NYC with a friend!

One of my closest friends since Middle School has been living in Cambridge, MA for a few years now and I got to see her again, after almost a year.  She was in NYC because her husband had a job interview, so we met up and I got to spend some time with her and her cutie son!  He's a little boy now, no longer a baby like last time I saw him!

Here's the day in photos:

Breakfast for $4.25!  Can we say "bacon"?

Flirting with me after his nap!

Caramel Macchiato!

Art at the MET.  The Kiki Smith was my favorite.

Me and Ana

Me, Ana and Rafi!

Me and Rafi

Crumbs Cupcakes!  Red Velvet and Fluff n' Stuff.

It was a pretty awesome day and quite frankly exactly what I needed!  I've been so stressed lately with this whole trying to get pregnant thing, between the doctors and the insurance and the clearly incompetent people I've been dealing with, it was great to just relax and have fun for a day!

Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize!

Lately, my face lotion has been failing me.  I have patches of dry skin and I've noticed by about 10 am that my skin is flaking!  What is going on?!  Flaking skin is not pretty.  I already have adult acne (ok, maybe not, but it's close), I don't need flaking skin to add to the list!  So, the other day I decided to go on a sample run.  I like to try things out before I purchase, I take full advantage of skincare samples.  First, I went to Nordstrom's (I love that store despite that I can barely even afford the Junior's section, let alone the clothes that actually come in my size) and got some Laura Mercier and Mario Badescu samples.  Then I moved on to Sephora where I got samples for a day cream, night cream and eye cream.

From Laura Mercier I got Mega moisturizer for day and Tone Perfecting Creme for night, from Mario Badescu I got the oil free moisturizer for day and the Seaweed Night Cream.

And from Sephora I got Ole Henriken's Nurture Me for day, DDF Glycolic moisturizer for night and Shiseido Benefiance eye cream.

I started with the stuff from Sephora first and so far, I love the smell and feel of the Nurture Me, the eye cream is definitely a brightener, but it's a little heavy for day, it takes a long time to absorb.  The DDF glycolic, I'm not sure about yet.  It's nice enough, but I'll to see if I think it's actually making a difference.  I do have a new huge red zit on my chin, maybe it's courtesy of that??  Hard to tell, my face breaks out like that's its job!  I'm not sure about the Laura Mercier stuff after seeing the prices!  I'll try it I guess though.  The Mario Badescu products are definitely the most affordable, it'd be nice if they actually work too!  We'll see.

Anyone have any products they can't live without?

Livefit Phase 2

Monday starts Phase 2 of Jamie Eason's Livefit program and I'm not gonna lie, I'm kind of excited!  This last week has been kind of a mess.  I was away on a little vacation until Tuesday and when I got back I was behind on workouts and also completely unprepared with meals.  I combined Monday and Tuesdays workouts into Wednesday and then was so sore Thursday I just skipped it!  I was supposed to try to fit the last 3 days into today, but that didn't happen.  So, now I'm deciding whether I should do it all tomorrow or just skip it?!  I definitely don't want to push back the schedule, but I also feel guilty skipping.  But tomorrow I have a very busy day of studying planned.  Maybe I'll just wake up early and get it done in the morning.  I know, this is a real problem!
Anyway, Monday starts Phase 2 and I'm really hoping adding back in cardio will help me lose weight!  I have definitely noticed that I'm getting stronger, but I've only lost 1 pound (as of last Saturday) and that's not that uplifting.  Anyone else doing Livefit who didn't really lose any weight in the first phase?  A girl  can hope!
In an attempt to make my life easier this week.  I've already prepped my kale and sweet potatoes for the week.

I still need to do some more prep work for the week though.  And planning of specific meals.  I'm going to cut out carbs after like 4 pm.  This basically just means salads for dinner, which is fine, I do like my salads!

With the added cardio in Phase 2, I'm planning to lift in the AM before work and make my spin bike my cardio in the evening.  I'm not really a fan of my gym in the evenings, it's been packed lately, so I figured I'll switch to AM lifting and use what I have at my house in the evenings.  I might switch up the cardio once in awhile, but I own a Star trac spin bike, I should use it!  I'll also be using my new gymboss interval timer to make the most of my workouts!

Cute, right?!

Okay, off to bed.  I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow!  I'm finally finishing up my personal training course work!

Kale

I've tried to get into kale for awhile now, but it always seemed to just stay in my produce drawer until it went bad and then got thrown away.   I made it once I think and burned it.   But last week I gave it one more try and bought a blend from Whole Foods and sautéed some in garlic as soon as I got home.  And now I'm pretty much obsessed!  I've eaten it as a side!  Mixed in with my leftover mei fun noodles (amazing) and tonight with eggs on top! Which I've decided is going to be a regular breakfast for me. Bottom line, I'm now a serious fan of kale!

Let's talk about substitutions!

****Forgot to hit post on this last week. Yeah, I have it together.

I've been working out, even lifting weights, for a long time but there are some exercises I don't do.  And Jamie Eason's Livefit seems to have a lot of them!  Tonight, it was dead lifts (one legged isn't even a possibility), barbell lunges, and a bunch of chest flyes on a bench.  It's not so much that I can't do the flyes, it's just that lying back on the bench with my legs down hurts my lower back and the idea of putting my feet up and somehow staying on the bench and holding the weights just freaks me out.  I realize I'm crazy.  I think it mostly comes from my serious lack of balance.  So, I just skipped the dead lifts and lunges and did the flyes on the machine.  What can I do as a substitute?  Any ideas?  I'm trying to talk my husband into joining the gym so he can be there to initially assist me on the things that are totally awkward for me.  But. so far it's a no go.  We do have some weights in the basement though, I could do some of the things here.  Does anyone else just feel awkward about certain exercises at the gym?  I want to get better at the things that freak me out, but when the gym is packed and no one is really helpful (and no one seems to work there) it seems like it's going to take awhile.
In other news, lunch and dinner!

Black bean, red pepper, corn and avocado salad!  It was seriously delicious and I'll be eating more tomorrow.

Grilled steak, sauteed kale and roasted sweet potatoes.  Yum!

Yoga

As I get older I realize that my body is changing and not for the better.  I've never been what you'd call flexible, but it's definitely getting worse as my age creeps up.  Plus, that whole Cerebral Palsy thing isn't helping.  I know I've said it before, but I really need to start doing yoga on a regular basis.  I used to go to a studio once a week and that really did help, but I stopped going and that studio has since closed.  Causing me to lose the one yoga instructor I really liked!  Oh, Paris where are you?  The thing is, I'm already not flexible so I feel like I'm starting at a disadvantage.  But, I realize that if I had stuck with it so many years ago, I'd have a whole different body now.

So, because I'm doing so well with Jamie Eason's Livefit, I'm going to also try to add in some yoga.  I think I'll start with just 10 minutes before bed every night and work my way up from there.  You have to start somewhere, right? 

From Yoga traveler

Maybe one day I'll be able to do that!  Which would be amazing since I can currently barely reach past my shins!

Breakfast & Pickles

One of the hardest meals of my day is breakfast.  I'm really bad at waking up early in the morning (or even on time) so breakfast is taking a hit.  As in, I drank a protein shake this morning and ate a luna bar.  No egg whites in sight.  So, to remedy this I decided to make burritos to heat in the oven while I'm getting dressed in the morning.

Eggs whites, some whole eggs, a little mexican cheese blend and peppers on a whole wheat wrap from Trader Joe's!

And I'm also making pickles!  They'll be done next week.