Month: October 2013

What’s In My Gym Bag

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I always like to know more about bloggers, so when they post “day in the life” and “what’s in my bag” posts, I have a blast seeing a little more into their lives outside of blogging (yes, that sounds a little creepy, doesn’t it? I swear, I’m not a creeper!). When Gina posted a “What’s in the [quart-sized] bag post last week, I thought it would be fun to share what’s in my bag… gym bag, that is.

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I was on a hunt for the “perfect” gym bag for a long time, and back in July, I finally found it over at Lululemon. This bag is perfect because it can hold a LOT of stuff, and even when it holds a lot of stuff, the straps don’t hurt your shoulder.

Let’s see what’s in it, shall we? There are 2 pocket on the outside, which is where I like to keep my deodorant and weight lifting gloves and headbands. These are things I like to have easily accessible.

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Workout Class Notes

Notes and workouts for the various classes I teach: UXF Burn SHRED and Kickboxing. I like to keep my workouts organized so I can see what I’ve taught recently so as to make sure I keep things interesting and don’t repeat moves/formats too often.

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Music

I use CD’s so that I can change the pitch according to what I’m teaching. For UXF Burn and Shred I put the music on in the background at 138-142 BPM (I buy my CD’s at a certain pitch so that everything flows well for kickboxing) and for Kickboxing I teach at 150 BPM.

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Batteries & Tune Belt

We are not provided with batteries for the mic at the BSC, so I always have extras (2 types because not all mics take the same type). The tune belt holds the mic pack which enables me to be able to jump around and not worry about the mic pack falling off or pulling my pants down (no one needs to see that).

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Random Items and Feminine Hygiene Products

I always keep a pen in my bag so that I can make amends to my workouts as necessary before class, or completely make up a workout before class if I’m running late and haven’t had a chance to do it beforehand. I also keep gum, tampons (TMI?), elastics, perfume and facial cleansing wipes. I can’t teach or workout without gum (I get super dry mouth when I workout without gum- anyone else?) and I like having facial cleansing wipes for those times I need to run errands after class and don’t have time to shower 😉

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So, there you have it! I put an extra top in there, too, to change into after teaching so that I don’t freeze in my sweaty gear on the way home from the gym on the T. Having my gym bag organized ensures that I won’t forget things from day to day, especially when it’s a teaching day!

Questions for you:What’s in your gym bag? Is there a “must have” that you never leave home without?

I hope you all have a great weekend! I’ve got lots of fun things planned, including a sushi dinner tonight and a harvest party in NH tomorrow night. Leaving on Sunday for another work trip is not so fun, though 😦

The Liebster Blog Award: Questions & Answers

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A few weeks ago, Renee, over at Fearless Food & Fitness nominated me for the Liebster Blog Award- how fun! This is the first time I’ve ever been “tagged” or nominated for one of these things and I have to say, I was pretty stoked about it!

Liebster

Here are the rules associated with this award:

The Rules:

  1. Each nominee must link back to the person that nominated them.
  2. Answer the 10 questions which are given to you by the nominator.
  3. Nominate 10 other bloggers you like and who have less than 200 followers.
  4. Create 10 questions for your nominees to answer.
  5. Let them know that they have been nominated by going to their blog and notifying them.

Without further adieu, here are the questions from Renee, and my answers:

1. What’s you’re fave place in the entire world (up until this point) to travel to?

Home to Maine, but since that is such a common occurrence, Rome! I studied abroad fall semester of my junior year of college in Bath, England and did a 10 day trip to Italy (Rome, Florence & Venice) and fell in love with Rome. I have been lucky enough to have done a lot of traveling in my life, and out of all the countries and cities I’ve been to, Rome is my favorite.

2. Your favorite place to go out to eat? Or type of food.

French food is absolutely my favorite. I love sauces and interesting meats and French Onion Soup (haha).

3. Craziest thing you’ve ever done?!

Hmmm. Good question. I’m not a very crazy person, but I think running around a huge bond fire, buck naked, during senior week of college would probably be the craziest thing I’ve done. The looks the next day were hilarious.

4. What’s your current profession? Or current studies (if still in school!)

I’m an audit defense consultant by day, fitness instructor/blogger by night. Although my full time job pays the bills, being a full time fitness instructor and blogger is my dream!

5. Favorite song on the radio RIGHT THIS MOMENT.

Hmm… Good question. Anything country, but right now here are some of my more specific favorites: “Things Can Only Get Better”- Cedric Gervais & Howard Jones and “Lovehate Thing”- Wale… These make me want to work out!

6. If you could date/marry any celebrity in the world, who would it be?

Channing Tatum. Duh. Have you seen his body or his dance moves?!

7. What is a current goal or ambition that you have for yourself?

A big goal I’ve always had is to own my own gym or studio. Some day, I would love to be able to do that and blog. I would be so happy!

8. The one movie that you could watch over & over again and not get sick of.

I don’t watch many movies, but it used to be Grease when I was a kid… at this point, maybe PS I love you? I think it is the sweetest love story.

9. What’s your one guilty pleasure? The more embarrassing, the better!

Hmmm. I am so boring when it comes to this stuff! It used to be drinking Diet Coke while grocery shopping (I know, I really live on the edge), but these days it would probably be…. baking just so that I can eat raw cookie or brownie dough. Again, really living on the edge!

And, here are the bloggers I’m nominating: What Meredith Makes, The Truth About Vinyl and Bikini Tops, Fitness and Feta, Nutcase In Point, On An Inhale, Iowa Girl Eats, Nutrionella, Fannestastic Food, and Petite Athleat.

Your questions are:

  1. If you could pick one meal to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be?
  2. Salty or Sweet (you take that however you want to)?
  3. What is your go-to drink you order when you go to a bar?
  4. If you could live one other place than where you live right now, where would it be?
  5. What is a weird thing you do when you’re alone? (remember this post? That’s what I’m talking about!)
  6. What’s the one thing you cannot live without?
  7. Would you rather: make no money but work a job you absolutely love OR work a job you hate, but make $300K a year?
  8. What is your favorite TV show?
  9. If you could do one thing over in your life, what would it be?
  10. What is your biggest accomplishment thus far? Or, the thing you are most proud of?

Have fun! I can’t wait to read your responses 🙂

Questions for you: I’d love to hear your responses to some or all of the questions above… please share!

Wednesday Workout: My favorite fitness blogs

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I have a super fun “Wednesday Workout” post for you in the makes, but I ran out of time over the weekend, got home much later than planned on Monday and left for North Carolina on Tuesday, so, in other words, I didn’t have a chance to finish it. Womp, womp.

Now that I have time to go to the gym on my own, I’ve noticed that tend to use workouts that fellow bloggers post, or take pieces of their workouts and make a bit of a mash-up workout to do. Since I find these blogs helpful for providing motivation to get to the gym (and workouts to do when you get to the gym), I thought I’d share them with you in case you’re in a workout “rut” and need inspiration.

Fitness and Feta
It should be no surprise that Athena’s blog should be at the top for my favorite fitness blogs. Members always say how the two of us teach very similar classes, and since I have gone to a number of Athena’s classes (back when I lived in Brighton, I went to her 6am Thursday class at the Y religiously) and have done a number of the workouts she’s posted on Fitness and Feta (most recently, her 10-12-15 workout), I can agree that we do have a very similar teaching style! Her workouts are tough, full body and she always keeps the format changing, which helps me when it’s time for me to make my workouts since I tend to get into “fitness ruts” and need reminders for ways to change up a workout. On top of this, Athena has created a number of online fitness “challenges” that helps bring her readers together and push us out of our comfort zone. If you haven’t tried one, I highly suggest it!

Nutcase In Point
Right behind Athena, is Jen’s blog. Jen was also an Oak Square class groupie like I was; we were always in the same classes, always in the front, and usually sweating more than everyone else (sorry, Jen… I take pride in my sweat production! Haha). Anyway, she subbed for some of Athena’s classes and was always a sub that I didn’t mind, because she taught very similarly to Athena. Now that she lives in Canada, we don’t get to workout together (wish we did, though!!), but I do love reading her blog because she always throws in moves that are either completely new to me, or, are moves I haven’t done in forever and completely forgot about. Oh, and did I mention she bakes amazing looking treats and that she used to do a Winesday Wednesday series that I think she should bring back… hint, hint 😉

Fitnessista
Fitnessista was one of the first healthy living blogs I started reading, and I’ve been and avid follower ever since. Gina’s posts range in topics from workouts to her job as a fitness instructor to cute stories about her little daughter and to delicious looking recipes, to name a few. One of my favorite post series are her “Focus On” posts where she picks a trending workout (her latest was Focus On: Buti Fitness which looks incredibly… interesting, to say the least) and gives background about the workout in addition to pros and cons of it. If she isn’t familiar with a particular trending workout, she will have a reader or friend write a guest post on the topic. Another thing I enjoy about her blog is the fact that she reminds us all about the things we should all remember and follow, but rarely (in my case, at least) do, such as resting, changing up the intensity of the workouts, listening to your body, etc.

PB Fingers
Julie’s blog was another blog that I started reading a number of years ago (before she became a full time blogger) and have enjoyed thoroughly throughout those years. Recently, Julie became a fitness instructor and I’ve enjoyed reading about the various classes she has started to teach, as well as all of the functional workouts that she posts. Julie’s workouts tend to be shorter and simpler in format, but sometimes seeing those workouts are just what I need to remember that every workout doesn’t have to have some crazy format or advanced moves to be effective; as long as you’re getting your heart rate up, working hard and sweating, that counts as a workout in my book!

Day With KT
Kim has been a reader and follower of Burpees to Bubbly for a while now (thank you, thank you, thank you!) and when I went over to her site, I realized she’s as big of a fitness nut as I am! She’s also doing the Daily 44 this year in honor of her being 44. The “Daily 44” is something she created to stay healthy and active (which started with her Daily 43 after her 43rd birthday), so each day she picks an exercise and does 44 reps of it. The exercises and format of how she gets to 44 vary from day to day, but I had a blast reading through all of the different exercises she has chosen thus far and can absolutely see myself doing something like this for a milestone birthday (maybe my 30th, which is much closer than I’d like to admit!).

I could go on and on, but these are my top 5 favorite fitness blogs where I get most of my inspiration for workouts.
Questions for you: What’s your favorite fitness blog? Any new ones that I should add to my list?

Weekend in Maine: getting out of dodge

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City life can be so tiring. We are constantly rushing from one thing to the next: plans, work, gym, catching the next T or next stop light… always rushing. While I don’t mind a fast-paced lifestyle most of the time (I like to do things fast. All the time. Maybe that’s why I get so run down!), there’s something to be said about “getting out of dodge”, and for me, that’s heading to Maine for a weekend of complete R&R. Maine living is completely the opposite of Boston living and sometimes that’s exactly what I need.

With that said, after teaching my kickboxing class on Saturday, that’s what I did; made the trek up north, but not without a number of stops on the way. Not being on a timeline is something I don’t do often (or well, for that matter), so it was a nice treat to have the day open for anything I wanted to do!

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side note: how fun are my new pants?! Love them!

I stopped off in Kittery, which, in hindsight was a terrible idea since it was so busy, but I did score some good deals at Banana Republic so I guess that made it worth it?

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New pants that match the suit I bought this summer, 2 new blouses and a new sweater… all for less than $100! The outlet was 50% off. Doesn’t get much better than that! I also stopped off at Lowe’s to get a digital thermostat to help make regulating my heat easier.

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My last stop of the day before going to my parents was the hair dresser. I usually go to a salon in Boston, but as of late, I haven’t been happy with my hair cuts and she has gone up to $65, which I think is outrageous! I decided to get my hair cut in Maine since it’s $26… yes, that is a huge difference. She went a little shorter than I had wanted, but hair grows and I’ve always been more of a short hair person than long hair.

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I wonder how it’s going to look curly… hopefully not too short!

We had a dinner party on Saturday night at my parents, which is always a fun thing. What made it even better was how much bubbly people brought; sometimes I think they do it just for me and “Burpees to Bubbly” 😉

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Have I mentioned how much I love being home?

Sunday consisted of church with both parents (dad doesn’t always go, so it’s a nice treat when he does) and then lots of shopping at Wal Mart, Kohls and Market Basket. I also visited with my friend Meredith, which is always a special treat. She sent me home with ice cream.. the best ice cream!

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Yes, that’s liquor ice cream. Strong liquor ice cream.

We had visitors in the afternoon on Sunday… another one of my favorite parts of going home. I wish people my age did afternoon cocktail hour on Sundays that just consisted of a few cocktails and a few snacks.

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Bubbly and blogging… how fitting.

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Starting sweet Emma off young… her favorite thing at my parents’ house is the plastic wine glass collection. And Longaberger baskets.

For dinner, mom asked what I would want and randomly enough, I requested Beef Burgundy. It’s something I have made before, but likely wouldn’t make again for a while so it was the perfect meal to have her make me. Served with fresh, roasted garden veggies and garlic mashed potatoes (from the garden, too) made for a delicious meal. And, speaking of gardens, look at the last of the tomato crop from my dad’s garden.

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I wanted to have a “guess how many tomatoes” game on B2B, but that would require me counting the tomatoes and there were just too many to do that!

And, that about sums up my weekend. I’m heading back to the city feeling refreshed and ready to attack a few crazy weeks of work travel, parties and teaching. Bring it on!

Questions for you: Where is your favorite outlet shopping? What was the best thing you did last weekend?

Weekly Workouts: Taking Advantage of the Warm Weather

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Hi there! For those of you who have today off… I am jealous! I stayed in Maine last night to have “Sunday Dinner” with my parents which was a nice treat. I figured that there wouldn’t be any traffic heading south this morning since a lot of people probably have today off.

I am hoping that last week was the last burst of warm/hot weather for a while. I’m ready for fall: sweaters, boots, jeans, no humidity… anyone else?

With that said, I did take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather last Monday and went for a nice, long(er… for me, at least) run, some of it along the ocean at Constitution beach in East Boston. I was introduced to this beach last weekend on my second tour of Eastie and I was pleasantly surprised with how nice it was- and the fact that it is only 5 minutes from my apartment.

Other than my long run, the rest of the week was par for the course in terms of workouts. I’ve been taking advantage of the gym at my office on days I want to just focus on weights. It’s not a great gym, but it has all the dumbbells I need, in addition to stability balls and mats- more than enough for me to get a sufficient weight session in. Plus, it’s always empty, which is key. I may love having the attention on me in most areas of my life, but when I’m at the gym working out (not when I’m teaching), I don’t want anyone looking at me, so an empty gym is perfect!

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I ran 4.5 miles after work and then did my Monday Fall into Fitness moves, as well as Saturday’s and Sunday’s since I failed to do them on the day I was supposed to. Whoops.

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  • Tuesday- I did a full body strength workout that looked like this: 4 exercises, 12 reps each, 3 rounds, for upper, lower and abs. I left the gym surprisingly sweaty and very tired!

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  • Wednesday- I ran 3 miles on the treadmill before teaching UXF Burn. My classes have been much busier now that the weather is getting cooler!

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  • Thursday- I taught another timed circuit in SHRED followed by kickboxing.
  • Friday- Rest, besides my Fall Into Fitness move of the day and cleaning.
  • Saturday- Taught a super high energy kickboxing class. There were 30 people and everyone was ON IT and having fun and laughing and laughing at my jokes… It couldn’t have been a more perfect class 🙂
  • Sunday- Another rest day besides walking around while shopping and doing my plank for Fall Into Fitness!

This Week’s Workouts

I’m traveling on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, so my workouts will be a little different from normal. I was supposed to be gone on Thursday, too, so I got a sub for my double, but my trip got cut short so I will be around on Thursday. But, I’m keeping my sub because it will give me a chance to go to my favorite instructor’s kickboxing class to helpfully get some new material. I learned most of my teaching style from this instructor so I’m really excited to go to her class (even though I do feel guilty about missing my classes… I’m sorry!!).

  • Monday- I hope to get some type of full body workout in after work today. Ugh. Wish I had the day off!
  • Tuesday- My flight is at 2:30 so I will work from home in the morning. Before that, I will do something at home. Maybe something similar to this? Although I did FINALLY buy some weights this past weekend. I’m so happy to expand my at-home workout equipment.
  • Wednesday- Something at the hotel. We aren’t staying anywhere nice, so I’m assuming the gym isn’t very good, so it may be a hotel room workout. As long as I sweat, I don’t care what I do 🙂
  • Thursday- Since I already got a sub to teach my double, I’m going to head to the Wellington BSC and go to Katie’s kickboxing class. My members may not like having a sub, but they will like having fresh, new material 🙂
  • Friday- Not sure. Usually Friday is my rest day, but if my workouts were light during the week, I’ll probably do something. I won’t be able to do anything on Sunday since I fly out again for another work trip 😦
  • Saturday- Probably cardio and BodyPump since I don’t have to teach. I would LOVE to sub a class on Saturday if there was one available.
  • Sunday- Nothing. I am going to my friend’s party in NH on Saturday night and will likely spend the night, so I will have to get up early and head back since my flight is at 3ish on Sunday.

Questions for you: Did you take advantage of the warm weather last week? Instructor friends, have you ever gotten a sub for your class to go to another class?