Weekending…

February 24, 20134 Comments

Happy Sunday! Hope everyone had a nice weekend. Mine, as always, seemed to go by WAY too quickly. I am just now sitting down and “relaxing” (aka blogging and putting off studying) and it’s 4:30pm! Where did today go?! I’ll get to that, but let’s back up a minute…

Yesterday I taught my last TBC (Total Body Conditioning) class at the Allston BSC. I was offered a position to teach Cardio Kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA every other Saturday at 10AM (vs every Saturday at 9am like I was doing at the BSC) and I accepted that position starting in March! I used to go to that 10AM Kickboxing class every Saturday for the 3.5 years I lived in Oak Square so I am REALLY excited to have the opportunity to go back there and start teaching it:) However, yesterday’s last class was definitely bittersweet. My sister, Lauren and Jess came and that made it so much fun! I always like to hear feedback from honest sources (they may be friends and family, but I do trust them to give me their honest opinions!), so it was funny to hear them ask what the heck I was doing teaching a class that hard… what can I say?! I want to make people feel like their time at the gym was well spent!

Post workout, I met up with a new fitness friend for brunch at Russell House Tavern to talk all things fitness… twist my arm, will ya?! And, to make things even better, they had wine on tap?!

I had to use some serious self-restraint as wine on tap for any member of the Gagnon family is risky business! Instead, I enjoyed a nice beer and this delicious omelet:

Yum! I don’t really “do” brunch (I am always starving when I wake up), so this was a really nice treat, and well deserved after a tough morning class!

The rest of my Saturday was really not very exciting. I faced the masses of people at Market Basket for my weekly grocery shopping trip and then spent the rest of the night like this:

Don’t let that book fool you… I “pretended” to read/study, but in all honesty, I couldn’t pull myself to actually DO any reading or studying. My kickboxing exam was originally scheduled for the weekend of the blizzard and has been rescheduled for next Saturday. Mentally, I am so checked out and bored with this studying, which is not something I am proud of, but hopefully I’ll get my act together and get my head back into the game this week.

Since I went to bed at 11pm (yes, I am 27 going on 67), I was wide awake at 8Am. Perfect! There was a boot camp at the Davis Square BSC at 10 that I would be able to go to. What a thought- me, taking a class that someone else was going to teach?! It had been far too long.

The class started out great (loads of cardio), but then we switched to partner type of work and it was really unorganized and the instructor was mean and almost rude and I really didn’t end up having that much fun. I am all about pushing people in class and yelling (anyone who has come to a class knows this), but he was straight up rude and did not offer any type of encouragement. He almost had an attitude where he was looking down on us. I was so disappointed because he had covered some classes for me when I was ~~dying~~ sick with pneumonia and I thought he seemed so nice, but I saw a different side of him that I was not a fan of. Anyway, it was a good thing for me to do and I did get some new cardio ideas so I guess it wasn’t a total waste of time (and, we did a ton of upper body stuff so I will be sore tomorrow!).

Similar to yesterday, post workout, I went to brunch (again! Twice in one weekend- who am I?!) with Lauren and my sister. We went to Back Bay Social Club and had a great time catching up! A glass of Prosecco was juuuust perfect for post workout refueling, right?

To eat, a delicious Turkey Sandwich with lettuce, tomato and avocado on wheat bread. Unfortunately, the bread was very buttery, but the turkey made up for it! So good!

Since it took so long to get our meals, the manager gave us a free round on the house… again, twist my arm! I really appreciate when restaurants do things like that because it definitely makes me more likely to go back soon!

I am about to set up an email account, Facebook account and Instagram account for Burpees to Bubbly… big steps for the blog this weekend and it makes me excited!! I appreciate everyone who has been reading and following along… it’s been a really fun couple of weeks!! For dinner: Stuffed Peppers (2 ways) and some type of taco dish… be on the lookout for a recipe early this week!

Questions for you: Are you a “bruncher”? What was your favorite thing that you did this weekend?

Weekend Catch Up, Family Dinner, Lulu…

February 18, 2013February 19, 20138 Comments

Hello, hello!

How was your weekend? I really enjoyed my long weekend at home in Maine with my family! Saturday night we had a blast drinking wine and having lots of laughs. Mom always wants to know what I teach in my classes and when I showed her lunges, she wanted to show me what she does when she does lunges in class:

Yes, she is doing the sign of the cross while lunging. I nearly died with laughter when she showed me this. Apparently all the Catholics in class really get a kick out of her when she does this. Haha, still laughing as I think back to that!

Anyway, Sunday we woke up to snowy, windy, COLD weather… yuck:( Mom and I went to church and then to the grocery store. Hannaford had French Toast K-Cups- holy yum! That made the shopping process so much better!

All my groceries for the week! Love that I can buy wine, on a Sunday at 10AM at the grocery store.

When we got home, we did lots of cooking- I made brownies and this and mom started to prep our dinner: Pork and Chicken Wellington, mashed butternut squash, fancy mashed potatoes and asparagus with roasted red peppers. Here are some pictures from the process… I wish I had a recipe for you, but neither mom or dad used one.

While we prepped the food, a couple of my mom’s friends came over for happy hour- have I mentioned how much I love being home and with my family? I wish I made more time for “happy hours”. We had a blast laughing and drinking delicious bubbly (what else?!) and snuggling sweet little Emma:

I drove back down to MA relatively early today. I had to stop off at the Burlington Mall and clean the apartment before teaching tonight, so I wanted to make sure I had time for everything! I had too much fun at Lululemon… oops! I mean, the damage isn’t as bad since I get 15% off for my instructor discount, right? Shhh… that’s what I keep telling myself! Here are my goodies:

I didn’t end up buying this water bottle, but I am totally obsessed with it. Guilty pleasure: I love muffins. Donuts? Yuck! but muffins? I just love them so much! This water bottle is seriously perfect for me.

I am home alone all week, except for my mom and cousin coming to spend the night tomorrow, so I spent a few hours deep cleaning. There is nothing better than a sparkly clean apartment!

And, I finally did something I have been meaning to do for so so long:

I FINALLY organized all of my workouts into a nice, organized binder:) This makes me a happy, happy fitness instructor!

I was going to post my Dynamax workout tonight, but as this post is already ridiculously long (if you’ve made it this far, THANK YOU!), I’ll post that tomorrow!

Have a great week!

A Brewin’ Blizzard

February 9, 2013April 19, 20144 Comments

I don’t think I have seen snow like this since my senior year in college. I remember it was Valentine’s Day and for the first time in over 30 years, St. Mike’s was cancelling all classes from noon on. We were ecstatic! My friend and I got in a HARD 2 mile snow shoe (we accumulated over a foot of snow in like 2 hours!) and then joined the rest of the crew for multiple rounds of drinking games. I played “dad” of the house and tended to the shoveling and “mom” of the house by replenishing the snacks and drinks. The next morning we woke up and literally could not see any part of our cars. Hands down, that day will always be one of my best college memories.

Anyway… I found myself thinking back to that day today as I sat at my desk and “worked” from home. We went out early and stocked up on the necessities: wine, beer, bubbly, and snacks.

I wrote a comment on Facebook around 8am, maybe, asking if it was too early to start drinking wine. Judging by the many comments and “likes” I received, I quickly realized everyone was supporting my early drinking urge.

However, I was able to control myself and didn’t crack anything open until after 4pm… that is totally acceptable, right?

In order to hold off from drinking the day away (not that there is anything wrong with that!), I decided to get an at-home workout in. It was relatively short (about 30 mins including a warm up), but WOW, I was sweating and huffing and puffing! I find it only fitting that my first workout featured on Burpees to Bubbly includes, you guessed it, burpees!!

Blizzard Workout

The goal of this workout is to get to 100 reps of each exercise as quickly as possible, while maintaining good form.

Perform move A until fatigue and then do the same for move B, and then alternate between A and B until you reach 100 reps of each. (Personally, I did 25 of each and repeated 4 times, but some people did 20 reps or 50 reps or 10 reps)

Set 1:

A. Squats with weighted overhead extension (hold 1 weight, when you squat down, try to touch the weight to the ground and then when you extend up, press the weight over your head- you can do this without weights, too!)

B. Push-ups- can be done on your knees or feet, maybe one-legged or tricep push-ups- challenge yourself!

Set 2:

A. Burpees (check these out on YouTube if you need clarification or modifications!)

B. Superman’s

Set 3:

A. Squat Jumps

B. Weighted Russian Twists

Big thanks to Athena who blogs over at http://fitnessandfeta.com. I saw her post about an “endurance” workout and loved the idea. I am totally sore today… always a sign of a good workout:)

I hope everyone has stayed safe and warm in this crazy blizzard! I can’t wait to slap on my snow shoes and go check out the effects of the storm!