Sleepless in San Francisco

Spring has officially arrived. Which is pretty amazing in San Francisco because I honestly can’t remember being able to recognize this season in my six years of living here. It’s like San Francisco finally got a friend request from Spring. Friend Request Accepted. I love it. Sun dresses, sun hats, sunglasses, Sundays in Washington Square Park…anything with sun in front of it you can assume I’m a fan (except for sunburns, and I’m all too familiar). And as much as I love Spring, I’m quickly reminded that Summer is right around the corner. Reality check. What happened to that new years resolution to workout everyday until I can fit into that one summer dress that I bought a year ago? A size too small so that when I can zip it up without pliers I can look in the mirror and say to myself, “how youuu doin?” Uhhg. I guess somewhere in the midst of traveling and working late hours with my laptop and a bowl of cheerios in bed - I put the workouts on pause.

Luckily, it’s not too late to reach the birthday goal of wearing this fab little dress which still has the tag on (so sad). But thanks to my fitness guru/personal trainer/wonder woman of a roommate, she gets me in the right mindset and makes me feel jussst guilty enough so that I’m motivated to work my ass off (literally). I mean, wouldn’t you if you lived with this?

I think I made my point. Time to embrace the new workout plan: operation go to the gym. It’s pretty simple really, and even though I love sleeping all too much, I’m willing to do whatever it takes as you can see here in exhibit A.

Time to press play again.

To me, it’s all about the mixtapes. I have an obsession with music, so much that if I had to choose between music or food, and this is the worst hypothetical ever…but I’d pick music (says the Jewish Italian foodie). I spend countless hours making playlists like they’re the soundtrack to my life. I will share a lot of them with you.

But first I’ll share a hidden gem. My friend Solomon is a DJ here in SF and he’s a very talented DJ and mashup artist. Perfect for the ultimate dance party, I also listen to his mixes on repeat for a kick ass cardio session. He’s recently come out with a 4th volume which is ILL (yeah, I love 90’s slang) but my favorite is DJ’s without Borders Vol. 3. You’ll hear everything from Passion Pit to Rihanna, Empire of the Sun to Radiohead. It just works from start to finish and must be played in order because each track flows into the next…OH so good, and you can download it for free here:

DJ’s Without Borders Vol. 3

[You’re welcome.]

Now, for my mixtape so appropriately titled How Allie Got her Groove Back. Which is pretty random for the first mix I’m about to share with you, but I dig it and it seriously makes me dance while I’m on the elliptical or that god awful stair master (yes, I’m the girl at the gym who looks like she’s at a party in her head and can’t help but do the subtle…orrr not so subtle… dance moves in place while I feign interest in whatever game is on TV [unless it’s a Giants game then my eyes are genuinely glued to Posey]). It’s a fairly eclectic mix and I’m just gonna come right out and own the fact that the song with the most playcounts this week is Britney Spears’ Till the World Ends - it’s just SO catchy! You know this. It’s not often that I get into this pop mode, but I haven’t been THIS obsessed with a pop song since Miley Cyrus’ Party in the USA.

Thanks to this mixtape, I’ve practically moonwalked my way in and out of the gym every morning this week for a solid hour before work, plus two nights of yoga. (This is me high fiving myself!) Does my body ache when I get out of bed in the morning or wash my hair in the shower? Absolutely. But the best kind of pain that you only get when you really push yourself. I waited all the way until Friday to post this because I wanted to make sure the new workout plan would stick before being held accountable by all five of you that currently read my blog (hi, mom). So far so good. So on that note, I’ll leave you with the one quote that I say to myself every morning:

“You will never regret going to the gym. You will always regret not going.” - Alex Navarro