Turkey Day in the Big Apple

Hopefully everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday. Mine was spent in NYC with family and friends and was filled with Broadway shows, shopping, and of course there was plenty of great food.
It can often be really difficult to continue to eat healthy while on vacation because you're constantly eating out and all of the delicious treats and temptations seem way more difficult to resist. It's more than fine and normal to allow yourself a few excuses to indulge like, "it's vacation" or "it's a holiday" a few times during the trip, but if you're trying to stay on track through the holidays, then you have to at least set some sort of a limit on all of the extra sweets, carbs, alcohol, etc.

With all of that being said, here's a look at some of the food I enjoyed over the break!

Dinner our first night in the city was at a great italian restaurant called Becco. I had the swordfish with tomatoes, olive oil, and pumpkin seeds, along with a piece of crusty bread and a few bites of everyone's pasta :) 

For lunch on Wednesday, my mom and I found this great little place in SOHO (near NYU) that had a number of vegan and vegetarian options. I had a small kale salad with strawberries and a cup of the chickpea and lentil soup. It was perfect!!

My mom had the soup along with a quinoa salad. 

THANKSGIVING DINNER: spent at Bobby Flay's restaurant in the city called Bar Americain. My mom and I are big Food Network fans so we were really looking forward to eating at Bobby Flay's restaurant. 

The menu was prefixed but still had plenty of variety. I started with a salad with apples, walnuts, and pomegranate seeds. I LOVED the addition of the pomegranate seeds so I will definitely be looking for these in the store to add to my salads at home. 

For my main coures I the seared salmon with cooked mushrooms. 

Dessert is un-pictured but I had apple crepes! 

 Friday morning my parents and I were venturing around the upper east side and found this awesome little vegan place. So we stopped in for breakfast, but ALL of their food looked delicious. I wish I could transport this place next to Hopkins...I would eat there 24/7.

I got the oatmeal for breakfast (with unlimited toppings!!) plus a freshly pressed juice with carrots, ginger, apples, and pineapple!

Dinner Friday night was at a restaurant on Park Avenue called Casa Lever. My parents and I had been there a couple of years ago and were excited to go back. Joey came up to the city on Friday afternoon, so he was there too! I had a cup of vegetable lentil soup to start and a piece of seared salmon with swiss chard for my main course (salmon two nights in a row...oops). 

 My family had to go home on Saturday morning, but Joey and I's train didn't leave until later that afternoon so we had plenty of time to hang out in the city.

Frist we got brunch in the upper west side at a restaurant called Isabella's. We started with a fruit plate to share.

My main course was an egg-white omelet with spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, and low-fat munster cheese. Joey had cinnamon-raisin french toast! Everything hit the spot!

In addition to all of that awesome food, I also enjoyed my fair share of Starbucks' skinny pumpkin spice lattés and a taste testing of two Magnolia Bakery cupcakes right before leaving Saturday evening. I tried pumpkin spice with cinnamon cream cheese icing and red velvet with whipped cream icing...and yes, they were as amazing as they sound. 

With all of that nom-ing going on, I felt that I had to at least do some sort of sweating each day in addition to walking all over the city! Wednesday I did take a much needed day off, but I was able to fit a 45 minute workout in at our hotel's surprisingly nice gym each morning. I know it can be really tough to find time to make it to the gym while on vacation because you're not always on your own normal schedule and it's definitely nice to just relax and take at least a day off (I definitely did), but it's also sometimes nice to just get in there and sweat even if it's just for a quick 20 minute run. It always makes me feel a little more comfortable and at ease for the rest of the day, but that's just me and maybe I'm just weird! 

Plenty of equipment!

Treadmills overlooking Times Square! 

Each day I got my cardio in with 30 minute run on the treadmill at a moderate pace (with a few sprints thrown in here and there). Then for strength training I did a minimum of 50 girl pushups every day as well as a little work with weights, alternating leg lunges, and the standard 5-minute ab routine. 

Here are a few other pictures of the trip, just for fun!

Mom, bro, me, Dad...Christmas card picture perhaps?

Walk in central park!

Joey and I went to the Museum of Natural History on Saturday and saw the dinosaurs! Rawr. 

Overall, I would say that the trip was a complete success. I had a blast with my family and friends and am so thankful for such a relaxing and fun Thanksgiving break in NYC. 

Now it's back to reality. Already can't wait for Christmas break!! 

I hope you guys had a great break too! Good luck returning to the real world tomorrow :) I know I'll need it....

Ready for a Break!

Last week was once again full of exams, Sirens, fun with friends, and unexpected time with family.
Here's a look at the past week in pictures!

First there was Sirens. We've had practice every day this week because our concert is right around the corner (November 30th!).

Dinner to practice with me. Raw veggies, apples with almond butter, and a warm cup of chickpea and lentil soup. 

Two of my best friends' birthdays were this week (Lara and Sami)! I love love love birthdays so this was a treat and I hope they had great days. On Saturday we went out to brunch to celebrate and I got a delicious "make your own" omelet with avocado, broccoli, mushrooms, tomatos, and spinach. 

Happy birthday you two!! Love you guys!!

This is what happens when you get tired of wearing heals for a whole practice...totes understandable...

I was able to spend some unexpected time with my family this week. They were visiting for a sad reason, but it was nice to be with them :) We went out to my favorite restaurant in Baltimore on Wednesday night--Woodberry Kitchen. It's a great place that focuses on fresh and organic farm to table food that is always very tasty. I mean, how could you beat a restaurant that serves pink lady apples with peanut butter as an appetizer??

Then I had to try some of the seasonal pumpkin soup...seems like I can't get enough soup lately. 

Farro with squash and sweet potatoes. 

My brother ordered a whole chicken I think...

Phi Mu Thanksgiving!
My sorority had a big Thanksgiving feast with for our whole chapter yesterday. Everyone pitched in by cooking and baking delicious food. We even had two turkeys! You wouldn't believe the spread. Phi Mu knows how to cook, that's for sure.

Debra carving the turkey! Props...

NOM...sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top...definitely a favorite of mine

NOM again

My plate consisted of spinach salad with apples and goat cheese, roasted squash and apples, vegan sweet potatoes, and some cheese and crackers...plus I went back for seconds of the sweet potatoes and salad...or maybe thirds ;)

Happy/full girls!

So that's a look at most of the food I've been consuming this week. I must say that despite the craziness of the last few weeks, I haven't let my general eating/working out habits suffer too much. Sometimes when everything else in life seems to be all over the place, it's nice to have some consistency..especially in the things that make you happy. For me that's eating healthy (generally) and working out consistently. 

This week working out has been a lot of uphill runs on the treadmill (I'm a baby about running outside when the weather gets cold), sprint intervals, and stationary biking. Additionally, I've been trying to really get my arms more toned so I've been focusing on more resistance band work and a little weight lifting (lighter weights with more reps). It's too soon to tell if it's paying off, but I feel great so that's all that matters for now. 

That's all I got! Have a very happy Thanksgiving with family and friends :) 

It's been almost two weeks since my last post! I sincerely apologize, but life has been a whirlwind over the past 10 days. I don't even know where to begin...so I'll just start with the pictures and go from there..
Last weekend Joey and I went to see Argo ( I highly recommend it by the way!) as a special treat. The movie theater is conveniently right next to a Whole Foods and so I suggested we park in their parking deck...just so we would have to go inside to get our parking ticket validated...sneaky sneaky ;)

I walked out with a few staples for the week since I haven't been to the grocery store in forever and ever.

Joey's snack for the movie (and I stole a few swedish fishies...love those guys)

Kombucha for moi!

A night's dinner- veggie and black bean soup with corn cakes for dipping, apple and almond butter on the side!

If you have every had those days (or weeks in my case) where it feels like every hour of your day is scheduled and filled with important things that just have to get done, then you understand how hard it can be to fit working out into that kind of crammed schedule. To avoid missing my daily run/essential destressor, I find that it's just easier if I get up a little earlier and head to the gym. 

Clearly I was not too happy about my alarm going off at 7am this particular morning...

One bonus to going to the gym bright and early is that very few people are ever there. In such a small gym like this one, it's nice not to have to worry about all of the equipment being taken. Plus I get to read my book while running in peace! 

Just me and my friends the treadmill and stationary bike tehe.

Lunch on Wednesday was a quinoa and cranberry salad + a locally grown apple from this great café on campus called Azafran. I don't get over to the building that it's in much, but when I do I'm always so pleasantly surprised by their healthy and vegetarian friendly selection!

Boring ol' salad from the cafeteria one night this week.

I was so pleased with Wednesday's lunch from Azafran, that I decided to go back to pick something up on Friday. Lentil and chickpea salad and another apple!

Aside from studying and Sirens keeping me busy this week, I also was in charge of planning a retreat for my sorority (Phi Mu!). A retreat is basically just a whole day of girly bonding between sisters. Ours featured fun activities like decorating Thanksgiving cards for the children's hospital, making Phi Mu picture frames, painting nails, eating (of course), and decorating sugar cookies! I had so much fun and I think my fellow sisters did too! Success! 

Just one of the MANY shopping carts full of supplies for the retreat. Gotta love Target.

Paper products out the wazoo 

Shopping to the MAX. 

RETREAT PICS:

Lara and Sami from Sirens were sweet enough to help me make tons of food for the retreat. It was huge help to have them!

Baking station!

NOM

My room has been supply central for the past few days, I could barely walk in there...

Starting the day in the food room!

Turkey hummus spinach wraps, mini deli sandwiches (on Hawaiian sweet rolls) and pb&j!

More food!

Apples galore from the farmers market! I think all of these were about $13!

I also made cinnamon rolls...who can resist them...

Yum!

Despite what these pictures depict, there were other things going on at the retreat besides eating. It was a lot of fun and I can't wait for the next one! 

I'm off to relax and watch Angels and Demons (I just finished the book!) and then hit the hay early. It's going to be one longgggg day in the library tomorrow studying for the 3 exams I have next week. Pooh. 

Night y'all!!