workout music: pump up the jams

Believe it or not, this photo only includes half of my bangs.

I think one of the key ingredients in my transformation from someone who hated to be doing much more than walking to someone who tries to keep up with the real athletes at the gym has a lot to do with my music.

When I first started experimenting with the "gym environment" in an effort to be fit for a scantily-clad musical I was in freshman year I tried to listen to music I liked in the gym, instead of music that would really be inspiring in an active environment. Thankfully, I didn't try to get on the treadmill to Joni Mitchell, but I did have a "workout" playlist that consisted of Ben Folds, The Fratellis, and some equally upbeat, but not driving songs.  Things got a little better when our gym at school got fancy and I could watch TV, but I found that I was more interested in whatever the Cooking Channel¹ was making than concentrating on my workout.

After a trip to Atlanta  in which my friend Stephanie, Queen of Pop Music, opened my eyes to a few particularly blood-pumping songs, I decided to bring some of "her type" of music to the gym with me.  I noticed a difference after the first song; with such a strong, unquestionably loud beat that seemed to be programmed right at my average speed on the elliptical, nothing could stop me from keeping up with the music.  If I started the song in tempo, I can easily tell if I've slowed down at any point during the song.  For me, it's also a guilt-free way to get my not-so-artistic music² fix in. The songs on my playlist, which I shuffle daily, are:

• Bad Romance - Lady Gaga
• Born This Way - Lady Gaga
• Circus - Britney Spears
• Paper Planes - MIA
• Poker Face - Lady Gaga
• Summer Girl - Leighton Meester
• TiK ToK - Ke$ha
• Toxic - Britney Spears

The only song on there that isn't unabashedly electropop is Summer Girl, which is fine when it comes up during an off-interval.  Sometimes I stretch to Rufus Wainwright's "Poses."

Simply put, it doesn't matter what you listen to while you work out, so long as it motivates you.  Watching TV, reading, checking your phone- these are all things that can help pass the time more quickly, but they also take your mind of your purpose, and when you're concentrating on what you're doing and how you're doing it, reaching your goals is much easier.

That being said, I am getting a little tired of my current playlist. What are your suggestions? Send your playlists as a list with YouTube links or a zipped set of mp3 files to SweatingItBlog@gmail.com. I'll try them all out and the best one will be announced a future blog post!

¹Ironically, both my gym at school and at home have the Cooking Channel or the Food Network preprogrammed into their selections. Ironic? Strange? Maybe. Is it what I always end up watching? Of course.
²This applies to pretty much everyone on my playlist except Lady Gaga. But even her sometimes.

rise and shine!

By this point in the day (10am EST), I've typically spent an hour at the gym, eaten breakfast, and showered.  Two years ago, that would have been a joke.

My sleep cycles have definitely changed as I've become more of a crotchety old person and less of a college student, but even though I enjoy getting up around 8:30 nowadays, that doesn't mean I'm usually egging to stumble out of bed into my workout clothes and down the stairs to the gym.  Ever since forcing myself to get my ass on the elliptical in the early hours, though, I haven't been able to stop.

My schedule at Bryn Mawr is pretty demanding, even now, as a senior, when most of my work is done independently.  I can expect to be working (either in class or self-supervised) an average of 6-7 hours a day.  Directly after class or a few hours in the library, I'm usually on my way to rehearsal, which can fluctuate in intensity and time commitment.  There are little pockets in there where I used to try to fit in workouts (before dinner, between classes, after rehearsal), but I was always pretty low energy by the time I got to the gym.  I also ran into the pesky problem of needing to bring clothes with me, needing to freshen up before going out again, and never really falling into a routine.

Routine is really big with exercise.  Once you've established your exercise schedule, there's definitely some amount of self-deprecating guilt you assign to yourself when you skip. But it's not only the guilt that keeps me waking up early every day; I just feel good after I go to the gym.  I don't know if it's the fact that I feel some sense of accomplishment, or just physiological reasons alone (you know, getting oxygen pumping throughout my body, increasing my metabolism, yada yada), but when I don't do at least 30 minutes of cardio every day (the bare minimum and base of my workout), I'm a low energy, grumpy lady.

Something that is a little tricky for me with morning workouts is what to eat before and after, but I've gradually worked out foods for pre and post workout consumption that will both energize me help my muscles recover.*

For some people a morning workout might be a little difficult to get into at first, but it has really changed my lifestyle entirely.  Now that the first thing I accomplish every day is my workout, not only does the threat of it hanging over my head as the day goes on disappear, but I'm left energized and ready to accomplish whatever else the day brings. Morning workouts are also proven to:

• speed up your metabolism
• help your body regulate its circadian rhythm (that annoying little guy who tells you when to go to sleep and wakes you up around the same time every day)
• burn more stored calories than workouts done later in the day (since you're coming off 8 hours [mostly] without food, your body taps into fat reserves to fuel your workout)
• help you get to sleep more quickly at night

Try out a morning workout this week and see if you feel a difference- for me it was the difference between working out and not. It could do even better for you.

*I'm going to detail eating around workouts in a later post, so stay tuned!

sweet green

On a recent trip to Suburban Square in good ol' Ardmore, PA, I noticed a new and exciting storefront standing out against all the others that would normally only interest Main Line Moms.  The boyfriend and I checked it out, and instantly made plans to return after spring break when we found out that sweet green was an organic, mostly locally-sourced salad and froyo restaurant. During our first meal there, we found out that not only are they into great, healthy food, but they also provide compostable containers and utensils for literally everything they give out in the store. Their furniture and decorations are made from reclaimed wood, several of their stores use solar power... what's not to love?

The food is excellent, also. You can create your own masterpiece or let the restaurant do the creating for you. Today I sampled the Chic P salad (pronounced Sheek-Pee, ooh la la!), which is a vegan salad featuring "mesclun and baby spinach with baked falafel, chickpeas, cucumbers, fresh peppers, pita chips; topped with a lemon hummus tahini dressing." I added some feta cheese for a kick. They also give you delicious bread, and have a nice selection of drinks available (lemonade, HonesTea, and a BOYLAN'S SODA FOUNTAIN!) The whole meal rings in around 650 calories! Very healthy and super filling!

Don't forget dessert! Who can resist frozen yogurt? There's something so refreshing about it, and in its plain tart state, it is fat free without getting involved with any nasty fake sugars like aspartame, which is believed to be a carcinogen. 

The only thing I have a tiny bit of disdain for at this restaurant is the marketing used to portray it as "fashionable." If you're spending the money to eat locally-sourced, organic food, I certainly hope you are doing it because you believe it can do some good, not only because you want to see and be seen in this "trendy" restaurant. Fashionable or not, sweet green is doing a great job to bringing healthy, organic values to the Main Line, and that is definitely something I can get behind.

If you are in the DC or Philadelphia areas (a new Philly location is opening at UPenn shortly), by all means, get thee to a sweet green for a healthy, local, and satisfying lunch or dinner.* Let me know what your favorite salad is- I'm dying for more sweet treats!

*If you're not in the area, make sure you check out sweetgreen.com- their website is fun and informative!

Introduction

Recently I have become more interested in living healthily.

I noticed while I was living in Russia and eating 20% milkfat sour cream every day¹ that if I didn't move around, other than my trudge to and from the metro in the bitter cold, my bodily functions didn't, well, function. I won't get into the graphic details or anything, but let's just say I had to make a change. I started going to Pilates, Step and Belly Dancing at the gym across the street. It carried the VERY Russian name of ALEX FITNESS (in Latin letters and all), and had a pretty western attitude toward working out².

That was the beginning, and there was no looking back. After Russia, I went to the gym a few times a week over the summer, and when I got back to school this year, I finally started taking advantage of the fact that our campus gym is literally a two minute walk from my dorm. Somehow this developed into a 4-5 trip per week habit that leaves me grumpy if not completed each morning³, and along the way I started becoming more aware of what food I was consuming, wasting a lot of precious time reading about health and wellness related issues online, and unknowingly choosing a healthier lifestyle.

I decided to start writing about these experiences publicly because I feel like even the best health and beauty sites (like Self.Com, for instance) provide unreachable examples and goals for those attempting to better themselves, making the task, although a commitment, seem harder than it is. While I am "no Angelina Jolie,"⁴ I think I can be a resource for the normal person who wants to make some lifestyle changes. This blog isn't only going to be about eating healthy and getting fit; once I'm in my own place, I hope to be cooking and sharing some recipes. Also, thanks to an Environmental Studies class I'm taking, I have been brainwashed into the pursuit of a green lifestyle.  Pretty much anything is game here, just as long as it leaves us "healthy, wealthy,⁵and wise."

¹Russians laugh at you when you ask them if non-fat milk exists there.  I never saw any milk product with less than 5% milkfat.
²Once the westernization of my step class surprised me; the teacher asked everyone to get what sounded like a "bohdeebahr" po russki, but was actually just a BodyBar. 
³Yes, I'm even GETTING UP EARLY to do this shit!
⁴When I was teasing my older brother about his physical state, this is what he said to me. The ringing of this insult in my ears may or may not have gotten my ass out of bed a few (or more) times recently.
⁵I recently spent $50 on a sports bra. Additionally, a picnic lunch for two of goat cheese, crackers, salami, pasta salad and iced tea at a local FoodSource cost a friend and me $52. HEALTH IS EXPENSIVE. PICNICS ARE HARD.