Category: Wedding

Five On Friday

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Good morning! Popping in today with a random post, but hopefully you’ll enjoy it!

  1. I have to say I am really not enjoying the wedding planning process so far. Is that bad? Please tell me I’m not the only one who finds it more stressful than fun. I’m hoping it’s just because we haven’t locked down a venue or date yet and that once we do those things everything else will fall into place and be more fun. Right? Right??? I will say, though, that I find myself day dreaming about the moment I start walking down the aisle and lock eyes with RM. I cannot wait for that, as well as being husband and wife. THAT’S the fun stuff 🙂

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2. At the age of 30, I finally have no desire to dress up for Halloween. It feels good to let that go and just be able to carry on per usual, oh, and see RM’s nephew dressed up and go trick or treating because THAT is going to be adorable!

3. We are so thankful to have so many wonderful friends and such wonderful family who have sent us engagement cards and/or bubbly. One can never have too much bubbly. Ever.

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4. I had a one on one training session last night and I felt challenged, humbled, but also inspired. I lifted much heavier than normal and I loved it! More on that later 🙂

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5. We don’t go out to eat very often during the week since we both enjoy meal planning and prepping and eating healthy even when we are busy (not to mention it saves money!), but when RM texted me on Wednesday as I was leaving the gym asking if I wanted to pick up sushi or pizza, I was totally on board. It was such a treat swinging by Max & Leo’s on my way home to pick up the pizza RM had ordered. If you haven’t had their pizza, GO AND GET SOME!!!

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Questions for you: Tell me something random! Try any new workouts or gyms lately? What was your favorite thing about wedding planning? Least favorite? What’s your favorite pizza place? What’s going on this weekend? Best part of your week?

Weekending: Review through pictures

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Good morning! Did you guys have a good weekend? We sure did- here’s a glimpse 🙂

  • I had to go to Milwaukee Thursday-Friday, which was a really nice trip. I wasn’t sure Milwaukee would be anything that exciting, but I have to say I really loved the little city! It was a much quieter city than I’m used to, but it was still really cool! I stayed right downtown and was within walking distance to the river walk and lots of cool restaurants and shopping.

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  • I made sure to get in workouts while I was gone, too 🙂 One strength one and then one quickie bodyweight hotel room workout one- I’ll share both with you soon!

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Hotel room bodyweight workout

  • I met my sister at a new restaurant in Watertown called Branch Line. It’s right near her new office and close to me, plus the owners of Eastern Standard (one of my favorite Boston restaurants) started it so I couldn’t wait to try it out. The verdict? LOVED IT! We only got drinks and their fried cheese bites, but the whole experience was very good and RM and I plan on going back for dinner since their menu looked intriguing!

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  • RM and I ended up going to Stellina for dinner which was where we went to dinner the night we got engaged! The food was great, although I didn’t take any pictures 😉
  • Saturday we lounged in the morning. It was weird to be around with no plans AND no teaching. Rather than rushing out for the gym, I decided to hang around and get all my house chores done first. We had people over on Saturday night so I wanted to prep the chili and dessert and clean/pick up. I finally went to SoulCycle for a 1pm class. It was a good class, but not the hardest I’ve been to, or as much of a party as SC usually is. Oh well!
  • I had time to relax when I got back so I caught up on Greys anatomy while sharing a beer with RM.

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  • Our dinner party was a blast! I made a sweet potato turkey chili which was a hit, a cheese and prosciutto board, guacamole and a batch of these delicious Paleo Pumpkin Bars. I added in chocolate chips and pumpkin spice chips and they came out SO GOOD! Along with these treats, RM’s sister-in-law Emily brought a tasty apple crisp and Amanda brought a fantastic brie/pecans/craisin ball. Oh, and lots of wine 😉

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  • Sunday we made our way to NH to go look at another venue and while we liked it, we were kind of turned off by how far lodging was from the venue so I’m not sure we will pursue it further. Oh well.
  • We were staving when we got back so we heated up chili and other treats from Saturday night and had a medley sort of lunch. While RM watch/snoozed through the Patriots game, I whipped up some lemon blueberry muffins from his Practical Paleo cookbook (we are trying to incorporate more paleo-like meals these days). They came out pretty good!

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  • After I finished my book/the Patriots game was over, I coerced RM into going to Marshall’s and Target with me. We are on the hunt for a new dining room table and living room chair and I wanted him to see some of the things I was digging. Love this table from Target:

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  • Although I was really craving pizza or something like that, we opted for a healthier dinner and had chicken thighs, kale, mashed sweet potatoes and butternut squash and for some reason, everything came out SO GOOD. Nothing fancy, but so tasty. (I snapped a pic halfway through).

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All in all, a great weekend filled with friends and family, relaxation and productivity. Oh, and wine. Definitely wine 😉

Questions for you: What was the best part of your weekend? Have you tried out any new restaurants? What’s the coolest city you’ve traveled to? Did you get in any good workouts? Any good meals?

Weekending: October Sunshine

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Hi there! How are you? If you have today off, don’t tell me… not only do I have to work but I have to go INTO the office. Monday’s are usually my WFH day so it’s a very weird start to the week!

Did you guys have a good weekend? Mine was great- a good mix of celebrations, relaxing and productivity. I’m absolutely loving this warm October weather and after a gloomy day on Friday, I tried to soak up as much of the sunshine as possible throughout the weekend.

After work on Friday, I went to my sister’s apartment for vino and pizza. The traffic was TERRIBLE, so it was so nice to be able to relax with drinks and laughter and good convos!

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On Saturday, after kickboxing class, I was able to run some much-needed errands and decided to grab lunch at Panera since I was out. Have you tried their lentil-kale bowls? Pretty good!

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We decided to head into the city in the late afternoon and hit up the new Uniqlo in Faneuil Hall. While it was a big chaotic, I did score this vest for $39 instead of $59! I’ve been wanting a light down vest for a long time and I think I’ll get a lot of use out of this.

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After shopping we stopped in at Back Deck for cocktails and a snack.

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We also stopped at a coffee shop on the way home and they had the most AMAZING sweet potato pumpkin pie macaroons I’ve ever had. We stupidly split this, but I could’ve eaten 5 of them myself!

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The rest of the night was very low-key and looked a lot like this:

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Do any of you watch Ray Donovan? RM had gotten us both hooked on it, which is weird for me considering I hate violence and it’s a very violent show!

Sunday was a perfectly productive day! We had breakfast and then went to Target and Whole Foods before doing some major cleaning and food prep back at home. Also, Whole Foods has the prettiest bouquets- and sometimes you just need to buy yourself flowers 😉

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The weather was too gorgeous to be inside all day so I took a break from house work and cooking and went for a quickie 5K run. The weather was so perfect!

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I made some oat bars, soup and the most delicious stuffed acorn squash- I love going into the week with a whole bunch of good, healthy food!

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Oh, and the BEST part of the weekend? RM’s mother stopped by and gave us our engagement gift, which is something I have literally waited my whole life for:

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The funniest part was that I had been talking about Kitchen Aid mixers all weekend! I can’t wait to put this to good use- she said she loves using hers for her pizza dough, so that means I need to get the recipe AND give it a try 🙂

Questions for you: What was the best part of your weekend? Did you get out and enjoy the weather? Did you do anything festive? What’s your favorite kitchen appliance?

Babies & Bling: A Weekend in Maine

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Good morning! I had planned a trip to Maine prior to our engagement, so it worked out perfectly that we ended up getting engaged right before that. Friday morning, RM and I went down to RI to get my ring sized- he had no idea what size to get so the jeweler told him a 6 is average… I’ve got long, skinny fingers so he had to cut it to a 4.75! Luckily, it fits perfectly now and feels so much better!

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After a quick afternoon in the office, I headed up to Maine and met my mom and a few of her friends at the Back Street Grill- their local Friday night hang out. After a drink, we headed home to see my dad, who was very excited to see me and my new ring! He had made a fish dinner which was delicious.

Saturday I woke up and had breakfast and went to the library to get our new book club book- has anyone read this?

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I busted out a great workout, which I will probably share with you tomorrow, and then helped my dad start building his raised bed gardens for his veggies next year.

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On Saturday afternoon I met up with some of my high school friends, which we don’t do nearly enough these days. All 3 of them have kids and live in Maine/NH so between that and my busy schedule here, it’s hard to align our schedules. We had a delicious lunch at Mill 67 and I was able to have some serious baby snuggle time!

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Eloise is Caitlin’s baby girl and Sam is Rachel’s baby boy. Sara left Zeke at home, but he did come to my parents with her later that day when we had people over to celebrate the engagement. We had champagne and snacks and I got to snuggle another baby- sweet little Paige who is just 2 months old!

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We had such a great time!

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After everyone left, we made a delicious dinner of pork, tomatoes, zucchini and Kale and mashed sweet potatoes. So healthy!

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On Sunday, mom and I got up and went to church and then came home and I continued helping my dad with the raised beds. It was a big job so I was happy I was able to help- plus I love manual labor! I offered to fill the pails with rocks and carry them (farmer’s carry!) and omg it was so heavy. Solid upper body workout 😉

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After lunch we headed out to the “pumpkin patch” that randomly started growing from a loam pile in the back yard. My mom had thrown old pumpkins there last year and this year they were pleasantly surprised with a large pumpkin harvest- 27, to be exact!

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It was really very cool- and saved me a bunch of money 😉 Our front steps are looking festive!

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The rest of my Sunday night was filled with lots of cleaning and blogging before calling it a night. Although it was a busy weekend, it was really fun celebrating with so many great people! Oh, and did you know ice cream helps with stress?! 😉

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Questions for you: What did you do over the weekend? Have you decorated for the fall? Did you go apple picking? Do you get together with your friends from home often?

How My Workouts Will Change to Get “Wedding Ready”

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Got ya! If you guys know me, you probably know that I’m not likely to adopt some crazy workout routine or diet to get “wedding ready”. In fact, I don’t really think there’s such a thing as “wedding ready”. If RM and I were to get married tomorrow, I would be perfectly happy with how I look and feel, but that’s because each day I strive to workout and eat in ways that make me feel good. That’s always the ultimate goal. Why? Because it’s achievable and sustainable. It’s a doable thing every day that has just become a part of me.

I have a hard time when people go on crazy diets and workout routines in order to prepare for something: wedding, vacation, reunion, birthday, etc. While they may get the results they want for the specific event they were working for, the chances of those results lasting after the event has come and gone are not very likely. Why? Because what they’ve been following was probably very strict and a huge change from how they were living prior to that so it was probably a hard adjustment. They likely got through it because they had an end date in mind, which is where I struggle with any of those diets or workout routines that last 14 days or 30 days or something like that. If you know you only have to do something for X amount of time, what’s likely getting you through that time is knowing you can go back to “normal” once that timeframe is over. Right? I know that’s how it would be for me if I ever did something like the Whole30 or something else like that.

Rather, I believe in lifestyle changes. Starting with small, achievable changes that you can sustain for a long as you want to. Once you master that, you pick something else to change and soon enough, you will have made lifestyle changes that don’t have an end date. You learn to appreciate the way you feel and look and learn to really love fueling your body with real foods and working out in ways that make you feel strong and powerful.

With that said, it’s safe to assume I am going to carry on with “business as usual” when it comes to my diet and exercise in preparation for the wedding. Because, again, I’m not “preparing” for the wedding. I am very happy with how I look and feel as a result of my current “diet” (by diet, I mean what I eat on a day to day basis) and workout routine. Sure, we’ve been eating out a lot more and eating things we don’t normally eat (hello, moving and not having a fully functioning kitchen for so long!), but that’s only temporary. Last week we had time to do lots of meal prep and had a fridge stocked with various cooked veggies and meats all week, making it easy to make healthy choices.

On the workout front, I have been teaching a lot more lately which means my own workouts have fallen a bit by the wayside. I haven’t been going to the gym for my own workouts and let me tell you- I miss lifting heavy things!! But again, I know that I will get back to that soon enough, so I am trying to focus on embracing all of the newness of our engagement and celebrations right now. I’m always looking to try new workouts and formats, so just as I usually do, throughout the next year I’m sure I’ll be trying lots of new things- taking you all along for the ride. I may do some “wedding-themed” workouts here and there, but I can assure you I will not be doing anything drastically different on the workout OR diet front leading up to the wedding!

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I’d love to hear from you guys, though! Do you like to follow “quick fix” diet or workout plans or do you prefer to make lifestyle changes? Did you do a crazy diet or workout plan before your wedding or another big event? When do you feel your best?