Books are cool.

Phew, so I just noticed all my posts so far are about health and fitness. I'm glad to be focusing on all of that again, but I can imagine it's a getting a wee bit boring for you all.

Anyways, for those of you who don't know, I've got a pretty awful commute (1.5 hours each way). When people ask how I do it every day, my usual response is: "I get a lot of reading done." And it's true; so far this year I've read 8 books (my goal for 2012 is 57 books). I'm part of two book clubs, read for my magazine's book page and also love to just read for fun. So I thought I'd share a few books that I really enjoyed. [NOTE: I HATE when people add spoilers to their reviews, so I made sure to give you the bare bones. If you read one, let me know what you think!]

From goodreads.com

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Synoposis:  Yale historian Diana Bishop unknowingly unlocks a long-lost enchanted manuscript and begins to attract the attention of witches, demons and vampires around the world—including that of 1,500-year-old vampire Matthew Clairmont. Together they embark on a dangerous journey to discover the manuscript’s clues to the past, present and future.

My review: I've always been a sucker for a good paranormal story. There's something about vampires, witches and other things that go bump in the night that has always fascinated me. And this book was definitely one of the best paranormal stories I've read in a long time. It wasn't just a silly love story or one filled with gloom and doom. You could tell the author put a lot of work in the details of the story, which was thoroughly appreciated. If you do read this book though, I suggest starting closer to July, so you can immediately hop into the second book, Shadow of Night, which comes out July 10.

From goodreads.com

The One-Week Job Project by Sean Aiken

Synoposis: Unsure of what he wants to do for the rest of his life, Aiken decides to spend a year testing out different jobs to explore what he does and doesn't enjoy. He tries out 52 different jobs n 52 weeks, including a bungee operator, an NHL mascot and an aquarium host.

My review: I feel like this is the perfect read for any college senior about to enter the unknown adult world. There are still plenty of times where I feel lost (and I am not longer a recent grad), and I think there are a lot of lessons to be learned from Aiken's book. The book also explores a range of careers that you may not necessarily learn about if you're studying/majoring in a specific topic. I really enjoyed it.

From goodreads.com

 Day After Night by Anita Diamant

Synoposis: Based on the amazingly true story of the October 1945 escape/rescue of more than two hundred prisons from the British internment camp, Atlit, where they detained 'illegal' immigrants. The story is told through the eyes of four young women who help orchestrate the whole thing: Shayndel, a Polish Zionist; Leonie, a Parisian beauty; Tedi, a hidden Dutch Jew; and Zorah, a concentration camp survivor.

My review: Although I did enjoy the book, it wasn't the most amazing read of the year. What did strike me though was the historical aspect. I find the WWII era absolutely fascinating to read about (and of course, most of the times, incredibly heart-breaking), but I had never really read about what happened immediately after the war especially in regards to the Jews. This book brought all of this to light for me, which I really appreciated. If WWII is an area of interest for you, I strongly suggest picking this book up.

5K training: Day 1

Yesterday was the first day I stepped on my old nemesis, the treadmill, in a little over two years. Now I’ve done other forms of exercising on and off since then, although I’m definitely not in shape. But I’ve always had the most trouble with running.

Back in 2009, I decided to wage war with the treadmill and had felt like I was actually winning. Unfortunately, the war came to a halt (or perhaps the treadmill had won?) because I moved to NYC and no longer had access to a treadmill. Now, not only am I waging war with the treadmill, but with running in general. Like I previously posted, I’ve decided to run a 5k called Run for the Wild to help save the lions. The run takes place at the Bronx Zoo (how cool, right?) in April.

I’ve been hesitant about returning to war, but I finally had no excuse to not jump back in. I’d like to consider yesterday a success. I ran/walked for about 20 mins. After a quick warm-up, I ran for as long as I could (about the length of one song, which may seem like nothing to all you crazy runners, but to me, it’s a lifetime), then I walked for a little bit, then I ran again as long as I could, and so forth, until I reached the cooldown. All-in-all, my total distance was about 1.5 miles. Not bad for a person who hasn’t really run in more than two years, right?

I think it helped to have good, aggressive music, too. My album of choice since high school (meh, I dated myself, eh?) is Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory. All of the songs are well-paced (for me), and they’re aggressive, which forces me to be aggressive. I recently bought myself an iPod Nano to help with my training, but I have yet to make awesome playlists, etc. Do you have any songs that help motivate you to run? Please share! Music is sort of crucial to my ability to run.

Photo from amazon.com

I’m also thinking about buying an armband for my nano. Do you use one? I was specifically looking at the AeroSport Active-use Armband, but I’ll probably just go to the store and see if they have any. Let me know if you have one that you absolutely love though!

Photo from: Griffintechnology.com

 I'm hoping to fit in Day 2 tomorrow (assuming I'm not any more sore than I am today). Wish me luck!

Mardi Gras!

Well, so far it turns out, I’m not a very consistent blogger. I had a feeling this would happen since February has been one of the busiest months I’ve had in a while. I also find it hard to motivate myself to write outside of work. But hopefully I’ll find a way to make this work.

Speaking of making goals, it’s officially Fat Tuesday, which means Lent starts tomorrow. I’m not really a practicing Catholic, but there is something about Lent that draws me in every year.

This year I’ve decided to give up:

1) Potato/tortilla chips. This is probably one of my favorite snacks in the entire world and my most consumed snack food. I thought about going totally potato-less, but with March Madness coming and frequent trips to Bark Hot Dogs, I feel this would be impossible. Baby steps, my friends.

From Kettlebrand.com

2) Electronics after 11pm. I did this last year, and overall, it was pretty successful. I often felt more rested and got more reading in.

3) Blog at least twice a week. This goes without saying.  (Is it tacky to include this post for this week?)

Are you giving up anything for Lent?

My Juice Cleanse: The final day

**Posted late. Probably because I was so out of it by Friday night. Juice cleanse fail.

THE LAST DAY!

9:45amish: Got a really late start today because the bus left me behind today. You know the deal though. I’m on bottle #1, and I feel ok.

11:45am: Bottle #2. Back to green juice. Doing ok.

12:46pm: On Friday, we get free pizza for lunch. I can’t have any today. This may be my biggest challenge yet (other than trying to make it through a whole movie without going to the ladies room).

1:36pm: Bottle #3. Just want to get to lemonade to have something different. This is the hardest part of the day for me.

3:30pm: Ahh, a change. Bottle #4. Although it still burns going down my throat. My body feels energetic, but my mind is slowing down.

4:39pm: Seriously getting hungry. More than halfway finished with bottle #4, which I usually don’t finish until I’m leaving work! That’s in another hour. This is a problem.

6:30pm-ish: Started 5 bottle on the train because I was feeling extra hungry.

8pm-ish: Ahh, I can’t get over this cashew milk. SO GOOD. Makes everything all better.

**I got the cleanse through work for free. 

My Juice Cleanse: Day 2

9:30am: And we’re on to Day 2. I feel like I slept better last night than I have in the past few weeks, so that was nice. My morning was pretty normal as well. Although I started to get a little hungry on the commute.

11:34am: On to bottle #2. So while I got the classic cleanse, my co-worker got the seasonal cleanse. We switched our #2 bottles today, and hers is made from orange, blackberry and apple. It’s very sweet. In a way, I kind of wish I had just gone with the green juice. But I’ll be back to that soon enough tomorrow.

1:46pm: Just went and got bottle #3. WANT. REAL. FOOD. This cleanse is all beautifying and detoxing, etc. but dude, someone give me a burrito. I haven’t caved and eaten my celery yet, but well, I am not a happy camper.

4:00pm-ish: Bottle #4 still burns as it goes down my throat. I am growing increasingly cranky. I still want the burrito, too. Why did I think a cleanse would be a good idea? (Although, I should add that I’m still not really hungry. I just really miss solid food.)

6:30pm-ish: On to bottle #5. Very tired of cleansing. But (and this could very well be the most important thing you learn from my experience) going to the movies when cleansing turns out to be a bad idea. Movies are long, and your bladder will hate you. (My Week with Marilyn was great though, and I only missed maybe 3 minutes.)

9:15pm: Ahh, my favorite bottle of the day: #6. All is well with the world again, and I’ve survived day 2 of the cleanse (without eating any celery!).

Frankly, the evenings are much easier to handle. It’s around lunchtime that I have trouble with. I can’t say I think this cleanse will curb my cravings, but I’m glad I’ve stuck with it so far.


This should have gone up yesterday, but I had computer problems. Sorry!
**I got the cleanse through work for free. 

My Juice Cleanse: Day 1

I’ve always been fascinated with (real) juice cleanses (not the master cleanse). It’s not that I want to do it to lose weight or even detox; I just love juice. (I’ve always been a bit of an odd duck.) Today I’m finally going to do it. I’m starting a 3-day juice cleanse from Ritual Cleanse.

The build-up: They give you all these “rules” before you start the cleanse, like no eating meat or processed foods a few day before you start or no more alcohol or caffeine before you start. Let’s be clear here. My last true meal was a chili cheese hot dog, French fries and a root beer float. I wasn’t very good at following the rules. I’m also supposed to start my day with hot water and lemon. Well, I did not buy lemons in time. So it’s just juice and water.

9:26am: Ok, technically I should start at 9am, but I have to get settled at work first. Juice 1 contains spinach, romaine, kale, celery, cucumber, green apple and lemon. I think it’s actually delicious.

11:30am: On to bottle #2, which is essentially the same as #1 except without lemon. So far I feel extremely tired and a wee bit dizzy, but I think that’s from lack of sleep. I kind of miss eating already and feel like I’m going to drown in juice. But otherwise, I’m doing fine.

2:04pm: Just now starting bottle #3. I got a little behind with an unexpected meeting. This is the same as bottle #1 as well, except without lemon and with ginger. You can definitely taste the ginger, but still another good juice. I still feel a little weird, and I really want to chew on something. But overall, I’m ok.

4:12pm: We’re up to bottle #4, which has alkaline water, lemon, raw agave and cayenne. I’m definitely grateful for a change. While I love green juice, getting through three of them was a little tough. Although I think this one might be a little too spicy for my taste. We’ll see what happens. I still missing chewing though.

7:13pm: With the commute home, I got a pretty late start on bottle #5, which was the same as bottle #2. I feel a little cranky, but I’m not necessarily hungry. It’s a very odd feeling. I also stopped by the grocery store to pick up celery in case I can’t make it through tomorrow. Better to have an “ok” cheat than to cheat entirely, right?

9:30-ishpm: FINALLY! Bottle #6 is made with Alkaline water, raw cashews, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and raw agave. IT IS DELICIOUS. It also has gritty nut bits that sort of enable you to “chew” it, which is a huge relief. I feel like I’m going to go to bed completely satisfied.

So folks, I’ll probably be up another hour or so, but I’ve survived Day 1 of the cleanse. But I’m seriously packing celery tomorrow just in case.

**I got the cleanse through work for free.