Men's Fitness

Hey Fitness Friends! I created 4 workouts for Men's Fitness  that were featured last week. Check it out HERE! These programs are specifically tailored for working out in your apartment or any other small space because creating workouts that can be done anywhere is my specialty. After training clients at home in NYC for 9 years, small spaces became my gym. Woo! Enjoy the workouts and please let me know if you have any questions. I will be happy to answer any and all! BE WELL!

Portland

So...I moved. I moved out of New York. It was just the next step. It's hard to leave New York. It really is. Especially when you spent 9 years of your life there. I still can't believe that much time passed, but it did and for the last couple years of living in NYC, I was done with it. New York is a great city and a huge part of me will always be there, but I just couldn't live there anymore. I started to feel like there was no room to breathe, no room to live, no room to exist. Each time I yelled in a stranger's face for no apparent reason; stood so close to someone I didn't know on the subway, closer than I would stand to my best friend; got pushed or pushed someone else while walking down the street; trudged through the snow and ice to get to clients; or endured a moment where I felt so claustrophobic a panic attack was sure to ensue; I was one step closer to losing my mind. I knew it wasn't healthy there for me anymore. I felt in my heart that it was time to leave.

After getting hitched in June 2014, my husband Scott and I started to seriously think about other cities we would want to live in.  Our place in New York was small and cramped. It was cozy, but we wanted more. We knew that as normal humans and  non-millionaires, we couldn't get ahead the way we wanted in New York and moving further and further out of the city just to have to trudge back in every day to save money was exhausting to us. We decided to start taking trips to places we might want to live to see how we felt there. We visited North Carolina in August where Scott is from and spent a weekend there; we headed to LA one week in October when Scott was speaking at a conference and I got to tag along;  and in November, we headed to my hometown, Chicago. None of these places felt right. It just wasn't where we were supposed to be right now. So where? Where could we go? Then one day, Scott got a call from a recruiter looking for a position in Portland, OR, a place that was never on our radar. Why not check it out? we thought. So we did. And while we were there in January as he was interviewing I thought, this is it. This is what feels right. I just knew that we were meant to spend any sort of time in Portland, whether it was a year or 10. And luckily enough, we both agreed on that.

It took a long while before the job offer was settled, but when it came through for Scott, although I went back and forth in my head about it, my heart knew it was the right choice. So, he decided to take the job, we raised our champagne glasses to Portland, and packed up the East Village apartment that I spent 4 years out of the 9 in. It was the place where I turned 30, where Scott and I started our relationship and planned a wedding, but most importantly, it was my first and only lease in NYC that I didn't sublet or share with a roommate. It was a place where I felt like, yeah, New York, I got this. It meant a lot to me,  and I expected to feel some sort of loss about it. But I really didn't. It was time to pass the torch and start a new adventure. And away we went.

Two friends of ours, Dan and Leslie, were getting married in San Diego and it was right around the time we planned to move in March. We decided the best way to start our West Coast lives was to take an adventure and plan to rent a car to drive up the coast as our belongings were moved across the country on a truck. We'd have to wait for the moving company to get there anyway, so why not use this time to really explore where we would be laying down new roots?  We would start in San Diego and take our time over 5 days to explore California into Oregon, ending in Portland. We were also excited that the road trip would start on Scott's birthday and end on mine just 5 days later.  It really felt like we were starting our new lives literally at a time of (re) birth.  We rented our car, booked mainly airbnb homes in 5 different cities up the coast, and hopped on a plane to the other side of the country, never return to our apartment! I couldn't believe it was happening. No more subway rides, no more shitty cold NYC winters and hot and humid summers, no more feeling like I could never get ahead no matter how hard I tried...It was time to get some fresh air!

Me, doing a handstand in our empty apartment in New York.

The wedding was fabulous.  My New York Urban Family-- a group of friends who garnered the name because we all became each other's family when we had none in the city--rented a house together to share in an "Urban Family Vacation." Most of these friends have since moved out of New York, so it was a treat to be reunited. When we first started our vacation, I was still having anxiety issues, and I didn't know why. Was it PTSD from New York? Okay, so maybe a little dramatic, but I honestly got to that point. I knew that I really needed the space and time to heal from a lot of heartache I suffered in my relationship with NYC. And now was the time I got to heal with my "family."

Urban Family

At the wedding, I was honored to be invited to sing a duet with one of my best friends, Josh, accompanied by Dan's brother Tom.

We played bags. 

And we danced.

Then we said our good-byes and started our 5 day long road trip up the coast. Which was unreal.  Now I'm going to share our trip with you via photographs. 

Off we go!

Pismo Beach

Morro Bay

Limekiln State Park

Monterey Bay

Santa Cruz

San Francisco 

Running through a Redwood! 

Scott amongst the Redwoods. 

Elk--Just outside of Eureka, CA

Me on the Northern Coast

And then we got to Portland! 

I did not take this photo. It is borrowed from travelportland.com

We arrived late-ish on March 27th and my birthday was the next day. All of our belongings that were on the moving truck hadn't arrived yet so we had to kick it in a hotel for a couple days. On the 28th, we said good-bye to the rental car that we shared an amazing journey in and celebrated my birthday. We enjoyed a run along the water to explore more of the city and at the end of the day, a delicious dinner followed by a gift from the Hotel Lucia: Portland's famous Salt and Straw Ice Cream. 

So now I'm here. In Portland. It's been 6 weeks and I'm trying to figure out my new life. As you might know, I'm also an actress and I've been lucky enough to continue to pursue that passion here. I secured a talent agent and I've auditioned for some theaters. I've been working hard on a digital series I co-created called Kid Friendly*, back in New York. I've been taking yoga, exploring new workouts, running along the Willamette River, hiking with my husband every weekend in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, meeting new folks, reconnecting with an old friend from 10 years ago who lives here (and her wonderful husband) and generally trying to slow down a bit. I haven't been too successful at it, but I'm trying. Oh and I'm also training some clients back in New York via Skype (which has been great) and I'm trying to find some new clients here in Portland. If you need one, please contact me!

I was hoping to write about what I've learned so far as I've been out of New York for almost 2 months, but there's not too much to share yet. I guess I still need some more time. But I can share one vital gem that I've learned and it's this: when you feel like you need a change in your life and you're lucky enough to get the opportunity to do it, do it. Make the change. I think that we know in our hearts what we really need. Always. And if you're willing to listen to your heart, it will tell you things you've been trying to ignore because you've been too scared. Your heart never lies to you and it will push you in directions your head isn't willing to take you. I knew I needed fresh air and some space to grow. I needed new opportunities and a place for our little family of two to experience less stress. I'm so grateful each day that I get to be here in the Pacific Northwest to grow and experience new adventures. I hope I can share some new ones with you soon. XO and Be Well.

I Like to Eat

As a traveling, independent personal trainer, I get the opportunity to visit a lot of different gyms here in New York City. I train clients in their apartment building gyms, office gyms, and specialized training gyms. I tend to overhear conversations other trainers have with their clients not because I'm nosy (okay, maybe I'm kind of nosy), but because these gyms tend to be small enough where at times, I feel like I'm on top of someone else's session. A reoccurring statement I often hear is "I don't know, I just like to eat! So I'm never gonna be that thin." "I like to eat!" What???? You like to eat?!?!? Wow, me too! I like eating! I like not feeling hungry because being hungry means I get hangry, and tired, and low on energy, and weak, and snippy, and my stomach hurts, and my workouts suck. I like delicious meals that aren't always considered the most healthy calorie wise, but they are healthy for my soul because they taste so delicious and I can't be a robotic healthy eater all the time. I like to eat things like fresh fruits and veggies, but I also like to eat pizza and drink a great glass of wine with it.

Listen, guys, we are human. Humans are supposed to eat. Humans are supposed to LIKE to eat. This is because we need to nourish our bodies to stay fit, healthy, energetic, and happy. We (especially women) are supposed to have some fat on our bodies because it's healthy! Our bodies store some fat because our bodies want to make sure that in case you aren't eating due to some massive famine or nuclear holocaust, it can survive for longer. For women, the extra fat is there not only in case food isn't always available, but also to help support a baby should you get pregnant and there is a famine and it needs something to feed the human that is growing inside of you.

That's the realness right there! That is the the most basic reasoning for hunger--sustaining human life. The crazy thing about needing to eat is now that we have magazines, television shows, movies, and internet telling us what is appealing visually at the moment (I say at the moment because you know the trends change over time--i.e. Marilyn Monroe to Twiggy, "Twiggy" butt to "Anaconda" butt), and that's generally not very human attainable. We see flat, 6-pack abs on a magazine cover, then look at our own midsection and we might think that not eating is what we should be doing. We might think that eating is bad. That "I like to eat" is a statement that is farfetched or taboo. Guys, it. is. NOT.

When you see those muscles that pop out of someone's stomach on a magazine cover, a lot of times, it is because the model has dehydrated themselves to the point where their skin looks tighter on their muscles and more appealing for the cover. Or let's face it, it's just plain photoshopped! Body builders often take the dehydration approach as well, so that in competition, they look as defined as possible. Google "body builder dehydration" and the Google at the bottom of the page will extend several 'o's.' I.e. there are a lot of resources that will help you learn how to get super defined for a competition and not drinking water is one of ways to do that. What?!?! That's crazy talk. The human body is around 60% water. So how is dehydrating a good thing for you? Also, what happens when that model drinks water again??? Those 6-pack abs become an illusion. AN ILLUSSSIIOOONNN!!!!!

You can be lean and not dehydrate and not starve yourself. You should never do either of those things. You should be drinking lots of water to flush your system of toxins. You should be eating lean proteins, fruits, veggies, and whole grains to support your muscle mass. If you aren't eating enough, your body tends to hold on to fat and start to cannibalize muscle just in case that famine/nuclear holocaust happens and you need the fat as a last resort/last ditch effort for your body to to save itself. It's true! Isn't that horrible? So eat!!! Your body wants you to reassure it that the next meal is coming and it doesn't need to store fat, just in case...

Stay tuned for the Part II of this blog post for great ideas and options to stay lean and mean and EAT!!!! And you don't have to have 6-pack abs to be lean. Being healthy means a lot of different things for a lot of different people. Some people will hold on to more fat than others and that's okay. That's life. That's YOU.

BE WELL!!!!