Tag: workout

“Make Tomorrow Suck”

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Say, what?! Who would ever want to do that, right? That was my first thought as I walked into the BSC I teach at and saw this on the digital board in the entry way:

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There are so many things that make me upset about this ad and message, so I apologize if my thoughts aren’t entirely organized or if I ramble 😉

  1. I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want any day to suck. #notinterested
  2. I never go into my workouts hoping to be so sore the next day that I am miserable. Again, #notinterested
  3. How is this even supposed to be inspiring?! Personally, I don’t like being abnormally sore the day after a workout. Sure, I like to feel like I’ve worked out and challenged myself, but to be so sore it hurts to sit down to go to the bathroom or wash my hair is just not something I strive for when I’m working out.
  4. On top of that, having “tomorrow suck” because of a hard workout the day before can be just the thing that throws people who are just getting back into the groove off their game. They may have been on a roll with getting to the gym X days a week and then BAM, they do an incredibly hard workout and are so sore they have to skip a few days… next thing they know a week has gone by, they are no longer sore and yet they haven’t been back to the gym. Workouts should be a sustainable activity and not leave you to a point of miserable soreness, time after time.
  5. Where is the fun in that mentality or your workouts?! Let’s face it- working out to the point of “making tomorrow suck” means you’re probably working REALLY hard and while that may be fine once and a while, that isn’t going to last- nor should it! Trust me, I don’t want to go to the gym and have easy workouts that don’t challenge me (unless it’s a day where I’m just looking to zone out), but I also don’t want to live day to day being extremely sore. Nothing about that sounds fun to me. On top of that, you should really be varying the intensity of your workouts from day to day- some days harder, some days lighter- that way your body has a chance to recover and build more muscle!
  6. It’s just an intimidating comment. There’s nothing friendly or inviting with that statement and while it may make some people pumped up and motivated to get to the gym,  I think the vast majority of gym goers- especially newer ones- would look at that and feel maybe like they’re making the wrong decision. It is always my goal to make people feel welcomed and comfortable… to make them feel like they are wanted at the gym and that no matter what level they’re working at, that they are doing enough for themselves that day. They are there, they are trying and they sure as hell are doing a LOT more than if they skipped out on the gym all together!

I know the media has specific reasons behind everything they do in terms of marketing things, but I just think sometimes they get it all wrong. The front of Cosmo, Women’s Health, Shape, etc. are always full of “how to lost fat faster!”, “how to get toned abs in 7 days”, “how to get a bikini body in 2 weeks!”, etc., along with airbrushed, half dressed women looking “flawless” (or at least that’s the thought behind the photo). The thing is, none of that stuff is really attainable. Why can’t they put REAL women on the cover- who are strong, not just skinny? And, on the same topic, why do workout brands need to make everything look so extreme and intense? Everyone in their ads are always super toned and thin and muscular, wearing matching clothes and “glistening” instead of sweating. I’m sure you can all agree that that’s just not realistic 😉

 I’d love to hear your thoughts, though- do you get motivated by “tough” statements like “Make Tomorrow Suck”? Or do you prefer getting excited because you’re doing something physical that you like and enjoy? Do you change up the intensity of your workouts from day to day or do you tend to do more high intensity or low intensity workouts?

 

 

sweat your butt off, literally.

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?

Wednesday Workout: 24 Minute Bodyweight Tabata Workout

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Hello! I’m popping in quickly to share a workout I did in a one-on-one training session with one of my bootcampers last week (Hi, Kerri!). She specifically told me to post it because it sufficiently kicked her butt in less than a half hour- and with our busy schedules these days, who doesn’t want that?! I am all about short, but effective workouts and this one satisfies both of those things. Even better? It can be done anywhere since it requires no equipment- no excuses 😉

The way it works is I picked 2 strength moves in each set and tried to compliment those with the tabata cardio rounds. You’ll do the strength moves for 30 seconds each and 2 rounds then you’ll do the tabata cardio (20 seconds on, 10 seconds rest X8 rounds= total of 4 minutes).

24 minute bodyweight tabata workout
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Thoughts on my “unplanned” rest day

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Good morning! I mentioned yesterday that I took an “unplanned” rest day last week, so I thought I’d share a little more about that with you today. I’ve talked about rest days in the past, and even though I feel as though I’ve made leaps and bounds towards improvement in this area, it can still be something I struggle with. These days, it’s not the actual REST that troubles me- trust me, I love and fully embrace my “rest days” now- but rather, it’s the need to take an unplanned rest day that really tests my progress in this area.

When I plan out my week of workouts (I don’t share this with you guys anymore because I wasn’t sure if it was boring you- if you’re interested in seeing what my weekly workouts look like, please let me know!), I also plan out my rest days. I look at what I have going on and when I think  I want to workout and rest and it usually works out quite well. Normally Fridays and Sundays are my rest days, but sometimes it’s Saturday and Sunday or maybe Friday and Saturday or sometimes just one day depending on what events I have going on for that particular week. Last week, though, I ended up taking a rest day on Thursday, totally unplanned.

Let’s back up a little, though. I started the week of strong with my workouts- on Monday, I got up and ran 4 miles (8:10/mile pace) and then did the first day of the #20x20challenge workout (forgot about it!) and then did a photo-shoot, which required lots of moving and holding and re-takes for various moves. I felt good throughout the day, but by the time I finally got home to eat (8:30pm), I felt unreasonably tired, but I chalked it up to a big, long day with lots of physical activity. Tuesday I woke up feeling good, again, and had another strong lunch break workout and ended up having to cancel bootcamp, meaning my day was cut short- awesome! Wednesday I went for a fast 3.5 mile run before class (8/mile pace) before teaching my UXF Burn class, which is a standard Wednesday for me, however I really had to work hard to keep my energy up throughout class, so I knew something was up.

That night, I could tell something was going on because I just didn’t feel right. I didn’t sleep well that night so by the time I woke up on Thursday, I was tired and sore and overall really lethargic feeling.

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Weekending: Girls night, Cape Weekend & Boston Sunday Funday

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Good morning! Although we ended up leaving the Cape early on Sunday due to crap weather, it was a really fun weekend! Here’s a picture recap- with some descriptions, because I love words! My girlfriends and I went to Brewers Fork in Charlestown on Thursday night for my friend Jessi’s birthday- if you’re looking for good pizza, I suggest checking it out. We all loved it!

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Sunset on the way home.. yes, we were on our way home before 8pm. We have officially gotten old because our weeknight get together events end early.

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Since I took a rest day on Thursday (more on that tomorrow), I went to the gym on Friday. I did an Jill Fit workout and felt it was appropriate for a #flexfriday post 😉

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Friday night, RM and I headed to the Cape for the weekend and stopped at the local Cotuit hang-out, the Kettle Ho for dinner. Mom- how about this pour of Kendall Jackson?
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