Tag: Westin

Wednesday Workout: NBGNO Event- How to Stay Fit While on the Road

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Good morning! If you’ve been following B2B for a while, you know that I am a BIG fan of staying active while on the road. I don’t think I’ve ever gone away without my sneakers and workout clothes packed because it’s really important for me to find time to get in at least a little movement in while I’m away. I love the way it energizes me and helps me “earn my treats”, as I like to say. I’ve given tips to on how to stay healthy while on the road before and I’ve shared multiple hotel room workouts as a way to show you that working out and eating healthy/making healthy choices while traveling CAN happen.

So, why am I talking about this topic again? Well, the New Balance Girls Night Out (“NBGNO”) event I went to last week was all about staying healthy while on the road and how Westin Hotels make that so easy. A few years ago, New Balance and Westin teamed up to make workout while on the road very doable. I experienced this while staying at a Westin in Atlanta. I took advantage of their running map/route, as well as the gym.

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Not only does the Westin provide you with a running route, but they also have their “pack light, stay fit” program, which allows you to borrow workout clothes, socks and sneakers when you travel. They wash the clothes and shoe inserts between uses and they let you keep the socks.

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And, don’t worry- you won’t be wearing crappy old gear- look at this stuff! They always have the newest sneaker styles and current clothes.

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Pretty awesome looking stuff if you ask me!

Anyway… back to the event! Caroline and Sherri did a FANTASTIC job hosting the latest- and final- 2014 NBGNO.

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After their introduced themselves and kicked off the event, we had the choice to join the Westin Run Concierge and Caroline for a run around the city or stay with Sherri and Chris, a Westin trainer, for a bootcamp. Since I fell and scraped up my knee pretty badly during the last dark Boston run, I opted for the boot camp.

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I liked how Chris explained what we were doing, why we were doing it, how it was beneficial and right/wrong ways to do it. He was super knowledgeable and I’ve changed my form on some exercises because of his tips. We worked in a 40/20 format where we did an exercise for 40 seconds and rested for 20 seconds. We did 4 different exercises, mostly focusing on core and glutes and holy moly my glutes were sore for 3 days!

After we finished our workouts, we were able to have food, drinks (have I mentioned how much I love events that offer free wine?!) and mingle with other attendees. Shortly thereafter, Caroline and Sherri shared more about Westin’s “pack light, stay fit” program, as well as tips they follow for staying healthy while on the road. I love that they asked the audience what are some tricks we do to make sure we get a workout in. Here are some that were shared:

  • Put your workout clothes, shoes, iPod, headphones, asprin (in case you’ve been out late the night before…), etc. next to your bed so that when you get up, you see it and can get dressed and to the gym before you realize you’re even awake!
  • Workout in the morning so that the day doesn’t get away from you before you realize you haven’t worked out.
  • Bribe yourself- say if you get to the gym for 10 minutes, you can have a glass of wine. Bets are that you’ll stay for 10  minutes once you’re there!
  • Workout in your room if you don’t want to pack your sneakers. On top of offering workout gear, Westin also has a partnership with Holly Perkins and you can do one of her workouts on the TV. This way you can workout without even leaving your room.
  • Print out workouts from your favorite fitness blog or write down a workout the night before. If I have a workout planned, I’m more motivated to do it
  • Take advantage of where you are. New city? take your workout outside and go for a run or walk. This serves as not only a workout, but a tour, too!
  • Make it fun by asking friends/coworkers to join you. I’ve even lead a bootcamp on a bachelorette weekend! I threw it out there assuming everyone would laugh at me, but you know what? Everyone participated. I think part of the reason why people don’t workout while on vacation or a work trip is because they think there isn’t time or that there isn’t a gym. Once you show them that there IS time and that you don’t need a gym, they’re always really happy to join you and so happy afterwards!

What do you think? Do you guys follow any of these tips? Do you have any that you can share with us?

Again, big thank you to New Balance for giving me the chance to participate in such a fun event. And thanks for another awesome swag bag!

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Questions for you: Have you heard of Westin’s “Pack light, stay fit” program? How do you stay fit/active/healthy while on the road?

Weekly Workouts: Hotel Gyms & Preparing for Mania & Spartan

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Hi Friends! How are you doing? Did you enjoy Meredith’s guest post on Friday? It’s worth a read if you missed it!

I am still in Chicago, but heading back today. I’ve had a great week of travel, but I am reallllyy ready to be home. I’m ready to not have wine or beer at every meal and I am ready to not eat out. Does anyone else feel that way at the end of a vacation?

With that said, I tried to counteract the cocktails and restaurant food by getting in some solid workouts. The Westin I stayed in while I was in Dallas was great! It was big, there were lots of cardio machines and a good selection of weights. I got up before my training sessions on Wednesday and Thursday and took advantage of the gym. I headed to Chicago on Thursday night and met up with my sister at a hotel near the airport and was able to get in another hotel gym workout before heading into downtown Chicago.

I took the weekend off from any formal exercise. This wasn’t my intention, but it worked out for the best since this week is going to be an intense workout week between attending Mania on Friday and Sunday and doing the Fenway Spartan race on Saturday. I’m also subbing a class tonight, so resting on Saturday and Sunday (besides walking a lot!!) was a good thing.

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I went to the gym after work and ran 4 miles on the treadmill. I ran it about 40 seconds faster last week than I did the week before! My muscles were sore from Sunday’s “Y Pump”, so a good run was perfect.

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  • Tuesday- I got up before work and did the 25 rep cardio & core I posted a few weeks ago. Before completing that, I did 10 minutes of random cardio in my apartment.
  • Wednesday- I ran 3 miles on the treadmill at the Westin and then completed some core and strength exercises.

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  • Thursday- I did 20 minutes on the stair stepper (I haven’t used that machine in SO long. I forgot how much it makes me sweat!) and then did a superset workout: upper, lower and core.

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  • Friday- I did 10 minutes on the bike and 20 on the elliptical and then did 2 rounds of my Got 20 Minutes? workout.

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  • Saturday- Lots of walking around Chicago! My feet hurt by the end of the day!
  • Sunday- More walking around Chicago… lots of walking again!

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- Subbing a kickboxing class at the Watertown BSC… pending that my flight isn’t delayed!
  • Tuesday- Not sure! Something quick after work I assume so that I can grocery shop after.
  • Wednesday- Cardio and teaching UXF Burn- I missed my members!!
  • Thursday- SHRED and Kickboxing… ready to be back at it!
  • Friday- Spending the day in Danvers at the Boston Mania fitness event. I signed up for a bunch of courses so I am excited to be in my “happy place” all day learning lots of new information about workouts!
  • Saturday- I am doing the Fenway Spartan Sprint… eek! I hope I am not too sore from Friday’s fitness events!
  • Sunday- I signed up for more courses at the Mania event, but I think I chose lectures and information sessions more so than fitness ones… I have a feeling I’ll be very sore on Sunday.

Questions for you: Are you ready to go home by the end of your vacation? Is anyone else attending the Boston Mania event?

PS- Thank you to all the Veteran’s who protect our country!

They Call it “Hotlanta” for a Reason!

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Hey friends! We’re almost through the work week! When I travel, I am always thrown off on my days, but I think I feel like today is Thursday! I got back from Atlanta around 10:30 last night and was so happy to get into bed. My flight home was less than desirable-the guy in front of me reclined his seat ALL the way and the girl next to me smelled like BO, but tried to mask it with abundance amounts of perfume. Yuck!

Tuesday morning, I got up and worked out before I started my short morning of working from home and then my long afternoon of traveling and working from the hotel. I did 2 rounds of one of my “go-to” no equipment workouts (Got 20 Minutes? workout, to be exact) and 2 rounds of the “15X10” workout that Athena posted on Instagram earlier this week (minus the 10 mins of cardio). Phew! For some reason, this workout killed me. I blame it on the fact that I am not used to working out first thing in the morning 😉

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The flight was productive; I got some blog posts drafted and wrote an article for work. Once I got to my hotel room, I worked until about 6:30 and then spent an hour on some trainings for the YMCA before I called it quits and headed down to the bar for a wine and dinner. While enjoying my wine (Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc- my fav!), I wrote up some kickboxing routines/combos. Lately, I can’t stop thinking about them and it has been keeping me up, so I figured if I wrote them down, it would help (which, it did. Between that and the wine I slept like a baby 😉 ).

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I got the fish tacos for dinner, which were a bit of a disappointment. The menu read “blackened tilapia”, but they came out as fried nuggets of tilapia. Whomp,whomp. I ate all the greens and picked at the nuggets, but they were SO fried that they were dry. Regardless, the bar was a fun place to spend a few hours. It was packed by the time I left, and they even had a live guitarist!

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Ok, let’s talk about “Hotlanta”… holy moly you guys. The HUMIDITY was unreal! I got up yesterday morning to workout before meeting my coworker at the client site and figured that 7am was a fine time to run. I grabbed the hotel running map (how cool is it that the hotel provides these?! Such a great way to promote healthy living even when you’re on the road!) and felt like I walked into a wall of humidity as soon as I walked outside.

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30 LONG minutes and 3 miles later, I finally walked back into the hotel. It was certainly the most humbling run I think I have ever had. I physically couldn’t run at my normal pace or go than a few minutes without stopping. I felt like I had never worked out a day in my life. It was awful, but also a good reminder to appreciate all of the good runs and workouts that I sometimes take for granted. The bell boy handled me this as soon as I walked in and I couldn’t have been happier!

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Now that’s some service! I finished off my workout in the hotel gym. They had Reebok Core Boards which made me SO happy! There is a Reebok Core Board class at my YMCA in Maine and I LOVE it! I played around on that and then did lots of core stuff including stability ball planks and stability ball v-sits (Athena I love these!!) before calling it a day.

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I showered, got suited up and headed to breakfast, which was AWESOME!!! Ok, so I have an issue with buffets. My issue isn’t eating too much, but rather with GETTING too much. I get so excited over all of the options: fruit, yogurt, granola, cereal, muffins, toast, eggs, potatoes, etc. that I want ALL of it. Or at least a bit of all of it. At least I was eating by myself so I didn’t have to explain myself to anyone!

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We were in meetings until about 3pm when we grabbed a cab and headed to the airport. I was traveling with my manager, who is awesome. We grabbed an early dinner and drinks and before you knew it, I was back home! I am working from home today and tomorrow, which is a nice treat.

I hope my BSC’ers had a good class last night! So excited to be back tonight! Hoping the kickboxing routine I made up while having cocktails at the bar turns out to be suitable for teaching 😉

Questions for you: Humidity- can you run or workout in it? When you travel, do you still make time to workout? Favorite “on the road” healthy trick?