Tag: moving

This Week: Workouts, Moving is Hard Work & Things I’m Looking Forward To

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Phew. Is it really Monday already? I certainly wasn’t ready to get out of bed to go teach a 6am Muscle Class this morning after all of the moving/heavy lifting/etc. that I did for the past 4 days, but- it’s done, which means I have tonight to do whatever I want 🙂

For those of you who are also moving (or have moved), I’m sure you can relate to how hard it is. Thankfully I’m only on the second floor, but still- that’s a LOT of trips up and down the stairs, often times with a lot of weight in your arms. I wore my heart rate monitor on Thursday night (which is when we did most of the heavy lifting and moving) and I burned 676 calories in 2 hours. Not too bad!

Non-moving workouts were also good this week, and between my workouts on Monday and Tuesday, I was SORE. RM and I also went to the driving range on Tuesday night, so that definitely contributed to some of it.

BSC’s 40th Anniversary- This Wednesday!

I got an email last week that I thought I should share with you! The BSC is celebrating their 40th anniversary and are offering free workouts on THIS WEDNESDAY. You know what that means, right?? You can come to my class on Wednesday at 6:30pm at the Central Square location. Let me know if you’re interested 🙂

Boston Sports Clubs is proving that “good things last,” especially when you’re fit! On September 17th, Boston Sports Clubs is celebrating 40 years strong as a fitness industry leader and opening their doors and offering free workouts to all Bostonians. Already a member? Bring a friend to join you in this special birthday sweat-sesh. During this open house celebration, BSC will be offering members and nonmembers alike free fitness classes and demos, meet & greet with top fitness instructors, giveaways, prizes, and fresh post-workout snacks.

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I did 15 minutes on the elliptical before doing some random exercises in the UXF Zone. I did 3 sets of 1 pull-ups AND chin-ups. Someday I’ll be able to add on haha I also subbed Cardio Kickboxing at the Watertown BSC. Great crowd!
  • Tuesday- I taught my bootcamp at the Wakefield lake and boy did we work hard! The girls were all feeling like they were so out of shape so I had to remind them that I was huffing and puffing and dripping sweat, too. I’ll post the workout hopefully this week as it was good and didn’t require anything but yourself!
  • Wednesday- I tweaked my knee when I was at the driving range and although it was feeling mostly better by the end of the day, I took it easy at the gym. I just did 22 minutes on the Arc Trainer and a pull up and chin up (they felt easier!) before teaching UXF Burn. I did the low-impact modifications and skipped out on the lunges and squats. Luckily my glutes were already sore so it was nice to have a break. It’s funny because whenever I tone it down or do the low-impact version, there are so many other people who join me… some of which I know are doing it only because I am!
  • Thursday- Rest day from the gym, but walked 20 minutes at lunch (rain set in at that point) and moved all of the big stuff into my new apartment. In 2 hours, I burned almost 700 calories… I had no idea moving was such a good workout!!

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  • Friday- I ran 3.5 miles during lunch- it was a gorgeous- almost cool- day and the miles were easy… can’t beat that! After work, I made another thousand trips up and down the stairs to continue moving stuff.
  • Saturday- I couldn’t sleep on Friday night so I was up before 7 on Saturday, again making multiple trips up and down the stairs. I thought moving in the same building would be easier, but it’s really not because you don’t end up packing things up… you think of something you need and run down to get it. That happened all morning! I also taught kickboxing at the Y- the fall crowds are back! We had a blast.
  • Sunday- A much needed rest day. I did some final trips up and down between the apartments and did a preliminary clean of my old place, but my body was SO TIRED.

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I will have taught my 6am Muscle Work class and probably have done some cardio by the time this post goes up.
  • Tuesday- Teaching my bootcamp! If you’re in the Wakefield/Saugus area and want to join for the next session (starting on 9/23 at 5:30pm and runs for 4 weeks), let me know!
  • Wednesday- Probably some cardio before teaching my 6:30pm UXF Burn class at the Central Square BSC
  • Thursday- I’m on the waitlist for a free yoga class at Exhale Spa, so hopefully I can get in. If not, I’ll figure something else out 🙂
  • Friday- Not sure. I’m heading to Maine after work so I’d like to get something done during the day. Maybe a run or maybe go to the gym.
  • Saturday- I’ll probably go the YMCA near my parents house in the morning… and hopefully do a lot of dancing at the wedding!
  • Sunday- Not sure- it may be a rest day depending on how the rest of the week turned out.

Things I’m Looking Forward To

I’m excited to have the majority of the move behind me! It will be nice to finish unpacking, organizing and generally just getting more settled in. The nice part about moving in the same building is the address change is easy and I don’t have to get used to a new area or a new commute! Hopefully RM and I will have another mid-week date night since we don’t get to spend this weekend together… again… 😦 Lastly, I’m excited to go home for my cousin’s wedding! My sister can’t go, so it will just be my mom and dad and me, but that’s ok- we’ll have a blast I’m sure!

Questions for you: Did you move this year? What’s your least favorite part about moving? What’s your favorite part? What was your best workout last week? What are you looking forward to this week?

This Week: Workouts, Preparing To Move & Things I’m Looking Forward To

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Good morning! Happy Monday! Although I love getting my workout in early on a Monday morning, I was thankful for the extra sleep this morning. After an incredible weekend celebrating Sheila and Bryan, to say I’m still recovering is an understatement. I can’t wait to recap the day, but until then, let’s get back on track this week!

I had planned on taking this week off from the gym, but between subbing, teaching and moving, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. Hopefully it will soon. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it on here before, but I’m moving upstairs to the second floor apartment in my building this weekend! I’m SO excited to be out of the “garden level” unit (aka, basement). It’s a 2 bedroom and my sister is going to move in with me for a few months until she and her friend get a place of their own. While I love living alone, it will be nice to have her live with me for a bit (plus, the help with rent is never a bad thing 😉 ). So, it’s an exciting week, but moves- even just upstairs- are never easy, so it will definitely be a long and tiring few weeks getting settled in!

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I was home in Maine and ran 3 miles before doing the Shapleigh Corner Circuit.
  • Tuesday- I taught my second week of my outdoor bootcamp. It was SO humid… I literally looked like I had just gotten out of hot yoga!

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  • Wednesday- I ran 3 miles before teaching UXF Burn. It was a fun class!

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  • Thursday- After work I ran 4 miles and did some strength stuff in the outdoor gym at Piers Park. I did a full, unassisted pull-up! woohoo!

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  • Friday- I wasn’t feeling great, but knew I needed to get some fresh air so I walked a brisk 2 miles and did feel better! After, I did 25 reps of a bunch of different strength exercises before hitting the road to go to the Cape.
  • Saturday- I got up and ran 4 miles before the wedding festivities started. It was super overcast, super humid and misting a little… it was not very pleasant, but I did it! I also danced my butt off… literally! I haven’t danced that much in a LONG time. It was awesome!

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  • Sunday- Nothing. I hadn’t rested all week and my body was just sore and tired!

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I’m subbing the 6:30 Cardio Kickboxing class at the Watertown BSC!
  • Tuesday- I’m teaching my bootcamp at 5:15.
  • Wednesday- I’ll do some cardio before teaching UXF Burn at 6:30. There’s a chance I may not teach, but it’s a very small chance. I’ll update my Facebook page when I figure it out!
  • Thursday- I’m taking the day off from the gym to move the bulk of my heavy stuff into my new place. RM is going away this weekend for a golf tournament on the Cape and therefore won’t be able to help over the weekend so I want to get the big stuff moved beforehand.
  • Friday- Not sure- I may go running or to the gym during my lunch break. I have to help my sister move her stuff that night so I don’t want to do anything TOO strenuous.
  • Saturday- I’ll be teaching the 10am Cardio Kickboxing class at the Oak Square YMCA. Hope the crowds are bigger now that summer is technically over.
  • Sunday- I’m not sure! Maybe a walk or jog with my sister?

Things I’m Looking Forward To

I think this week will definitely be stressful, but hopefully it goes smooth and we get settled quickly! I’m excited to see my parents again and have their help- my mom has always been the person who has made my bed when I move and has set up my kitchen, so it wouldn’t be the same if she wasn’t here to do that this time! RM asked if I wanted to go to the driving range at Granite Links, so if I get a sub on Wednesday it will be fun to do that with him!

Questions for you: What was the best workout you had last week? Did you try anything new? What are you looking forward to this week? What’s a tip you have for a smooth move?

The Big Move…

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“The Big Move”… I am so overly, unnecessarily dramatic 😉 But, in all actuality, it was a pretty big move for me. Even though I am very independent and am not one of those people to always need someone around to go shopping with, watch TV with, workout with, etc. etc., I have never lived alone (although for the past year or so, I’ve wanted to! No offense, Danielle or Amy, but at 28 it was just time to have my own place and no roommates), so this was a big step!

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I started my search in May or June (I think), and found my new apartment basically right away. My landlord is awesome and we got along great right from the start, so it just felt right to sign the papers, not to mention it was a super affordable 1-bedroom apartment!

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This pretty much sealed the deal that I made the right choice! I can be won over by wine.

So, Saturday morning, Sue and Al (aka mom and dad) packed up the truck with my couch and other various things I needed from home and came down to help me move.

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It didn’t take Danielle long to figure out what she was going to do to help us

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assume position and start barking orders. Just kidding! She was actually very helpful for the entire day and in no time at all, we had the first load ready

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I breathed a huge sigh of relief when my parents immediately started gushing at my new place. My only issue with the apartment is that it is basement level and although the ground is at a slant and my bedroom has 2 full size windows, I was just having a hard time accepting the fact that I was on ground level. Walking in with my parents and sister and having them all talk about how it didn’t seem like it was basement level, made me feel great (even if they were saying it just to make me feel better).

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Kitchen and living room

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Bedroom- see? It’s bright!

I put mom to work with getting my kitchen in order while I finished bringing in load after load after load of my stuff. Once everything was in from the first load, it was time to pop the bubbly!

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What I really love about my place is the back patio! I can’t wait to have little BBQ’s and little gatherings out there. It didn’t take dad long to break the patio in!

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We finally got lunch around 2 or 3 and I didn’t take a picture because I was way too hungry. Between teaching cardio kickboxing in the morning and doing heavy lifting/moving for another 3+ hours, I needed food in a bad way. Once we finished eating, my sister left to go to a friend’s house and mom, dad and I went to Home Depot and Target.

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Once we got the vast majority of things on my list (at the time… my list seems to continuously grow as the days go on. yikes!), we dropped dad off at my old apartment and mom and I went back to my new apartment to unload some more things. I was obsessed with getting my bathroom set up- weird, right?! I also put together shelves and mom unpacked and set up other random things.

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By 7:15, we were absolutely beat and decided to head back to Somerville for the night (it was easier to stay there since there was more room)… but not without picking up Chinese food for dinner. Yes, you read that correctly: we had Chinese take-out on Saturday night. I haven’t had Chinese food in probably 3 years!! Totally worth it, though… I was famished and it absolutely hit the spot.

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I crashed pretty hard on Saturday night and before I knew it, it was time to get up and start all over again on Sunday! While mom was at church, Dad and I packed up the rest of the things in my apartment: bed, bureau and all my clothes/shoes/food/etc. Gosh, I was dripping in sweat within minutes! Moving is seriously NO JOKE. Great workout!

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It was definitely bittersweet leaving my old apartment knowing that I had everything packed up (ok, almost everything- I realized later that I forgot all of my jackets in the coat closet there, but no biggie since the girls are staying there this year!). But that feeling went away as soon as I had everything in my new apartment and started making it feel more like home.

We broke around 1 to go have a birthday lunch for my parents at Joe’s American Bar and Grill in the North End. The purpose for going there was to have brunch on the water, but long story short, we ended up inside. I’ve always enjoyed the food there even though it’s a chain restaurant, but this past experience was horrible!!! From the food to the service, everything was awful! Well, except for this drink

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Now THAT was good!

After lunch, I was feeling like it was time for some “Monique alone time”, so I sent my parents and my sister off so I could be in my apartment alone to putter and try to organize my life! I washed things that didn’t need to be washed and moved things from one place to the next and then back to the original place. I finally decided it was time to get out and grocery shop and pick up a few more things at TJ Maxx and Target.

My trip to Market Basket was rather large, but I think I spent half what I would’ve spent had I gone elsewhere! I love that store 🙂

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I also bought myself flowers because, well, sometimes you just need flowers 🙂

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Again, I didn’t stop until about 10pm on Sunday, but it was nice knowing that I’d be working from home on Monday (Comcast was coming so I wanted to be around for that!). Besides work on Monday, I was able to get some things done around my apartment, go to BodyPump after work (holy moly… I lifted heavy and was rather sore on Tuesday!! I secretly loved it 😉 ) and then hit up the Christmas Tree Shop for a few things. I also made my first “dinner” at my new place. Nothing fancy, but I’m loving my new pots and pans!

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I made my first commute to work on Tuesday from my new apartment and was pleasantly surprised with how easy it was!! My old commute was a short walk to the bus, a bus ride to the T, taking the T 4 or 5 stops into the city and then walking about 15 minutes to the office. Phew! My new commute is an 8 minute walk to the T, 2 stops into the city and a 12 minute walk to work- amazing!! 🙂

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When I got home, I went for a 3.5 mile run around my new neighborhood. There is a REALLY nice park with all sorts of paved trails a half mile from my house which I see myself taking advantage of during my time here!

By the time I got home from work last night, I was utterly exhausted! I ended up subbing the class before mine and I found myself having no energy to teach which never happens. I took that as a sign and did the low-impact version of the workouts. Thankfully I had leftovers for dinner, otherwise my dinner likely would’ve looked like this:

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My friend, Tim, texted me that and I thought it was perfect timing! Mom, he thought you’d get a kick out of it, too.

Even though I’m not completely settled in, I feel like I’m getting there, bit by bit! Luckily I don’t have any big plans this weekend so I’ll have time to finish up even more!

Questions for you: When is the last time you moved? What’s the first thing you like to set up in your new apartment? How long is your commute to work?

Weekly Workouts: An exhausting week

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Hey there! I wanted to pop in quickly to say hi since I feel like I’ve been totally MIA from the social media world (besides posting a few Instagram photos). As most of you already know, I spent the weekend moving into my new apartment! I’ll post about that hopefully later this week (once I get real internet- I’m connected to my work iPhone’s hotspot right now and it’s SO slow!). I’m incredibly thankful for my parents and sister for helping me move, though- there’s no way I could have done it without them!

But let’s get to the workouts, shall we? I was SO sore yesterday- a mix from doing Tabata TRX abs before teaching kickboxing on Saturday and moving all weekend- yikes!

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I ran 3.5 miles before work. Again, I ran pretty much as fast as I run when I run after work. It must be because my body is getting used to waking up and working out first thing.

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  • Tuesday- I was out late on Monday night so my plans of getting up to workout before work went out the window. I was going to go after work, but my sister reminded me that I hadn’t really rested much lately and when you pair that with being tired, she suggested I rest. So, I did. We met at my apartment and she brought champagne and treats- so nice of her!
  • Wednesday- I worked from home on Wednesday so I had extra time in the morning to workout. I’ve been rather stagnant with my running, doing just 3-3.5 miles each time, so I decided it was time to up that. I ran 4 miles and although it wasn’t fun, it wasn’t terrible! I then taught my UXF Burn class and introduced the new 3-2-1 format. I don’t think people really liked it that much, but I am not sure if it was because it was new or they just didn’t like it. Regardless, I ended up doing most of the workout to try to keep the energy up and the class exciting (yes, that means running and jumping around like a crazy person).

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  • Thursday- I taught a pyramid workout in SHRED that I hope to post on Wednesday for you. I loved the workout, but was so bummed when I realized that we never went back down the pyramid on the legs section. Ugh! That drives me crazy!! I used to get so annoyed at instructors when they lost count or forgot to do something, but I find myself doing that now. It’s so hard to talk, instruct AND count AND remember everything, right?! After SHRED, I taught kickboxing!

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love this shirt!!

  • Friday- I went for a 5K run after work and made a new PR (personal record) of 25:46. I hit stop, but apparently it didn’t stop, hence the time on the watch. It was fun running after work for a change.

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  • Saturday- I taught the same kickboxing routine that I taught on Thursday and then I spent the rest of the day moving. So many things carried, so many stairs run up and down, so much shopping and lifting. I was literally spent by the time we got home at 7:30pm. Talk about a long day!

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  • Sunday- More moving, lifting, carrying, shopping, walking. I didn’t stop besides sitting down to eat lunch with the family.

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I am working from home in the afternoon and taking the morning off since my life is still relatively in shambles (although I am REALLY impressed with how well my apartment came together in such a short amount of time) and I need to deal with Comcast. After work, I’ll head to the Wellington BSC to lift and do cardio (would love to make it to the 5:30 BodyPump class!)… unless I’m exhausted, then I’ll rest or maybe walk around my neighborhood.
  • Tuesday- I would love to run around my new neighborhood after work, but if I don’t rest today, I’ll probably rest tomorrow.
  • Wednesday- I am subbing Kate’s Sports/Cardio Conditioning class at 5:30 and then teaching my UXF Burn class- come join me for a double:)
  • Thursday- Another double. Woof. SHRED then kickboxing.
  • Friday- Potentially another rest day, especially if I feel like I want to run errands and/or meet people for dinner.
  • Saturday- Probably BodyPump and cardio since I’m not teaching!
  • Sunday- Depends on how the rest of the week went. If it was heavy on the workouts and I feel like I need rest, I’ll take it, otherwise I’ll do something.

Questions for you: What’s your least favorite part about moving? Do you like doing “two-a-days”? Are you someone who counts in class and/or gets annoyed when instructors don’t count and forget stuff?