I broke up with my favorite blue pants

October 17, 2016October 16, 2016Leave a comment

I had this awesome pair of blue pants, but they just never fit quite right. I bought them a size too small because that’s all they had- and they were only $20 (don’t tell me you haven’t done the same thing before 😉 ) so from the get-go I probably should’ve walked away from them when I was at the sore. Here’s the thing, while I could wear them no problem, they never really made me FEEL good. They were always tight getting on, tighter in the legs than I liked and they made my butt look very bubbly (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but at work it made me feel a little inappropriate, haha)… all things that would start negative thoughts!

Anyway, the other day I decided to break up with them. I was tired of letting the pants affect my mood and make me have negative thoughts about myself and my body and I was tired of hoping they might be looser each time I wore them, so I decided it was time to get rid of them.

But, the whole thing made me think- how often do we let a piece of clothing or a super fit person on Instagram or something else make us feel not-so-great about ourselves? I’m guilty of this, too, but these days I’m proud of myself for knowing what to do to remove that negativity from my life. In this case, it was by donating the pants. In other cases it’s un-following people on Instagram or Facebook if I constantly notice that their posts make me feel like I’m not in shape or that I need to tighten something up or run faster or blah blah blah… the list could go on!

I’ll tell ya, putting those pants in the donating pile rather than back in my closet was so freeing! I no longer have to amp myself up to put them on, feel bad about the fact that they are still tight, or feel uncomfortable all day when I would wear them. I am more than that, and I owe it to myself to remove things in my life that make me feel that way. Plus, now I have an excuse to go shopping 😉

With that, I urge you to take a look at your closet (or social media accounts or anything else, really) and get rid of something that results in negative thoughts about yourself and/or your body. I promise- you will feel so much better… and then even better than that when you go shopping to replace what you got rid of 😉

Happy Monday, friends! I hope you have a wonderful week 🙂 If you’re looking to sweat with me, tonight at 6:30 is the free Seaport Sweat kickboxing class in the seaport and tomorrow is Bags & Beats at 6:30 at the Watertown GymIt.

Beautycounter Review {and a free gift for you}

September 6, 2016September 5, 20162 Comments

Hi there! Did you guys have a nice long weekend? We had such a great weekend kicking it around Watertown/Boston. As much as it would’ve been nice to have one more Cape weekend before Italy, it was also really nice to not have to pack up and head anywhere!

Today, though, I’m talking about new-to-me beauty products that I’ve had a chance to try out over the past few weeks. Have you heard of Beatuycounter? If not, it is a personal beauty company with a mission to make safer and more effective skincare and cosmetic products for women and children. Did you know that in the United States there have only been 11 products banned and a law has not been passed regulating skincare or cosmetics since 1938?! This means that there are lots of products on the market right now with less than ideal ingredients in them. So, when the founder and CEO, Gregg Renfrew, learned of this she started her mission to create safe and effective products. Beautycounter has created a “never” list with over 1,500 ingredients that will never be allowed in any products sold. Amazing, right?

side note: I REALLY wanted one of these adorable makeup bags!

After Melissa, reached out to me and gave me a glimpse into this product line, I agreed to check out some of the products. For as much as I care about what goes IN my body (meaning, buying organically, etc.), I’m embarrassed to admit that I don’t really think twice about what goes ON my body. I tend to use “whatever is around” in terms of face, body and hair products, but after using some of the Beautycounter products for a few weeks, I’ve seen what a difference it makes to use good quality products. Everything lathered well and felt really light and fresh. While Melissa sent me a lot of different products to try, I have to admit that I only used a handful of them due to the fact that I just don’t care to spend a lot of time on my skincare routine. I wash my face and use a moisturizer…. that’s about it! But, even though I only tried a few I’ll share all of the with you so you can see what they have to offer.

Shower Products: Shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotion and body butter

These were probably my favorite products, which is funny considering they weren’t even facial products! The shampoo is made with pure plant botanicals and it lathered SO well and felt like it was really stripping the mousse and other products from my hair, leaving it feeling nice and clean. The conditioner also worked well to get my gnarly curls loosened up (I am in major need of a hair cut!), probably because of the marula and mongongo oils. Although I’m not a big body wash person (yes, I still use soap- don’t judge!), I did love the way this body wash made my skin feel- even RM was a big fan. And lastly, the lotion and body butter were amazing- there’s something so great about putting on a nice, rich lotion after you get out of the shower, #amiright?! Everything had a similar fruity smell, too.

Face Care: washes & lotions

I also really enjoyed trying out the face washes and lotions. My only complaints were that there was no SPF in the lotion (they only have SPF in their tinted moisturizer, which I think is strange) and the face washes didn’t take off my mascara very well at all, even though it’s washable. I didn’t try the face mist or eye cream, but I’ve heard they work really well. Even though the creams didn’t have SPF, I thought they were great because they were lightweight and didn’t leave me feeling oily. Instead, because of the coconut oil and aloe in them they left me feeling perfectly moisturized. I loved the packaging, too, because one pump gave you exactly the right amount of cream.

Rejuvenating Collection

I didn’t try anything in this line, mostly because if I wanted to see if anything had positive effects, I needed to stick to just a few of the products. This line is also geared towards mature skin and is great for those who want to fight the signs of aging…. I suppose I should’ve tried these, though, because I don’t think it’s ever too early to start that fight! Here’s what Melissa shared with me regarding these products:

Various other products

This was another fun bag of goodies, although we only used the sunscreen and lip balm. If I was into spending more time on my facial care routine, I definitely would’ve tried the face oils and charcoal mask and I think that in the winter a tinted moisturizer would be awesome! If you are into a more elaborate skin care routine, the face oils can be applied directly to your face or mixed with your daily moisturizer to add extra moisture to your skin, which I imagine would be really great in the dry winter months.

All in all, I really enjoyed trying out these products and being introduced to a “new and improved” beauty product line. If you’re interested in learning more, please feel free to reach out to Melissa (beautycounter.melissac@gmail.com)- she can certainly provide more details than I have in this post! Also, if you buy any products from her site and mention Burpees to Bubbly, you can get a FREE GIFT with your purchase! Pretty nice little perk if you ask me!

Now I want to hear from you: What do you use for your daily skincare products? Do you have a strict skincare routine or are you more relaxed about it? Have you started with “age defying” products? Have you heard of or tried Beatuycounter?

Disclaimer: I was not paid to write this post nor was I provided with these products to keep. Melissa let me try them out and I’m sharing my honest opinion of them.

Wedding Recap Part 2: Getting Ready & The Ceremony

August 16, 2016August 15, 20163 Comments

In case you missed the first recap, you can find it here. Now we are on to the main event 🙂

I could barely sleep the night before the wedding so I was up pretty early, although I had to force myself to stay in bed since I didn’t want to see RM in the hotel before he went golfing. Once I knew it was safe to leave the room, I went for a quickie run and then completed a few quickie circuits at the Inn’s little fitness room with my sister. It was the best way to start the day!

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A post shared by Monique Gagnon- Magno (@burpeestobubbly)

Another favorite thing about the venue was that most of the people were staying there so we were constantly bumping into people at breakfast or in the lobby or in the parking lot. It was basically a 2 day sleepover party and I loved every second of it 🙂

Around 11 we started the getting ready process. My best friend Jessi’s twin sister, Josie, did our hair. She is amazing and I wish she could do my hair every day! I originally thought that I wouldn’t have wanted a lot of people around on the day of the wedding, but I was surprisingly so calm and was really just SO happy that I didn’t care who was around! It was a small-ish group with me, but it was some of my favorite people so it was perfect.

Even better? As I was getting my hair done the hotel staff surprised me with a beautiful bottle of bubbly and chardonnay and a cheese plate and chocolate covered strawberries from RM- totally made my morning!

I’m so thankful for my mom’s friend Jeanne who was there before Janelle (our photographer) got there because she was able to capture some great “getting ready” photos.

Once Janelle showed up we were able to take some additional photos, ones that are so special to me because they remind me of exactly how I was feeling. I loved having my closest friends around and my family and knowing that in just a short amount of time I’d be marrying my love.

I think the only time of the day where I felt nervous was once I was all ready. I had about 10-15 mins before the ceremony was supposed to start and it was so hard to stay calm and relaxed… I was ready to go! As it was FINALLY time to walk over to the ceremony location, they had to stall me again because the guitarist had been a little late. Ah! Common! I just wanted to see RM.

And then it was time and all of a sudden all of my nerves went away.

I had both of my parents walk me down the aisle, although by the end it looked like I ended up walking myself down because both of them kept stepping on my dress, haha. Oops! And then there was a whole awkward situation when I got to RM because I tried to hug him then remembered my parents were supposed to do that so then I got flustered. It was pretty funny.

Our ceremony was just how we wanted it- short and sweet. Kim, the officiant and our wedding coordinator, did a great job, but what stole the show for me was RM’s vows. He was bucking the idea of writing our own vows the whole time, but you’d never know because they were so wonderful, heartfelt and loving. He is the absolute best!

After the ceremony we did a whole slew of photos while our guests enjoyed a 90 minute cocktail reception.

And then it was time to be announced as Mr. & Mrs. Magno, which will have to wait until another post… I got a little crazy sharing lots of pictures, but this is a great place for me to save the memories, #sorryimnotsorry…. 😉

Next post will include the reception- if you made it this far, thank you!!! As always, thanks to Jeanne and Janelle for the amazing photos!!

Overcoming “Sunday Scaries”

August 15, 2016August 15, 20164 Comments

I don’t know about you, but Sunday’s used to bring me lots of anxiety. I “had” to do laundry, food shop, meal prep, pack lunches, pack my gym bag, clean, blog…. the list went on and on and unless I got all of those things done, I felt so stressed that I wouldn’t be prepared for the week. <– crazy, I know, but can any of you relate? It’s such a shame that I let so many weekends go by where my “Sunday tasks” would take over my entire day, leaving no room for anything fun.

It wasn’t until I started getting serious with RM that things changed. I realized that spending time with him- doing whatever that might be- was more important that making sure I had everything properly prepped and ready for the week. This wasn’t an entirely easy change to make and I can’t say I didn’t spend many Sunday nights stressed because I hadn’t gotten everything done and felt unprepared for the week, but over time those negative feelings went away and I was able to fully enjoy my Sunday’s all while not stressing about the start of the week.

I think part of this is because I realized that whatever I didn’t get done on Sundays could be done during the week or skipped all together. Didn’t have time to food shop or meal prep? That’s ok- I can always get lunch at work and RM and I can tag-team the meal prep later in the week. Wasn’t able to clean the house? The house will not be a horrible place to live if I don’t get the cleaning done. Laundry didn’t get done? There’s always time at night during the week- not ideal, but it can be done. No blog post written? Since this isn’t really a source of income for me, I’ve learned that I need to remove the stress associated with getting posts up- I know you guys will be around for whenever I am able to publish something so it’s not worth stressing about choosing to live my life rather than write about it 😉

Life will still go on if I don’t get my Sunday things in line, and realizing and accepting this has made a world of a difference in how I approach my Sunday’s. These days I just go with the flow- if we are on the Cape, I don’t feel the need to rush back because I’d rather spend it at the beach. If it’s a nice weekend here and we want to go into the city and hang out, I do what I can to make the week a little easier and fill in the gaps for the rest during the week so that we can enjoy our day. Realizing that I could “do what I can” was the best feeling in the world because even if I only have time to food shop, that’s enough to help take a little edge off the week’s to-do’s.

As I sat writing this post last night, I reflected on the weekend and felt so blessed. Friday night RM and I stayed in and made burgers, Saturday we bought bikes and then my family came down and we had a delicious dinner at the Social in Newton Corner, Sunday morning I went to church with my parents and after saying goodbye to them, spent the day with RM. We took our bikes for a ride to do some errands, we went to the pool, we went to Chestnut Hill to return some stuff, we went to The Cottage for an afternoon cocktail and snack, we food shopped and then I did a small meal prep. I was able to fit in all of my favorite things: family, sun, exercise, relaxation, etc. into my Sunday and not once did I feel the “omg it’s Sunday and I have so much to get ready for the week”. I don’t have a packed lunch, but that’s ok- I’ll just buy something today! I didn’t cleaning done, but it’s no big deal because soaking up these summer Sunday’s is just more important to me!

I feel like I’ve rambled on, but I guess the point of this post that I’m trying to make is that life is too short to waste time and energy on “Sunday Scaries”. There will always be things on your to-do list that you will have wished you’d gotten to, but I’m willing to bet that living in the now and soaking up the moments that come about far outweighs your to-do’s that didn’t get done. So, rather than letting Sunday Scaries get the best of you, face them head on and live your day to the fullest! And do what you can throughout the week to chip away at your to-do’s- they’ll all get done eventually, but I promise that spending time with friends and family is going to create far better memories for you than a clean house and a fridge full of prepped food 😉

Whole Foods Supplement Sale!

August 9, 2016August 8, 20162 Comments

Hi friends! Did you guys have a good weekend? I did! Short recap version: Friday night pizza on the grill night with RM, Saturday boxing at Everybody Fights with my coworker/friend and then pedicures, shopping with RM, heading up to Maine, rehashing/looking through wedding photos with mom & dad, birthday party, pool time & dinner at home. All in all, it was pretty great 🙂

What I also got to do to kick off the weekend was check out the Lynnfield Whole Foods’ supplement section in preparation for their upcoming sale this weekend, 8/12-8/14. Similar to last year, they are offering 25% off all supplements and powders, which is a really incredible deal!

To help promote the sale, they invited me in to speak with the Assistant Team Leader in the Whole Body department. Nick was incredibly informative and knowledgeable about the products that they sell. It was especially nice because he is also into health/fitness so a lot of the things I was asking about and products I was looking for were ones he was very familiar with so I really valued his suggestions.

In the end, I walked out with this loot:

Vega Protein Powder– I’m a big fan of Vega products, so I was excited to hear that they created a new line for post workout recovery. I tried a packet after boxing on Saturday and it was delicious!
Renew Life Ultimate Flora Probiotic– RM has been trying to get me to take a probiotic for years, but it’s something I never think to buy on my own, so when I visited Whole Foods I made sure to ask Nick about them. He recommended this brand and I’m excited to see if I notice any difference in how my body feels when taking it.
Gaia Ashwagandha Root– Nick suggested this when I told him I’ve been pretty stressed lately because he said it helps to respond to stress better. In his words “it allows me to feel more calm when I start my day and whatever it is that’s stressing me out”. <– I’ll take that! What I liked about this brand is that there’s a barcode on the back so you can see exactly where the roots/herbs were grown.
Zyflamend- As we talked more about what I do on a day to day basis, Nick suggested this herbal pill to help with inflammation and pain relief. I’m interested to see if this will have any effect after hard workouts or if I’m feeling sore from something else.

All in all, I’m excited about trying out these supplements because they all seem like natural ways to help regulate various things in the body. I’ve never been good at taking anything regularly (vitamins, probiotics, protein powders, etc.), but I’m hoping that with these great products I can get into a better rhythm of taking them.

If you’re in the need for any sort of health & body supplements/herbs/etc. (protein powders, vitamins, probiotics, oils, etc.), I suggest heading over to Whole Foods (especially the Lynnfield one because that section is so big) and taking advantage of this sale!

Questions for you: Do you take any supplements? Do you take any vitamins? Post workout recovery assistance?

Whole foods graciously gave me these products to try, as well as a gift card to use at their store on a later date. All opinions- as always- are my own. I truly think this is a great deal worth sharing!

Burpees to Bubbly

Because good workouts deserve bubbly rewards!

Category: Uncategorized

I broke up with my favorite blue pants

Beautycounter Review {and a free gift for you}

Wedding Recap Part 2: Getting Ready & The Ceremony

Overcoming “Sunday Scaries”

Whole Foods Supplement Sale!

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