I hate this excuse. And yes, I call it an excuse.

We all have the same 24 hours in the day, and while some of us have those 24 hours more jam packed than others, I promise you that we can all find 10-15 minutes to move our bodies at least 3 times a week.

It doesn’t sound like much of a commitment when I put it that way, does it? It’s half of a TV episode and certainly far less time than most of us spend scrolling through social media (#guiltyascharged)

I talked about this a little in my Instagram Stories over the past couple of months as summer tends to be the busiest time of year and when our workouts tend to take a backseat, but I’m so passionate about dispelling the notion that you have to workout for 60 minutes, 5 times a week in a gym, that I decided I needed to spread the word via this little blog, too.

Here’s the deal:

• You do NOT need to workout for 60+ minutes for it to be considered a “workout”.
• You do NOT need to go to the gym for it to be considered a “workout”.
• You do NOT need to workout 5-6 times a week to be considered “in shape” and someone who works out.

No. Just no.

Doesn’t that sound so daunting? And time consuming? And something that’s ultimately not sustainable?

Here’s the thing – what if I told you that you didn’t need to do all that? What if I told you that you could start with just two workouts a week that are less than 20 minutes and don’t even require you to leave your house? 

That sounds pretty nice, right?

I had this conversation with one of my besties earlier this summer. She had joined my free, LIVE streamed workouts and was motivated to do more.We talked a bit about the time thing and I told her exactly what I told you: “Why don’t you start with two days of 15-20 minute workouts and we will go from there. If you have weeks where you think you can fit in another workout, go for it. If you think you can fit in a walk or bike ride, do it. Once that becomes “easy” and consistent, we can discuss adding in another day.” 

The day after she did another workout, she texted me a sweaty selfie saying “sweaty and red, but done! It was hard, but I liked it. I like how short these are. I can commit to 30 minutes.”

PROUD FRIEND/INSTRUCTOR MOMENT!!!! Her response is 100% my goal when I’m trying to show people how un-complicated fitness should be. 30 minutes, if you’re doing the right things that are HARD and challenge you, is plenty of time to workout. Heck, the right 15-20 minute workouts are also all you need some days (which is pretty much all I do these days!).

And the thing is, we ALL have time for that. I don’t care if you work multiple jobs, have multiple kids, have long days at the office, have laundry or cleaning to do. If you want to get movement in… if it’s important to you… you can FIND time to fit that in. We are only too busy for the things that are not important to us. And I’ll be honest, some days are SUPER busy for me and when I look at what I can shift around to make more time, it’s the workout I choose to skip. Other days, it might be laundry or meal prep.

It’s a choice for us to choose how we spend the 24 hours in hour day, so I encourage to to think about how you’re spending yours. Are you spending time doing things that drain you mentally or physically without adding any benefit? Do you spend too much time on social media or watching tv? do you spend too much time in the office behind your computer? Taking 20 minutes out of any of those things is not going to be that much time in the long run, but the feeling of getting in SOME movement is pretty awesome. And, like I always say, every little bit DOES count!

If you’re looking for help with this and you want to learn how to make it a sustainable thing (rather than a 2 week, all out crazy life change that ends up being exhausting and too much work), hit me up. I would LOVE to help you learn how you can integrate movement into your life in a way that is enjoyable and not time consuming.

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And just like that, it’s August!

I realized the other day, that it had been quite some time since I published a real blog post. I’ve been trying to send out newsletters once a month, but that also hasn’t always been the case. I’d apologize, but I’m actually not sorry about it! In years past, I let my blogging schedule stress me out – if I didn’t post at least 3 times a week, I felt like I was going to lose all of my followers and that I had somehow “failed” as a blogger ( I mean, everyone else was able to get blog posts up daily! lol). Gosh, that’s so sad to think about!

These days, there’s just a lot going on. Between work (which has been crazier than usual), teaching, acupuncture, and, well, LIVING, I just haven’t been in the mood to write.

And that’s ok – it’s LIFE! Our motivation for various things (working out, cleaning, writing, etc.) ebbs and flows in a very natural way, so pushing ourselves to do things when we just don’t feel it, doesn’t always serve us well. Sometimes, all we need is a little break, a little breather, and then we can jump back in.

Today serves as that for me 😉 I wanted to fill you in about how summer has been going thus far, and I hope you’ll respond and tel me what’s going on with your summer!

• Anniversary – last month, we celebrated our 2 year anniversary. We were lucky enough to get the chance to escape to the Cape and we really enjoyed ample amounts of relaxation, beach, nice weather, great seafood and plentiful cocktails.

• Life Time Athletics – as you may have seen on Instagram, last month I announced my new teaching gig at Life Time Athletics in Burlington. It’s super convenient for me to pop over after work as it’s on my way home. I teach my own cardio kickboxing format/class on Tuesday nights at 5pm, so if you’re ever in the area and want to check it out, let me know –  I have guest passes!

• Seaport Sweat – Per usual, Seaport Sweat is one of my summer highlights. There’s just something so FUN about this fitness series – the participants are amazing, the location is perfect and the fact that we get to be outside and workout with a live DJ is icing on the cake! If you haven’t had a chance to check us out yet, check out the schedule here, grab a friend and come workout with us!

• BostonVoyager Feature – I guess July was a big month, lol, as another cool thing for me was being featured as a Trailblazer in an interview/article on  BostonVoyager.com. I was so honored to be featured and I had a lot of fun answering the questions. I hope you check it out!

• Charlie Puth – A few weekends ago, my parents came down and my mom, sister and I went to see Charlie Puth at the Blue Hills Pavilion. I had never been there, but it’s such an amazing venue, especially if you have nice weather. We had an absolute blast! The next night, we hosted a BBQ for both of our families and a few friends and it was one of the best nights of the summer. Great weather, delicious food and most of my favorite people all together at our house! Doesn’t get much better than that.

• Great summer reads – I recently read The Woman in the Window, which was SO SO SO good. A must read if you’re looking for a great book that keeps you guessing throughout the entire thing. I also finished The Boy in the Woods, which was creepy/eerie. I liked the ending, so I’m glad I read it, but there were many points where I wanted to put it down and not pick it back up. That said, if you don’t mind some creepiness, I would recommend it as it’s a great storyline!

• Acupuncture & Fertility – As you may have seen on my Instagram stories and Instagram TV, I’ve been opening up about our fertility issues and journey. I have been going to acupuncture for fertility for about 4 months and have enjoyed learning more about my body, not to mention getting the chance to rest and relax for 45 minutes once a week! As pregnancy hasn’t yet happened for us, we’ve decided to pursue some extra help and are seeing a fertility specialist in a few weeks. If any of you are going through similar issues (or have gone through them), I feel you! I’m always open to chatting more about this if you want!
• Pizza Fest – My sister and I went to the Pizza Fest at City Hall Plaza which was so fun! There were so many great pizzas to try and drinks to have. After, we went to the beer garden right near by, which is so cool!
• FRANCE! It’s crazy that our trip to Paris and the French Riviera (staying in Nice), is less than a few months away. If you have been to either of these places, shoot me a reply and let me know what to do, where to eat, what to see, where to go – I want to hear it all!

Few! When you see it all laid out like that, it’s no wonder why I haven’t written lately 😉 We don’t have many plans for the second half of the summer and I’m so excited for that! I love weekends where we can go to Life Time together for a workout and then pool time, followed by a date night in the city. I love weekends where I can sleep in a bit and not be constantly on the go. I love weekends when I can slow down a bit.

I hope you’re all having a great summer so far! Please comment below and let me know what’s going on with you – I’d love to know!

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With so many different “health food” and “protein” bars out there, it can be challenging to know which ones to choose, right? Since I get this question a lot, I thought I would list out my 4 favorite ones and also tell you why they are my favorite.

While I used to love Luna and Cliff bars (they are SO good), these days I tend to stay away from those a bit more since the ingredient lists for them are longer and I’d like and filled with things I don’t particularly like or think necessary to have in a food bar. Does it mean I wouldn’t eat one or think you shouldn’t eat them? Nope. But with today’s post, I’m hoping to show you some other options that still taste great, but are made with fewer, more natural and beneficial ingredients.

1. Larabar – My all time favorite bars are Larabars. These have so few ingredients, yet they taste so good! There are also a ton of flavors – cashew cookie and peanut butter cookie are my personal favorites for pre-post workout snacks. Since they are bigger bars, I tend to have half at a time since nuts fill me up quickly or, I’ll buy the smaller ones if I can find them. If I’m looking for something a bit sweeter, I go for the chocolate chip cookie dough or peanut butter chocolate chip. Even with the sweet factor present, most are still under 5 ingredients, which is what I love about them. I’m still baffled at why companies feel the need to load up their products with loads of unnecessary ingredients!
2. RXBars – While it took me a little bit to get used to the texture and flavor options, these bars have really grown on me. Similar to Larabar, they have very few ingredients, and all ones I can proounce! They all have egg whites, dates and some sort of nut, and then depending on what flavor you choose, there are other minimal ingredients. My favorites are Coconut Chocolate and Chocolate Peanut Butter.
3. Health Warrior Bars – I hadn’t had many Health Warrior Bars before I became a brand ambassador, but now I eat them all the time! I’m a fan of the Chia bars and have one every week before I teach my 6am class. My husband, on the other hand, prefers the Pumpkin Seed bars, and eats so many I have to reorder once a month! What I like about these bars is their motto of “Superfoods are always the #1 ingredient”, which is true! Chia Seeds, sunflower seads, nuts quinoa, honey, etc. These bars do have more ingredients than Larabars or RXBars, but the lists are still pretty short, and all things you can pronounce.
4. GoMacro Bars – these are another favorite in the house! I wrote about these bars here, but to summarize, they are Vegan, Soy & Gluten free bars that align with a macrobiotic diet. The ingredient list includes nut butter, organic protein blend, nuts, brown rice syrup, puffed brown rice, and additional flavors depending on what flavor you choose. My favorite flavors are the coconut almond butter chocolate chip and cashew caramel. I love that they have the mini bars, too, because they are perfect pre or post workout bars. Oh yeah, I’m a big fan of the consistency!

There ya go! Next time you’re looking for a new snack/protein/health bar, I suggest swapping out your normal go-to and trying one of these. They taste good AND they’re filled with beneficial ingredients.

Question for you: What’s your “go to” health food bar?

If you’ve been following B2B for a while, then you may remember reading some recaps (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) from the last time I went to San Francisco, which I can’t believe was 3 years ago! That said, when I had the opportunity to travel to SF this spring for work, I obviously didn’t mind 😉 What made it great was that we visited 2 companies, saving us an additional trip out there at a separate time. And! What made it even better than great was the fact that RM was able to come out and spend the weekend with me!

I hope you enjoy the recap below, and if you have any questions about anything, let me know.

Where We Stayed

Since my coworker and I were traveling for work purposes, we wanted to stay nearby the office that we would be going to. That landed us at the Harbor Court Hotel! It was reasonably priced (for SF, anyway) and in a great location for all financial district and ferry building activities. Not to mention the view! I paid up a little so that I’d have a bigger room since I was going to be there for 6 nights, and fully enjoyed waking up and going to bed with beautiful views of the Bay Bridge. The hotel rooms were definitely small, so I would suggest paying up for one that’s a little bigger and that has views – it’s worth it, trust me! Everything was recently renovated, we had access to the YMCA next door, they had a happy hour at night with free wine, a beautiful lounge area and coffee services. All in all, I was very happy with the hotel!

(Maybe some day I’ll learn to take pretty pictures without all my stuff everywhere…)

This view did not get old. Especially at night when it was all lit up!

Where We Ate

San Francisco has so many amazing restaurants and foodie options! Here’s where I ate throughout the week:

• Epic Steakhouse – we didn’t eat here, but did have drinks at their outdoor bar before dinner on the first night there. We were told that they have great food, though!

• Perry’s – We ended up eating here the first night since it was basically next door to our hotel, but the food honestly wasn’t that great. I had eaten there my list trip to SF and remembered it being better – oh well!
• Tipsy Pig – This is another place that I went to the last time I was in SF and I loved it so much I knew I had to go back. We sat in the back patio area and sipped on a few of their delicious cocktails and some snacks before dinner. The menu looked awesome for dinner, though, so I wish I would’ve had a chance to eat more there.
• Palmer’s Tavern – Again, another repeat from my last visit to SF. This is a landmark spot on Fillmore Street – it’s always busy! My coworker and I had dinner there that was pretty good, but I took RM back for cocktails and those were amazing! We sat outside and it was perfect.

• ThirstyBear Brewing Company – This is an organic brewery that came recommended by my friend Kelly, who lived in SF for a while. The beers were great, but the food was what really stole the show! In fact, it was so good that I took RM there for dinner the first night he was in town. We both couldn’t stop raving about it!

• Town Hall – My coworker and I stumbled upon this restaurant on the walk back to our hotel after watching the Bruins game (they won!) and were so happy we did because the food was SO good. Plus, the atmosphere was great and the waitstaff were so friendly. There isn’t a lot going on around this restaurant, but it’s worth a visit.
• Calzone’s Restaurant – we popped into here with our scooters for a little mid-day break/pick-me up. Aperol Spritzers for the win! We didn’t eat the food, but enjoyed sitting outside and people watching 🙂

• Magnolia Brewing Company – We popped in here after a long day of site-seeing and thoroughly enjoyed everything about it! I actually didn’t realize it was a brewery until I just googled it for the link, lol. But that explains why the beers were so good! The food was also wonderful.

• Montesacro – The second night RM was in town, we decided we wanted something more casual for dinner and both felt in the mood for pizza. But not just any pizza, we wanted good, Neopolitan style pizza. After some googling and yelping, I stumbled upon Montesacro and we decided to give it a try. Super cool vibe, great service (everyone was from Italy and spoke Italian all night!) and incredible pinsa. No, that wasn’t a typo – it wasn’t “pizza” that we had, but rather, PINSA. From their website it is:  a blend of rice, soy and wheat flour imported directly from Rome, all GMO-free. It is low-fat, low-calorie and easy to digest. Part of the elaborated processing technique is the minimum 72-hours leavening process at controlled temperature, hydration of 80% (less calories) and the low content of olive oil (less fat), unlike traditional pizza will not complete its leavening during the digestive process. I wish there were more pinsa places because it was SO good.

• 54 Mint – We loved our waiter, also a Roberto!, and when we got to chatting with him, realized they have a sister restaurant called 54 Mint. Since we enjoyed our meal at Montesacro so much, we made reservations for dinner at 54 Mint on Saturday night. Beforehand we stopped at Delarosa for a pre-dinner drink and then continued on to 54 Mint. Again, greeted with Italian waitstaff and a great vibe, we knew we were in for a treat. We shared salad, octopus and a pasta dish and everything was absolutely delicious. At both places, we really felt like we were back in Italy, which is never a bad feeling!

• Frog Hollow Farm – Saturday morning we felt like a lighter/non-sit down breakfast so we googled “best avocado toast near us” and Frog Hollow Farm came up, which was convenient since the Ferry Building was basically across the street! It was SUCH good avocado toast and we enjoyed eating it outside in the sun.

• Copita Tequileria– this restaurant was recommended to us when we were doing our wine tasting (I forget the name of that place, but it was just down the road from this restaurant)and it did not disappoint. We enjoyed margarita’s, ahi tuna and fish tacos!

What To Do

There’s SO much to do in San Francisco, so I feel like I only touched the surface of all that the city has to offer! Here’s a glimpse at what we did. We didn’t make it to Alcatraz, but I had been before so I didn’t mind. It’s so hard to get tickets, so if you want to go, book wayyyy in advance!

• Walk around – we covered so many miles! Also, the hills are no joke 😉

• Ferry Building(s) – I think of this as a classier Quincy Market. It’s filled with awesome shops, mostly local ones, too. They also had a great farmer’s market on Saturday morning that was fun checking out. As you walk along the street, you’ll stumble upon lots of “piers” that are filled with different things, too – restaurants, shops, etc. Then you can walk all the way down and see the seals, which was my favorite thing. I was obsessed with watching them – such interesting creatures!

• Fisherman’s Wharf & Ghiradelli Square – pretty touristy, but still worth checking out. Plus, you get great views of the Golden Gate Bridge.

• Walk through China Town, which is HUGE
• Rent scooters (Lime and Bird are two brands that I can remember) – these were SO FUN! I was super nervous, but ended up totally enjoying them. One day we rode them for about 10 miles all over the city and to/around the Golden Gate Park. Such a fun an efficient way to get around the city.
• Giants Game – my coworker and i were able to get to a game while we were there and while I am not a big sports person, I enjoyed the experience a lot. We could walk to the stadium from our hotel so we got a chance to see all the boats. The stadium itself was beautiful and had the most gorgeous views of the water. Oh yeah, and the tickets were super cheap. Definitely worth checking out if baseball is your thing!

• Day trips! We were torn between Napa and Sausalito, but ultimately decided to go to Sausalito since it was much closer and easier to get to. What a cute little town right on the water with beautiful views of SF. We did a little wine tasting, shopping, walking around and had a delicious lunch.

• Lombard Street – This is the famous, super steep, super windy road that people love to drive down or walk down. It’s beautiful!

• There’s so much more to do, but there’s only so much you can fit into one trip, sometimes!

There ya go! I felt so fortunate to be able to mix a work and play trip – hoping for many more of these in the future!

Questions for you: Have you been to SF? Do you travel for work? What’s your favorite thing to do when exploring a new city?

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Believe it or not, it’s already April. How, exactly, this happened, I’m still not sure! If feels like we were just changing our clocks back in October and a few weekends ago we moved the clocks forward. Time really does fly!

However, whether we are ready or not, and even though the weather isn’t showing any signs of it, spring is here.

As the seasons change, I find myself looking for ways to spruce things up a bit. Whether it’s my workouts, my wardrobe, my hobbies, our house decor, etc. I feel like season changes are the perfect time to do this, don’t you agree?

If you’re feeling a little “blah” as the winter weather lags a bit more than we may like, check out 5 ways that may help you perk up and get excited for spring.

1. Closet swap out – If you’re like me and are not lucky enough to have a closet that fits your whole wardrobe in it, now is the perfect time to start swapping out your winter clothes for spring/summer clothes. While we still aren’t *quite* there with full-time warm temps, they will be here before you know it! Added bonus: shop for a few new spring/summer items. I recently went shopping and noticed that stores all had such great deals, so it’s worth checking out if you feel like you need something new!

2. Take your workout outside – As soon as the weather starts to hint at being warm, I find myself craving the outdoors. Whether it’s running, a park bootcamp or even just going for long walks, the spring months are a great time to get outside. To piggy back off of this, buy yourself a new workout top, headband or cute leggings! You can usually find great deals on these things at Old Navy and Marshalls/TJ Maxx. I promise it’ll be motivation to move!

3. Fire up your grill – I don’t know about you, but I miss grilling season! We fully utilized our grill last summer, whether it be chicken, steak, fish, veggies, pizza – we loved grabbing a drink, firing it up and hanging out outside. It’s also a great time to find new recipes to test out!

4. Plan a summer weekend getaway – Even if I just book tickets to a show or a weekend at our Cape house, I love having weekend plans to look forward to! Last summer we spent a lot of time in Boston which was a fun change, but this summer I would like to spend more time on the Cape and in Maine.

5. Clean up your Social Medial accounts – I think if we all took a look at the list of people we follow, emails we subscribe to posts we “like”, we could EASILY remove at least 10 people/emails from those lists, right? I know I definitely need to do this because there are some people who I follow that don’t add anything to my day to day or life. In fact, I find myself falling into the comparison trap when I read their posts. Or, I get annoyed because of where they are in their careers and why they got there. No one needs something that makes them feel like that, #amitright? So, I challenge you to “unfollow” anyone who isn’t ADDING something to your social media scrolling and day to day.

Do me a favor and leave a comment to let me know how you’re sprucing things up this spring season. Are you planning any trips? Doing anything new? Signed up for any races?

Hope you have a wonderful rest of your week!

 

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