Category: Workout

Weekending: Wedding Update & Double Easter Celebrations

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Good morning! Hopefully by the time this post goes up, I will have already gotten my butt kicked by Eliza at the Watertown GymIt/EBF studio. As part of the Box FIIT certification I’m working on, I’m trying to get as much class experience as I can with other instructors to help better prepare me for when it’s time to start teaching my own classes- eek!!

This past weekend was another good one- lots of family time with both families which is always a nice treat! However, I am looking forward to this weekend since we FINALLY have a weekend with virtually no plans, which hasn’t happened in forever. I have so many general life things that I want to catch up on, so hopefully I’ll be able to get a bunch done!

After work on Friday I went to the Paper Source in Lynnfield to finalize our wedding invitations. I started them online which helped because I went into the store knowing exactly what I wanted and how it looked, but I was also able to work with a super helpful lady who helped me add more text lines and change the layout a bit. They are super simple, but classy- I love them and can’t wait until they come in! Oh, and the best part? All wedding invitations and related things were 20% off, which really helped keep them within my budget.

Once that was done, I picked up a few things at Whole Foods: pizza ingredients for dinner and quiche ingredients for Saturday brunch with my family. I made this quiche which was a big hit.

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The pizza I made for RM and me was also fantastic- the dough from Whole Foods is so good!

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Saturday started off with a sweaty kickboxing class. I don’t know if it’s because I hadn’t worked out in 2 days or if it was because I hadn’t slept well the night before but the class kicked my butt!!

After class we showered up and headed into the city to go to my sister’s apartment for part 1 of our Easter celebrations. So much food, so much wedding talk, so many laughs! I also brought out my biggest of hair for the occasion 😉

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Oh! And my mom washed her vail and brought it down to see if I wanted to use it for our wedding. I think it will be so special having my “something old” (and something borrowed) as her veil. I just need to find a nice comb to attach it to.

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(and yes, I am a giant next to her!}

We stopped at Branch Line for a few drinks on our way home. As good as the drinks are, we REALLY need to get back there for dinner because everything looked and smelled amazing!

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Sunday morning I kicked off the day with a quickie 20 minute bodyweight tabata workout (I’ll share it with you on Wednesday!) and then went to church. I haven’t been to church since we moved, so I figured Easter Sunday was as good a day as any to start. I hope to get back into a more regular church-going schedule.

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When church was over I went food shopping and got wine and flowers for the Easter dinner at RM’s mother’s house. I didn’t get any photos of the food, but it was quite a feast: homemade lasagna (homemade noodles and everything!), grilled lamb, salad, brussels sprouts, potatoes, peppers and so many desserts. My future SIL’s parents came and when her mom walked in with a bunny cake it made me so happy because my mom always made me a bunny cake for my birthday/Easter!

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As much as I didn’t want to food prep when we got home, I knew it would be better if I just got it over with!

And that about does it- the weekend came and went way too quickly, per usual! I hope you all had a great weekend and have a kick ass week!

Questions for you: How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun? What did you do for Easter? Did you get any good workouts in? Do you go to church?

Wednesday Workout: 3 Set Lower Body Burnout

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Good morning! I hope you’re having a good week. Today I am sharing a workout I threw together on Monday that left me VERY sore yesterday. I started with a 10 minute treadmill run at a moderately fast pace and then headed downstairs to the weight room to complete this 3 set lower body focused workout.

When doing this, please think about choosing weights that are challenging (last couple of reps should be hard!), but don’t compromise your form.

3 Set Lower Body Burnout

Explanations:

  • Deadlifts– these can be trap bar deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, or whatever else you would like to do. They’re a single exercise set so that you can lift heavy and have enough recovery between rounds/sets.
  • Step ups- choose a step height that’s challenging, yet doesn’t make you feel like you need to use momentum to get up. Also, I held 15lb Kettlebells in each hand, which wasn’t quite heavy enough, but it still did the trick.
  • Pushups- If you’re struggling with doing proper chest to ground pushups on your toes, try doing incline ones, maybe on the step you used for the step ups or even against a wall.
  • Lunge -> SLDL (single leg deadlift)- Hold a KB like you would for a goblet squat and then step your right leg back into a lunge. As you come back through center, engage your core and hinge forward at the hips coming into a single leg deadlift and changing your grip on the KB and hold it from the top of the handle and letting it hang towards the ground. As you lift back up to center, do a KB clean and step back into the lunge with a KB goblet grip. While doing this, focus on moving slow rather than rushing through the movements. Repeat on the opposite side.

The last move is definitely what killed me- I used a 25lb KB and wowzers were my hammies screaming at me yesterday!

This workout should take you about 40 minutes to complete if you do the 10 minute treadmill run- just letting you know in case you’re like me and generally on a time limit at the gym. As always, let me know if you try it!

Questions for you: When’s the last time you felt really sore after a workout?

Weekending: It was all about the food

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Hi there! It’s nice to see that the “big” snow storm has already come and gone- don’t get me wrong, I love snow, but at this point I am ready for sunny, warm, spring days!

Did you guys have a good weekend? Ours was great… and included ALL THE FOOD. No, seriously- it was filled with the most delicious eats. Let’s recap- I hope you’re not hungry 😉

Friday night, Liz had some of the gym girls over for a “bar” party. Now, I know what you’re thinking (or at least what I was thinking), it wasn’t an alcohol party, it was a food bar party! There was a taco bar, pizza bar, grilled cheese bar, fruit bar and an ice cream bar. And yes, everything was as amazing as it sounds! It was so great getting to catch up with the girls, especially since a few are also engaged so we did lots of wedding talk. Wedding talk and working out talk pretty much equals my life these days.

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On Saturday, it was an extra early weekend wakeup call so that I could get to the gym before we hit the road to go to NH. I was telling Athena that I was really craving a heavy lift sesh. I hadn’t been able to get under the bar all week, so you can imagine my surprise when my Saturday lift felt- dare I say- easy? I felt so strong with my back squats and pushups- it was awesome! And, I didn’t feel the tiniest bit sore the day after so I think I could’ve gone heavier- looking forward to the next time.

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After showers and breakfast (RM had pancakes made and waiting for me when I got back from the gym- he’s a keeper!), we swung through Starbucks and hit the road. Since I never finish my drink (Chai Tea Latte with 1/2 the syrup pump), I ordered a kiddie size. it was perfect!

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The trip north went smooth and we arrived at the Wentworth before we knew it.

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Wednesday Workout: Bodyweight Ladder Workout {for time}

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Hump day! Woohoo! Hope you guys are having a good week so far. I have a fun workout for you today. Originally I planned on running on Monday, but up in Maine it never really got higher than 30* so I decided to just stay in the house for my workout instead. I came up with this and tested it out and it was a total butt-kicker! I timed myself so that I could give you guys an idea for how long it might take you. From start to finish (up the ladder and back down), it took me 14 minutes and 7 seconds, which included a few breaks when needed. Since I had extra time, I ended up going through it 2 more times, but I changed up the exercises a bit and added in some 5lb weights since I noticed my mom had them laying around.

With that said, this workout could totally be your entire workout and even with a warm up and cool down you could be done in 20 minutes!

Bodyweight Ladder Workout

For everything that requires a left and right leg or arm (lunges, mountain climbers, high knees, side dips), perform the number of reps on each side. If you have any questions on the exercises, please let me know- I think most of these are pretty common B2B workout exercises, but I’m happy to explain them if you’re confused.

Let me know if you try this- would love to know how long it took you to complete!

Questions for you: Do you push yourself harder when you’re racing the clock for a workout?

 

 

Five on Friday {3.11.16}

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Good morning! TGIF 🙂 I know everyone has been talking about the weather, but I mean, seriously?! I have 3 words for you: Soak. It. In! I hope you’ve all had a great week- mine has been fairly quiet… and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. I even had a day where I had nothing planned after work, which hasn’t happened in MONTHS (literally). It was so nice to be able to run some errands and still get home at a reasonable hour.

Let’s talk Friday things, though 🙂

  • Bagged kale- Kale is a serious staple at our house. Both of us eat a ridiculous amount of it, and while it’s easy to cook (we just season with salt, pepper, garlic powder and EVOO and then bake it), we both HATE preparing it when it comes to de-stemming it and washing it. I found this bag of organic pre-washed & cut kale at Whole Foods and decided to try it out. While I still had to pick through the kale pieces to remove stem pieces, I found the whole experience to still be faster than the traditional way and about the same price. Totally loving it!

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  • Veggie Teriyaki Stir Fry– Hummusapien has done it again! I whipped up a batch of her Veggie Teriyaki Stir Fry since we had cooked brown rice (I accidentally ordered it when we ordered sushi last week) and other veggies on hand and, per usual, it’s a huge hit. RM went back for seconds and thirds and couldn’t stop raving about it! We’ve eaten it plain, served over kale and shredded brussels sprouts and beneath an over-easy egg. There’s really no wrong way to eat it. GO MAKE IT!

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  • Box FIIT Certification– I am slowly but surely making my way through this certification. It’s proving to be a much bigger commitment than I really needed to be doing at this point in my life (with wedding planning and a new class on my schedule and everything else), but I’m really learning SO MUCH and am totally enjoying it. I just wish I was able to make more time for it so I could get it done quicker, but I still want to keep blogging and having some time to relax at night so I’m taking it slow.

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  • {Potential Spoiler Alert!!}Breaking Bad– Ok, I know we are WAY late to the party, but we have been plugging away at these episodes and seasons and it gets crazier and crazier. For those of you who watch it, am I the only one who doesn’t like Walt?! We just finished Episode 7 of Season 5 where he killed Mike, who I loved! I was seriously so sad 😦 and he was so mean to Jesse, who I also love. UGH!
  • Soaking up the sun– Wednesday’s weather was just TOO GOOD to not soak up, so instead of running after work/before teaching, I laced up and hit the pavement during my lunch break. I surprised myself with sub 8-minute miles and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the run… it felt so liberating to run in just a tank after so many layered clothing runs!

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And that does it! As for weekend plans, I’m getting together with my SMC girlfriends tonight, teaching tomorrow and then shopping all day with RM. I’m heading home on Sunday to do some serious wedding stuff with my parents.

Questions for you: How has your week been? What do you have planned this weekend? Did you get outside to enjoy the weather this week? Have you found any good new recipes lately? What’s a show you’re loving these days?