Tag: workout

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? 

 

Wednesday Workout: Three Snow Day 10 Minute AMRAP Circuits

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Hi guys! Guess who finally has a workout for you?! And actually, I kind of have THREE workouts for you, depending on how you decide to do them.

While I was stuck inside on Monday (I love when my WFH days coincide with winter storm days), I came up with a new workout to test out before sharing with you. I knew I wanted to do a little bit of everything, so I decided to break the workout up into three sections: cardio, strength, core. Each portion of the workout was a 10 minute AMRAP (As Many Rounds as Possible) circuit with 4 exercises in each circuit. I don’t know if it was because I was home by myself (always have less motivation to push myself!) or because I was feeling stuffy, but the workout was hard- I think you’ll like it!

The beauty of the design here is that pending on how much time you have, you can decided to do 1 AMRAP circuit, 2 or all 3. It can totally be a pick and choose type of thing based on what you want to accomplish for the day.

3 snow day amrap circuits
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Wednesday Workout: Bodyweight Workout Finisher

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Hello! Hope you guys are all hanging in there with these super cold temps this week! I’m popping in quickly today to share a little bodyweight workout finisher that I did the other day after I finished my treadmill run. On days I run, I typically just do some stretching and light bodyweight/core exercises. I save my weight lifting for the other days where I am not spending 30+ minutes doing cardio. If I combined running and weights I would be at the gym for an hour+, and as they say: ain’t nobody got time for that!

Last week I shared this quickie finisher and today I have another one for you. What I love about “finisher” circuits/workouts is that they are great as just that- a finisher, but they are also great if you make them as your whole workout by adding in more rounds. I did 3 rounds of this after a 4-miler on Monday, but if I was looking for a quickie workout while I was traveling or short on time, I could totally just add a few more rounds or make it an AMRAP style workout.

Bodyweight Workout Finisher

  • Squat & Knee lift X10 (5 each leg)-  With your hands behind your head and your elbows wide,  perform a squat. When you come back up to standing, engage your core and lift your right knee and cross it over your body to meet your left elbow. Perform another squat and then lift your left knee over to your right elbow. Each knee should come up 5 times (you’re doing a total of 10 squats).
  • Hand release push-ups- Start in a high plank position, either your knees or on your toes. Slowly lower yourself to the ground, keeping your body flat like a board and making sure to not drop your knees or hips before your chest. In the same plane/board-like motion, press into your hands and push yourself up in one motion, again making sure your chest isn’t coming up before your hips- everything should go up and come down together.
  • Hip lifts/bridge- On your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the ground, engage your core and press your heels into the ground as you lift your hips, making sure to squeeze your glutes! Lower back down and repeat.
  • Full sit-ups- Staying in that same supine position, place your arms along your side and exhale as you perform a full sit-up, reaching your hands to your feet.
  • Plank hold- Flip back over and hold a plank for 15 seconds the first round, 30 seconds the second round, 45 seconds the third round, etc… adding 15 second to the plank hold each round. You can either do the plank with straight arms or on your forearms and you can do them on your knees or toes.

As always, let me know if you try adding this to the end of your workout!

Questions for you: Do you keep your cardio and weights on separate days if you aren’t doing a metabolic combination workout?

Wednesday Workout: 4 Exercise Core & Upper Body Quickie Circuit

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Good morning! Each week I always hope that I do a workout that is shareable with you guys. This doesn’t always happen, and to be honest, up until Monday night at the gym I wasn’t really sure I would even have a workout for you this week! Fear not, though, I not only have a workout for you, but it’s a super quickie circuit focusing on upper body and core- something I haven’t specifically focused on in any recent workouts.

As I’ve mentioned I am still fighting a cold so I’m taking my workouts down a notch. I wasn’t planning on working out on Monday, but I ended up being in meetings/trainings from 9:30-4:15 so saying I was going a little stir crazy is an understatement! I just felt like I needed some type of movement- nothing crazy or too strenuous, but something to get my blood flowing. I knew it was the right choice to go walk on the treadmill when the time and miles flew by. After I finished, I came up with this little circuit I am going to share with you today- it’s a perfect finisher or if you’re short on time, you can add a few more rounds and call it a day!

4 exercise core & upper body quickie circuit

Here are some explanations for the exercises:

  • Russian Twist & Press- Starting in a standard Russian Twist position (in a seated position, engage your core and lean back a little while keeping your chest open. You can either lift your feet up to bent knees, straight leg or keep them on the ground), twist your weight over to the right and when you bring it back through center, press it up at a 45* angle. Repeat to the other side so it goes: twist, press, twist.
  • Supine Extension- Grab a weight and lie on your back with your arms extended up over your chest and your legs straight up over your hips with your feet flexed. Next, inhale and make sure you engage your core as you lower both your arms and legs down as low as you can while keeping your lower back glued to the ground. Once you reach your lowest point, start your exhale and lift back up to the starting position. To make this easier, you can bend your knees instead of doing straight leg lowers, drop one leg at a time or ditch the weight for the arm lowers (lat pull).
  • Straight Leg Weight Presses– in the same position as the exercise above, you’re going to engage your core and lift your shoulder blades off the ground and reach the weight towards your feet.
  • Pull-ups- I was able to do 3 reps each round, but if you can do more- rock that! or, if you’re still working on your pull-ups, you can feel free to use a band or maybe to TRX pull-ups.

See? That’s it! Granted, the moves are challenging, but you can always modify up or down depending on your current fitness level. Form always trumps difficulty or reps. One other thing to note is that if you don’t have weights or a pull-up bar handy, you can do this with just your bodyweight (for a move to mimic pull-ups, I would suggest a superman pull).

I’d love to know if you try this 🙂

Questions for you: Do you like to do quickie finisher circuits at the end of a cardio or heavy weight focused workout? What type of workouts would you like to see more of/less of this year? Do you like the short ones like this or do you prefer the longer, full body ones?

Weekending: Holiday Party, Registry Fun & Visits with Friends/Family

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Good morning! Did you guys have a good weekend? We did! Even with weird, unseasonable weather and the constant feeling of fighting off a cold, we had a pretty great one.

Friday

My company’s party was on Friday night, which was actually a nice change from squeezing it in during the typical holiday season. It was at the Hyatt in Cambridge- a great location for us now living in Newton Corner! We were able to leave work early so I took advantage of some extra “free” hours and ran errands. I skipped the gym because my back was bothering me and I felt the onset of a cold, so I opted to walk my errands which was a nice way to still get some movement in. Nails were a must!

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I didn’t take many photos at the event, but I’ll say the cocktails were flowing, the food was good and dancing definitely happened 😉 It’s so fun getting to hang out with coworkers/friends outside of the office! these girls! ❤

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Saturday

We didn’t get home and in bed until nearly 2am, so needless to say, we definitely took our time getting up on Sunday morning! Lucky for me, RM opted to make us his “specialty” breakfast: all the veggies, his special beans, homemade turkey sausage & an egg. It was so delicious!

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After breakfast, I cleaned the house and then we headed into the city. We had late lunch plans with another couple but decided to head in early to start on our wedding registry. We went to Crate & Barrel and had a blast scanning all sorts of things that we wanted! We have a long way to go to complete our registry, but it felt good to start on it!

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It was my first time meeting Roberto’s friends, so I opted to not take photos but we had sushi at Douzo which was good- we love that sushi restaurant.

The rest of the night was very quiet and I was in bed by 9:30 🙂

Sunday

We got up early and I made some French toast- I took pictures so I’ll post the recipe this week!

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I still wasn’t feeling 100%, but after 2 consecutive rest days, I was REALLY itching to move so I headed to the gym for a workout. I’d love to say that it felt so good to workout, but I’d be lying if I said that. The whole thing was just a mental battle, but I made it through the workout and did feel better after I was done so it wasn’t a totally wasted trip.

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I whipped up a quesadilla for lunch since I had leftover ‘dilla veggies & chicken already cut up from making them on Thursday night. It hit the spot!

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Later in the afternoon, we headed over to Brookline to visit with my cousin who was in town for work. It’s always nice to see family when they come to Boston!

I dropped RM off at home and then went to Whole Foods, even though between not feeling great and the ridiculous rain it was the LAST thing I wanted to do. I always feel better once I just do it and I bought myself flowers and a cookie to reward myself for getting it done 😉

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For dinner, I decided that it was the perfect weather for a roast chicken meal. Is this anyone else’s favorite winter meal?! I can’t get enough of it. I chopped up sweet potatoes, Japanese sweet potatoes, onions & carrots and then also cooked some kale. I’m going to make a great wife 😉

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And that about does it! This is a pretty quiet week which is nice- I am ready for a week with no after-work plans (and yes, I know I sound like i’m 60 when I say that!).

Questions for you: Did your company have a holiday party this year? Married friends- what’s the one think you would suggest we register for (maybe that you didn’t originally think you needed) and what’s the one thing you would suggest NOT registering for? What’s your favorite winter meal? Do you have a busy week?