga that Ashley and Gia are putting together. (More details here.)

May 5: my sweet little cousin Lexi’s first birthday party!!!

AND Derby Day.

May 9: Fitblog NYC (#fitblognyc): an awesome event from Fitness magazine with some of my blogger buddies

[photo via Elizabeth]

May 17-20: Boston for Reach the Beach with these 11 lovely ladies. (Pugs and turtles not included.)

And most excitingly,May 25-28: OBX for Memorial Day. This is the fifth year in a row I’m going, and I can’t wait to lay on the beach.

How about you? What awesome stuff do you have planned for May?

Original Article

Refine Method: Take 2

Operation Look Not Awful in a Bikini In OBX/Run Strong And Awesome Races is well underway, and today I decided I desperately needed some more strength training.

After I blogged about Refine Method last time and that I wasn’t the hugest fan, Brynn, the founder emailed me to say she was sorry to hear that and would love for me to try the class again, on her.

I realized early this morning that tonight would likely be a relatively early night and emailed Brynn to ask her if I could take her up on it tonight.

I will say this first: I went into the class tonight in a much better mood than last time, and I went in knowing what to expect. I also went in really wanting to like the class.

I took the 6:30 class with the adorable Emily Cook. In these boutique fitness classes, it’s pretty common for the instructor to introduce herself to you so you feel like you’re getting more personal attention when she says, “Good job, Theodora!” (And dude, it works. And I did get a “Good job, Theodora!” once or twice.)

So, since I didn’t do a full review last time since I wasn’t a fan, I’ll give you a brief review now.

The sixty-minute class starts with a brief warm-up that includes some squats, jumping jacks and punches.

It’s then broken up into three circuits of strength moves. Each circuit is repeated a few times (I lost count each time) before moving on to the next. The circuits included exercises like diagonal squats, push-ups, jumpbacks (burpees, basically) and a number of moves using their pulley system, which is sort like TRX but with more resistance.

[via Dori]

That’s the pulley system, but that’s in their UES location—I went to their Union Square location, which looks far less barre-y.

Edited to add: Dori tells me that that’s their old set-up in the UES location. There’s no barre there now either.

The last time I went, I definitely broke a sweat and it wasn’t easy, but I got both a more enjoyable and a better workout tonight. Emily is incredibly upbeat and played so much cheesy music (by cheesy, I mean awesome) the entire time, that I couldn’t stop smiling. She corrected me, but it felt like she genuinely wanted me to understand how to execute the exercises correctly. She also did a great job cueing the class, and pointing out things like “if you don’t feel this in your core, you’re not doing it right.”

The class ended with some ab work, that included rolling from laying down to sitting up, hinging back slightly. (I did this against a foam roller to support my jerk of a lower back.) We ended with some stretches laying down, and Emily came around and gave us each a 30-second-ish quad massage while we were stretching. So random, so awesome.

Dori and her friend Melissa Z. were there, and Melissa said that something “felt weird” while she was doing jumpbacks, and Emily took the time to have her demonstrate her jumpbacks and where they felt weird in between classes so that Melissa could make sure she had the correct form.

FYI, they’re doing a promo code “PREVIEW” right now to get 20 percent off class packages.

Why did I like this class so much more than the last one? Tonight’s instructor just had a great energy—upbeat and the type that made you want to work harder, rather than the type to make you feel like you weren’t working out hard enough, which is how I felt last time. I definitely see myself trying this class again.

Original Article

Beyond Calories

I’ve never been big on calorie counting. I know it works for some people, but it’s just not my thing. I either completely lose track, or I start selecting food based on its calories, not its nutritional value.

When I was losing weight three years ago, I followed this set of nutrition guidelines from the trainer I was working with. While those guidelines cut out a lot, they did emphasize eating lots of real food—plenty of vegetables, healthy fat and protein. This was so much easier for me than trying to count calories or points.

So, I don’t often look at calorie counts for food. I generally know what’s good for me and what’s not, and I try to eat more of the what’s good for me, and less of what’s not, and make sure that when I do eat stuff that’s not as good for me, it’s something I really want, and I don’t go overboard on it.

But for some reason, I decided to look at the calorie count for one of my favorite (random) lunches, chicken tacos with guacamole from Chipotle.

[via ChipotleFan.com]

Since I am not really sure of the amount of calories I consume daily (although maybe I’ll do an experiment and record a few days to see?), I’m not positive how many calories I should be having at lunch, but it’s not the 630 calories that gave me pause.

Do you see the amount of sodium? No wonder I feel so bloated. I probably have these sweet taco babies at least twice a week.

The fat levels are also pretty high, and it’s not just from the guac. The guac actually only accounted for 13 of those grams of fat and 2 grams of saturated fat.

So, just a note to beware of the health halo and how things are prepared, and that cooking for yourself is (almost) always more healthy. (That last one is a huge reminder to myself, as well.)

How do you do healthy eating? Calorie counting? Weight Watchers? Eating real foods? Also, what did you think was healthy and find out was actually not that great for you?

Original Article