Tag: Maine

Scenes from Saturday (Maine Edition)

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Good morning! Here’s a little glimpse into our day yesterday! I taught kickboxing at 10 and then my sister, Charlie and I headed north. We met mom for lunch (dad drove her and took Charlie home with him) and then spent the rest of the day running errands with her! For dinner, we had quite the grilled pizza dinner… nothing is ever simple with the Gagnon’s 🙂 Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

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(Dinner Friday night)

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Questions for you: How was your Saturday? Did you go away for Memorial Day weekend? Where is “home” for you?

Maine & Family- The best way to re-charge the batteries!

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Hey there! How are you doing today? I wanted to pop in and recap my extended weekend in Maine!

Friday

After working from home all day, I had my dad drive me into town to meet up with my mom and her friends at the Back Street Grill. My mom and her friends have been going there on Friday’s after work for as long as I can remember, and I always love when I have a chance to join everyone! I mean, $3 wines… you cannot go wrong with that.

emma(and getting to snuggle sweet little Emma is one of my favorite things!! Look at those cheeks!)

After a couple of wines, lots of gabbing and lots of laughs, mom drove us home to have dinner with dad (and, more wine!).

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012Friday night=fish night for my dad (mom doesn’t eat fish, but I do so I was pumped about fish night!) and lucky for me, he let me share it with him:) I forget what kind we had (some type of trout?), but it was SO good. Paired up with a side of baked potato and broccoli and I was a happy camper!

Saturday

Since I was in bed embarrassingly early on Friday night, I was up and ready to head to the Y for a 9AM class. Although it wasn’t the instructor I was hoping it would be, it was still a great class and I really liked a lot of the moves that we did- especially this cool “skier” squat. Our heels were up on weights, toes pointed towards each other and we squeezed one of those small weighted balls between our knees. With our arms, we held very light weights and did a lat raise combo. Love!

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014Mom met me for the 10:15 Zumba class! I haven’t taken a Zumba class in MONTHS and MONTHS, but I was surprised with how I was still able to pick up very quickly on the steps and dances… must be that former dancer in me? Regardless, we had a blast!

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After a well-deserved shower, mom and I went to get pedicures (as part of her mother’s day gift). Wow, was I was overdue for a pedi! Getting to sit there and relax for about an hour was really quite nice:)

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Lunch at the Springvale Publick House with a beer tasting post pedi was even nicer 😉

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I went to elementary school and high school with one of the co-owners of this restaurant and I have to say, he has got quite an impressive business going. The food is outstanding (and everything is made in house- salsa, dressings, fries, chili, etc.), the beer and wine selection is quite large and the prices are amazing! Every time I drive past and both times I have been there, it’s been really busy and that makes me so happy for them!

After lunch, mom and I did a little shopping and then I went to visit my old boss from my summer job of 7 years at Shaw’s Ridge Farm. The summers I worked there were some of my most favorite summers. By the end of my time there, I was running the place with the help of some very dear friends (Meredith recently moved to Australia and has her own blog- check it out!). To this day, the ice cream Mr. Shaw makes is still the best I have ever had!

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All I wanted for dinner on Saturday night was BBQ on the grill. Thankfully, my dad is a grill master and loaded up the grill with all sorts of goodies!

003Not long after dinner, I retreated up to my room for some quality time with my iPad to catch up on shows I missed last week (Nashville and Grey’s Anatomy). Mom came up to check on me and thought I looked “too cute” and that it would be a “great pic for the blog”. Someone offering to take my picture?! You don’t have to ask me twice!

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I realize now that this post is getting quite lengthy, so I will save my Mother’s Day recap for later this week!

This past weekend was exactly what the Doctor ordered. I was in bed early every night, fed delicious food and drinks, able to get some workouts in and, most importantly, I was able to spend time with my parents!  Any one else feel like you just need to “get out of dodge” sometimes? Meaning, escape the crazy, fast paced city life? Let me tell you, hearing the “peepers” and birds and seeing the stars was so refreshing! But now, it’s back to the grind. I was ready for it, though!

Questions for you: What was the best part of your weekend? Favorite thing you drank or ate? How often do you treat yourself to pedicures?

Greetings from Maine!

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Hey everyone! Greetings from Maine! I drove up to Maine after teaching my kickboxing class last night. I had to get a sub for my SHRED class since I had a late conference call:( I’ll be honest, though, as much as I missed my SHRED class (always love the chance to get some extra strength training in), it was nice going into my kickboxing class with full energy, perhaps too much energy. It was funny- as I was leaving the gym, I thought about my Wednesday and Thursday classes that I taught this week and I actually said to myself “wow. those were really hard classes. Why do I do that to myself?” Low and behold, I wasn’t the only one feeling that way:

hard class noteDon’t get me wrong, I love teaching a hard class, but sometimes I actually question myself while sucking air and trying to yell at everyone (for some reason, YELLING was my theme this week), “What was I thinking when I created this workout?!”.

In Wednesday’s UXF class, we did weighted burpees, weighted jump squats, monkey curls, crab walks and planks w/triceps extensions, just to name a few. Yes, you read that correctly: weighted burpees and weighted jump squats. They are not fun, I’ll be the first one to say it! (I thought I might have been dying from my treadmill run before class, but after overhearing some convos in the locker room, it definitely wasn’t just me!)

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Needless to say, dinner at Life Alive was a well deserved reward for my hard work this week! Plus, I had a leftover balance on the gift card that my sister got me for Christmas, so it was a no brainer to swing by there before making the trek north!

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011The ride north was fairly smooth, except for the massive amounts of fog as I reached Maine. Luckily, I made it! Mom was even waiting up for me when I got home and had made my bed and turned the sheets down for me- I’m a lucky girl!

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As for today, I am working from Maine and then my mom asked me to go meet her in town for a walk before the teachers weekly Friday night drink gathering at the Back Street Grill. I seriously love meeting up with my mom and her friends on Fridays at the BSG- they are a super fun crowd and the wines are only $3. That’s basically stealing, in my eyes! I was also happy to hear that dad is going to cook his “fish night” for me tonight, too… can’t wait to see what he picks up this week!

Being home is such a treat, especially when my sister isn’t with me;) I like being spoiled!

Questions for you! Have you taken any REALLY hard classes this week? Have you ever been to Life Alive? What do you order if you have been there? What’s your favorite thing about being home?

Weekly Workouts

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Hey, friends. Happy Monday! Unlike other weeks, I am actually OK with it being Monday today. For the first time in a really long time I had a weekend with virtually NO plans besides teaching kickboxing on Saturday morning… and boy let me tell you, that couldn’t have come at a more perfect time!

In case you missed my weekend posts (I still have Sunday to post about, but that will be later this week), here they are:

Scenes from Saturday
Run Through Cambridge, Lunch w/Mom & Dad, Gardening, Chicken Parm Burgers

Perfect mix of being productive, but also relaxing and enjoying having no “set” plans. By Sunday night, I was already getting bored, which is a sign that in the grand scheme of things, I’d rather be more busy than less busy, but weekends like this past weekend are great to “re-charge” the batteries.

Anyway, let’s get to the workouts, shall we?

  • Monday- Due to ridiculous amounts of traffic and some errands to run, I only had time for a 2.5 mile run before teaching Dynamax

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  • Tuesday- Tuesday’s are normally my rest days, but since the weather was beautiful, I was in the mood to workout (and, I wanted to have a glass of wine with dinner, so I bribed myself and said if I worked out, I could have a glass of wine!). I did a quickie 30 minute workout and felt great after! I am trying to cut back on cardio with the hopes of curing some pending injuries, so I combined some of Athena’s arm workouts and ab workouts, as well as my own lower body strength exercises to create a nice, sweaty 30 minute workout.
  • Wednesday- I ran 3 miles prior to teaching UXF Burn. Everyone loved the workout, so I’ll be sure to post it!

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  • Thursday- Taught my 3-2-1 Strength, Cardio, Core Workout and Cardio Kickboxing
  • Friday- I woke up and got in a quick 30 minute workout in before work, focusing on upper body and abs
  • Saturday- Taught Cardio Kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA!! 37 people, great music, high energy… awesome start to my day

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  • Sunday- Walked around the SOWA market and then did 30 mins of Athena’s January Ab challenge

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This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- Something on my own and then teaching Dynamax
  • Tuesday- Not sure- might be a rest day, but might do an arms and abs workout similar to last week.
  • Wednesday- Cardio on my own and then teaching UXF Burn
  • Thursday-  I had to get a sub for my SHRED class since I have a conference call that I can’t miss:( I’ll be there to teach Cardio Kickboxing, though!
  • Friday- I’ll be home in Maine!!! I’ll probably do some type of workout at my parent’s house, but, if I take it as a rest day, it might be a good thing! I’ll work my biceps by getting drinks with my mom and her friends after work 😉
  • Saturday- Pending on how I am feeling, I might try to get to the Sanford/Springvale YMCA for a class, otherwise I’ll take it as a rest day
  • Sunday- Probably a nice, long walk with my mom for Mother’s Day

As you can see, this week’s workouts are potentially really light, but that’s OK. My body could surely use a break and since I don’t have to teach from Friday- Sunday, it would be a good time to rest. But, I really do love working out and being active, as does my mom, so I won’t be surprised if I do some light workouts!

Questions for you: What was your favorite workout last week? Do you find yourself needing a break sometimes?

From MA to ME

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Greetings from my favorite state: Maine! As much as I love my life in Massachusetts, my heart will always be in my home state of Maine, so I love when I have the chance to break away from the fast-paced city life and slllooowww down and hang out in Maine with my parents.

Let’s catch up on Friday before we get to Saturday…

Last time I checked in with you, I was debating on what to do for a workout. I wasn’t feeling great and had had a couple of intense workouts earlier in the week. I thought about just walking or doing nothing, but when Athena suggested that I do the “Deck of Cards” workout (originated by Bob Harper- google it), I was totally peer pressured. I had wanted to do this workout for a while, so I figured that Friday was the best day to do it.

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Yeah, that face totally means “oh, wow. that was killer. #sweatybeastmode”. I picked cardio and core moves since I had just lifted on Thursday (and was teaching UXF later in the day where I knew I’d be doing about 50% of the strength exercises) and let me tell you, when I flipped multiple hearts followed by diamonds, or vice versa, I was cursing. The whole workout, including a 5 minute warm up, only took me about 30 minutes so it is great to do when you’re in a time crunch or traveling. (for those of you unfamiliar with the “deck of cards” workout, you pick and exercise to do for each suit in the deck. When you flip the cards over, that’s what you do for an exercise. Face cards= 10 reps, Aces= 11 reps).

Post workout, I decided that I just HAD to get to Lulu to get that tank that I had been dreaming about.

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Cute, right?! And, I ended up finding a really cute of low-rise (unheard of at Lulu) capri’s on sale for $29!! With my instructor discount, that’s basically free when it comes to Lulu:) Since I “saved” so much money and had extra time on my meter and before class, I treated myself to some frozen yogurt.

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YUM! Great fuel for teaching, right?! 😉 Class went great, though. Wasn’t a huge group, but considering it was Easter weekend I was happy with the turnout. Post class, I grabbed a couple of drinks- and nachos- with a friend and my sister. Yum, again!

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My sister and I called it a relatively early night since I knew I had to teach at 10am today and pack and be ready to head to Maine straight from teaching.

Onto today….

My day started out with an hour cardio kickboxing class at the Oak Square YMCA. For the new readers, I recently dropped my Saturday 9AM TBC class at the Allston BSC for an every-other Saturday Kickboxing class at 10AM at the YMCA.  This class makes my week! Even on Easter weekend, I had 31-32 people in class today and boy did we SWEAT! Perfect start to my weekend of extra glasses of vino (yes, that is possible…I am the “wuss” in my family”) and extra candy.

We had an extra long trip up to Maine due to a shopping stop in Kittery and ice cream stop in Sanford

015Avocado ice cream?! No, thanks! Plus, Shaw’s Ridge is wayyy better than Shain’s anyway (I worked and managed Shaw’s Ridge for 7 summers and had the privilege of working with the BEST group of girls everrrr, so I am biased, but the ice cream quality really is much better).

We finally got home around 4pm and got back in the car with mom to head to our roommate’s mom’s house. My mom and Amy’s mom are best friends and when you take our mom and  my sister, Amy, Sara and Rachel, that makes up the “Shapleigh” girls. Rachel wasn’t there today, but we still had a blast!

EasterOk, how CUTE is Amy’s mom’s centerpiece?! I swear, that is the best use of peeps I have ever seen! I just love these girls so much!

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As much as we would’ve loved to have stayed and had fun with them all night, dad was at home waiting for us to eat dinner. I told him I wanted crab cakes, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that he not only had the crab cakes ready for me when I got home, but also had chicken sausage sando’s, veal sando’s, and pea soup. I’m a lucky girl!

We also surprised mom with the coolest thing ever! Mom and dad live off of box wine (they drink A LOT of wine, so it makes more sense to buy by the box) and my sister and I found this “Purse Box Wine” that we knew she’d love.

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As for the rest of the night, I’ll likely be in bed early since I’m exhausted! Church in the morning and then a delicious Easter spread!

Questions for you: What are you doing for Easter? Have anything you’re really excited about eating? Did you get in any good workouts this weekend in anticipation of candy indulgence?