When I first tried Strala Yoga, I felt as though I had finally found a place from everyone, athletes, yogis, and just plain normal people. No incense, no chanting, no readings, just a yoga workout that anyone from a yogi to your average Jane looking for a good stretch can appreciate.

While this may seem simple, in my experience, it’s actually pretty rare. While there are a few studios I happily frequent (okay,  frequent is a relative term in my yoga practice, but you know what I mean): Laughing Lotus, Pure Yoga–and when I need a quick, cheap yoga fix: Yoga to the People.   I don’t venture out to much because I find that many studios are just too dogmatic for my taste or practice level. I don’t do yoga for spiritual reasons, or to connect with the universe, I do it for the wonderful full body stretch and relaxation it provides.

Fortunately, I recently tried Strala Yoga. Strala is a relaxed studio with a friendly vibe where yogis and occasional yoga practicers can co-exist happily. The studio is simple, just a very large, open rectangular room with soothing, clean white walls and hardwood floors. As I set up my mat, I noticed several water bottles on the floor. I was once told that real yogis don’t drink water because it cools the body, whereas yoga is meant to heat the body and allow it to cool itself naturally without water or brow wiping. Seeing water bottles next to my fellow classmate’s mats reassured me that I could enjoy a swig of water without exposing the fact that I am not truly a yogi. I was in good company.

While I loved feeling so comfortable at Strala, what really sold me was the workout. Founder Tara Stiles, author of Slim, Calm, Sexy Yoga, created a practice comprised of workouts that emphasize gentle breathing and create strong, long, lean bodies. The classes are simply titled strong, relax and basics. I found the strong classes to be uniquely challenging and each had a discrete style and format. Unlike most yoga classes I have taken, the classes I took at Strala didn’t follow a traditional flow or center on the sun salutation, but rather focused on a several series of poses that complemented one another, I never knew what was coming next.

The classes started out with a gentle stretch and warm up before moving into a challenging series of poses. In one class, I was challenged to hold variations of boat pose for what seemed like five minutes, I was already falling out of position in the first ten minutes of the class! Typically ab work is my favorite part of the workout, so I was surprised that a yoga class could push me past my limits so easily. That is one of my favorite things about Strala, it’s a challenging workout, but still provides stretch and stillness. The strong classes are almost athletic as they challenge you to use balance and strength to hold poses for several breaths. The instructors are wonderful about making slight corrections that make a big difference in how much you feel the stretch. As someone who doesn’t practice regularly, I am always worried that I am going to look silly when it comes times for inversions. But I was happy to find that inversions at Strala were always optional; they give those who want a challenge the chance to go into handstands, headstands and wheels, but an alternative were always offered–and I gladly accepted. Even if I didn’t partake in inversions, by the end of my classes, I was sweating and ready for savasannah. The hour and fifteen minutes was just enough to challenge me and give me the full body stretch I need to balance out my running workouts.

There was one thing about my Strala classes that was completely unexpected. The feeling of calmness I felt for several hours after class. It was wonderful to leave the studio, step into the madness of the city and still have a lingering sense of relaxation and serenity to guide me through my day. It’s not always easy for cardio fiend like myself to find a yoga workout that is both enjoyable and beneficial, but Strala’s slim, calm, sexy style of yoga is exactly what I need.

Strala Yoga is located at 632 Broadway. Classes are $15 and new member discounts and packages are available.

The Daily Burn is a fitness company that offers personalized fitness via the web, so you can download your workouts onto any computer or mobile device.  The concept combines the convenience of workout videos with personal trainers to tailor the workouts to your needs and goals.  Finally, there are hundreds of workouts to choose from with more being added all the time, so you’ll never get bored or do the same workout over and over.

The concept definitely appealed to me and I was excited to learn more about it.

Here I am getting a tutorial on the ipad  Note: drinking when while working out is not recommended. However, drinking wine while learning about working out is a-okay.  Guess what? After your workout, you enter your weight and reps, and the Daily Burn will remind you and make recommendations during your next workout.  If you did 15 burpees last time, it will push you to do 16 or more the next time.

Oh, Hi Guys!

In addition to wine, there were tasty bites:

And there was also a great view.  The event was held in the Ghery designed IAC building. Fancy Schmancy.

Oh, and the lovey Theodora was there and looking fabulous!

The Daily Burn has six trainers, each with their own speciality: boxing, yoga, dance, cardio, strength etc. In addition, the site lets you track your nutrition and workouts and even has a food scanner!

At the event, I received a free 6 month trial for the Daily Burn.  I definitely intend to check it out, so I can fully review the workouts and the software. I don’t imagine working out at home will ever be my only method of working out, but I definitely like it when I am low on time or it’s cold out.  Since the DB can even be downloaded to a smartphone, I can see it coming in handy on vacation.

How do you feel about at home workouts?

Here is a look at just a few items that caught my eye:

Vata Shorts  I love the color and style of these moisture wicking shorts!

I am always a fan of mix and match swimwear

Color blocking is definitely all the rage this season.

My next topic as nothing to do with fitness, but it does have to do with NYC!

Yesterday, I went to the Greatist Grid: The Manhattan Masterplan from 1811-2011 at the Museum of the City of NY.

The Museum itself is very pretty, it would be a great choice for a small wedding .

The exhibition shows how the easy to navigate grid we all know and love (unless you live downtown or in the west village or way way uptown) came to be.  Rather than model the city plan on the fashionable European city designs, Manhattan decided to take a bold step towards functionality and drew from the cities including, Edinburgh, Savannah and Lima!

Downtown was developed before the plan, while all areas above the white were basically farmland in the early 1800s.

As a HUGE history nerd, I was all about it and totally fascinated! For example, every wonder why Broadway is such a rebel and weaves itself across the city hither and yon?  Here’s why:

In any event, it’s definitely worth seeing.  My only critique is that the exhibit is set up like a grid, which was cute but not practical.  It was very hard to know whether to go through north to south or east to west!

All right, this post has been sufficiently random. I better go to the gym before dinner!  I start (and finish—it’s one day) Blueprint Cleanse with Ashley and the boy tomorrow—can’t wait to feel super human and pumped full of green juice!

On Thursday my friend Amy and I had girls night while our bfs had dudes night. We started with Core Fusion Sport at Exhale and then dinner at Greensquare Tavern.

Greenquare is a newish farm to table in the Flatiron area and it was VERY good!  The front was packed with football watchers at the bar and the back was a comfortable dining space.  We were offered the choice  of butter or olive oil and sourdough, wheat or white rolls.  The wheat was super hearty.

I was I had taken photos, but we shared a delicious salad with goat cheese and pomegranate and then I had the vegetable burger—there were actually several vegan entrees.  In any event, I definitely recommend it for a casual, yet cozy dinner.  Especially since it’s so hard to get into my beloved ABC Kitchen!

My next workout date was with the lovely Dori at Refine!

I am super excited for Refine to head downtown, but since we have a few more days until the grand Union Square opening, I got myself out of bed and to the UES for a 9:30 class, so I could see my girl and get my workout in!  OMG the class was killer!  I think we did at least 200 squats throughout the class.  I had planned to do some cardio at the gym, but the class turned out to be enough!

My final sweat date was this morning with Kath and Ashley! After a 25 minute treadmill run, I met them at Strala Yoga! This is quickly becoming my favorite yoga studio.  Each class is totally different, yet incredibly challenging!  Today might have been the hardest class yet, but fortunately, I can always count on them to play Pumped Up Kicks, which gives me the energy I need to push through to the end.  This class had a pretty killer soundtrack, actually.  In addition to Pumped Up Kicks, Connected by Stereo MC, Never be Your Woman by White Town and Oh La La by L.E.S. Artistes were played.   I may have been dancing in my downward dog. 

After class we went to breakfast/lunch at Ess-a-Bagel for the NYC bagel experience.  Ess-A didn’t disappoint, they may not toast their bagels, but they sure know how to make them right!

Oatbran and Apple Cinnamon cream cheese perfection:

While I didn’t dare ask them to scoop out my bagel, I did remove some of the superfluous cream cheese…I am more about the bread than the smear!

Okay, it’s time to get my jersey on and route for the Giants!  Go Big Blue!

Stay warm everyone!

A little recap:

• Lemon Water Daily—check, mainly thanks to Frank’s active participation in this goal. He often made my water for me!
• Make One Meal Daily—check, several of these meals were leftovers, but that counts! You saw a few things I made here, and here are a couple more:

Spaghetti Squash marinara

Lasagna rolls per request.  These were a bit fancy for a weekday meal, but I cut the béchamel sauce (making them quicker and healthier), prepped them, went to Flybarre, popped them in the oven when I got home and they were ready when Frank walked in the door.

Tonight I ran to Whole Foods  Paycheck to stock up for the week:

It’s kind of a lot, but way cheaper than eating out and should get me through 7-10 meals! 

I must thank all of YOU for your encouragement on these goals!  Your comments reinforced how much better homemade food often makes you feel!  It was the reinforcement I needed to keep the resolution going strong!  Also, huge thanks to Katherine, Amy, and Diane for encouraging me to drop the diet coke habit.  It’s definitely my “dirty little secret” and I hate myself for it, but the addiction runs deep.  But I will take the advice to heart and try to come up with a plan!

• Barre Classes—4 a week—almost check—I did one flybarre, physique 57 arm and ab booster, and physique 57 thigh and seat booster, but feel a class short. I already have two barre classes scheduled this week, so hopefully I will hit all four this week!
• Reboot Fit for Class—check—Friday Fit Links can be found here

I was very excited to see Gena’s review of Gingersnap Organic!  If anyone wants to check it out Friday night or Saturday lunch, let me know!

Happy Monday Ya’ll!

Last night, I kind of got my wish!  Be careful what you wish for!

I received an invitation to attend a workout with Chris Powell, a trainer on Extreme Makeover: Weight loss Edition. Of course, I said yes, I am always up to check out a new workout!  The event was organized by Google, who was promoting Google Places.  Google Places lets you rate business,restaurants, pretty much anything, and then it also helps you find other businesses, restaurants, etc. based on your tastes. They hold 2-4 events a week, so you might want to follow them on twitter to get in on the action.

The event also gave the opportunity to check out 24 Hour Fitness in SoHo.  The gym was quite nice and quite busy for a Friday night.   It offered sweeping views of SoHo.

Ashley came along like a champ—the girl had a 10K this morning!

The class started out with a motivating speech from Chris.

Fans be warned this guy is seriously in love with his super cute wife, they are a great team.  In fact, his wife Heidi demonstrated the exercises that would comprise the class:

These included:

Burpees

Sit Ups

and a squat with overhead press

(Can we take a minute to talk about how this woman has had 3 babies, one only 6 months ago?)

After that it was out turn!  We were divided into teams of five with one person the designate pacer.  The pacer had to do 75 high knees and everyone else did the exercise at their station until they were done.  So the cycle went:

• 75 High Knees
• Burpees with push ups and claps overhead (killer after high knees)
• Sit ups (standard or in butterfly position)
• Squat with overhead press
• rest and cheer

We did this for 20 minutes, and let me tell you, it was a killer 20 minutes!  While it’s definitely more fun with a team, you could easily do this at home.

It was definitely Jillian Michael’s worthy on the intensity scale and we met some cool people in the process!

Our team with Chris!

Oh, and Ashley and I spied a Skinny Runner Tee!  It turned out to be Katie of Slowly But Surely!

Ashley and I both liked how it was team oriented but not overly competitive.  We also loved that 30 minutes including warm up and cool down was a complete workout.

Here is everyone:

And of course, it’s very important to refuel:

Mini Kind Bars

Green Juice, Coconut Water and Hint Water and a copy of Chris Powell’s Choose to Lose.

However, cooking, or should I say making, during the week rarely happens. 

So to change that, I proactively stocked my fridge with veggies, hummus, tempeh, yogurt and avocadoes—ingredients to  delicious to let wither and waste in the fridge.

My first meals of the year have included:

Salad with cuc, carrot, kiwi and avocado—and an unpictured side of baked sweet potato fries.

Fage topped with kashi go lean crunch

Quinoa and tempeh stuffed acorn squash (I somewhat loosely followed this recipe from Healthy Crush)

While this technically was a Sunday night recipe, I have repurposed it for lunch, adding avocado and hummus for a nice creamy flavor burst.

The inspiration for this dish came from a recent dinner at Cafe Blossom with Gena.   Their quinoa salad is outstanding! Gena was also inspired by her salad and created her own spinoff. 

I still LOVE eating out, but somehow food from home feels more nourishing. Now that I am on the right cooking track, I need to get in those barre classes—flybarre is on the docket for tomorrow!

• Start everyday with lemon water—how I start the day really sets the tone for the rest day.  In addition, I have been feeling pretty dehydrated for the last few months, so this seems like a simple way to start drinking more agua. Plus, I like the taste of lemon water WAY better than regular water.
• Make at least one meal a day at home—this one is kind of embarrassing to admit, but it is really easy to grab every meal out in NYC, so I have to start somewhere.
• Progress in my career
• Resume blogging at Fit for Class, it’s been on hiatus for a while.
• PR in something, ANYTHING!

I also have some fitness challenges for myself.  I plan to have a new challenge every month, here are the first four:

• JANUARY–Take 4 barre classes a week (in studio or DVD form)
• FEBRUARY—Take the stairs (9 floors) at least once a day.  I find this a good way to compensate for the severally decreased amount of walking in the winter.
• MARCH: Take at least 3 spinning classes a week.
• April: Run 5 miles four times a week.

I also kind of want to try the New Rules of Weight Lifting for Women program, but I haven’t 100% decided to go for it!

Speaking of challenges, Saturday I did one of Gina’s workouts. It always kills me!  Walking was actually a little painful yesterday!

Here is my slightly modified version:

• 20 minutes cardio with sprint burst
• Clock Lunges  (3 sets of 10 on each side).
• 45 seconds squat jumps
• leg lifts with stability ball (3 sets of 15)
• 45 seconds  of burpees
• 50 bicycle crunches
• deadlift with upright row (3 sets of 12)
• Bent over fly (3 sets of 10)
• Overhead press with tricep extension on ball
• Squat with bicep curl (3 sets of 15)

Now that I have recovered, it’s time to go to the gym!

Last Thursday was the third annual Christmas date night for the boy and I.  Our first will always remain fondly in my memory as we ate dinner near Rockefeller Center and witnessed three proposals on ice…which was a little awkward at the time, but we laugh now.

This night was just as special. We continued our Broadway and dinner tradition with Anything Goes and dinner at Bond 45.  Anything Goes was a classic Broadway music–light and fun.  The show stealing Sutton Foster was amazing!

After the show, we had dinner at Bond 45, an italian steakhouse just a couple blocks from the theater.

I started with the pear and goat cheese salad.

Frank got the meatballs.

For my main I got the eggplant paradelle, the pasta was a little bland, but the eggplant was good.

Frank got the fettuccine bolognese.

After dinner, it was time for our gift exchange:

I got Frank a pair of Robert Tateossian cufflinks, a bon temps shirt, a sweater and a homemade race bib holder—along with some stocking stuffers.

My gifts were themed around one of my favorite things: fitness!

I finally got RUNDIES! I may of hinted a time or two

And this funny marathon training shirt…

(For me no workout=cranky and moody, but the card still works ).

And a whole bunch of workout Gucci, I mean Lululemon!  Wahoo! Lulu is always a big treat!

On Christmas Adam, we met his family for dinner at Nobu.  It was my first time there, and I considered it a good omen when I realized that Nobu 57 is on the same block at Physique 57 and SLT!  Things were off to a good start!

We ordered a LOT of food, but I’ll just show a few highlights!

Crispy rice with tuna tartare and hearts of palm salad in the background.

The artic char, which was AMAZING!

Steak and blackened cod.

Fluke Miso

Fro yo.

My favorites were the fluke, char, lobster salad (not pictured) and shrimp tempura (not pictured, but amazing!).

But enough about food, this post is about running.  My last Christmas present was a frame with my marathon medal, bib, time and a place for a picture!  We saw these at the expo, but I never would have asked for it, as they weren’t cheap, but it was definitely a nice surprise.  Looking at this, I can’t imagine never running a marathon again, but no plans to for now!

It was pretty exciting!  I have all the gear and inspiration I could ask for, now I just need to start running! Home for the Holidays 10K anyone?

After the monsoon yesterday, it looks gorgeous outside! I better start my day!  I am going to go for a run, pick up some birthday presents, take Core Fusion Cardio at CPS (my last Core Fusion of my amazing GILT pack), and then meet GENA for dinner.  It’s gonna be a great day! 

Hope your holiday was filled with relaxation and maybe some inspiration too!

1.     Celebrity trainer Jackie Warner says drinking 3 liters of water a day with a dash of lemon juice can speed up your metabolism by 33% and burn up to 100 extra calories a day. 

2.     Physician and author Dr. Frank Lipman suggests that drinking whey protein shakes daily will boost your energy, strengthen your immune system and increase your resilience to stress.

3.     Dietitian Tanya Zuckerbrot suggests that focusing on portion control, as a way to monitor how much you eat, which will help you shed pounds more quickly.

4.     Author and motivational speaker Gabrielle Bernstein uses a balance ball chair to keep her core engaged while balancing all at the same time.

5.     Exercising with a personal trainer is costly so celebrity trainerValerie Waters suggests using an interval timer so you get the structured workout you need at a fraction of the cost!

6.     Actress and model Stacy Kiebler stays in shape while traveling by using travel weights so she can workout no matter where she may be.

7.     Chef and author Devin Alexander says its been proven that by writing down weight-loss and nutrition goals makes it 75% more likely that you’ll actually achieve them!

8.     No one knows fitness better than triathlete Brendan Brazier who says that staying hydrated during a workout is the easiest way to improve performance.

9.     Tony Horton, celebrity trainer and creator of P90X, says frozen bananas are a great pre- or post-workout food because they help to replenish the glycogen stores your body burns during a tough workout.

10. You may not think of desserts as health food, but actress and authorAlicia Silverstone says that vegan brownies and cookies are packed with healthy ingredients and bold flavors.

Disclaimer: I did not receive any compensation for this post.