Month: October 2015

Five On Friday

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Good morning! Popping in today with a random post, but hopefully you’ll enjoy it!

  1. I have to say I am really not enjoying the wedding planning process so far. Is that bad? Please tell me I’m not the only one who finds it more stressful than fun. I’m hoping it’s just because we haven’t locked down a venue or date yet and that once we do those things everything else will fall into place and be more fun. Right? Right??? I will say, though, that I find myself day dreaming about the moment I start walking down the aisle and lock eyes with RM. I cannot wait for that, as well as being husband and wife. THAT’S the fun stuff 🙂

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2. At the age of 30, I finally have no desire to dress up for Halloween. It feels good to let that go and just be able to carry on per usual, oh, and see RM’s nephew dressed up and go trick or treating because THAT is going to be adorable!

3. We are so thankful to have so many wonderful friends and such wonderful family who have sent us engagement cards and/or bubbly. One can never have too much bubbly. Ever.

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4. I had a one on one training session last night and I felt challenged, humbled, but also inspired. I lifted much heavier than normal and I loved it! More on that later 🙂

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5. We don’t go out to eat very often during the week since we both enjoy meal planning and prepping and eating healthy even when we are busy (not to mention it saves money!), but when RM texted me on Wednesday as I was leaving the gym asking if I wanted to pick up sushi or pizza, I was totally on board. It was such a treat swinging by Max & Leo’s on my way home to pick up the pizza RM had ordered. If you haven’t had their pizza, GO AND GET SOME!!!

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Questions for you: Tell me something random! Try any new workouts or gyms lately? What was your favorite thing about wedding planning? Least favorite? What’s your favorite pizza place? What’s going on this weekend? Best part of your week?

Wednesday Workout: 10 Minute Bodyweight Hotel Room AMRAP Workout

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Good morning! As I mentioned on Monday, while I was in Milwaukee last week, I took advantage of traveling alone and was able to get in a few good workouts. One of those, was in the comforts of my hotel room, which makes it so easy to just roll out of bed and get started!

What I love about bodyweight workouts is that if you pair the correct exercises together, you can create a workout that challenges you and leaves you sweaty in no time! Just 10 minutes, in this case 🙂

Another piece of this workout that I liked was that it wasn’t a boring “10 reps, 4 rounds” or “10 reps each, AMRAP 10 minutes”. Rather, each round you will be decreasing the number of reps by 1, so you do 10 reps the first round, 9 the second, 8, etc. I got through 5 full rounds in 10 minutes and was on my 4th when the timer went off.

10 minute bodyweight hotel room amrap workout

Some housekeeping notes:

  • Lunges- can be forward or reverse, but just make sure to do the # of reps on each leg, so 1 lunge right and 1 lunge left = 1 rep
  • Push-ups- can do these on your knees, toes or do hand release push-ups
  • Plank w/knees to chest- 1 right knee and 1 left knee= 1 rep. Make sure to keep your shoulders, wrists and elbows in line and keep your butt down. Focus on squeezing the core to bring the knees in.
  • Burpees- you can add the push-up at the bottom, you can drop your chest to the ground, you can step back- options are endless!
  • Standing oblique dips- try and get your elbows to touch your quads every time you dip from right to left.

And, if you want a hyperlapse speed video to show you the moves, check this out https://instagram.com/p/9LgUWYvW-c/?taken-by=burpeestobubbly 😉

Questions for you: Do you ever workout in your hotel room? What’s your favorite bodyweight exercise?

NBGNO: Knock Out Cancer

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What a treat it was to have TWO NBGNO events in just a few weeks. In case you missed my last recap, you can find it here. Other recaps from prior girls night out events can be found here, here, here, and here. I can’t believe I’ve been lucky enough to attend so many of these events!

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The October NBGNO event was one of the best ones I’ve attended to date. Obviously I loved the workout since cardio kickboxing is my jam, but more than that I loved the total girl power radiating throughout everyone all night. As October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, the theme of the workout and night was to “knock out cancer”. Unfortunately, all too many of us have some sort of connection to cancer and events like this are just one more way to raise awareness for this terrible disease. New Balance has had a partnership with Susan G Komen for 26 years at this point and has raised MILLIONS of dollars for the Susan G Komen foundation, which is just incredible. After our workout, Dr. Priscilla Brastianos spoke about her work in the field of cancer and all that she has done over the years to try and cure cancer. Not only has breast cancer taken her grandmother’s life, but also her mother’s life, so she is channeling those feelings and losses into finding a cure.

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Sherri, from Fun Fit Flavor, was the emcee for the night and spoke of her sister, who was diagnosed with breast cancer over a year ago. I remember her talking about her sister last year and was so happy to hear about all of the wonderful and positive strides her sister has made over the past year.

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One of my biggest takeaways from both Dr. Brastianos  and Sherri’s talks was the role exercise and healthy living plays in cancer, treatment and recovery. Regular exercise & healthy eating reduces your risk of getting breast cancer by 20% (!!!), which is pretty amazing. And it doesn’t have to be anything crazy- making small, healthy changes is a great place to start, which is part of the reason why I love these NBGNO events so much. They are suitable for ALL ages, shapes, sizes and fitness abilities and truly leave you feeling so inspired to live a healthier life. You CAN workout AND have fun with your friends… and maybe refuel with a little bubbly afterwards 😉

Workouts for this event were lead by the fantastic Eliza Shirazi, creator of Kick It By Eliza®, and Susan Reardon of Reardon Wellness (Both teach at The Club by George Foreman III). Eliza and Susan each taught a quick 20 minute workout, allowing us to workout with both of them. I enjoyed both workouts, but I have to say Eliza’s was more my speed- her energy was contagious and it had the same type of intensity that I have in my classes, so I was totally in my element!

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It was REALLY cool kickin’ it in Copley Square! Post workout, we headed back into the New Balance store for some delicious apps and smoothies from Thirst Juice Co.. They always have a bar set up with seasonal cocktails as well as beer and wine, but I opted to just drink water and smoothies this time… I know, who am I?!

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It was great getting to catch up with blogger and gym friends, too!

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My sister was able to join me which was fun because we love fitness and food dates!

Per usual, we walked away with some awesome swag: little gym bag, awesome dry fit NB t-shirt and coupons. I wore the shirt on a run the next day and loved how comfortable it was, not to mention the bright pink color 😉 I see this quickly becoming a favorite!

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All in all, NBGNO events went out with a bang this year and I can’t wait for them to start back up next year!

Questions for you: How much exercise do you try to fit in per week? Do you do anything for breast cancer awareness month?

 

Weekending: Review through pictures

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Good morning! Did you guys have a good weekend? We sure did- here’s a glimpse 🙂

  • I had to go to Milwaukee Thursday-Friday, which was a really nice trip. I wasn’t sure Milwaukee would be anything that exciting, but I have to say I really loved the little city! It was a much quieter city than I’m used to, but it was still really cool! I stayed right downtown and was within walking distance to the river walk and lots of cool restaurants and shopping.

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  • I made sure to get in workouts while I was gone, too 🙂 One strength one and then one quickie bodyweight hotel room workout one- I’ll share both with you soon!

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Hotel room bodyweight workout

  • I met my sister at a new restaurant in Watertown called Branch Line. It’s right near her new office and close to me, plus the owners of Eastern Standard (one of my favorite Boston restaurants) started it so I couldn’t wait to try it out. The verdict? LOVED IT! We only got drinks and their fried cheese bites, but the whole experience was very good and RM and I plan on going back for dinner since their menu looked intriguing!

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  • RM and I ended up going to Stellina for dinner which was where we went to dinner the night we got engaged! The food was great, although I didn’t take any pictures 😉
  • Saturday we lounged in the morning. It was weird to be around with no plans AND no teaching. Rather than rushing out for the gym, I decided to hang around and get all my house chores done first. We had people over on Saturday night so I wanted to prep the chili and dessert and clean/pick up. I finally went to SoulCycle for a 1pm class. It was a good class, but not the hardest I’ve been to, or as much of a party as SC usually is. Oh well!
  • I had time to relax when I got back so I caught up on Greys anatomy while sharing a beer with RM.

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  • Our dinner party was a blast! I made a sweet potato turkey chili which was a hit, a cheese and prosciutto board, guacamole and a batch of these delicious Paleo Pumpkin Bars. I added in chocolate chips and pumpkin spice chips and they came out SO GOOD! Along with these treats, RM’s sister-in-law Emily brought a tasty apple crisp and Amanda brought a fantastic brie/pecans/craisin ball. Oh, and lots of wine 😉

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  • Sunday we made our way to NH to go look at another venue and while we liked it, we were kind of turned off by how far lodging was from the venue so I’m not sure we will pursue it further. Oh well.
  • We were staving when we got back so we heated up chili and other treats from Saturday night and had a medley sort of lunch. While RM watch/snoozed through the Patriots game, I whipped up some lemon blueberry muffins from his Practical Paleo cookbook (we are trying to incorporate more paleo-like meals these days). They came out pretty good!

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  • After I finished my book/the Patriots game was over, I coerced RM into going to Marshall’s and Target with me. We are on the hunt for a new dining room table and living room chair and I wanted him to see some of the things I was digging. Love this table from Target:

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  • Although I was really craving pizza or something like that, we opted for a healthier dinner and had chicken thighs, kale, mashed sweet potatoes and butternut squash and for some reason, everything came out SO GOOD. Nothing fancy, but so tasty. (I snapped a pic halfway through).

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All in all, a great weekend filled with friends and family, relaxation and productivity. Oh, and wine. Definitely wine 😉

Questions for you: What was the best part of your weekend? Have you tried out any new restaurants? What’s the coolest city you’ve traveled to? Did you get in any good workouts? Any good meals?

Wednesday Workout: At Home Dumbbell Workout Circuit

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Happy, happy Wednesday, friends! I tend to use Mondays and Wednesdays as my running days, but since I ran a 5K on Sunday, I decided to break out my weights at home and do a dumbbell focused workout instead. I ran the 5K in about 23:30, which is much faster than I normally run, not to mention I ran another 1.25 miles to get home, so I felt like I needed to give them a little break from running. Oh, and it was COLD on Monday so not having to bundle up was another reason for keeping my workout inside 😉

Once I was warmed up and started with the workout, I could tell I was more tired than I thought, so I took my time and took breaks as I needed to. It can still be hard for me to tone things down when I have a certain plan in mind, but I am getting better at listening to my body and slowing down when it feels like that’s what I need. Baby steps!

Anyway, this workout was done with dumbbells, but could easily be made into a bodyweight workout by changing up a few of the exercises or simply omitting the weights.

At home dumbbell workout

  • DB Front Squats- grab two weights and place the butt of each one on each shoulder. Stand with your feet wide enough to allow you to get deep into the squat, just make sure your knees and toes are in line to prevent knee injuries.
  • Weighted jump squats- you can either hold a weight in each hand or drop one and only hold one.
  • Push-up with walk-ups- As you can see in this video, you can either do the pushups on your toes or knees, depending on how you’re feeling on the particular day you do the workout. This is one of my new favorite moves!
  • I held weights for the lunge & taps, but you certainly don’t need to! I did not hold weights for the lunge hops.
  • Check out this video for the weighted supine extension

I think that should cover most areas of potential confusion, but let me know if you need more clarification on anything 🙂

Questions for you: When you workout at home do you prefer using weights or doing bodyweight exercises?