Good morning! I am about to head out to spend the day at the Wellness by the Water Retreat, but wanted to pop in and show you some scenes from yesterday! Enjoy!
Friday Dance Time!
Ok, not really, but you never know! I might bust out some moves when the Ellen Show comes on later today (I mean, how can you NOT want to dance when she’s dancing?!). Happy Friday, everyone! For the life of me, I couldn’t keep my days straight this week. And not in one of those “ugh, it feels like Friday but it’s only Wednesday” or “Wow it’s already Friday? It feels like Wednesday” way, I simply just haven’t known what day it is! I do, however, know today is Friday and that makes me very happy! Let’s catch up on the week…
Monday
I worked from home, went for a 40 minute run, and then cooked this delicious meal:
Tuesday
I was able to make it to a class with my FAVORITE instructor. Holy moly did she kill us! I secretly loved it, and very openly loved it when I took a lot of what she did and made my class do it on Wednesday 😉 Look at this beautiful sky that I took a picture of as I walked home from the gym:
Wednesday
I had a blast teaching UXF Burn! Like I said, it was a tough one, but if people are taking an hour out of their day to come to my class, I want it to be worth it! So we work hard 🙂
AND, how lucky was I that my sister (who had just gotten home from a vacation in the South) texted me and said she would have homemade pizza ready for me when I got home. #bestthingever Look at this beauty of a pie!
Obviously I had to try a little bit of all 3: turkey pepperoni, fresh tomatoes & goat cheese. peppers, broccoli and onions. plain cheese. Holy Yum!
Thursday
How ’bout that beautiful weather?! I was so so happy that I was finally able to enjoy a lunch on the water without freezing. And, to make it even better, JP was in town and met me! He got a Sportello Lunch Box and I got a sandwich from Flour…. and a cookie later in the day 😉
Post work, I headed to the gym to teach my double. We did a stations workout somewhat similar to this one. It was actually quite different, but the same format idea. What’s great, is that members seem to enjoy this type of workout just as much as I do 🙂 Kickboxing was a bit of a hot mess, but that’s what I get when I try to make up complicated “sets” while sitting at my desk and not actually TRYING them before teaching them! Most members in my class are regulars now, so they know how to roll with it!
When I got home, I went to water my garden and look what I saw!
Everything is coming up!!!! My flowers are not doing so well, but look at these babies! I can’t believe it.
And, that brings us to today! I thought about getting up to do some core work or arm stuff, but I realized that I haven’t rested since Friday, and every day has been pretty tough workouts, so I am opting for a rest day. Looking at my weekend (kickboxing tomorrow and Wellness by the Water Retreat on Sunday), today is a great day to rest.
Questions for you: What’s been your favorite thing this week? Favorite pizza topping? What’s going on tonight? Dinner or drinks out? I want to do something tonight, but not sure what that is yet!
Have a wonderful Friday, everyone!
Mother’s Day Recap
Hey everyone! I know it’s a little late to be posting a Mother’s Day recap, but better late than never, right? Even though my sister wasn’t home to celebrate Mother’s Day with us, mom, dad and I still had a great day!
We decided to not rush around to make it to the 9AM mass and went to the 11AM instead. Since we were planning to have a brunch and didn’t want to eat at 3pm, we did all the prep work for the meal prior to church. Dad got the potatoes and onions going, mom pre-cooked the sausage and I got all the ingredients together for the mini Quiche’s.
After church, mom and I went to the grocery store quickly and then came home, popped some bubbly and got to work on the getting the brunch together.
Mom FINALLY let me give her the rest of her Mother’s Day present. I am really bad at surprises and keeping things from people. As soon as I buy something for someone, I want to tell them about it or give it to them. Mom, on the other hand, likes to wait. So, I waited. From Friday to Sunday. Even after a couple of wines I still couldn’t get her to give in and open it! Alas, Sunday came and she said it was time!
When I was in NYC, we went to Chelsea Market and to the Chelsea Wine Vault. As soon as I saw this “wine tote” I knew I had to get it for mom. Mom and her friends go to the beach at least a couple of times a week in the summer and always bring wine or champagne. They try to be discreet by using Dasani bottles for their wine, but I think we all know that’s not discreet at all. Neither is this, but it’s pretty darn cute!
And, since my parents love their Franzia boxed wine, it’s really easy to go from “box to bag” as one of my mom’s friends said.
Love it! It fits 750ml of liquid, which just happens to be the size of a bottle of wine. Coincidence? I think not. So happy she loved this, even though I knew she would!
Brunch was absolutely delicious!! As much as I love breakfast and breakfast foods, I never take the time to make really delicious breakfasts, so Sunday was a nice treat!
YUM! We had lots of leftovers, so after we finished, I helped mom pack them up, aka I packed up stuff I wanted to take home with me:) I love when I get to go “grocery shopping” at my parents house! Also, to all my fellow organizers out there (ahem, Athena), I have to show you my parents Tupperware closet. Yes, you read that correctly, they have a closet for all of their Tupperware. I am SO jealous!
One day, maybe I’ll be able to have one of those. Talk about making it easy to “grab n’ go!”
That about sums up the day! The sun did come out in the afternoon which was a nice surprise. Mom sat outside and read and I joined her out there while I did some arms and core workouts! I packed up to leave around 4:45 and was greeted with an apartment that did not have hot water. Lovely. Oh well. Could’ve been worse!
Questions for you: Are you super organized when it comes to putting away Tupperware and pots and other things like that? Favorite beach beverage?
Lemon Chive Broiled Tilapia with a Greek Yogurt, Lemon & Chive Sauce
Hi there! Two posts in one day- you lucky ducks! I also realized it’s a little ironic that I posted a workout for you first, and then a healthy meal idea. Maybe you should try both, in that order 😉
Since I am not teaching Dynamax this session ( 😦 ), I now have Monday AND Tuesday nights off from teaching. I almost don’t know what to do with myself now that I have all this extra time! Luckily, I am very good at filling up an open schedule, so I certainly haven’t been bored yet. I had to work from home on Monday since we had plumbers coming (came back to the apartment on Sunday and realized we had no hot water- lovely), which was actually a really nice way to start the week. Saving the 1-1.5 hours in commuting is such a wonderful thing.
After I finished working, I went for a 40 minute run (4.62 miles- nothing too fast, but it felt good!) and then did about 30 minutes of strength and core when I got back to my apartment. I had gone to the grocery store during my lunch break to pick up 3 essentials for the dinner I had planned to make: fish, chives, Greek plain yogurt, so once I finished my workout and took a shower, I got right to work! This meal came together really quickly, so it is a perfect weeknight meal to make!
Lemon Chive Broiled Tilapia w/a Greek Yogurt, Lemon & Chive Sauce
Ingredients
- Fresh Tilapia (or any fish of your choosing)- I got a small filet since it was just for me and I didn’t want a lot of leftovers- it was about .3 lbs.
- 1 lemon
- Chives (side note: all weekend my dad kept reminding me to take some fresh chives from his garden, yet what was the one thing all 3 of us forgot to pack up for me? The stupid chives. It seriously pained me to have to pay $2 for a package of chives when I knew my dad had SO many for me!)
- 2% Greek Plain Yogurt (they didn’t have 0%, but the thickness of the 2% was actually great)- I used 1/4 cup
- 1/4-1/2 large onion
- 1 small summer squash (this was REALLY small, but perfect for my meal!)
- 1 box of Near East Quinoa Blend (mine was the Rosemary and Olive Oil)
- Sea Salt
- Pepper
Directions
1. Cook the quinoa according to the back of the package. While that is cooking, cut up your onions and summer squash and saute those in a pan. I used a little bit of EVOO, salt and pepper (no wine since I didn’t have any- the horrors!).
2. Prepare your fish: I rubbed a small amount of EVOO on the fish, sprinkled some sea salt and pepper, topped it with 3 lemon slices & a few squirts of lemon juice that I had in the fridge, and finally, about 1-1.5 tsp chopped chives. I placed it in the oven and broiled it until it was white and flakey (about 5-7 mins).
3. While the quinoa, veggies and fish are cooking, prepare your sauce. I used about 1/4 cup 2% Greek plain yogurt, juice from the remainder of the lemon that I took slices from for the fish, few shakes of salt & pepper, and about 1- 1.5 tsp chopped chives. I mixed it up well and let it sit.
4. When the fish is done, remove from the oven. Your veggies and quinoa should also be done, so add the veggies right into the quinoa and mix well.
5. Serve up some of both, top with sauce and enjoy! I also made a small side salad to go with this meal and it was perfect!
Mind you, this was my FIRST time cooking a fish meal other than something simple like shrimp, so I was pretty nervous about how it would turn out. No worries, though, I was pleasantly surprised with the flavor of the fish and how easy it is to cook! Normally, I get carried away in the kitchen and end up spending so much time on what I am making, but not on Monday night- I was finished before I knew it (maybe that is in part to not drinking wine while I was cooking… maybe that’s what drags out the process 😉 ). I can’t wait to use the leftover quinoa and veggie mixture to top my salads with… and maybe even use the “sauce” as my dressing?!
Don’t like fish? I think you could do the same thing, but use chicken instead! Obviously you’d have to bake the chicken and not broil it, but I think it would still be delicious!
Questions for you: Do you like fish? What is your favorite kind?
Wednesday Workout Time! Full Body Circuit Workout
Hi! Wednesday’s are wonderful because once they are over, you know you are so much closer to the weekend!
Remember how I said how I taught some pretty tough workouts last week? I thought it would only be fair for me to share one with you, right?!
I taught this in my UXF class on Wednesday and it.was.awesome!
I liked this workout because it never got boring and even though there were some things I really dreaded (weighted burpees and weighted jump squats), there were lots of things I really liked (Lunge w/oblique twist and monkey sit with biceps curls), which made it go by really quickly! We got through 3 rounds, including a warm up and a few extra abs at the end. For the 3rd round, I did drop it down to 45 seconds instead of 60 to save some time.
For the weighted burpees, refer to the top two pictures above. Crab walk is bottom left and monkey sit with biceps curls is bottom right.
Couple of notes:
- Weighted jump squats- you can either hold the weights by your sides and do small jumps, or you can just hold one weight with both hands and squat, touch it to the ground and when you jump up, push the weight up over your head to get that extra big reach. If jumping is too much, just squat with the weights!
- Double Knee Strikes- this is a Dynamax move:) This YouTube video shows the first part, but instead of throwing the ball after the 2 single knee strikes, bring both knees into your chest, then start over!
- Wide leg lifts- instead of holding your legs/feet/heels together when you lift and lower your legs, bring them into a wide V. This works your obliques more!
I think that about covers it! As always, let me know if you have more questions:)
Questions for you: Ever done any of these moves before? Do you prefer to lift heavier weights for a small amount of reps? Or light weights for lots of reps?
Burpees to Bubbly 