Category: Holiday/Special Occasion

{Holiday Series} Wednesday Workout: 20 Minute Buns Burner

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Hi there! Happy Wednesday. December is a time where we are all faced with lots of holiday parties and outings, which generally involve cocktails and snacks, and often times replace your after-work workout, right?

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This month, for my Wednesday Workout series, rather than focusing on posting longer workouts I may have taught in class or done at home, I am going to post shorter workouts that you can do before you go to work, on your lunch break, or quickly after work before you meet up for your holiday get together. It’s easy to push workouts to the side when you’re busy (I get so tired of hearing “I don’t have time to workout”. Well, yes you do. You just have to rearrange your schedule and MAKE time for your workout), but when you’re skipping your workout AND indulging more frequently than usual, it will probably catch up to you, which is why it’s so common to gain weight over the holidays. Obviously, if you do this once and a while, that’s totally fine… we all deserve days like that and you won’t gain 5lbs because you skipped a workout in favor of cocktail hour, but when you start doing it a few times a week for a few weeks in a row (holiday season), you may start to notice some not-so-great changes.

SO! With that said, here is your first Holiday Series Wednesday Workout post! This workout is designed to be a quickie 20-minute thing, but if you’ve only got 10 minutes, just do it once, because you know what? 10 minutes is better than nothing 😉

20 minute buns burner

I got good reviews from the Booty Burner workout and video I posted a few months ago, so I thought it would be fun to post another glute workout for you. This one incorporates cardio moves that specifically target the glutes, as well as body weight strength exercises, also specifically targeting the glutes. No equipment is necessary, so this can literally be done anywhere- no excuses! 🙂

I’m thinking of doing an upper-body cardio and strength circuit next week, followed by abs the week after and a combination on the last week… thoughts? Do you guys like this idea of a “Holiday Series” of quick, but effective workouts? I want to know your thoughts!

Questions for you: What do you do to stay on track during holiday season? Do you workout before work or during lunch? Do you skip out on appetizers? What do you drink for lighter beverages?

Thanksgiving in Maine {Recap}

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My family doesn’t really have a “tradition” for Thanksgiving, but I think that’s what makes it fun- every year we have the “what do you want to do this year for Thanksgiving?” conversation? I’ve spent Thanksgiving in Bath, England (studying abroad), Athens, Greece (visiting my sister when she was studying abroad), Quebec City (family trip) and Burlington, VT, to name a few. This may seem weird to some, but we love it! It makes Thanksgiving an adventure each year and as long as the 4 of us are together, it doesn’t really matter what we do. Our tradition is to not have a tradition.

This past year, we went back and forth, debating on whether to do Thanksgiving at my sister’s apartment in Somerville or to do Thanksgiving in Maine. In the end we decided to do it in Maine, and I couldn’t have been happier. I got home late on Wednesday night (taught a 5:30 class and then met up with friends at a bar not far from my parents’ house), but still, waking up to a snowy, Thanksgiving morning on Thursday was perfect! Not long after waking up, we all got very busy in the kitchen doing all the prep work for our meal. IMG_5892 IMG_5891 I made these Pumpkin Pecan Bars, which have been a hit every time I make them! IMG_5919

And this delicious Pumpkin Pudding:

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Once the prep work was done, I got busy doing this workout. Fitness instructors: do you ever make workouts and then do them, only to hate yourself for making pieces of it so hard? Yeah, the 5 minutes of cardio (3 times) in this was killer. But, it was an effective workout since I did feel quite sore yesterday! Good thing it was my rest day 😉

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The best way to hydrate after a good workout is by drinking bubbly, right?!

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Our meal was absolutely delicious and it was so fun prepping for it together! Here’s the spread of what we had!

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Is it just me, or is it really hard to keep “portion control” when you’re serving your Thanksgiving meal? Granted, I don’t ever eat everything I put on my plate (my eyes are always way bigger than my stomach), but I cannot help but fill my plate to the brim every.single.time

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SO good! Everything was unbelievable, but I am happy to say that I saved plenty of room for dessert (my Thanksgiving could consist of stuffing, mashed potatoes and pie… lots of pie). My dad canned his own pumpkin this year and made pumpkin pie with his own canned pumpkin, which is pretty cool if you ask me. Mom was quite skeptical about the pie, but I had faith in papa bear and he did not disappoint! I was REALLY impressed with how delicious and REAL his pie tasted. Nice work, dad!

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After we digested most of our meal, we headed over to our family friend’s house… for dessert… round 2.  Christine always makes the best desserts, so even though I was full, I had to have some more. On top of dessert, we got lots of Zeke snuggles! I cannot believe he is almost 6 months old and 20 pounds!!!

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Oh my goodness, I cannot even handle his cuteness!

Phew! That about covers our Thanksgiving. Even though it was a low-key day in that we didn’t have a huge family get-together, it was a perfect Thanksgiving. My life in Boston is so go-go-go, that when I come home, I appreciate just being home and with my family. I appreciate the slower-paced lifestyle and the ability to “recharge” my batteries.

I hope all of you had a fantastic Thanksgiving!

Questions for you: How did you spend your Thanksgiving? Do you have family traditions? Do you workout before you indulge in treats and drinks?

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Hi B2B readers! I wanted to pop in quickly to wish each and every one of you a very Happy Thanksgiving. I’ve got so much to be thankful for:

  • My wonderful family
  • My amazing friends
  • A “real” job that gives me flexibility, allows me to travel and pays my bills
  • A “fun” job that helps me pursue my passion for fitness and health (and get paid to work out!)
  • My own apartment
  • Burpees to Bubbly and how far it’s come in just 9 short months
  • YOU! All of you who come back on a daily or weekly basis to read about my random stories, recipes, workouts and rants. It’s still crazy to think there are so many of you who like to hear about my life, but I love it and appreciate your continued support more than you know.

I hope you are all spending time with your family, friends and other loved ones. Splurge on extra mashed potatoes, stuffing or piece of pie. I am all about everything in moderation, so a day of “splurges” is totally acceptable. You can get back on track with healthy eats tomorrow 😉

(and, if you’re looking for a new workout to do, check out my “I’m Thankful” Workout… I will be doing that today before eating a delicious meal!)

What are you thankful for? What’s your favorite dish on Thanksgiving?

Wednesday Workout: The “I’m Thankful” Workout

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It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t post a Thanksgiving workout for you to do, right? I plan on doing this tomorrow morning… hopefully with my sister and maybe my mom! I have to be honest, though, I had such a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do for a workout format for my Thanksgiving workout.

I started off thinking I would do an exercise for each letter in “Thanksgiving”, but I scratched that I idea.

…Next, I drew out a turkey using my hand (remember doing those in elementary school?) and came up with 5 exercises for the fingers (feathers) and cardio moves in the middle, but scratched that.

…Then, I came up with my “I’m thankful” idea and listed out a bunch of moves and gave you options for how you could complete the workout.

…I still wasn’t happy with that so I finally ended up going with the same “I’m thankful” theme, but separated it into different areas: legs, upper body, core and cardio. I think I’m happy with this (I think it will be a good full body workout), but I’m a little bummed I didn’t come up with better/more festive names for the exercises. Had I talked to my friend JP prior to making the workout, I definitely would have used some of his ideas:

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I mean, how awesome are those? The “and finally… a nap” is my favorite part, haha

Anyway! Here is the workout- I hope you like it and I hope it gets you motivated to do it ON Thanksgiving 😉 I’m all about indulging on the delicious foods that come along with Thanksgiving, but I think it’s important to get some physical activity in prior to those indulgences (helps get your metabolism going!).

I'm thankful workout

I think everything is pretty self-explanatory, but if you have questions, let me know. The idea is to work from one part of the body to the next, while throwing in 5 minutes of cardio to get your heart rate pumping!

It felt good to think about exercises that I’m thankful for. I kept it simple because if it wasn’t for these simple exercises, we wouldn’t be able to come up with some crazy versions of them, right?! I am thankful for everything my body allows me to do on a daily basis. I don’t know about you, but I tend to get wrapped up in always wanting to be better and to perform better and to be stronger and can get frustrated when I have a bad workout. But, the thing is, I am blessed that I am able to get to the gym almost daily and workout in general, regardless of how hard/easy my workout might be on any given day. I try to be more mindful of this, but it’s not always easy.

Questions for you: What workout move are you most thankful for? What type of exercise are you most thankful for (strength training, Zumba, Kickboxing, Boot Camp, Pilates, Yoga…. )?

Chicago: Part 3 {Brunching, Architecture Tour, Homemade Dinner}

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Hi there! After this post, my Chicago recap is finally done 🙂 In case you missed the other posts, you can find them here, here, and here.

Sunday morning, I woke up feeling mostly better, but my stomach was still a little off. We hung out in the hotel for a bit and I blogged and we watched some tv. Around 11ish, we ventured out into what looked to be another beautiful day in the city! Seriously, I cannot believe how lucky we got with the weather. It could have been miserably cold/snowy, which we were not prepared for at all!

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We met up with JP for brunch at Eggy’s, but not before going to the grocery store to pick up a bottle of Prosecco since Eggy’s was BYOB. How fun is that?! Dining out would be so much more affordable if you could bring your own booze. Boston, get on that, will ya?!

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Apparently cheese curds are big in Chicago (I didn’t even know what they were until Danielle and JP explained the to me), so we go an order of the fried cheese curds to start. I was pleasantly surprised by how good they were!

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I got the green eggs and ham, which was one of their signature dishes. Sadly, it looked better than it tasted. It wasn’t bad, there was just too much stuff going on… too many flavors.

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We walked around for a bit after brunch to digest and then jumped on an afternoon Architecture Tour. Whenever I go to a new city, I always try to go on as many tours as possible because I think it’s the best way to see the city and get a good overview of all the important pieces of information and dates. JP took this photo of my sister and I as we waited for the tour to start. Whoops. Not very good company!

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Our tour guide was fantastic and I learned so much about Chicago! As I mentioned in my last Chicago recap, Chicago completely burned down and was rebuilt in the 1900’s, so a lot of the buildings are relatively “new” and really interesting to look at since so many famous architectures came to Chicago to show their talents. I didn’t take many photo’s on the tour because it was SO COLD. Seriously… We were freezing because it was mostly in the shade and on the water. Brrr. I did get this one of the Sears (now, Willis) Tower, which is the tallest building in Chicago (right? I think it is…) since they count the tall things at the top in the measurement.

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I didn’t take this photo on the tour, but we did see them and talk about them, so I’ll post it now.

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Danielle and I immediately noticed these buildings when we arrived in Chicago. They were so cool looking, and when we found out that they consider themselves mini “cities”, we thought they were even cooler. Apparently they have everything in the building that a city would have, so basically if you lived in one, you’d never have to leave. A little weird, right?

After the tour, we warmed up by walking around the mall on Michigan Ave and then got a drink in the lobby of our hotel. Danielle and I went to JP’s to make dinner on Sunday night since we were tired of eating out and were craving healthy food. Ok, and, we wanted to shop at the amazing grocery store across from JP’s apartment building. It was like a mix between Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s… but better! It was two levels and had the best deli/hot bar section I’ve ever seen. I died and went to grocery store lover’s heaven!

We went simple for dinner and I just made a veggie and chicken dish, served over a fancy fettuccine with a nice, big salad on the side!

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Yum. It was so good! Danielle and I were in bed by 10pm on Sunday night and it was wonderful. Between traveling for work and then going right to Chicago to travel for fun, we were both exhausted!!! I think I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow 🙂

Monday morning we both got up and went to the gym and then hit the road for the airport.

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I traveled in comfy clothes, which I never do, because I had to sub a class on Monday night and was worried we might be delayed and I wouldn’t have time to change. Lucky for us, everything was on time (shocking for the Chicago airport) and I got home and to the gym with plenty of time to spare!

All in all, both trips were a blast. I might be going back to Chicago with a group of friends over the summer and I’m already looking forward to that possibility because I seriously loved Chicago. If I didn’t live in Boston but had to live in a city, I would choose Chicago. There was just something about it that I loved and I could see myself living there!

Thanks for following along through my recaps of the trip!

Questions for you: Have you done the architecture tour? If you had to pick a city to live in other than where you currently live, where would it be? Do you know of any BYOB restaurants in Boston?