Two Months with Uplift / Move Nourish Believe with Lorna Jane

Hi! I’ve been trying to gather my thoughts about my partnership with Uplift.

I loved Uplift so much the first time I went, I asked Leanne, one of the owners, if we could do a partnership where I would blog about the classes in exchange for some free classes.

While most boutique fitness classes in New York attract primarily women, Uplift is just for women, and I love love love the emphasis that they put on women supporting other women. Their Workout + Wine Lean In discussion was a great example of that.

From their about page: “We were founded on the philosophy that working out and having an active social life are two of the key components to creating happy, successful lives for women in New York City.” As you know if you’ve read this blog for more than a day, this matches my philosophy, too, so I love any chance to combine the two. I think that combining fitness with my social life has been a key factor in my (mostly) maintaining my weight loss.

And I just can’t say enough about how sweet and bubbly every single person who works at Uplift is. They make you feel like you’ve been BFFs for life from the second you walk in the door.

Over the course of eight weeks, I took 13 classes – so, almost two classes a week. Most weeks, I tried to take two classes but I took off some time around the D.C. Half so that my legs were fresh.

I typically took one Strength class and one Cardio class per week. Mad love to my girl Steph, but the strength class was my favorite. I’ve always struggled with strength training on my own, so given the choice between strength and cardio classes, I will always gravitate to a class that will work muscles other than my legs.

After I got a heart rate monitor for Easter, I began wearing it to the classes to figure out my calorie burn. I usually burned about 400 calories in the strength class and about 450 in the cardio class. Keep in mind, of course, that while cardio burns more sheer calories, strength training obviously works your body in a different way, making you both stronger (duh) and making your muscles work more efficiently.

Oh, and they indulge me in random photoshoots.

What kind of results did I get from two months of sweating with my favorite ladies?

Weight: I ended up dropping about seven pounds (and I didn’t really change my diet at all.)

Clothes: They fit better! I didn’t go down a size, but some of my clothes are looser in the waist now.

Body Image: I’m a lot less self-conscious about my midsection, since I have definitely toned it up some. In most of the classes, the instructors had to remind me to push my shoulders back. I’ve started doing this in Real Life (as opposed to the awesome dream world at Uplift that I want to move into) and I feel more confident about my body when I do this.

General Strength: You guys! My lower back pain is gone. This is honestly, probably the most important part for me. Since I started running a few years ago, I’ve always had mild lower back pain that my trainer at the time said was related to a lack of core strength. Well, my core (even if it doesn’t quite look it) is now a lot stronger, and things like V-ups and full sit-ups, which used to be elusive to me, are now much, much easier to do and don’t cause me lower back pain. YAY!

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As for the outfit, I was sent that by Lorna Jane to review as part of their Move Nourish Believe campaign with FitFluential. They define Move Nourish Believe as : “If you live by the Move Nourish Believe philosophy, you are choosing to live life with purpose making each day filled with the things you enjoy doing and ultimately, allowing you to Live Active; be it yoga, eating well, meditating, walking, surfing or weight training, no matter what it is you love to do, Active Living is making the choice to be Active in all that you do.” I love what the campaign stands for, and the clothes are adorable, too. They’re definitely pricey, but they are very well-made.

Bra: React Sports Bra. I don’t know that this bra would be supportive enough for running, but it was fine for a personal training session and I’ve worn it for classes, too. It comes with padding, which I left in…

Tank: Blake Excel Tank. I liked how it fit, and overall it was fairly flattering despite my little belly – BUT it was really low-cut, and it came with padding in it. Wearing the React bra under this low-cut top gave me way more cleavage than was really necessary at a women’s only gym. Poor Steph got an eyeful any time I did a move that required me to lean over, like a row.

Capris: Marianna Tights. (I can’t find the exact ones, but these are very similar.) I loved these pants – from the cutting off just above my calf to showcase calf definition to the thick waistband to cover my love for wine. They also stayed in place really well, and I wasn’t constantly tugging on them to readjust them.

Jacket: Not pictured above, but I was sent the Pretty Maxum Full Zip Through. The rest of the items fit pretty true-to-size (I ordered mediums) but this was a little snug across my chest. It’s super-cute, though, and it even goes well with non-workout clothes, too. I wore it while traveling back and forth to Sonoma.

FitFluential will be hosting a Twitter chat with Lorna Jane on 6/6 at 9PM PST EST about what it means to live an active life. (This is way past my bedtime.) Follow along with @FitFluential @LornaJaneActive and #liveactive – one lucky chat participant will win a $150 Lorna Jane gift card.

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Also! Be sure to check out my guest post over on Anne’s blog about how I lost 50 pounds and became a marathoner. She gets to go to Italy, and I get to write a guest post. I think she got the better end of the deal.