MCLV Style: Embellish Me
Fun accessories and embellished pieces are a great way to take a basic look to a new level. So next time you’re putting together a nighttime look be creative and layer on the extras!
{You can shop similar pieces by clicking these hyperlinks: Pleated Leather Skirt – The Limited, Embellished Top – Zara, Oxblood Knit Tights – DKNY via Bloomingdales, Spike Embellished Heels – The Limited, Black Patent Clutch – MICHAEL Michael Kors via Nordstrom, Ring – BCBG Max Azria & Bracelet – Forever 21}
{You can view this outfit on Lookbook.nu and Pose}
{Check out outtakes from this shoot here – Just log into Facebook to view}
This outfit could have just been black skirt + black top but with the addition of brightly colored tights, an embellished collar, fun jewelry, and spiked heels it’s a more one-of-a-kind look. But I did discover that the downside of this too-cute pleated faux leather skirt from The Limited is that it wrinkles sooooo easily. And quickly. Thus the absence of straight-on shots!
What’s your favorite fun extra this Winter or the piece you’re most excited to try out?
MCLV Style: Lazy Stripes
Sometimes what a girl needs is layers. And lots of them. This was a look that I threw together for a CrossFit competition a few weeks ago – The keys for that kind of day are :(1) Comfortable, (2) Easy to move in, and (3) Warm! The third ended up being especially important as the venue had a huge open door and it started raining when we first got there!
{You can shop similar pieces by clicking these hyperlinks: Striped Sweater Tunic – H&M, Leggings – Forever 21, Cropped Blazer – Banana Republic, Studded Ankle Boots – C Label via Piperlime, Patent Satchel – Express, Skull Pendant – Asos, and Bracelets – H&M, Asos & JewelMint}
{You can view this outfit on Lookbook.nu and Pose}
{Check out outtakes from this shoot here – Just log into Facebook to view}
I have a confession to make. This blazer is one of the oldest {non-heirloom} pieces in my closet. My mother bought it for me SEVEN years ago when she took me on a shopping trip to equip me for interviewing and starting my first post-collegiate job. When people say “classic” or “investment piece” this, my friends, is what they’re referring to!
Do you have any classic, it’ll-always-be-in-style pieces in your wardrobe? What’s your favorite investment piece that you’ve bought over the years?
Guest Post: Women’s Health
Raise your hand if your New Years Resolutions – officially or unofficially – include anything similar to these:
- Eat healthier
- Go to the gym more frequently
- Lose weight
- Get in better shape
That’s what I thought.
So with all of our ambitious and health-oriented resolutions in mind I’m planning a few new series during 2013 to help motivate and educate us with regard to health, fitness & nutrition – (1) A series of guest posts from people in the health & fitness industries, (2) A Beginners Fitness series w/ reading materials, workouts, and nutritional information for you to consider, and (3) A series of posts documenting the trials & tribulations I face while attempting the Whole 30 program at the beginning of 2013.
To help get us started with Fitness Friday & put us in a healthy, motivated mindset so we can start 2013 at our best, I’d like to welcome Megan:
My name is Megan and I’m very excited to have the opportunity to guest blog for Moi Contre La Vie! When I was asked to write a few pieces for this blog, I found myself a little dumbfounded, searching for a topic interesting and worthy enough of the site. It surprised me that I felt this way since I blog at least three times a week on my own!
I manage and coach at an all-women’s gym called Kaia FIT Sacramento. I write 3-4 pieces a week for our website and find my inspiration from the amazing women of our gym community. I realized this inspiration fits perfectly in with the concept of Moi Contre La Vie and my blog topic was staring right at me the whole time!
At the top of the Moi Contre La Vie site it reads, “Celebrating Fashion, Food and Fitness,” and these are three of my favorite things! I will be writing a 3-part series on these topics and how they relate to my life as a fitness trainer and how they affect the women I’m surrounded by. Before my first post, however, I thought I’d share a little about myself and how I came to be where I am.
I’m 26 and married to an amazing man named Nick. Nick is a CrossFit trainer and ultra-runner. His passion for fitness, health and science has been one of my favorite parts about him since we met and I owe much of my success in the fitness world to him.
I was always an ‘active’ person… Dabbling in yoga and running, hitting spin classes at 24 hour fitness if I didn’t get off work at the restaurant too late the night before. You know, the typical college girl routine.
But none of it was ever enough. I loved the feeling of working out. Not the feeling AFTER a workout… But the terrible, breathless, burning feeling DURING it. And I know I wanted to feel it with more intensity.
Enter Kaia FIT.
A friend of mine started at Kaia FIT Sacramento as soon as they opened their doors and was absolutely loving it. Never mind her amazing results physically, her entire attitude and outlook on health and fitness had changed! I knew I had to give it a try….
And I never looked back. After a few months I went to certification and began coaching. A year later I’m managing the joint and have made it my full-time career!
Coming up: Fashion… Of the fitness world!
Thank you so much for the introduction Megan – We’re all looking forward to reading your next post. If you have any specific questions that you’d like Megan to answer please let me know!
Guest Post: The Paleo Lifestyle
I’m a strong believer that each body has different needs and requirements. From allergies and intolerances, to dietary preferences, to work and sleep habits. Both our lives and our bodies dictate how we should fuel ourselves, and listening to your body is something that you need to learn to do. And that’s why I believe in trying different diets. Not diets as in crash diets – diets as in lifestyle changes that allow you to experience different ways of eating, that give you the opportunity to discover the best and healthiest lifestyle for yourself.
Personally I’ve tried a number of different diets and excluded various foods over the years, from high raw to mostly vegan to gluten-free. I want to feel my best every day – I want to sleep well, wake up rested & not need caffeine to open my eyes, have energy throughout the day, not suffer from headaches, and be alert & able to concentrate. And believe me when I say that it can be a long journey of trial and error to determine what foods will give you all of that.
Today I’m here to introduce Kyle Lawlor, one of the co-authors of the Tumblr blog Eat. Drink. Paleo – Two foodies who fell in love and are now transitioning to a Paleo lifestyle. If you look up “Paleo Diet” in wikipedia or check out the Paleo Diet website you can get a full list of do’s and don’ts, what you can and can’t eat, and why the Paleo supporters think that their lifestyle is the best choice out there. But what those websites won’t/can’t/don’t tell you is how this lifestyle will make you feel, how hard the transition is, what the noticeable benefits and downsides are, and how you will feel on a daily basis.
But Kyle can.
This is his story of discovering Paleo eating, making the transition, joining CrossFit, and how those choices have affected his daily life and outlook:
My journey to a healthy paleo lifestyle has taken far longer than I wish it would. I look back and kick myself for not doing this sooner but as is constant with me, I have to do everything in my own time or I will never stick to anything. I came across the Paleo Lifestyle when I joined American River CrossFit in July 2011. At the time I weighed 280lbs and I still (unfortunately) stand only 5’8 ½”. I was out of shape. I was constantly out of breath from even the simplest of tasks. I didn’t sleep well. I snored like a band saw. And worst of all, I looked terrible! When I started at CrossFit it was terrible. My body hadn’t felt so sore since JV Spring Training for football. My quads hurt, my back was tight, and my shoulders felt like they would drop off at any moment. The funny thing is that at first, a lot of what I was doing in CrossFit was just moving myself. My first month involved very little weight training, except for my own 280lbs. But I stuck with it and kept going. Soon I started seeing improvements. My clothes began fitting better and the pain I felt after workouts transitioned into soreness. The only problem was that my gut didn’t go anywhere and the scale hadn’t changed much. The reason was a simple one, one that I never really shared with neither my trainers at the Box nor my girlfriend, Rochelle. Every night after attending the 6pm class at ARCFIT and working my ass off I would stop at Wendy’s or Taco Bell on my way home and demolish a couple bucks worth of fake food before pulling into my drive way. THEN I would go inside and eat the dinner Rochelle would have prepared for us. To understand why I did this we need to take a quick trip down memory lane.
Fast forward to February 2012! I read The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf and it changes my life. I had been living a 20% Paleo lifestyle at best while trying to work my ass off at CrossFit. Unfortunately, as we are fond of saying at ARCFIT “you can’t out train a shit diet”. It is so incredibly true! Somehow I expected that if I worked out an hour a day twice a week that gave me permission to eat whatever the hell I wanted. February was a great month for me because it was the start of a lot of life changes for me. The first was the 30 day Paleo challenge Rochelle and I began. We cut out all the grain, all the dairy, all the sugar and all the legumes. And at first it was awesome! NOT! It sucked! But, after the first week and a half all the cravings were gone. Then the amazing things started happening. I began feeling better. I was sleeping the whole night through with much less snoring then before (much to Rochelle’s delight), my pants started literally falling off of me because they were too big, and not to get gross but my bowel movements were noticeably healthier and less frequent than I was accustomed. All in all, my body was beginning to heal the wrongs I had done to it for 24 years.
What I have come to realize over the last year, specifically in the last 4 months, is that through taking care of myself I have become a happier person. 6 months ago, someone who knew me well might consider me a good friend but hateful of just about everyone else on the planet, and that’s putting it mildly. To be plain, I had been unhappy with my life for the past few years, and despite being moderately intelligent I could not see that the problem was staring back at me every time I went to McDonald’s for breakfast, Jack in the Box for lunch and perhaps Taco Bell for dinner. These foods had a hold on me. If I’m honest, I’d say they still do. While I rarely, if ever, crave some kind of fake burger from a fast food joint, I know that if I succumb to weakness at any time and have one I will be hooked once again.
When Rochelle and I began the 30 day Challenge in February, I didn’t think it would stick. I figured I would find someway of returning to old habits. However, since we decided to eat only the foods listed in the 30 Day sample menus I was stuck. I would actually have to follow the rules on this one and see where I could go.
My life is much different now. I do my best to go to the gym 5 days a week and I don’t drink as often or as much as I used to. I wake up at 6:30am, which is early when you consider the fact that I don’t have to be at work until 10am every day. I look at the WOD (Workout Of the Day in CrossFit speak), weigh myself, prepare myself to leave the house and head to the gym for the 7am class. When I get to the gym I feel like hell. My body and mind haven’t quite adjusted to being upright yet, there’s usually loud music on and in a couple of minutes someone I consider a friend is going to tell me to go run around the building, row 1000 meters, do pushups, or wall balls, or air squats, double-unders, burpees, and what the hell go run around the building again. At that point I’m warmed up. My morning headache is gone, my back has loosened up, and my hips are just about opened to where I need them to be in order to do whatever is planned for the day. Depending on the program I’m on there will be skill work before the WOD (ie pull ups or muscle ups) or weight lifting and then the WOD. I do my best on skill work and WODs, sometimes do a second WOD, foam roll, then drive home. The maximum amount of time I am ever at the gym is 2 hours, and those are days when I’m bored and Rochelle hasn’t given me a honey do list while I’m off on a weekday.
Time for some real honesty. Life happens, accept you may eat off diet and adjust accordingly (ie work your ass off the rest of the week) Sometimes you’re at your mom’s place and she’s making spaghetti and meatballs. You clean the plate and ask for seconds. Also, sometimes you’re in a hurry and forget your lunch. Does that mean you get to hit up McDonald’s for a Big Mac? NO! Think smarter. Is there a Thai restaurant near your work? If so, do what Rochelle does when she forgets lunch, call them up, order a red curry with beef, no rice, go back to your desk and eat something delicious and most likely entirely paleo. No Thai place? Craving fake Mexican food? Chipotle. I know, it is all that is wrong with this country but sometimes you want to eat fake Mexican food. A burrito bowl with no rice and beans will do the trick. Smile and ask politely for the person behind the counter to hook you up on peppers and onions. You like real Mexican food? Fine, hit up that taqueria by your work and grab a half pound of carnitas with a side of guac. No, you don’t need to order the rice, beans or tortillas! And finally, what about a good old American hamburger? All I can say God bless In N Out and Habit burger for lettuce wrapping their burgers, they can be a life saver! Have I done all these things? Yep! Am I proud of it? Not really, but I’m still going to eat and live my life. The difference is now when I eat things that are absolutely terrible for me, my mentality is different. Gone are the days when pasta made me think wistful thoughts of Rome. Now all I can think about is how much I just poisoned my body and how soon I can get it out of me. Funny how much things can change in 4 months.
My girlfriend and I constantly talk about how different my life has become in the last 4 months, none of it negative, and the one thing we always point out is that it started with my nutrition. When I got serious my life got better. Now I don’t usually like to look to the divine in such moments, but the timing sure is coincidental.
Please note that this is a shortened version of Kyle’s article, you can see the unabridged version here which includes great recipes and more details about Paleo eating.
Please note that neither Kyle nor I are a doctor, dietitian, or nutritionist. I recommend speaking with a professional prior to making any dramatic changes to your lifestyle, diet, or exercise regime to ensure that any changes you make are done safely.
Health & Your Relationship
When I read Rachel Wilkerson’s How CrossFit Has Helped My Relationship it got me thinking.
A lot.
Rachel said that by encouraging her boyfriend to take up a healthy hobby – in this instance CrossFit – their relationship ultimately benefited despite the fact that in the end it actually meant less alone time. I have no trouble at all believing this. In my experience, if there’s a substantial disconnect between how much two people value health & nutrition in their lives it can potentially lead to problems down the road.
I don’t believe that you need have all the same views, do the same workouts, or approach food the same way. But if only one person takes their health seriously and devotes time, energy, and effort to maintaining said health, the other individual may become resentful, jealous, threatened etc. Or things can go the other way around and as one person becomes healthier and more fit they begin to pity, worry about, and/or neglect their partner.
Take a look at this piece by the Primal Parent entitled When Good Health Destroys a Marriage. It’s written from the perspective of a woman who changed her diet and was feeling her best, while her husband was… Not. Ultimately their marriage couldn’t survive because she has a strong, well-tested belief in the importance of good health & nutrition, and refused to settle for someone who couldn’t – or wouldn’t – put forth the effort to investigate improving his own health.
{Kyle & Rochelle – The authors of Eat Drink Paleo}
If you can find someone who shares your views, that’s fantastic – like my friend Kyle & his lady-love who write the oh-so-entertaining Eat. Drink. Paleo – Two foodies who fell in love and are now transitioning to a paleo lifestyle. But at a minimum you need to show an interest in the other’s routines and goals, and be able to talk about and share your successes and failures.
Take my relationship for example, on the surface my boyfriend and I have virtually opposite views on all facets of fitness and nutrition:
- He eats an incredibly regimented high protein, low carb diet composed primarily of chicken, eggs, and vegetables which he tracks on a daily basis. I eat a mostly vegan, gluten-free, high raw diet.
- He does intermittent fasting – meaning that he doesn’t eat until early afternoon & only eats three meals a day. While I eat at least every two hours after my 4am wakeup time.
- He follows a lifting schedule & does CrossFit-style workouts that leave him wheezing, covered in bruises, scrapes, and rope burns, and stress his nervous system for days. I run, do circuit workouts & go to Pilates, martial arts & boxing classes.
- His ultimate goal with his work outs and eating regime is to retain & increase strength while dropping body fat. I’m only interested in being healthy and not having daily back pain.
Pretty different, right? But the truth is that those are fairly superficial differences – underneath it all we’re both incredibly passionate about health and fitness, and that’s what really matters.
We love going for walks & hikes, cooking, eating, going to the farmer’s market, and planning our meals and workouts for the week, and most of all, we love debating our positions on these topics. If you looked through our emails, Facebook messages, Tweets, and text logs you’d find photos of our meals, new recipes to try, books to add to our Amazon basket, articles to read, great blogs we’ve found, documentaries & movies to add to our Netflix queue, and questions about what we’ve eaten, what workouts we’ve done, and how far we’ve walked that day.
Every day.
{Hers vs His}
It doesn’t matter that we’re not spending our days doing the same things, what matters is that we both approach our lives with a profound respect for our bodies, what we put them through, and how we fuel them. Yes, we debate topics like veganism versus paleo eating, different types of fat, which oils to use in cooking, fasting, detox programs & cleanses, and strength training. Yes, sometimes I question his sanity when he comes home with his hands shredded from doing hundreds of pull-ups or muscle-ups or toes-to-bars. But mostly, we just talk about it.
Our shared passion for health and nutrition was not what brought us together 12 years ago, nor is it what has kept up together, but it does give us something to talk about and share every single day. And because it’s important to us both, we appreciate the other’s routines and ambitions, even though they’re different.
Like Rachel said:
One more lovely side effect of the fitness revival: Eric and I are back to bonding through nerdy, fitness-related conversations. (We’re also bonding over our sore muscles.) I’m really enjoying little things like talking about our workouts and progress, discussing an article about diet or exercise, trying new healthy foods together, or going shoe shopping for new athletic shoes.
You don’t need to be 100% in sync with your partner, you just need to be with someone who has the same appreciation and respect for health and fitness as you do. Added bonus if it becomes something that you can share and bond over!
How to Survive a CrossFit Meet
This past weekend was the 2012 LaLanne Fitness Garage Games Kickoff. An all-day CrossFit event Saturday at LaLanne Fitness in San Francisco and the first big competition of the season for my boyfriend and his teammates from American River CrossFit in Sacramento.
After last year’s introduction to the joys of CrossFit competitions – the Fittest of the Sierra’s in South Lake Tahoe was the 1st big competition I attended – I wanted to share my advice & lifesaving tips on how best to survive one of these high intensity, rowdy, crowded events.
(1) What To Bring:
- Bring food – Lots of it. These kids can EAT, so pack unprocessed, lean meats, cheeses & nuts for snacking between workouts.
- A close second on the must have list is booze. You’ll need it and so will they. Trust me. These are work hard, play hard types and blowing off steam immediately after a brutal competition is a MUST.
- Water! I can promise you that a giant water bottle will come in handy. This weekend all three competitors ended up using my Nalgene which had to be refilled every 5 minutes.
- Camera – The biggest issues that I’ve had photo-wise is that the athletes are moving so quickly that in some cases the pictures are blurry or the camera doesn’t reset quickly enough to capture the next shot. As much as I love my Canon, this season I invested in a little HD video camera that also takes stills. Success!
(2) What To Expect:
- Lots of people – These are busy, crowded events and in addition to lots of competitors, you’ll be surrounded by members of the hosting team and tons of spectators. Expect to be bumped or asked to move to accommodate events.
- No place to sit – In some cases events will be outdoors and you’ll have bleachers to sit on, but primarily the events are indoors and you’ll be standing pressed against a wall, craning to see over the heads of the other spectators.
- A fast-paced environment – With large numbers of competitors and a handful of workouts to get through, the organizers may be rushing to get through the events. Some workouts can be “blink and you miss them” short so keep an eye on your competitor to make sure that you see everything.
- LOUD and offensively bad music. This weekend was bad. R&B bad.
(3) What To Do Afterwards:
- Plan to go out – You’d think everyone would be beyond exhausted after a day full of crazy workouts, but my experience has been that the adrenaline is still pumping and they have a few more hours of energy left in them.
- Head straight to a restaurant, trust me when I say they’ll be ready for a big meal. And if they’re paleo-people I’d pick a restaurant in advance to make sure that the menu is acceptable.
- Make sure that the restaurant you’re going to has a bar. Your competitors will definitely want a drink. Or two. Or three.
I can’t recommend checking out one of these events enough – they’re exciting and fun to watch, never a dull moment.
P.S. Ladies, in case you need some more incentive, the shirts come off about a fourth of the way through. I’m just saying.
Guest Post: Low-Intensity Fasted Cardio
For Moi Contre La Vie’s first guest post please welcome Sean, a certified CrossFit instructor and self-taught health & nutrition guru, who will be discussing low-intensity fasted cardio. When he first mentioned this topic to me I thought it was extraordinarily interesting and immediately pounced on him to put it into writing.
{Yes – That’s Sean}
Enjoy!
For quite some time, i have prided myself in being physically capable of overcoming demanding physical challenges at will. Whether it be lifting heavy weights, running long distances, or some other overtly masculine challenge. For this reason, i use to laugh at myself when i was humbled by seemingly simple tasks, which in my goal of attaining general physical athleticism, i would overlook. This was never more apparent than when i would visit places like San Francisco where walking for an afternoon, yes walking, would leave me feeling beaten down and exhausted (my tiny girlfriend waiting for me to pant my way up every hill was demoralizing in itself). Little did I realize, that in neglecting one of the most fundamental forms of human locomotion, I was passing up a potent and extremely valuable health and fitness tool. One that requires a little time and very little effort.
Living in a place like San Francisco, where walking is a valid method of transportation, is dramatically different from than the suburbs in which i reside. Here, i can not think of a single person that walks, or even rides a bike, outside of the specific purpose of getting exercise. Funny enough, i know overweight people who will ride their bike for two hours straight when it is exercise, but when it comes to the half-mile commute to work or the store, the only option is the SUV. Not to say that i was any different, it is a habit that you learn.
Then, a few months back, I found an article discussing the topic of low-intensity fasted cardio exercise to augment training for gymnast. (I have a strange fascination with gymnastics training methods, the level of skill and strength required for basic competency is astonishing). The highlight of the topic was how low-intensity fasted cardio was a simple and effective way to keep fat off a gymnast, whilst not compromising their performance in the gym and permitting them to eat more. I thought this was very interesting and saw no reason why it would not be just as useful for anyone who was interested in a simple method of losing stubborn fat (who isn’t?).
First off, what is low-intensity fasted cardio? The “fasted” part of the equation should not be taken in any extreme sense of the word. Your body will begin to enter a fasted state about four to five hours after you eat. It takes about that long for your body to either use the nutrients you have eaten or store them. By this time you body begins using alternative sources of fuel which are derived primarily from your liver and increased metabolization of fat. Since most people do not eat while they sleep, they will generally wake up with blood rich in metabolized fat ready to be used for energy (There are numerous other steps in there, but that’s the basics). When you eat first thing in the morning, your body essentially reverses this process, turning to the more energy rich food and re-storing the fats you metabolized. Just because you freed the stored fat (metabolized) doesn’t mean you actually use (oxidize) it. So there is an optimal time (when you wake up or if you want to not eat for a while) for your body to access your stores of fat. This is where the bit about walking comes into play.
Pairing fasting with low-intensity cardio (low-intensity cardio can be just about any steady state exercise that doesn’t require you to breathe heavily – i.e. walking) is an easy way to capitalize on the metabolized fat that i just described. Why walk, when you can do more work in less time by running or some other higher intensity exercise? One, walking is easier to do consistently, especially when you don’t think of it as exercise. I walk to get coffee or to by food for the day, not to work out. For some reason, turning it into a necessity (I must have coffee) changes the walking from an option to a requirement. This makes doing it everyday easy. Second, fat is not the most efficient form of energy for your body to use. Once you begin to cross over into moderate to higher intensity exercise your body’s ability to meet your energy demands through fat metabolism isn’t adequate. It will generally turn to other richer sources of energy like muscle tissue.
First, thank you for the guest post. Second, and more importantly, thank you for calling me tiny. 🙂
While squeezing in some walking time is always good for you, whether you treat it as exercise or just need some time to yourself, low-intensity fasted cardio seems like an extremely beneficial activity to try on for size. I’ll confess, while I don’t read traditional dieting books, I will read almost any silly book that talks about French women and their approach to food {French Women Don’t Get Fat, Two Lipsticks and a Lover, A Woman’s Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl…} The number one tip all of these books give you is: WALK! The French walk everywhere. If there’s a choice between taking the stairs or an elevator, they take the stairs. They walk to work, they walk to the market, they walk around their cities and towns rather than driving. In my mind this reinforces the benefits of walking and illustrates how the French maintain their slim figures.
Can’t go through the drive through if you’re walking!
Sean usually walks to the store in the morning or walks for a few miles along the river with his roommate, which sounds to me like an ideal way to start to the day. Unfortunately with a 4:30am start time for my days a leisurely stroll isn’t in the cards, however I have been lucky enough to live less than two miles from work for the last few years so I usually walk to the office, weather permitting.
So keep Sean’s advice in mind and hit the pavement or trail to burn off some fat in the am before treating yourself to a healthy breakfast.
Moi Contre La Vie 