Month: June 2015

Weekending: Decking it, #StreetSweat workout, Date night & SoulCycle

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Good morning! Lots of fun things to recap from the weekend, so let’s get right to it, shall we?

On Thursday night, RM and I met up to go for a walk after work. We hadn’t seen much of each other over the week so we figured that catching up and getting in some movement was a way to kill two birds with one stone! We love going for walks together and it was such a nice night! Piers Park is so pretty.

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After work on Friday, I treated myself to a pedicure. I got a funky mint-green color (forget the name!) and wasn’t sure how I was going to like it but I actually love it!

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Once I got home, I poured myself a glass of vino (rose- my fav these days!) and headed out to the back deck to enjoy my little urban oasis. My friend Jess got me this cookbook/entertainment book for my birthday and I’m loving it so far!

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Have any of you read it? Not long after I settled in, RM stopped by and joined me for a drink before heading to his place to make fish tacos. We thought we had frozen some corn tortillas, but we were wrong so we enjoyed them sans tortilla. Still delicious!

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Saturday I headed over to Chestnut Hill for the #streetsweat workout event lead by MOVE Fitness. In case you missed my initial blog post, check it out here. And don’t forget to enter the giveaway! I’ll pick the winner on Thursday morning. Back to the workout- it was really fun! At first I didn’t think it was going to be my type of challenging, but Ron and Sabrina did such a great job showing more advanced options as well as less advanced options so that everyone felt good during the workout. I ended up working really hard and felt it the next day. We did all sorts of fun things with the heavy sand balls, bands and our own bodyweight.

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It was also great to workout with- and meet!- Lexi (Lexi’s Clean Kitchen), Rachel (Healthy-Chicks) and Michelle (Sunshine & Superfoods). Lexi had to leave the workout early to get set up for her table inside Lululemon, but here’s a post-workout pic of Rachel, Michelle and me!

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We all headed into Lulu to try out some f the goodies that Lexi brought- 2 words: Holy.Yum! I can’t wait to check out her cookbook when it comes out next year!

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(We were also given free samples of Juice Press juice and this one tasted just like a watermelon!)

After the event, I met my friend Jessi in the city for lunch at Granary Tavern and then we swung by our friend Amanda’s apartment in the North End. No pics, but it was such a fun little afternoon! Finally, my Saturday ended with a date night with RM- something we hadn’t done in Boston in forever!

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We went to Island Creek Oyster Bar first and enjoyed some drinks and oysters, but ultimately decided we were in the mood for Eastern Standard. It was incredible- even at the prime time in Boston on a Saturday night we found seats at the bar right away at both places. It’s like they were waiting for us 😉 At ES we shared a salad, fried calamari and a lamb sausage pasta bake.

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Sunday morning started with a fantastic bunch of healthy pancakes.

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After, I met my sister at SoulCycle for the 11:45am class. It was a FULL room and the energy was amazing. It was our first time having a male instructor and I have to say that James L. was amazing!! He was so energetic and motivating and he had some really good dance moves at the front of the room- I would catch myself just watching him a few times!

To end out the weekend, I went to RM’s mom’s house for Sunday dinner and, per usual, it was delicious. I walked in and said it smelled delicious and asked what she cooked and she laughed saying it was sauce, duh. How silly of me!

All in all, despite the weather being less than perfect (ok New England, what’s with these rainy/cloudy weekends and perfect weather during the week?!), it was a really great weekend! Can’t wait to head up to Maine for the 4th this weekend!

Questions for you: What was the best part of your weekend? Do you have outdoor space to enjoy in the summer? What’s your ideal “date night”? Do you like male or female instructors better?

Post-Vacation Workouts: How I got back on track

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Hi there! I hope you all had a great weekend 🙂 A few weeks ago I wrote about how you can workout while you’re on vacation, which I think is an important thing to remember.  But, even though I stayed pretty active during my vacation, it wasn’t a piece of cake getting back into the full swing of things. Although I was excited to get back into the gym and lifting weights since all I had done was quickie bodyweight workouts for nearly 2 weeks by the time I got home, it was hard because nothing felt easy!

I knew to drop down on my weight and start slow (um, hello, I wanted to be able to walk the next day), but the workouts still felt so much harder than normal, and left me way more sore than usual- a very humbling experience, that’s for sure! But, having to take a step back in my fitness progress ended up being a nice change of pace and a nice reminder for how far I’ve come since I first started seriously working out. There were some things I did to help the transition from quickie, bodyweight workouts to more intense, strength training workouts and I wanted to share those with you since I’m sure I’m not the only one who has faced some struggles getting back into the groove after a bit of a workout hiatus.

3 Tips for Getting Back On Track With Your Workouts After A Vacation/Hiatus

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Free Fitness This Summer: Street Sweat {& a sweet giveaway!}

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Disclaimer: I was provided a gift card from The Street in exchange for this blog post. All thoughts and opinions are my own- I would only share events I think you’d enjoy and this is definitely something I want to spread the word about!

What’s better than outdoor workouts in the summer? FREE outdoor workouts in the summer, of course! I don’t know about you, but in the summer months, I just want to be able to workout outside. Living in New England, we are cooped up inside for so many months due to the cold and snowy weather, so once we have nice weather, I really hate being in the gym and look for ways to achieve a great workout while being outside as much as possible.

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(Photo provided by The Street)

Which, is why I’m excited to share with you some details on LOTS of free workout events located at The Street in Chestnut Hill throughout the summer. They call this fitness series “Street Sweat”, which I think is a super clever name!

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(photo from the Street Sweat page linked throughout this post)

The fitness events range from yoga to bootcamps to cardio resistance and also take place at various times throughout the day and week, which means you’re sure to find a “Street Sweat” workout that fits your schedule and workout preference. In case you don’t believe me, just check out this schedule… pretty impressive, right?! Here’s a sample:
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Wednesday Workout: Quickie 20 minute body weight AMRAP

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Hi! I’m popping in this morning to share a quickie workout I did while I was in Maine a few weekends ago. When I got up, I got changed right into my workout clothes but just wasn’t sure I was really feeling a workout. This rarely happens to me, so I decided to just go with it and if I decided to workout later, great. If not, great. I ended up offering to vacuum and mop for my parents, which, in a 3,000 sq. foot house is quite a workout in and of itself! I loveeee those types of active chores so even though I was helping my parents, I was really helping myself get more movement in 😉

However, after I finished cleaning I found myself feeling more motivated to get a little workout in. The sun was shining and I had the privilege of working out outside in private, so I came up with a quickie 20 minute body weight AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) workout that left me sweaty, newly tanned and sore the next day. Win, win, win in my book!

20 minute AMRAP body weight workout
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I ate a real cheeseburger… white bun and all…

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“I’ll have a ground turkey burger, no cheese and no bun, please”

Umm. No thank you. While that was something I maybe ordered once in my life years ago when I had some food issues, these days I’ll take a real beef burger, with cheese and with a bun, thankyouverymuch. A cheese burger isn’t something I eat on a weekly basis, so when I have the opportunity to eat one, I want it to be good. Real good. And to me, that’s accomplished when you use good, organic, grass fed beef, a nice strong cheese and a simple bun.

Over the weekend, RM and I grilled on my back deck and when I was going to the store to get the necessities, he specifically requested “those white buns, the cheap ones, with sesame seeds on top.” Granted, my first thought was “you’re kidding me, right?!”, because standard, basic, “cheap” white bread is not something we generally eat, but I have to say- it made for a pretty fantastic burger.

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The thing is, when you get all fancy with a super big, bulky, non-white roll, it generally ends up taking over the lead role (I initially wrote ‘roll’… subconscious pun intended??) in the dish. No offense to all you bun lovers out there- I want the meat (and cheese!) to be the start of the show. That’s what I’m most looking forward to when I have a burger. And even though that’s the case, it doesn’t mean I am about to order a bunless burger because where is the fun in that?! I often pick off the extra bread/roll for my burger, but there’s something to wonderful about grabbing a bunned burger and taking that first bite. Summer perfection, in my eyes! Served with a side of corn, pasta salad and/or chips and I’m pretty darn happy 🙂

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If you’re interested, here’s the “ingredients” list for the burgers we made over the weekend:

  • 1lb. organic, grass fed beef (ours was Angus and delicious)
  • 1/2 small onion, chopped very small
  • 1/2 chopped red pepper, chopped very small
  • garlic powder, salt & pepper, oregano and/or any other herbs/seasoning you prefer- to your liking (a few shakes for each is what I did)
  • 8 slices of block pepperjack cheese
  • 4 hamburger buns (we used standard Shaw’s brand white sesame seeded buns, but feel free to go a healthier route if you want!)

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Chop your pepper and onion and use your hands to mix the beef with the veggies and herbs/seasoning. If you want big burgers, create 4 equal size patties and grill ’em up! I ended up making 6 smaller size ones and we froze 2 so that we could have them on hand for the next time we wanted a spur of the moment burger.

Questions for you: Do you like cheeseburgers? Do you prefer fancy rolls, simple white rolls or no rolls? What’s your favorite thing to grill?