SoulCycle Gave Me the Giggles!

Apparently fitness CAN be funny. Who knew!? My Sh*t Girls Say While Running video is my best performing video to date during the first 48 hours. Thank you to all of you who liked or shared it with a friend. My brother and sister are both very funny people so I always feel like there wasn’t enough funny left in the gene pool for me, but apparently I got a little!

Last night, I also took a class at the Chestnut Hill SoulCycle with Birchbox and Women’s Health Magazine. For the first time ever, I got the giggles during class and couldn’t stop! 

New Menu Items at B.Good 

Prior to trekking out to the ‘burbs, I had lunch with Rebecca at B.Good. They recently introduced a bunch of new menu items including 3 kale and quinoa bowls, fresh pressed juices and green smoothies.

I ordered the Spicy Avocado and Lime Kale and Quinoa bowl. It came with organic quinoa, kale, sautéed veggies, shiitakes, avocado, black beans, corn, grape tomato, queso fresco, lime, cilantro, chipotle sauce. I added chicken because they use hormone free birds. The quinoa was on the bottom and had a nutty texture. It was very filling and very good. It comes with cheese but I asked for it without.  

Rebecca ordered the Harvest Kale salad which came with marinated kale, brussels sprouts, manchego cheese, sunflower seeds, beets, garbanzos, and a sherry vinaigrette. This was what I wanted to order but since I came to try a K&Q bowl, I held off. Bec said it was delicious. Both our meals cost about $10 which is the going price for a good lunch salad in Boston with chicken. 

I also grabbed a small 12 oz green juice that was $3.99 and came in a cute mini mason jar. Fresh pressed by 4 Petal, it was made with kale, spinach, celery, apple and mint. It was not my favorite green juice, but by the last sip it had grown on me was OK. Full disclosure, Bec owns The Ripe Stuff, a Boston-based juice company so while we are tough critics, we’ve also tasted a lot of varieties. They had 2 or 3 other varieties with more fruit. I am planning to go to B.Good more often given the never-ending line at Sweetgreen these days! I always forget they change their menu seasonally.

SoulCycle Chestnut Hill Class Review with Todd

I was invited to two fitness events Wednesday night, one including cocktails to celebrate the opening of B/Spoke and the other a spin class with a free Birchbox. It was a tough decision but I went with SoulCycle because it was an excuse to finally check out Wegman’s. 

Our class was taught by one of the male instructors, Todd. It was my first SoulCycle class taught by a guy. I was kind of excited and curious. He looked more like a Barry’s Bootcamp instructor than SC based on the size of his biceps and chest. This was my 6th class at an SC location and I feel like I finally am getting a feel for what their “style” is vs individual instructor personalities. 

Todd’s music was awesome. The choreography was challenging but not overly complex. Sometimes I find it difficult to do the booty taps to the beat of the music but I was able to “catch the beat” and felt empowered. Am I getting better at spinning? I don’t know, but the class made me feel like I was. It was not the hardest class but then again, I could have changed that by increasing my resistance. 

Most of the workout was done out of the saddle. I never thought it was a brand thing but in each of the last 4 SC classes I’ve taken, the first song is always entirely done in 3rd position. The hair whipping is also a branded thing I guess, which for Todd meant looking down, swaying his head side to side. I wondered if I was missing out on the fun so I whipped my head a few times side to side, up and down. It felt good to get my pony tail off my back but feeling ridiculous, I stopped after 3 tries. 

I enjoyed class, thought it was great and then the SC version of shavasana began…

For those who have never been to SC before, they try to fuse in yogi self empowerment quotes throughout class and at the end, treat the cool down like a relaxing yoga goodbye. Todd’s voice went from upbeat and motivating to soft core porn in a Saturday Night Live skit type of way. I could not stop giggling. Given his physique is model-esque with strong arms and probably a six pack (he was wearing a tank top but looked to have less than 10% body fat), it seemed out of character for the role he just played for 45 minutes on the bike. I was relieved that I was not the only one in the room enjoying it. I think the best description would be that it sounded like the Ryan Gosling “Hey Girl” meme voice. 

Todd’s class was a great workout but you should go solely for his cool down.  

Other Boston blogger buddies Athena from Fitness and Feta and Nicole from Pumps and Iron attended the event as well. We all thoroughly enjoyed the class, especially the “stretching”.   

Afterwards, I went to the Chestnut Hill Wegman’s for the first time to grab myself some dinner and this is what I went home with… 

This place is worse than Target when it comes to sticking to a list. If you have never heard of Wegman’s, it is basically a hybrid of Whole Foods, Target and a bunch of little small town specialty shops in one. It is smaller than the other Wegman’s I’ve been to, but that is a good thing for people like me who could spent 2 hours in a grocery store. I’ll do a little food haul soon once I try all the goodies I bought!