Impossible is a typoRunning my pants off and loving myself along the way

FatGirl Says: Oh Duane, you really get me. You really get my needs, my wants, that little thing that will just make my day better. You’re there for me when I have the sniffles. You make me feel pretty. You have chocolate for every holiday known under the sun and you have chocolate just “because”. And it’s like you’re there like 24/7, always open and available. Le sigh.

Chocolate Covered Almonds at DReade makes the world better

I have a secret love affair with Duane Reade Drug Stores. This affair started for two reasons. Years ago, Chase Bank put an ATM machine in every Duane Reade in the City. If you’re a Chase customer, that pretty much means there’s a fee-free ATM about every 50 feet or so, either in a Duane Reade or in a Chase Bank. One of my biggest pet peeves in life that you have to pay to have access to your hard-earned cash. When Duane Reade and Chase teamed up, that meant I was seeing red about my green with much less frequency.

A Chase ATM on every block

The second reason that I came to love Duane Reade is that I’m pathologically early for things. You see, I’ve spent far too much time in Japan and it has some lingering side effects like the inability to give an unambiguous no and being on time to the point of obsession and driving everyone in my life flippin’ nuts because I simple can’t be late so I’m always early. Since I don’t actually want to drive everyone in my life flippin’ nuts AND I’m pathologically early for things, I developed the coping mechanism of wandering Duane Reade endlessly. There are like 6 billion Duane Reades in NYC (OK, like 250+ stores but really, considering Manhattan is only 22.7 square miles, that’s like, oh help me out with the math here, 10 or so Duane Reades per square mile?), you can always find a Duane Reade to pop into to kill some time. I could hit a coffee shop to kill time, but then you’re sitting there staring at your coffee with nothing to do, so you need to go to Duane Reade anyway to get a Cosmo and take the Sex Quiz to bide the time. And we all know that there will be no popping into the Gap or some fancy pants boutique with my Crazy Inner FatGirl’s illogical fear of retail sales girls. It is impossible to think you’re too fat for hair gel. And besides, there’s ALWAYS something you need, Febreeze, tissues, chocolate, mascara, so while you’re trying not to drive people flippin’ nuts, get your errands done.

Never too fat for Hair Care Products

Duane Reade started a re-branding project in about 2005 or so, and it went way beyond developing a fancy new logo. They really began to shift what’s possible for a local drug store. When you think “drug store” you think, well, drugs. Yeah, you can get your drugs in the pharmacy and all the over-the-counter-make-me-feel-better-right-this-very-second stuff like Mucinex and Advil, as well as your hair care products, last minute cheesy gifts, a few cleaning supplies, all the little necessities and niceties of life. But Duane Reade really saw the opportunity to provide something more for their customers and the communities they’re in. Duane Reade now offers flu shots, select locations have “Doctor on Premises” where you can get immediate and affordable health care for minor complaints like colds and boo-boos with no appointments – a huge service in an era where health care is pricey and frustrating and actually kind of hard to come by in NYC with hospitals closing. The pharmacy will text message you when your prescription is ready to be picked up and they even offer language assistance, so that you can really be taken care of. You may have never been sick in a place where you don’t speak the language, but let me tell you, there is nothing more stressful and terrifying than trying to buy medicine in a foreign language. You don’t know if this package is going to cure your hemorrhoids or remove unwanted hair.

Then there is the LOOK Boutique.

Looking good at LOOK Boutique at DReade

Imagine walking into your local drug store and being able to sample the newest OPI nail color, or THE anti-aging face cream wonder that all the magazines are featuring. The LOOK Boutique goes beyond your everyday CoverGirl cosmetics and introduces you to beauty lines that are 100% vegan and natural, and I can’t even begin to ooo and ahh enough about the different lines they carry. But they’ve taken that even further. Most LOOK Boutiques are staffed by people who actually know what they’re talking about and will help you find something new and fun to try. Then they took this to the next level when the 40 Wall store opened. Right in the drug store, you can get your hair blown out, your nails done, sample over 40 different perfumes and they have a virtual make-over kiosk. When you’ve worked all day and you have a big date, pop in, spruce up and not drop a load of cash. Freakin Brilliant.

But the thing I want to really talk about is food. Naturally.

Redefining fast food at Duane Reade

With this re-branding project, Duane Reade is altering the way you can shop for food and eat in NYC. If you don’t live in NYC, here’s a little known fact – supermarkets are few and far between. It is not possible to drive up to a mega supermarket, fill your cart with a months worth of food and head on home. Grocery stores in NYC are tiny, cramped and severely limited in the quality and quantity of goods they offer. There are entire neighborhoods that lack a grocery store of any sort. This means that you do a lot of your food shopping at the corner deli where quantity and quality is even more limited and you would cry over the prices, or you lug your groceries for miles on public transportation. Don’t even get me started on the lack of fruits and vegetables, organic food and basic healthy eating needs. Duane Reade already has a vast presence in NYC. They started bringing in quality pre-made food, like sandwiches and salads. Then they started to expand into basic grocery needs. This addition alone can literally alter the health and well-being of entire communities.

My business partner at Ginger Snap Works and I were invited to attend the opening of a new Duane Reade on Broadway and 52nd Street by Collective Bias, a social media and blogger engagement agency, who is working on some social media projects with Duane Reade.

Ginger Snap Works at Duane Reade

They kicked off the press event by donating $350,000 to Susan G. Komen. I was kind of hoping to see one of those giant checks like they give to lottery winners. I guess that’s a little tacky these days huh? And well, when you’re talking about over a quarter million dollars, no need to be obvious about it.

Duane Reade plays Santa for Susan G. Komen with $350,000 donation

And Antoine was there with his jet pack of coffee, so all around, it was an excellent morning.

Go Go Coffee Jet Pack

I could gush for a while about how pretty and spacious the store is, but I really want to talk about the food. The entire upstairs is food and there is a grocery section down stairs. And bestill my little FitGirl heart – there’s some good healthy stuff here. I mean, just check out the yogurt section.

A billion yogurts at Duane Reade

What drug store do you know that has a fresh produce section?

Fresh Produce at Duane Reade... next to light bulbs?

OK, the fresh produce is next to the light bulbs and dog food and that’s a bit freaky but I can work with it. And will you look at that, there’s fresh fruit within 5 steps of the entrance. Bananas, apples and oranges are actually the first product you encounter when you walk in the store.

Ninja Bananas prepare to attack at Duane Reade

Now hold on to your Points Tracker, because this is what is really amazing. At the B’Way store, yeah yeah, sure you can get cleaning supplies, magazines, cold medicine, and your usual drinks and snacks and treats. And OK, they upped the game with fresh food and bananas and even beer…

Beer in the drug store?

The whole first floor is a food market. And I’m not talking day old muffins and Cheetos.

A machine that dispenses slushy drinks;

On-Demand Brain Freeze

Self-serve Frozen Yogurt with toppings (peach is to die for!);

Self Serve Frozen Yogurt at Duane Reade

A sushi bar. Yes, a real live human being stands right there and makes sushi for you;

Sushi Fixins at the Sushi Bar

There’s a fridge case with about oh 8 dozen different kinds of salads and sandwiches;

Sammies, salads and quick healthy lunches

A fresh juice bar;

Fresh squeezed Juice at Duane Reade

Then you circle around and find gourmet breads and holy freaking cow Fat Witch Brownies next to a machine that dispenses a variety of coffees and…

Fat Girl and Fat Witch = Heaven

wait for it…

AN OATMEAL VENDING MACHINE.

A machine that gives you oatmeal. Holy cow Duane Reade!

Yes, that’s right, you put a cup under the spout and press a button and out comes oatmeal. OK, fine, it’s instant oatmeal and I’m kind of an oatmeal snob but I had a cup. It was $1.99, a wee hint of sweetness, not mushy or soupy at all like instant oatmeal and way way less sweet, and to be honest, it’s better than Starbucks oatmeal.

I’m sure I’m missing a dozen things that are new and exciting in this store as I was a wee bit distracted by the food options. This ain’t a Fat Girl blog for no reason after all!. OH! And my inner Fit Girl will break a proverbial knee cap if I don’t plug the single best thing in Duane Reade…

And FitGirl says: You’re out and about in the City, dashing to a yoga class or coming home after a run, you must re-fuel and get a healthy snack in you! Skip the candy aisle and those protein bars that have more sugar than soda, and pick up this DELICOUS “Delish Chick Pea Salad”. It’s about a half-cup portion and NOT dripping in oily dressing – The perfect protein pick-me-up!

Perfect Protein Pick-me-up

My two general complaints about Duane Reade –  I’ve never found the staff to be overly friendly. They’re helpful, no doubt,  if you ask for help. I had some interactions with a store manager once who simply kicked butt. He couldn’t solve my problem but was awesome anyway. It’s not like the staff is rude or aything and I get it blows working check out in retail sometimes, but the staff have never given me the warm fuzzies either. My second complaint is that Duane Reade can be pricy. Not over priced, but they are generally at the higher end of price point fluctuations. They do have really great sales tho if you keep your eye out on their bulletin and sign up for Flex Reward card. If you must have your favorite shampoo right this second and it’s not on sale that week, expect to pay in the higher price range for it.

I’ve been a customer and a fan of Duane Reade for years. As I’m growing and building this healthy life style for myself, it’s really phenomenal that a company and a brand I am already a fan of is growing in that same direction with me. I know that I can be on the go in the City and that Duane Reade makes it really easy for me to support the decisions that are important to me around my well being.

Please Note: After the tour I received a gift card as a thank you. I’m participating in this Duane Reade Campaign #DReade as a member of Collective Bias. #CBias. No other compensation was received. Views expressed are always 100% my own.

"Thinking of the immortal words of Socrates who said: I drank WHAT?"

FatGirl hustles about the tiny Queens NY kitchen, knocking cats out of the way. “Dear God, what is wrong with these people,” she mumbles through gritted teeth. Like a Narcotics Agent searching for illicit hideyholes that some wannabe gangsta carved into the kitchen cabinets, FatGirl creeks open the one cabinet that contains food for about the 40 billionth time. She’s already checked and rechecked and checked again the other cabinet with the pots and pans. And yes, Dear Readers, she even checked inside the pans. She’s thorough and skilled in finding sneaky places that people hide chocolate and snacks.

Throwing her arms up in disgust and frustration, FatGirl exclaims “16 boxes of pasta but not a single cracker or Hersey Kiss?? Do these people never eat? I’m dying of starvation!” FatGirl slumps in defeat, wedging herself in the tiny chair by the tiny window, slamming her head oh-so dramatically on the tiny kitchen table.

FitGirl puts a calming hand on FatGirls shoulder. “They went out of town. They probably didn’t want food to go bad while they were gone.” she soothes. Lip trembling, a tear edging her eye, FatGirl moans “But what about me?” Sniff. Sniff.

With superhero bravado, FitGirl jumps up and proclaims “I know! I’ll make your a smoothie!” FatGirl cracks one eye to give FitGirl a disbelieving one-eyed glare. FitGirl efficiently hustles about, clanking silverware and opening the fridge. FatGirl moans and whines and thrashes about playing the woe-is-me part to the hilt.

“It will be delicious!” FitGirl cheers. FatGirl is unmoved.

“It will be creamy!” FitGirl coaxes. FatGirl is interested.

“It will be sweet!” FitGirl cajoles! FatGirl is very intersted but faking disbelief.

In the sudden hush that follows the blender turning off, FitGirl triumphantly places a glass before FatGirl. “Ta DAAAAA!”

“WHAT THE HELL IS THAT! It’s GREEN!! Are you trying to poison me??” FatGirl recoils from the glass as if it was a snake.

“I know! Isn’t it pretty! Have a taste!” FitGirl edges the glass closer to FatGirl delighted by her prowess with the blender.

“BUT WHY IS IT GREEN?” FatGirl makes mocking gag noises.

“It has spinach in it! And ginger, and apples, and pineapple! It’s delicious!” FitGirl beams.

“For the love of KitKats! Smoothies don’t have spinach. They have ice cream, or fro-yo if you’re desperate, and bananas, and sometimes chocolate. Smoothies do not have vegetables!” fumes FatGirl.

“Oh stop being silly. Just try it. You might actually like it!” FitGirl quips over her shoulder as she ducks out of the kitchen and the brewing drama storm.

“Fine.” FatGirl takes a sip. “Stupid spinach, blech” and another sip. “MM” with the third sip. FatGirl looks at the glass. “This is actually kind of good” she says with a quick look around to make sure no one hears. FitGirl from just around the door frame, licks her fingertip and makes a tic mark in the air to indicate Battle Won for FitGirl.

The Spinach Smoothie

1 cup of spinach

1 small apple

1/2 cup of fresh pineapple

a few grates of fresh ginger

Some green tea to make it blend all smooth

a pinch of cinnamon

a pinch of black pepper.

Blend till smooth and enjoy!

You talkin' to me Watermelon?

I’m having some food issues. Yeah I know, this is a “Fat Girl” blog, so you’re expecting me to wax pathetic about how I just ate a box of donuts and now I’m all weepy about it. That’s not the kind of food issues I’m having. Well, not right now at least.

Go FatGirl Go

I have a lot going on in my life right now. I’m taking a class that requires a good deal of travel to NYC. I work. I run. I blog. I write. I blah blah blah. I’m in hustle phase right now and it’s super fantastic. But what I’m not doing is putting a priority on health and fitness. I’m not taking the time to plan food and cook so I end up trying to throw together a lunch at 7am with snacks  and odds and ends rescued from my freezer and oops I forgot I have class so that means pizza while running to catch a train. Or I simply don’t eat and try to go 12 hours on a single Lara Bar, counting on the nutrition in the milk in my 4th cup of coffee to get me through the day.

This way of being isn’t working. I get irritable. I spend far too much money on food I didn’t really want to eat in the first place and I’m not meeting my heath and fitness goals. And I physically feel like crap, which leads me to Problem #2

Problem #2

And yup, we’re talking about “Number Two”. And no, I’m not going TMI here. I’ve been having tummy troubles off and on for the past few months. I feel like my body has to work really hard to digest the food I eat. My tummy makes noise that are not hunger-related noises. I’m all bloated at times and well, poo is an issue, that’s all I’m saying. I was worried for a while that I’m developing food allergies. Yes, I’ll go get tested at some point. I even did a wheat-free-week to see if gluten was the issue. No dice.

What I’m feeling right now takes me back 10 years to when I decided to go vegetarian. I feel like my whole body has to work extra hard to digest animal protein. This is a problem for me. I’ve got it that to achieve weight loss, you need to up your amount of protein. The whole new Weight Watcher’s Points Plus program is structured around that. So I started eating eggs and meat for breakfast, chicken with my lunch and some other animal for dinner, sometimes tuna as a snack. Whoa, meat left and right! I’m eating my veggies too but maybe I need to take a break from the meat.

The Meow Detox

I’m house sitting this week because Charlie, pictured above, can’t be trusted to take his seizure medication on his own. I went food shopping for what feels like the first time in a very very long time. I got spinach and kale and almond milk and apples and pineapple and holy cow, a “personal” watermelon! Isn’t that melon like the cutest thing ever! I made a superfood smoothie with spinach, ginger, pineapple and apples! I dived into Foodily to find a breakfast quinoa recipe (super yums but I didn’t rinse the quinoa enough as its a touch bitter). So I’m going to spend a week eating green things and enjoying whole food and not being as crazy on the run as the past few weeks have been. And hopefully by the end of the week my tummy will settle down and Charlie and I will still be friends. Getting a cat to take a pill is slight more dangerous than taking a cupcake away from a crying fat girl. Just sayin’.

“Are you INSANE!?” Fat Girl’s cry of horror reverberates off the walls. “What the hell are we supposed to eat then, huh? ‘Wheat-FREE’? What the hell is wrong with you?” Fit Girl and Fab Girl give each other knowing looks – Brace yourself for a two-year-old style tantrum when Fat Girl starts cussing.

“Look, it’s just for a week OK? Just a week.” placates Fit Girl, as she slides off her spin bike.

Fat Girl snaps her Lay-Z-Boy back to it full upright position. Kind of hard to wag your finger and recline at the same time. “Bread is a staple. Pasta is a staple. S-T-A-P-L-E. That means you’re supposed to eat it every day.” Counting off on her fingers, Fat Girl continues, “They eat pasta every day in Italy. They eat noodles every day in China.”

“Baguettes in Paris!” Fab Girl cheerfully chirps from her chaise.

“Why are you doing this to us!?” Fat Girl faux faints into the fully reclined position. Eyes like laser beams go right to Fit Girl’s core. “Torturer. Witch.”

“Oh, they have croissants in Paris too.” Fab Girl moans dreamily.

“I’m doing this for US OK?” Fit Girl brandishes her own exclamatory finger wag. “You’re fat. You’re not in Paris. And my tummy hurts!”

And with that, Fit Girl, Fat Girl, and Fab Girl all fart in unison to underscore the point in classic sitcom perfection. Cue laugh track.

“Mon dieu!” giggles Fab Girl.

Snapping open her Food Tracker to hide her embarrassment, Fit Girl scans her notes with air of coming doom. “Let’s see what did we eat today? Toast for breakfast. Sandwich for lunch. Pasta for dinner.”

Fat Girl adds “Cake for dessert.”

Fab Girl adds “Mini Bagel for a snack.”

“What!? That’s not on the tracker!” panic one-two-punching Fit Girl. Fat Girl and Fab Girl shrug in response.

“Well, That’s a lot of carbs to digest.” grumbles Fit Girl. “I’m not saying we’ll never have cake again, but this is about balance.” Waving the tracker as Exhibit A. “There’s nothing balanced about this.”

I’m almost done with my Wheat-Free Week. I can’t say that my feelings of health and well-being have skyrocketed as a result of not eating wheat for 6 days, but I have had far fewer tummy issues this week. Going Wheat-Free has brought back an awareness of what’s going in my mouth and that’s a trend that needs to continue. I don’t just pop things in my mouth anymore, I have to stop and think if it has wheat in it. At the salon, they were celebrating someone’s birthday with a glorious chocolate cake. I had a knife poised over it to cut a little sliver for myself when I remembered that cake has wheat in it. I had to stop and consider that food and make a choice about whether or not eating this bite of food was in my best interest. The answer was surprisingly no. Yay me.

This whole journey is about finding a balance in life. A balance in work, in food, it fitness. I don’t think I’m going to continue being wheat-free after this week, but rather make very calculated choices on where I want to indulge. Keeping pasta and more importantly, bread to the realm of “special occasion” food like bacon and fried food, could do me worlds of good. Well, that’s the theory anyway.

Yeah, say that 10 times fast.

I’m not one to jump on the bandwagon of fashionable food fads (wow, I’m getting fancy with the alliteration today!). Well no, that’s not true. I will try out fads and then the fad fades and well gee, that was fun and pointless. I like treating my body and sometimes my life (hello ex-boyfriends!) like experiments, sometimes with clipboards and spreadsheets and everything. But at the end of the day most of these experiments fizzle out (goodbye ex-boyfriends!).

Wheat and Gluten Free foods are all the rage right now. This is not to say that Celiac Disease isn’t real and terrible and I profoundly feel for anyone having the disease, but I’m not so sure that there is as much “gluten intolerant” folks out there as your local expensive healthfood store will make you believe. It’s ever so fashionable to go “gluten free” right now, just like it was fashionable to be vegan a few years back, and go “low-carb” before that.

So why am I being all trendy and going wheat free for a week? Well, Welcome to TMI-Ville. You see, I’ve been having tummy issues for quite some time now ranging from mild discomfort and indigestion to well, let’s just say I’ve been having tummy issues. Could wheat and gluten be the problem? Sure as could a myrid of other things, but I’ll never know unless I experiment.

I’m not actually going gluten free, because that’s far too tricky. My time eating animal-free taught me that eliminating entire ingredient categories from your diet entirely is really really difficult. It boggles my tiny little red head where milk protein and wheat products show up. So I’m going wheat-free, the light and lazy way. Basically, I’m not doing any bread or pasta or wheat flour baked good for a week. If I feel remarkably better after a week. I’ll reassess how wheat fits in my life.

Starting Weight: 193 pounds

Current Weight: 191.8

I live. I run. I am.

ONE brag for the week: I haven’t smoked all week

ONE thing to improve upon for next week: Follow Clean Eating Cooler Plan 1 and get in AM workouts! (ok, that’s 2 things!!!)

So I forgot to have breakfast again. I don’t know what’s up with that. Going on like two weeks now, I’ve just totally fallen out of the breakfast habit. On days I’m not working, I get up, do email and twitter for a while, write a bit then decide it’s time for a run. Halfway into my run, I’ll realize that I skipped breakfast and I’m running out of gas. I come home and down a smoothie. Now it’s almost lunch time and my food gets all out of whack for the day.

I really need to work on getting a plan together and reclaim breakfast time!

Anyway, I did make it out for a run and my legs felt awful heavy again. Could be the no breakfast thing. Could be it’s hot. Could be that I just don’t know how to push myself to go harder. I’m just going to do my little three mile loop at whatever pace for a few more days and then try and push harder. Fat Girls is screaming of course that she can’t go any faster or harder. Ha! We’ll see who wins this battle!

Today I ran 3.5 miles in 42:22 at a pace of 12’09″ burning 497 calories.