Peanut Butter & Pickles: veggie lunch

About a year ago, I paid an obscene amount of money for a few jars of Rick’s Picks pickles. I was at a benefit for the Prospect Park Alliance and hey, it was for the kids. For the very Brooklyn playgrounds where my daughters had frolicked.

The great thing about pickles, of course, is that they can be stuffed into the back of the pantry and used throughout the grim winter. Or forgotten about and then found with a happy surprise, which is what happened when I was doing a little Spring cleaning – very little, I should add – and I unearthed a jar of Rick’s hotties.

These pickles on steroids, made with habanero and sriracha, add an incredible kick to veggie burgers and an unusual twist to the peanut butter and pickle sandwich that the New York Times raved about recently.

I usually make the sandwich with Smucker’s natural peanut butter, but with these spicy pickles, I added a schmear of Peanut Butter & Co.’s equally spicy The Heat is On.

It was pretty awesome.

I can’t wait to see what I find next time I dig through the pantry.

Fitness Challenge: Runtastic app

For a long time, I resisted using my iPhone while running. I thought I could preserve it more if I just used my old iPod for music and left the phone at home. Plus even though I feel safe in Prospect Park or around NYC, running with an expensive smartphone does leave you vulnerable.

Then I learned about the app Runtastic. This app (also available for Android phones or a download online) gives you an accurate measure of how far you’ve run, and for how long.

You also get metrics about your pace, calories burned, and progress. Think your speed work is improving your overall pace? The app tells you.

If you sycn with Facebook and Twitter you can broadcast your running prowess. But not just running. 

The app lets you track aerobic activities like cycling, walking, skiing and golfing (?), or strength training.

And live coaches in different languages let you bone up on your German, Spanish, French or Italian. 

Though I imagine the French coach encourages you to stop for a Pastis and a cigarette if your workout is too intense.

Now I just need a good armband to keep my iPhone secure.

Fitness Challenge, Day 95

Yoga on the beach is a wonderful vacation treat, but if you are traveling to a city, you can find outdoor yoga when it is warm out.

In New York City, Bryant Park has outdoor yoga in late spring through summer. And Prospect Park, in Brooklyn offers yoga on summer evenings. Even better than enjoying the opportunity to exercise in a park is that these yoga classes are free. Exhale Spa in the Gansevoort Hotel recently had a free yoga day that was not quite as relaxing; we were in an outdoor plaza, surrounded by traffic, trucks unloading and tourists snapping photos. I am looking forward to my upcoming trip to Dallas, for the Family Travel Conference, where the new Klyde Warren Park will have free yoga classes by The Dallas Yoga Center. Sun salutations to the actual sun. It doesn't get much better than that.

Fitness Challenge: Day 68

Almost every day, websites like Groupon, Living Social and Bloomspot offer bargain-hunting New Yorkers discount fitness classes. You can get yourself a nice assortment of gym passes and classes.

I just sampled NYC Boot Camp, an outdoor boot camp that meets in Coney Island, Battery Park City, and down the street from me in Prospect Park.

The founder, Alan, uses playground equipment, hills and steps in the hour long workouts.

My favorite exercise was a TRX-style chest pull, using the playground swings. Without kids on them. We also did pull ups on the climbing equipment, burpees and triceps dips from the benches, and walking lunges through the park.

The partner exercises get you invested in someone else’s success. In one innovative exercise, one person did crunches; the other,
holding her feet down, held a plank.

Your face was basically stuck in someone else’s sneakers, but since you are bear crawling across the playground and running in park where animals defecate, the smell of your partner’s feet is the least of your worries.

We got wet, (it was raining) dirty and winded. It was a great workout.

Fitness Challenge: Day 53

The Prospect Park YMCA attracts a wide range of Park Slope residents. With programs for preschoolers to seniors, it seems the whole neighborhood, including local writer Jane Brody, belongs.

Except us.

The Y is across the street from the gym I went to daily for 10 years, and it's cheaper. And it has a pool.

But it is also where I took an adult 'learn to swim' class before I had kids, and I never learned to swim. A group of us adults clutched the side of the pool and resolutely refused to put our faces in the water.

With signs warning against swimming with open sores, it was not the most inviting place.

But I recent visit surprised me. It has new aerobic equipment, with more channels than the other gym. It has a wider variety of classes, throughout the day.

It has fairly clean locker rooms.

It still has a pool. And a new one is being built, with a retractable roof. Maybe it's time to overcome my fear and aversion.

Fitness Challenge: Day 13

Although I have one last day at 24 Hour Fitness, I forsake the gym and head to the park. My daughter runs with me, and we incorporate some other exercises into our run: high knees, butt kicks, and mummy walks.

We also stop at a bench for tricep dips and use a curb to do step-ups.

Prospect Park also has a fitness area, with pull up bars where you can work your whole body. The fitness area is next to the playground where my kids used to run in the sprinkler and swing. We can hear the cheerful sounds of kids playing while we grunt through our workout.

Fitness Challenge: Day 3

Friday July 15 is a gorgeous day, one I would ordinarily spend inside, sweating during Spin. With no gym membership, I take out my bike for a few loops of Prospect Park. I spend an hour in the gorgeous weather, working just as hard and singing Pink's "Raise Your Glass" while I cycle.

No headphones, though, since the park loop is crowded with runners, walkers, Spandex-clad cyclists and the occasional car (the loop is officially closed to cars during certain hours, but some cars always slip through.

No worries: I am alert, energized and enjoying a full cardio workout.

Fitness Challenge: Day 2

July 14

Thursday is usually my 'light' day, when I power walk the loop in Prospect Park with a group of friends. It started out with 1; now we are up to 7 regulars, with occasional guest stars.

If I have time, I run a mile before our 4 mile power walk, and I do 30 minutes of abs after the walk, so there is no need for a gym on Thursdays.

Which is good, because my New York Sports Club has no Thursday morning classes.