Of course we judge a book (and others according to Laurie Cole) by its cover.

photo via Us Weekly

I’m still editing this book though I can see a finish line in sight. We’ve been tweaking different version of the front (and back) cover and I’m fairly certain “let’s put this to bed” from my publisher means they’re annoyed with my desire to get things just right. Too bad, to me the details matter. I, for one, judge a book by its cover, a wine bottle by its label and pretty much anything else based on its design/looks. Sure, that may make me shallow but I prefer to say I’m aesthetically conscious.

As I thought about this, I was reminded of a quote from Laurie Cole a, or to many, “the” SoulCycle instructor.  I’ve never taken her class but I've seen photos and I’m judging (you can too above)- she’s gorgeous. To The New York Times, in a piece about eating habits, she said

“Bottom line, I eat for fuel. I have to be in front of people in really skimpy outfits every single day."

For the record, she also mentioned her breakfast of 1-2 hard-boiled eggs. Although food to me is so much more than fuel, what Laurie said stayed with me. Thank god, I don’t have to go to work in skimpy outfits (and don’t think a nutritionist should ahem) but how I look for what I do matters. I joke that if I gain 10 pounds I’m out of business. While that may not be 100% true, it’s pretty true. And I get it because whether we’re talking books or bods, we all judge.

And I'm asking you to judge me. Here are two cover options with different fonts:

I will not give you any more information (don’t want to bias you) but please tell me, which option to do prefer? Foodtrainers will most likely be printed in white and print will be more clear in the actual book than on my screen but is there one you like better? If anybody knows me and my brand it’s those of you who humor me with a few minutes a week of reading time. I think of you as I’m writing and fighting for each silly detail.

Foodtrainers Favorite NYC places…and my anniversary

Fifteen years ago today it was raining. Perhaps you remember “El Niño”?  My brother in law carried me across the lawn in a garbage bag. Don’t freak out, he was making sure my wedding gown didn’t get dirty (and it didn’t) going from the house where we got ready in to the car. That's how awful it was out. On any other day, this self-confessed control freak would’ve been inconsolable but I wasn’t. The weather wasn’t ideal but getting married was.

Marc and I didn’t rush into marriage and had time to iron out important details. In one conversation he asked “how long do you think you’ll want to stay in the city before moving out?” I couldn’t fathom that this person I had so much in common with would ask such a thing. I said “we’re not leaving the city” and I’m pretty sure he thought I’d change my mind but he is still golf-obsessed and what can I say?
 I love NY.

A reader asked for ideas for an upcoming NYC business trip. Here are my suggestions:

Top 10 restaurants for various reasons:

ABC Kitchen- I insist on sharing whenever I'm at ABC, there are too many good things to try. My favorites are the Brussels sprouts in the winter and the  Roasted Carrot Salad. Marc's brother's girlfriend took the photos hanging in the dining room (you may recognize them from the Footrainers office)

Rouge Tomate I am not on the Upper East Side often but will make a trip for RT. If the Sorrel Soup is on the menu, it's delicious. Their interesting juices and salads with curry vinaigrette are other highlights.

Green Square Tavern- this farm to table gem is owned by our friends Gigi and John Marsh. All ingredients well sourced and prepared with love and care. Try the Kale, Shrimp and Rhubard salad.

Mermaid Inn - from the decor to the menu, everything here is right. There are 2 locations, we love the UWS restaurant. In season, the crabs are a fun dinner (a little messy) but the Calamari with Feta appetizer has my heart.

Pure Food and Wine - I've mentioned before that I'm not a sweet person, right? Well I lied. Aside the the spectacular outdoor seating and a menu that makes me contemplate being a raw, vegan I dream about the chocolate mint sundae, dream.

Gran Electrica - you may recall my Halloween cocktail was the Gran Electrica grapefruit, jalapeno margarita. While the cocktails and food are fantastic, sitting outside with a view of the Brooklyn Bridge is spectacular too.

Balthazar- always great for brunch or dinner. The Spring St Soho location is perfect and the raw bar selections are top notch. 

Tipsy Parson - if it's possible the TP menu is Southern and healthy-ish. The decor is a lot of fun (weirdly like the bathrooms too). Favorites are the Dandelion Salad but you also may want to try the spoon bread (corn, mushrooms, artichokes-insane).

Green Table in Chelsea Market always makes me happy, especially for lunch or brunch. My current order is the egg/asparagus bake thing. Go for brunch and walk the High Line afterward to work it off.

Hu Kitchen- is a gluten free paradise, try the organic vanilla chia pudding with berries and coconut crème or  quinoa veg. egg bowl . To give you an idea of taking ingredients seriously here are the milks offered with coffee:

Organic dairy and non-dairy milks available: organic coconut milk, housemade almond milk, organic grass-fed skim and whole milk. Nice.

There are also so many juice places depending on neighborhood, Organic Avenue and Juice Press are my favorites.

The sights…

Reservoir- my #1 NYC spot, I find it instantly calming. Depending on where you exit you can hit 2 of my favorite museums Natural History or the Guggenheim.

I love Lincoln Center especially in the summer.

Grand Central Station-even if you're not taking a train is a fantastic building, there's a market and of course the  Oyster Bar.

Ellis Island –I went with my son's class on a field trip last year. It was my first time and it was very moving. I take NYC for granted but you can't when you go here.

Union Square Greenmarket- M, W, F, Sat. Aside from the incredible variety of offerings, you just may run into some of the chefs from the restaurants above.

Tonight we’re heading to Blue Hill,  I’ve always wanted to go, and as of now the forecast calls for rain…of course.

What are your favorite NYC places? Or places you've always wanted to go? 

When “don’t get too hungry” backfires

Open any fitness magazine and you’re likely to read, “eat small, frequent meals” and “don’t let yourself get too hungry”. These aren’t the worst pieces of dietary advice.   “Everything in moderation” probably holds that title. However, eating frequency and grazing has been taken to an extreme. This has resulted in most of us having no clue when we’re hungry because we’re never really anywhere close.

I have clients admitting “I’m scared of being hungry” or “my friends joke I never miss a meal.” I’m certainly not advocating stomach growling (there was actually a Christian weight loss program I reviewed a few years ago with some sort of a “love the growl” slogan, I swear) or starvation. And yet we need to be in touch with what our bodies need and not simply eating and “feeding” preventively.

First, regularly assess your hunger. A 1-10 scale works nicely. If 1 is very little hunger/satiated and 10 is feeling faint/not good you want to eat at a 7 or 8. A rule I use with non-vegetarian clients is the “Chicken Test”. If I ask you if you want chocolate or even cheese and crackers, you may say yes. However, these treat foods are appealing regardless of hunger. If I ask you if you want a piece of grilled chicken, you will only accept when you are hungry.

Another exercise is to pick a day and let your appetite determine when you are ready to eat. If you’re worried about your work hours or schedule, simply have your meals prepared (boiled eggs, a salad and nuts aren’t difficult to transport) ahead of time. In the morning, don’t eat at 6am on autopilot if you aren’t hungry. Wait a bit…but not too long, I’d say up to 2 hours. Try to use the 1-10 hunger meter throughout the day.

There are days I’m upper super early and it’s 11am and I decide it’s lunchtime.

Or, if breakfast is a substantial smoothie, it may be 2pm before that mid day meal comes. Don’t push intervals between meals or snacks more than 4 hours at first but learn that your appetite isn’t fixed. And now tell me the diet advice that bugs you the most or if you’re scared of getting too hungry.

“If you pay attention to when you are hungry, what your body wants, what you are eating, when you've had enough, you end the obsession because obsession and awareness cannot coexist.” Geneen Roth

And, the winner of our Smoothie Giveaway/ Socal Detox Powder is Randi

You Really Need One of These

This isn't my Fitbit (mine is black) or my total today

I am lazy. I spin, I run, I do barre classes where teachers yell “abs in” but then I sit. I sit in taxis, I sit at my desk, I sit when I’m editing and I sit when I’m in sessions with clients. I sit too much. How do I know this? Well my Fitbit told me so.

I’m not generally a numbers person. I think calorie counting is a waste of time and both Marc and my accountant know I will make every excuse to avoid a meeting that involves budgets, spreadsheets or anything in that realm. So it’s a little surprising that my latest fixation involves numbers and I can’t get enough of it. I should warn you ahead of time, I've turned into a Fitbit evangelist.

What was that? You haven’t heard of a Fitbit? Fitbit is part of the new generation of pedometers. It tracks the number of steps you take in a day, the distance you cover and your calories burned. It then wirelessly syncs to your computer. You’re emailed reports, graphs and most importantly encouragement. 

All of a sudden, I find myself thrilled when I forget an item at the store and have to make a return trip. I’m now the first one to pop up and answer the doorbell and I’ll clean the kitchen or do loads of laundry if it’s nighttime and my numbers are pathetic. One evening, I contemplated taking the kids out for ice cream and it wasn’t because the weather was nice, nope. I was going to take my kids to get a sugary scoop so that I could get some steps…sounds like an addict’s behavior if you ask me.

I quickly learned that I have two types of days. On some days I have 7,000 or more of my 10,000 “goal” daily steps before midday. I’ll fly past 10,000 those days. But when I’m writing or the weather is lousy or when have to spend a lot of time in a car hitting 5,000 can be a challenge. My average daily total may be above 10,000 but it wouldn’t be if I weren’t conscious of this. 

I should mention that the placement of the Fitbit zip gets a little tricky for ladies. It’s made to go on your waistband which works nicely if you’re in pants, workout pants or pajamas (yep, put it on my pajamas and walking to brush my teeth gets me 40-ish steps). However, with the temperature rising there are maxi dresses and mini dresses. You can clip it on your bra but there are times that doesn’t work (ok there are times where a bra doesn’t work) and then I have no choice but to clip it on the side of my dress, it looks like a blackberry under my arm but what other choice do I have?

No, there’s no shot I’ll forego the fitbit for fashion. One day I found myself at a workout class and all of a sudden I realized Fitbit was at home. I was devastated. A Facebook friend said it well when posting on this topic “Lost my fitbit. I feel so… unquantified". However, another friend with a Fitbit told me she didn’t feel it changed her behavior. Whaaaatt? Sure changed mine.

There are other “fish” in the tracking sea. My children received Nike’s Fuelband as presents and we all compete with our step totals (totally unfair they have PE and recess). I just hope they can handle spreadsheets and budgets better than I can.

Do you have a Fitbit or other tracking device? Are you as crazy with it as I am (please say yes)? 
How active would you say you are in the course of your day? Could you be more active?

Workout Lingo

photo from Birchbox, commentary my own

My earliest exercise memories involve the fitness room at my grandmother’s apartment in Florida. I remember as kids playing (unattended of course) on the treadmill, stationary bike and that vibrating belt thingy (always our favorite). I joined a gym for the first time in high school. This gateway membership paved the way for step classes, powerstrike, personal training sessions, marathons and can I get a shout out for the completely underrated Reebok slide?

With every type of workout, there’s corresponding lingo. Some of it is straight forward, other times mean or simply words you would never understand if you’re among the exercise averse.

Anatomical Lingo

Abs in- maybe it’s a soft spot but if an instructor tells says “tighten your core” or “abs in” and looks in my direction, it’s enough to ruin my day. After my first son, a trainer said this to me and poked my midsection. Her “abs in” request was met with “this is in” barked in return.

Soften your knees-one of those phrases that’s counterintuitive, after all knees are hard if nothing else. Soften your knees really means don’t lock your knees (again vague) or bend your knees slightly.

Knit your ribs- when I started barre classes this one escaped me. The ballerina-ish teachers have a field day with me when it comes to posture. My shoulders are never relaxed enough and my pelvis is constantly in the wrong place. It’s a wonder I have 2 children. It’s been years but to knit ones ribs you do the opposite of sticking your ribs out; when you contract your lower stomach “knitting” is easier.

Inspirational Lingo

Set Your Intention as Carla our nutrition nerd extraordinaire said, “when you're 40 minutes in to spin class, everything seems really profound. Then you think about it later and you're like, wait, actually all they said was you can do it".

Takes change to see change- I am a sucker for some profundity when I am oxygen deprived, I like motivational clichés.

Workout Specific

Fartleks when I initially heard a running coach use this term for speed work I thought she said fart leg and logically assumed it meant running so fast you…turns out it’s a Swedish term for a certain type of an interval run.

Abbreviations are especially annoying when you’re out of the loop. In running there’s PR/PB, personal relations, peanut butter? No personal record, personal best which refers to the shortest amount of time you have run a certain distance in under race conditions. I liked a friend’s abbreviation after a race better “PW” (personal worst).

Yoga- don’t get me started on Sanskrit pretentiousness asana, basana whatever. Or the bird poses crow, pigeon and eagle not to mention the “dogs” and warrior #’s. The first 6 months I did yoga, my neck was a mess as I contorted to see what the heck all of this meant. Once I felt I was in the know I’ll admit there’s a little smugness that went along with it.

Carolyn added, “I do love being reminded to inhale to lengthen or exhale to relax 

but inhale love, exhale fear, seriously?”

We get so accustom to our workouts that we forget how silly some of the fitness lingo is. Next time you’re in a class or at the gym, listen like a newbie and see if you catch anything giggle-worthy.

What types of workouts do you do? Any phrases that either motivate you or bug you? Are you knitting your ribs right now?

Smoothie Scientists and Giveaway

Yesterday we sent out our “Smoothie Support Group” newsletter tackling your most pressing smoothie issues: how to ensure your smoothie isn’t a gazillion calories, solutions for those of you who feel you rather eat versus drink your calories and the most common smoothie query “do I need a Vitamix?”

When I last posted about smoothie ingredients, one commenter said “You talk about things you put in your smoothies a lot and I have this image in my head of you with a zillion potions and powders, in a lab coat

Carolyn and I in front of Smoothie Central cabinet with all sorts of powders and mix-ins

That’s all Carolyn and I needed to read…enter your Smoothie Scientists in our labcoats. Here is our video debut (we’ll hone our skills, I promise) with our Thin Minty Smoothie.

6oz Harmless Harvest Coconut water
1 cup frozen blueberries (if you skip berries be sure to add ice cubes)

1 handful kale

1 scoop Sun Warrior Chocolate protein powder

1 Tbs Cacao nibs or powder

¼ avocado

Organic Peppermint extract
pinch Himalayan salt

6 drops NuStevia

Cacao, if you’re not familiar with it, is what chocolate is made from. The powder or nibs are high in fiber (good to get things moving), it keeps LDL or bad cholesterol from doing nasty things, is a mood booster and a source of magnesium (most people are magnesium deficient).

Turmeric Carrot Smoothie with must-have Strawesome 

I love to “smooth” it’s true and have been playing around with my Turmeric Smoothie

 6oz ice water (or I tried with carrot juice too)

1 scoop Vanilla Sun Warrior

½ frozen banana

1 tsp. nut butter (used cashew butter)

Ice cubes

Cinnamon

¼ to ½ tsp. turmeric

NuStevia (used their lemon flavor)

Reasons everyone should add turmeric to your diet daily:

• Weight loss- studies (yes on rodents but still) show turmeric added to diet resulted in less weight gain; less lower body fat, if you’re a “pear” turmeric is for you.
• One double blind, placebo-controlled study found that turmeric reduced symptoms of bloating and gas in people suffering from indigestion (love well executed bloat study).
• It is a natural liver detoxifier, important in the summer time with perhaps more cocktails consumed
• Good for healthy skin and conditions such as psoriasis
• It is a potent anti-inflammatory with zero side effects; therefore, it is a natural treatment for arthritis, soreness following exercise and nature's Advil
• Prevents various forms of cancer from spreading, described as “turning off cancer cells”

I want to try turmeric in a smoothie with Socal Cleanse hemp protein (which made our protein powder Hall of Fame). It’s what we call our Monday morning protein- excellent for bloat or when PMS strikes. Socal has generously offered to give away a bag of their protein to one of our thirsty (we didn’t say bloated) readers.

To enter comment below and tell us where you stand on the smoothing spectrum (smoothie newbie or seasoned smoothie maker), what your favorite smoothie is and what type of blender you use. If you haven’t lost your smoothie v-card, what’s holding you back?

No More Afternoon Crashing, enter Guayusa

 While I am in book editing hell hard at work editing, Carolyn offered to post on one of my editing crutches and new favorite drinks.

Lauren and I both have our morning coffee rituals -- though hers currently includes coconut oil and mine a cute Aussie barista, we can caffeinate with the best of them. As the day progresses our office transitions into a tea zone. Green and white teas are our staples but we also pu-ehr and matcha (I attempted to get into matcha… still acquiring that taste).

But there's officially a new guy in town or in our glasses. Guayusa (“gwhy-you-sa”) has become our midafternoon revitalizer. The leaves contain the caffeine content of coffee, double the antioxidants of green tea but no tannins or bitterness. Most importantly, guayusa contains a miraculous little compound called theobromine which is also found in dark chocolate.  When caffeine and theobromine unite, the result is a balancing effect which means you get a stimulant sans the shaky jitters or crash.

We first met guayusa in a cup of DAVIDS tea’ Jungle JuJu which promises to leave you “swinging from the vines and hanging from the trees”…

Great success. We had spotted RUNA’s pretty iced tea bottles on one of our Foodtrainers Whole Foods field trips. That was before we knew that guayusa has traditionally been consumed by hunters for acute focus or that the “Super Leaf” also contains chlorogenic acid, a compound that can aid weight loss. If you’re not convinced yet, it’s said guayusa protects you against snakebites and gives you courage and power... which are basically the essentials mid-day in NYC, right?
We are loving RUNA’s unsweetened Lime and Guava iced teas for spring and summer – have you tried guayusa? If you can't nap (our ideal afternoon plan), what's your upper of choice? When you try this fun drink, please tweet us or come back and let us know if their was any chandelier swinging and I'll try to snap a photo of my barista.