Month: April 2013

Mid-Week Check In

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Wednesday. Nice to see you! I love the feeling after a Wednesday is over because the rest of the week is downhill from there! I can’t say that this week has flown by, but it also hasn’t dragged on, so I guess that is a good thing!

Where did we last catch up? Oh, I posted a workout yesterday, but didn’t really post about much else (besides big news about my friend Jess’s new company!), so there is a lot to talk about!

We finally had nice weather on Monday!! My coworker and I decided to break in the nice weather with our first lunch on the water. Working in Fort Point definitely has its perks in the summer!

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Post work, to take more advantage of the weather, I laced up my sneaks  and went for a nice, 4 mile jog through Brighton before teaching Dynamax. Per usual, we had a great Dynamax class- can’t believe the last class of the session is next week! Time is flying by- I’ll be 28 in 4 days. Yikes!

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Yesterday was a much-needed rest day. Well, rest day except for walking at least 3 miles in the city and getting up to do my Triceps Tuesday workout for the April Arms Challenge. I loved yesterday’s workout because of the crab walks!! This got a funny conversation going between Athena and myself on Gchat.

animal workoutDo any of you have funny animal moves that are great forms of exercise?

After work, I headed over to Jess’s condo to talk about our partnership and congratulate her for her big day! Since we have the same birthday and I walk right past Crumbs, I picked her up a little treat!

001So, so yummy! Tell me, do you have a favorite flavor there? There are so many that I have a hard time choosing!

I ended up getting home later than I had planned, so I thought about what I could throw together for dinner while I was on the T. I didn’t come up with much, but it was healthy, tasted good and filled me up. I’ll take it! Looks, on the other hand, are really not that great. I promise it tasted good, though!

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Quinoa harvest blend, chicken, asparagus, goat cheese and marinara sauce. Quick, easy and healthy… and I used up some leftovers:)

And that brings us to today! I kept thinking that I could wear skirts and dresses with no tights this week, but between rainy mornings and cooler temps in the morning, I haven’t bitten the bullet yet.

004Hopefully next week!

I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday!

Questions for you: How has your week been? Is it going by fast or slow? What is your favorite quick, easy and healthy meal to throw together when you get home late?

Up the Ladder Workout

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Hey everyone!  I wanted to share this “Up the Ladder” workout that I taught in one of my classes last week.  I have seen a bunch of different “ladder” workouts floating around the blog world lately, so I decided to take that idea and run with it, of course adding in my own flair.

Up the ladder workoutThe toe taps really get your heart rate up and then the step-up and row move is there to build strength, but also lower your heart rate.

Notes about counting:

-Each toe tap counts as one, so count 1-2-3-4 for the right foot tap, left foot tap, right foot then left foot… and so on

-Step up and row- step up with the right and then the left counts as 1 rep, so you’ll actually end up doing double rows (you can’t count each lead step up separately for the odd-numbered reps)

-Alternating lunges- right and left lunge= 1 rep, so only count on one leg (just like the step up and rows). Again, you’ll end up doing double the number of biceps curls in each rep set.

Feel free to modify up or down as you see fit! Also, if you’re just starting out, you can do reps in the following sequence: 2-4-6-8-10 which will help decrease the intensity of the workout.

Questions for you: Ladder workouts- love ’em or hate ’em? If you love them, do you have a favorite one you want to share?

Lovage Babyblends

I wanted to share a quick note about a company that my friend Jess just started in case there are any new moms reading my blog or anyone who knows any new moms.  Jess has just started her own organic baby food company, which is really, really exciting! She has worked incredibly hard over the past 6 months or so and everything is finally up and running, so I encourage you to head over to her site and check it out. She does home deliveries and has a few locations that she is selling her products at, so there are many options for you to be able to get some of the goods! Also, we have partnered up for her monthly news letter for a “Mommy’s Moves” workout which is SO fun. More to come on that later, though:)

Sunday Dinner- Pinot Grigio Chicken with a Honey Citrus Glaze

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Hey everyone! How was your Sunday? The weather- again- didn’t end up being what I thought it was going to be, but that’s ok. I mean, it has to get warmer soon, right?

Even when I try to make Sunday’s relaxed, a wide open schedule stresses me out and without even meaning to, I end up filling it with random things. Is anyone else like this? For instance, yesterday I got up, had breakfast, blogged, went grocery shopping, made a delicious lunch, went to the mall, prepped some blog posts, showered, made dinner, did my April Arms Challenge for the day… no wonder why I am tired! The thing is, I never once felt stressed or rushed or anxious. Yesterday was a great day and a great mix of being on my own schedule of things I WANTED to do and some things that I had to do.

After facing the masses and masses of people at Market Basket, Danielle and I got to making a nice lunch. This is kind of weird for a Sunday, but since we didn’t have any leftovers and had lots of groceries, it was a great idea.  I cooked up a bunch of chicken and made a salad for lunch, as well as a few for lunches for the beginning of the week.

sunday lunch

Danielle made her new favorite thing to make: homemade Mac N Cheese! She added broccoli and buffalo chicken (leftover from Friday night pizza night) and it was delicious! My mom had gotten me the cutest little pot thing and it was perfect for the Mac N Cheese.

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I went to the Cambridgeside Galleria for a few things (got my birthday dress at the first store I went to- on sale- amazing!!), but wasn’t really in the mood to poke around so I didn’t stay long. When I got home, I prepped dinner and then got busy with the Sunday circuit for the April Arms Challenge.  Since I was tired and sore from a tought week of workouts, I just did a 5 minute warm up and cool down and 2 rounds of the 3-2-1 circuit. I also switched up the 3 mins of cardio to a kickboxing cardio move that felt better for my shoulder and did the same with the reverse curls (something wasn’t working with them, which I was so bummed about because I love that move!).

Ok, ok, let’s get to dinner, shall we?

I usually make up my own recipes for the blog, but when I saw a recipe for Pinot Grigio Chicken over at Eat, Live, Run, I knew I wanted to make it soon. Another deciding factor was the fact that we just happened to have an open bottle of Pinot Grigio in the fridge:) I followed the recipe to a T (except for the fact that I had to use drumsticks since Market Basket was out of chicken breasts), so go on over to Eat, Live, Run and check it out!

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On the side, I roasted some asparagus (all I did was spray them with Pam spray and give a few shakes of garlic crumbles, sea salt, pepper, and lemon juice) and cooked up some harvest grains blend quinoa.  Since we had extra white sauce from the Mac N Cheese, we put a little of it on the asparagus, which was a great idea!

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I absolutely loved this meal! It was very different from what I usually make and I only wish that I could’ve grilled the chicken instead of baking it! I was a little nervous that it would be TOO citrus-y (is that a word?), but it was not at all! I took the skin off of the drumsticks and poked some holes in them so that the marinade would be absorbed, which was perfect because we didn’t lose all the flavor when peeling off the skin before eating. I have just enough left over for dinner tomorrow night- score for me!

Questions for you: What’s your go-to blog for finding recipes? drumsticks/Thighs/Darker meat- fan or not? I used to hate it, but then I realized how much more flavorful dark meat is than white meat so now I eat it when I can!

Weekly Workouts

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It’s that time again! Time to check in with our workouts from last week to see how we did!

Last Week

[I may not mention it, but just know that I did all of the week 1 workouts in the April Arm Challenge.]

  • Monday- I jogged a nice & easy 3 miles (in about 26:30).  The weather was so nice! I ran in a tank and got tan lines:) I also did 20 minutes on the elliptical and 10 mins of abs at the Y before teaching Dynamax since I had so much extra time to spare.
  • Tuesday- Ended up walking about 3 miles and did Triceps Tuesday!
  • Wednesday- Wasn’t feeling well so I just did a light 15 minutes on the elliptical and taught UXF Burn

uxf class

  • Thursday- Taught an “Up the Ladder” workout (workout to come this week) and Kickboxing

me after a double

  • Friday- Did the 15 minute “Friday Five” arm workout, 15 minutes on a cardio machine and taught a mix of all my favorites in class! Workout will be posted this week I think.
  • Saturday- Taught kickboxing at the YMCA. BIG group and Athena came!

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  • Sunday- I’ve been a busy bee so far, but I am just about to do the 3-2-1 April Arms Challenge Day 1 of Week 2 workout.

This Week

  • Monday- the usual: Cardio & Teaching Dynamax. Oh! And it’s Pyramid Push-Up day:)
  • Tuesday- Triceps Tuesday and walking in the city
  • Wednesday- Cardio & Teaching Dynamax
  • Thursday- TBC and Kickboxing
  • Friday- NO TEACHING!! I will probably do a Deck of Cards workout during my lunch break. I think I’ll want to get a few drinks when the work day is over to kick off my birthday weekend:)
  • Saturday- Teaching my 3rd straight week of kickboxing at the YMCA. I won’t be there for 2 weeks after Saturday, so we will work extra hard (just giving my YMCA’ers a heads up!)
  • Sunday- likely nursing a hangover 😉 Sunday is my actual birthday, so I’ll want to do something fun… but that might not be exercise related (and that’s ok!)

Sorry my weekly workout plans are so boring, but when I have all my workouts basically planned out for me because of my teaching schedule, that’s just how it has to be. Now that my schedule has lightened up, I’ll hopefully have a more exciting workout schedule each week (at least on my “off” days from teaching!).

Questions for you: What are your workouts like this week? How did you do last week? Have any good ones to share?

Saturday’ing

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Hey Friends! Happy Sunday! I tweeted this morning how happy I was that it was a bright, sunny morning and I am still smiling about that! The temp may not be that warm yet, but the forecast is looking good. I love a Sunday morning where I wake up feeling good (definitely tight from my workouts this week so I am happy today is a rest day! Haha, jk! I just checked my email and saw the that Athena sent us our weekly workouts for the April Arms Challenge so I have some 3-2-1 circuits to do!) and have a fairly open agenda for the day.  All I “have” to do is grocery shop and look for a dress to wear to my birthday party next weekend. Yes!

Thank you all so much for your comments on my post on Friday! It’s definitely a fine line you can cross when working out while you’re sick, so I am happy to see I am not the only one that struggles with it!

Friday night…

I taught my last class at the Allston BSC on Friday night… totally bittersweet:( I sure went out with a bang, though! 21 or 22 people came and it was so nice to see that most of them were my “regulars”.  They all had the kindest words for me after class and I am going to miss them so much!! Hopefully some will come to my Wednesday or Thursday classes at the Central Square BSC!

When I got home, I poured myself a glass of vino (I tweeted Jen to let her know that I was participating in Winesday Wednesday early!) and hung out with Danielle while she made pizza!

010Danielle decided she wanted to make buffalo chicken pizza AND a margarita pizza so I was pumped! I’m all for easy, simple pizzas, but it’s nice to have fancy ones every once in a while!

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Drool-worthy, I know. It tasted even better than it looked! Post dinner, we watched Wednesday’s Nashville episode (anyone else watch this show?! How GOOD were the 2 girls at singing Ho Hey?! I might have cried a little…) and I was in bed by 10:30. I know, I act like I’m 80 years old with my early bed time!

Saturday

Yesterday was a busy, busy Saturday! Between teaching kickboxing and having two birthday parties on the agenda, I was pretty much non-stop all day! Kickboxing was an absolute blast!! Again, I had a huge group of members who like to work HARD. Every instructors dream, right?! I was also happy because Athena came! I had a to sneak a pic after we were done. Please pardon our sweaty, post workout appearance! I was so sweaty yesterday that my hands slipped on the ground when we were doing our last blast of the class (10 burpees to finish off our workout)!

012After class, I rushed home and showered because mom and Colleen and baby Emma were coming down for Rozzie’s 1st birthday party (my mom is obviously a social butterfly and her friends kids have had their own babies- Emma and Rozzie. Love those two to pieces!). I don’t have any pictures of Rozzie’s party, but it was perfectly pink and looked like it was right out of the Etsy homepage:) We did get to hang out with Emma… can you get enough of those cheeks?!

016(We were twinnies with our matching green pants!)

We had to leave Rozzie’s party early because it was Rachel’s birthday! In years past, Rachel and I celebrated our birthday’s together, which was always a blast, but now we celebrate separately which gives each of us our day to shine (We are both ridiculously obnoxious with our birthdays… forcing people to celebrate with us for the whole month!).

021Rachel is the hostess with the mostess and this party was no different! But, let’s be honest, as long as she has made her famous Sangria, the food is just an added bonus!

018Look at the treats!! mmmmm These things are pretty strong, so it was a good thing that we had loads of food!

019And most of you saw these on Instagram… SO good.

013It was so nice to catch up with so many friends and family yesterday! Feeling very  blessed today and know that feeling will stay with me for the rest of the week as it is BIRTHDAY WEEK!!!

Questions for you: How was your weekend so far? Anything fun to share? Do you have a lot of birthdays to celebrate this month, too?