2014 In Review

December 31, 2014December 30, 20144 Comments

Hi there! I really enjoyed my 2013 recap last year, so I wanted to come back and do it again this year. I just went back to read it and have to say, it was kind of sad in some parts! It’s so crazy to see how much things have changed since then. Let’s review!

Love Life

It’s safe to say that this has probably been the biggest (and best!) change in my life over the past year. RM and I had just ended things around Christmas/New Years last year so that definitely weighed heavily on me at this time a year ago. Luckily, we both shaped up, he lost his edge, I let my guard down and look where we are now: in a very loving, happy, wonderful relationship! I’d be lying if I said that, even though the change was awesome, it wasn’t a tough adjustment for me. I was so used to living on my own, being on my own schedule, packing my schedule with whatever I felt like doing that it took (and is still taking!) some time to get used to being in a “we” or “us” schedule. I’m still finding my groove, but it gets easier to find the balance each day and as I look back, I have him to thank for so many of my happy 2014 memories <3. Can’t wait to see what this year has in store for us.

Work

Ahhh this was another big change for me, one that was much harder than I thought it would have been! Between the new commute of driving instead of taking the T, working in the suburbs, learning a new role/position/company and getting to know new coworkers, a job change is tough! At the beginning, you need to constantly be on your A game and my head was spinning with all the new knowledge and people and roles. As I’ve recently hit my 6 month mark, I’m just starting to feel like I’m settling in. Getting used to a much earlier work day and having to pack everything up the night before when going to RM’s has also been a challenge- I am so tired of packing up all my meals, snacks, work clothes, workout clothes, teaching stuff, etc. But, the job was the right job for me to pick and I am very happy with my decision!

Friends

What a year it’s been for my friends! Jess had her little baby girl, Nora, Sheila got married, Christy had her sweet baby girl, Olivia, Zeke, Tucker and Julian turned 1, my friend Rachel is pregnant, Meredith, Athena and Nikia are engaged… I’m sure I’m missing a lot more, but it’s been an exciting year! I’m so lucky to have so many wonderful friends from all different aspects of my life: home, college, work, gym, blogging. These girls have been there for me during happy moments and sad moments and it’s so nice to know that they will always be there for me!

Family

Per usual, my family has been one of the biggest things I’m thankful for. I’m so lucky to have such loving, fun and supportive parents! I brought RM up to Maine a number of times, we celebrated birthdays, they came down to visit so many times, we went to my cousin’s wedding, and were able to spend Thanksgiving in Maine just the 4 of us. My sister’s boyfriend came for Christmas Eve and then RM came the day after Christmas- I’m pretty sure my parents were bursting with excitement because of this!

Travel

Last year, I went on a few “big” trips, luckily with my main squeeze by my side! We went on our first trip to Miami back in June and had the BEST time. I wasn’t sure I’d like Miami, but I liked it so much I want to go back. We laid by the pool, had cocktails, went for walks, had delicious food… just a great trip all around!

In July, we went to Chicago with Jessi, Chuck and their friends. RM had never been to Chicago so I was excited to show him around. We had some delicious dinners, went on the Architecture tour again, walked around a lot and got to visit with JP!

We also spent a few weekends down at the Cape- for the 4th of July4th of July, another weekend in August and then in October for the Oyster Fest. We are hoping to get down for a full week this coming summer.

Teaching/Working out

Again, this is another area of my life that had a lot of changes over the past year. I started teaching at a new gym– my first ever morning class and I LOVED it! At the beginning of the year, some weeks I was teaching 5 classes between my Monday, Wednesday, Thursday double and Saturday. As I started to get more serious with RM, I realized I just couldn’t do everything anymore, and even more than that, I didn’t want to! I wanted to be spending my time with him, not teaching a million classes, so even though it was hard because I love teaching so much, I knew that in order to stay sane and not get burned out, I needed to drop some classes. I opted to give up my Thursday double because let’s be honest- gearing up mentally and physically to teach 2 intense classes back to back after a full day of work is TOUGH. My Monday gym ended up closing so I am now only teaching 1-2 classes a week, unless I sub. I have been talking with an awesome boxing studio and am on their sub list, with the plans of getting my own class there soon, which I’m REALLY excited about!!

Regarding my own workouts, I have to say that I’ve had such a great mental shift in terms of what constitutes a workout, rest days, working to overcome my workout addiction. I no longer feel like I need to workout every.single.day. I no longer feel like I need to be at the gym for 1-2 hours. I no longer feel like I need to go “balls to the wall” every day. I no longer feel like I can work through injuries. And, on top of that, I have just given myself a freaking break on weeks where the workouts just aren’t there the way I like them to be. Because you know what? In a month, I won’t even remember my ‘light’ week of workouts or a week where I only worked out 3-4 times. I’m looking more at the big picture and it’s fantastic. I’ve also increased my weights and become more defined and stronger and can’t wait to increase that this year!

Burpees to Bubbly

Where to start, where to start! This year has been fun- I feel like I’ve gotten into a better groove in my nearly 2 years off blogging. I’ve hosted a few challenges and even a giveaway. I had the chance to try out ClassPass, as well as a number of different workouts and events. I’ve gotten to meet so many great bloggers (Caroline, Sarah, Sherri) and been able to get my name out there more as well.

However, even with all that said, at this point, I am still working on figuring out how I want to blog going forward. While I enjoyed my “schedule” of posts for a while, I’ve just been feeling a bit bored sharing my workouts every week and my weekend recaps and just the general content of the blog. I want to get more into workout videos and short, HIIT style workouts that I think you’ll enjoy. I want to share more of the recipe and kitchen things that RM and I have been doing, including making yogurt, making almond milk and things like that. I want to write less “fluff” posts and more posts about topics that inspire me, frustrate me or that I find interesting. I just feel like since Burpees to Bubbly is nearly 2 years old, it’s time to put a little more TLC into it, so be on the lookout for some changes!

Clearly, 2014 was a year of some wonderful changes and memories in all aspects of my life. I feel that I am in a really good spot moving into 2015 and am so excited to see what the year has in store for me. We are going to dinner at Post 390 tonight and may end up ringing in the New Year back in East Boston, which I wouldn’t be terribly upset about 😉

Cheers to a fantastic 2014, friends and a bigger cheers to an even better 2015! I hope you all have a happy and safe night! Thanks for all your love and support- bring it on 2015!

Happy, Healthy, Fit Challenge: Recap & Winners

December 30, 2014December 29, 2014Leave a comment

For those of you who made it through the entire challenge- nice work!! If there’s one thing I learned throughout this process, it’s that challenges are hard to sustain for 3-4 weeks. I know that I lost a lot of my challenge mojo right around the 2 week mark, so if you can relate- know that you’re not alone! The thing though, is that I don’t care if you did 2 days, 2 weeks or 24 days- I was just happy to see you participating even a little bit! The goal of each challenge was to make you happier, healthier and fitter- whether by food choices, movement choices, good deeds, etc.- I wanted you to move through the craziest month of the year with some purpose and deliberate choices that made you more present in each and every day.

In my 2 week check in, I shared how I went about each challenge, which was a fun way for me to take a look back and in turn, get motivated for the final push. But, I think what I enjoyed most about the challenge was seeing YOUR check-ins. I know it can be challenging to take photos of everything and post on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, but seeing your creativity with the challenges and seeing you DO them and participate with me and the others was incredible. You guys pushed me to continue and give it my all, so I thank you for that.

I’m here today to share the “winners”, but I put that word in quotations because everyone who participated was really a winner. You took the time out of your busy schedule to do something to better yourselves or others and that is worth a big pat on the back! Although I asked you to check in and post on social media how you were going about each challenge so that I could see who was participating, even if you were holding yourself accountable with your own tracking sheet that’s totally fine. We are all motivated differently and that’s what is so fun!

But, with that said, I have to give a big shout out to Lauren Hudak and Courtney Iacocca- congrats, ladies! You are the winners of the challenge.

Lauren is my downstairs neighbor and I’m so fortunate that we have been able to become friends over the past year and a half. She has run a number of marathons (super fast, too!) and was afraid that this challenge would interfere with her training. After I explained that it wasn’t a fitness-only challenge, she decided to participate and throughout the 24 days challenge, she did not miss a single day and posted photos each day of her participating in the. What I loved about Lauren’s participating was that she often included co-workers and friends to take the stairs, go for a walk and bring lunch. Her posts and challenge executions (weird word to use, but had a writers block!) were so thoughtful and deliberate and even after long days at work, she would still make it a priority to move and release some stress.

Courtney and I work together and I had the chance to get to know her when she participated in my bootcamp back in the fall. I remember her emailing me saying she wanted to just try one class and go from there since she wasn’t “good” at working out. Well, the day after our first class, she came into my office and paid for the full 4 weeks saying she loved it and felt so welcomed and able to do everything we were doing. This made me SO happy, so you can only imagine how happy I was when she decided to participate in my challenge. Courtney had to travel for a few days and still got in her workouts and other challenges. She tried a new yoga studio and has made it part of her routine to get there when she can. She tried new recipes and learned to grease the baking sheet better 😉 She paid it forward by giving her tow guy a Starbucks gift card. Courtney’s enthusiasm throughout the challenge was so awesome- congrats, friend!

To refresh your memory, the prizes are as follows:
New Balance has been gracious enough to donate 2 awesome gym bags! I don’t know about you, but I can NEVER have too many gym bags. This one looks like a great size, too!

**DRINKmaple has also agreed to provide each winner with a 2 pack of their Pure Maple Water drink. I was luck enough to get a chance to try a sample and I have to say I really enjoyed it! I’m not a big coconut water fan, so this was a great substitute.

**A caddy of 16 mixed larabar bars. Larabars have been a longtime favorite bar of mine- have you tried them? Most of the flavors are made up of only a few ingredients, which is key for me. When I look at ingredient labels of other bars, I’m always astounded at how many ingredients there are! A 16 pack should keep you happy for a while 😉

**Lastly- a customized workout and/or workout video from me! The workouts I post on my blog normally may not be what you’re looking for, so with this, you can tell me exactly what you like/don’t like/want to work on and I can go from there! I can even do a real time workout video for you to have and use.

SO, Lauren and Courtney, please email me at burpeestobubbly@gmail.com with your addresses and I will get your information over to the companies so they can ship you your goodies. Also, please include what type of workout you’d like me to create for you: video, HIIT, strength, core, full body, super sets, time workouts, stations, etc. Take a look at my workout page if you need some ideas on what you’re looking for!

Again, thank you SO MUCH to everyone who participated. I was so happy to see friends from college and the gym, as well as friends from the blog world participating- you ladies did awesome! And, if you’re interested in another challenge, let me know 🙂

I’m Back!

December 29, 20142 Comments

Well hello, there! Remember me? I used to write a blog fairly consistently…. 😉 I have to say, not blogging at all last week was exactly what I needed. It was so nice to detach myself a bit from social media and taking pictures and things like that. And, now I have so many posts I want to write- luckily I’m off from work this week and will hopefully have time to get them drafted.

How were your holidays? Anything fun planned for New Years Eve? Anyone else off all week? I’ve never had a “staycation”, but so far, I’m totally digging it! Let’s recap over the past week- lots of celebrations between RM’s birthday and Christmas!

To celebrate RM’s actual birthday (I threw him his surprise party a few days earlier), I took him to Eastern Standard, which is one of our favorite places. We snagged two seats at the bar and ordered up some drinks. Not only was it his birthday, but it was also the start of my very long “staycation”.

We had a delicious meal of a pork dish, steak frites, bone marrow and oysters. Finished off with some birthday bread pudding and we pretty much rolled ourselves out of the restaurant 😉

We woke up on Christmas Eve and both had a bunch of things to do- he was picking up his new car (so funny we both got new cars right around the same time!) and I had to get my new watch fixed and pack for Maine. I listened to Christmas music the whole way and totally got in the mood- match that with some bubbly and a Christmas apron and I was full on festive!

Every Christmas Eve we throw a little party- we make homemade pizza’s, dad makes his tourtiere, people bring lots of food and we drink plenty of bubbly. I didn’t take any photos except for food and one of me- classic- but we had a good crowd!

Christmas morning we awoke to crappy, rainy weather, but we made the best of it.

My parents got me some fun things like new rain boots, sweaters, hair products, a Veggetti and some other random things. My sister got me a sick Reebok jump rope, Kate Spade earrings and a 3 month Birch Box subscription- have any of you done that? Roberto totally spoiled me and got me a Michael Kors watch, a Fitbit, perfume and slippers- incredibly thoughtful!

On Friday, I hit up the gym and did Athena’s Chimney Workout followed by some supersets (will post them for you later!) before calling it a day. Athena- LOVED the workout! Post gym, I picked up RM at the train station and we did a few things before heading to my parents. We exchanged gifts (he got an LL Bean flannel! and he got my parents an Olive Tree adoption- more on that later) and had a delicious Cornish hen dinner.

We headed back to MA on Saturday and RM and I did some returns in the city, lunch at Granary Tavern and a quiet night in with reading and a movie. Our book club book this month is Unbroken- have you heard of it or read it? I’m not a fan of anything army or military related (I know- sounds crazy, but it scares me), but so far, I’m totally hooked on the book!

I was able to spend all Sunday at my apartment puttering, putting things away, cleaning and relaxing- it was wonderful! After an unseasonably warm run, RM and I went to Santarpios for dinner. He’s starting the Whole 30 diet/detox on January 1, so we are really living it up until then. I’m planning on doing that diet about 80% of the time.. we’ll see how it goes!

Andddd phew! If you made it, thank you. I had so many pictures to share! I will be announcing the Happy, Healthy, Fit challenge winners tomorrow- thanks to all of you who participated!! Also on the dock this week is a recap of 2014, looking forward to 2015 and maybe even a workout? I’ve got about 3 or 4 workouts lined up for you 🙂

Questions for you: How were your holidays? What was the best part? Have you read Unbroken? Are you on vacation this week? What are your New Years Eve plans?

Taking A Little Blog Detox

December 22, 2014December 21, 20142 Comments

Good morning, friends! I’m just popping in quickly to say that I’ve decided to take a little time off from the blog world this week. This has been a busy month and with the Happy, Healthy, Fit Challenge, I feel like I’ve been spending WAY too much time on social media. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been really enjoying the check-ins and pictures and sharing how I’ve been participating, but it has required me to be very active on social media which can be tiring!

So, with that said, I’m taking time this week to finish up with Christmas stuff, work, celebrating RM’s birthday and spending time with my family in Maine for Christmas. I’ve also been feeling in a bit of a rut with blogging lately and to be honest with you, I’ve been a little bored with my posts and it hasn’t been as fun for me as it usually is. And, let’s face it, if I’m not having fun writing my posts, they’re probably not that fun to read, right? I’m hoping that some time away will help to get some creative juices flowing and give me time to write about things that have been on my ever growing “blog post ideas” list. On top of that, I’m off from work until January 5th and I’m not teaching until January 3rd so it’s going to be a nice extended period of time off from my normal day to day stuff- I think I’m excited about it haha

But, before I take a blog vacation, I want to share some photo’s from the surprise party I threw for RM this past weekend. It has been in the works for almost two months now, so I am SO happy it was a success. it’s safe to say he was completely surprised and so grateful for the party! Big thanks to Athena for helping me pull off the surprise- I had her send me a fake email about getting to host a party at the Social in Newton and it totally worked! There ended up being over 30 people there ranging from home friends to family to work friends to some of my friends and even my parents! What a great party it was. (and, my gym friend, Jen, randomly showed up which was a fun surprise!)

I hope you all have a wonderful week and holiday- sending you well wishes for this week!

Questions for you: When’s the last time you detoxed from your normal day to day life and activities? Is there anything you want to see more of or less of on the blog? Have you ever thrown a surprise party?

Happy, Healthy, Fit Challenge: Week 3 (Final Week!)

December 21, 2014December 19, 20141 Comment

Hello, hello! Can you believe we are entering into our LAST week of this challenge?? For me, the past 3 weeks FLEW by… I literally cannot believe Christmas is in just a few days.

In case you’ve missed the other weeks of the challenge, you can find them here:

Happy, Healthy, Fit: Week 1

Happy, Healthy, Fit Challenge: Week 2

Happy, Healthy, Fit Challenge: Week 3

Here are the 3 final challenges for the week and series:

*Monday 12/22: Go to bed 15 minutes early. At this point in December, I’m sure you’ve had plenty of weekend parties and after work get togethers and are generally pretty beat. For this challenge, all I ask is that you go to bed 15 minutes earlier than you normally do. I am REALLY looking forward to this!

*Tuesday 12/23: Plank challenge. Planks are one of my favorite core exercises because they target so many muscles and increase your general core strength, balance and stability. I posted this plank workout a few weeks ago (Wednesday Workout: 4 Minute Plank Series {Video}), so if you tried it then, it’s time for round 2 today 🙂

Remember that there are always modifications and you can do the planks with your knees on the ground, you can do an elevated plank on a coffee table and if you’re looking for a more advanced option, try lifting a leg!

*Wednesday, 12/24: List 5 things you’re thankful for. I’m really looking forward to this challenge and to see what you’re thankful for. This time of the year is full of so many crazy things that can cause us to be stressed and overwhelmed and to lose sight on things that make us happy, that we are thankful for and that we couldn’t live without. So, I ask you to share 5 of those things with me!

Have fun- finish the challenge strong with me 🙂

Burpees to Bubbly

Because good workouts deserve bubbly rewards!

Month: December 2014

2014 In Review

Happy, Healthy, Fit Challenge: Recap & Winners

I’m Back!

Happy, Healthy, Fit Challenge: Week 3 (Final Week!)

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