Hi there!  Guess what!?  It’s Friiiiiiiday!  Yay!  Have you got any big plans for the weekend?  I’ll be trying out a new fitness class and getting my haircut.  Woo hoo!  I heard there was also a big football game on?  I’ll be watching Downton Abbey! 🙂

In other news, tomorrow is February 1^st so if you are joining me for the Find Your Balance February challenge make sure to put your healthy shoes on!  I’m so excited about all your feedback and can’t wait to hear what you’ll be doing.  It will be so hard to choose a winner!  Luckily I won’t have to since it will be random.  Moving on…

Welcome to this week’s edition of Friday’s Food & Fitness!  I have been out on the town experiencing some really cool things I can’t wait to share with you!

FOOD

Recently the Hubs and I had a date night at Rouge Tomate, a healthy and sustainable Michelin star restaurant.  Usually “Michelin star” and “healthy” don’t go in the same sentence but in this case it does.  The food and atmosphere were unbelievably amazing! I love to eat but I hate leaving a restaurant feeling like I’m going to pop.  Everything here was perfectly portioned and felt so healthy and light.

Rouge Tomate follows the SPE principles which is a Latin terms meaning “Health Through Food”. They use locally sourced, nutrient-dense food to create their meals, which leaves the integrity of the food in tact. Despite Rouge Tomate’s commitment to healthy food, everything tastes decadent!

We started out with an amuse bouche.  Is it just me or do you feel like sometimes restaurants bring out your food and rush through the explanation and then you have no idea what you are eating?  #FirstWorldProblems.  I’m pretty sure this had beets, orange and some nuts…?

They served us this olive oil with a butternut squash spread.  Why has no one thought of that before!?  Holy yum!

We shared a few apps: the  cauliflower, brussel sauerkraut, pistachio and point reyes blue cheese–so good! And another one that had some crab in it but now doesn’t appear to be on their online menu so I’m at a loss!

Ok on of my favorite parts of the meal was this amazing Chestnut soup made with Hudson Valley foie gras, black truffle, celery heart, black cocoa and buttermilk.  The Hubs and I actually started arguing over who was eating more of it! 🙂

For dinner I had black bass with carrot, orange, raddish, watercress and hazelnut.  The Hubs had risotto with black truffle, parmesan, wild mushroom and madeira.  Both meals were excellent.  I loved how the risotto was so tasty but my fish was incredibly light!  You can tell the cut is nice and thin.

Dessert was one of my favorite parts!  I hate how you have a big meal and then you get this huge dessert.  Rouge Tomate actually had these small plates for dessert!  I got the passionfruit mousse with tropical fruit and there was this chili on top, which I loved!  The Hubs got an assortment of truffles.  Mine was way better but don’t tell him that! 😉

If you are in NYC, I highly recommend Rouge Tomate!  Good and healthy food is rare to find and you absolutely cannot go wrong here!  They also have a tasting menu with wine pairings or non-alcoholic pairings and they have fresh juice.  This one gets 4 stars in my book!

FITNESS

I love Kelly Ripa.  I used to watch Live with Regis (now Michael!) and Kelly all the time when I was in law school and when I worked at my firm (I went in later but worked a lot later).  I even went to see the show in person! Twice!

Kelly is just as tiny in person as she is on your screen.  I must confess, she is kind of my fitness guru.  See, waaaay back in 2008 she mentioned that she did Physique 57 and if you have ever seen this girl’s arms: You want them. You have to have them. And when she tells you where to get them, you go there.  When she mentioned that she was going Soul Cycle for her cardio, well I hopped right on board that gravy train and trained there until it got too big and I switched to Flywheel.  So when I found out her latest workout was AKT In Motion and they were opening on the UES…. ummmmm yes please!

AKT offers a variety of strength and cardio classes created by Anna Kaiser.  I attended their Happy Hour class which was a mix of dance cardio and strength intervals.  Now when I say dance cardio, I mean a more sporty and aerobic type dance rather than a Zumba or hip hop class.  This was really simple moves with a dance flair.  It almost remind me of the old school Hi-Lo class.  It was also similar to Body Conceptions, which I tried at Pier 25 this past summer.

We started off with a warm up that immediately got my heart pumping and then transitioned into the cardio dance block.  I was sweating buckets.  My heart rate was nice and high and I was really feeling the fatigue.  Just when I thought I was going to die needed a break, we transitioned into some toning moves.  Each toning block targeted a different area: arms, abs, booty- we hit ’em all!

I loved the mix between cardio and toning but the best part was the fact that we learned one dance combo and each block our instructor gave us another few 8 counts to learn.  By the end of class everyone had the entire thing down and we were rocking it out.  Our instructor was an energizer bunny that made me feel old and tired but in a kick-your-butt-good-way!

Some motivation on the wall there for you!

The studio is so nice too!  It was really upscale and kind of looked like a cool diner/nightclub, which is a thing I just made up, and really had this awesome downtown/uptown vibe.  Everything was really clean and polished.  I wish I had taken more photos of the studio but you can check some out here.

I loved AKT and can’t wait to go back again.  Also, you should check out the photos of Anna Kaiser, the creator, online.  Her body is crazy! 

Readers, have you ever been to a healthy restaurant and was it any good? Does anyone remember Hi-Lo?  What are some of the eateries and workout places you love in your area?