Good morning! As I mentioned on Monday, not only do I still workout, but I have so many of my recent workouts to share with you. I love that I’ve been able to try out the workout for myself so I can: a. see if they’re hard enough, b. see if they work/flow/etc, c. give you tips/suggestions and d. let you know how long they take me. These days, unless I’m posting something I’ve taught, you can rest assured knowing that you can be done (including warm up and cool down) in about 30-45 minutes. This workout is no exception to that as I did it the other day during my lunch break. I did a quick 5 minute warm up and then busted this out and left super sweaty and super tired.
Month: March 2015
San Francisco Recap {Part 3- Final One!}
Here is my third and final recap post of my recent trip to San Francisco! If you missed the others, you can find them here:
San Francisco: Part 1 Recap
San Francisco Recap: Part 2 {Wine Country!}
Sunday was such a great day in San Francisco- the weather was gorgeous (again), Kelly didn’t have to work and we didn’t have any “real” plans… the day was ours for whatever we wanted 🙂 All of us woke up pretty early and decided to head out on the 2 mile trek to have breakfast at the Buena Vista Café to indulge in some of their famous Irish Coffees. While I’m not a coffee drinker, nor am I a whiskey drinker, I have to say that these Irish Coffees were ahhhmazing!
I went simple with breakfast, which is usually how I like to start my day.
After we finished eating, I played tourist on the trolley and then we walked up the steepest road I’ve ever walked on in order to get to the top of Lombard Street.
I Still Workout! {a glimpse into my workouts these days}
Hello there! Happy Monday 🙂 How was your weekend? Mine was great- quiet Friday night in, fun class Saturday morning, lunch with some of the Shapleigh Girls, sausage making, an OUTDOOR run, and some Sunday night couch time. Can’t really complain about that, right?
As Mondays have always been my fitness-focused blog post day, I thought I’d check in with you today with an update of my workouts lately. I like talking fitness with you guys on Mondays because not only does it help motivate me to get on track for the week, but also because I hope it serves as motivation for YOU and your workouts for the week. With busy schedules, it can be all too easy to replace your workouts with a cocktail hour outing, but I honestly believe if you take the time to schedule your workouts into your busy days, you’re far less likely to skip them… amiright?? So, with that said, let’s talk about what I’ve been doing lately!
As I mentioned before, at the start of 2015 I decided to change up my workouts. I am not teaching as many classes as I have in the past, which means I have more time to play around with my weekly workout schedule and types of workouts. Let me tell you this: I’m LOVING it. I have been having SO MUCH FUN working out this year and have really been enjoying all the variety I’ve added into my workout “program”. Although the month of February did have a lot of shoveling replacing my normal workouts (don’t get me wrong- shoveling is an incredible workout, but it got old week after week!) and at-home workouts replaced gym workouts, I still did my best to stay as active as I could and keep my workouts as interesting as I could.
Workouts I’m Loving Lately
I feel like I go through phases with my favorite workout formats, pieces of equipment, etc. What’s fun about this is it keeps things interesting and it challenges me to come up with different variations of an exercise, format or way to use different pieces of equipment. Here are some things I’m loving lately:
- Kettlebells! I can’t get enough of these lately. I use them for total body workouts, upper body workouts, lower body workouts, cardio blasts… they are such a versatile piece of equipment and I love finding new ways to use them.
San Francisco Recap: Part 2 {Wine Country!}
In case you missed my part 1 recap of my recent girls trip to San Francisco, you can read it here.
I went to bed on Friday night dreaming of our Saturday in wine country. The last time (and only time) I went to wine country I was all hopped up on Vicodin due to a broken elbow just a day before my trip. Let me just put this on record: wine and Vicodin together are not a good idea… just trust me on that!
We woke up early on Saturday since our driver was due to pick us up at 9am. Since the girls had blow out appointments, I headed out on a short 2.5 mile run. The humidity seemed terrible (probably because I’m so used to the super dry weather here in Boston) and the hills were not my friend. But, I did feel so much better after I did it!
Shortly after 9, we were all settled in with bagels and bubbly and en route to Sonoma. How cute/amazing are these little mini cans of bubbly?! I’m obsessed- thank you for introducing me to them, Kel!!
The car ride there was so fun- we played trivia with the driver, sang to T.Swift and got to know each other better. Three of Kelly’s friends joined us (Heather, Kim and another Amanda) and they were a super fun addition to the group! Our first stop was Scribe Winery since Kelly is a member and could get free tastings for everyone. Although the morning fog was still present, by the time we left, it was beautiful, warm and sunny. And, let’s face it- the wine still would’ve tasted just as good had the fog not worn off 😉
I don’t know about you, but starting my day with a wine tasting at 10:30am was pretty fun. The wines here were my favorite and I ended up buying the Rose. I also loved that they put out snacks for us 🙂
Solid first stop!
Once we finished, we went to the Sonoma Cheese Factory to pick up sandwich lunches for our next stop at Nicholson Ranch. They let us set up shop at an awesome table in the sun with some pretty gorgeous views.
We did a 6 flight wine tasting and the wines were really good! Nothing that I wanted to buy and send back, but still very tasty.
I mean, do you think we could’ve asked for nicer weather? I don’t. Nope, it was pretty perfect.
Kelly’s friend, Kim, is a member at Rutherford Hill Winery, so we headed to Napa for our final tasting (she gets 4 free tastings as part of her membership!). I didn’t take any pictures while we were there, but it was so fun! We ended up getting a couple of bottles of the Pinot Grigio and hanging out at the picnic tables with some mutual friends who live in San Francisco, too (they ended up being in Napa for golf, so we texted the crap out of them to come meet up with us!).
On the way back to San Francisco, we made an obligatory stop at The Fremont Diner to share some of their famous Salted Caramel Milkshakes.
And yes, they tasted just as good as they sound… if not better!
The rest of the ride can be summed up by this picture… the end of wine country day… enough said:
Once we got back to the city, we changed quickly and headed back to Fillmore Street to have some much needed dinner (we drank A LOT of wine throughout the day!) at Palmers. Apparently they are known for their burgers, but I opted for meatballs (surprise, surprise) and Brussels Sprouts.
Our last stop for the night was at Mauna Loa, but none of us lasted long at this point.
To be honest, I’m not sure how we lasted until 11pm after the day we had!
What an amazingly fun day- thank you so much for organizing, Kelly! And, for sharing your friends, who are now our friends (because they’re super awesome!) 🙂
Questions for you: Have you ever been to wine country? What’s your favorite type of wine? Do you like milkshakes?
Wednesday Workout: 20 Minute Kettlebell AMRAP Workout
Hi! I’ve got a great workout to share with you today. I did it yesterday when I went to the gym during my lunch break and it literally kicked my butt! In a good way, of course 😉 I was huffing and puffing throughout the exercises and rounds and felt entirely spent by the end- a sign of a good workout, right?
One thing I want to challenge you to do if you try this: GO HEAVY your weight selection. Of course, I don’t want you to injure yourself by choosing inappropriately heavy weights, but if you don’t feel tired when you complete the number of reps listed out for each exercise by the time you finish them, it’s probably a sign you’re stronger than you think you are and can increase your weight. I promise- you won’t get bulky (more on that in a post to come!).
I used a 16kg (about 35 lbs) weight for the swings and half of the burpee/upright rows and used a 12kg (about 26 lbs) weight for all the other exercises. By the end of each exercise, I was tired and out of breath and was happy it was time to switch because I didn’t know how many more reps I could do! Because of the challenging weight choice (for me, anyway), I was only able to get through 3 rounds, but I was happier with 3 rounds where I really felt challenged than 5 where I felt like I could’ve kept going. But, to each their own!
Burpees to Bubbly 
