Category: Five on Friday

Five on Friday {1.15.16}

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Good morning and TGIF! This has been a whirlwind of a week for me. For starters, I had to go in the office on Monday, but on top of that we were going live with a new program so I was in trainings/testing of that for pretty much all of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday which really threw a wrench in my normal schedule! But, everything went well and the program developers are super cool guys so it could’ve been a lot worse. I also had some good workouts and made some headway with a new fitness adventure, so all is good!

For now, though, let’s focus on the fact that it’s FRIDAY! Anything good planned for the weekend? We have RM’s sister’s going away party tonight (she’s moving to Atlanta) and then I’m teaching tomorrow morning and then hopefully meeting my parents for lunch in Portsmouth before visiting my friends Kia and Christy and their brand new baby girls 🙂 Whatever you have on the agenda, I hope you have a blast, smile and laugh a lot, drink some vino and get some movement in!

Five on Friday:

1. Chin-ups- I may not have reached my goal of 10 unassisted pull-ups/chin ups, but at this point I am just focusing on what I CAN do. The other day, I went to the gym and ran and then decided to try and do some chin-ups. I hadn’t done any in a while and was surprised to find myself able to do 4 with relative ease (last one was a little tough!). I’ll take it!

 

2. Meal Prep– Although this is a time consuming activity, I’ve learned over the years how worthwhile it is for me to spend time doing it. Whether it’s prepping a bunch of root veggies, chicken and kale or actually making a meal (casserole, soup, meatloaf, etc.), knowing I have the ability to go in the fridge and grab healthy food quickly and easily is a really good thing. I’m often busy during the week between social engagements or teaching so it’s hard for me to spend time making fresh dinners each night. Meal prep leftovers for the win!

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3. I can’t get rid of my cold! I know I am not alone in this because RM has had a cold for going on two weeks and I know of a bunch of other people who have also been sick, but it doesn’t make thigns any better! I haven’t been sleeping well and I’m tired of blowing my nose. Womp 😦

4. Dry weather doesn’t bode well with my hands- Throughout the warmer months, I always forget how DRY my skin can get during the winter, in particular, my right hand. I mean, look at this! Does anyone have any good lotion/moisturizer suggestions? I’m so bad at using hand creams, mostly because I hate the feeling of lotion on the palms of my hands (weird, right?), but this is so not sexy so I need to do something!

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5. Getting back into a consistent training routine– Although I’ve worked out consistently even throughout the holidays, my training schedule hasn’t really been consistent. My workouts over the past month or so have kind of been all over the place and while that is absolutely better than not working out at all, I am excited to get back to a normal and planned routine and schedule. I was finally able to make it to the gym during my lunch break yesterday and was so happy when I stumbled across Stephanie’s Burpee Bookend Full Body Circuit earlier in the morning. Some days I’m really focused and know exactly what I want to do, but there are others (like yesterday… and lots of days over the past month) where I really have no direction with regards to what I want to do. Her workout not only made me excited to get to the gym to try it out, but it also left me with shaky legs as I walked down the stairs after the workout was finished. The 50 burpees to start and finish the workout were killer… and I loved it!

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Have a great weekend, friends!
Questions for you: Tell me something making you smile this week? How have your workouts been lately? Does the cold, dry weather make your skin look like leather, too? What’s going on this weekend? 

Five on Friday {1.8.16}

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Well hello there! It’s been a hot minute since my last “Five on Friday” post, huh? I guess I just figured well all had better things to do on Christmas and New Years and visit B2B, right? 😉 Before we get into the post, can we just stop for a second and think about the fact that the holidays have officially come and gone and that most of us have nearly completed our first full week of work since likely way before the holidays? Yikes. Time flies when you’re having fun I guess, right?

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about the weekend! Any fun plans? We have my company’s holiday party tonight and then Saturday we plan on doing some shopping/holiday returns (maybe some wedding registry stuff??) and meeting up with another couple for drinks. Sunday will likely consist of a coffee visit with my cousin who is in town and then hopefully some relaxing, because SUNDAY.

Here are my Five on Friday items for the week- enjoy!

1. Me Before You and After You (both by JoJo Moyes)- Have you guys read either or both of these books? If not, stop what you’re doing and go to the library or order them off of Amazon. They were both such good, good books. So good that I barely put them down and was able to finish them each one in less than 3 days. We just talked about them at book club and it was awesome to get to hold onto the goodness of them for a bit longer. For those of you who have read them- what was your first thoughts on the title “Me Before You”? I’ll share mine in a reply to your comments! Also, per usual, book club at Jessi’s was awesome. I totally over-ate (which I rarely do), but only regretted it for how uncomfortable and sick I felt after… I did not regret all of the food I ate because it was delicious!

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2. The Resolution Recap/Photos– It was such an honor to participate in the Resolution by PMC fundraiser ride at The Club by George Foremann III last weekend. And, thanks to so many gracious people donating, I raised over $100 more than my goal- whoop! I had to share some awesome/funny/intense photos that the photographer captured of me. I guess he wasn’t joking when he tracked me down after to tell me that I was “really intense”, haha!

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Team “Just Keep Spinning”! and the fabulous Turnstyle Cycle instructors.

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(all PMC pictures were taken from here and were shot by 13Photography)

3. Champagne is always a good idea-  I mean, need I say anymore? This wall hanging is amazing- it’s almost like they made it for me (but, no, unfortunately I did not buy it for myself 😦 )

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4. New hat- I got some really great gifts for Christmas, but I have to say that this hat from RM is probably one of my most favorite gifts! I use any excuse I can to wear it… literally!

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5. #2015bestnine- I loved seeing everyone’s #2015bestnine photo collages all over social media at the end of 2015 and I have to say, mine pretty much summed up all of my best memories from the year for sure! Wedding, wedding, more wedding… oh, and working out 😉 What was your best memory(ies) from 2015?

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I hope you all have a fantastic weekend! Catch y’all next week!

Five on Friday {12.18.15}

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Good morning! This has been a bit of a crazy week because I was in the office on Monday and then in South Carolina Wednesday and Thursday and I’m home today. Needless to say, I had a hard time keeping my days straight, but what I DO know is that today is FRIDAY, and that’s pretty awesome, especially after a ridiculously long travel day home yesterday due to flight delays.

Seeing that it’s Friday, let’s get to “Five on Friday”!

  • I’m having fun wedding planning!… Finally! I really did not enjoy it at first, but, like so many of you told me, it did get better once we booked the venue and date. So far, we have the venue, date, photographer, dress and band- I’d say we are doing pretty well! I also have some ideas for our centerpieces- thank goodness for Pinterest 🙂 The only sucky thing about this whole process is that we have to wait until July for the actual event!
  • Farm Fresh Eggs- enough said. My parents always get farm fresh eggs from their neighbor and they give us a dozen every time they see us and I have to say- they are just the best! We buy the organic, free range eggs normally but those still don’t hold a flame to the real deal.

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  • Vega One Coconut Almond Nutritional Shake– I tried a sample of this at Whole Foods the other day and was totally sold so I bought a few sample packets and even with just water it tasted delicious!

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  • Lift class at Foster Fitness– If you’ve been reading B2B for a while, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve started frequenting a new gym (getting my butt kicked, get comfortable being uncomfortable). I had been going to the Fast & Furious class which is a mix of cardio and light/medium weights, but this week I finally made it to a Lift class and loved it! I am having so much fun getting into heavier lifting and the feeling of getting my name up on the board was unbelievable!

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  • REM-Fit Tracker– The company sent me a few different products to try and although I didn’t like one enough to review, I did enjoy checking out their REM-Fit tracker! Even though I already have a FitBit, I was interested in checking out the REM-Fit to see how it compared to the FitBit, what I liked better, what I liked less, what it could do or not do compared to the FitBit.

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Overall, I liked the design of the REM-Fit a lot. I liked that you could see the date and time on the front and you could see the various tracking details as you scrolled through by tapping on the left end of the device.

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My only complaint is that I found it difficult sometimes to hit the right spot to be able to scroll through my tracking details. Otherwise I liked how light the tracker was and that not only did it come with 2 different colored bands, but also a holder that you can clip onto your waistband or somewhere else a little less discrete than your wrist.

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One thing I thought it had over the Fitbit was the ability to get you points for things other than just steps- it warranted you points for all sorts of daily exercises which is great for the days when I may not have walked a lot of steps but I did get in a kick ass weight lifting workout! The tracker also gives you points for sleep, but it’s not automatic so you have to click on “log sleep”, which isn’t a huge deal, you just have to remember to do it 😉 Thanks to REM-Fit for providing me with this new-to-me activity tracker! (Disclaimer, I was provided with the product but was not paid to write this recommendation. The thoughts are my own!)

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And that does it for me today. I was supposed to go into the city to meet a friend for drinks but after getting home at 2:30am after 11 hours of travel, I’ve decided to lay low tonight and catch up on my DVR. Whatever you do this weekend, I hope you have a blast!

Questions for you: What’s on tap for the weekend? Have you finished all your Christmas shopping? What’s your favorite protein powder? Do you buy farm fresh eggs ever?

 

Five on Friday {12.11.15}

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Good morning! How has your week been? Mine has felt long… I am so ready for the weekend to be here! In case you missed anything from B2B this week, you can catch up here, here and here. For now, though, let’s talk Friday Favorites!

1. Wellcoin– I’m excited to announce that I recently became a Wellcoin Ambassador! New to Wellcoin? Basically, it’s an app that pays you to live a healthy life! No joke- you get points for all sorts of “healthy living” things from working out to buying healthy groceries to choosing a healthy drink to doing something fun, and then you can “shop” in their marketplace for lots of different things like Whole Foods gift cards, free class at a participating studio, items at Thirst Juice Co. and more. I plan to do a whole post on it, so I won’t share all the details here, but if you’re interested, head on over to Wellcoin.com and check it out. Also, if you sign up, be sure to use the code “burpeestobubbly” which will get you 250 points right off the bat! I’ve only been using it for a few weeks and I already have about 6000 points. When you join- give me a follow so we can cheer each other on because that gives you more points, too 😉

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2. Christmas Decorations/Movies/Music/AlltheChristmas- I love, love, love this time of year and it’s been so fun decorating OUR home- getting our first tree, hanging up lights, watching Christmas movies, etc. RM laughed at me the other morning when I was WFH and had the tree lit at 7am… hey- it’s the little things 😉

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3. Free sweetgreen lunch– sweetgreen recently opened up a new store location in the M Street shops near my office and the lovely Rachel of Healthy Chicks has been spoiling my group with free lunches. She brought us some delicious salads yesterday for lunch which was perfect timing since I had gotten home late on Wednesday and was in no mood to pack a lunch. Thanks girl! (ps they also opened up a new location in the Prudential Center- it’s amazing to see them growing so much!)

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4. Dealing with no internet- This was a busy week and I had a hours of blogging planned for Tuesday night, so imagine my frustration when I realized we did not have internet. My initial reaction was “ugh omg how am I going to get my Wednesday Workout post up? I can’t post my recipe on Thursday because I won’t even have time on Wednesday night to blog”, etc. etc. I’m happy to say that I took a few deep breaths and just let it be. It’s sad to realize how much I depend upon and use the Internet- for trivial things like checking facebook and Instagram. I mean, common Monique. It shouldn’t be that hard to just sit and watch TV! But this day in age, with technology and social media as such a huge part of our lives, it’s just second nature to be on our phones… and I’ll be the first to admit that I’m on mine way too much. Tuesday night was a good reminder to just leave the phone be for a while.

5. Little words that mean so much– While I love blogging SO much, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a lot of work… and sometimes frustrating. Sometimes I wonder if anyone is even reading this silly thing and whether or not I’m actually inspiring and motivating people, so when my friend Meg sent me these texts today, it made me feel SO GOOD. Knowing that I can provide tips, share my experience and motivate/inspire even just one person makes my hard work on B2B so worth it. Thank you, friend. You made my day!

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And that does it for me today! I’m excited for this weekend- I think I’m going to a fitness event on SaturDAY and then Saturday night my friend Jessi is having her Christmas party and then Sunday I’m going to head up to Maine to spend some time at my parents house…. but not without a stop at the Kittery outlets first 😉 What about you guys? Do you have anything fun planned? What are you loving right now? Anything from the week you want to share?

Five on Friday {12.3.15}

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Good morning! I opted to not post last Friday because I figured everyone would be out shopping and not sitting at home reading blogs 😉 I’m happy to be back today sharing five more random thoughts/things with you, though!

1. How the heck is it December already?! I feel like it was just October the other day. November completely FLEW by. Have you started Christmas shopping yet? Do you have lots of holiday parties lined up?

2. Athleta pants– I’ve been in the market for a pair of full length leggings and ended up finding these amazing Chaturanga tights at Athleta the other day so I decided to just go for it. I’m so happy I did because I’ve worn them twice so far and absolutely love them! I was originally nervous about the light gray color, but so far they haven’t been overly offensive in terms of, well, crotch sweat… sorry, likely TMI but it’s something I think about because as an instructor I’m doing everything in front of the class and hate when you can see my sweat everywhere!

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3. 1806 Candles: Home by the Fire soy melters– My mom always shares her latest wax smells with me and this one is absolutely fantastic! It literally smells like freshly cut Christmas trees!

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4. Stop Trying to Be Happy– this is a little bit of a long read but it’s absolutely fantastic and I really encourage all of you to read it! RM sent it to me and I loved everything about it.

5. Surprise engagement gifts- Coming home to this awesome package from RM’s college roommate (who is part of the Tre Olive family) was such a fun surprise on a cold, gloomy night earlier this week! It’s literally some of the best olive oil we’ve tasted, so we will surely be putting it to good use. I also can’t wait to try the Red Pepper Spread he sent, too. I was looking through all the other gift ideas in one of the flyers attached to the package and there are some great, affordable gift ideas if you’re looking for something for the foodie in your life.

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There you have it! I hope you all have a great weekend. I can’t wait to get our tree and decorate for Christmas- it’s my favorite time of year because it makes the house feel so cozy when it’s all decorated with lights and the tree!

Questions for you: Have you started shopping for the holidays yet? Do you have anything fun going on this weekend? What is your favorite athletic wear company? Did you relate to the article at all?