Month: October 2013

5 Things I’m Looking Forward To This Weekend

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Hey there! Happy freaking Friday! I feel like this week absolutely flew by, anyone else? It wasn’t an extraordinarily busy or exciting week (just a regular ol’ work week, followed by workouts and teaching), but every part about it seemed to be in fast forward. I mean, it’s already October 11th. Yuck!

Anyway! I thought I’d share some things that I’m looking forward to this weekend, because that always gets me in a better mood. Plus, I want to know what you’re looking forward to this weekend, too!

1. Going to the dentist. Yeah, that’s weird, right? I love getting my teeth cleaned and haven’t been to the dentist in an embarrassingly long time (who else ends up skipping dentist appointments all together when/if they have to get rescheduled? That’s totally what happened here!).

2. Heading to Maine tomorrow to spend the weekend hanging out with my parents and escaping from my Boston life for a while. Sometimes a girl just needs to get away!

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3. Foliage and leaf peeping! The drive up to Maine at this time of year is absolutely amazing. I’m going to crank some good tunes and soak it all in.

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4. A little shopping in Kittery on my way north, puttering around some stores in Maine and maybe (hopefully) getting my hair cut. Oh, and enjoying some relaxing time where I can drink wine and maybe even sit by the fireplace… It’s the little things…

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5. Prep some fun posts for the next week and give B2B a little lovin’. I’ve had a few workout post ideas in mind, but haven’t had time to get them actually done, so I hope to do that this weekend!

Your turn! What are you looking forward to this weekend? Where do you go when you need to ‘get out of dodge’?

Sunday dinner & what intimidates me in the kitchen

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If you were to ask me what I would have my mom make me if she could only make me one meal, I would answer without a blink of an eye: Roast chicken with all the fixin’s… “fixin’s” being mashed potato casserole (pretty much the best thing ever), steamed veggies, and loaded stuffing. Really quite simple if you ask me! Just kidding… a roast chicken dinner is a very labor intensive meal, but it is worth every ounce of time put into it.

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With that said, when I looked at the garden care package from my dad and brainstormed what I could do to use up the veggies before the went bad, it came to me: make a roast chicken meal!

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I made my meal just as my mom would, except I bought a roast chicken from Market Basket that was already roasted. I know, I know. Totally a cop-out move, but the truth is, I’m scared to cook a whole roast chicken on my own! Has anyone done that before? They are so big and there are so many “gizzards” that have to come out and how do you know it’s fully cooked?! I could go on and on, but bottom line is that I realized I need to face this silly cooking fear and make a stupid roast chicken start to finish all on my own. I will do it, but maybe when I’m home and can have my parents walk me through it 😉 Baby steps!

Anyway, as I talked with my mom for nearly an hour on Monday, I puttered in the kitchen chopping veggies, peeling and boiling potatoes and preparing the stuffing. The kitchen was an absolute disaster by the time I finished (and I used about every pot, pan and Tupperware container by the end of the night), but it was so worth it once I tried everything!

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I didn’t measure anything, but here’s a quick run down of what I made and what ingredients I used.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

  • 5 small red potatoes, peeled and boiled until soft
  • about a 1/2 cup of 1% milk (They were out of skim, which is what I usually buy, but 1% has been a nice treat!)
  • 1 tbsp. minced garlic
  • salt, pepper, garlic salt
  • 1 tbsp. margarine

Maple Glazed Steamed Carrots and Parsnips

  • cut carrots and parsnips, steam until soft (or whatever consistency you like your cooked veggies to have)
  • 1 tbsp. butter
  • 2-3 tbsp. maple syrup- I used a pecan maple syrup that my sister brought me back after one of her site visits which was perfect!

Loaded Stuffing

  • 1 package of stuffing mix- cook according to the instructions on the box
  • green peppers & onions- maybe 1/2 cup of each? sautéed so that they are already cooked when you add them to the boiling water with the dry stuffing mix.
  • 1/4 cup of craisins to add in with the peppers, onions and stuffing mix. Let everything set for 5 minutes.

Serve everything with gravy, because gravy makes everything better 😉

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It’s a shame I live alone because I still have so many leftovers, 3 days later. I have issues with cooking smaller portions sometimes!

Questions for you: What’s a food or meal that intimidates you or makes you nervous to try? If you could have your parents (or anyone) make you one meal, what would it be?

Wednesday Workout: 30 Minute Total Body Strength Workout

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Hey there! As I mentioned on Monday, I accidentally had a really intense strength workout after work on Tuesday. I went into the day not sure if I would get a chance to workout, or if I had the chance, not sure if I would WANT to workout, but once I got to the gym, I realized I was totally focused and feeling a good workout.

I warmed up with 5 minutes on the rower (I hate rowing, but it’s a really great way to fully warm up your body) before doing the following workout. I was literally in and out of the gym in 30 minutes, including the warm up, so if you have access to weights & a stability ball (not necessary, but it was a big part of what made this workout great) there’s really no excuse not to do this 🙂

30 minute total body strength

I don’t have access to a stability ball often, but every time I do, I remember how much I love using one. Make sure you have the ball against a wall when you do tricep dips, though, I almost had a party foul there 😉 Also, thanks to Athena’s Fall into Fitness challenge, I was reminded of how great lunge/knee lift/hops are for burning out the glute and getting your heart rate up.

Here are some links to the moves in case you’re not familiar with them:

Stability Ball Preacher Curl
Stability Ball Tricep Dips
Stability Ball V-Sit

I’m not sure if it’s because I increased my weights, worked out mindfully and totally focused on each exercise or something else, but this workout left me beat and quite sore the next day.

Questions for you: What’s your favorite gym “tool”? If you could only pick one piece of equipment to workout with, what would it be?

Settling Into Eastie

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This past weekend, I felt like I really started to settle into living in Eastie. And, the more I see, do and learn about Eastie, the more I love it! There are so many great restaurants, bars, parks and nice people and I think it’s really turned around in recent years.

Not only am I loving living in Eastie, but I’m loving the fact that I have friends who live down the street from me! Pat, Colleen and I are starting to take advantage of living so close to each other, so Friday night, the 3 of us headed over to Ecco for afternoon cocktails. Ecco is owned by the same owners who own Santarpio’s. Since I’m still trying to hold on to one last bit of summer, I ordered their Sangria and it was amazinggggg.

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Pat insisted on us ordering the Seasonal Cheese Plate, so we did, and I was very happy about it. Cheese and crackers is one of my favorite “snacks”, especially when I’m enjoying cocktails!

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Thanks for a fun night, neighbors! Can’t wait to do it again 🙂

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I know this sounds so lame, but I was so happy about being home early on a Friday night and waking up on a Saturday feeling refreshed. I went to BodyPump, Christmas Tree Shop and then hung out with my sister and Amy at their apartment. They even made me pizza on the grill, which was unbelievable! Have you guys ever had that? If not, I highly suggest trying it 🙂

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From there, I went on another tour of Eastie; I swear, it’s bigger than I thought! We checked out Orient Heights and Constitution Beach and I learned all of the “hidden gem” restaurants and bakeries. We ended the afternoon at KO Pies which is a place I’ve wanted to cross of my “must try” list for a while. It’s this random, little hole in the wall restaurant in the shipyard area of East Boston and I would never have known about it had I not been introduced to it. There’s also a location in Southie- have you heard of it? We enjoyed Harpoon Pumpkin Beers while chatting outside- it was the perfect day for that! Not too hot, not too cold.

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And we couldn’t leave without trying their famous pies! I didn’t take a picture because it really wouldn’t do the pie any justice, but just trust me- it was amazing and well worth a trip!

I slept at my old apartment on Saturday night and as much as I love living alone, waking up and watching TV and blogging with “roommates” around was so nice, especially since it was such a rainy/gross day. We had ridiculous amounts of laughs, especially when we all practiced “twerking”. Yes, that happened.

We spent the rest of the day with Jessi, doing lunch and shopping. I was grumpy because of the weather and traffic and crazy busy city, but I did have fun with the girls! Prosecco in the afternoon on a Sunday is never a bad thing 😉

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Nor are nachos. I have a weak, weak spot for nachos.

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After lunch we shopped a little. I was good and only got a pair of skinny jeans that were super on sale at the Gap

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And, that about sums up my weekend! I didn’t have time to make a big “Sunday dinner”, but I did make some amazing Whole Wheat Pumpkin muffins and those were way better than any dinner I could have made 🙂

Questions for you: What was the best part of your weekend? Did you go to Harpoon fest? What’s your favorite cocktail these days?

Weekly Workouts: Tough workouts, being sore & putting myself first

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Hi, friends! I hope you all had a great weekend! Mine was very relaxing compared to last weekend, but I’ll catch you up on that later. For now, let’s talk workouts, like we do every Monday morning. I use this as a way to reflect on my workouts from the previous week, look ahead to what I want to accomplish this week and hopefully motivate all of you to think about your workouts and to make a plan.

Last week, I had some awesome workouts. I was supposed to rest more than I did, but since the weather was back to summer-like temps, I had to take advantage of the warm evenings and the fact that there was still daylight after work, so I went on some runs. I also had some intense lifting workouts, which left me veryyyy sore (nothing like rolling over on a Sunday morning being completely sore from BodyPump!).

On top of that, I did something I never do: I said “no”. And, you know what? It felt pretty good. It was just one of those days where I really needed MY OWN workout. Teaching is amazing and I love it, and when I first started, I thought teaching would still be MY workout, but I quickly realized that it’s not my workout at all; I am there for my members and ensuring that THEY have a great workout. So, when I was teaching a crazy amount of classes, I noticed how much my own workouts started to slack and it really bothered me. Now that I don’t teach as much, I focus on making my “off” days from teaching for me and it’s done wonders for my fitness levels!

And, rant over… let’s get to the workouts!

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I said last week that I was going to rest on Monday, but the weather was great and I found out I was going to dinner with coworkers on Tuesday after work so I wanted to make sure to get my planned Tuesday workout in on Monday since I had more time. I ran 4 miles and it was awesome! But, on the way back I felt like I was racing the sunset.

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  • Tuesday- I ended up having a lot of time after work until dinner, so I headed up to the gym in my building and had a surprisingly good and strong strength session. I think I’ll post the workout for you soon because it left me pleasantly sore! I also did my Fall Into Fitness challenge; I had forgotten how much I love lunge & knee lift jumps!

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  • Wednesday- After saying no to subbing the class before mine, I went for a 3 mile run along the Charles. The views never get old and there’s really no better way to clear your head! Since I was so sore from my Tuesday strength session, I didn’t do much of the class with my members when I taught UXF Burn. It was a great class, though. That class loves to work hard

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  • Thursday- I felt back to my normal self on Thursday so I did all of SHRED and Kickboxing with my classes. I taught a timed circuit, Tabata cardio and Tabata abs class, thanks to a suggestion from Athena. My members loved this format, so I am definitely doing it again!
  • Friday- I did the glute press and hydrant for the Fall into Fitness challenge and walked .75 miles to the bar and back, but besides that, I rested.
  • Saturday- I warmed up with 20 minutes on the elliptical before going to BodyPump. My glutes were still sore from Thursday, so I went lighter on the leg tracks, but pushed myself with the upper body tracks. I’ve gotten stronger lately and I love it.
  • Sunday- Rest, besides walking around the mall. I was sore and since my workouts had been strong and intense all week, I thought rest was best!

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I will probably run after work and then do some ab work.
  • Tuesday- Less cardio and more strength focus.
  • Wednesday- Cardio before teaching UXF Burn.
  • Thursday- Teaching SHRED and Kickboxing, probably using the same format in SHRED this week as I did last week.
  • Friday- Rest, besides my Fall into Fitness move of the day.
  • Saturday- Teaching Kickboxing at the YMCA.
  • Sunday- I think I am going to Maine this weekend so I will try to do something there, maybe even with my mom!

Questions for you: Are you participating in Athena’s Fall into Fitness challenge? What’s a new fitness goal you have? Instructor friends, do you feel you need to work out in addition to teaching since when you teach you’re more focused on your members’ workouts?