Category: Workout

Extended Time In Maine: Spending lots of time with family and friends!

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I can’t remember the last time I spent more than a few nights home in Maine. Actually, that’s a lie. Last year for Christmas, my sister and I were able to spend a lot of time in Maine, mostly due to the fact that I came down with pneuomonia and we couldn’t leave when originally planned. Thankfully, I survived the holiday sick-free this year.

Since I’ve already caught you up on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I’ll pick up after that! Thursday morning, my mom, sister and I all went to the gym, which is my favorite way to start the day 🙂

After we got home, my dad and I got busy putting together my new mini-kitchen island. I thought I could do it on my own, but I am so happy my dad suggested doing it together because he has all the tools and knowledge to make sure it’s done right.

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Charlie thought he was going to be a good helper… he wasn’t.

It took much longer than expected to put it together, but I am so happy with how it turned out! It’s not great quality, but until I buy a place and know I won’t be moving every couple of years, I don’t want to have super nice stuff that could get damaged. This is absolutely perfect for my little kitchen because not only does it give me extra counter space, but it’s on wheels so I can move it around as I need/want. Love it- thanks mom and dad!!

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We went to the movies in the afternoon (nothing like $6.50 matinees in Maine!) to see Anchorman 2, which, sadly, was a big disappointment. Has anyone else seen it? I just thought it was slow and not that funny. At least the beers were $2, which kept me entertained 😉

We made the most delicious chicken parmesan meal when we got home from the movies. Holy moly. My mom really does make the best chicken parm (Danielle and I served ours over spaghetti squash… the best way to save on carbs and calories!)!

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After dinner, we spent a lot of time listening to my parents talk about their parents and their childhood. My dad’s parents passed away when he was in his young 20’s and my mom’s mother passed away when she was in her mid-late 20’s, so we haven’t really gotten to hear much about them over the years. It was so fun to look through old photo albums and listen to their stories.

I started my Friday just like most “off” days from work: at the gym! I took a great cardio and core class, which was perfect after a weights class on Thursday. After the class, I headed to the AT&T store to get a new iPhone. I was using an old iPhone 4 and was long overdue for an upgrade, so I finally headed in and made the upgrade! So far, I am LOVING my iPhone 5S and can’t wait to see the difference in picture quality.

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My family headed to the mall in the afternoon and I scored a number of deals- have you guys been shopping since Christmas? The sales are unreal! I got 2 shirts a dress and lotion for $30! After the mall, we headed to the Back Street Grill for some happy hour wines with my mom’s friend, Jean. When the $3 happy hour wine ends at 6pm and you get there at 5:30, you order 2 😉

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We made a nice, healthy chicken and veggie teriyaki stir fry for dinner- all of us agreed we needed more veggies!

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Saturday, Danielle and I made the trek back to Boston, with a quick stop in Kittery to exchange some things (I just ended up buying more. whoops). With the looks of the back of her SUV, though, you’d think the last thing we’d be doing was shopping!

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Once I got back, I unpacked everything, went for a 5K run and then had a quiet night in. I had wanted to do something, but it ended up being nice staying in. I needed to get my iTunes updated so I could put music on my new phone, catch up on blogging and have some alone time, all which I accomplished on Saturday night!

Sunday morning I woke up pretty early, which was expected since I’ve slept a lot the past handful of nights, so I went to a 9:30 spin class, followed by upper body strength and core work. The gym was dead, which is my favorite way for it to be unless I’m teaching 😉

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The rest of my Sunday was pretty quiet… I’m ready for some serious social interaction! I went grocery shopping, prepped lunches/meals and did some other random stuff around my apartment. I hung out with my sister in the afternoon for a few hours before coming home and making a delicious chicken, butternut squash, Brussels sprouts and quinoa dish.

Although it was a quiet weekend, it was good. I started Monday feeling refreshed and ready to get back on a schedule!

Questions for you: Have you seen Anchorman 2? Do you have the new iPhone? What was the best part of your weekend? Any fun plans for NYE tonight?

Friday Things & A 25 Days of Christmas Workout!

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Happy Friday, B2B readers! I hope you’ve had a good week. Mine has been good… let’s catch up quickly!

  • Tuesday- We got so much snow! I went to the post office at 3pm and there was no snow. When I left work at 5:45, there was probably 4 inches. I loved it!

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  • Wednesday- We had a company holiday dinner at The Palm (it’s in the same building as our new office!), but since I was going to a SMC girls Yankee Swap after, I just had wine and a few bites of the passed apps. Dinner at Jessi’s was amazing!! Honey mustard glazed chicken and cheesy mashed potatoes with a side spinach salad. So good! But even better? Getting together with some of my favorite girls. And presents. I love presents.

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I ended up with an Alex and Ani bracelet. It was my first one and I was so excited about it, not to mention the one Nikia chose was perfect for me. Very special!IMG_6131

  • Thursday- I treated myself to Cosi for lunch as I got home a little late on Wednesday night and didn’t have the energy to pack a lunch for myself.

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SO good. Do you guys like Cosi? Their signature salad is absolutely delicious. It was the perfect fuel to teach my Thursday double, which consisted of the following 25 Days of Christmas workout and then kickboxing. It was so fun!

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This workout was awesome. It was a total body workout and I loved that once we did something (besides burpees… there can never be too many burpees 😉 ), we didn’t have to do it again. A bunch of members came up to me and said the same thing, so apparently it was a crowd pleaser! If you’re running short on time, feel free to skip the second round for the various exercises where I wrote “X2 rounds” after the exercise.

**Edited to Add: I was so tired when I was writing this last night that I forgot to say where I got this idea! I was looking through Facebook a while ago and came across this workout and just loved the idea. I took the first few exercises from Aimee’s Fitness Advent Calendar, but the rest were just random ideas I came up with. I also took the chest press & leg lift exercise from Athena, which I learned during her Fall Into Fitness challenge. It’s one of my favorite moves at the moment!

I’m hoping work flies by today because I have after-work drink plans with my sister and my old yoga instructor/friend Alyson, who I love! I think we are going to Granary Tavern, but that hasn’t been confirmed. Saturday will consist of a workout, birthday lunch for my friend Lauren and Sunday will hopefully will be ok weather for the Jingle Bell 5K!

Questions for you: What’s your “go-to” lunch place during the week (if you get lunch out)? Do you have any Alex and Ani bracelets? What are you looking forward to this weekend?

PS- We got new computers for my new company because we finally moved offices and they are tracked a lot more than before, so I haven’t read any blogs this week 😦 I will catch up over the weekend!

{Holiday Series} Wednesday Workout: Warm Up Your Core!

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Happy Wednesday, friends! Today, I have the third workout for your Holiday Series Wednesday Workout. If you missed parts one and two, you can find them here and here.

For this week, since I’ve focused on lower and upper body exercises already, I decided to focus on the core! I love core exercises and always try to incorporate planks and cardio into my core exercises. These moves are sure to get your heart rate up and get your core burning. In order to make this a “no thinking” type of workout, I kept the moves simple, meaning all you have to do is get up and do it- no thinking required 🙂

Warm Up Your Core

I designed this to move from 45 seconds of a core-focused cardio move to 15 reps of a core exercise. Feel free to add weight for some of the exercises if you’re ready for that!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my “Holiday Series” Wednesday Workout posts this month. I realized next Wednesday is Christmas, so I won’t be posting a Wednesday Workout post for you. If you’re looking for something to do on Christmas, though, and want a full body workout, I suggest combining the 3 Holiday Series workouts because they target everything!

Questions for you: What was your favorite Holiday Series Wednesday Workout post? If you were only allowed to do one thing, would it be cardio, core, upper body or lower body?

This Week: Workouts, Schedule & Things I’m looking forward to

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Hi there! I hope you all had a good weekend. Mine was so fun… lots of girl time, celebrations and holiday decorating. Before I catch you up on that, though, let’s talk about workouts and getting on track! Last week was a really fun week of workouts for me because I tried new things, was really sore from my SHRED class and had big numbers in most of my classes. I’m not sure if the numbers will stay up as it’s getting closer to Christmas and therefore there are more holiday parties, but I was so happy to see a lot of people making time for the gym last week!

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- My leg was bothering me on Monday (likely due to new sneakers), so rather than running, I decided to take a spinning class! It was perfect because not only did it allow me to workout without bothering my leg (my leg felt totally back to normal the next day, too), but it showed me that I don’t hate spinning as much as I thought I did!
  • Tuesday- I ended up having plans after work to grab dinner and drinks at the Intercontinental (sushi… wasn’t that good), so I got up and did a 30 minute upper body strength and ab tabata workout in my apartment.
  • Wednesday- I ran a 5K before teaching UXF Burn. It’s a good thing I was able to get in a good run before class and felt sore from my Tuesday workout because the class was packed and we ran out of weights and I literally had no place to stand! It was awesome 🙂
  • Thursday- I dug into my workout archives and pulled up this workout and decided to teach it. Holy moly. I was literally sore for 3 days. No clue why, but I wasn’t complaining! I taught kickboxing after.
  • Friday- I did 15 minutes of yoga in my apartment to loosen things up.
  • Saturday- I taught kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA. It was another big class with lots of energy!
  • Sunday- Since I was still a little sore/tight from Thursday and had a long list of things to do, I skipped out on the gym. I wasn’t hungover, I just didn’t want to schedule in a workout. Ok, and my hair still looked really good from Saturday night and I didn’t want to sweat and ruin that 😉

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I’m going to go to spin again tonight! Thanks to some comments from readers, I’m going to up the intensity if I need to. I will try to fit in some abs, too.
  • Tuesday- I’ll do a strength workout after work.
  • Wednesday- Running before teaching UXF Burn. I am running the Somerville Jingle Bell 5K on Sunday and would like to get another run in before that.
  • Thursday- Teaching SHRED and then Kickboxing
  • Friday- Rest day!
  • Saturday- Teaching kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA again. 4th week in a row and I love it!
  • Sunday- Running the Somerville Jingle Bell 5K with my sister. I cannot tell you how excited I am for this race. I have run it for the past 5 or 6 years and it’s one of my favorite things to do every year. What’s even better this year is the fact my sister is going to run with me. It’s her FIRST race and I hope she loves it!

Schedule

This week is another quiet week for me in terms of plans after work. I might have something on Tuesday night, but it’s still tentative. I have a busy weekend full of holiday parties and the race, but that’s all fun stuff:)

Things I’m looking forward to

The 5K is probably what I am most looking forward to. My parents always come down and it’s so fun to get dressed up in ugly Christmas stuff. I’m also looking forward to decorating my tree and going to Jessi’s Christmas party on Saturday night.

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Questions for you: Have you ever run a race? What’s your favorite part about running a race? What’s your favorite holiday tradition that gets you in the festive spirit?

So, I used to hate spinning…

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… but I may be warming up to it!

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Let’s back up.

On Monday, all of a sudden, my lower leg/calf area started to hurt as I was walking to work. This has happened to me a number of times before, and I think it happened on Monday because of my new sneakers. I think they must have different support than all of my other sneakers and my legs/feet haven’t gotten used to it yet. Whatever the reason, my plans of running on the treadmill after work went out the window. Womp.

I decided I would row and do the elliptical as a way to get cardio in, but keep it lower impact so as not to bother my leg. However, as I walked up to the locker room, I looked at the class board and saw that there was a spin class starting in 10 minutes. My first thought was “ugh. It’s a spin class. Wish it was something else.”, but immediately after that thought went through my head, a light bulb went off and I was like, “maybe a spin class is a good idea! It’s low-impact, yet supposedly an incredible workout. Maybe I should try it.”

So, I did. And I didn’t hate it! I can’t say I loved it, but it was almost enjoyable. I think part of the reason why I liked it was because we did 45 minutes of spin and 15 minutes of abs- a nice way to break up the workout. Another reason why I liked it was because we did climbs and sprints based on the song, so it wasn’t just a 45 minute slow climb. Boringggg. Lastly, the bikes didn’t have knobs, but rather levers, so you could see what level you were at, as well as the RPMs and time, so when the instructor wanted you to change, she would say “Ok, bump it up to level 12, with RPMs between 90 & 100, and we are going to sit in the saddle for 30 seconds then bring it up to 3rd for 45 seconds and then hover in 3rd for 60 seconds.” Being able to measure the intensity, speed and time made the workout much more enjoyable. I always have a hard time when spinning has the bikes with the knobs and you’re supposed to do one twist to the right, two twists to the right, 1/2 twist back to the left, etc. Call it my Type A personality, but I like to know exactly how hard I am working and if I am on par with the class.

My only issue, and I can’t believe I’m even saying this, was I didn’t leave there feeling like I had legs of jello. Don’t get me wrong, I was a sweaty beast by the end, but the only time I felt like I wanted to knock my level down lower than what was prescribed was when we had a 4 minute hill climb in the seated position. Holy crap. My legs were dead! Other than that, though, I felt like I could have worked harder… or that I could have done another workout after. Is that normal? When an instructor tells you what level to do, do you follow it or do what you need to do to intensify the workout?

So, with all of that said, I think I am going to give spinning another shot. I really WANT to like it because there are so many sub opportunities for spinning at the gym, so it would be great to learn to like it, how to do it, and feel comfortable teaching it. It would certainly make me a more well-rounded instructor!

Questions for you: Spinning- love it or hate it? What’s a tip you have for me to make sure I’m getting the best workout in that I can? Where’s the best spinning class you’ve ever been to?