Tag: Running

Five on Friday {3.11.16}

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Good morning! TGIF 🙂 I know everyone has been talking about the weather, but I mean, seriously?! I have 3 words for you: Soak. It. In! I hope you’ve all had a great week- mine has been fairly quiet… and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. I even had a day where I had nothing planned after work, which hasn’t happened in MONTHS (literally). It was so nice to be able to run some errands and still get home at a reasonable hour.

Let’s talk Friday things, though 🙂

  • Bagged kale- Kale is a serious staple at our house. Both of us eat a ridiculous amount of it, and while it’s easy to cook (we just season with salt, pepper, garlic powder and EVOO and then bake it), we both HATE preparing it when it comes to de-stemming it and washing it. I found this bag of organic pre-washed & cut kale at Whole Foods and decided to try it out. While I still had to pick through the kale pieces to remove stem pieces, I found the whole experience to still be faster than the traditional way and about the same price. Totally loving it!

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  • Veggie Teriyaki Stir Fry– Hummusapien has done it again! I whipped up a batch of her Veggie Teriyaki Stir Fry since we had cooked brown rice (I accidentally ordered it when we ordered sushi last week) and other veggies on hand and, per usual, it’s a huge hit. RM went back for seconds and thirds and couldn’t stop raving about it! We’ve eaten it plain, served over kale and shredded brussels sprouts and beneath an over-easy egg. There’s really no wrong way to eat it. GO MAKE IT!

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  • Box FIIT Certification– I am slowly but surely making my way through this certification. It’s proving to be a much bigger commitment than I really needed to be doing at this point in my life (with wedding planning and a new class on my schedule and everything else), but I’m really learning SO MUCH and am totally enjoying it. I just wish I was able to make more time for it so I could get it done quicker, but I still want to keep blogging and having some time to relax at night so I’m taking it slow.

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  • {Potential Spoiler Alert!!}Breaking Bad– Ok, I know we are WAY late to the party, but we have been plugging away at these episodes and seasons and it gets crazier and crazier. For those of you who watch it, am I the only one who doesn’t like Walt?! We just finished Episode 7 of Season 5 where he killed Mike, who I loved! I was seriously so sad 😦 and he was so mean to Jesse, who I also love. UGH!
  • Soaking up the sun– Wednesday’s weather was just TOO GOOD to not soak up, so instead of running after work/before teaching, I laced up and hit the pavement during my lunch break. I surprised myself with sub 8-minute miles and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the run… it felt so liberating to run in just a tank after so many layered clothing runs!

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And that does it! As for weekend plans, I’m getting together with my SMC girlfriends tonight, teaching tomorrow and then shopping all day with RM. I’m heading home on Sunday to do some serious wedding stuff with my parents.

Questions for you: How has your week been? What do you have planned this weekend? Did you get outside to enjoy the weather this week? Have you found any good new recipes lately? What’s a show you’re loving these days?

Weekending: Soaking Up Family Time

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Good morning! Did you guys have a good weekend? Did you do anything to soak up the spring-like weather? On my end, weekends surrounded by family are always worth recapping, so let’s get to it!  🙂

Friday

My mom took the train into the city to do my bridal shower invitations with my sister so after they were done, I left work early and met them for lunch at Sterling’s. Sauvignon Blanc, kale salad, shopping and lots of mom and girl time was a perfect way to spend a Friday afternoon!

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After mom left, my sister, her bf and RM and I got one more drink before heading home. We had big intentions of getting sushi for dinner, but neither of us ended up wanting to leave the house so we made due with what we had in the fridge and snuggled up for a few episodes of Breaking Bad.

Saturday

I hit the gym for a lifting session before heading to Maine. I hadn’t lifted heavy all week and even though I felt weak, it felt good to get under the bar again for a squat and push focused workout.

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Mid-morning we hit the road to head up to Maine for the night. We met up with everyone (my parents and sister and her bf) at Mill 67 in Sanford for lunch. I didn’t take a single picture (oops!), but the food and beer was great!

The whole reason for our trip to Maine was because my dad wanted to make a Bouillabaisse with/for us. He bought an incredible amount of fish for it including a 13 pound lobster (yes, THIRTEEN POUNDS!), mussels, clams, oysters, scallops, cod, swordfish and salmon. He even made the fish broth himself- it was an incredible.

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In addition to the stew, my dad also made Lamb Wellington which was also delicious.

Sunday

I didn’t take any pictures on Sunday, but it looked something like this: pancake breakfast, driving back to MA, went food shopping, worked on my Box FIIT certification, went for a 5K run and relaxing on the couch. For some reason, I had no desire to do any sort of meal prep so rather than forcing myself to do it, I just let myself relax, watch Grey’s Anatomy and blog. It felt really nice to give myself a break!

I hope you all have a great start to your week!

Questions for you: What was a highlight of your weekend? Did you do anything outside? Did you get any good workouts in? Have any big plans this week? 

 

Five on Friday {11.20.15}

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Good morning- Happy Friday 🙂 I know I’ve said it before, but I’m having so much fun writing these “Five on Friday” posts because I can pull any weird tidbit of information I want and one of you can usually relate to at least something in the post so I’ll chalk that up to a win 😉 Also, I’m not sure if this means I have a problem or not, but when I originally typed “win”, I typed “wine”… hmm…

Anyway- on to this week’s Five on Friday!

1. Roasting a chicken- Two weeks ago, I roasted my very first chicken. It came out so good, I decided I needed to make it again for when my parents came down this past Sunday. RM and I agreed that my second one came out even better than the first! The best part? It’s such an easy meal to prepare! All you have to do is pick what veggies you want (we are veggie happy so we did Japanese sweet potatoes, regular sweet potatoes, carrots, celery and onion), chop them up, season your chicken with salt & pepper (I also used Herbs de Provance because that stuff is amazinggg), place some lemon slivers under the skin and then top with a few thin slivers of butter, which creates a nice crispy outer layer.

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2. Friendsgiving- I haven’t ever been a part of a “friendsgiving” so I am SO excited for the one we are doing with my college girlfriends tomorrow. We are all responsible for bringing various things, like Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes for me, and of course lots of vino 😉 I might also try to make some homemade cranberry sauce- anyone have any good recipes for this?

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3. Yoga strength- As I mentioned on Tuesday I had the opportunity to take a bunch of yoga classes last week. I shared some things I learned throughout the various classes I attended and today I’m totally loving Yoga strength. While it may not feel like the same type of strength as weight lifting, to hold poses, go from high to low plank and do arm balances it requires an incredible amount of strength, especially core strength.

4. New sneakers- There’s nothing better than getting new shoes, amiright?! And, for someone who loves all things fitness apparel related, I especially love getting new sneakers. I’ve tried out my new Saucony running sneakers a few times this week and I have to say, I’m diggin’ them. I like the way my Mizuno’s hug my feet better than the Saucony’s, but the Saucony’s feel more stable when I’ve used them to train in which is great for Wednesdays when I usually run and then teach my class.

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5. Target holiday things– Umm, how amazing is this shirt?! When I saw it, I knew I just HAD to get it. I see myself most definitely over-wearing it 😉

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And that does it! I hope you’ve all had a great week and have a great weekend planned out. Chat with you next week 🙂

Questions for you: Have you done a friendsgiving before? What’s your favorite Thanksgiving dish? What brand of sneakers do you run in? Have you bought any Christmas things yet?

Weekending: Moving & Labor Day Weekend Edition

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Well, here we are- Labor Day has come and gone. RM and I were talking about how while we can’t believe summer is on its way out, summer actually didn’t feel incredibly short. We didn’t have a lot of weekend plans, weddings or travel this summer so we were able to take advantage of many weekends on the Cape and a few in Maine which was different than last summer. I also don’t remember a time when I went to the beach as much as I did this year. Whether just scooting over to Constitution Beach in East Boston or going to the Cape or Wells Beach in Maine, we did some serious beaching!

Last weekend’s long weekend started on Thursday when it was move day for me. While I don’t like packing and unpacking, the actual physical act of moving doesn’t bother me- I look at it as another workout!

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I had never hired movers before and although I had a slightly argumentative phone call with  the owner at one point, things ended up going very smoothly. Thanks to a recommendation by Stephanie, I hired Secure Movers and was impressed not only with their rates, but also with their speed. We (yes, I helped move boxes down my stairs and into the truck), were able to completely load up the truck, drive to Watertown and unload the truck in just under 2 hours. I call that a success!

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After they left, I spent some time getting the extra bedroom set up, grabbed lunch at the local Whole Foods (and an ice cream at the Market Basket in Chelsea- was totally craving one!) and then headed back to my apartment to clean.

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When all was said and done, I walked over 26K steps and climbed 100 flights of stairs. I honestly don’t remember the last time I felt so physically, mentally and emotionally drained. Even though I am so excited about our move, it was a weird feeling to be moving out of my last “single girl” apartment.

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Thankfully, dinner and wine at Kelly’s Pub (awesome local joint in EB) made me feel muuuuuch better and I slept like a baby that night.

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Friday morning I worked from RM’s apartment for a half day and then fit in a quickie workout, which actually left me sore for a few days! I ran 1.5 miles and then did this tabata workout, which I still really loved! We went to the new apartment to do some stuff and then grabbed dinner at Jeveli’s before heading south for a weekend at the Cape.

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(Ashley P- finally opened the bottle of La Crema that you gave me a long time ago! I always save my “nice” bottles of wine and figured moving was a great time to crack it open!)

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing- both at the house and on the beach! We had a delicious dinner on Saturday night consisting of burgers, hot dogs, chicken, sausage, rice, salad and corn on the cob.

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Sunday morning I fit in another quickie workout: run 1 mile, 4 tabata rounds (squats & lunges, push-ups & jabs, high knees & squat jacks, side dips & standing crunches), run 1 mile. Short and sweet! We attempted a day trip to Martha’s Vinyard, but logistically it didn’t work out so we ended up just heading back to Craigville Beach.

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It was the perfect beach day, but unfortunately I only made it in the water once because I got stung by a jelly fish… TWICE! Hurt so freaking bad! Roberto later got stung on his neck- it was weird! I used to think that going to the beach was such a process: packing the bags, chairs, lotion, lunches, drinks, etc., but this summer we have nailed the process and can get ready and on the beach in no time! For lunch on Sunday and Monday, we opted for “wrapless wraps”- something I think we are going to do a lot more of! Basically, we used the turkey as the “wrap”, then layered cheese, hummus and spinach and rolled it up. I also put rice in mine and Roberto put pickles in his.

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Really enjoyed this “healthier” and “lighter” lunch option!

For dinner, we stopped in at Baxters in Hyannis for a drink and then had dinner at Tugboats.

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Monday morning I went for a 3 mile jog before an earlier beach day.

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We contemplated heading back to Boston early, but the weather was just too perfect to not take advantage of it. One more beach day was well worth the traffic on the way home!

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All in all it was a really fantastic weekend, and perfect timing since last week was stressful and this week likely won’t be much different. I really focused on being present in the moment and soaking in all the goodness that the weekend brought rather than stressing about all that we have to do this week. Such a simple change in perspective really made all the difference in the world. I don’t like living in limbo and chaos, but I’m really working on not having any expectations for the rest of the move and kitchen renovations and just letting things be. If we have to eat out every night- so be it. If we don’t have a kitchen sink for a while and have to wash veggies in the bathroom- it’s only temporary. If I drink wine every night and break my “rule”, who cares! This sort of mentality doesn’t happen naturally for me, but I realize it will make the next few weeks a whole lot better if I do it!

I hope all of you had a great long weekend, too! And for those of you with recent moves, I feel your pain! I’m not sure how much I’ll be blogging this week because on top of moving I am teaching on Wednesday and subbing on Thursday (6:30pm cardio kickboxing- Wellington BSC), but I’ll pop in when I can 🙂

Questions for you: Did you grill this past weekend? Did you go to any Labor Day Parties? Do you prefer the beach, lake or pool? Was this summer busy for you or did you have time to relax?

Guest Post: Tips & Tricks to Run Faster

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Good morning, B2B readers! I have an awesome guest post for you today which has some tips & tricks to help you run faster. What I love about this post is that my friend, Meaghan, is super real about the fact she hasn’t always been a runner and that it didn’t always come easy to her. I really believe that some people are just better at running than others, so when I hear tips from people who are just natural runners, my first thought it “yeah, easy for you to say! Running isn’t hard for you!”. However, when Meaghan started telling me about her recent running updates, I actually listened and thought “wow, she’s probably right- that’s a good idea”.

I remember getting texts from her a few years ago when she got back into running/working out more consistently, but it seems like over the past 6 months- a year she has really exploded with her running. Her mile times are much faster than they used to be and she’s running races all over the country- literally. I love that she has made running her ‘thing’ and when we were catching up the other day and she was telling me about all her races and times and improvements, I knew I had to have her share those same tips with all of you. If you’re looking to get better and faster at running, I hope you enjoy these tips and are able to take away some of them to try on your own. Take it away, Meaghan!

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I haven’t always been a runner. In fact, I was the kid in school that dreaded running the mile in gym class or running 2 miles for high school soccer try outs. After allowing myself to really get out of shape freshman year of college I decided to try running. At first it was mostly walking with some running thrown in, then I gradually increased the running and decreased the amount I needed to walk, until eventually I was able to run 3-5 miles without stopping. I wasn’t interested in speed for a long time, just getting out there and finishing the run that I set out to do. Then I signed up for my first road race a few years ago and that all changed. It was a 5 mile race and again, all I was interested in doing was finishing without stopping. I achieved that goal and got “the bug.”

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I’d heard friends talk about the race bug, but did not think I’d ever be one of those people. Suddenly I found myself signing up for packages of races with goals to beat my last time. I even started planning trips for big races! I finished my first half marathon in Las Vegas last year and just got back from Lake Tahoe where I ran a 12.3 mile leg of a 72.2 mile relay race around the whole lake!

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Meaghan= water stop

It took me years to get to this fitness level , but in the past year I’ve changed some of what I’ve been doing and seen huge results! I’m by no means an expert, but here are some of the things I’ve learned along the way:

  1. Spice it up: Try a different route, new scenery and landmarks can really break up the monotony

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