Meghann Knows What She's Wearing on Friday

It's Wednesday.  That makes National Wear Red Day the day after tomorrow.  Do you know what you'll be wearing?

National Wear Red Day is a campaign to raise awareness about heart disease in women.  According to the American Heart Association, heart disease is still the No. 1 killer of women age 20 and over, killing approximately one woman every minute.  That's one scary stat. 

You can help spread the word by wearing red on Friday.  To celebrate Gympressions-style, wear red while you work out.  After all, being active is good for your heart :)

Need some outfit/activity inspiration?  Check out Meghann of Meghann on the Move:    

Though I'm in tree pose in this photo, what I'm actually planning to do on Friday is get back into running. I've been working out a few times a week since I ran the NYC Marathon in November, but my heart hasn't been in it. This week, I decided that my goal for 2011 is to run a sub-2 hour half-marathon, and that's going to take some work. So, on Friday, I'm running. If it's cold outside, I'm just going to have to face the dreaded treadmill. I've got to get moving again!

I'll keep my fingers crossed for a dry, above-freezing day! 

Still not sure how you want to celebrate National Wear Red Day?  Come on back tomorrow for some more inspiration or check out Go Red For Women's website for more ideas. 

-Gym Belle-

Alissa Knows What She's Wearing On Friday

The countdown till National Wear Red Day continues!  Do you know what you'll be wearing to raise awareness about heart disease in women?  Alissa M. does!  She's picked out this snazzy outfit for her Friday morning workout:

Alissa's plans for National Wear Red Day include running five or six miles in Central Park.  She'll take those miles at an "easy pace" (her words, but she's known to be pretty speedy!), so she'll be ready for a 16 or 17-miler on Saturday morning as a mentor with the DetermiNation team.*  Go, Alissa! 

There's still plenty of time to do your laundry, pick out your red outfit and plan your active National Wear Red Day.  While you're doing that, ponder this statistic from Go Red For Women: "Eighty percent of cardiac events in women could be prevented if women made the right choices for their hearts involving diet, exercise and abstinence from smoking." 

-Gym Belle-

*DetermiNation, the American Cancer Society's nationwide endurance event program, meets twice a week to train for a variety of events, including some key local events: NYC Half Marathon, Brooklyn Half Marathon, NYC Triathlon and NYC Marathon.  Athletes make their training miles more meaningful by raising money for the American Cancer Society in an effort to create a world with less cancer and more birthdays.  You can find more information on finding a DetermiNation team near you here.

Yoga for a Cause

I love practicing yoga on Sundays to prepare myself for the coming week.  I also love sweating for a good cause.  This past Sunday, I combined the two by attending an event at Pure Yoga hosted by Well & Good NYC to raise money for Bent on Learning.  Bent on Learning provides yoga instruction to students at NYC public schools and youth centers. 

To kick off the afternoon, a Bent on Learning instructor shared some of her experiences with us, and read us a few quotes from her students about what practicing yoga has done for them.  

Next, Kay Kay Clivio led us through an amazing yoga class.  Kay Kay talked me into a much better wheel than I've been able to achieve lately, and the stretching felt great after a day of heavy lifting. 

To make the class extra special, Hope Gillerman of H. Gillerman Organics taught us how to incorporate essential oils into our yoga practice.  At the beginning of class, we did our pranayama breathing holding a tissue dabbed with a eucalyptus blend in front of our noses.  The scent really helped me focus on my breath.  At the end of class, we used a different oil to relax our muscles.

I'm rapidly becoming a major Pure Yoga fan.  The studios are gorgeous and the instructors are so consistently good.  I also love that they provide mats for everyone.  Somehow they pull off being sanitary without being sterile.  (The only thing I can't quite understand is why they don't have keypad lockers.  Who carries locks these days?)

Yum!For me, the best part of the event came after class.  I knew that Cooler Cleanse would be providing juice.  I didn't know that one of our options would be fresh coconut.  Coconut water is my hydration method of choice these days, and it was such a treat to drink it straight from the coconut.  It was delicious!

I left Well & Good's event relaxed, invigorated and ready to start my week.

-Gym Belle-