Saturday morning started off with a Kashi honey almond flax granola bar and 1/2 banana. Then I was on my way to meet Alma for a run in Central Park!
My leg still isn’t 100%, but I’ve decided to start running a bit anyway. It doesn’t feel worse after I run (in fact it feels better the looser it gets) and I’m being VERY good about icing, stretching, PT sessions, ibuprofen afterwards, and applying arnica cream. I’m convinced I’ve got soft tissue problem that improves the more I move my legs and muscles. I won’t be doing any fast workouts, just easy running/jogging for now. Alma and I ran for about 30 minutes in the Park and then I ran an additional 28 minutes when you add up the time I spent running to and from the subway, gym, and post office. Iced afterwards – felt pretty good for the rest of the day! After running, I had a much-needed iced coffee, Stoyfield Oikos Greek yogurt (vanilla), 1/2 banana, and a very generous amount of Bear Naked Peak Protein granola. I kept refilling my bowl – this stuff is addictive!
Around 2pm, I headed down to Union Square for the Vital Juice Daily pop-up health and wellness retreat. This event was held in the former Virgin Records music store. I received tons of free samples and participated in a Latin Rhythms cardio class hosted by Crunch Fitness. The class was so much fun – I forgot how much I love dancing! Unfortunately I don’t have much rhythm (my West African Dance instructor from senior year thought I was a lost cause), but it still makes me happy to get down and boogie 
Free Samples to take home!
More Samples!
And more!
I love me some coupons…
After the dance class, I headed to Whole Foods. I re-hydrated with a coconut water and a few bites of an Attune probiotic bar. Wow, this bar was sweet! It has a decent amount of protein (5g) and fiber (3g), but I don’t think I’m too crazy about the flavor. If anyone LOVES these bars, let me know. I’ll give you my two boxes of the Strawberry flavor!
As I was leaving the Union Square area, I noticed these subway ads by Buitoni. As an art history major, these fine art-esque posters immediately caught my eye (and made my stomach growl!). Interesting idea…
Around 5:30pm, I met up with Joe and Chrissy for an early dinner at Fred’s. Love this place!
I was craving veggies, so I chose the Vegetarian Wrap. This sandwich contained watercress, cucumbers, carrots, zucchini, Yellow squash, green beans, roasted peppers, red onion, tomatoes & mushrooms wrapped in a spinach tortilla served with a cup of butternut squash soup. The veggies were tossed in a light tasting vinaigrette and the wrap was fresh and yummy! The soup was also good – velvety smooth and perfect for the rainy weather we’ve been having. I also had a small slice of Fred’s sour dough bread with butter. Yum!
Nate and I met downtown to see the 8:20pm screening of Food, Inc. As I expected, it was a very thought provoking movie. Much of the material was familar as I have already read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation. However, watching this movie made me very grateful for my job – I’m so lucky to have a comfortable and safe working environment. The hardships of the meat factory workers featured in the film just about broke my heart. I really enjoyed the portion of the film that featured Stonyfield Farm – love their yogurt! Despite the controversy of them selling their products in Wal-Mart, I think Stonyfield has done a great job bringing organics to the main stream. Every organic product sold in Wal-Mart still means less pesticides and chemicals on our earth. Overall, I would definitely reccommend this movie, although I think that the people likely to see it are already environmentally and food conscious. It’s kind of like preaching to the choir…
During the film, I snacked on a pack of World of Grains organic cookies. They were very crunchy with a light blueberry flavor. I liked them! I may have also snuck a bite of Nate’s Snickers bar….
After the movie let out (~10pm), it had been over 4 hours since dinner and I was feeling a little hungry. Nate suggested Two Boots pizza in the West Village and off we went! I love this place. It’s called Two Boots because the pizza varieties are influences by Italy (Boot #1) and Louisiana (Boot #2).
The pizzas have creative names – Nate and I chose the Cleopatra Jones which came with Italian Sausage, roasted red peppers, green bell peppers, yellow bell peppers, onions, and mozzarella. SO good!! The addition of Italian sausage gave us pause (we had just seen Food, Inc), but I think you have to pick your battles. Buying local, organic food is important to me, but I’m not going to deny myself the occassional slice of sausage pizza. This slice was 100% worth it!
We shared the first slice (25% for me, 75% for Nate) and then went back for another (50%, 50%). Enjoyed with some ice cold diet pepsi, it was the perfect Saturday night treat!