Category: Workout

Wednesday Workout: 12 Minute Count Down AMRAP Workout

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Good morning! As much as I think 70* weather in early March is totally wack, I am pretty excited to hopefully run outside today!

If you’re planning on working out inside today, though, maybe you’ll want to give this a try. I had my fitties do this for the second half of my sweat-KICK class last week and everyone had positive things to say about it afterwards (even though I did get some serious glares while they were doing it 😉 ) so I figured it was worth sharing. Plus, I am ALL about short, but effective butt kicking workouts these days and this workout fits the bill for both!

All you need is a set of dumbbells- easy enough, right? And, if you’re looking for a longer workout, by all means set your timer for 15 or 20 minutes.

12 Minute Count Down AMRAP Workout

I think everything should be pretty straight forward, but please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions.

I hope you have a great day- get sweaty!

Questions for you: Do you take advantage of the nice weather by taking your workouts outside? What’s on your workout agenda today?

Weekending: Making Sausage & Pasta

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Good morning! Another weekend, come and gone- how come they go by so quickly?! This past weekend was a real treat on the food front- too good not to share!

Weekending….

I had an apt in the city after work and after that I met RM for a drink and some snacks, but not before enjoying my “to go” wine from my waxer:

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When I met up with RM, we ended up going to Nix’s Mate- I enjoyed a rose bubbly, he had a delicious beer and we ended up getting some oysters and shrimp since they were only $1 each!

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To help with my Box FIIT certification, I’m trying to get to more Box FIIT classes so I hit one up on Saturday morning. It wasn’t as hard as George’s, but it was still a great workout and I seriously cannot wait until I can start teaching my own classes!!

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I hadn’t seen my sister in almost 3 weeks so after class I met up with her and our other friend Amy for manicures in Southie. Amy and I ended up getting the same color and I love it!!

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The rest of the Saturday was spent at our friends Jessi and Chuck’s apartment doing all sorts of cooking. RM and I went to the north end and picked up the sausage and then headed over to their place to get cooking.

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We opted for 8 pounds of meat which ended up yielding about 35 decent sized sausages. RM also had the butcher grind it and season it (2 ounces of salt per 10 pounds of meat) to help save time. We decided to do 2 different kinds: regular and garlic/parsley/parmesan and I don’t know which one I liked more! The whole event was so smooth and seamless- we were all pleasantly surprised by how easy it was! In just a few hours we had loads of sausages to enjoy.

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And, if that wasn’t enough, Jessi and Chuck broke out their recipe for homemade pasta and sauce- umm hello deliciousness! Making pasta with the Kitchen Aid attachment was SO easy- RM was ready to go out and buy the adapter yesterday!

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Between the homemade sausage, which cooked in the homemade sauce and the homemade pasta, the meal was pretty freaking amazing!!

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We also played games and drank lots of vino while we waited for everything to cook. It was seriously one of the best Saturday afternoons we’ve had in a while… even though we were so exhausted by the end that we went to bed at 9:45 haha

Sunday started out with being up nice and early thanks to our early bed time so we ended up going back to the Deluxe Town Diner in Watertown for breakfast. Our breakfast looked very similar to how it did the last time we went there, only difference was that RM got an omelet this time.

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I love being up and out early- getting to Whole Foods at 9:15am on a Sunday was such a nice treat! Besides Whole Foods, I went to Target, cleaned the house and then RM and I went to LensCrafters to get new glasses. Since I still love my current glasses, I opted to go for an entirely different style so I can rotate between the two. I’ll show you a picture once we go pick them up. Later that day we went to visit his mom since she just got home from vacation. We had pizza and salad and it was perfect!

And that about does it! How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun or different? Did you get in any good workouts? Do you like boxing workouts? What’s your favorite breakfast item to order? Have you ever made sausage or pasta? What do you have going on this week?

Wednesday Workout: 3 Exercise AMRAP Circuits {w/a killer cardio blast!}

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Confession: I really haven’t felt like blogging this week. I don’t know what it is, but Monday night I had time and legit just chose not to. Well, I technically I just chose to spend my time working on my Box FIIT certification, but still. I had decided to just not blog anymore this week, but then after the class I subbed last night I decided I really wanted to share the workout that I taught with you guys, so here I am!

If you’ve been following B2B for a while, I’m sure you’re well aware that I love AMRAP (As many rounds as possible) workouts. I love them because you know how long you have to work which means you can push yourself however much you want. When teaching, I especially love this format because it allows for all levels in the class to work at THEIR level. There are some who are really advanced and love pushing themselves and then there are some who might be easing back into workouts or tired or sore and may not want to push themselves quite so hard. By giving my members the set exercises per circuit, they are able to go at their own pace and we still all finish at the same time. Win-win, if you ask me!

For this workout, the AMRAP circuits are 6 minutes long and there are 3 exercises per circuit: a lower body focused exercise, upper body focused and core focused. Between circuits we did a lovely little cardio blast 😉 If you’re running short on time you can pick just a few of these or skip the cardio or just do a few rounds of the cardio.

3 exercise AMRAP circuits

For everything that has a right or left, do the 10 reps on each side (or 20 reps for the cardio). Here are some explanations/clarifications:

  • Squat->lunge->squat- Stand with your feet a little wider than hips width (either with a barbell on your back or weights in your hands or holding a KB) and do one squat, then step the right foot back into a lunge and come back to center and do another squat. Repeat on the left and then right until you do 10 lunges on each leg.
  • SLDL= Single Leg Deadlift. Keep the standing leg knee soft as you hinge forward from the hips. Make sure you keep both hips facing the ground. If this is too hard you can do a standard deadlift.
  • Narrow squat & front raise- Stand with your feet hips width with light weights in each hand. As you sit back into your squat, with a neutral grip on the weights lift them up to shoulder level. By holding the weight out in front of you, it should allow you to get a little lower into your squat.
  • Plank w/shoulder taps- in a high plank, tap opposite hand to opposite shoulder, making sure to keep your hips flat and stable as you do so.

I think that should do it for exercises that might need a little explanation.

Let me know if you try this!

Weekending: Soaking Up The Weather {& a brief wedding update}

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Hello! Happy Monday! I hope all of you were able to get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather we had in New England this past weekend. Enjoy the highlights!

  • Friday night sushi from New Ginza in Watertown- this totally hit the spot!

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  • Super energetic class on Saturday morning! And, I loveddd that some of the gym girls came!
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  • RM and I went for a super long walk on Saturday afternoon.

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  • Later that day RM dropped me off at my friend Amy’s brother’s apartment above Boston Chops in the South End and we had a girls night complete with a pretty awesome array of food… and bubbly!

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  • Sunday morning pancakes- enough said.

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  • We went for another long walk after breakfast
  • I went food shopping and prepped a roast chicken meal to have throughout the week

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  • I also bought myself flowers because when WF has $6 tulips, you don’t pass it up!

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  • I worked on my Box FIIT certification and submitted a few videos which felt good. Mid-afternoon I broke for a run- it was too beautiful not to! 3.75 miler with sub 8-min. splits- the wine and the cheese the night before must’ve been good fuel!

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  • We ended up going to the Chateau in Waltham for dinner and it was fantastic!

Wedding Updates: The Flowers

My friend Jen works at Watertown Main Street Flowers and when she heard I was engaged she said I should stop in to discuss options for the wedding. I had pinned a bunch of options and the owner pulled them up in preparation for our meeting which was great. All along I’ve wanted the details of the wedding to be simple- no wedding colors (hate that), very simplistic decorations and flowers, small wedding party, etc. Therefore, the flowers I pinned were all of the white varietal.

My bouquet will be similar to this, but with green hydrangeas instead of white to add a little color.

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My sister’s bouquet will be a variation of this: IMG_4230

and then the guy’s boutonnieres will be this the corsages will be 3 of these flowers.

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For the centerpieces, we are going to spray paint mason jars gold and then do a combination of daisies and babies breath to keep with the white theme. Plus, they are super durable flowers and inexpensive 😉 It feels so good have this checked off the list!! I can’t wait!

And that about does it! I hope you all have a great week- check in with you later!

Questions for you: What was something fun you did over the weekend? Did you go out at all? Did you do anything to enjoy the nice weather?  Have anything planned this week?

 

Wednesday Workout: The 1000 Rep Workout

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Good morning! I mentioned on Instagram last week that I had a day where I could’ve easily skipped a workout. It was pouring rain, I was in a training all day at work so I couldn’t go to the gym during my lunch break, I had an eye exam in Boston after work and the traffic getting home was ridiculous. All of which could be very valid excuses for me to have skipped the workout. But the thing was, I didn’t WANT to skip the workout. While I was driving home, I had an internal conversation with myself trying to figure out what I should do. I was looking for ways to talk myself out of the workout since I rarely ever do that, but all the signs pointed to me doing the workout:

  • I wasn’t tired
  • I wasn’t sore
  • It wasn’t too late
  • I could do it at-home
  • I had eaten lots of carbs that day so I felt like I had loads of energy to burn
  • I genuinely WANTED to workout

So, what did I do? I worked out! But to save time, I decided to just workout at home rather than go to the gym and fighting the 6:30pm crowds where I knew I would get annoyed and frusterated and end up wasting more time just walking around trying to find a spot to workout and equipment to use that wouldn’t be in the midst of all the chaos.

The upside of being stuck in traffic was that not only did I have time to go through the mental checklist for deciding whether or not to workout, but I also had time to plan the workout in my head! I don’t know what made me think of doing a workout like this, but it ended up being a really good one- and, with 10 exercises in the mix, it helped keep things interesting and helped keep me from totally dreading all the reps!
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