Visiting the Rockaways

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As the Ramones once sang, it’s not hard, not far to reach, we can hitch a ride to Rockaway Beach.  While it isn’t as iconic as Coney Island, I would have to say that the Rockaways are far and away the better beach.  It’s actually the only place in New York City with decent surfing!  With the summer winding down, it’s time to get there and soak in those last rays before you have to go back to school, the weather warms up, or both.  Here are some of the great things you can do here:

Shopping:

• Breezy Point Surf Shop: Even if you don’t surf, this store is packed to the gills with all sorts of merchandise such as flip flops, t-shirts, and of course shark-tooth necklaces.
• Off Season: If you’re into a more hip surf experience, then trendy minimalist Off Season, founded by fashion executive Abra Boero, is the place to go, offering designer apparel and large pours of Sangria.  
• Rockaway Beach Surf Shop: This family-run business is a Rockaway institution, and open since 1969, it’s one of the oldest surf shops on the East Coast.  The specialties here are surfboards, skimboards, and boogie boards, and they also offer surf lessons.

Beaches:

• Jacob Riis Park: At the end of the Rockaway peninsula, Jacob Riis Park Beach is a great haven away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of New York City.  Yet it’s also home to a great beach bazaar that offers everything from shopping to volleyball to food to live music.
• Fort Tilden: Located near an old military fort, this ocean-front park features plenty of nature walks.  It’s part of the massive Gateway National Recreation Area that runs through Brooklyn into New Jersey.  
• Rockaway Beach & Boardwalk: In addition to great sand and waves, Rockaway Beach offers seven playgrounds for children.  It’s also a great place to test your surfing skills.

Food & Drink:

• Rippers: Open since 2011, Rippers is one of the spots in Rockaway Beach revitalizing the area.  Offering everything from hot dogs to smoothies to beer funnels to a fun 80s soundtrack, it attracts a large crowd.
• Ship to Shore: Everybody loves to bring alcohol to the beach, and if you do, the Ship to Shore wine shop offers rare and low-cost wines, some of which can’t be found anywhere else.  
• Tacoway Beach: Located inside the Rockaway Beach Surf Club, the kitschy Tacoway Beach serves both alcohol and tacos crafted by chef Andrew Field.  

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Exercising With Your Baby

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When you’re a new mom, finding any time to get anything done, particularly workouts, is difficult indeed.  Luckily, there are plenty of workouts that are easy to do, and you can keep your baby right there with you.  I recently read an article that shared some of these, and I thought I would share them with you all:

Baby dancing: Dancing offers a light cardiovascular workout with all three major muscle groups and improves both your balance and coordination.  Hold your baby to your body and support their head.  Put on some music and dance with your abs drawn in.  Try intervals of slow and moderately fast music to keep your heart rate up.  

Curl-up: Lie face-up on the floor with your knees bent and feet on the ground, like you would do for a sit-up.  Place your baby on or just above your lower belly and hold them securely there.  Then lift your head, neck, and shoulder blades off the floor in two counts, sort of like a miniature sit-up.  Do 20 reps, rest, and then do another set.

Reverse baby curl: This one’s very similar to the curl up, except put your feet up and bring your knees toward your chest, placing your baby on your shins.  Contract your abs and gently tilt your hips up off the floor as your lift your heads and shoulders at the same time, then lower and repeat 20 times.  

Overhead press: Sit cross-legged, holding your baby in front of your chest with your elbows bent.  Straighten your arms upward, pause, then lower your baby.  Do 10 reps, rest, then do two more sets.  

Bench press: Lie faceup on the floor with your knees bent, like with the curl-up.  Hold your baby securely, and bring them close to your chest, with their face touching yours.  Lift your baby up, pause, then lower your baby to the starting position.  Do 10 reps, rest, then do two more sets.  

Pliés: Stand with your feet further than hip-wide apart.  Keep your abs drawn in and bend your knees, lowering your hips and pressing your weight into your heels.  Slowly straighten your legs and return to a standing position.  

Walking lunges: Stand tall, holding your baby against your chest.  Take a large step forward with your right leg and bend both knees.  Push off your back leg and step your feet together.  Repeat with the opposite leg.  

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Easy, Equipment-Free Swimming Exercises

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Sometimes it’s easy to forget that New York has got some great public pools across the city and in every borough.  If you’re tired with your regular in-gym workouts, then paying a visit to your local public pool could be a great way to diversify your workout.  Pool workouts often let you work multiple muscles with minimal equipment, and you won’t even sweat!  Since the water provides resistance, you can work your muscles while doing cardio, a win-win situation!  Next time you go to the pool, here are some excellent exercises you can try that require no equipment apart from a swimsuit, based off an article I read online:

Water walking: Start by walking forward and then backward in chest- or waist-high water.  To mix things up, increase and decrease your speed, or walk/jog in place.  

Lunge: Standing near a pool wall for support if necessary, take a large lunge step in a forward direction, but don’t let the forward knee advance past your toes.  Return to a starting position, and then repeat the movement with your other leg.  For side lunges, take similar oversized steps side-to-side.  

Sidestepping: Face the pool wall.  Take 10-20 sideways steps in one direction, and then return to your previous place.

Hip kickers: Stand with the pool wall to one side of your body for support.  Move one leg forward in a kicking motion with your knee straight, then return it to start.  Move that same leg to the side, then return it to the start position.  Then move that same leg behind you and return to start.  

Arm raises: Hold your arms at your sides, then bend your elbows to 90 degrees.  Raise and lower your elbows and arms toward the water surface, while your elbows remain bent to 90 degrees.  Do three sets of 10.  

Push-ups: While standing by the pool side, place your arms shoulder-width apart.  Press weight through your hands, and raise your body up and halfway out of the water, keeping your elbows slightly bent.  Hold this pose for 3 seconds, then slowly lower yourself back into the pool.  

Standing knee lift: Stand against the pool wall with both feet on the floor.  Lift one knee up like you’re marching in place, then straighten it.  Continue to bend and straighten your knee a couple times, then repeat it on your other leg.  Once you’ve mastered that, try it again, but don’t stand against the pool wall.

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Let Trolls Eat Cake!

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To say that the Internet has revolutionized global communication is a redundant understatement.  It allows us to work from home, keep in touch with their college friends across the globe and of course ushered in the art of “trolling”, where people post incendiary comments to garner a response.  It’s become a huge part of the Internet world; the comment threads on any news site or YouTube video are filled to the brim with trolls, and in the most recent season of “South Park” trolling was the center of a season-long story arc.  

Trolling can be harmless, but it can also be a problem.  It’s easy to take a lot of the things that trolls say personally, and it plays a large part in the dark world of cyberbullying.  Twitter has been trying to combat the phenomenon, but trying to stop trolls is a difficult, some would say impossible task.  But I recently read about one service in Brooklyn has come up with a new, innovative method.  

“Troll Cakes” allows you to send trolls a custom cake with their hateful comments written on them.  So far, the venture is pretty new; owner Kat Thek started it not even a month ago with no formal pastry training.  Each “cake” is actually a chocolate chip brownie (as far as I can tell not poisoned) decorated with icing and various toppings.  So far the owner has only sent a handful of cakes, but the business is getting bigger.  The cakes come in a box with a printout of the original comments.  For an extra fee, Thek promises to track down the troll’s address and mail it directly to them, but her methods remain clouded in mystery.  

The company is based in Brooklyn, but they’ll ship anywhere in the US.  Thek even offers a deal where you can deliver your “preferred Trump Tweet” to the White House.  So far, a lot of the cakes have been sent to friends as a joke.  You can send them to trolls, or you can also troll your friends with a cake.  If that sounds like a good idea, you can visit the site!

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Stretches With a Tennis Ball

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Stretching out your lower body after a run is an essential part of your workout routine.  And if it isn’t, then you should make it one!  It offers all sorts of benefits, such as the reduction of tightness in your largest muscle groups, relieving potential pains, correcting muscular imbalances and even improving overall technique.  I recently read a post from the British-based blogger “Fitness On Toast” that shared some specific, unique types of stretches that you can try, each one of which uses a tennis ball.  Take a look!  

Gluteus stretch: Lying on your back, bend your knees and place one foot across your thigh.  Then place a tennis ball under the side of your butt cheek with the leg bent resting on the other thigh.  Move the ball around until you find a sore spot, then hold that position for 5-20 seconds.  Once the tension releases, move the ball to another position.  

Calf stretch: Sit upright on the floor with your back straight.  Place your legs straight out in front of you, and sit with your back against the wall.  Place the ball under the calf, and hold each sore spot for 5-20 seconds before moving onto the next sore spot.  

IT-band stretch: Sit on a flat surface on the ground, placing the outside of your thigh on top of the ball.  Hold your thigh gently in place over the ball and apply a tolerable amount of pressure for roughly 5-20 seconds.  Once you feel that the tension has decreased, move the ball to a lower part of the IT-band (this is a narrow band of muscle running on the outside of the thigh).  Repeat this until tension has decreased.

Hip flexors stretch: Lie face down and place your tennis ball under the front of your hip.  Move the ball around until you find a sore spot, and once you do, hold the ball in that position for 5 to 20 seconds or until tension has decreased. 

Hip stretch: Like on the ground on one side, placing your head under some sort of support (foam box, stack of books, pillow, etc).  Place the ball on the side of your hip, and slowly lean into it until you’ve found a sore spot.  Hold it on the sore spot for a few seconds before moving to another spot.  

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Getting Into the Spring Spirit

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As the flip-flopping weather of February and March comes to an end in New York City, plenty of people around me are getting ready for real spring weather; it’s nice out, the cold dips are less severe and less frequent, and restaurants are bringing out their outdoor tables and chairs for brunches.  Spring is traditionally a time for renewal, a “fresh start” if you will.  You can finally start going outside for your workouts, and it’s a great feeling.  Yet sometimes shaking off that winter “sluggishness” can be a bit of a challenge. In that case, here are some ways to refresh yourself, taken from the blog “Fit Bottomed Girls”:

Deep clean: You’ve heard of “Spring cleaning”, before; while it’s never that fun, it’s also pretty satisfying once you’ve finished it.  Most of us spend a lot of our time indoors during the winter, which means our homes tend to get dirty.  This is the best time to get rid of the dust bunnies under your couch and help you enjoy the warm spring days.  

Purge everything: Piggybacking on the above point, winter holidays bring an abundance of goodies and knicknacks that we may not actually need.  Purging all of the forgotten stuff you don’t need any more will not just give you more room, but also mean that you have less to worry about, move or store.  If you’re having trouble figuring out what you want to get rid of, then ask yourself if something you’re holding onto brings you joy.  If the answer is “no”, then get rid of it.

Grow an herb garden: This might sound a bit cliché, but growing an herb garden is a great spring activity; it offers you an excuse to go outside, connect with nature and get some sun.  It also lets you cultivate spices that can really improve your cooking.  

Unplug: Most of us depend on technology for work, planning or keeping in touch with our high school friends, but often times that technology also serves as a major distraction.  Nonetheless, unplugging for at least

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Urban Workout Tips

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New York has a lot of things, but there’s one thing it certainly doesn’t have: space.  That can make it hard to get in an effective workout, especially considering that gyms like Equinox and the NYHRC aren’t cheap.  Yet even if you don’t have a gym membership, there are still plenty of ways to get a great “urban workout”.  I recently read an article that shared some tips.  While the article was more geared towards Colorado, these tips are just as relevant in New York City.  Here’s what it had to say:

Go to the park: New York might be crowded and filled with people, but it’s also got plenty of parks.  But don’t stop with just running the length of the park; many of these parks have playgrounds as well, which feature plenty of equipment for a full-body workout.  For example, you can use the monkey bars, experimenting with speed and even practicing pull-ups.  Use benches as well to do step-ups or box jumps.  As long as you use your imagination, there’s an endless number of exercises you can try out at the park.

Bodyweight exercises: Luckily, bodyweight exercises don’t require much room; you don’t even need access to a park!  You can do them just as easily at home, on the street or pretty much anywhere you want to.  Tuck-jumps, push-ups, lunges and wall-sits are all easy to learn, if you haven’t done them already, and can be done in even the smallest studio apartment without rearranging too much furniture.  

HIIT it: HIIT stands for “high-intensity interval training”.  It’s one of the best ways to get the most out of your workout, and you don’t even have to go to the gym.  Simply alternate periods of high-intensity work with periods of lower intensity effort.  For example, try bursts of sprinting followed by slow jogs, or maybe bodyweight exercises separated by short rest periods.  

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The Benefits of Sleep

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When you’re a lawyer, you spend a lot of sleepless nights poring over law books and court documents.  So it’s hard for me to say “you should be sleeping!” when I myself don’t practice what I preach, but it’s hard to not emphasize the importance that sleeping plays in overall health.  Even though sleep used to be ignored, recent studies have looked at its benefits.  Here are a few of them:

Sleeping improves memory: During sleep, your mind undergoes a process known as “consolidation”, where you strengthen memories or “practice” skills that you learned while awake.  Your brain also helps reorganize and restructure these, which could result in more creativity by strengthening the emotional components of memory.  So if you’re trying to remember some legal cases, and think of creative ways to use them in an argument, you’ll do better after a good night’s sleep.  

Sleeping is linked with longevity: Too much or too little sleep is linked with a shorter lifespan, although whether that’s a cause or effect isn’t yet clear.  Sleeping also helps curb inflammation, which is linked to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, arthritis and premature aging.  

Sleeping gives you energy: A study from Stanford University found that college football players who tried to sleep at least 10 hours every night for seven to eight weeks were able to improve their average sprint time and stamina.  Similar studies done with tennis players and swimmers found the same results.  

Sleeping improves your grades: A 2010 study in the journal Sleep found that children between the ages of 10 and 16 who have sleep disordered breathing (snoring, sleep apnea, etc) are more likely to have problems with attention and learning.  In another study, college students who didn’t get enough sleep had worse grades.

Sleep sharpens your attention: A lack of sleep can result in ADHD-like symptoms in children.  A 2009 study in the journal Pediatrics found that children aged seven and eight who got under eight hours a sleep a night were more likely to be hyperactive, inattentive and impulsive.  

Sleep improves your weight: Researchers at the University of Chicago discovered that well-rested dieters lost more fat than those who were sleep-deprived.  Dieters in the study also felt more hungry when they got less sleep.  

Sleep lowers stress: Sleep has been known to reduce levels of stress, giving people better control of their blood pressure as well.  It’s also believed that sleep affects cholesterol levels, which plays a significant role in heart disease.

Sleep helps you avoid accidents: Drowsy driving is just as bad, if not worse, than drunk driving, and in 2009 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that it accounted for the highest number of fatal crashes.  Lack of sleep for just one night can be as detrimental to your driving as booze.  

Sleep helps fight depression: A lack of sleep can contribute to depression, and a good night’s sleep can do wonders in helping somebody decrease their anxiety.  Good sleep means more emotional stability.  It’s all about finding a balance; so that means don’t try to make up for lost time on the weekends!

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Sticking With Your Fitness Resolutions

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The standard “lose weight, be healthy” is a popular New Year’s resolution.  Yet it’s a resolution that’s broken just about as much as it’s promised.  It’s hard to keep up a fitness plan when the enthusiasm wanes in the face of time commitments and the realization that waking up at 6 in the morning to visit the gym doesn’t always make for an ideal morning.  Here are ten ways you can keep your health and fitness plan in place, taken from an article I read on wikiHow:

Make it a part of your schedule: Make working out as important to your daily schedule as everything else, and write it into your calendar.  This helps keep your fitness plan in place.  

Plan the best time of day: If you go when the gym is less crowded, then you’ll be more relaxed about keeping up with your routine.  Not only that, but you won’t find yourself waiting in line to use a machine.

Don’t overdo it: If you make your workout too intense, you’ll come out of it hurting and aching, which will make you dread going back.  Start your workouts out at about 20 minutes to an hour.  And of course don’t forget to stretch before starting.  

Set achievable goals that gradually grow: Setting concrete goals makes them more reachable, and helps encourage you to keep going.  Once you’ve achieved these goals, set your next goals a bit higher.  

Keep a fitness diary: Include not just what you do at the gym, but also what you’re eating, so you can see what works and what doesn’t.  This will let you adjust your workout to focus on problem areas.  

Vary your exercises: Mix it up; maybe do aerobics one day and treadmill the next.  Try to mix up your weight routine as well to make sure you use all your muscles.  

Get a buddy: Getting somebody to come with you offers some social interaction and encouragement when you feel like giving up.  It also keeps you accountable.  

Try a personal trainer: Start by developing a health and fitness routine with your personal trainer to watch and encourage you to keep going.  

Make yourself go religiously (at least at the beginning): It takes a while to see results, so if you keep that in your mind, then you’ll be more likely to stick with it.  They say it takes four weeks before you notice a change, six weeks before your friends notice and eight weeks before everybody else does.  

Find a way to get back into things if you face a setback: Most people drop their health and fitness routines when they miss workouts.  So make sure you go back as soon as possible and keep going.  

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New York’s Top Fondue

Some people get depressed when the weather gets cold, and that’s particularly easy in a place like New York.  Yet I get excited about the winter, since some of my favorite food is hearty, warm, stick-to-your-ribs winter food.  And do you know what falls under that category and is obscenely delicious?  Fondue!  Here are some great fondue places around New York, according to Gothamist.  I can’t wait to try them all!

Le Fond: Come here on Tuesday nights for half-priced bottles of wine and a cheese fondue special that comes with seared steak and plenty of great dipping vessels.  In the middle of the dinner, a waiter will add a bit of hot water to ensure that the fondue stays liquid and dippable.  

Fondue Chalet: This seasonal pop-up works to replicate the “European” experience with checkered tablecloths and vintage ski posters.  The “House Fondue” combines white wine with various cheeses to make a delicious and dippable mix.  

Murray’s Cheese Bar: Due to their prominence in the New York cheese scene, I would hope that Murray’s did some good fondue!  And they certainly don’t disappoint!  They make a fondue with Alpine-style cheeses, Chablis and nutmeg.  

The Standard: In the winter, the Standard’s famous seasonal garden gets a makeover with heated huts, hot drinks and warm meals like fondue.  There are two options here: the vegetarian one and the traditional one, and they’re both delicious.

Pair Wine & Cheese: Pair, like Murray’s, lets you pick up cheese in addition to sitting down for a cheese-heavy meal.  If you want to experience their fondue, the latter option is the way to go, and the waiters will gladly help you pair your melted cheese with good wine.  

Kashkaval Garden: While Kashkaval is more known for its Mediterranean food, that’s not to discredit its fondue.  They have four different options, including a sharp cheddar variety with hard apple cider and caramelized onions.  They also make one with Bulgarian sheep cheese.  

Taureau: The Taureau bistro specializes in cheese, meat and chocolate fondues.  While more expensive than the other options on this list, you get what you pay for, with countless combinations of cheeses, meats, oils and dipping options.