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Fitness Instructor Pet Peeves

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Hey friends! Happy Friday! How about this crazy hot weather, right?! I don’t understand how it goes from 50’s to 90’s overnight. Something just doesn’t seem right about that. I am going to Tia’s on the water for drinks after work and I can’t wait! Perfect way to spend a hot, Friday afternoon 🙂

Yesterday was not a very good day at work. My work computer got a MASSIVE virus and IT said that it killed everything on my computer and could not be removed and/or fixed. Fantastic. So, from 9am to 1pm, I was dealing with computer sh*t (sorry, but that’s how frustrating it was!). With my job, I literally cannot do anything without a computer, so, what did I do to pass the time, you might ask? Well, I came up with some blog post topics… duh 😉

Since I teach a fair amount of classes each week (6 this week, to be exact), I see loads and loads of interesting things while I am there! Some make me laugh, some drive me cray-cray, but I thought it would be fun to share them with you today. Anyone else who spends any time at the gym can surely agree with me!

Fitness Instructor Pet Peeves

  1. People who come in late and make a big scene getting their equipment and finding a spot. I understand PT delays or traffic (we have all been there!), but please try your best to sneak in quietly, grab your stuff quickly, and get to work. I get in a “groove” while teaching, so when I have to stop and help someone set up while also trying to keep the class going, it’s super hard.
  2. Just because I am a female instructor and the class is 95% females, doesn’t mean it’s an “easy” class and won’t be a kick butt workout for guys, too. Trust me, it will, and if you don’t believe me, I dare you to come to a class!
  3. Don’t come to class in just a sports bra. Actually, don’t go to the gym in just a sports bra. Working out in your home by yourself? Go for it. But at the gym? Please be courteous (even if you have a rocking hot bod) and wear a shirt. I’ve witnessed a “nip slip” in my class and I’d love it if that never happened again!
  4. When people come in each week and lift the same weights, expecting to see a change. Change happens when you do something different. Get out of your comfort zone and listen to me when I say “go heavy”.
  5. When people roll their eyes at me when I throw in crazy/weird things into class.  Please humor me and at least TRY to do what I am instructing (jump squats with weights, full burpees, crab walks, etc.). I understand injuries and other limitations that inhibit you from doing some of what I teach, but I know there are “fakers”, who just don’t WANT to do what I’m instructing because it’s hard 😉 I’m onto you!
  6. People who come in and talk to their friend the whole class. Class is 1 hour out of your day and it’s so distracting to me and the other members when you’re having a full on conversation with your friend, so save it for before or after class.
  7. When people are not mindful of their space, my space, and their neighbors space. No one wants you up in their space!
  8. Speaking of space, don’t “share” equipment like steps/benches. Get your own!
  9. When members give me the evil eye when I tell them that they only need a mat and weights. You don’t need every piece of equipment in the room to make it a “good” workout, so put your barbell, body bar, 4 sets of weights and step away. K? Thanks!
  10. Smelly people. Please be courteous of everyone else in the room (which tends to get hot when we are all working hard) and wear deodorant. ’nuff said.

Anyone else feel the same way about any of these?! Any that I missed? What is your BIGGEST pet peeve when you’re at the gym?

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We just got news that our best friend, Sara, is on her way to the hospital to hopefully have her baby soon! If she has it today, my sister and I will head up to Maine after I teach tomorrow!!!!

Friday Things! All sorts of random things…

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Hi friends! Happy Friday! and long weekend… the best kind of weekend, right?! What do you have planned this weekend?? Unfortunately, I am not going to Figawi, but now that I have seen the weekend weather, I am not as sad about that decision! I am teaching kickboxing tomorrow morning at the YMCA and then my sister, chuck (aka her cat, Charlie) and I will make the trek north. Our family always hosts the Memorial Day BBQ and our friends, the Mahoney’s, always host the 4th of July BBQ (because they have a pool and pool parties are the best!), so I am looking forward to helping my parents host a little get together!

Unfortunately, I don’t have the day off today, so let’s get right to the post so I can get back to work 😉 (I wrote this on my lunch break, so no worries!)

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On Wednesday, Danielle came to my UXF class and then we met up with Amy at Redbones for some delicious, cheap BBQ… can’t get better than that!

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I got lunch from Bee’s Knees yesterday. Bee’s Knees recently opened up a location in Fort Point directly across the street from the entrance into my building for work. I immediately fell in love with it. Literally, if I could design a store, it would be Bee’s Knees. They have all sorts of weird, quirky, “granola” type items that they sell and as a foodie and health nut, I love it! Oh, and they have a nice wine and beer selection, too- told you it was the perfect store!

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(I got this on sourdough because I learned on Sunday that if you can’t order whole wheat or Ezekiel, order sourdough since it’s much easier for our body to break down)

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I had my butt handed to me when I took a Core Fusion Cardio class at Exhale Spa. Seriously, I despise mountain climbers because I struggle so much with them (my shoulders burn!!) and we did enough for a lifetime. But still, I left that class with a smile! I even took one of the moves and brought it to UXF:

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1-legged walk out push-ups. Love!

Speaking of more moves that I have loved bringing into class this week, I learned this beauty from Celeste at the Wellness By The Water Retreat.

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Run the plank!!! so fun.

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My dad’s emails literally crack me up! What is even more funny, is that he doesn’t comment ON my blog posts, but rather, he sends me an email with his comment. So funny.

023Deep Knee Bends= the new way to refer to squats. Wadda ya think of that?! I love it.

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Speaking of Jess, she just sent out her first newsletter, featuring yours truly! As I have mentioned before, Jess and I have partnered together to create “Mommy’s Moves” which will be a series of short, but effective workouts with busy mom’s in mind. This one is just 7 minutes, including my intro, warm up and cool down, and I don’t care how busy you are, you have 7 minutes to dedicate to your health and fitness! Click on this link to check it out. If there are any new mom’s out there reading my blog that have ideas of what they would like to see in a quick workout, please shoot me an email or leave a suggestion in the comments section!

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Look what arrived on our doorstep this morning!

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My sister and I splurged and purchased Jack Rogers for the summer. I absolutely love the ones I bought, but I think they are a smidge too small:(

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This is why I don’t shop online; I like instant gratification so when I order something and it doesn’t fit, it is REALLY disappointing:(

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Try this circuit 4 times through!

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Ok, one more thing. JP sent me this from http://whatshouldwecallme.tumblr.com/post/51016946731/when-i-take-on-too-many-things-at-once. Hahaha totally me!

Phew! I think that is it? If you’re around for kickboxing tomorrow morning, please come! It will be the best way to kick off your long holiday weekend 🙂

Questions for you: What’s the best thing you’ve done or seen this week? Do you own Jack Rogers? Are you a fan of online shopping? Ever been to Bee’s Knees or Redbones?

Friday Dance Time!

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Ok, not really, but you never know! I might bust out some moves when the Ellen Show comes on later today (I mean, how can you NOT want to dance when she’s dancing?!). Happy Friday, everyone! For the life of me, I couldn’t keep my days straight this week. And not in one of those “ugh, it feels like Friday but it’s only Wednesday” or “Wow it’s already Friday? It feels like Wednesday” way, I simply just haven’t known what day it is! I do, however, know today is Friday and that makes me very happy! Let’s catch up on the week…

Monday

I worked from home, went for a 40 minute run, and then cooked this delicious meal:

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Tuesday

I was able to make it to a class with my FAVORITE instructor. Holy moly did she kill us! I secretly loved it, and very openly loved it when I took a lot of what she did and made my class do it on Wednesday 😉 Look at this beautiful sky that I took a picture of as I walked home from the gym:

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Wednesday

I had a blast teaching UXF Burn! Like I said, it was a tough one, but if people are taking an hour out of their day to come to my class, I want it to be worth it! So we work hard 🙂

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AND, how lucky was I that my sister (who had just gotten home from a vacation in the South) texted me and said she would have homemade pizza ready for me when I got home. #bestthingever Look at this beauty of a pie!

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Thursday

How ’bout that beautiful weather?! I was so so happy that I was finally able to enjoy a lunch on the water without freezing. And, to make it even better, JP was in town and met me! He got a Sportello Lunch Box and I got a sandwich from Flour…. and a cookie later in the day 😉

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Post work, I headed to the gym to teach my double. We did a stations workout somewhat similar to this one. It was actually quite different, but the same format idea. What’s great, is that members seem to enjoy this type of workout just as much as I do 🙂 Kickboxing was a bit of a hot mess, but that’s what I get when I try to make up complicated “sets” while sitting at my desk and not actually TRYING them before teaching them! Most members in my class are regulars now, so they know how to roll with it!

When I got home, I went to water my garden and look what I saw!

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Everything is coming up!!!! My flowers are not doing so well, but look at these babies! I can’t believe it.

And, that brings us to today! I thought about getting up to do some core work or arm stuff, but I realized that I haven’t rested since Friday, and every day has been pretty tough workouts, so I am opting for a rest day. Looking at my weekend (kickboxing tomorrow and Wellness by the Water Retreat on Sunday), today is a great day to rest.

Questions for you: What’s been your favorite thing this week? Favorite pizza topping? What’s going on tonight? Dinner or drinks out? I want to do something tonight, but not sure what that is yet!

Have a wonderful Friday, everyone!

Mother’s Day Recap

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Hey everyone! I know it’s a little late to be posting a Mother’s Day recap, but better late than never, right? Even though my sister wasn’t home to celebrate Mother’s Day with us, mom, dad and I still had a great day!

We decided to not rush around to make it to the 9AM mass and went to the 11AM instead. Since we were planning to have a brunch and didn’t want to eat at 3pm, we did all the prep work for the meal prior to church.  Dad got the potatoes and onions going, mom pre-cooked the sausage and I got all the ingredients together for the mini Quiche’s.

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After church, mom and I went to the grocery store quickly and then came home, popped some bubbly and got to work on the getting the brunch together.

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Mom FINALLY let me give her the rest of her Mother’s Day present. I am really bad at surprises and keeping things from people. As soon as I buy something for someone, I want to tell them about it or give it to them. Mom, on the other hand, likes to wait. So, I waited. From Friday to Sunday. Even after a couple of wines I still couldn’t get her to give in and open it! Alas, Sunday came and she said it was time!

When I was in NYC, we went to Chelsea Market and to the Chelsea Wine Vault. As soon as I saw this “wine tote” I knew I had to get it for mom. Mom and her friends go to the beach at least a couple of times a week in the summer and always bring wine or champagne. They try to be discreet by using Dasani bottles for their wine, but I think we all know that’s not discreet at all. Neither is this, but it’s pretty darn cute!

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Brunch was absolutely delicious!! As much as I love breakfast and breakfast foods, I never take the time to make really delicious breakfasts, so Sunday was a nice treat!

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YUM! We had lots of leftovers, so after we finished, I helped mom pack them up, aka I packed up stuff I wanted to take home with me:) I love when I get to go “grocery shopping” at my parents house! Also, to all my fellow organizers out there (ahem, Athena), I have to show you my parents Tupperware closet. Yes, you read that correctly, they have a closet for all of their Tupperware. I am SO jealous!

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One day, maybe I’ll be able to have one of those. Talk about making it easy to “grab n’ go!”

That about sums up the day! The sun did come out in the afternoon which was a nice surprise. Mom sat outside and read and I joined her out there while I did some arms and core workouts! I packed up to leave around 4:45 and was greeted with an apartment that did not have hot water. Lovely. Oh well. Could’ve been worse!

Questions for you: Are you super organized when it comes to putting away Tupperware and pots and other things like that? Favorite beach beverage?

What Are You Thankful For?

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Hi there! So remember how I said I was in a bit of a funk on Friday? I was talking to someone about it last night, and he gave me some really good advice. He told me that what has helped him when he’s been going through a rough time, is to make a list of everything he is thankful for and try focusing on that. Well, I did that last night and you know what? It totally helped! Unfortunately, I think we tend to focus on the negative and the issues at hand, rather than focus on the positives. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in being angry or frustrated or sad, but sometimes all we need is a reminder that there are so many happy things to think about and focus on and be thankful for!

With that being said, here is my current list of things I am thankful for:

1. My family and their never-ending support.

2. My friends- college, home, high school, work, fitness… I’m so blessed to have so many!

3. A flexible “real” job that pays my bills.

4. The ability to have a second job that is all about my passion.

5. Being able to teach a variety of classes.

6. My body, and all that it allows me to do.

7. Being able to be a source of inspiration and motivation for people in my classes (and maybe even some of you who read my blog?!).

8. Burpees to Bubbly. ‘Nuff said. I love this little hobby and love all of you who read and support me!

9. My health (knock on wood!).

10. Wine. Again, ’nuff said.

11. Cooking and trying new recipes.

12. Being from Maine.

13. Working in Boston.

14. That spring weather seems to be FINALLY showing it’s pretty little face.

15. Ice cream and cookies.

Ahh, even just writing them out and reading back through them makes me feel so much better! I could go on and on, but those were the first 15 that popped into my head today.

Your Turn!! You tell me- what are 5 things you are thankful for right at this very moment? I’d love to hear them, and I promise you’ll feel so much better once you write them down!