Month: December 2013

Celebrations & Decorating for Christmas

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The past weekend was full of some of my favorite things: birthday celebrations, lots of girl time and decorating for Christmas. Saturday was my sister’s birthday, so Friday night we went out with our closest girlfriends to celebrate both Danielle’s and Amy’s birthdays. It was such a fun night! If you missed my post on Saturday, click here for the recap.

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Saturday morning, I headed to Brighton to teach kickboxing. From there, I ran errands and then met Danielle and Amy for lunch at The Asgard in Central Square. The last time I was there was for Athena’s birthday back in August. The lunch was SO good. seriously we were all gushing about it!

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My first stop of the night was at my friend Lauren’s apartment in Malden. My friend Liz came with me, which was an added bonus! Lauren’s apartment was so cute and festive and they even had a “photo booth” area set up. How fun is that?! I love getting together with my SMC girls.

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Like my skirt? It’s my new sparkle skirt from the Gap and I am obsessed with it!!

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Around 9, Liz and I grabbed a cab and headed to Scholars for Danielle and Amy’s birthday celebrations. I haven’t been OUT OUT in the city in so long.

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We randomly ran into my old yoga instructor, which was SUCH a fun surprise! I love this girl to pieces and hate that I don’t see her every week anymore:(

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Sunday morning I woke up feeling: A. Happy I decided to not have that last drink at the bar and B. happy that I was home by 12:30. I had a full day of errands, so after I relaxed and had breakfast, I got busy! I went to the Christmas Tree Shop, Market Basket and Home Depot and then I spent the afternoon decorating my apartment! Even though it’s only me and my apartment is small, I couldn’t imagine not decorating for Christmas! My tree is small, but it’s perfect for my apartment. I can’t wait to decorate it this week!

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This was exactly what I needed to get me into the spirit! There’s nothing like the feeling of having a freshly cleaned and newly decorated apartment!

Questions for you: What was the best part of your weekend? Do you get a real Christmas tree or fake one?

This Week: Workouts, Schedule & Things I’m looking forward to

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Hi there! I hope you all had a good weekend. Mine was so fun… lots of girl time, celebrations and holiday decorating. Before I catch you up on that, though, let’s talk about workouts and getting on track! Last week was a really fun week of workouts for me because I tried new things, was really sore from my SHRED class and had big numbers in most of my classes. I’m not sure if the numbers will stay up as it’s getting closer to Christmas and therefore there are more holiday parties, but I was so happy to see a lot of people making time for the gym last week!

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- My leg was bothering me on Monday (likely due to new sneakers), so rather than running, I decided to take a spinning class! It was perfect because not only did it allow me to workout without bothering my leg (my leg felt totally back to normal the next day, too), but it showed me that I don’t hate spinning as much as I thought I did!
  • Tuesday- I ended up having plans after work to grab dinner and drinks at the Intercontinental (sushi… wasn’t that good), so I got up and did a 30 minute upper body strength and ab tabata workout in my apartment.
  • Wednesday- I ran a 5K before teaching UXF Burn. It’s a good thing I was able to get in a good run before class and felt sore from my Tuesday workout because the class was packed and we ran out of weights and I literally had no place to stand! It was awesome 🙂
  • Thursday- I dug into my workout archives and pulled up this workout and decided to teach it. Holy moly. I was literally sore for 3 days. No clue why, but I wasn’t complaining! I taught kickboxing after.
  • Friday- I did 15 minutes of yoga in my apartment to loosen things up.
  • Saturday- I taught kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA. It was another big class with lots of energy!
  • Sunday- Since I was still a little sore/tight from Thursday and had a long list of things to do, I skipped out on the gym. I wasn’t hungover, I just didn’t want to schedule in a workout. Ok, and my hair still looked really good from Saturday night and I didn’t want to sweat and ruin that 😉

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I’m going to go to spin again tonight! Thanks to some comments from readers, I’m going to up the intensity if I need to. I will try to fit in some abs, too.
  • Tuesday- I’ll do a strength workout after work.
  • Wednesday- Running before teaching UXF Burn. I am running the Somerville Jingle Bell 5K on Sunday and would like to get another run in before that.
  • Thursday- Teaching SHRED and then Kickboxing
  • Friday- Rest day!
  • Saturday- Teaching kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA again. 4th week in a row and I love it!
  • Sunday- Running the Somerville Jingle Bell 5K with my sister. I cannot tell you how excited I am for this race. I have run it for the past 5 or 6 years and it’s one of my favorite things to do every year. What’s even better this year is the fact my sister is going to run with me. It’s her FIRST race and I hope she loves it!

Schedule

This week is another quiet week for me in terms of plans after work. I might have something on Tuesday night, but it’s still tentative. I have a busy weekend full of holiday parties and the race, but that’s all fun stuff:)

Things I’m looking forward to

The 5K is probably what I am most looking forward to. My parents always come down and it’s so fun to get dressed up in ugly Christmas stuff. I’m also looking forward to decorating my tree and going to Jessi’s Christmas party on Saturday night.

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Questions for you: Have you ever run a race? What’s your favorite part about running a race? What’s your favorite holiday tradition that gets you in the festive spirit?

Happy Birthday, Danielle!

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Today is my sisters- gasp- 26th birthday! It’s weird, because I feel like I just turned 26. For those of you who have sisters that you’re close with, I’m sure you totally understand the sister bond. Danielle and I may not get along all the time, but at the end of the day, we are sisters and we always have each others backs.

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Last night, we celebrated her birthday and Amy’s birthday with drinks at the Top of the Hub and dinner at Vlora.

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We lucked out because the skies cleared and we could see the city!

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Nights out with these pretty ladies are my favorite!

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What a fun night! It was a treat to get dressed up for fancy drinks at the Top of the Hub and dinner at Vlora never disappoints. If you like Greek/Mediterranean food, I highly suggest going!

Happiest birthdays to you, Danielle (and Amy!). Here’s to a fantastic year!

Questions for you: Have you ever been to the Top of the Hub or Vlora? Where do you go when it’s a special night out?

“Sometimes I…” {Confessions of a Fitness Instructor}

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A few months ago, I wrote about my Fitness Instructor Pet Peeves. Gosh I could add to that list as of recently… I always seem to get the crazies in my classes! Anyway, the other day in the shower (anyone else have some of their best ideas while in the shower?), I started thinking about things I do as a fitness instructor that members/class participants may not think I do, and I thought it would be fun to share!

1. Sometimes I… make my workouts on the way to the gym or while in the locker room, 5 minutes before class. What can I say? I don’t always have ample time to plan my workout in advance. I don’t like to make my workouts up on the fly, but it happens sometimes and I just have to roll with it!

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2. Sometimes I… reuse workouts. Not generally for the same class two weeks in a row but if I am teaching similar classes on different days and don’t have time to make a whole new workout, I use the one I taught earlier in the week! I apologize to members if they end up coming to both classes, but they never seem to mind, or notice, that the workout is the same.

3. Sometimes I… Use workouts from other instructors or magazines. I think all fitness instructors can agree that we sometimes just run out of new ideas. What I love about the blog world is having access to so many amazing fitness blogs that provide inspiration and ideas for me. I don’t usually take the workout and do the exact thing in my class, but I do take some of the exercises or format ideas to help build my workout.

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4. Sometimes I… Stop doing the workout with the class because it’s too hard and I can’t breathe, yell, instruct, correct form AND do the exercise at the same time. What?! Can you blame me? Just because we are fitness instructors does not mean we are in the best shape or are the strongest in class. We are human, too, and have off days where we don’t have the energy to do everything! My goal as an instructor is not to make the workout tough for me, but to make it tough for everyone else, so while I’m instructing, I try to do most of the workout, but more than that I try to walk around, coach, instruct, correct form, etc. And that can only be done if I can breathe 😉

5. Sometimes I… Dread teaching. Say, what?! I know it seems like I’m always up for a workout and excited to teach (99% of the time this is true), but sometimes I really just don’t want to teach. I don’t want to go to the gym. I don’t want to smile and laugh. I don’t want to be peppy. There. I said it. Again, we are human, too. Days like this take SO MUCH MORE energy than days when I want to teach. But in the end, it’s always worth it!

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6. Sometimes I… re-wear my workout clothes before washing them. If it’s a big week of teaching and I don’t sweat TOO much in a class, I’ll wear them again before washing them. I know it may seem gross, but my rationale is that I am going to get sweaty in them as soon as I start working out. I don’t generally re-wear tops, but sports bras and pants? Yeah, sometimes.

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7. Sometimes I… find pleasure in making members come close to getting sick from the intensity of the workout. Wow, that makes me sound terrible, huh? What I mean, is that I love when members find my workouts tough, yet still come back for more. I love it when they thank me for coming very close to getting sick during some of the exercises. I don’t want people to waste an hour of their day in my class, so I want to make it worth their time!

8.  Sometimes I… get upset and feel bad when members walk out of class. As much as I want people to work hard in my class and think I’m a tough instructor, I feel awful when people leave because the workout is too hard. There are ALWAYS modifications (which I show), so even though some of the members might be doing something crazy hard, if that’s not your level for the day, then just modify! No one is looking at you or judging, trust me. They are focusing on not dying 😉

9. Sometimes I… Feel empowered because I have the mic and am in control of the class. It’s just something about yelling into the mic and having all eyes on me as I instruct that is a wonderful feeling 😉 Especially when I have great music on and a full class with high energy… I absolutely feed off of that and tend to get even more intense than normal! And yes, I feel sorry for my members during these times 🙂

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10. Sometimes I… avoid people in the locker room. I’m sorry, but the locker room is MY time to get changed, mentally prepare for class, etc. It’s nothing against the members who might also be in the locker room, but it’s more that I am not ready to chat yet.

Questions for you: Fitness instructor friends- Can you relate to any of my “confessions”? Do you have any that I didn’t list? Non-instructor friends- what’s a confession you have when taking a group ex. class or going to the gym?

Have a great weekend!!! 🙂

So, I used to hate spinning…

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… but I may be warming up to it!

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Let’s back up.

On Monday, all of a sudden, my lower leg/calf area started to hurt as I was walking to work. This has happened to me a number of times before, and I think it happened on Monday because of my new sneakers. I think they must have different support than all of my other sneakers and my legs/feet haven’t gotten used to it yet. Whatever the reason, my plans of running on the treadmill after work went out the window. Womp.

I decided I would row and do the elliptical as a way to get cardio in, but keep it lower impact so as not to bother my leg. However, as I walked up to the locker room, I looked at the class board and saw that there was a spin class starting in 10 minutes. My first thought was “ugh. It’s a spin class. Wish it was something else.”, but immediately after that thought went through my head, a light bulb went off and I was like, “maybe a spin class is a good idea! It’s low-impact, yet supposedly an incredible workout. Maybe I should try it.”

So, I did. And I didn’t hate it! I can’t say I loved it, but it was almost enjoyable. I think part of the reason why I liked it was because we did 45 minutes of spin and 15 minutes of abs- a nice way to break up the workout. Another reason why I liked it was because we did climbs and sprints based on the song, so it wasn’t just a 45 minute slow climb. Boringggg. Lastly, the bikes didn’t have knobs, but rather levers, so you could see what level you were at, as well as the RPMs and time, so when the instructor wanted you to change, she would say “Ok, bump it up to level 12, with RPMs between 90 & 100, and we are going to sit in the saddle for 30 seconds then bring it up to 3rd for 45 seconds and then hover in 3rd for 60 seconds.” Being able to measure the intensity, speed and time made the workout much more enjoyable. I always have a hard time when spinning has the bikes with the knobs and you’re supposed to do one twist to the right, two twists to the right, 1/2 twist back to the left, etc. Call it my Type A personality, but I like to know exactly how hard I am working and if I am on par with the class.

My only issue, and I can’t believe I’m even saying this, was I didn’t leave there feeling like I had legs of jello. Don’t get me wrong, I was a sweaty beast by the end, but the only time I felt like I wanted to knock my level down lower than what was prescribed was when we had a 4 minute hill climb in the seated position. Holy crap. My legs were dead! Other than that, though, I felt like I could have worked harder… or that I could have done another workout after. Is that normal? When an instructor tells you what level to do, do you follow it or do what you need to do to intensify the workout?

So, with all of that said, I think I am going to give spinning another shot. I really WANT to like it because there are so many sub opportunities for spinning at the gym, so it would be great to learn to like it, how to do it, and feel comfortable teaching it. It would certainly make me a more well-rounded instructor!

Questions for you: Spinning- love it or hate it? What’s a tip you have for me to make sure I’m getting the best workout in that I can? Where’s the best spinning class you’ve ever been to?