Month: July 2017

Wednesday Workout: 22 Minute Hotel Room Workout

Leave a comment

Good morning! I am on a blogging ROLL this week! Go me! 😉 Continuing with the theme of short, bodyweight, take anywhere workouts, today’s workout was a result of my recent work trip to Atlanta. Although it was a work trip, I was able to make it somewhat personal, too, by getting to visit with my sister-in-law and her husband since they live across the street from our hotel (and my SIL’s husband manages a restaurant that we got to check out!) and by getting to hang out with my sister since she was in ATL for work, too!

We stayed at the Loews in Midtown which was a BEAUTIFUL hotel. The lobby and lobby bar were modern & chique, yet also inviting. The rooms were spacious with luxurious bathrooms and the gym! Oh, emm, gee. it was HUGE and had everything you could want or need, plus there was an Exhale Spa associated with the hotel so that just made it even more amazing.

But, back to the workout. As amazing as the gym was at the hotel, I never made it in for a workout. Womp, womp. I got there on Wednesday and after an early flight and full day on site, I chose getting unpacked and having a drink over a workout. On Thursday, I knew I wouldn’t want to workout after a day on site so I got up and squeezed in a quickie workout before the day. Sure, I could’ve gone to the gym, but that process would’ve added a good 20 minutes to the workout, which wasn’t something I was interested in doing at that hour. Hotel room workout for the win!

I created a bodyweight cardio aspect and then added in some bodyweight exercise circuits. It looked like this:

  • cardio blast
  • circuit 1 x3 rounds
  • cardio blast
  • circuit 2 x3 rounds
  • cardio blast
  • circuit 3 x3 rounds
  • cardio blast

I was done in about 22 minutes, including a 2 minute warm up – not too bad!

While I always love quickie workouts, they come in especially handy while traveling because that is a time when I really don’t want to have to spend unnecessary amounts of time in a gym – I’d much rather be out and about exploring!

I hope you try this on the rest of your summer travels – be sure to let me know if you do!

Questions for you: Have you done a lot of traveling this summer?

Green City Growers & Whole Foods Market

Leave a comment

Last week, I had the really neat opportunity to visit Whole Foods Market in Lynnfield (conveniently located a short 5 minute drive from my office!) and tour their rooftop garden, as well as speak with Green City Growers regarding how the garden came to life.

IMG_0540

First off, if you’ve never been to this Whole Foods Market in Lynnfield, I suggest trying to get there because it’s a beautiful store! Plus, you can use it as an excuse for shopping and lunch at the MarketStreet Lynnfield shops since they are all in the same spot. It’s one of my favorite WF stores around (that, and the new one in the South End because that’s also gorgeous, but I’m pretty sure they don’t have a rooftop garden!) because not only does it have a huge produce section, but they also sell beer and wine in store 😉

I had heard that there was a rooftop garden at the store, but until getting a chance to actually see it, I had no idea how big it was and how much produce it produced! Here are some stats that we learned from the Green City Growers contact during our visit:

  • Green City Growers is an organic farming company and they work with, businesses, schools and at people’s homes all over New England. Whole Foods in Lynnfield is the largest rootop farm in New England and requires 16-20 hours a week in maintenance
  • The space is 17K square feet, which is huge!
  • A lot of work was done years in advance of the build out of the store in order to create a building structurally sound enough to hold the weight of the garden on it.
  • It’s a green roofing system which has insulation and storm water run off benefits.
  • 324 TONS of soil was crained in to get the rooftop garden started.
  • 4000 pounds of fresh produce is being produced this season, and they are finally (after a few years) figuring out what people want grown and want to buy. There are 20 produce varietals growing right now, making sure to keep their supply unique, but still things people want to buy.
  • 2 tons of produce a year is sold right in the store (SO COOL!)
  • Virtually zero goes to waste- all of the “grade B” produce (things that drop off the plant, stems, etc.) are brought to the prepared foods area or smoothie bar to be used there.
  • There are bees up there, too, which are used to pollinate

Isn’t that so cool?! It’s just one of the many reasons why I love shopping at Whole Foods – there are thousands of organic options right at your fingertips, and locally grown organics is just icing on the cake (or organic veggie 😉 ). While it may cost a little more to buy and eat organically, the benefits of eating this way far outway the costs for us in our home. Granted, we don’t buy everything organic, but for fruits, veggies, meats, eggs, etc. we try to stick to organic, grass fed and local if we can.

IMG_0544

IMG_0547Big thank you to Whole Foods for inviting me in!! Also, a big thanks to the other vendors who participated in the event and provided goodies for us to take home:

Questions for you: What is your favorite grocery store? Do you try to buy organic? If so, what are your primary organic buys? Do you try to buy locally? 

Living Life Rather Than Blogging About It

5 Comments

IMG_0357.JPG

So, it’s now officially MID July – how, exactly, did that happen?! If you’ve been a long-time reader of B2B, you’ve probably noticed that, over the past few months (June & July in particular), it’s been a little (ok, a lot) quiet over here. In years past,  I would’ve apologized and given you reasons X, Y & Z as to why I haven’t been publishing, but at this point in my life and blogging “career”, I’m not sorry.

In fact, I’m quite the opposite- It feels SO DAMN GOOD to not have the pressure (self imposed, mind you) of getting 3-5 blog posts written and published each week. When I first started blogging, I would cause myself so much stress trying to get blog posts up. And now looking back, I don’t know why. Half of the posts were just “filler” posts telling you what my workouts were (boring), sharing recipes with terrible photos (#newbie) or sharing every minute of my weekend with you (sometimes worthy of a post, but oftentimes it wasn’t).

Do  I regret those posts? Of course not! I started blogging at a time in my life when I was trying to get into more of a health and fitness network and to share my passion of those things with whoever was willing to read about them. But life was a lot different back then- I was younger, single and work was less draining. I also wasn’t teaching as many classes as I do these days, so it was nice to have another way to spend my time.

That said, these days, rather than carving out the time to blog, I’d rather be living in the “now” and following life’s adventures. I’d rather be going for a bike ride with RM. I’d rather be grabbing drinks with friends or family. I’d rather be catching up on House of Cards or Southern Charm. I’d rather be going to the beach or reading a book.

…. You get the point. In fact, I even notice that I take less pictures. Instead of doing things for an Instagram-worth post, I’m trying to focus on the people I’m with, places I go and activities I’m doing. I don’t need to share every morsel of my day to day with my Instagram followers just because that’s what everyone else is doing. There’s nothing wrong with that, but right now, it’s not the direction I want to be taking when it comes to my social media accounts.

But, I do realize that in order to continue growing the fitness aspect of my career, I need to have a presence on social media. What this means is that I try to focus on sharing clips of my workouts, my class schedule, my subbing schedule, classes I’m going to & clips of classes I’m teaching. Of course there are plenty of wine photos, cat photos & RM photos because those are huge parts of my life, too 😉 , I just try to not share ALL of that.

I guess all I’m saying, is that life is too short to focus  how many “likes” you get and how many followers you have. It’s too short to spend your time with your face buried in your phone keeping your followers up to date on every little detail of your day/life. If you’re out to dinner with friends or your significant other, put your phone away and immerse yourself in the conversation. If you’re at a concert, just jump and sing to the music – no need to share it all via your Insta story. If you’re traveling, pick and choose a few things to share, but otherwise try and focus on where you are, what you’re doing and soaking up the memories that come along with it.

I know I still have a lot of work to do in this area because there are times when I do all of these things, but as I work at it, I realize how freeing it is to just be and to just live and enjoy.

Questions for you: Do you find yourself constantly attached to your phone? Do you tend to focus on taking pictures rather than just soaking in the scenery or activity? 

 

Wednesday Workout: 16 Minute Bodyweight & Resistance Band AMRAP Workout

Leave a comment

Good morning! It’s been a hot minute since I’ve a. blogged or b. shared a workout with you. But today, I’m here to do both- I’m such an over-achiever!

Before I get to that, though, as one of Boston Children’s #CorporateCupCoaches, I wanted to quickly share a little bit about an event in the city on Thursday. Boston Children’s Hospital is inviting 74 Boston corporations to participate in a field day. The nature of the day is all about helping kids! Each team is fundraising to support the amazing work of Boston Children’s Hospital. With over $550,000 raised to date, you can support the cause by clicking this link. #BCHWintheCup

As the summer days/weeks/months tend to be busier than other times in the year, I find myself doing many more quickie workouts, many of which do not require going to the gym. I don’t know if it’s because I work in an office all day, but unless I’m teaching at gym, I just can’t bring myself to actually GO to the gym for a workout when it’s a beautiful day outside. I’d much rather be doing something outside: biking, running, walking, or simply taking my workout outside.

Case in point: on Monday, I didn’t have time to get to the gym during lunch, but I knew I would have time to squeeze in a quickie workout before teaching my 6pm Seaport Sweat class so I packed my resistance band, found space and got to work.

I did a 4 minute warm up, 16 minute circuit and then when I realized I had some more time, I threw in a 4 minute upper body AMRAP. Done and Done in less than 25 minutes, also while working on my tan and getting fresh air 😉

Here are links to some of the exercises:

And your bonus upper body 4 minute AMRAP is here:

  • Biceps curls x10
  • Shoulder press x10
  • Bent over row x10
  • Triceps OH extension x10

Repeat the above exercises as many times in 4 minutes!

The beauty of workouts like this is that they don’t take long to complete, so it isn’t a big commitment, which can be a make or break in terms of whether or not you get a workout in. I also love that it’s so portable- who doesn’t have room in their gym bag for a simple resistance band?!

I hope you try this! If you do, let me know by tagging me on Social Media!

Questions for you: How have your workouts changed (if at all) since the summer months have been here?

Quick Charleston Weekend

Leave a comment

Hey guys! How’s everyone doing? Did you have a nice 4th? My blog had a ton of hits earlier this week, mostly relating to 4th of July workouts so I hope you guys found something fun to do! We had a great 1 year anniversary trip back in Jackson, NH. I’ll share more on that later, but today I wanted to share my recap of a recent trip to Charleston, SC  enjoy!

*****

A few weeks ago, I went to Charleston, SC for a bachelorette party. Charleston is a city that’s been on my “want to visit” list for a long time, so I was thrilled when the bride-to-be picked it as the destination. Not only was I excited to finally get to experience the charm that is always depicted in the pictures I see people share, but I was also excited at the potential possibility of running into someone from Southern Charm 😉 This is my not-so-guilty pleasure show that I absolutely love! Lucky for me, we did get to see Chelsea driving down the street with her mom in a little golf cart. And yes, I did run out of the bar (The Gentry, owned by another cast member on the show, JD) to say hello… I was totally that girl!

Let’s back up, though. Due to my work/teaching schedule, I decided to fly out on a Saturday morning and home on  Monday morning. I scheduled a 6am flight so that I could get there early enough to basically have the whole day.

Unfortunately, as I mentioned in this post, that did not happen as there was a snafu with my luggage (spoiler alert & update: my luggage was found AND returned to me with NOTHING missing. My faith in humanity has been restored!) so by the time I got there, it was nearly 5pm so I had just enough time to chug a vino at the apartment before literally running down King street trying to shop for necessities before the stores closed at 6pm. Woof.

 

That said, my Charleston experience barely brushed the surface of what I was hoping for, but it just means we will need to go back again!

Where We Stayed

The bride-to-be’s cousin and my sister coordinated most of the weekend’s details and found the most amazing AirBnB rental for us to stay at for Saturday & Sunday night. It was on Society Street, which is right off of King street, one of the most popular streets in Charleston, lined with shops & restaurants. I would highly suggest this place if you’re going with a group and need lots of space. It has two big bedrooms and plenty of the space in the living room for an air mattress, 2.5 bathrooms, private garage parking included, a gym in the facility and a HUGE outdoor patio/deck space.

What We Did & Where We Ate

Although I was not there on Friday night, the girls who were there had dinner at 5Church, which they all raved about! They said the decor, atmosphere, food & drinks were all amazing, so it’s definitely a place I would like to check out.

On Saturday, my sister had made lunch reservations at HUSK, which is a very well-known, highly visited restaurant in Charleston. Unfortunately, due to my baggage fiasco, I did not get to Charleston in time for this, which I was REALLY bummed about. The girls said that it was one of the best lunches they’ve ever had!

Once I did get to Charleston, we shopped quickly and then saddled up in a corner window area of The Gentry, which is a bar owned by JD on the show Southern Charm. This place had a cool vibe and the Rose was delicious! We share a few starter plates which were also great.

Since we had plans of going out on Saturday night, we opted to hang out at the apartment and order pizza, which was a great idea as it gave us 7 girls plenty of time to get ready, catch up and have fun.

We ultimately ended up at Republic, which was more of a club atmosphere than I was anticipating. However, we made our way outside to the bar area and it was much quieter and a better scene for chatting and hanging out (although I would’ve loved to have danced all night inside the club!).

Sunday we went out to Folly Beach and had lunch right outside, basically on the water, at Blu, which was awesome! They have a huge deck, great drinks and food and live music! I could’ve spent hours just hanging out and drinking on that deck, but the beach was ultimately calling our name so after lunch we set up shop in the sand.

While walking to dinner on Sunday night, we decided to pop into a restaurant with a cool looking roofdeck, but unfortunately I can’t remember the name of it 😦 From there, we walked to Craftsmen Kitchen and Tap House for dinner and we were able to sit outside in their little patio area. The weather was perfect for outdoor dining! The food was SO good- we shared some apps and then got a various array of different dinner items and shared those as well. We finished out the night at Vendue for a little more roof deck action. Since it was a Sunday, things were pretty quiet so we went back to the Airbnb after 1 drink.

My flight was at 9am on Monday so I was up and out pretty early. The flight Gods were on my side and our first flight left early and I was able to get on an earlier connection flight back to Boston which was really great, especially after my less than stellar airport/flying experience on the way to Charleston.

Overall, even thought the weekend started our rough and I thought that I was never getting my bag back, it was such a FUN weekend spent with a really great group of girls. Can’t wait for the big day in August!

Questions for you: Have you ever been to Charleston, SC? What was your favorite part? What’s a city on your “want to visit” list?