Just wanted to check in and say hi! Hope everyone is having a great Saturday. I will fill you in on my time at C2 Pilates tomorrow… I am not sure I’ll be able to move without severe pain- I can’t wait. Anyway, here’s a sneak peek into my Saturday!
How is your Saturday? Do Share!
Gotta jet… Dinner out with the ladies:)
Well, I guess winter wasn’t ready to leave us quite yet! Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the snow, but I do not like the city of Somerville when they announce a parking ban at 10pm… nothing like waking up and walking out to “check on” my car and seeing that stupid orange envelope sticking out of the door:( $100 later, I am not a happy person! I think I am actually going to contest it… I was in bed at 10pm last night so I had no way of knowing that the parking ban went into effect at 10pm… thoughts?
Weekly Workouts (a day late!)
And now for the workout I promised!
Couple of Notes:
I taught this class in a format where we worked in 2 groups on 2 separate sides of the room for the entire workout. For part 1, group A set up a set and 2 sets of weights on the left side of the room and group B set up mats on the right side of the room. Group A started with 60 seconds of side tap downs over the bench while group B was doing a walk-out plank. At the end of 60 seconds, the groups sprinted to the other side of the room to perform the move the previous group had done. This was how all of part 1 went moving from exercise #1 to #5, and then repeating that 3 times. It’s great because in Allston, the classes are taught on a basket ball court, which means LOTS of distance to run:) muahahaha
For Part 2, I had group A start on the left and group B start on the right, but this time there was no equipment and they lined up along the walls. Group A started and the did high knees to mid-court, dropped and gave me 1 push up burpee then finished high knees across the floor until they got to group B. Once they got there, Group B did the same thing back, but when they got to mid-court for their push up burpee, I had group A leave and start their butt kicks. Since some of you may do this workout on your own, I changed it up and gave you timed intervals, but if you plan on teaching this, I would definitely use the “move across the floor” method- it’s a great way to change-up the normal format of a class!
Part 3 was performed in the same way- Group A started with 60 seconds of weighted squats on the left side of the room while group B did a 60 second wall sit. When the minute was up, the groups sprinted to the other side of the room to do that exercise. The sprints across the floor were awesome to incorporate some HIIT aspect into the workout. We were all huffing and puffing by the end!
Let me know if you have questions- I had a blast teaching this and plan to do it again with another group:)
Questions for you: What do your workouts look like this week? Snow- happy about it or detest it?
Since I plan on participating in St. Patrick’s Day fun tomorrow (for anyone who knows me, day drinking on a Sunday is pretty much the biggest rarity around!), I wanted to make sure I had my “Sunday” things out of the way today.
This morning was my first weekend to teach Cardio Kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA and boy was it fun! I had 39 people in class and it was awesome because the vast majority of the class was already super familiar with kickboxing. I think my format/style was a little new to them, but when we finished class and started to stretch, I asked what they thought and they gave me a round of applause. I don’t generally blush or get embarrassed, but that was the best thing they could have done and I totally blushed!
Ashley was right… it was one heck of a sweaty class today. I went in with straight hair and left with curly hair. The mirror in front of me was speckled with sweat. You get the idea…
Post workout and shower (definitely necessary), my friend Jess and I met up at Flour for a business lunch. We have some fun plans in the works for Lovage and Burpees To Bubbly, so be on the lookout in the near future (especially to all the new moms who are reading!). I was a bad blogger and didn’t take pictures of us or our lunch, but I did take a picture of my post lunch treat
Yup. You’re seeing that correctly. I LOVE the Shamrock Shakes at Mc Donalds. Granted, I only had a few bites/sips of this before I was all set with the minty flavor, but what I did have was delicious!
My sister and I spent the rest of the day running some errands and grocery shopping… woohoo for a super exciting Saturday afternoon (nothing like the type of fun our mom is having. She is currently out dancing in North Conway and we are home watching a movie. I can only hope to be as cool as she is when I grow up!).
My sister has recently introduced me to a fantastic blog, especially if you are really into cooking. Iowa Girl Eats– any of you heard of it? Apparently she posts recipes literally every day! I am so impressed.
Anyway, we were looking through her Spring-Ready Recipes prior to grocery shopping so we could figure out what we wanted to cook. I was pretty much drooling as I read through the recipes she had listed. EVERYTHING looked and sounded amazing, but as soon as I saw her recipe for BBQ Chicken Quinoa, I knew that’s what I was in the mood for eating.
I followed her recipe pretty much to a T, but I did 1/2 the recipe since my sister was making her Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Casserole and I knew I’d want to try some of that, so head on over to her blog for the recipe. Her photo’s are way better than mine, but here are some to keep you entertained for now 😉
(You can’t beat these rotisserie chickens at Market Basket!)
After shredding the chicken, add BBQ sauce and mix together.
The grocery store didn’t have any corn on the cob, but the canned corn ended up working out juuuust fine.
Mix together Plain Greek Yogurt and BBQ sauce- this mixture was delicious, btw.
Place some quinoa on a plate, add some corn and black beans, chicken & BBQ sauce mixture and the BBQ sauce and Greek Yogurt sauce. The flavors in this were on spot! I think next time I would add some type of green veggie, but other than that, I wouldn’t change anything. Definitely a very quick and easy meal to throw together… I can’t wait to use these ingredients in left over’s all week!
Questions for you: Do you do “Sunday” things? What’s your favorite recipe blog or website? I’m always looking for new ones!
Howdy! (sorry, I had to!) Sorry for being a little MIA this week (I tried to keep you entertained with some facebook updates, photo’s and workouts, though), but from the time my alarm went off at 5am on Tuesday from the time I walked in the door Thursday night at 10:15pm, I had literally zero free time. It’s a good thing that I like my coworkers so much:)
I am not going to recap everything, but I will say that there were some very funny videos, terrific speakers and lots of laughs! I kept Tuesday night fairly low-key since I knew I had to be at the hotel for my professional photo at 7am on Wednesday morning. I lead a very small boot camp workout (big thanks to JP and Doan for showing up!) before meeting up with the crew for a Mexican dinner. Check out the size of this gym!!! Amazing. I was in fitness heaven:)
We just did a quick 25 minute workout- 5 minute warm up & 2 10 minute circuits of 10 moves done for 60 seconds each. I did a similar workout in my hotel room on Wednesday morning, too. Even though I had to get up so early, I knew I wouldn’t regret the workout!
Wednesday night was the awards dinner. I knew I might be in trouble when we had a happy hour that lasted, ohhh like 2 hours. Whoops! (note to self, there is really no need to double fist when it’s an open bar all night.)
Post dinner, more drinks and socializing, we managed to round up the troops and head to Sfuzzi’s. Enter: more drinks, loads of dancing, and a push-up contest. Yes, you read that correctly.
Sonja took a video, but it was too dark and blurry. I will say, though, that I won the contest haha
Anyway, I love that I have lots of fun work friends, it’s just a shame that we work in offices across the country. Maybe that’s why things get so messy when we get together?
SO, that about sums it up! Thursday was definitely a ROUGH day, but every now and again it feels good to let loose and have fun!
Questions for you: Work trips- fun or not fun? Ever been to Dallas?
Oh, that’s right… 8 hours of it was spent at the South Station BSC. It’s amazing how much faster the weekends go by when a whole day gets taken away from you! Let’s get caught up, shall we? I don’t have many pictures, so I apologize in advance for the wordy post!
The kickboxing exam went pretty well, I think. I won’t know for another 4-6 weeks whether I passed or not, but I think I definitely passed the practical part of it. The written part, on the other hand, was incredibly hard! All those joint actions and muscle talk is so hard to keep straight! I found myself doing the movements- awkwardly- while I was trying to figure out if a jab had a shoulder flexion in the execution phase. Bored, yet? The best part of the day was the instructor. Her name is Aimee Nicotera and not only was she incredibly knowledgeable (and jacked!), but she was hilarious and totally made us feel like rock stars… definitely helped to settle my nerves! Plus, she gave us some sweet hand wraps:
I mean, I felt pretty B.A. when I had these on! I wonder what my students would think if I showed up to class with these on?! I might try it just to see their reactions…
I finished the exam around 5 and I promptly opened the wine I had chilling in the fridge for me as soon as I got home. I bought it for the name, but I’ll be honest, it was not my favorite chardonnay I have ever had. Now, don’t let that fool you into thinking I didn’t drink it… that is basically a sin in my family… no wine shall ever go to waste!
I got up this morning and immediately felt every muscle I worked yesterday (love that)… I was especially happy when I realized it felt like I had done 200 bicep curls yesterday. The bicep muscle is one of the antagonist muscles when throwing a jab, meaning it is working to retract the arm in the second phase of the punch, so that means I was punching correctly, yay! (again, thanks Aimee).
Best way to loosen up tight muscles? Head to the gym, of course! I NEVER get to go to the gym to do my OWN workout anymore, so I was so excited. Plus, the Wellington BSC just put in this awesome work area:
It was like play time at the gym!! My roommate has a personal trainer so I did a couple of rounds of one of her workouts- killer! I am obsessed with TRX bands, but I could live the rest of my life without ever touching those ropes again:) And, I was in Dynamax heaven when I saw all those balls! Anyway, amazing workout… I was especially happy about it when I saw the buffet at the Langham Hotel. Cafe Fleuri sure knows how to serve an unbelieveable brunch!! There was a sushi station, pasta station, omelet station, meat carving station, fruit station, crepe station… and a chocolate fountain. I died and went to foodie heaven!
Of course I had dessert, too, but I got too excited and forgot to take a picture. If you’re in the Boston area and looking for a phenomenal brunch, definitely check out Cafe Fleuri… it is worth every penny!
Phew! That was a lot to catch you up on! I am hoping for a relaxing night filled with some cooking, a little wine and maybe even some TV! Really living on the edge now;)
Questions for you: What did you do this weekend? Busy or not busy? Go to brunch anywhere good? I want to know!
Burpees to Bubbly 