Month: March 2016

Five on Friday {3.11.16}

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Good morning! TGIF 🙂 I know everyone has been talking about the weather, but I mean, seriously?! I have 3 words for you: Soak. It. In! I hope you’ve all had a great week- mine has been fairly quiet… and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. I even had a day where I had nothing planned after work, which hasn’t happened in MONTHS (literally). It was so nice to be able to run some errands and still get home at a reasonable hour.

Let’s talk Friday things, though 🙂

  • Bagged kale- Kale is a serious staple at our house. Both of us eat a ridiculous amount of it, and while it’s easy to cook (we just season with salt, pepper, garlic powder and EVOO and then bake it), we both HATE preparing it when it comes to de-stemming it and washing it. I found this bag of organic pre-washed & cut kale at Whole Foods and decided to try it out. While I still had to pick through the kale pieces to remove stem pieces, I found the whole experience to still be faster than the traditional way and about the same price. Totally loving it!

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  • Veggie Teriyaki Stir Fry– Hummusapien has done it again! I whipped up a batch of her Veggie Teriyaki Stir Fry since we had cooked brown rice (I accidentally ordered it when we ordered sushi last week) and other veggies on hand and, per usual, it’s a huge hit. RM went back for seconds and thirds and couldn’t stop raving about it! We’ve eaten it plain, served over kale and shredded brussels sprouts and beneath an over-easy egg. There’s really no wrong way to eat it. GO MAKE IT!

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  • Box FIIT Certification– I am slowly but surely making my way through this certification. It’s proving to be a much bigger commitment than I really needed to be doing at this point in my life (with wedding planning and a new class on my schedule and everything else), but I’m really learning SO MUCH and am totally enjoying it. I just wish I was able to make more time for it so I could get it done quicker, but I still want to keep blogging and having some time to relax at night so I’m taking it slow.

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  • {Potential Spoiler Alert!!}Breaking Bad– Ok, I know we are WAY late to the party, but we have been plugging away at these episodes and seasons and it gets crazier and crazier. For those of you who watch it, am I the only one who doesn’t like Walt?! We just finished Episode 7 of Season 5 where he killed Mike, who I loved! I was seriously so sad 😦 and he was so mean to Jesse, who I also love. UGH!
  • Soaking up the sun– Wednesday’s weather was just TOO GOOD to not soak up, so instead of running after work/before teaching, I laced up and hit the pavement during my lunch break. I surprised myself with sub 8-minute miles and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the run… it felt so liberating to run in just a tank after so many layered clothing runs!

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And that does it! As for weekend plans, I’m getting together with my SMC girlfriends tonight, teaching tomorrow and then shopping all day with RM. I’m heading home on Sunday to do some serious wedding stuff with my parents.

Questions for you: How has your week been? What do you have planned this weekend? Did you get outside to enjoy the weather this week? Have you found any good new recipes lately? What’s a show you’re loving these days?

Wednesday Workout: 12 Minute Count Down AMRAP Workout

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Good morning! As much as I think 70* weather in early March is totally wack, I am pretty excited to hopefully run outside today!

If you’re planning on working out inside today, though, maybe you’ll want to give this a try. I had my fitties do this for the second half of my sweat-KICK class last week and everyone had positive things to say about it afterwards (even though I did get some serious glares while they were doing it 😉 ) so I figured it was worth sharing. Plus, I am ALL about short, but effective butt kicking workouts these days and this workout fits the bill for both!

All you need is a set of dumbbells- easy enough, right? And, if you’re looking for a longer workout, by all means set your timer for 15 or 20 minutes.

12 Minute Count Down AMRAP Workout

I think everything should be pretty straight forward, but please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions.

I hope you have a great day- get sweaty!

Questions for you: Do you take advantage of the nice weather by taking your workouts outside? What’s on your workout agenda today?

“I’ll Do My Best”

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Which is all anyone can really ask for, right? As a group exercise instructor, I have the ability to work with various fitness abilities, ages, injuries, etc., which is one of the reasons why I love my job so much. Every class is different which keeps me on my toes, making sure I am able to adequately teach, help and push everyone. Before my sweat-KICK class at Foster Fitness last week, I had a fittie (that’s what Meghan calls her members- love it!) come up to me before class and say that she knew she wasn’t good, but she was going to do her best and keep coming because she loves the class.

Of course my first response to her comment was to assure her that she was good and that I see improvements from her every class. As long as they are safely sweating, I don’t care if they’re not on the same lead or not able to keep up with all the combos- that will come with time and more experience in my classes.

What I loved about my brief interaction with her was that she wasn’t going to let anything like not getting the combos or not being able to do pushups on her toes get her down or stop her from coming. And, what I loved even more was hearing her say “I’ll do my best” because that is all I ever ask my members/fitties to do. We are all different and each day our bodies react to exercise differently based on how much sleep we’ve had, what we’ve eaten, how much stress we are under, etc., so I don’t ever ask them to be better than they were yesterday. I just ask that they do their best THAT DAY.

By going into a workout (or anything, really), with the mindset of doing our best rather than comparing ourselves to someone else or how we did something on another day, we are allowing ourselves to appreciate everything we can do. If my best one day is only running 2 miles or doing incline pushups or squatting 100 pounds, then what good does it do me to compare myself to someone who posted on Instagram their “awesome 5 miler” or “easing back into it with 150 pounds today” or even what I did last week? You’re right. It doesn’t do me any good. Rather, appreciating what you were able to do THAT DAY leaves you with a much better feeling, right? If you give it your all, no matter whether your “all” is more or less than your neighbor’s or what you’ve done previously, then you’re doing your best and that’s great.

So I challenge you to do your best today- whether it’s with a work project, participating in a meeting, getting to the gym or a class or anything else you may face. And even more, I want you to soak in the feeling of appreciating your best TODAY. Not yesterday or last week or even where you want to get. But your best today. Soak it in, give yourself a pat on the back and thank yourself for doing your best. Because at the end of the day, that’s all anyone can really ask of you.

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Photo credit: Janelle Carmela Photography

 

 

Weekending: Making Sausage & Pasta

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Good morning! Another weekend, come and gone- how come they go by so quickly?! This past weekend was a real treat on the food front- too good not to share!

Weekending….

I had an apt in the city after work and after that I met RM for a drink and some snacks, but not before enjoying my “to go” wine from my waxer:

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When I met up with RM, we ended up going to Nix’s Mate- I enjoyed a rose bubbly, he had a delicious beer and we ended up getting some oysters and shrimp since they were only $1 each!

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To help with my Box FIIT certification, I’m trying to get to more Box FIIT classes so I hit one up on Saturday morning. It wasn’t as hard as George’s, but it was still a great workout and I seriously cannot wait until I can start teaching my own classes!!

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I hadn’t seen my sister in almost 3 weeks so after class I met up with her and our other friend Amy for manicures in Southie. Amy and I ended up getting the same color and I love it!!

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The rest of the Saturday was spent at our friends Jessi and Chuck’s apartment doing all sorts of cooking. RM and I went to the north end and picked up the sausage and then headed over to their place to get cooking.

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We opted for 8 pounds of meat which ended up yielding about 35 decent sized sausages. RM also had the butcher grind it and season it (2 ounces of salt per 10 pounds of meat) to help save time. We decided to do 2 different kinds: regular and garlic/parsley/parmesan and I don’t know which one I liked more! The whole event was so smooth and seamless- we were all pleasantly surprised by how easy it was! In just a few hours we had loads of sausages to enjoy.

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And, if that wasn’t enough, Jessi and Chuck broke out their recipe for homemade pasta and sauce- umm hello deliciousness! Making pasta with the Kitchen Aid attachment was SO easy- RM was ready to go out and buy the adapter yesterday!

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Between the homemade sausage, which cooked in the homemade sauce and the homemade pasta, the meal was pretty freaking amazing!!

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We also played games and drank lots of vino while we waited for everything to cook. It was seriously one of the best Saturday afternoons we’ve had in a while… even though we were so exhausted by the end that we went to bed at 9:45 haha

Sunday started out with being up nice and early thanks to our early bed time so we ended up going back to the Deluxe Town Diner in Watertown for breakfast. Our breakfast looked very similar to how it did the last time we went there, only difference was that RM got an omelet this time.

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I love being up and out early- getting to Whole Foods at 9:15am on a Sunday was such a nice treat! Besides Whole Foods, I went to Target, cleaned the house and then RM and I went to LensCrafters to get new glasses. Since I still love my current glasses, I opted to go for an entirely different style so I can rotate between the two. I’ll show you a picture once we go pick them up. Later that day we went to visit his mom since she just got home from vacation. We had pizza and salad and it was perfect!

And that about does it! How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun or different? Did you get in any good workouts? Do you like boxing workouts? What’s your favorite breakfast item to order? Have you ever made sausage or pasta? What do you have going on this week?

Wednesday Workout: 3 Exercise AMRAP Circuits {w/a killer cardio blast!}

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Confession: I really haven’t felt like blogging this week. I don’t know what it is, but Monday night I had time and legit just chose not to. Well, I technically I just chose to spend my time working on my Box FIIT certification, but still. I had decided to just not blog anymore this week, but then after the class I subbed last night I decided I really wanted to share the workout that I taught with you guys, so here I am!

If you’ve been following B2B for a while, I’m sure you’re well aware that I love AMRAP (As many rounds as possible) workouts. I love them because you know how long you have to work which means you can push yourself however much you want. When teaching, I especially love this format because it allows for all levels in the class to work at THEIR level. There are some who are really advanced and love pushing themselves and then there are some who might be easing back into workouts or tired or sore and may not want to push themselves quite so hard. By giving my members the set exercises per circuit, they are able to go at their own pace and we still all finish at the same time. Win-win, if you ask me!

For this workout, the AMRAP circuits are 6 minutes long and there are 3 exercises per circuit: a lower body focused exercise, upper body focused and core focused. Between circuits we did a lovely little cardio blast 😉 If you’re running short on time you can pick just a few of these or skip the cardio or just do a few rounds of the cardio.

3 exercise AMRAP circuits

For everything that has a right or left, do the 10 reps on each side (or 20 reps for the cardio). Here are some explanations/clarifications:

  • Squat->lunge->squat- Stand with your feet a little wider than hips width (either with a barbell on your back or weights in your hands or holding a KB) and do one squat, then step the right foot back into a lunge and come back to center and do another squat. Repeat on the left and then right until you do 10 lunges on each leg.
  • SLDL= Single Leg Deadlift. Keep the standing leg knee soft as you hinge forward from the hips. Make sure you keep both hips facing the ground. If this is too hard you can do a standard deadlift.
  • Narrow squat & front raise- Stand with your feet hips width with light weights in each hand. As you sit back into your squat, with a neutral grip on the weights lift them up to shoulder level. By holding the weight out in front of you, it should allow you to get a little lower into your squat.
  • Plank w/shoulder taps- in a high plank, tap opposite hand to opposite shoulder, making sure to keep your hips flat and stable as you do so.

I think that should do it for exercises that might need a little explanation.

Let me know if you try this!