Easy Like Sunday Morning

I have had a great weekend so far! On Friday night I baked, and watched the Giants’ preseason opener with my dad and brother, Jamie (a.k.a the cameraman from my video yesterday). Football season is upon us people. We are BIG New York Giants fans in the Rosten household.

I made Cake Batter Blondies with White Chocolate Buttercream Frosting. It was super easy, and delicious. All that goes in the batter is a box of vanilla cake mix, canola oil, one egg, sprinkles, and white chocolate chips. Check out the full recipe here: Cake Batter Blondies.

Jamie, my dad, and I ate almost half of the goods before I stopped to take a picture.  Woops.

The other half went to the boyfriend and his three roommates at the Dude Ranch (I kid you not, this is what people call their house.)

The frosting paired perfectly with the blondies. You can find the full recipe here: White Chocolate Buttercream frosting.

Last night, I took Brett to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in Newington for a belated birthday dinner. It’s one of his favorite places to eat, and it is slowly becoming mine too. They have the most amazing steak, and a to-die-for sweet potato casserole. Brett went with his typical lobster bisque/shoestring french fry/some sort of manly meat (this time a ribeye) order.  The restaurant is pricey, but the food is worth it for a special occasion. I managed to only take a picture of the bread basket, so I’ll spare you that. What can I say?  The food is THAT good. I had zero desire to stop and take a picture before diving right in.

This morning I spent my time here:

Over the past year, I fell in love with yoga. My first experience with yoga came my senior year of college when I signed up for a four week class during Winter Study. While I enjoyed it, I wouldn’t say that I fell in love with yoga right away. After the class ended, I continued to practice yoga very sparingly through one or two yoga DVDs that I had purchased.

Finally, this past winter I bought a Groupon for a 30 day pass to West Hartford Yoga in West Hartford, Connecticut. This was my first time in a heated yoga studio, and it elevated  my physical practice to a whole new level. Besides the fact that flexibility is an important component of any exercise program, yoga is equally beneficial for the mind and soul. I leave a yoga class feeling much more calm and at peace with life. For someone like myself who feels stressed and anxious quite easily, yoga is a gift.

Now that I have moved an hour away from my favorite yoga studio, my practice has really gone by the wayside. I miss it tremendously. I am certainly not a yoga expert by any means, and I had really wanted to advance my practice. This requires more than a sporadic class here or there. Unfortunately, while I was practicing regularly about one or two times per week prior to my move last month, now I am lucky if I get on my mat once every two weeks. Today was one of those days.

Since I was in the area, I headed to a 90-minute power class at WHY. For anyone who thinks that yoga is not a workout, they are wildly mistaken. This class was amazing. It was my first time taking a class with Jen, and there was a huge amount of core work involved today. My heart rate was definitely up, and by the end of the class, everyone was drenched…including the floor of the studio (that part was kind of gross.)

Although yoga does not have a substantial impact on my level of aerobic fitness, nor would I use it in replacement of my beloved strength training, it does activate the muscle in a unique and challenging way. In yoga, your muscles are contracted isometrically, meaning your body is in a static hold and no joint movement occurs. Try holding a crescent lunge for more than 30 seconds, and you’ll know what I am talking about.

I also find yoga to be a perfect supplement to my other workouts. Without the stretching benefits of yoga, my muscles and joints feel extremely tight. As a result, I cannot lift as much weight in my strength workouts, and cannot push my body as hard as I would like in a cardio workout.

It was the perfect way to start off my Sunday.

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