Month: August 2016

Overcoming “Sunday Scaries”

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I don’t know about you, but Sunday’s used to bring me lots of anxiety. I “had” to do laundry, food shop, meal prep, pack lunches, pack my gym bag, clean, blog…. the list went on and on and unless I got all of those things done, I felt so stressed that I wouldn’t be prepared for the week. <– crazy, I know, but can any of you relate? It’s such a shame that I let so many weekends go by where my “Sunday tasks” would take over my entire day, leaving no room for anything fun.

It wasn’t until I started getting serious with RM that things changed. I realized that spending time with him- doing whatever that might be- was more important that making sure I had everything properly prepped and ready for the week. This wasn’t an entirely easy change to make and I can’t say I didn’t spend many Sunday nights stressed because I hadn’t gotten everything done and felt unprepared for the week, but over time those negative feelings went away and I was able to fully enjoy my Sunday’s all while not stressing about the start of the week.

I think part of this is because I realized that whatever I didn’t get done on Sundays could be done during the week or skipped all together. Didn’t have time to food shop or meal prep? That’s ok- I can always get lunch at work and RM and I can tag-team the meal prep later in the week. Wasn’t able to clean the house? The house will not be a horrible place to live if I don’t get the cleaning done. Laundry didn’t get done? There’s always time at night during the week- not ideal, but it can be done. No blog post written? Since this isn’t really a source of income for me, I’ve learned that I need to remove the stress associated with getting posts up- I know you guys will be around for whenever I am able to publish something so it’s not worth stressing about choosing to live my life rather than write about it 😉

Life will still go on if I don’t get my Sunday things in line, and realizing and accepting this has made a world of a difference in how I approach my Sunday’s. These days I just go with the flow- if we are on the Cape, I don’t feel the need to rush back because I’d rather spend it at the beach. If it’s a nice weekend here and we want to go into the city and hang out, I do what I can to make the week a little easier and fill in the gaps for the rest during the week so that we can enjoy our day. Realizing that I could “do what I can” was the best feeling in the world because even if I only have time to food shop, that’s enough to help take a little edge off the week’s to-do’s.

As I sat writing this post last night, I reflected on the weekend and felt so blessed. Friday night RM and I stayed in and made burgers, Saturday we bought bikes and then my family came down and we had a delicious dinner at the Social in Newton Corner, Sunday morning I went to church with my parents and after saying goodbye to them, spent the day with RM. We took our bikes for a ride to do some errands, we went to the pool, we went to Chestnut Hill to return some stuff, we went to The Cottage for an afternoon cocktail and snack, we food shopped and then I did a small meal prep. I was able to fit in all of my favorite things: family, sun, exercise, relaxation, etc. into my Sunday and not once did I feel the “omg it’s Sunday and I have so much to get ready for the week”. I don’t have a packed lunch, but that’s ok- I’ll just buy something today! I didn’t cleaning done, but it’s no big deal because soaking up these summer Sunday’s is just more important to me!

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I feel like I’ve rambled on, but I guess the point of this post that I’m trying to make is that life is too short to waste time and energy on “Sunday Scaries”. There will always be things on your to-do list that you will have wished you’d gotten to, but I’m willing to bet that living in the now and soaking up the moments that come about far outweighs your to-do’s that didn’t get done. So, rather than letting Sunday Scaries get the best of you, face them head on and live your day to the fullest! And do what you can throughout the week to chip away at your to-do’s- they’ll all get done eventually, but I promise that spending time with friends and family is going to create far better memories for you than a clean house and a fridge full of prepped food 😉

#BuffBride Training Plan {Review}

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I was all set to post another workout for you today, but when I went to grab the little piece of paper I had written it down on, of course it was no where to be found. This is my problem: I write my workouts on scraps of paper and leave them around the house everywhere (which absolutely drives RM crazy), so it’s really no wonder that I couldn’t find it.

But, even though I don’t have a workout for you today, I do have a review/recap of the #BuffBride training program/plan that my friend Athena created for me. I reached out to her back in May asking her if she’d be interested in writing something up for me to do for the month leading up to my wedding. I had no intention of going on any strict “bridal plan” or diet (more on that later), but more so I just wanted something to help me keep a bit of consistency in my workouts. I knew working out regularly- even with the added stress and wedding related commitments- was not my issue, but rather it was that I would just do random things pending my mood.

While this is fine, I wasn’t feeling challenged, inspired or any sort of change in my body/strength. Even though I knew I could create a plan for myself, I just didn’t want to. I create so many workouts for my classes that by the time it comes to my own workouts my brain and workout creativity has generally been depleted… #fitnessinstructorproblems. But! The beauty of being in this industry is that I have so many fitness friends at my finger tips to help give me inspiration and something new to try. Sometimes all you need to get your workout mojo back is to have someone plan the workouts for you, incorporating some of your favorite moves but also some new-to-you moves.

Athena did just that! Shortly before June 1st she gave my my 4 week training plan with 3 different workouts per week. While they were all upper-body focused, they did include some lower body and lots of core which was great because it kept me training those parts of my body, too. Workouts for weeks 1 & 2 were the same (again, consistency!), as were weeks 3 & 4.

I think my favorite part about the whole thing was that I didn’t have to plan my own workouts 😉 That, and that I was introduced to some new-to-me moves that I’ve consistently added into my training plan. The workouts didn’t leave me ridiculously sore- which is a good thing!- but I was able to really feel the workouts the next day… that sounds weird, but there is a difference between feeling really sore and just feeling like you worked out, haha. I also liked that I did each workout twice because I could try and increase my weights the second time around, which I did on most of the exercises!

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(week 1, week 2/3 and week 4- slight visible changes)

Going into this, I knew I wouldn’t necessarily see or feel any drastic changes because, let’s face it, one month isn’t really enough time for those types of changes to really show, but I was ok with that. Even though I wanted to look and feel my best on my wedding day, I knew that getting a little extra muscle or definition really wasn’t going to sway the image of myself very much. I love the way I feel and look and am so proud of all my body can do for me so even if I hadn’t done a #BuffBride training plan before the wedding, I still would’ve been more than happy with how I looked. But, I will say I did love seeing my muscles in the pictures… something definitely worked!

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All in all, I was really impressed with Athena’s training plan and could tell she had a method behind her madness, for a lack of better words 😉 Every exercise within each workout had a purpose and worked well with the other exercises for that particular day, clearly showing me that Athena really knows what she’s doing (but I knew that anyway, duh!). If you’re looking for a way to spruce up your workouts or want a little help achieving various fitness goals or if you’re just looking for someone to help with consistency, I highly recommend Athena! Thanks girlfriend!

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Wedding Photo Credit- the amazing Janelle!

Whole Foods Supplement Sale!

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Hi friends! Did you guys have a good weekend? I did! Short recap version: Friday night pizza on the grill night with RM, Saturday boxing at Everybody Fights with my coworker/friend and then pedicures, shopping with RM, heading up to Maine, rehashing/looking through wedding photos with mom & dad, birthday party, pool time & dinner at home. All in all, it was pretty great 🙂

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What I also got to do to kick off the weekend was check out the Lynnfield Whole Foods’ supplement section in preparation for their upcoming sale this weekend, 8/12-8/14. Similar to last year, they are offering 25% off all supplements and powders, which is a really incredible deal!

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To help promote the sale, they invited me in to speak with the Assistant Team Leader in the Whole Body department. Nick was incredibly informative and knowledgeable about the products that they sell. It was especially nice because he is also into health/fitness so a lot of the things I was asking about and products I was looking for were ones he was very familiar with so I really valued his suggestions.

In the end, I walked out with this loot:

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  • Vega Protein Powder– I’m a big fan of Vega products, so I was excited to hear that they created a new line for post workout recovery. I tried a packet after boxing on Saturday and it was delicious!
  • Renew Life Ultimate Flora Probiotic– RM has been trying to get me to take a probiotic for years, but it’s something I never think to buy on my own, so when I visited Whole Foods I made sure to ask Nick about them. He recommended this brand and I’m excited to see if I notice any difference in how my body feels when taking it.
  • Gaia Ashwagandha Root– Nick suggested this when I told him I’ve been pretty stressed lately because he said it helps to respond to stress better. In his words “it allows me to feel more calm when I start my day and whatever it is that’s stressing me out”. <– I’ll take that! What I liked about this brand is that there’s a barcode on the back so you can see exactly where the roots/herbs were grown.
  • Zyflamend- As we talked more about what I do on a day to day basis, Nick suggested this herbal pill to help with inflammation and pain relief. I’m interested to see if this will have any effect after hard workouts or if I’m feeling sore from something else.

All in all, I’m excited about trying out these supplements because they all seem like natural ways to help regulate various things in the body. I’ve never been good at taking anything regularly (vitamins, probiotics, protein powders, etc.), but I’m hoping that with these great products I can get into a better rhythm of taking them.

If you’re in the need for any sort of health & body supplements/herbs/etc. (protein powders, vitamins, probiotics, oils, etc.), I suggest heading over to Whole Foods (especially the Lynnfield one because that section is so big) and taking advantage of this sale!

Questions for you: Do you take any supplements? Do you take any vitamins? Post workout recovery assistance?

Whole foods graciously gave me these products to try, as well as a gift card to use at their store on a later date. All opinions- as always- are my own. I truly think this is a great deal worth sharing!  

Five on Friday {8.5.16}

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Hi friends! Happy Fridayyyy. Did you have a good week? Mine was filled with lots of different forms of fitness, time with friends and early nights with RM, so I can’t really complain 😉 I’m really looking forward to this weekend because I am heading home to Maine later in the weekend- I haven’t been home in so long so I’m excited to go home and relax and hang with my parents. With that, let’s recap some things of possible interest:

  • Seaport Sweat– The first night of the Seaport Sweat series was a sucess! I had a blast teaching outside to a group of mostly new faces- I was craving this exact sort of challenge in my teaching so this series worked out really well 🙂 If you didn’t make it last week, no worries! I’ll be there every Monday night at 6:30pm until the end of October (minus the 3 weeks I won’t be there because we will be on our honeymoon). You can sign up here if you’re interested in checking it out. Remember- it’s FREE… and they’ll have swag to giveaway soon, too!

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  • New Boxing schedule– GymIt in Watertown has made some significant changes to their schedule for the month of August. Instead of being there at 5:30 and 6:30pm for Bags & Beats on Tuesday nights, I’ll be there for just ONE class at 6pm. This actually works out well because August is a crazy month filled with lots of teaching so  it’s nice to drop my schedule down a bit.
  • FIT on the Garden– On Wednesday I had the chance to head over to the Prudential Center for a free yoga class on the Prudential greens. I was so happy someone from the Prudential marketing team reached out to me because otherwise I would’nt have known about this amazing outdoor free fitness series. There were SO MANY other yogis participating in the class and it was really freaking awesome getting to do yoga outside and look up and see a bright blue sky and the Prudential center. On top of that, they gave me a really sweet swag bag full of goodies like a gift card to Lulu, sweetgreens, Sephora and Flywheel- I felt so spoiled! If you’re looking for a new way to workout this summer, they’ve got classes every wednesday for the rest of the month.

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  • Kitchen/Food Storage Tip- If you’ve been reading B2B for a while, you know that RM and I love to prep food for the week. It’s something that saves us time throughout the week and ensures that we have good food at our fingertips. This week we attacked it a little differently- on Sunday I prepped everything (chopped veggies and put them in the dish they’d be cooked in and marinated the chicken) and then while I was in the city teaching on Monday, RM seasoned everything and cooked it. We were both big fans of this new proecss- it saved us time on Sunday and made Monday’s cooking so easy! And even better? we combined all of the veggies into 1 dish so that we didn’t have to have multiple different containers clogging up the fridge… and it’s less to take out when we are reheating them. Highly suggest doing this 🙂

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  • One Month! I can’t believe it’s been one month since we got married. Time flies when you’re having fun, right?! Even though planning a wedding was a stressful thing, I wouldn’t trade in any of it because the end result was so freaking amazing! Everything far exceeded our hopes and expectations and we would do it all over again in a heartbeat if we could 🙂

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And with that, here’s to the weekend! I’ll chat with you next week, hopefully with another wedding recap 🙂

Wednesday Workout: Jump Rope & Body Weight Circuits

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Good morning! I have a workout to share with you today that’s PERFECT for weekends where you’re away or if you’re traveling for work… or if you just don’t want to go to the gym 😉 All you need is a jump rope and your body, and if you don’t have a jump rope you can just pretend and do “air jump roping”- no biggie at all.

I created this workout a few weeks ago when it was a beautiful day and I didn’t want to go into the gym during my lunch break. I didn’t want to run because I had run the day before so I came up with a workout that got me sweaty while also allowing me to get a tan 😉 Bonus? It left me surprisingly sore for a few days. Wait, now that I think of it, it’s not really a bonus because I was actually really sore which wasn’t fun. I guess that’s what happens when you do high reps of exercises that you haven’t done in a while! Regardless, I liked the format a lot… and I think you will, too!

The way the workout works is that you’ll start each round of each circuit with jump roping. You’ll do 3 rounds of each circuit and you’ll decrease the number of jumps by 25 each round. So, for Circuit 1, you’ll do 100 jumps, 20 squats, 15 lunges, 10 push-ups and then for round 2 of circuit 1 you’ll do 75 jumps, 20 squats, 15 lunges, 10 push-ups. Your last round will only be 50 jumps.

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Otherwise I think this is fairly straight forward, which is how I’m tending to keep my workouts these days. SLDL= single leg deadlift if you’re not familiar with that abbreviation.

All in all with a warm up and cool down this workout took me about 40-45 minutes, which is longer than I normally spend on my workouts but considering it was body weight and not a TON of cardio, it felt like the perfect amount of time. You could shorten it by only doing 2 rounds of each circuit, cutting back on reps or only doing 2 circuits.

Let me know if you try this!