Category: Uncategorized

How I Stay Active Working A “9-5” Desk Job

6 Comments

While many people in my classes think I just live the fitness life of teaching classes/training people (I wish!), I do have a regular “9-5” job (which is actually more like a 7-5 job, but who’s counting 😉 ) that requires me to do more sitting than I need/want. I try my best to stay as active as possible throughout the day, but I’ll admit: when you’re super busy with back to back meetings, it can be hard to get a lot of movement in! I’ve touched upon this topics a few times  before on the blog, but as there are some new followers out there, I thought I’d touch upon it again- I don’t think we can receive too many reminders/tips on how to stay more active in our day to day lives, even if you aren’t working a desk job!

I’m sure we’re all familiar with the “take the stairs!”, “park further away” and the “get up rather than calling”, tips, right? And rightfully so- as much as these may seem like nothing, every little bit does count when you add it up. Which I think is the biggest way that I stay active: I move as much as I possibly can…

I park on the ground level of our parking garage so that I have to walk to the front door and then up 2 flights of stairs to my office.

I use the bathroom downstairs so that I have to do the stairs down and up.

I drink a lot of water so that I a: have to get up to go to the bathroom frequently and b. have to get up and refill my water frequently.

I walk to people’s office’s instead of calling or emailing.

I do laps around the office, sometimes “pretending” I need supplies or something in the kitchen.

Rather than combining my water refill/bathroom/etc. into one trip, I break it up and do it separately

I’ll try and go for a walk- even if it’s just 5 or 10 minutes.

These may not seem like much, but they really do require much more movement on my part than if I didn’t do them. And I’ll be the first to say- it’s so easy to NOT do these things. To take shortcuts to save time. To call people instead of walking to go see them. To get caught up in your work and realize you haven’t stood up in 2 hours.

Creating more movement in your day when you work a desk job requires you to be cognizant of your movement and to continuously think of ways you can move more. In fact, I started doing a lot of the above movement tips when I started wearing a FitBit because I was shocked to see how little I moved during an average day in the office and I’ve even noticed that I move less now that I don’t wear a step/movement tracker because I’m not as aware of how much or how little I’m moving.

Don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with days where you decide to veg out on the couch rather than get movement in. In fact, I think it’s very good to have days like that once and a while, but in general, I think movement is always a good choice. Our bodies are meant to move and if we are lucky enough to be able to move them, we should. It doesn’t have to be intense (it shouldn’t always be intense), it doesn’t have to be long (it shouldn’t always be long) and it doesn’t have to be organized- a simple choice of walking to do errands, go out to eat, go to Church, etc. will help get you moving, accomplish a “to-do” and make you feel better. I feel so fortunate to be able to walk to Walgreens, the dry-cleaners, the grocery store, Church, my nail salon and some of our favorite restaurants so I try not to take advantage of that by driving to them when I know I can walk to them. In fact, as we start to house hunt, a requirement of mine is being able to walk to things (this is not something I had the luxury of doing when I was a kid because I lived in a very rural town, so I love being able to do it now!)).

To sum it up, yes, I work at an office for anywhere from 8-10 or 11 hours a day, but that doesn’t mean that I am completely sedentary all day. All it means is that I have to make extra effort to get some movement in. It’s nothing too hard or time consuming, but – and I hate to sound cliche- every little bit does count. Moving makes me feel good, so I make it a priority to do it in some way, shape or form as much as I can.

Questions for you: How do you get movement in during the day? Do you find it hard or do you work at a job where movement is part of it? Do you have any tips for fellow readers for getting more movement in?

 

 

Bebe’s Boyd Street IPA {Brewing Beer at Hopsters}

4 Comments

This post has been a long time coming! Last year, I got RM a gift card to make beer at Hopsters Brewery in Newton Corner… conveniently located a short 5 minute walk from our apartment. However, for any number of reasons, we didn’t end up making it there until RM’s birthday back in December. When we realized we still hadn’t gone AND his birthday was on a Friday night, we figured it would be a great way to celebrate his day.

We loved Hopsters for many reasons before our visits (beers are great, food is delicious, vibe is on point), but after we worked with their team to make beer and saw how much they knew and how passionate they were about beer, we loved them even more! It was pretty cool watching them in their element.

Since this was RM’s gift and because he is the beer lover out of the two of us, I let him make all of the decisions in terms of what type of beer we were going to make. Recently, he’s really been into IPA’s, so he chose to base the beer off of their Double IPA recipe. What is really neat about the process is that they use their recipes just as that- a base- and then as you start the actual process they offer different options/suggestions for how to change it up a bit. For us, we opted to change it up in terms of the types of “hops” we used.

I had no idea there were so many to choose from! Between that and the wheat and barley, it was such an interesting project and learning experience. On top of learning about hops and beer ingredients, we learned about the process when it came to actually brewing the beer.

It starts out in a big barrel type thing where the water and hops and other ingredients get heated to a certain temperature. While this happens, we had the chance to have a beer (not the one we were making, haha) and some food. I think it was about an hour or so. Once this was up, we watched as they moved the beer from the barrel into keg type setup that they keep in their lower area. From there, the beer takes a few weeks to go through the fermentation process. Once it’s reached that point, you go back and start the bottling process.

The first session takes about 2 hours when you include the wait times throughout various parts of the process. The bottling takes about an hour and a half as you have at least 72 bottles to fill and cap! For some reason, our brew created nearly 90 bottles but we had to give them to Brody (or Brady? I can’t remember his name, but he was the one who helped us with our brewing- he was amazing!!) since we were only allowed to take 72 home by law.

(And yes, while it make look like we bottled on the same day due to RM wearing the same shirt, it was done about 3 weeks later… he just clearly loves this shirt 😉 )

Once we finished bottling, we were able to put our labels on and take them home. After your first visit, they give you the link to where you can upload your label design to their template so they can print it for you. The brewing, bottling, labels and gratuity are all included in the cost, which is nice. It was about $230 for us to make an IPA (just as an FYI).

And as for the name, RM’s father had nicknames for his 3 kids and Bebe was RM’s nickname. He also lived in the apartment we currently live in when he was a kid (during the Bebe nickname time period), so he decided to go with Bebe’s Boyd Street IPA. The close runner up was the Irritable Italian IPA (gotta love a good alliteration), which I think should be the name the next time we do it 😉

Overall, this was such a fun experience and we learned so much! We would both recommend this to anyone who enjoys beer or is looking for a good gift idea! Big thanks to Hopsters for making it such a fun activity- and for helping us brew and absolutely delicious beer!

Questions for you: have you ever made beer before? Or wine? What’s the last activity date youv’e done? 

“Do you eat that?”

Leave a comment

Every couple of weeks, it seems like my company is hosting a luncheon for some type of contract/business win. Most of the time it’s pizza and salad, but other times it’s random. Last week, it was sandwiches. I’m not a huge sandwich fan, but I think that’s because we never ate a lot of them growing up. I didn’t have ham and cheese for lunch, we didn’t go out for Italian subs, and I didn’t even like jelly or jam for a while so I would just eat peanut butter sandwiches, which isn’t really your traditional sandwich. In other words, my indifference towards sandwiches has nothing to do with the fact that there’s bread (often times lots of wonderfully delicious bread) involved with it; I don’t not (love that double negative) eat sandwiches because of the carbs. I’m all set with applying rules to different food categories and letting that dictate how I eat.

But, the other day when we were talking in the kitchen about the sandwich lunch, a coworker looked at me and asked: “Do you eat that? You probably don’t.”, to which I replied “I do eat sandwiches and bread, it just has to be one that tastes really good to me. Or I have to be in the mood.” Take for instance, the most amazing prosciutto and cheese sandwiches we had while we were in Italy. They were so simple, yet so fresh and all around absolutely incredible so I gladly ate those on more than one occasion.

I find it funny how many people label or regard me when it comes to food and exercise. So often, people automatically assume that just because I write a healthy-living blog, because I generally choose lots of veggies, protein, fruits, etc. and because I workout and teach fitness that I don’t eat “unhealthy” things. That I don’t eat carbs. Or fats. Or sweets. As such, it’s fairly frequent that I’ll get the “I didn’t know you ate that.” or “ahh, it’s good to see that you splurge, too” when I’m seen grabbing a cookie, or peanut butter filled pretzels, or chips, or whatever else might be where I am (kitchen, at a party, at an event. etc.)

While I know people generally  don’t mean any harm with their comments, it can be frustrating because it’ snot my intent to send out the message that I only eat “healthy” things and don’t eat the “less healthy” things. Yes, I do workout a lot, but that’s because I truly enjoy it, not because I feel like I have to. Yes, I do try and “eat well” most of the time, but that’s because it makes me feel good to eat that way, not because I’m afraid to eat “less healthy” choices. But, there are also plenty of times where I skip workouts because I’m tired/sore/not feeling it. There are plenty of times where I happily agree to go out and get wings or pizza or ice cream.

Bottom line, there are plenty of times where I don’t fit the “healthy person” stereotype that society loves to talk about and label. I am a real person and I do my best to be my best every day. And sometimes that’s skipping workouts, having vino or eating a damn sandwich- guilt free, at that! Which, if you’ve followed me for a while, you surely know already 😉

I’d love to hear from you on this- do you find yourself following “food rules” or labels? Does that effect how you approach food? If not, how do you practice balance or moderation when it comes to food and exercise? 

 

How I Maximize Food Prep In Minimal Time

1 Comment

If you follow any health/food/fitness bloggers, I’m SURE you’ve seen endless meal or food prep posts, right? Salads, muffins, quinoa bakes, veggies, hard boiled eggs, etc. While it all looks and sounds amazing, I’d be lying if it didn’t seem overwhelming- and time consuming! How do these people have time to do all of this? How long does all of it take? Where do they find all the recipes?

We are all busy and have lots of different things on our calendars that may not allow us to spend as much time in the kitchen as we would like. Or, maybe you don’t want to spend a lot of the time in the kitchen even if your schedule does allow for it. So, my goal today is to show you that there are simple ways to maximize your food prep in minimal time. As much as I’d love to have 3-4 hours a week or weekend to dedicate to meal prep (I love cooking, baking and preparing for the week), it’s generally not possible these days.

  • Start small- Rather than comparing yourself to what you’re seeing others prepare and post about, focus on where you can start. Maybe that’s putting together yogurt bowls or hard boiling some eggs or maybe you pack up your veggies for your daily snack. All of these things are “meal prep” in my mind because they are things that make your life a little easier during the week!
  • Keep it simple- You don’t need to make lots of different recipes in order to do “meal prep”. What we find the easiest and most successful in our house is to just prep a ton of veggies: sweet potatoes, kale, broccoli, green beans, brussels sprouts, etc. From there, we can eat them throughout the week in different ways: for breakfast, on a salad, in a wrap, etc.
  • Versatility- As I’ve mentioned, try and prep items that have multiple uses or could be used for multiple meals. Example: hard boiled eggs- these can be taken for breakfast or added to a salad for lunch. Healthy muffins or no bake balls can be used for breakfast or a snack. Chicken can be used on a salad, in a wrap, in a quinoa bowl, etc.
  • Do it on the day that works for you- Just because others do meal prep on Sundays, it doesn’t mean you need to! If Mondays or Tuesdays work better, then do it then. When I worked from home on Mondays I would often do a “meal prep Monday”, but now that I work from home on Tuesdays and teach after work I try to get the meal prep done on Sundays.
  • Do what you can when you can/split it up- “Splitting” up my meal prep was something I discovered over the summer. Sunday’s were usually spent doing summer things like getting drinks, coming back from the Cape or going for long bike rides, which left little time for a big meal prep. I taught on Monday’s so I didn’t have a lot of time then, either. What did I do? Sunday nights I would peel, cut & prep the veggies I wanted to cook (sweet potatoes, broccoli, kale, etc.). On Monday’s while I was teaching, RM would cook the veggies (and usually grill some chicken). This worked out well because we were able to tag-team the meal prep and neither one of us had to spend hours in the kitchen.
  • Splurge on partially prepped items- If you shop at Whole Foods, I’m sure you’re familiar with their “chop” area, which is basically an area in the store where they’ve pre-chopped & packaged various veggies. Think: peppers and onions, brococli and cauliflower, spiralized sweet potatoes, carrots and zucchini, etc. While these items are definitely more expensive than buying them un-prepped, they save you lots of time! Another cheaper option is buying frozen veggies. Making a stir-fry? Consider grabbing a bag of frozen veggies as that speeds up the meal prep/cooking by quite a bit! Bottom line, if you’re looking looking for a way to speed up your meal prep, this is a great option – and it’s still cheaper than ordering out!

img_8378

Although I could go on, I think I’ll stop here as this should provide you with a look into how you can make meal prep a little easier on you. I used to stress if I didn’t prep a bajillion different things on Sunday, so I am very happy that I’ve learned some of these ‘tricks’ over the years because not only does it take the stress out of meal prepping, it makes it more fun AND allows me to do other fun things – win, win!

Questions for you: Do you like to meal prep or do you prefer to cook each night or order out? Do you have any time-saving tips for meal prep?

A Few Valentine’s Day Thoughts

4 Comments

Happy Valentine’s Day, friends! I know this holiday is generally split into two sides:

Those who love it

and

Those who hate it

I can understand both sides, but me being me, I definitely love it more than hate it 🙂 But even if you are not a fan, I think it’s a good day to dial in and see where you can add a little more love to your life. And no, love doesn’t mean searching through every dating app there is to try and find “love”. What it means is looking around and finding love and appreciation in your current lives and day-to-day tasks.

Instead of looking in the mirror and pointing out everything you don’t like, take a minute to appreciate what you have and what you like. It makes for a much more enjoyable experience.

Rather than thinking about everything you can’t do (yet!), focus, embrace & appreciate what you CAN do.

Instead of getting upset at traffic on your way to work, find your favorite song and jam out.

Instead of dreading your workout because of X, Y, & Z, show your body some love for all it can do- and the mere fact that you CAN workout. Because that’s an amazing thing.

If you’re holding on to a grudge about something (work, argument, etc.), try letting it go and moving on. Forgiveness is a wonderful thing (for all parties involved!).

Rather than dwelling on what’s bothering your or what you’re stressed about, try and shift your focus to things that are in your control. It’s energy much better spent.

And, lastly, show yourself some love- treat yourself with kind words and thoughts, grab your favorite coffee at the store in the morning, treat yourself to lunch, a pedicure, a bubble bath, your favorite workout…

If you’re looking for a workout, here are a few fun themed workouts I’ve created over the years:

V-Sits and Leg Lifts & Planks, Oh My!
The Love Your Body

 Hope you all have a LOVELY day 😉