Category: At-home workout

Weekending: Thanksgiving & Long Weekend Edition

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Good morning! I feel like I haven’t “talked” to you guys in a while… I guess an extra long weekend will do that 😉 I ended up taking Wednesday off since my company gave us a half day, so not working Wed-Sunday was a nice little treat! Although the time off was very relaxing, we did do a lot of fun things, so let’s recap! Warning- this is a long post, but there are lots of pictures so you can just skim and check those out if you want 😉

Wednesday

After sleeping in a bit, RM and I got up and had breakfast and then I hit the gym for a run and lifting session. It’s always a nice treat to be able to workout mid-morning without being on a time crunch.

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Since a few of my girlfriends also had Wednesday off, we decided to meet up at my friend Jess’s apartment in the North End since she needed to stay close to home for her daughters nap time. It worked out well because we were able to chat and hang out without feeling rushed like we might at a restaurant.

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For dinner, RM and I met up with his brother and sister in law at Charcoal Guido’s on Moody Street. One of RM’s childhood friends opened the restaurant a few years ago and since we live closer to the area now, we decided to finally check it out. The pizza and atmosphere were both great! I had never been to Moody Street but I think we will be going back soon because it’s such a fun street!

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Thursday

We woke up on Thanksgiving and lounged around while watching the parade. I wasn’t sure if I was going to workout, but ultimately decided it was something I wanted to do. I wasn’t doing it to “earn my meal” or because I wanted to feel better about possibly indulging, I did it because I felt rested and I felt thankful for the fact my body can move and that it’s strong.

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My parents ended up going to my sister’s for Thanksgiving so RM and I decided to go there for apps and a drink before doing the whole dinner thing at his mother’s house. I decided to bring a variation of the Apple Brie Appetizer Bites Athena posted last week. To change it up, I ended up using sharper, hard cheeses instead of the mild, soft Brie. They came out great and everyone loved them!

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We had a blast at my sister’s and even though it was hard leaving them, it was nice to be able to see both families. Dinner at RM’s mother’s house was- no surprise- delicious, but sadly I didn’t take a single photo! I always feel awkward taking food pictures when I’m around his family, but I think I need to suck it up and take them because everything is always very picture worthy.

Friday

Friday was a super fun day because not only did I shop for wedding dresses, I ended up buying one!!! More on that later- I have a whole post to describe that experience 😉

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I loved that my whole family- including my dad- were there for the experience. It was so special and so fun! And, might I add, there was no “Say Yes to the Dress” drama! To celebrate, we went to Buff’s Pub for lunch. My parents hadn’t been before and my sister and I thought it was a great place to take them. The verdict? They loved it!

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After my parents left, RM and I went to Lookout Farm to visit his cousin and check out their new taproom. I fell in love with everything about this place! It was originally just a farm where you could go apple, pear, peach and strawberry picking, but recently they decided to make good use of the excess apples and they started making their own hard cider. I’ve never been a huge cider person (except for when I studied abroad in England and we drank cider all the time!), but the ciders at Lookout Farm are absolutely delicious! They aren’t too fruity sweet and they’ve got great fizz to them. We started with a sampler flight of the 4 flavors they had on tap: Farmhouse Blend, Super Berry, Green with Envy (has green tea in it) and Barn Burner (which is spicy, I think with habanero peppers in it).

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Mark, RM’s cousin, brought us for a tour of the property and it was incredible to see how big it was and to see where they brew the cider.

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Once we got back to the taproom, we each ordered our own cider (Super Berry for me) and shared a charcuterie plate (3 meats, 3 cheeses & olives for $12.75 I think). They also have big, soft pretzels and various flatbreads and everything looked delicious.

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Such a fun time! If you’re ever in the South Natick/Wellesley area, this is definitely a place you need to check out!

Saturday

We got up early on Saturday and I fit in a workout before hitting the road to Ikea.

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I’ll say that I love a good dorky matchy-matchy sesh, but RM and I were even a bit much for me on Saturday. In my defense, I got dressed first! Luckily he ended up taking off the vest once we got to Ikea 😉

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We grabbed some Starbuck’s and then attacked Ikea. I was so impressed with how well the experience went. We were there early enough to avoid the crazy masses of people and we found everything we were looking for.

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To celebrate, we went to La Casa De Pedro for lunch and cocktails. Everything was fantastic!

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The rest of the night was spent putting stuff together and being totally lazy. We logged some serious couch time!

Sunday

I woke up craving pancakes so I decided to whip some healthy ones up.

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And yes, I love topping mine with syrup, homemade jam and almond butter. Don’t judge 😉

After breakfast we did a good cleaning of the apartment and then I went and got a new phone. My old one had something stuck in the headphone hole so I couldn’t really use it when I was at the gym or teaching which was annoying.

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We decided to get a new, smaller table and I love how it looks now! and the yellow chairs RM picked out are amazing!

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Later in the afternoon, RM had to cash in a bunch of quarters so I went along for the ride… mostly because he also suggested getting a drink at a local bar after 🙂

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Wine and an onion soup for me- perfect mid afternoon snack!

The rest of the night was spent doing some meal prep and lots of blogging. This is a busy week and I have lots to share with you guys so I tried to get ahead of the game by logging in some serious blogging hours. It’s actually a perfect sunday night activity since RM is usually watching football!

Questions for you: Did you take extra time off around the holiday? Where did you celebrate Thanksgiving? Did you do any good workouts over the weekend? Have you been to Ikea before? Ever been to any of the restaurants linked in this post?

Wednesday Workout: Thanksgiving Workouts & Events To Try/Checkout

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Good morning! I have a great Dynamax workout I want to share with you, but since Thanksgiving is just about a week away, today I want to provide you with some workouts and workout events happening in and around the Boston area in case you want to plan ahead and schedule your Tday workout. I love working out on Thanksgiving, not because I want to “earn my turkey” (although I used to have that mindset), but because I love my body and am thankful for all it can do for me. I feel my best when I eat well and move well, so it make sense that I’d want to do both of those on Thanksgiving 🙂

If you’re looking to do your own workout on Thanksgiving, I posted these workouts over the past couple of years:

*Turkey-Day 20 Minute AMRAP Workout

Turkey day 20 minute AMRAP workout
*The “I’m Thankful” Workout

I'm thankful workout

If you’re looking for classes or events to go to in the area, check these out:

  • The Handle Bar:
    75-Minute Endurance Ride, 8:30 am (At South Boston, Fenway and Harvard Square)- Ride with Rachel, Alexa or Allie at one of our three studios for a 75-minute ride and give thanks to your hard earned sweat. You can sign up on their Schedule Page
  • Recycle Studio has a bunch of classes between Wed-Sun- full list is here, but here are some that my friends teach:
    11/25- 6-7pm- “Pre stuff reboot buff ride” with Lindsay (hour long class!)
    11/26- 8-8:45am- “Reboot Bird Ride” with Alice, 10-11am with Lindsay
    11/27- 10:30-11:30 “Reboot Bird Ride” with Lindsay.
  • The Oak Square YMCA has a whole bunch of classes- if that’s not your gym, but you’re interested in trying one out, let me know 🙂
    Thursday, November 26
    8:30-10a Group Cycle with Kelly (60 minute option)
    8-9 Barre with Carolyn
    9-10a Zumba with Lindsay
    Friday, November 27
    8-9a Total Body with Athena
    9-10a Yoga with Ben
    9-10a Group Cycle with Emily
    10-11a Zumba with Michelle
  • Thanksgiving Day at 7:45am-8:45 for F.I.T. BootCamp at Glen Meadow Park, Lynnfield MA (weather pending!)
    ***ALL MONEY WILL BE DONATED TO MY BROTHERS TABLE, Lynn MA***
    For only $5 you can come workout, feel good and know that you’re helping others:) Bring water & towel or mat too, it gets messy! Please contact Dina (dmetrano@gmail.com) to register.

I know there are lots more, but here’s a brief roundup of some of them 🙂

Whether you decide to workout or not, I hope you make that decision as an entirely separate thing from food and your Thanksgiving Dinner. Exercising just to try and eliminate guilt as a result of a meal is not worth it. Exercise because you love it or because you know all the benefits it provides. Eat because you love it and because it tastes good and fuels you. Don’t mix the two.

For me, I’ll likely workout because I love to move and I love to start the day with a sweat. For the meal, I like to indulge on things I may not eat year-round (all the desserts, stuffing, mashed potatoes of all varietals, etc.), but I try to do it mindfully because I HATE being overly full and feeling sick from it! I’d rather eat enough to feel satisfied and then go back for more a few hours later 😉

Questions for you: Do you have a Thanksgiving workout planned? Any that you want to share with other readers?

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?

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?