Month: May 2014

Wednesday Workout: Tips for working out during lunch & a lunch-break workout

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On Monday, I headed to the gym in my office building (that I also teach at) for a lunch-break workout. For so long, I avoided lunch-break workouts because I hated the idea of having to get ready for work, workout, then get re-ready for the rest of the work day. However, I’ve recently been doing lunch-break workouts once a week or so, as I’ve realized how nice it is to have an evening off on my non-teaching days (rather than going to the gym after work and getting home late). Because of this, I’ve had to strategically plan my workouts to maximize my workout time and minimize my locker room time… biggest bang for ya buck, right?

Since the weather is getting warmer and afternoons are likely filled with more after-work drinks (what is it about warm weather that makes you want to get drinks outside after work?!), maybe some of you could take some of these tips and incorporate lunch-break workouts into your day.

1. Skip or limit the cardio

I’m a sweaty beast when I workout, but especially when I do cardio inside. Getting that sweaty requires me to take a full shower (washing my hair), which really just makes the locker room process too long. However, if I do just weight training, I’ll get sweaty, but not TOO sweaty. I can usually get away with just a quick rinse or use sanitizing wipes to clean all the important areas (don’t judge). But, if you must do some cardio, pull your hair back into a tight, low pony tail and wear a headband to help soak up sweat from your forehead/hairline area. This really just doesn’t work with me because my hair/head gets too sweaty, but I guess if I just let my hair air dry after, it wouldn’t be so bad… no one else would know 😉 If you have straight hair anyway, just blow dry it again!

2. Plan out your workout before you get to the gym

I usually put what I want to do on a sticky note and put it on the back of my phone so I have it handy. By doing this, when I get to the gym I can start immediately on my workout instead of standing around wasting time figuring out what type of format I want to use, what exercises I want to do and what weights and equipment I’m going to need.

3. Wear something easy to change in and out of

In other words, don’t wear tights or a lot of jewelry or other things that might take more time changing out of and back in to. Similarly, pack light in your gym bag so you’re not rummaging around sifting through things you don’t need. I just pack 1 top and 1 bottom and since I usually walk to work in my sneakers, I already have those.

4. Put it in your calendar at work

If I don’t block off time on my calendar, I’ll just keep putting off my workout until I realize I’ve lost all opportunities to do so during the day. In addition, if my calendar isn’t blocked off, people can schedule calls and wouldn’t know that I had plans for a workout. Also, I plan my workouts between my morning snack and lunch that way I’m fueled for the workout and know I’ll be eating lunch soon after I get back… what can I say? I usually plan my day around workouts and eating.

5. Find a coworker who wants to go with you

Having a workout buddy helps hold you accountable for actually getting the workout done. It can be hard to separate yourself from your work, but if you have someone else doing it with you, it’s better motivation! Even if your office doesn’t have a gym, you can bring sneakers and just go for a power walk, which probably doesn’t even require a locker room to clean up in 😉

Now, here’s for the workout I did during my lunch break on Monday. The whole thing took me 35 minutes, start to finish. I wore my heart rate monitor and my heart rate was up for most of the workout, especially because I moved quickly between exercises and sets.

35 minue lunch-break workout

I really enjoyed this workout! Lately, I’ve been just doing upper body lifting when I’m not doing cardio, but I was craving some leg stuff on Monday so it was fun adding it in.

Questions for you: do you like to workout during your lunch break? Do you have any tips that I forgot to mention? Do you ever skip out on a shower and using sanitizing wipes instead (please tell me I’m not the only one!!)?

My First Class At The Handle Bar’s New Fenway Location

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A few weeks ago, I was contact by someone through The Handle Bar asking if I’d like to try a class at their new Fenway studio. Umm , duh! I’m always up for trying out new studios, especially ones that I’ve heard a lot about.

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They were gracious enough to offer a free class to myself and a friend, so I asked my upstairs neighbor, Lisa, if she wanted to join since she always says how she wants to go to a spin class with me.

The whole experience was really enjoyable! They gave me shoes and water when I walked in, which was a nice surprise. I also loved that they had complimentary ear plugs, gum and hair elastics- all really helpful things when you’re going to an indoor cycling studio.

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While there are no changing rooms or showers, there are cubbies and big bathrooms that can be used for changing. The studio itself was awesome! They had a ton of bikes and all different colored lights, which they would change throughout the class.

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Per the norm for most indoor cycling studios, they choreograph the moves to the beat of the music, which I love! It makes the ride much more fun and much less boring than just going for an endurance ride to stimulate an outdoor ride. I have to say that the choreography for this particular class wasn’t as good as some others that I have been to, but it was still a good workout! It just seemed like she repeated choreography on a couple of different songs. I’m sure most people didn’t notice or care, but the instructor in me notices that stuff (and I have a really good memory when it comes to choreography and catch on quickly).

The class we went to was only about half full, which is always a bummer since I thrive off of the energy in those classes! There’s nothing like the feeling of being in a packed class, riding to loud music and feeling like you’re in it together with everyone else in the room. I’d love to go back to a class on a day/time that might draw a full studio- those are the best!

Overall, though, I loved the studio and would definitely go back again. They don’t offer a free first class, but they do give a discounted ride of $10 to new riders. Shoe rental is $2, which you do need for these particular bikes (plus, now that I’ve used the shoes, I don’t think I could go back to riding without them!). If you’re interested in trying out a class, head on over here.

Questions for you: Have you been to The Handle Bar? What’s your favorite part about indoor cycling studios?

This Week: Workouts, weekend recap & things I’m looking forward to {hosting Mother’s Day!}

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Good morning! Happy Cinco de Mayo! Are you doing anything to celebrate tonight? Did you guys have a good weekend? I did! Friday night started on Lisa’s deck. She, Lauren and I all got together for some after work cocktails and snacks- it’s awesome to have girls in the same apartment building that are fun to hang with! Lisa’s view is amazingggg and she made a delicious white sangria- can you tell we are itching for summer to be here? Lauren swung by Angela’s Café and picked up some fresh chips and guac. Have you ever been there? Their Mexican food is absolutely delicious! Thanks for a great start to my Friday night, girls!

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After cocktails with them, I met up with the guy and we headed into the city to meet up with my friend Jessi and her boyfriend for a little double date bowling night at Jillian’s/Lucky Strike. I cannot say I was good (at all), but it was a really fun night regardless!

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Saturday morning, I got up, taught and then pampered myself a little by cashing in the pedicure gift card that I got from my gym friends Alice, Steph and Jen- thanks girls!! I finally had a Saturday where I had nothing “planned”, so I did a little shopping… whoops! Check out these awesome buys 🙂

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That night, the boy and I watched the Derby and he made us dinner. I was asleep on the couch before 10pm… I am so lame.

Sunday morning, he made us pumpkin banana paleo protein pancakes and we went on a walk along Constitution Beach. The rest of the day required lots of computer work, a yoga class and finally a night in the kitchen cooking! All in all, a really great, relaxing weekend, which was so necessary after the craziness over the past couple of months.

Let’s get to workouts, though, shall we? Last week’s workouts were good and I was happy to be able to get some yoga into my life. Every time I do it, I always say I need more of it, but do I do it? No, not usually. Ugh. Anyway!

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I taught my 6am muscle class and followed it up with 30 minutes on the elliptical and a little extra core work- Miami is in a month… gotta put in the extra effort 😉
  • Tuesday- I was invited to try a class out at The Handle Bar’s new location in Fenway, so my friend Lisa and I headed there after work. I’ll share more on that experience later!
  • Wednesday- I worked from home and had all intentions of getting up to run before I started work, but it was raining and I just wasn’t feeling it. I kept putting it off and off until I finally saw motivation on Facebook from my friend Jen, saying she had run 4 miles at lunch. That was just what I needed to get my butt out the door to run! 4 miles later, I was feeling so much better! I also taught, but didn’t DO, my UXF Burn class.
  • Thursday- I taught my SHRED and Kickboxing classes. We did my Across the Floor workout in SHRED- love that workout! I lost serious amounts of energy after that class, though. The studio was SO HOT and I had to really dig deep to get energy to make it through my kickboxing class. Hate that.
  • Friday- I did 25 minutes of yoga in my apartment followed by 10 minutes of core work. My shoulders were rather sore on Saturday, just from those 25 minutes of yoga- yikes!
  • Saturday- I taught my kickboxing class at the Oak Square YMCA. It’s crazy how much more energy I have when that is my one and only class to teach!
  • Sunday- The boy and I went for about a 35 minute walk throughout East Boston and along Constitution Beach- it was nice! Later in the day, I went to a yoga class at the East Boston YMCA. While I liked the class and felt like I worked really hard, I could’ve done with it being a 60 or 75 minute class rather than a 90 minute class. Otherwise, I loved it and will likely go back. Running into my upstairs neighbor, Lauren, in the class was an added bonus 🙂

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- My plan today is to get in a strength workout during the day.
  • Tuesday- I have an appointment mid-morning so I decided to take the morning off from work. I’m going to get up and run or do something else before I go to that since I’ll have extra time.
  • Wednesday- Probably running before teaching UXF Burn. Hopefully it will be nice enough for me to run outside!
  • Thursday- Teaching SHRED and Kickboxing- any suggestions for SHRED? Fitness instructors, any good formats for me to try?
  • Friday- Probably a rest day, or maybe some yoga.
  • Saturday- My sister and I have plans to go to the 10am class at Flywheel before running errands to prep for hosting Mother’s Day.
  • Sunday- I’m not sure! Maybe a walk with my mom? Maybe rest?

Things I’m Looking Forward To

There’s not really much going on this week, which is kind of nice! I may get together with some girlfriends on Tuesday night for dinner which would be fun since I haven’t seen them in so long. Other than that, I am excited to host Mother’s Day on Sunday. We have to figure out what we want to make, though- any suggestions? We are doing brunch, so we are thinking we’d like to make some type of fancy egg casserole and fruit salad and potatoes… help!

Questions for you: What was the best part of your weekend? Did you watch the Derby? Get outside to enjoy the warmer weather? Do you like to go bowling? Did you have any particularly good workouts last week? What are you looking forward to this week?

How do you handle emergency situations?

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TGIF! How are you all doing today? Anything fun planned for the weekend? Heading out to watch the Derby anywhere? Whatever you do, I hope it’s wonderful 🙂

Switching gears a bit, I wanted to talk about a situation from class earlier this week. Wednesday night, I was faced with a fear I think all fitness instructors have: an emergency situation in class. I’ll preface this by saying that the girl ended up being fine, but it was one of the scariest situations I’ve experienced (or, at least in a situation where I’m “in charge”). Let me set the scene for you:

I wasn’t doing the workout with the class because I had plans after work and did my workout (4 mile run-thanks for the motivation Jen!), so I was walking around the whole time and really focused on all of the members in class. It was a small class for some reason- only 11 people- so this was especially easy to do.

I also took a different approach to my teaching style. If you’ve been to my class, you know that I can be a little, well, intense at times… I like to push you and make you want to push yourself. I want you to feel amazing after you do one more squat when you think you can’t do anymore. I want you to feel like your endurance is improving when I push you to finish out a cardio blast when all you want to do is stop. But, earlier in the day, I had read this blog post and was reminded that not everyone takes to that kind of teaching style/approach.

So… I changed it up. Throughout class, I tried to give motivating comments to people and was often reminding them that it’s their workout and that they know their bodies better than I do, so if they needed to take it down a notch or scale back a bit, it was ok to do so. They are the only ones that know their bodies, what they’ve been busy with, how they’ve been sleeping, what they may have had for fuel that day, so who am I to tell them to give me 1 more rep or 10 more seconds if they know that they don’t have it in them?

And, what did that get me? A girl who dropped to the ground 3 minutes before cool down because she couldn’t breathe. Of all days and of all classes! I have to admit- my first reaction was panic. Everything I had learned from my recent CPR class or from the various certification sessions was no where to be found. Luckily, that only lasted for a second before I told someone to get help and I assessed the situation:

  • She was breathing, although she said she couldn’t breathe.
  • She was shaking, but likely not because of a seizure (like I originally thought) and moreso because she went into panic mode thinking she couldn’t breathe.
  • She was still conscious, we just needed to get her to calm down, realize she could breathe and try to get her heart rate down.
  • Her heart rate was going down as we tried to calm her down.

The above steps happened rather quickly, thankfully, and she was back to normal breathing within a few minutes. But let me tell you… those few minutes were the longest few minutes ever.

The whole situation made me think… what if this happens again? Was it my fault? Did I push them too hard? What could I have done to handle the situation better? What if something more serious happens- will I know what to do? I’m sure I’ll be faced with another “emergency” situation again, and I’m sure I’ll figure out to do, but the whole thing was just so SCARY!!

How do you guys handle emergency situations? Do you freak out or stay calm? Has this ever happened to any of my fellow instructor friends? What about those of you who go to classes? Have you experienced this outside of the gym? Did you have to help? Are you trained to help? How do you stay calm in scary situations?

Chicken Taco Salad

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Since my sister’s bathroom was being renovated last week, she ended up staying with me all week. As much as I love living alone, it was really nice to have her with me for the week. I wouldn’t want a friend staying with me for the week (sorry, no offense!), but there’s something different about a sister staying with you… especially when you’ve lived together for a number of years.

As a thank you, she went shopping and got ingredients to make us taco salads. I ended up cooking since I was home from work a lot earlier than she was, but I appreciated the fact that I didn’t have to go out and buy the food!

We used ground chicken, sautéed veggies and I even made my own taco seasoning! I was talking to a coworker and she said she makes her own since the ingredients in those packets are less than stellar. And, you know what?! It was so easy and so good… and I liked that I knew exactly what I was putting into the seasoning. I adapted a recipe from Iowa Girl Eats and can now never go back to store bought seasoning packets.

To help cut back on calories and carbs, we decided to serve the meat and veggies atop spinach (with a little quinoa/rice mixture). But, let’s be honest, I only did this so I could justify having extra chips on the side 😉 Regardless, the “mix” that I came up with would be good atop a salad, in a wrap or even on it’s own. It was a quick and easy weeknight meal.

chicken taco salad

Ingredients

  • 1lb. ground chicken
  • 1-2 cups of cooked quinoa or rice (we used a bag of the Uncle Ben’s 90 second rice things)
  • 1/2-1 cups green pepper and red pepper, sliced
  • 1 medium onion, sliced
  • 1 cup corn (I used frozen)
  • 1 cup black beans (rinsed)
  • Romaine lettuce/spinach
  • 2 tbsp EVOO
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • salt, pepper, other herbs/seasonings of your choice (and wine- I always sautee veggies in wine)

Seasoning Ingredients (from Iowa Girl Eats)

  • 2-1/2 teaspoons chili powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon cumin
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon paprika– I didn’t have this so I skipped it
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon onion powder– I didn’t have this so I skipped it
  • 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1/8 teaspoon dried oregano

Directions

1. Cut up your peppers and onion. Heat a pan with 1-2 tbsp EVOO and add in the pepper and onion and minced garlic. Add in herbs/seasoning/wine as desired. Additionally, cook the quinoa or rice according to the package.

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2. While the veggies are cooking, prepare the seasoning and set aside. Once the veggies are done, remove from the pan and brown the chicken. Once the chicken is almost fully browned, add in the seasoning mixture. Mix well and then add in the cooked peppers and onions, as well as the rinsed black beans and corn. Sautee until everything is warm.

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3. Put a serving of quinoa or rice atop a bed of spinach and then place the taco mixture on top of that. You can also serve it in a wrap or taco if you wish. I topped mine with a little cheese because, well, cheese makes everything better 😉

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We were so happy with the results of this quick and easy weeknight meal! It was so flavorful and healthy- a win, win (side note: I originally typed in “wine” instead of win… is that a problem?) in my book.

We both enjoyed leftovers throughout the week- she made a wrap for dinner and I ended up having another salad exactly like this!

Questions for you: Do you like to eat taco salads, wraps or plain ol’ tacos? Have you ever made your own taco seasoning?