Indo-Row and Lighter Culture

As an avid runner, I find it important to incorporate different types of strength training into my weekly routine to keep myself in good shape and injury free. About a year ago my friend Lauren introduced me to Btone Fitness and I became instantly obsessed! Their Tone class is like a cross between Pilates and Yoga but so much better. They use a megaformer machine to strengthen and tone your muscles much faster than traditional methods. It was literally love at first plank.

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to try out their new Indo-Row class. Fellow blogger Jenna aka Boston Chic Party set up the class for 10 local bloggers. I’d been wanting to try the class, so I jumped at the chance to try it out for free. Our instructor Jody made the class fun and challenging. If you are up for a hard, intense class with a little competition on the side, this is the place for you. The class is broken down into several sections. A little warm-up followed by a 500m row to get familiar with how to use the machine and monitor speed and intensity. This was followed by some “sprinting” pyramid drills and finally some 200m rows alternating planks and squats. At the close of every class there is a race! You work on teams,one side of the room versus the other and you sprint it out to see who can finish first. It definitely makes a workout class much more fun!! I’m definitely going to have to add this class to my weekly regimen.

Between running, November Project and yoga I’ve met a lot of people who make fitness and nutrition a way of life. My friend Micah (a Runner’s World cover model) started her own grocery delivery service called Lighter Culture. The service provides recipes and all the ingredients to make sustainable and healthy meals that are delicious, convenient and affordable. It’s a perfect service for those looking for a plant-based diet but are short on time and under a budget.

I LOVE to cook and love trying new recipes, but finding flavorful, healthy, vegan recipes is hard (unless of course you want to eat salad ALL the time). So when I was approached about 7 months ago to become a Lighter recipe tester, I was thrilled. As a newly branded Vegan, the recipes were perfect for me, but were also satisfying enough for my bacon loving husband. I get about 2-4 recipes per week and I have to say, I’ve been very impressed! This past week though, definitely took the cake.

For as long as I can remember, the smell of cooking eggs makes me nauseous. I can use them in cakes or muffins, but omelets, french toast and quiche is out of the question. It’s not that I don’t like the taste of eggs, it’s just that I can’t get past the smell. Low and behold an egg-less quiche recipe landed in my inbox. It may have been the most delicious quiche I’ve ever eaten! Not only was it vegan, but also gluten free for those of you who usually go for the crust-less version. You could pretty much add any vegetable you have on hand, I went with spinach, tomato and mushroom. Amazing!

Vegan’s also need decadent desserts every once in awhile too. Anyone who’s ever been on a diet knows that the worst part is having to skimp on dessert. Dessert these days has mainly been fruit with the occasional granola bar. So when I got the Peanut Power Pudding recipe, I was super excited but also VERY skeptical because ingredient number 1 was tofu. As a part time vegan, I’m probably not supposed to admit this, but I hate tofu. I’ve tried it fried, sautéed, stir fried, grilled and it’s all gross. Apparently I was doing it all wrong! Whip that up with some PB, banana and dates and you have yourself a rich, decadent peanut butter mouse. Seriously, it was amazing!! I even froze a few servings and had my very own from scratch peanut butter/banana ice cream. Watch out Ben and Jerry, Lighter Culture is coming for you!