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Excessive Dining Out

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Dining out- do you do it often or not? I know it may seem like I dine out a lot, but in all honesty, I really do eat at home more often than out at a restaurant. I make my lunches every day and I try to cook at least one big meal every Sunday so I can have leftovers throughout the week. I rarely order pizza out anymore and always try to find a way to eat what I have in my fridge/freezer/cabinets.

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But, with that said, over the past few weeks I’ve been eating out a LOT more than usual. Most of it has been related to work travel, which is unavoidable, but I’ve also gone out to dinner more and splurged on getting lunch out on the weekends in the middle of running errands.

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Granted, I’m trying to choose healthy or healthier options when I eat out (Subway, sushi, salads, etc.), but on the past work trip I had a lot more French fries, chips and generally not-so-healthy meals. For instance, here are the meals I had when I was in Ohio for work earlier this week:

  • Sunday- PinkBerry at the airport as a “snack” and a chicken quesadilla for dinner out of ease since there were not a lot of options, it was late and I just needed a little something to take back to my room since I cannot go to bed on an empty stomach (and it was the lowest calorie option on the menu).
  • Monday- Breakfast was healthy and normal, but lunch was a turkey club pita with chips… of which I ate more than I would like to admit. Dinner was a turkey burger and beer & cheddar coated sweet potato fries. Even though I didn’t eat the bun and only had a small amount of taters (and had a salad, but it was basically iceberg lettuce and 1 cucumber. no joke!), pair that with beer and it’s not the healthiest meal.
  • Tuesday- again, healthy breakfast, but lunch was French onion soup and half a BBQ chicken wrap… oh, and sweet potato tater tots. See the reoccurring theme? Dinner was at the airport… a nice, big salad… and another quesadilla.

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For me, these eats were normal for me, but you know what? It’s ok. Now that I am back home I’m able to get back on track with incorporating more veggies in my meals and less French fries and chips.

I got to thinking, though, that when I go through phases where I dine out a lot, I try to follow a few “rules” (I put that in quotations because I hate rules regarding food and eating… so it’s more like guidelines that I like to keep in mind) to help keep me somewhat on track. I thought I’d share those with you today!

Stay away from fruity drinks

When dining out, it’s almost assumed that drinks go along with that, at least with my friends, family and coworkers. I always try to stick to wine or lighter beers and always have water alongside them. Before automatically saying “yes” to another drink, I take a few minutes to drink water and decide if I actually want another drink or not. If I feel like I’m having one just to have one, I’ll generally skip out on another round, but, if I really want another drink, I’ll have one.

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Choose a healthier option on the menu

If something sounds so deliciously good that you know it cannot be healthy, it’s probably not and it’s probably the total opposite: really unhealthy. On the other hand, I know not to order a boring salad because it will leave me hungry and unsatisfied, which is also a bad situation. I try to choose something in the middle: something that is a little bit of a splurge and will satisfy me, but something that won’t leave me feeling gross and heavy after eating it.

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Include a salad in at least one meal

Even if it’s just a side salad, it’s important to get some greens into your diet! Also, if you have a salad before your meal, it will curb your hunger and you will generally eat less of your main meal. Eating more salad and less French fries is never a bad thing 😉

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Start off with a healthy breakfast

Do NOT skip breakfast in anticipation of eating lunch out and splurging on a big sandwich and chips/fries. It’s so important to “break your fast” first thing in the morning with a healthy meal. I always incorporate fruit, carbs and protein, which keeps me full throughout the morning. Kicking off your day with a meal that makes you feel good will set you on a better path for your meals throughout the rest of the day.

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Workout

Even if it’s just a 20 minute workout, it’s something and that counts! It’s so easy to go into “vaca” mode when on the road, even for work travel, and therefore workouts usually go out the window in favor of cocktail hour (or you skip your morning alarm since you were out late the night before). I always try to make workouts a priority when on the road because it helps to counteract a few cocktails 😉

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Drink water throughout the day

A lot of time we think we are hungry when in fact, we are just thirsty. Before you reach for a snack or office treat, have some water. You’ll be surprised by how much that can help your “hunger”. It’s also easy to drink coffee throughout the day to help keep you awake (see above, you might have had drinks and/or stayed out late), but the coffee will only end up causing you to be more dehydrated. Water will keep everything flushed out and also cause you to have to get up and go to the bathroom more… thus getting more movement into your day!

Your turn! Did I miss any? When you know you’ll be enjoying drinks and indulgent food  throughout the day night, what do you do to help you stay on the right track? It doesn’t have to be anything big, because I’m a firm believer that every little bit counts! I want to know your “tricks” for staying healthy in not-so-healthy situations.

I hope you all have a great weekend! I’m having a low key night tonight, teaching tomorrow, running errands and then going to my friends’ (Rachel and Dan) Halloween Party!

The Liebster Blog Award: Questions & Answers

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A few weeks ago, Renee, over at Fearless Food & Fitness nominated me for the Liebster Blog Award- how fun! This is the first time I’ve ever been “tagged” or nominated for one of these things and I have to say, I was pretty stoked about it!

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Here are the rules associated with this award:

The Rules:

  1. Each nominee must link back to the person that nominated them.
  2. Answer the 10 questions which are given to you by the nominator.
  3. Nominate 10 other bloggers you like and who have less than 200 followers.
  4. Create 10 questions for your nominees to answer.
  5. Let them know that they have been nominated by going to their blog and notifying them.

Without further adieu, here are the questions from Renee, and my answers:

1. What’s you’re fave place in the entire world (up until this point) to travel to?

Home to Maine, but since that is such a common occurrence, Rome! I studied abroad fall semester of my junior year of college in Bath, England and did a 10 day trip to Italy (Rome, Florence & Venice) and fell in love with Rome. I have been lucky enough to have done a lot of traveling in my life, and out of all the countries and cities I’ve been to, Rome is my favorite.

2. Your favorite place to go out to eat? Or type of food.

French food is absolutely my favorite. I love sauces and interesting meats and French Onion Soup (haha).

3. Craziest thing you’ve ever done?!

Hmmm. Good question. I’m not a very crazy person, but I think running around a huge bond fire, buck naked, during senior week of college would probably be the craziest thing I’ve done. The looks the next day were hilarious.

4. What’s your current profession? Or current studies (if still in school!)

I’m an audit defense consultant by day, fitness instructor/blogger by night. Although my full time job pays the bills, being a full time fitness instructor and blogger is my dream!

5. Favorite song on the radio RIGHT THIS MOMENT.

Hmm… Good question. Anything country, but right now here are some of my more specific favorites: “Things Can Only Get Better”- Cedric Gervais & Howard Jones and “Lovehate Thing”- Wale… These make me want to work out!

6. If you could date/marry any celebrity in the world, who would it be?

Channing Tatum. Duh. Have you seen his body or his dance moves?!

7. What is a current goal or ambition that you have for yourself?

A big goal I’ve always had is to own my own gym or studio. Some day, I would love to be able to do that and blog. I would be so happy!

8. The one movie that you could watch over & over again and not get sick of.

I don’t watch many movies, but it used to be Grease when I was a kid… at this point, maybe PS I love you? I think it is the sweetest love story.

9. What’s your one guilty pleasure? The more embarrassing, the better!

Hmmm. I am so boring when it comes to this stuff! It used to be drinking Diet Coke while grocery shopping (I know, I really live on the edge), but these days it would probably be…. baking just so that I can eat raw cookie or brownie dough. Again, really living on the edge!

And, here are the bloggers I’m nominating: What Meredith Makes, The Truth About Vinyl and Bikini Tops, Fitness and Feta, Nutcase In Point, On An Inhale, Iowa Girl Eats, Nutrionella, Fannestastic Food, and Petite Athleat.

Your questions are:

  1. If you could pick one meal to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be?
  2. Salty or Sweet (you take that however you want to)?
  3. What is your go-to drink you order when you go to a bar?
  4. If you could live one other place than where you live right now, where would it be?
  5. What is a weird thing you do when you’re alone? (remember this post? That’s what I’m talking about!)
  6. What’s the one thing you cannot live without?
  7. Would you rather: make no money but work a job you absolutely love OR work a job you hate, but make $300K a year?
  8. What is your favorite TV show?
  9. If you could do one thing over in your life, what would it be?
  10. What is your biggest accomplishment thus far? Or, the thing you are most proud of?

Have fun! I can’t wait to read your responses 🙂

Questions for you: I’d love to hear your responses to some or all of the questions above… please share!

Wednesday Workout: My favorite fitness blogs

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I have a super fun “Wednesday Workout” post for you in the makes, but I ran out of time over the weekend, got home much later than planned on Monday and left for North Carolina on Tuesday, so, in other words, I didn’t have a chance to finish it. Womp, womp.

Now that I have time to go to the gym on my own, I’ve noticed that tend to use workouts that fellow bloggers post, or take pieces of their workouts and make a bit of a mash-up workout to do. Since I find these blogs helpful for providing motivation to get to the gym (and workouts to do when you get to the gym), I thought I’d share them with you in case you’re in a workout “rut” and need inspiration.

Fitness and Feta
It should be no surprise that Athena’s blog should be at the top for my favorite fitness blogs. Members always say how the two of us teach very similar classes, and since I have gone to a number of Athena’s classes (back when I lived in Brighton, I went to her 6am Thursday class at the Y religiously) and have done a number of the workouts she’s posted on Fitness and Feta (most recently, her 10-12-15 workout), I can agree that we do have a very similar teaching style! Her workouts are tough, full body and she always keeps the format changing, which helps me when it’s time for me to make my workouts since I tend to get into “fitness ruts” and need reminders for ways to change up a workout. On top of this, Athena has created a number of online fitness “challenges” that helps bring her readers together and push us out of our comfort zone. If you haven’t tried one, I highly suggest it!

Nutcase In Point
Right behind Athena, is Jen’s blog. Jen was also an Oak Square class groupie like I was; we were always in the same classes, always in the front, and usually sweating more than everyone else (sorry, Jen… I take pride in my sweat production! Haha). Anyway, she subbed for some of Athena’s classes and was always a sub that I didn’t mind, because she taught very similarly to Athena. Now that she lives in Canada, we don’t get to workout together (wish we did, though!!), but I do love reading her blog because she always throws in moves that are either completely new to me, or, are moves I haven’t done in forever and completely forgot about. Oh, and did I mention she bakes amazing looking treats and that she used to do a Winesday Wednesday series that I think she should bring back… hint, hint 😉

Fitnessista
Fitnessista was one of the first healthy living blogs I started reading, and I’ve been and avid follower ever since. Gina’s posts range in topics from workouts to her job as a fitness instructor to cute stories about her little daughter and to delicious looking recipes, to name a few. One of my favorite post series are her “Focus On” posts where she picks a trending workout (her latest was Focus On: Buti Fitness which looks incredibly… interesting, to say the least) and gives background about the workout in addition to pros and cons of it. If she isn’t familiar with a particular trending workout, she will have a reader or friend write a guest post on the topic. Another thing I enjoy about her blog is the fact that she reminds us all about the things we should all remember and follow, but rarely (in my case, at least) do, such as resting, changing up the intensity of the workouts, listening to your body, etc.

PB Fingers
Julie’s blog was another blog that I started reading a number of years ago (before she became a full time blogger) and have enjoyed thoroughly throughout those years. Recently, Julie became a fitness instructor and I’ve enjoyed reading about the various classes she has started to teach, as well as all of the functional workouts that she posts. Julie’s workouts tend to be shorter and simpler in format, but sometimes seeing those workouts are just what I need to remember that every workout doesn’t have to have some crazy format or advanced moves to be effective; as long as you’re getting your heart rate up, working hard and sweating, that counts as a workout in my book!

Day With KT
Kim has been a reader and follower of Burpees to Bubbly for a while now (thank you, thank you, thank you!) and when I went over to her site, I realized she’s as big of a fitness nut as I am! She’s also doing the Daily 44 this year in honor of her being 44. The “Daily 44” is something she created to stay healthy and active (which started with her Daily 43 after her 43rd birthday), so each day she picks an exercise and does 44 reps of it. The exercises and format of how she gets to 44 vary from day to day, but I had a blast reading through all of the different exercises she has chosen thus far and can absolutely see myself doing something like this for a milestone birthday (maybe my 30th, which is much closer than I’d like to admit!).

I could go on and on, but these are my top 5 favorite fitness blogs where I get most of my inspiration for workouts.
Questions for you: What’s your favorite fitness blog? Any new ones that I should add to my list?

Weekly Workouts: Taking Advantage of the Warm Weather

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Hi there! For those of you who have today off… I am jealous! I stayed in Maine last night to have “Sunday Dinner” with my parents which was a nice treat. I figured that there wouldn’t be any traffic heading south this morning since a lot of people probably have today off.

I am hoping that last week was the last burst of warm/hot weather for a while. I’m ready for fall: sweaters, boots, jeans, no humidity… anyone else?

With that said, I did take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather last Monday and went for a nice, long(er… for me, at least) run, some of it along the ocean at Constitution beach in East Boston. I was introduced to this beach last weekend on my second tour of Eastie and I was pleasantly surprised with how nice it was- and the fact that it is only 5 minutes from my apartment.

Other than my long run, the rest of the week was par for the course in terms of workouts. I’ve been taking advantage of the gym at my office on days I want to just focus on weights. It’s not a great gym, but it has all the dumbbells I need, in addition to stability balls and mats- more than enough for me to get a sufficient weight session in. Plus, it’s always empty, which is key. I may love having the attention on me in most areas of my life, but when I’m at the gym working out (not when I’m teaching), I don’t want anyone looking at me, so an empty gym is perfect!

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I ran 4.5 miles after work and then did my Monday Fall into Fitness moves, as well as Saturday’s and Sunday’s since I failed to do them on the day I was supposed to. Whoops.

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  • Tuesday- I did a full body strength workout that looked like this: 4 exercises, 12 reps each, 3 rounds, for upper, lower and abs. I left the gym surprisingly sweaty and very tired!

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  • Wednesday- I ran 3 miles on the treadmill before teaching UXF Burn. My classes have been much busier now that the weather is getting cooler!

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  • Thursday- I taught another timed circuit in SHRED followed by kickboxing.
  • Friday- Rest, besides my Fall Into Fitness move of the day and cleaning.
  • Saturday- Taught a super high energy kickboxing class. There were 30 people and everyone was ON IT and having fun and laughing and laughing at my jokes… It couldn’t have been a more perfect class 🙂
  • Sunday- Another rest day besides walking around while shopping and doing my plank for Fall Into Fitness!

This Week’s Workouts

I’m traveling on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, so my workouts will be a little different from normal. I was supposed to be gone on Thursday, too, so I got a sub for my double, but my trip got cut short so I will be around on Thursday. But, I’m keeping my sub because it will give me a chance to go to my favorite instructor’s kickboxing class to helpfully get some new material. I learned most of my teaching style from this instructor so I’m really excited to go to her class (even though I do feel guilty about missing my classes… I’m sorry!!).

  • Monday- I hope to get some type of full body workout in after work today. Ugh. Wish I had the day off!
  • Tuesday- My flight is at 2:30 so I will work from home in the morning. Before that, I will do something at home. Maybe something similar to this? Although I did FINALLY buy some weights this past weekend. I’m so happy to expand my at-home workout equipment.
  • Wednesday- Something at the hotel. We aren’t staying anywhere nice, so I’m assuming the gym isn’t very good, so it may be a hotel room workout. As long as I sweat, I don’t care what I do 🙂
  • Thursday- Since I already got a sub to teach my double, I’m going to head to the Wellington BSC and go to Katie’s kickboxing class. My members may not like having a sub, but they will like having fresh, new material 🙂
  • Friday- Not sure. Usually Friday is my rest day, but if my workouts were light during the week, I’ll probably do something. I won’t be able to do anything on Sunday since I fly out again for another work trip 😦
  • Saturday- Probably cardio and BodyPump since I don’t have to teach. I would LOVE to sub a class on Saturday if there was one available.
  • Sunday- Nothing. I am going to my friend’s party in NH on Saturday night and will likely spend the night, so I will have to get up early and head back since my flight is at 3ish on Sunday.

Questions for you: Did you take advantage of the warm weather last week? Instructor friends, have you ever gotten a sub for your class to go to another class?

5 Things I’m Looking Forward To This Weekend

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Hey there! Happy freaking Friday! I feel like this week absolutely flew by, anyone else? It wasn’t an extraordinarily busy or exciting week (just a regular ol’ work week, followed by workouts and teaching), but every part about it seemed to be in fast forward. I mean, it’s already October 11th. Yuck!

Anyway! I thought I’d share some things that I’m looking forward to this weekend, because that always gets me in a better mood. Plus, I want to know what you’re looking forward to this weekend, too!

1. Going to the dentist. Yeah, that’s weird, right? I love getting my teeth cleaned and haven’t been to the dentist in an embarrassingly long time (who else ends up skipping dentist appointments all together when/if they have to get rescheduled? That’s totally what happened here!).

2. Heading to Maine tomorrow to spend the weekend hanging out with my parents and escaping from my Boston life for a while. Sometimes a girl just needs to get away!

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3. Foliage and leaf peeping! The drive up to Maine at this time of year is absolutely amazing. I’m going to crank some good tunes and soak it all in.

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4. A little shopping in Kittery on my way north, puttering around some stores in Maine and maybe (hopefully) getting my hair cut. Oh, and enjoying some relaxing time where I can drink wine and maybe even sit by the fireplace… It’s the little things…

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5. Prep some fun posts for the next week and give B2B a little lovin’. I’ve had a few workout post ideas in mind, but haven’t had time to get them actually done, so I hope to do that this weekend!

Your turn! What are you looking forward to this weekend? Where do you go when you need to ‘get out of dodge’?