Hello! Greetings from somewhere in Connecticut, where I am on the Bolt Bus on my way up to Boston. I’m staying at Tina’s tonight so that I can help out New Balance tomorrow morning if they need it or get in a little downtime hanging with Tina and Monica tomorrow morning before all the craziness of this weekend starts. (Randomly enough, I stayed with Tina almost exactly a year ago for her book signing, before we went down to Baltimore for Fitbloggin.)

Tomorrow, we’ll be touring the New Balance factory in Lawrence, Mass. (<—AP style for life) and then heading out to Wachusett for some pre-race festivities and a team dinner.

You can follow along with our shenanigans on social media to see what happens when 12 bloggers get into 2 vans and run 200 miles between them over the course of 24ish hours

• #teamoffbalance
• @rtboffbalance
• me at @tblanchfield
• me on Instagram

Last night, after the Bob Harper event, I grabbed dinner with Tina and Beth–who is one of the easy-to-talk-to people I’ve ever met. Or maybe it was the wine…

We went to a French restaurant called Jacques, and I got the mussels provencales, which were in a tomato and garlic sauce. Mussels are another one of those things that I basically must get if I see on a menu (see also: gnocchi, duck, scallops).

Oh. It doesn’t hurt that they come with fries, either.

Tina and I had talked about running this morning, but she ended up deciding to catch up on sleep but I went anyway. I’m going on a good solid two weeks in a row of morning workouts, and it feels really good to have it done before work. Let’s just hope I can keep this up!

Giveaway Winner!

I need to announce the winner of my New Balance giveaway. Every single time I do a giveaway, I really wish I could give you all something. There were so many great and inspiring entries.

Congratulations, Crystal! Please email me at theodora at losingweightinthecity.com with your name, address and phone number and I’ll get these shoes out to you next week when I get back.

*Reach the Beach MA-dness totally stolen from Kristen at New Balance.

What’s your must-order when you see it on a menu?

So I’ve mentioned that I’d like to drop a few pounds and tone up.

I’ve certainly taken action on the workout front–adding in bootcamp classes and cross-training–but my diet still isn’t where I would need it to be to look how I want to look right now. And that’s okay with me. I’m working as hard on my health as I can while still being happy with it. It’s not worth it to me to have the perfect body but never have wine.

While I’m constantly striving to improve, I also need to remind myself how far I’ve come. In a few days, I’ll be running 19 miles over the course of 24 hours with little sleep. I’ve run that distance and longer a good handful of times, all at once, over the past few years, but if you had told me even three years ago that I’d be running a relay race with two vans full of fit healthy living bloggers, I would have laughed at you. I was beginning to train for my first real 5K. (It was technically my third, but the first one I actually trained for, and the first one after I started running for real.) I thought running more than four miles was impossible.

I put on a shirt for Tabata class this morning that was a little snugger. I noticed in class that the exercises are now a little easier to me and my core feels a little stronger. While, yeah, I want my abs to look smokin’ in a bikini, I also want to not feel like an ass when I take fitness classes with friends and feel like the weakest link. I want to run faster. I want to not experience lower back pain from my weak core–and I feel like I’m edging back closer to that.

Tight abs are sexy, but so is confidence.

…and Bob Harper. (How’s that for a segue?!)

Tonight, I attended the launch party for his book, The Skinny Rules–which is Bob’s 20 rules to staying thin.

The man is HOT in person.

And I’m excited to read his book because I’ve been on a huge health book kick lately. (Reviews to come.)

The event was at Santa Maria Novella, a home/candle store in Nolita. I’ve never been to such a wonderfully-scented event.

I’ve also never been as creepy as I was tonight with the paparazzi shots. (I wasn’t the only one.)

He was super sweet, and indulged all of us ladies a photo with him.

I also got a one-on-one photo with him. I call that look in my eyes “starstruck.” [photos via Cat.]

When I was losing weight, I regularly watched The Biggest Loser when I got home from the gym. Fifty pounds isn’t an insignificant amount of weight to lose, but most of the contestants had much more than me to lose, and I just kept thinking “If they can do it, I can do it.”

While I know there is a ton of controversy surrounding him and my (trainer girl crush) Jillian Michaels, I can’t deny that I like their tough-love approach.

Favorite celebrity trainer or favorite celebrity you’d get starstruck around?

As I may have mentioned once or twice, I’m ridiculously excited for Reach the Beach this weekend as well as some awesome quality time with the New Balance folks.

As you may have seen a few months ago, New Balance totally hooked us up with some awesome runner goodies.

Well, today I have an extra pair of their 880s to share with one of you. (One of you with large feet–they are a 10.5.)

About the 880s:

The trail running edition of the New Balance 880 adds trail-specific materials and outsole to a road-friendly ride to help you maintain your running regimen during the colder, wetter months of the year. Its quick-drying mesh and water-resistant synthetic upper helps keep your feet dry and comfortable, and the aggressive outsole is enhanced with sticky rubber for safety on tricky trails, plus Ndurance rubber compound is targeted at the highest wear areas of the sole for maximum durability. Designed for runners with a neutral gait, the 880 is built on the ACTEVA LITE midsole with ABZORB strobel board to provide a lightweight, supportive, and well-cushioned ride. When added to this already magnificent running shoe, the extra features on the trail edition add up to truly great footwear that helps you take your run to the next level.

…or, in more simple words: lightweight, cushioned neutral shoes. They run a little bit narrow, FYI.

How to enter: just leave a comment telling me why you’d like to win these shoes! I’ll pick a winner tomorrow, May 15. And just a reminder–I only have a size 10.5.

Today I spent the day with my best friend.

The woman who was there when I took my first steps 28 years ago…

…and then who was there when I ran my first 26.2 26 years later.

The woman who has always taught me to follow my dreams.

The woman who would drop anything to help me out. And, in fact, has, on many many occasions. Her favorite story: at one point when I was really depressed living in D.C., I called her and just bawled into the phone. At the time, it seemed like everything that could go wrong was, and Bailey threw up on my phone and it pushed me over the edge. She jumped on a late-night train from NJ to DC and was there by 1am to just be there for me. I’ll never forget that…and she probably will never let me.

The woman who is the best damn grandma any little dog could ever have. Having a dog as a busy single woman in NYC is not the easiest thing in the world, but having my mom close by makes things so much easier.

The woman who is so much more than just the woman who raised me–who is also my friend.

She’s also the woman who has the fiercest sweet tooth of anyone I know. We spent a lovely day together and capped it off with some cannoli from Stuffed Artisan Cannoli at Madison Square Eats. I had the birthday cake one, and it was amazing.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers, mothers-to-be and fur moms. I’m so thankful for my relationship with my mom and to live so near to her. I love you, Mom.

You guys, I’m riding a serious runner’s high right now.

I had a fun week with blogger friends in town and had an awesome run with them Thursday morning. They definitely pushed me to go faster than I would have gone on my own.

This morning, I met up with Rebecca for part of my last long run before Reach the Beach. I had 8 miles on my schedule, and so I ran down to meet her at the Brooklyn Bridge.

I ran down Broadway to meet her by the bridge. It was just before 9am, and the streets were relatively empty. Any later, and I would have been throwing elbows.

We met up at the bridge and ran together up the East Side for another 5 miles.

It was a gorgeous day, and it was fun to run with Rebecca, since we hadn’t run together since the fall when we were marathon training. We chatted about running and racing basically the entire time and it made me RIDICULOUSLY excited for Reach the Beach and training for Marine Corps. The nice weather didn’t hurt either.

On the way back home, I saw this Cake vs. Shake cart. I didn’t stop at it, but…yum. Team Cake all the way.

Towards the end of the run, my stomach started getting really upset, and I had to stop to walk a few times.

Which I’m sure has nothing to do with this really strong beer I had last night.

I also tested out one of the outfits I’ll be wearing next weekend.

New Balance Icefil t-shirt

The t-shirt was fine. I’m usually not super-picky about my tops. As long as they’re not really tight around my stomach or really loose, I don’t care too much. Once it’s warm enough to wear a t-shirt, though, I usually wear a tank top to run outside to minimize weird tan lines.

New Balance Prism Run Shorts

I’m a fairly modest person when it comes to wearing things that are tight or short, so I thought these shorts were pretty short when I put them on, and I felt really self-conscious as I started out on my run. I also put a TON of Vaseline on my legs so I didn’t chafe. Once I started running, though, the shorts didn’t bother me at all and didn’t end up chafing. This outfit will be just fine next weekend.

(If you missed the original post, New Balance [also my client at work, full disclosure] is sponsoring our team, which included hooking us up with some gear before and LOTS of surprises next week!)

Oakley Urgency Sunglasses

I got these sunglasses at FitblogNYC the other day and was really curious about them. I’ve never run in sunglasses, because, really, I buy more than enough running stuff and I didn’t think I needed to add special running glasses to that. But this morning was really sunny and I figured I might have a really sunny leg during RTB next week, so I decided to give them a try. I’m pretty picky with sunglasses, so I didn’t expect to like them, but they didn’t budge at all while I was running and I got used to them really quickly.

Pretty sure I’m going to have a one-track mind from now until October 28 (with a brief triathlon interlude.)

This has been a whirlwind 48 hours. Since the last time I’ve blogged, I have:

• taken my fave bootcamp class
• attended the Fitness mag Meet & Tweet
• taken a Swahili endurance training class (no bigs)
• had dinner with some of my faves at Tortilla Flats and drinks at the Standard Biergarten
• run 5 miles
• gone on a date

I’m sort of glad I didn’t blog immediately after I got home last night so that I could think about what I wanted to say about yesterday.

My buddy Tina put it the best during her panel yesterday. Kelly asked the panelists (Tina, Julie and Carla) what was the best thing that had come to them from blogging. Julie said that hearing that Jessica Simpson had read her blog once, but Tina said that it was, hands-down, the friends she’d made, and this sap in the third row teared up a little bit.

I know I’ve said this a million times–I didn’t start my blog to make friends, but I am so lucky to have met all the wonderful people I have through it and to have connected with so many other people. Just because I overshare on the Internet.

Yesterday was awesome because of my friends.

[photo via Tina]

We started off with my favorite boot camp class before the Meet and Tweet.

The Meet and Tweet was a one-day conference hosted by Fitness magazine and some awesome sponsors at the Metropolitan Pavilion, where a lot of the NYRR race expos are.

Give me blog friends…and coffee.

I walked into the conference space and was immediately overwhelmed. I think there were probably close to 200 people there, and I knew or recognized a lot of those people, but I was still a little anxious. Or maybe that was the caffeine and endorphins.

The first speaker was AJ Jacobs, the author who wrote The Year of Living Biblically and Drop Dead Healthy. The latter is the one he was there to talk to us about. For this book, he took two years to take all the health advice he could find. Spoiler alert: there’s no lack of health advice out there. He was basically a health guinea pig and did everything from writing the book on a treadmill to trying pole dancing. We got his book in our swag bag, and it sounds like an interesting read.

After that, we heard from Fitness nutrition editor Juno DeMelo and nutritionists Tanya Zuckerbrot and Keri Gans. (I’ve been following Keri on Twitter for awhile, so it was interesting to see her speak.)

They were talking about carbs, cleanses and caffeine. Two of them were okay by the nutritionists: take a guess which ones.

They talked about some of the common misconceptions about the above, such as that carbs make you fat. (Too many carbs do, but carbs themselves don’t.) Cleanses were another hot topic; obviously they weren’t a fan of cleanses. “If you go on a cleanse, all you learn to do is take food out of your diet,” says Keri. They said a cleanse for a day or two wasn’t that dangerous, but cleanses aren’t effective for weight loss.

After their session, I ended up gabbing with friends and catching up.

Oh, and taking smoothie shots with Gia.

And I <3 running pics.

OH HEY ALI. Remember when we used to hang out outside of our blogs’ comment sections?

Me, Sarah, Ashley, Julie, Courtney and Tina.

I didn’t take a ton more pictures, but I caught up with so many others and got lots of warm hugs from people I don’t see nearly enough.

Dear everyone: please move to NYC.

Lunch was healthy, of course. That faro salad in the back was AMAZING, and I could have just had that and been really happy. It had arugula and hazelnut oil in it, and I am going to try to recreate it. And then eat it daily.

After lunch, there was a fun fitness and fashion panel. I think there’s a lot of really cute fitness clothes now, but I’m going to keep my workout clothes to working out and my non-working out clothes to not working out. Except for maybe pretending yoga pants are leggings. That is something I can get behind.

After that panel was my favorite panel of the day–and not just because I love all the panelists.

They were discussing blogging and the business of blogging. As someone who works professionally in social media and who makes some money off of this blog, I was very curious to hear what all of these successful women had to say. They all talked a lot about being proactive and going after the opportunities that you want, and not sitting and waiting for them to come to you. Carla said she spends at least an hour each day just pitching herself. Julie does a lot of freelance writing and was saying that it’s key to start locally. A national magazine is not going to give you your big break on your first pitch.

I’ve done a good amount of freelancing myself, and that is absolutely true. Freelancing involves so much rejection, but when you finally get a piece accepted, it’s so worth it. I heard on another panel once to “leapfrog.” That is, use every piece to get you to your next piece. Did you write a piece on strength training for a small magazine? Great, now pitch to a bigger magazine that you can write about strength training and have written about it at that smaller magazine. Your blog’s also an active resume (as Tina said.) Use your stronger posts as clips when you’re pitching editors. I haven’t done as much freelancing as I’ve wanted to, but that was a huge part of the reason I started this blog–as a work sample to show future employers and editors.

After their session, we did another workout–a tabura class with Reign Hudson. Tabura is a mix of African dance and kickboxing, according to Reign. And is really freakin’ hard but was really fun because it was so far outside of my only-dances-after-a-few-glasses-of-wine comfort zone. The class is part of Kiwi Sweat, which puts on pop-up fitness classes around the city.

Props to Jill for having someone take this video. (The workout starts about 3 min in, and yes, you can see just how uncoordinated I actually am.)
After workout number two of the day, we said our goodbyes and then I met up with smaller group at Tortilla Flats for dinner. I love that place–it’s so fun.

We split a pitcher of skinny margaritas, and Anne and I split fajitas.

My favorite.
We didn’t want the day to end, so a smaller-still group ended up at the Standard Biergarten.
After a few drinks, Anne and Tina and I decided to run at 6:30 this morning. When my alarm went off at 6 this morning, Anne and I discussed bailing but rallied and met Tina for 5 miles.

I took them to run on my favorite path on the West Side Highway, and Anne said she felt like she was jumping into my blog.
And then I went back to work with sweet, sweet memories of an awesome few days.

And some pretty sweet swag. These Oakleys are pretty amazing. They’re sport ones, so I’m excited to try to run or bike with them soon.

This Sonia Kashuk bag. (We were given a “passport” upon arrival at the event and had to visit each booth to get a star to then get your bag of stuff. Well worth it.)
And a Camelbak water bottle with a filter. I’ve wanted one for a while, but with a bunch of random water bottles in my pantry always found reasons not to spend $20 on it. I’m newly obsessed with it.
Thanks again to Fitness and Fitfluential for this awesome event!
If you were there, what was your favorite part of the event? If you weren’t there…do you get overwhelmed by events like this? Or love them? (Or both.)

All day today, I couldn’t wait for dinner.

Well, I guess that’s not too different than usual, but I was psyched to see my long-lost friend Tina and my not-so-long-lost friend Ashley.

Ashley picked Greensquare Tavern, a farm-to-table restaurant in the Flatiron-ish area. So, you know, the perfect place for three healthy living bloggers to go to.

Duck is one of those things I can’t pass up when I see it on a menu (since it’s pretty rare to see it), so I was all over the duck. It came with stuffing (random) and some vegetables, including broccoli and Brussels sprouts. The menu said “seasonal vegetables,” and when I asked the waiter what that meant, he started with Brussels sprouts. I cut him off then–that was all I needed to hear.

Afterwards, we met up with Anne, who is taking up residence on my couch for the next two days, for one more drink. We went to a little Italian place near my apartment and got some prosecco. I mean, when in Rome…

Cheers to bloggers.

While, yes, I work out so I can be happy with how I look and perform well in races (and stay healthy and stuff), it’s amazing how it makes the other things in my life come together, too.

For example, I was awful at time management until I started working out. I pack 10 times more things into my day now than I ever did because working out helps me prioritize things.

Even though it’s something can add up to an extra hour in my day, most days it’s worth it for the clarity of mind I get afterwards and how it tends to make me think of everything else like a game.

Like, if I can do this tough workout, what ELSE can I do?

This morning, I did Jaz’s 6:30 abs class (she mixes up OH PRETTY MUCH EVERY AB MOVE YOU COULD EVER DO–lots of planks, sit ups with the weighted bars or medicine balls– with cardio intervals like mountain climbers and jumping jacks) for an intense thirty minutes.

Afterwards, I came home and managed to make some kale chips and get some work done before going to work. (Oh, and showering, obviously.) On a day I fight with the snooze bar, there’s no way in hell I’d make kale chips before going to work.

Before becoming active a few years ago, I would come home from work around 6 or 6:30, walk Bailey and plop on the couch for a few hours. Yet I felt like I didn’t have time to do anything. I’ve since added working out, blogging, working longer hours, taking on a much bigger commitment in Junior League, and while, sure, I feel a little overloaded at times, I do fit so much more into a day than I used to–and I think working out is a big part of that since it clears my mind and makes me take a good look at my schedule to see where I can get a workout in.

BRACE YOURSELVES, I THINK WE HAVE A RECIPE.

I was randomly craving turkey meatloaf yesterday, and looked at a bunch of recipes but ended up going for putting my own together.

(Why muffin tin? I think my mom threw out my loaf pan when I moved.)

–

BBQ Turkey Meatloaf (Muffins)

Ingredients:

1 pound ground turkey

1 medium onion

1 egg

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup BBQ sauce

Salt

Pepper

AND THAT’S IT. (I hate long ingredient lists.)

Directions:

Chop onion, beat egg and add to ground turkey. Combine all with your hands (and try to get over that gross feeling) and add oats and BBQ sauce, salt and pepper. Bake for 40 minutes at 375 degrees.

–

I think they turned out pretty well–I had them for lunch with the kale chips and a roasted sweet potato and for dinner with just the kale chips.

So, how does working out help you with time management? And/or, what’s the most random thing you’ve ever cooked before work? I made risotto once before work. I think that qualifies as my most random.

Oh hello there.

Cinco de Derby/my baby cousin’s first birthday are over, and I survived.

LOOK AT THIS LITTLE PEANUT! And look at my mom wearing white before Memorial Day! What a rebel.

Lexi’s not walking yet, but she bounces like no other in this little bouncy thing. It’s one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.

Mom, I know you like little ones, but you’re gonna have to wait quite a few years before I give you one. Sorry.

The food was all pretty heavy, so I didn’t have much–some meatballs, arroz con pollo, an empanada and a little pasta.

After hanging at the party for a few hours, it was time to get back to the city for Ashley’s Derby party. I missed the actual horse racing part of the party…oops.

This is the only picture I took at Ashley’s– but I guess I really liked the napkins? (Below photo courtesy of Ashley.)

Ashley, me and Melissa

After the party, we went out to a few more bars. I deliberately didn’t make plans this morning (despite Laura attempting to talk me into running a marathon today), but I woke up feeling just fine and have had a lovely little day. Thank god for being 29 and semi-responsible. I certainly don’t miss the rip-roaring hangovers from my early 20s.

It was way too nice out to stay inside, so I went to Madison Square Park to lay out for awhile (and so, it seems, did half of the rest of the city) and then went on my first bike ride of the year. It was some awesome me time.

CONGRATS TO EVERYONE WHO RACED TODAY! I had an awesome time reading your tweets…from bed.

It’s not even 1pm yet, and I’ve already:

• run 8 miles
• showered
• dried my hair
• inhaled a spinach feta wrap
• taken two trains out to New Jersey

It was so insanely humid and foggy this morning on my lover, the West Side Highway. That’s the Freedom Tower behind the fog.

I don’t usually take many pictures on my runs any more, but my head wasn’t totally in the run this morning, so I gave myself a few photo breaks.

Oh hey Jersey City! (And Dori.)

More fog, buildings around World Financial Center.

When I first started running three years ago, this is the area of the path I ran on all the time, and I miss it a lot. It was so peaceful to run past the marina and a much less busy area of the path.

I fought through the fog and humidity for my 8 miles, and now it’s time to celebrate—my cousin’s birthday and Derby de Mayo!

HAPPY DERBY DE MAYO!