A Soul-Nourishing Weekend

This weekend, I nourished my soul. (And my belly.)

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A friend had a Derby party on Saturday, and I made deviled eggs for the first time ever, using Anne’s healthy deviled egg recipe. It substitutes Greek yogurt for mayo. I think mayo is gross, so yogurt > mayo, always. (Relatedly gross: cottage cheese, sour cream.) It takes a lot of patience to carefully peel the eggs, and I ruined the first two eggs as I tried to tear the shells off, but then I calmed the eff down and got into an eggshell peeling groove and remembered why cooking can be so therapeutic.

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[Thanks to Jen for this photo. Go over to her blog and congratulate her on her PR and say happy birthday!!!]

Yesterday morning, I ventured down to NJ bright and early to spectate the NJ Marathon/Long Branch Half. Part of what has made any great race so enjoyable for me has been awesome spectators, so it was rewarding to be on the other side for some awesome runner friends, even if it was chillier than I realized.

I haven’t spectated many races, because if I’m free for a race…I’m usually running it … or am lazy and snuggling under my covers… so I expected to have some serious race FOMO yesterday, but I was really happy and excited for everyone else’s great races and PRs and only had a tiny twinge of FOMO walking back home after I got back into the city.

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Then last night, I had Ashley and Bo over for dinner, and I made tacos/fajitas. (All pics via Ashley.)

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Proof that I cook sometimes. Or push peppers around in a pan, whatever.

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Bo made the margaritas, and he made them strong. Hey, I’m not complaining.

How’d you nourish your soul (or belly!) this weekend?

An Uplifting, Ass-Kicking Workout

Last week, I walked into Uplift for a class with Steph. I was running late, and ended up sprinting down 23rd Street to make it on time.

I walked in, flustered, and the class studio was dark and Steph was standing outside of it.

With a devilish grin, she told me it was just going to be me. “What do you want to do?? Personal training? Class?”

“Um…you’re the instructor? You can decide!”

(I was secretly hoping she’d say training!)

“Okay, let’s do a personal training session.”

IF YOU INSIST.

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I worked out with a trainer to help me drop the 50 pounds, but I haven’t regularly worked out with a trainer since, so this was a nice little treat.

Steph may look all sweet, but she knows how to kick your ass. Hard. Since she teaches Cardio, I thought it would be a high-impact, heart-pumping session, but Steph went after all my muscles with heavy weights. Check it out below! (Obviously, modify appropriate to your own fitness level. The weighted exercises are meant to push your muscles to exhaustion, so keep that in mind.)

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The “running lines” was running between cones, but you could just pick two points (I originally wrote two pinots…where’s my mind??) to run back and forth between.

As part of a partnership with Uplift, I’ve been receiving classes for the past two months in exchange for blogging about my experience. Through tomorrow, 5/5, you can get 10% off by using the code losingweightinthecity while checking out. Next week, I’ll be posting a recap of these past two months!

Have you ever walked into a class and found it was just you? What happened? Did the instructor do a class for just you or do something similar to what Steph did?