Month: September 2015

Wednesday Workout: 5 Minute Progression Bodyweight AMRAP Circuits

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Good morning! Thank you for all of your kind works on our engagement post yesterday! We are so excited about this next step in our relationship, but since this isn’t just a wedding blog, I wanted to pop in to share a quickie bodyweight workout that I did with my bootcampers last week. It was a workout that was able to be completed in about 30 minutes, which is always a good thing in my eyes!

The idea of increasing reps on one exercise in each circuit is loosely based off of the Metabolic Chain workouts a lot of my favorite fitness experts talk about often: Jen Sinkler, Neghar Fonooni, Jill Coleman and Jade Teta.

You’ll be increasing reps for the first exercise in each circuit (in a progression sort of way)- for instance, set the timer for 5 minutes and complete 2 push-ups, 5 pulsing squat/regular squat combos, 5 burpees & 5 sit-ups… then do the circuit with 4 push-ups, etc. Go as many rounds as you can in 5 minutes and if you work hard and fast (but always focusing on FORM over speed), you’ll be sweating and breathing heavy in no time!

5 minute progression AMRAP circuit
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The Journey Continues… {Spoiler: We are engaged!}

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In case you don’t follow me on Instagram or Facebook, I wanted to share some good news with you:

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That’s right! On Saturday, RM made me the happiest girl alive when he asked me to marry him!

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What started off as a normal Saturday consisting of teaching and getting my hair done, ended as one of the best days of my entire life! Let’s start from the beginning, though. All week we had made plans to go to KO Pies to celebrate our 2 year first date anniversary. The anniversary is actually this weekend, but RM will be away at a golf tournament so we decided to push it up to this past weekend. RM was actually the one to suggest the lunch time outing, which should’ve been the first hint that he had something other planned than just lunch 😉 Nonetheless, even with him continuously bringing up going to KO Pies on the weekend (which, he normally would have forgotten about after the first time it was mentioned since he doesn’t have a strong memory for plans like that 😉 ), I really never thought anything more than just an afternoon hanging out together. I actually joked as we were leaving the house that I couldn’t believe we were actually “on time” and that I got him away from renovations and other work around the house!

We laughed as we thought about how funny/awesome it is to have gone from a landlord/tenant relationship to a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship… little did I know we’d be changing our title soon enough 😉

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After a beer, we decided to order some food: Arugula salad & the Braised Lamb Shank Australian Meat Pie- as a floater (with mashed potatoes, mushy peas and gravy). Everything tasted so good and it was an all around great afternoon.

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We continued to hang out and have drinks- it was too beautiful not to, but after a while I started to get antsy and suggested we start making our next move. I really wanted 2 things: a cookie and to go to Assembly so we could do some shopping for the apartment. He had his typical “but Monique we are having such a good time here- good weather, conversations and drinks!”, but I had my head set and was ready to go so he helped me finish my drink and offered to get settle the tab. As he walked away, I reminded him about the cookie I wanted…

As he came back to the table, he had a funny smile on his face and was holding the cookie in one hand at his chest, almost like you’d hold open a book you were reading. I thought he was just making a joke and “presenting” the cookie to me… that is, until I looked down and saw the most beautiful, shiny ring on top of it. I think the first thing out of my mouth was “omg is this a joke?!”, because it was just so big and beautiful and I really thought he found a fake ring and wanted to play a joke on me. He continued smiling and laughed a little as he told me it was not a joke. I wish I could explain the type of smile and look on his face because as I think back to that moment, it just seemed like the happiest smile ever.

He then continued to say that he has absolutely loved the transitions we’ve made from landlord/tenant to boyfriend/girlfriend and that he wanted to make that next transition and asked what I thought about that and if I would like to marry him (and some other mushy stuff I’ll spare you with!). I didn’t respond for a little bit- not out of hesitation but because I was in such shock that I couldn’t speak! He asked again and I stupidly said “I do!” and realized that wasn’t the right thing to say and corrected myself by saying “yes, I will!”. And then we hugged and kissed and hugged some more until I finally put the ring ON. Oh, my, goodness. It is seriously the most beautiful ring and the exact one I’ve always dreamed of.

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Even though KO Pies was extremely busy, the way the whole thing was executed was very private which I appreciated. I may love being in front of classes and teaching, but when it comes to engagements I like privacy. RM said he was getting nervous about how he was going to do the proposal since it was so busy and I kept letting people share our table, haha. Luckily, my need for a cookie worked in his favor 🙂

From there, we went into the city to get some bubbly for more celebrations! We went to the rooftop bar at the Envoy hotel. On the way, we made all of the obligatory “we are engaged” phone calls- to my parents and my sister first and then his family. My sister won for the most amazing reaction. We facetimed and she was crying and just SO excited. Omg I loved it!

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I literally couldn’t stop smiling!

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After a drink, we decided to go back to our place and pop a bottle of Veuve that we had had in the fridge for a longgg time.

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We grabbed a late dinner at Stellina which is right in Watertown Square. Everything was amazing!

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I literally couldn’t sleep that night because I was so excited and couldn’t stop replaying the whole previous day in my head. I loved when RM finally woke up because he rolled over and asked how his fiancé was doing, which solidified the whole thing! We spent the morning having pancakes and hanging out before I went to get my nails done- totally necessary!

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The weather was gorgeous so we went for a nice long walk along the water. We talked a little about the wedding and both decided we don’t want a long engagement or anything crazy fancy. We just want a simple wedding with our friends and family because that’s what matters the most (oh, and the bubbly and dancing!).

IMG_2613My sister and her boyfriend stopped by later that afternoon before we went to RM’s mom’s house and they brought us champagne and a balloon and a super nice card. They were the first ones we saw and talked about the engagement in person and it was so fun to reminisce and go through the details with them!

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All in all, it was the most perfect day and proposal and I’m going to marry the perfect guy for me. I really feel so lucky and it has been such a fun couple of days. It’s so cute because RM is just as excited about it as I am- he is always asking to show me the ring and calling me his fiancé. Totally adorable. Thank you to everyone for all of your calls, texts and comments over the past couple of days. We feel so blessed to have the love and support of so many wonderful people in our lives.

 

Currently I’m Crushing On… (Part V)

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Hi there! I realized I had a few things that I’ve been enjoying lately so I thought it was the perfect time to do another post sharing those things. I always like when bloggers do these posts because there’s always something I “take away” and try out for myself- hopefully the same for you with some of these today!

  • Wrap-less “wraps”- We ran short on wraps a few weeks ago when we were making lunches for the beach down on the Cape so RM and I volunteered to go wrap-less and used the thicker cut turkey as the “wrap” and put the rest of the goodies inside. The verdict? We LOVED them and ended up doing it again recently. I realized that we didn’t really need the flour wraps since we always bring chip-like treats to the beach, too. For mine, I put a layer of turkey, then swiss cheese, then hummus and spinach and a little rice. RM layered all the deli meat his mom had bought, swiss cheese, hummus, mustard and spinach.

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  • High Buns- Now that my hair is longer, it’s so easy to whip up a quick little bun for the top of my head, which is perfect for the hot, humid days we’ve had this summer. My hair was just too big and curly and frizzy to leave down so twisting it up with just a simple elastic solved the problem!

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  • Arbonne Workout Supplements– Jessica Champagne was in touch with my mom back in Maine and when she found out that I was into health and fitness, she provided me with some samples and then contact me to discuss Arbonne products further (I wasn’t asked to do any sort of review or anything, I’ve just really been enjoying the products and wanted to share them with you). I’ve always been a fan of Arbonne products because their ingredient lists are really good. From Jessica’s intro page: Arbonne’s philosophies are PURE, SAFE, AND BENEFICIAL! Botanically Based, PH Correct, HypoAllergenic, No Animal Testing, No Animal By Products=VEGAN, No Mineral Oil, No Dyes or Chemical Fragrances, Many of Arbonne’s Herbs are Organically Grown in Swiss Alps above Pollution Line and Arbonne uses Pure Alpine Water. Jessica was sweet enough to offer to send me some Phytosport products, which I graciously accepted because I’m still on the hunt for the right pre/post workout supplements. I’m hesitant about supplements in general because I don’t like filling my body with weird stuff, but I have to say I am a big fan of these products so far. The number one thing is that they don’t have caffeine in them, which is really important to me since I don’t drink coffee or tea or anything with caffeine in it so it tends to make me jittery which isn’t good before or after a workout 😉

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I haven’t really used much of the “prepare and endure” or “complete hydration”, mostly because I forget about them, but I have been using the “after workout” supplement pretty religiously and love how well it hydrates me after my workouts.  From their site: “After Workout delivers an ideal (2:1:1) ratio of branched-chain amino acids that help allevi­ate exercise-induced muscle soreness to support recovery. A unique antioxidant from pomegranate helps combat free radicals created during workouts, while carbohydrates help support energy recovery.” Although there is a small amount of sugar listed on the ingredients list, the other ingredients fit a lot of the things I’m looking for. If you’re interested in learning more, I suggest contacting Jessica because she is very knowledgeable about Arbonne products.

  • Morning Runs- All summer I tried to run on Monday mornings in order to free up my nights. Although it’s never easy to get up and out the door for a morning workout (for me, anyway), I’m always so happy when I do it. The crisp fall mornings recently have been a nice welcome… and the running routes around our new apartment is not so bad 😉

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  • New Fall Booties- I made the mistake of going into TJ Maxx recently when I was in the mood to shop. $95 later and I walked out with a bag of goodies that I ‘needed’, including these beautiful fall booties. I just couldn’t NOT get these- they’re the perfect height, color and fit and I can see myself wearing them A LOT!

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  • Living with RM! I promise I’ll stop being mushy after this week 😉 I love when he leaves me little notes if he leaves before me:

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Questions for you: What are you crushing on these days? What fall fashions are you loving this year? Do you like any particular pre or post workout supplements?

Living with a guy- 2 week check-in

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Hello! As most of you probably know by know, my boyfriend (RM) and I moved in together exactly 2 weeks ago. I honestly had no idea what to think of living with a boyfriend since it was my first time. I was a little nervous, but those nerves went away as soon as we had our first night together in the apartment. I should preface this “check in” by saying that although we didn’t officially live together, I did spend probably 5 nights a week at his place and we’ve been on multiple weekend getaways and things like that, so my transition may have been a little easier than others. Still, regardless of how prepared we were for the change, change is change and can cause nerves at the beginning or leading up to said change.

The high level verdict? LOVING IT! We laugh all the time when we talk about how seamless that part of the move has been. The first night in a new place or with a new roommate can always feel a little weird, but I have to say- I felt NONE of that. It all just felt normal and right, which, in the midst of all the kitchen renovation chaos, was a really welcomed feeling 😉

When we get together with other people or talk to people in our offices, the topic of conversation generally goes like this:

  1. How did the move go?
  2. How is it living with RM/Monique?

Although the move wasn’t the easiest thing (just because we’ve been dealing with renovations), living together has been FUN. I joke that we’ve only fought once, which I consider a big win! And, the fight was only because I got mad that he conveniently went to his mother’s house to “drop a chair off”, which just happened to be at dinner time when his nephew and brother and SIL would be there while I stayed home and peeled layers of nasty contact paper out of the cabinets… I was not a happy camper, but after that little tiff we’ve been smooth sailing!

I think one of the best parts about moving in together is always knowing that we share a “home base”. There’s no more worrying about schedules that don’t align or packing up and living out of bags. We get up, go to work and regardless of what happens after work we know we are both coming home to the same house and that’s a really awesome feeling. RM said it best in a text when he said it feels like a calmness has come over the relationship.  I couldn’t agree with that statement more! I was so tired of packing up my breakfast, lunch, work clothes and gym clothes and being the ultimate bag lady. It was exhausting! And figuring out who was going to cook and if I needed to bring my own food over… there’s just none of that anymore and it’s great!

So far, I don’t think I’ve annoyed him that much and he hasn’t really annoyed me. I’m sure that will change soon enough, but for now we are happily living in the honeymoon romantic bliss as a result of the new move. We both pull our own weight around the house and work really well together on tasks, projects and general every day things so even once we are out of the honeymoon stage I think we are still going to have a lot of fun living together.

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I’d love to hear from you guys, though, if you live with or have lived with a significant other- what was the easiest part of that transition? Hardest part? Do you annoy your sig. other or get annoyed by them? How do you delegate chores like laundry and taking out the trash and grocery shopping?

Weekending: Home improvement is hard work!

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Good morning, friends! How was your weekend? This was the first weekend in a really long time where we were around ALL weekend, without many plans, too! It worked out really well since RM and I were really itching to finish home improvement projects and get more unpacked. Living in a half unpacked apartment for 2 weeks has been challenging, to say the least!

For those of you who may not know the whole story, no, we did not buy a home! We are renting a 2 bedroom apartment in a 2-family home that RM’s mother owns (she doesn’t live in it, in case you’re wondering 🙂 )and it really needed some serious updating. To help keep the costs down for his mom, we have taken on projects that we can do: painting, sanding, etc. Ideally, we would’ve done this BEFORE we moved in, but we didn’t want her to go a month without rent so we’ve been living and renovating at the same time. While it hasn’t been terrible, we are both really ready to be done the renovations and be fully settled in!

But, before we got to renovations, let’s talk about the weekend. I met up with RM in the city after work since it was such a gorgeous night (and because I had an appointment in the city at 6pm so it worked out great). We started at Vanderbilt (used to be The Vault) and then decided it was too nice to have drinks inside and went over to Sterling’s because they have a great outdoor patio.

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Once we got home, we decided to walk over to Buff’s Pub since it’s so close AND so good. I got a delicious Gyro-style wrap and RM got their famous wings. Both were delicious!

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After kickboxing on Saturday, I ran a bunch of errands, including a stop at Watertown Main Street Florist, where my friend Jen works on Saturdays. She hooked me up with a beautiful bouquet of fall-esque flowers. Thanks, friend!
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