Weekending {Extended Version}: Birthday Celebrations & Marathon Monday

April 19, 2016April 22, 20168 Comments

Good morning! I opted to not blog yesterday as I had the day off and figured a lot of you may also have it off or may even be running the marathon! Between taking my birthday off last week, working from home on Friday and then having yesterday off, I feel like I’ve been on a little vacation, which is pretty awesome. With everything going on these days between wedding planning, the BoxFIIT certification, teaching, blogging, working, etc. I feel like I was running on empty and really needed some time to re-charge the batteries. Granted, the past week has been filled with lots of things, but most didn’t involve work which helped give me that “recharge” I needed.

I’m going to keep my captions short, so enjoy the pictures!

Birthday yoga!

Birthday manis/pedis/lunch with my birthday buddy!

Strong ladies supporting me in class. Not pictured: after class drinks at Gaslight 🙂

Julian pizza from Max & Leo’s- the birthday girl doesn’t cook on her bday 😉

Beautiful flowers and prosecco from coworkers who came to my class

Extra bday flowers from RM

All dolled up! Love the new bag RM got me

My sister surprised me with a bottle of bubbly at dinner. We went to Committee in the Seaport and everything was unbelievably good- we couldn’t stop raving about how flavorful everything was AND they sent out a birthday treat- I highly suggest checking it out!

Post kickboxing sweaty selfie.

Entertaining my parents- I’m so sad that I didn’t get a single photo with them while they were here 😦

Food shopping

Pancake breakfast

Birthday presents from my dad- picnic table, fire pit and a heck of a lot of wood. It was SO nice of them to come down not only to celebrate, but also to bring all of these things to help us have an awesome back yard/patio!

4miler in gorgeous weather. I wish I could say it was a great run, but my legs felt like lead the entire time and my miles averaged 15-20 seconds slower than usual… BUT… I finished it and it felt great to be outside. Who cares about the mile times!

Taking advantage of the sun and doing my thank you cards for the bridal shower gifts we’ve received outside. And then I started reading Defending Jacob, which is our new book club book. So far, I’m enjoying it, although it’s crazy that it takes place in Newton!

Beer at home by myself: a rarity, but the weather encouraged it 😉

Meal prep for the week: a cauliflower rice & other veggie “stirfry” with a peanut sauce and then a veggie-filled quiche- both have so much flavor!!

Loving our outdoor patio space! Took my workout outside yesterday morning and it was amazing.

We walked from the Intercontinental Hotel (where RM parks his car) to the Back Bay and it was so nice strolling through Boston Common’s in the gorgeous weather.

We were fortunate enough to hang out at the Solas Pub (part of the Lennox Hotel) pretty much right at the Marathon finish line thanks to New Balance- drinks, food, prime spectator location?! Yes, please. So thankful for this opportunity!

Watching the marathon is always a super emotional and inspiring thing. I love watching everyone who is finishing strong, but I also love how everyone is looking out for each other. The crowds roared even louder when struggling runners were trying to get to the end. Fellow marathoners helped those who were physically too beat to run on their own. Paramedics and EMT’s and all of the other helpers were there to help get people safely over the finish line. It gave me chills soaking all of that in. Such a wonderful experience.

If you made it this far, THANK YOU! I’ll be back tomorrow with a workout… and maybe even a recipe for you this week!

Questions for you: How was your weekend? Did you get outside to enjoy the weather? Did you go to the marathon or did you run the marathon? What do you have planned this week?

Wednesday Workout: 3 Set Lower Body Burnout

March 23, 2016March 22, 2016Leave a comment

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.

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

February 29, 2016February 28, 201610 Comments

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!

Super energetic class on Saturday morning! And, I loveddd that some of the gym girls came!

RM and I went for a super long walk on Saturday afternoon.

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!

Sunday morning pancakes- enough said.

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

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

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!

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.

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

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

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?

Weekending: Pizza, Patriots, Puppies & Babies

January 18, 2016January 17, 20162 Comments

Good morning! I’m not sure how many of you will be checking in today as it’s a holiday and it seems as though everyone I’ve talked to has today off… except me 😦 I am WFH so I guess it’s not so bad. Did you guys have a good weekend? We did, although we didn’t get to spend much time together because of separate plans/obligations. Let’s recap!

Friday

I WFH on Friday because I had to go in the office on Monday. It was actually so nice to be home on Friday- I hadn’t slept well all week because of my cold so it was great to sleep in a bit and stay in my jammies all morning! It was my rest day so I decided to do some active rest by taking my errands on foot. I had to go to the library to pick up our new book club book- has anyone read this?

That night, RM and I went to meet up with his family at Charcoal Guido’s for a going away dinner for his sister. She moved down to Atlanta on Saturday to be with her boyfriend. The food and company were both great, but the Nutella pizza at the end kind of stole the show.

We weren’t ready to go home after the dinner so I suggested swinging by Branch Line for another drink. It was crazy how busy it was there for 9:45pm! I always like seeing that with new restaurants.

Saturday

On Saturday, I headed out in the rain to go teach. The January crowds are back and I love it! My class worked so hard- it was awesome.

I was supposed to go visit my friends Christy and Kia since they both had baby girls a few weeks ago, but the weather was apparently bad up there so I ended up postponing it. With a free day ahead of me I decided treat myself to a Starbucks Chai Tea Latte (thanks for the gift card, Dana!!) and headed into the city to start our registry at Macy’s. I’d love to say that went great, but after an hour I walked out with a mere 5 things on it. Oops!

Once I reached my limit of shopping, I headed to my sister’s apartment to hang with her and some of her friends and to watch the game. Her friend brought the cutest puppy ever and for some reason he loved me so I got lots of puppy snuggles!

I had a blast hanging out with her and her friends- I hadn’t seen any of them in forever! the food was also great. I made some delicious pizza, there were meatballs, healthy buffalo chicken, veggies, pigs in a blanket, cheese puff pastries… I never do things for the game so I totally loved getting to check out what people do for “game day food”.

Sunday

We got up and I offered to make us- you guessed it- pancakes! These were probably my best yet, so I wish I would’ve measured things so I could recreate them!

After breakfast I hit the road to visit Christy and then Kia. I didn’t get any photos because I was busy snuggling the cutest little baby girls! It was nice to hang out with each of them for a bit- very relaxing!

Once I got back home I went food shopping and then we thought about going out to have a drink and catch up since we didn’t get to spend any of the weekend together, but we opted to stay in the house which actually worked out well because we were able to get lots of food prep done: sweet potatoes & brussels sprouts, kale, spicy broccoli and beans. I had taken a meatloaf out of the freezer earlier in the day so dinner was easy to throw together.

This week is a busy week due to a few social engagements after work, so I’m happy we were able to get ahead of meal prep yesterday!

Questions for you: Did you watch the Patriots game? Do you have a favorite “game day” food to have at parties or bring to parties? What was the best part of your weekend? How is your week looking? Anything fun planned?

New Years Eve & Weekending {girls luncheon & PMC Resolution Event}

January 4, 2016January 3, 20168 Comments

Good morning! I have to say… going into this week knowing that I have to work a full week is really not that fun. As much as I am ready to be back on a more normal schedule with regards to working out and eating (and not having so many social engagements to go to), I was really quite fine with working shorter weeks 😉

Did you guys have a good New Years Eve? Did you do anything fun? This year, we decided to not make any plans- if we ended up doing something, great. If not, that was fine, too. I was just tired of the big NYE hype and then never really having as good as a time as I wanted, so having no expectations was how I wanted to spend this NYE and you know what? I had the best one I’ve had in a long time!

When I got home from work, I decided to skip the gym or any sort of workout and instead snuggle up with some bubbly and a book. I had been getting oddly sore from my workouts and felt a little off all day so I decided that rest was best!

This book was fantastic and I was so happy I decided to relax and finish it!

RM had been feeling under the weather for a few days, but managed to rally enough to walk to the Social Bar & Restaurant for drinks and dinner. We didn’t think we would stay late, but it was nearly 11:30 by the time we got home!

We were both happy to see that the restaurant was busy, but also that we were able to snag seats at the bar only after a short wait. We started with drinks (bubbly for me-duh- and beer for him) and then decided to do sharsies and pick a few things of the menu.

We also split a phenomenal burger and then finished with this Nutella bread pudding…. thank goodness we had a little walk to get home to help digest!

What I loved about the Social was that you didn’t have to buy a ticket, so it was very non-committal. They also had a DJ and party favors and a champagne pour at midnight (which we didn’t stay for). I love that we have a handful of great dining options within walking distance from our apartment- ranging from sushi to pizza to wings to the American style food at Social.

We ended the night watching the ball drop in our jammies on our couch- perfect!

New Years Day started with some eggs and toast for breakfast and then was followed with lots of save the date work. I’m mailing 98% of them today- feels amazing!!

Once we both got hungry for lunch, I decided to walk to Max & Leo’s and order a pizza and some wings. It was SO good and totally hit the spot!

Later that night I started to feel like I was getting sick from whatever RM had, which was not going to be a good situation since I had a lot of fitness things over the weekend I did not want to be sick for. RM suggested I go to bed early so I did just that- 8:30pm and I was sound asleep! I set my alarm for 7:30, thinking I would absolutely be awake before that, but next thing I knew it was 7:30 and my alarm was going off. I was amazed at how much I could sleep, but you know what? I woke up feeling great- imagine that 😉 Thank goodness, because I didn’t want to feel sick for my first class of 2016!

I thought the crowds at the Y would be bigger than they were- hopefully they’ll pick up in a few weeks!

The rest of my Saturday was spent lunching with my girlfriends. We went to Not Your Average Joe’s in Medford and then decided to get one more drink at Regina’s since no one had anything else to do for the day. It was such a fun afternoon!

Saturday night was very lowkey, so we were up relatively early on Sunday. I was on pancake duty again and then took down all of the Christmas decorations before heading to The Club to participate in The Resolution ride by PMC. In short, it was an incredible event and I’m so happy to have been a part of it! I ended up raising enough money to do 2 rides, so at noon I rode with Elise and Cara from The Handle Bar and at 1 with Rich & Mick from Turnstyle Cycle. Both rides were a blast- The Handle Bar girls did a Bieber/Senena Gomez ride and the guys from Turnstyle did more of an older mix of intense songs with a good build in them. Needless to say, by the time my second ride was over, I was totally spent!

The rest of my Sunday was spent relaxing on the couch. I can tell I’m still fighting something because I’m feeling more worn down than usual after my workouts this weekend… so rest it is!

I’m subbing tonight at the Watertown BSC for Dana’s 6:30pm Cardio Kickboxing class- come sweat with me if you can!

Questions for you: How was your NYE? Do you like to make big plans or do you prefer laying low? How was your weekend? Did you get your first workout of 2016 in? Have you ever participated in a fundraiser event?

Burpees to Bubbly

Because good workouts deserve bubbly rewards!

Category: YMCA

Weekending {Extended Version}: Birthday Celebrations & Marathon Monday

Wednesday Workout: 3 Set Lower Body Burnout

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

Weekending: Pizza, Patriots, Puppies & Babies

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