Wednesday Workout: 4th of July Workout!

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I wanted to pop in and provide you with a fun, festive & fast-but effective- workout that you can squeeze in no matter what your 4th of July plans are! There are no weights required, but you can feel free to use them for the squats if you want. I tried to make the moves as festive as I could, but my creative juices were not flowing as well as I would have liked… oh well! I think this is going to be the perfect little workout to do before heading to the parade tomorrow 🙂 I hope you all have a happy and safe 4th of July!

4th of July Workout

Chicken Sausage & Veggie Quinoa Salad w/Lemon-Basil Dressing

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Hey there! After I made that delicious Caprese Orzo Salad, I knew that more summer salads were in my future, and boy was I right! This past weekend was another hot and humid one, so the last thing I wanted to do was turn on the oven and make a big, hot meal. Not only did I not want to cook that, I didn’t want to eat that; no need in raising the body temperature any more than it already was! I got another craving for chicken sausages, so I picked up a package at Market Basket along with some veggies and quinoa. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do a pasta dish or quinoa dish, but the sale on quinoa made that decision very easy!

I went into the meal with really no recipe but did consult a blog for the “dressing”. Originally, I wanted to use marinara sauce and bake the dish, but once I decided that I would rather have a cold salad, those ideas/plans went out the window. Luckily, I was able to find an easy recipe for the dressing (found it here– I only used the dressing recipe, although the rest of the recipe looks delish!) and the rest I just threw together.

Chicken & Veggie Quinoa Salad with a Lemon-Basil Dressing

  • 3 Chicken sausage links
  • 3/4 cup dried quinoa
  • 1 1/4 cup chicken broth (reduced sodium)
  • 1 cup chopped onions
  • 3/4 cup chopped green peppers
  • 1 cup chopped broccoli
  • Corn from 1 ear of corn
  • 4 tbsp. lemon juice
  • 3 tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1 tsp honey or agave
  • 1 tbsp. finely chopped basil

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1. Bring chicken broth and quinoa to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for about 15 minutes. While the quinoa is cooking, chop your veggies. Let the onions cook first (about 3 minutes) and then add the green peppers, broccoli and corn. I poured a little of the leftover chicken broth into the veggie pan to help steam the veggies a little.

2. Cut up the chicken sausage and add to the veggies.

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3. Prepare the dressing: combine the lemon juice through chopped basil. Once the quinoa and veggies and sausage are done, combine and pour the dressing onto the mixture. Mix well.

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I put mine in the fridge to cool before eating, but my sister thought eating cold meat was weird, so she heated hers up. I don’t mind eating cold meat, especially on a hot day, so I served mine cool and loved it! Although it seems like you might need something extra on the side to make this a full “meal,” I was fully satisfied with this “as is”. Ok, that’s a lie, Danielle did make garlic bread that was really tasty to eat along side this salad. Everything in moderation, right?!

Questions for you: Do you like chicken sausage? Do you mind eating cold meat or would you rather it hot?

Weekly Workouts: Being Sick= Way Fewer Workouts

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Hey everyone! How was your weekend? Mine was pretty boring because I was sick, but I think it’s exactly what I needed. I did get out of the house on Friday night for a roommate dinner at The Granary Tavern in the city (LOVED it there- awesome menu, great outdoor dining and the inside was awesome as well), but besides that and a short trip to the beach, target and the grocery store on Sunday, I was pretty much stuck to the couch watching tv or sleeping; I did a LOT of sleeping this weekend.

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Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I wasn’t feeling up to a workout, but I ended up pushing myself to go and was so happy I did! The only cardio I did was 10 minutes of rowing throughout my strength sets, yet I still left sweaty and tired! I used the TRX band, kettlebells, Dynamax Balls, dumbells… all sorts of stuff! I picked leg workouts to do first (2 sets of 15) then worked through lots of upper body stuff. It was great!
  • Tuesday- I finally made it to the “two-a-day Tuesday” that Athena always mentions on her blog. When I lived in Oak Square, I was a regular in Liz’s kickboxing class (I think even before Athena started going to it?), so it was fun to be back at it! I was surprised that I remembered as much as I did 🙂 After taking Liz’s class, I taught Athena’s class… Wasn’t my best performance, but I was feeling pretty icky (shouldn’t have done Liz’s class first since I wasn’t feeling well). Whomp, whomp.
  • Wednesday- I knew I needed rest on Wednesday since I woke up feeling more sick than I had on Tuesday, so I merely instructed my UXF Burn class… well, mostly instructed.

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  • Thursday- I worked from home to try to rest a little more since I knew I had to teach 2 classes that night. I know, I know, you’re probably wondering why I didn’t get subs. Well, I have to get a lot of subs this summer for work trips and it’s hard to find subs for kickboxing, so I just loaded up on meds and did what I had to do to get through it. I did stations in SHRED and didn’t do the workout and taught the modified version of kickboxing… wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be!
  • Friday- Nothing. I felt awful all day so I decided to nap instead of workout. The nap did help!
  • Saturday- Nothing. I woke up feeling better and decided I would go to BodyPump, but as soon as I got up, I got really light-headed/faint, started sweating profusely, face went white and my hands got all tingly/numb. It was easily the scariest feeling I have ever experienced! My sister thought it might be a panic attack, but it lasted WAY longer than the 7-10 minutes panic attacks last, so I don’t think it was that. I think it had something to do with the very strong cough syrup I took during the night. Needless to say, I rested all of Saturday and slept more than I can ever remember sleeping in a day. I literally could not keep my eyes open! I started feeling better around 7 and was able to eat, so that was a good thing.
  • Sunday- Nothing, again. I woke up feeling a little better, but I was still so stuffed up and coughing a lot so I decided to rest, even though I wanted to go for a walk or something! I did clean up the apartment and do laundry which required walking up and down a lot of stairs, but other than that, it was a rest day.

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I was invited to take a class at The Studio Empower”, which I am really excited about!! My friend Athena went recently and has raved about it ever since!
  • Tuesday- I feel like I’ll be in the mood for cardio and weights/core, so it could be a long workout day!
  • Wednesday- My class was cancelled for the holiday, so I will have to do my own workout. A lot will depend on whether I head up to Maine on Tuesday or Wednesday. If I go up on Tuesday, I’ll go to my mom’s YMCA on Wednesday, but if I wait until Wednesday, I’ll go to my gym after work to lift and do cardio and head up after that to wait out the traffic!
  • Thursday- Does collecting candy at the parade count as exercise? 😉 Jk… kind of! Since I know I’ll be eating and drinking by the pool in the afternoon, I’ll probably try to do something quick in the morning at my parents!
  • Friday- Not sure- may head to the gym with mom, may rest… I’m going to see how I feel!
  • Saturday- I have to head back to MA to teach my 10AM kickboxing class.
  • Sunday- Will depend on how my workouts for the week went… if they were good, I’ll rest. If they were light, and I have time to do something, I will!

So, there you have it! As you can see, my workouts this week are mostly TBD since I am not sure when I’ll head to Maine, how I’ll feel and how much time I will have. That’s ok, though. As frustrating as it is to “get off track” with workouts, my body was definitely telling me I needed to slow down and rest last week so I am trying to listen to that and not overdo it this week.

Questions for you: Holidays and working out- do you take them as rest days or are they motivation to workout since you know you’ll be eating more indulgently? Do you go to any parades on the 4th of July? When’s the last time you had to rest for more than a couple of days because of sickness?

Something Weird is Going On… And, I’m Sick- Again!

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Hey B2B readers- Happy Friday! It would be a happier Friday for me if I wasn’t so sick 😦 On Monday, I started to get that “oh boy, I may be getting sick” feeling and sure enough, I was awake most of Monday night with post nasal drip and an itchy throat. From there, it turned to just a sore throat, to a sore throat with sinus pressure and now I have it all, including a cough that kept me up for 3 hours in the middle of the night last night! Needless to say, it’s not fun, especially since I was supposed to go to a going away party for one of my favorite Dynamax members at a fun bar in Southie that I’ve wanted to go to for ages! And, what was going to make the night even more fun was the fact that I DON’T have to teach tomorrow morning!! This is the first weekend in a while that I have totally off- no teaching, no traveling, nothing. It’s a great feeling, I just wish I felt better! I think my body just decided that since I have a relatively open weekend, it was a good time to get sick- makes sense, right? Who knows!

Anyway! This week has been much less busy than last week! I called my mom when I left work on Monday and said I wasn’t sure if I felt like going to the gym, but it turns out, I must have wanted to go because I went and had an awesome workout! Only 10 minutes of rowing cardio throughout the whole thing- the rest was all weight training-focused and I loved it! Tuesday I subbed for Athena’s class at the Oak Square YMCA; I was finally able to make it for a “two-a-day”, but I think that’s what got me more sick:( Wednesday I taught, but didn’t do much of the workout and yesterday I taught and only instructed in SHRED and taught the low-impact version of kickboxing.

After kickboxing, my friend Meaghan and I met for sushi at Yoki in Cambridge since it’s only a block from my gym. I thought about cancelling because I had no voice, but we were so long overdue for a sushi date that I decided to keep the plans. So glad I did! It’s always so nice to catch up with Meg, especially since she had so many fun wedding updates to share! Thanks for a fun night, Meg!

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Something Weird is Going On…

So, as I said in my title- something really weird has been going on: I haven’t had dessert in over a week! I know, if you’re anyone who knows me and knows how much I LOVE sweets, you know that me going even a day with no dessert is unheard of! Now, I’m not saying I have a huge ice cream sundae every day, but I’ll have a few bites of a cookie after lunch and dinner and always a couple bites of ice cream at night.

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Last week I had a weird stomach thing going on all week, so the thought of sweets created a huge aversion for me. This week, even though I don’t have stomach issues anymore, I still haven’t craved sweets and therefore, haven’t eaten them. And, you know what? I have survived!!! It’s so interesting because I always said that I could never give up sweets- like ever! But, it turns out, I never really NEEDED those sweets after every meal. I think it had turned into a habit, thus making me think I wasn’t satisfied until I had a bite of something sweet to finish off my meal.

With this being said, I am by no means “swearing off sweets”, I am just going to be more mindful of eating them. I think I’ve made it clear that I am not one for diets or restrictions or anything like that; I firmly believe in the saying “everything in moderation” when it comes to food. But, with that said, I never needed as many as I ate, so it actually feels good to not crave them all the time. I am a little nervous, though, because what if as soon as I have a bite of something sweet, I revert back to my crazy sweet-tooth ways?! Has anyone else ever gone through anything like this? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Questions for you: Have you heard of a lot of people getting sick this time of year? Have you ever given up food that has been hard for you to give up? Do you have a big sweet tooth?

A Regular Ol’ Southern Meal

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Hey friends! I don’t know about you, but hot, summer weather just screams BBQ to me. Since I have yet to buy a grill, I thought of other ways I could achieve the feel of a summer BBQ meal. Enter: pulled chicken. After 7 summers working at Shaw’s Ridge Farm with some of my favorite people (Meredith, included!), I’ve developed a very soft spot in my heart for all things BBQ: pulled chicken, pulled pork, ribs, baked beans, coleslaw… you get the idea. On Sunday, since the weather was so hot, I decided to put my Shaw’s Ridge BBQ Barn skills to use and make myself a Southern Meal!

I found this recipe over at Eat Live Run and have made it a bunch of times. Every time, without fail, we all rave about about how GOOD it is. And, my favorite part about this recipe is that it is really easy. Although it is technically a crock pot meal, every time I’ve made it I do it on the stove and let it simmer for an hour or so and I think it’s probably just as good!

I copied Jenna’s recipe exactly, except I added 1/2 cup minced onions and I did not cook it in a crock pot.

BBQ Pulled Chicken- recipe from Eat, Live, Run

Serves 4-6

  • 1 and 1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs (dark meat has the most flavor!)
  • 1 T olive oil
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped onions
  • 1 cup ketchup
  • 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
  • 1 T Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 T Apple cider vinegar
  • 1 T yellow mustard
  • 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 tsp garlic salt

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1. Chop onions and cook until they are clear. Add in the remainder of the ingredients (ketchup through garlic salt) and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let the sauce simmer for an hour or two, depending on how much time you have!

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2. While your sauce is simmering, cook your chicken. Normally, I would boil it or bake it, but the pot was dirty and it was REALLY hot, so I cooked it in a pan. When it was cooked through I removed it from the pan, let it cool and then shredded it.

3. When the sauce had thickened and reduced, I added in the shredded chicken and stirred to combine everything.

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I served my BBQ pulled chicken with baked beans, rice and corn on the cob; the only thing missing was coleslaw. Next time!

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This meal totally hit the spot for a hot, summer night and I am already looking forward to leftovers! I bought some wraps so I may make a BBQ pulled chicken quesadilla or wrap later in the week.

Questions for you: Do you prefer pulled chicken or pulled pork? Do you make your own BBQ sauce or buy it?