Scenes from my weekend - Music

I love New York City in the summer. Yes, it can be hot and humid and gross, especially if you have to commute by subway day in and day out, but there are so many things going on from outdoor concerts and movies to farmers markets in full swing to free outdoor fitness classes. The city also seems to quiet down since many New Yorkers leave town. It almost feels empty at times. 

One of the best things about living in Brooklyn is the Celebrate Brooklyn! concert series in Prospect Park. It brings together an amazing line-up of well-known and up-and-coming performers for free concerts throughout the summer. In all our years of living here, incredibly, Ed and I have never attended a Celebrate Brooklyn event. We've watched and listened from outside of the fence surrounding the event space but we've never actually been inside the fence. 

On Friday, we finally stepped inside. They've created this cool, laid-back vibe in the middle of Prospect Park, kind of like you are at a music festival somewhere out in the woods and not in the middle of Brooklyn. We went to see the Head and the Heart, a great band from Seattle. I first saw the band back in March and couldn't wait to see them again. It felt good to have an adult evening. 

Weekly Chase time! My goals for last week were to complete Week 1 of the JCORE and clean up my eating habits. Today is Day 9 of the 40 day program and I have to tell you, those 20 minute workouts are intense. It's not so much that the exercises themselves are hard per se but that they challenge your muscles to balance and stabilize your body which I believe is a lot harder than just pumping a lot of weights. I'm sore but in a I've-missed-feeling-this-sore kind of way. This week, I start a new set of JCORE workouts and I excited to see how the workouts progress and change.
The eating part...has been more challenging. I mentioned last week that I'm not good at sticking with a specific diet or meal plan. And I haven't. I'm not good at keeping a food journal or configuring my meals to meet a specific allotment of protein, carbs, fats, fruits and veggies per meal. I try to pay attention and make sure that I'm staying within the general guidelines.
Lastly, this wasn't in my goals for last week but I finally bit the bullet and set up a Facebook page for the blog. It's been a long time coming. Now it's up! It will be a place where I will share interesting tidbits, articles and workouts that I come across, keep you updated on ASP surf contests and be a place where we can have more conversation. Won't you come over, take a look and like my page if you're so inclined? 
For this week, my goals include:

1. Complete Week 2 of JCORE
2. Continue to focus on improving my eating by being mindful, eating more vegetables and protein (i.e. don't live on Chobani and granola alone), and drink more water. I realize that this is going to be an on-going process in order to change old habits. 

I'm also doing some other housekeeping here on the blog and there might be some changes coming up this week. Stay tuned!

Did you have a good weekend? What tips do you have to help you eat clean? What do you like to see on Facebook pages? What kinds of things would you like to see on my Facebook page?

Scenes from my weekend - Cousins, Heat and Water

Oh my gosh this weekend was HOT! Was it hot where you are too? With my sister and niece visiting, there was no lounging around in an air conditioned house watching Wimbledon. There were three children to entertain (and to wear out by the end of the day) which meant lots of time at the playground and splashing in the sprinklers. It was fun to have the kids together. I grew up with my cousins. We saw each other practically every weekend. Now, it's fun to watch my sons' relationships with their cousins develop and evolve as they get older. 

Monday morning also means that it's time for The Weekly Chase. Last week, I set 4 goals to focus on:
1. Swim 1-2 times. Done! I swam 2 times last week and had good swims, the kind where it felt effortless in the water. Each swim was about 2500 yards and 40-45 minutes. I really love being in the water and find that swimming is one of the rare times that I manage to quiet my mind and slow things down.
2. Go to bed before midnight. Still working on this one but this is better than normal! I managed to get to bed before midnight 4 of 7 days last week. Two of those late nights were due to work. I really do need to work on this because I know that everyone is happier when I get more sleep :-)
3. Cook a real dinner at least 2 nights this week. Does it count if my husband cooked dinner?? This was a total fail. Honestly, I don't know what we (my husband and I) eat for dinner. The kids are fed three square meals every day. Why is it so hard to feed the parents?
4. Do physical therapy exercises every day + plank. Better than last week. I managed to remember to do my PT exercises 5 out of 7 days. Again, the two days that I missed were due to work. But, I have a renewed commitment to physical therapy. I decided to switch physical therapists this week and am so glad that I did. More on that later. I also did my plant-a-day thanks to Ilene's plank challenge.
For this week, I've decided to focus on 1 goal. I find that it can be hard to focus on more than 2 goals during the span of a week. I'm a perfectionist at heart and I don't want to do a half-hearted job. Plus, I don't know if I'm giving myself enough time to achieve my goals. Changing habits takes time. It can often take more than a week to recognize patterns behavior and then consciously make decisions to change that behavior. 
My goal for the week is to get more SLEEP. That's where everything starts, right? When you are well-rested, you are able to make better decisions about work, food, exercise, etc. Plus, I'm a much nicer, more patient and well-behaved person when I have gotten adequate sleep. I've been sacrificing my sleep for too long now and it's wearing on me. I'm tired!!
Help me - What are some of your tips for getting a good night's sleep? How can I make myself go to bed earlier? P.S. How was your weekend?

Scenes from my weekend - Birthday

View from Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park

Yoga (1991) by Mark di Suvero

Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture

I've never really been a big birthday person. Maybe it's because my birthday is in the summer and, with most friends away or at camp during the summer, I never really had big birthday celebrations (I don't think?). So, it suited me just fine that my birthday on Saturday was like any other day - swim and gym class with one son and a day at the park with the family. We headed over to Pier 1 in Brooklyn Bridge Park - the gorgeous park that starts at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge and wraps it's way around the Brooklyn waterfront. The sculpture in the picture above is by Mark di Suvero and is a 30-foot tall kinetic sculpture installed in partnership with Storm King Art Center. The large I-bean, which is bent into a U-shape, rocks and pivots along the pole and create different shadows and perspectives depending on its position.

On Sunday, we took a drive up to Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture near Tarrytown, about 45 minutes outside of the city. It's a nonprofit farm and education center and operates a 80-acre four-season farm. It runs a number of education programs for children and families but also trains farmers (particularly young farmers) in resilient farming techniques. We've visited with the kids a few times before but I think that this is the first time that they were truly interested in seeing how the farm actually works. We explored the vegetable gardens and greenhouses, visited with the chickens, pigs, sheep, cows and turkeys, and had a picnic in the grass. It's a pretty cool place and I really admire the work that they are doing on broader initiatives to create a healthy and sustainable food system.

The Weekly Chase
Last week, I joined my friend Melissa from Live, Love, & Run in The Weekly Chase - a new project that Melissa is starting to connect bloggers with other bloggers to support each other up as we chase down goals that we want to accomplish for the week. It's super simple to join up. Just head over to Melissa's blog, grab a badge and declare your goals!



I accomplished 2 of my 3 goals for last week.
1. Green Smoothie Challenge: I completed the green smoothie challenge. I'll have more on green smoothies later this week. Thanks Amanda for putting me up to the challenge. I think that I've found a new love.
2. Swim once during the week: This almost didn't happen. For me, one of the hardest things about swimming is actually getting to the pool during lap swim hours which are typically early in the morning or in the evening. I committed to swimming early Thursday morning, but when I arrived at the pool, the pool was closed because the chlorine levels were too high. WHAT??!
What a little extra chlorine?? Luckily, the NYC public pools opened this week and we planned on taking the boys after camp on Friday. So, Ed was kind enough to hang out with the boys while I swam laps. I only swam half an hour and didn't feel great. A combination of being tired, dehydrated and out of swimming shape. But it was good to be back in the pool. 
3. Physical Therapy exercises: I did my exercises 4 out of 7 days - far from every day, which is what I was aiming for. Not good. Frankly, I forget about them. But, I know that I need to keep doing them. As my doctor said to me last week, I still have a long way to go in order to get back to where I started from.
My goals for this week are pretty similar to last week.

1. Swim 1-2 times this week.
2. Go to bed before midnight.
3. Cook a real dinner at least 2 nights this week.
4. Do physical therapy exercises every.single.day + plank

Did you accomplish your goals last week? What are your goals for the week? How do you celebrate your birthday? Did you have a good weekend?

Scenes from my weekend - Asheville

First of all, thank you so much for your incredible comments on my post on Friday. After a frustrating week like last week, I was so grateful to read your kind words and encouragement. I mean, I know that we all struggle with balance but to actually feel the support from everyone? Unbelievable. I think that people at the airport thought that I was crazy as I teared up several times as I read each comment as they came in. 

This weekend was just want I needed to reset. We've had so much fun exploring Asheville, NC. It's a charming place. Incredible beauty all around with lots of rivers, mountains and waterfalls to explore. Music pouring out of every other restaurant or bar and musicians strumming on street corners. It kind of reminded me of that episode of the Gilmore Girls when the Stars Hollow troubadour makes it big and leaves town and would-be troubadours invade the town to take his place. Idyllic. There's a prominent local food culture here too and we've been enjoying delicious meals (so much food!!). Best of all, we've had a chance to properly catch up and chat. I'll share some of our fun adventures from the weekend throughout the week.


I'm also really excited about this idea that Melissa from Live, Love & Run had to start something called The Weekly Chase - about connecting bloggers with other bloggers to help each other reach our goals. Every week, bloggers will post one or more goals that they would like to chase down that week. The goal(s) can be anything that you want to achieve that week - fitness, nutrition/eating, home/organizing, etc. Won't you join us in The Weekly Chase?



My goals for the week are:

1. Finish off the Green Smoothie Challenge!
2. Go swimming at least once this week.
3. Do my physical therapy exercises EVERY DAY. Lately, I've had a hard time doing them lately and have been skipping them some (most?) days.

What are you goals for the week? What fun things did you do this weekend?

Scenes from my weekend - Memorial Day

I hope that you all are enjoying a nice long weekend. I don't know about where you are but it's been downright HOT over here. I think that it was hovering around 90 degrees today? Hazy, hot and humid for sure. It felt more like August than the end of May. By the way, I cannot even believe that it's the end of May already. How did that happen?

My sense of time has also been a little messed up all weekend. I kept thinking that it was Saturday when it was really Sunday. It has been a really busy week and when you freelance, your days kind of run into each other. I often feel like there are no real weekends - any time that I have free I feel like I should be working because that's time that I could be billing. For once though, I have taken the weekend completely off. I've also taken a step back from social media save for a few pictures to Instagram. OK and maybe occasionally checking Twitter but it's not the same compulsive twitch that I normally experience (Hi, my name is Christine and I'm a Twitter addict).

This weekend has been made up of lots of little moments. A belated Mother's Day celebration at a local restaurant. While the boys enjoyed french fries, which Everett couldn't seem to stuff in his face fast enough, Ed and I shared a delicious kale salad that was crispy and spicy, flecked with red pepper flakes and grated parmesan. This was followed by mini tuna sliders which were de-li-cious.  Then, a quick trip to visit my in-laws so that the boys could spend some time splashing around in the kiddie pool which, incidentally, seems to get bigger and bigger each year. I think that my Father-in-Law relishes the opportunity to go out and buy a new pool to delight the kids.

Tell me, how did you spend your holiday weekend? Big plans or hanging out at home and grilling? What are some of your favorite summer eats?

Speaking of summer, did you happen to catch my guest post over on Lindsay's List last week about getting started surfing? If not, head on over there and check it out!

Scenes from my weekend - Bloggy Bootcamp

It's been a whirlwind weekend. On Friday, I headed down to Philadelphia to attend Bloggy Bootcamp - a one-day conference run by Francesca and Tiffany from SITS. It was an incredible event and my head is still spinning from all the information and ideas about blogging and social media that I came home with from the conference. I'll have a more complete recap later this week.

On Friday night, the ladies at Girls Lunch Out (GLO) hosted a networking cocktail party at Marathon Gril Restaurant. It was fun to get dressed up (and I even wore an outfit that the stylists from Style for Hire suggested!) and to meet more bloggers in real life. As we mingled and munched on cheese, crudite and cupcakes, we learned about UPS' new service My Choice which allows you to have more flexibility in managing your deliveries as well as Google Places in Philadelphia (did you know that Google bought Zagat? How did I miss that??) and TimeToPlayMag.com which provides a wealth of information on the latest toys, video games and entertainment products.

I was most excited about getting to meet Kristen from The Preppy Girl in Pink. I don't remember how Kristen and I came across each other's blog but she was someone that I connected with instantly. When we finally met on Friday, it felt like I was catching up with an old friend. We both may have done a little happy dance upon meeting. Never in a million years did I expect to develop real life friendships from the blogging but that's exactly what's starting to happen.

Thanks to the GLO Cocktail Party sponsors UPS, TimeToPlayMag.com and Google Philadelphia for a great evening!

Scene from my weekend - Mother's Day

Everett as the Statue of Liberty. Can't you see it in the background?

It was a gorgeous, warm and sunny day here in New York City. I was woken up bright and early at 6:30am when Jasper and Everett burst into the room to wish me a Happy Mother's Day. I was happy that they were so excited but I could barely open my eyes. I tried to smile and act like I was awake but all I could think of was, "Just a half hour more sleep!!"

Jasper, in particular, was bursting to give me all the cards and presents that he had made for me over the week. The cards and artwork were very sweet. Everett made me a jewelry box and both boys made me plates at school. Funny thing is that after giving me my presents, they both re-claimed the plates for themselves. Oh well. I honestly really just treasure their art and their drawings in Mommy's Special Book.

We spent as much of the day as possible outside and enjoying the weather, wandering around waterside parks picking flowers and pretending to be the Statue of Liberty, exploring the newly renovated playground in the neighborhood and, of course, eating ice cream. Brothers holding hands and watching out for each other. But also brothers running away from each other.

With this Mother's Day, I realized that it wasn't just about me. I didn't really care about gifts, special meals or anything like that. It was more about making the day special for the boys - letting them celebrate in their cute little ways and showing them that they are loved.

{Linking this post up with Galit and Alison for Memories Captured}

Scenes from my weekend - Las Vegas

Quick tabata circuit

The Space Shuttle Enterprise arrived in NYC on Friday and is hanging out in a hangar at JFK

A quick 36 hour trip to Las Vegas for much needed girls' weekend with my sister, cousin and good friend. The other reason we traveled to Vegas - to see Jon Bon Jovi play Tiger Jams, a benefit for the Tiger Woods Foundation.

We arrived Saturday morning. The sun was warm and skies blue. We lunched by the pool and had a massage. We watched movies in our room and chatted, catching up on life. My sister insisted on working out so we came up with a quick tabata circuit to spike her heart rate. It was kind of fun sitting on the couch yelling out the time intervals while she sweated her way through the exercises.

I have mentioned before that I have been a Bon Jovi fan for pretty much my entire life. His music and songs bring back memories of fifth grade field trips and dances in the school cafeteria when Slippery When Wet topped the charts. His music appears again in my life's soundtrack during high school and a summer spent doing a community service project far from home. While the concert wasn't a typical Bon Jovi show (it was just Jon and a back-up band), it was great fun to rock out and watch Jon dance around on stage and do what he does best.

No, we didn't leave the hotel during the 36 hours that we were there. There was no gambling or over-indulging in food and drink. There really wasn't any reason too. It was perfect just to spend time in the company of these women in my life.