Tag: YMCA

Weekly Workouts: A heavy workout week

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Good morning, friends! How are you doing? Now that I have the keys to my new apartment, it’s been hard focusing on anything except for moving! My parents were planning to come down on the 16th and 17th, but I’m trying to figure out a way for them to potentially come down this Friday to at least move the big things in: my bed, dressers, couch, chair, table, etc.

Anyway! As my title suggest, this past week was a heavy week with regards to workouts. I COMPLETELY forgot that I agreed to sub Kate’s 5:30 Sports Conditioning class on Wednesday, so that was a big surprise when I finally made it back in the office after lots of travel and looked at my calendar and saw that! It all worked out, though and since it’s right before my normal class, it’s not really a big deal.

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I ran 3 miles in the morning and did some core strengthening exercises since my muscles were pretty tired from Sunday’s BodyPump class. As much as I like my workouts in the evening better than in the morning because I have more energy and more time, it feels great that I am getting back into the “swing” of morning workouts.
  • Tuesday- I got up at the hotel in Atlanta and did 30 minutes on the elliptical, followed by 4 rounds of: 10 box jumps, 10 incline push ups, 10 squat and press and 10 stability ball leg lifts. Felt great!

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  • Wednesday- Realized I had to sub Kate’s class which was kind of a bummer since I really enjoy my Wednesday runs along the Charles before teaching UXF, but I still got a great workout in between teaching the two classes!

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(I taught a fun stations circuit in both classes. Multiple people told me they were sore on Thursday. Music to my ears!)

  • Thursday- Taught SHRED and then kickboxing. I made up the routine on the plane (on a napkin, mind you), and to my happy surprise, it came out just as well in person as it did in my head! That never happens 😉

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(I wore the most obnoxiously loud colored outfit to teach on Thursday… yikes!)

  • Friday- REST. After 6 consecutive days of workouts, and two of those being doubles, my body was calling for rest. I also had the day off from work which was icing on the cake. It felt weird, but surprisingly good, to not plan my day around my workout! I did do lots of walking around the mall, though.
  • Saturday- Taught the same kickboxing class at the Oak Square YMCA as I did in Thursday’s class at the BSC. Awesome energy in the class!!
  • Sunday- Danielle and I went for a nice walk/jog around Shapleigh, covering almost 2.75 miles. I did some ab work after and also did lots of different kinds of burpees. Hint: fun post coming up on Wednesday!

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- Even though I don’t have anything after work (I was supposed to do something with Jess but I decided that could wait) I wanted to get my workout done in the morning so I could have the evening to grocery shop, cook and start to pack!
  • Tuesday- Likely working out in the morning again because I want to start bringing stuff to my new apartment!
  • Wednesday- Probably a run along the Charles and then teaching UXF Burn.
  • Thursday- SHRED and Kickboxing!
  • Friday- I have a 3 hour training for the latest UXF Burn release/format/abs… Last time I was trained on UXF Burn, we worked out like crazy people!! It’s so funny to workout with a group of fellow instructors because we all push ourselves way more than we would any other time 😉
  • Saturday- I am subbing a SHRED class at the Central Square BSC, so BSCers- COME GET YOUR SWEAT ON!!! 🙂 I’m thinking there will be a second workout of the day while dancing at Christy’s wedding 😉
  • Sunday- Rest!!! Maybe some moving, but mostly rest!

Questions for you: Do you look forward to dancing when you go to weddings or parties? How many weddings have you gone to this summer? Fellow instructor friends- do you work out harder when you’re in a class with all instructors?

Have a wonderful week, friends!!!

Weekly Workouts- {Hopefully} Back At It

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Hey everyone! How was your long weekend? Was it just me, or did it feel like the 4th of July festivities went on and on and on? Not that I am complaining, it was just a long string of celebrations! It felt great to have some time off to be home with friends and family- just what the doctor ordered (literally).

Although I was sick at the beginning of the week, and therefore couldn’t work out, by the middle to end of the week I was feeling good enough to bring in some light workouts to my schedule. It felt great. It’s amazing how much I need workouts for the mental aspect in addition to the physical aspect. Don’t get me wrong, I love the feeling of sweating and leaving the gym physically exhausted, but I really love the feeling of a clear mind after my workout and feeling great because of all the endorphins flowing through me. Who else feels this way?

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- Nothing. I had to cancel my visit to The Studio Empower because I had a sinus infection and was severely dehydrated. What a bummer!
  • Tuesday- I went for a 2 mile light walk after work. Tuesday was one of those days were I NEEDED exercise mentally more than anything.
  • Wednesday- I went for a 2 mile light jog in the morning and then went to Jackie’s Ballet Barre class with my mom at 5pm.

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  • Thursday- I got up and did my 4th of July Workout before my 2nd workout, which consisted of candy sprints at the parade.
  • Friday- I got up and did Athena’s Red, White and Blue workout. It felt great to get some lifting back into my schedule (since mom only has 5lb. weights, I doubled them up for the upper body exercises and did unilateral lifting).
  • Saturday- I tried to get a last minute sub for my kickboxing class in Brighton since I had decided to stay in Maine for the weekend, but I couldn’t get one so I made the trek to Brighton, taught and then drove back to Maine. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be and there were 25 people in class so that made it worth it!

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  • Sunday- Nothing. I thought about working out but decided that since I had a hectic weekend (lots of driving and sunning and BBQing), it was probably a better idea to rest, especially since I had 4 days in a row of good workouts. I shopped around Kittery a little bit because I wanted to get a new suit since I am doing a lot of work travel this month (Stowe, VT, Toronto, Canada and Atlanta, Georgia).

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- Jess and I are filming July’s “Mommy’s Moves” workout during my lunch break and then I am finally going to get to The Studio Empower for the class they invited me to take. Can’t wait!
  • Tuesday- I am going to try and get up and run or do something else since I have plans with someone to get drinks after work.
  • Wednesday- I think I will finally be able to get in my own cardio session before teaching UXF Burn- it’s been a while!
  • Thursday- Teaching SHRED and Kickboxing at the Central Square BSC- missed my classes last week because of the holiday so I’m pumped to be back!
  • Friday- Attention Allston BSCers: I am subbing my old class this Friday!! 5:30pm at the Allston BSC- please come so it can be like the good ol’ days!
  • Saturday- I don’t have to teach, so I am going to go to BodyPump in the morning- I really like taking a day to focus on weight training!
  • Sunday- Probably a rest day or active rest day.

Feels great to look at a full schedule again!

Questions for you: Were you able to get in any workouts during the 4th of July? Is it hard for you to keep your schedule when you’re traveling or going home or away for the weekend? Do you like BodyPump classes? Ever been to The Studio Empower?

Weekly Workouts

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Monday, we meet again! Too soon, might I add. How was your weekend? Mine was pretty good! I didn’t do anything too big or exciting, but it was nice to just be around the apartment and the city… good mix of relaxation and fun things!

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- Ugh, not what I had expected! I was supposed to sub BodyPump, but there was a mix up and a crazy lady ended up teaching it. I didn’t want to be a sore sport, so I stayed and took the class, which was actually good because it reminded me how great BodyPump is for a muscle workout! I ran 1 mile beforehand and did 20 minutes of the elliptical after, as well as stair runs and TRX abs. It was a good workout day!
  • Tuesday- I woke up and did 16 minutes of core and cardio before heading into work. I had my photo shoot with Dan after work, so I wanted to squeeze in a little something. I did 60 seconds of jumping jacks followed by 60 seconds of ab work (all sorts of different exercises) and I repeated that until 16 minutes.
  • Wednesday- I ran 3 miles for National Running Day and then taught a fun UXF Burn class. We are supposed to teach by timed intervals, but I decided I wanted to switch it up so I taught by reps (12) and it was a fun change of pace!

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  • Thursday- I was feeling pretty sore from my workouts on Monday and Wednesday, so I taught a stations workout in SHRED and was able to pick and choose what exercises I wanted to do. It was a really fun workout! Kickboxing was good, but the energy wasn’t there in the class. Hate that!
  • Friday- I did a Deck of Cards workout on my lunch break at home. These workouts seem easy, but they never fail to leave me a sweaty mess at the end!

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  • Saturday- I went to another BodyPump class! I didn’t do any cardio, but I still felt like my heart rate was up the whole workout.
  • Sunday- Since I didn’t do any cardio on Saturday, I went for a run. I bought new running sneaks and wanted to try them out! Plus the weather was perfect for a run. I ended up covering 5 miles, which was a nice surprise! I’m definitely not a distance runner, but sometimes I like to see how far I can run. I could’ve run longer, but decided to not push it!

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This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I am not sure what I am going to do. I might go to the gym after work and do machine cardio and weights, but I might run? Who knows!
  • Tuesday- I am traveling to Atlanta for work and my flight leaves around noon. I might try to get up in the morning and do kickboxing or go for a run or do a Deck of Cards, or I might wait until I get to Atlanta for the workout. My flight leaves at 12:15 and I am traveling alone, so I have plenty of time after I finish up work for the day in the hotel to work out then. My manager said that in the same business complex there is the 8th largest gym in the world and you can get discounted passes from the hotel, so I definitely want to check that out!
  • Wednesday- Likely going to the gym before we are in meetings all day… I can’t wait to try it out and see how big it is! BSCers- I will not be there to teach UXF Burn- George Moore is subbing for me. He’s a hoot- have fun!
  • Thursday- SHRED and Kickboxing… I need to make up a new kickboxing routine!
  • Friday- REST 🙂
  • Saturday- Teaching kickboxing at the YMCA! Always love that class!
  • Sunday- I will be in Maine for Father’s Day and am not sure if I’ll work out or not. It will likely depend on how I’m feeling physically after the week’s workouts.

Questions for you: Did you try any new workouts last week? Do you like to workout when you travel? If so, do you go to the gym or do something in your room?

Tia’s, Baby Zeke and Maine- Weekend Recap!

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Hey there! Has everyone cooled done a bit? I’ll tell ya, working from home on a Monday is ALMOST as nice as working from home on a Friday! There’s something about not having to do food prep and “week prep” on a Sunday night, especially after coming home from Maine, that is SO nice. Sunday evenings are drastically better when that’s the case.

Friday

My friend, Cristina, hosted a Lupus Fundraising event at Tia’s on Friday night after work. With the weather temps at over 90 degrees, I couldn’t think of a more perfect place to spent a Friday evening!

1460Not only did I get to hang out with my college girlfriends, but my friend, Stephanie, was also there! Steph and I went to the same high school and used to Rollerblade down Main street in Sanford in the summers. #classy

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1465The whole time we were at Tia’s, we were checking our phones since we knew Sara was most likely going to have little Zeke at some point that night. Sure enough, around 8:30, we got THE text from Amy that we had been waiting for! Baby Zeke Aronson White was born!!!! And boy was he beautiful! I think Danielle and I made everyone at Tia’s cheers to baby Zeke! We are proud “Aunts” of this little boy 🙂

Saturday

I got up and packed an overnight bag since Danielle and I were going to head up to Maine right from the YMCA after my class. Class was sweaty and awesome, but to be honest, my mind was TOTALLY focused on going home to meet Zeke that I can barely even remember what I taught! I hope everyone liked it, though 🙂

We got to Sanford around 1:15 and drove straight to the hospital. I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking, but I will say that Zeke is the most beautiful little boy and has a wholeeeee lot of people who are already so in love with him! Sara looked like a beaming mom and it was so sweet to see her interacting with Zeke. She was in labor for about 20 hours with unreal contractions and the kicker was that she couldn’t get the epidural 😦 Sara was fully on board with getting one, too, but things moved so quickly once they broke her water that it was too late to give her the epidural. Poor thing! I can’t imagine how tired and physically beat she was. Anyway, here he is!

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sara and zeke

(mom and baby! I had Sara send me a pic of her with Zeke when I was writing up this post since I realized I only had pictures of Zeke being held by other people… we were baby hogs!)

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(and then she sent me this! I wonder what he is dreaming about that makes him smile?!)

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We stayed at the hospital with Sara until about 5pm when we decided to give her and Tim some time to themselves. Once we got home we had a really nice cocktail hour on the back patio with mom and dad.

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Not long after we poured drinks, Amy and Chris stopped by to do more baby gushing and celebrating!

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We all decided it was too hot to BBQ or cook, so we ordered food from the Corner Store (literally right next door) and called it good. While it tasted delicious, I woke up in the middle of the night with the worst stomach ache 😦 Such a fun, impromptu little get together, though! Sara, congratulations on your new little baby boy. I cannot wait to spend so much time with both of you and to be able to watch him grow up!

Sunday

I woke up early (I mean, I was in bed at 10pm, so no wonder why I was up early!) and decided to go visit my very good high school friend, Caitlin. She was due to have her little baby boy on June 1st, but he decided he wasn’t ready to come out quite yet! As I was leaving the driveway, I caught a glimpse of the huge snapping turtle who crosses our lawn each year to get from the brook behind our house to the pond across the street in order to lay her eggs. She was HUGE!

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Anyway! For Caitlin’s sake, I hope he decides to grace the world with his presence sooner rather than later! I hadn’t seen Cait in far, far too long, but like always, as soon as we get together, it’s like nothing has changed; the true sign of friendship! She is the most adorable little pregnant lady (she literally just has a basket ball belly!) and I am so bummed I didn’t get a picture of her. Can’t wait to meet her little one!

When I got home from my visit, Dad and Danielle had already done all the potato planting.. bummer! Since there was nothing else to do to help around the house, we took advantage of the sunny (but HOT) weather and sun bathed on the back patio.

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We decided to hit the road relatively early so that we could go grocery shopping and unpack and grab dinner (since it was too hot to cook). We walked to the grocery store (about a 1/2 mile away) to get a little exercise since we did nothing all day but relax in the sun! For dinner, we kept it casual and grabbed apps at Not Your Average Joes. I got their special “Strawberry Rhubarb Sangria” which was SO SO SO delicious! And BIG! Look at this thing!

1493I got the Tai Chicken Lettuce Wraps for dinner and they were quite tasty.

1494Filling, but in a light way.. perfect for hot weather!

Well, there ya go! Fun-filled weekend surrounded by friends, family and a new baby!

Questions for you: What did you do to stay cool last weekend? Favorite summer cocktail? Any new babies in your lives? Do share!

Maine & Family- The best way to re-charge the batteries!

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Hey there! How are you doing today? I wanted to pop in and recap my extended weekend in Maine!

Friday

After working from home all day, I had my dad drive me into town to meet up with my mom and her friends at the Back Street Grill. My mom and her friends have been going there on Friday’s after work for as long as I can remember, and I always love when I have a chance to join everyone! I mean, $3 wines… you cannot go wrong with that.

emma(and getting to snuggle sweet little Emma is one of my favorite things!! Look at those cheeks!)

After a couple of wines, lots of gabbing and lots of laughs, mom drove us home to have dinner with dad (and, more wine!).

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012Friday night=fish night for my dad (mom doesn’t eat fish, but I do so I was pumped about fish night!) and lucky for me, he let me share it with him:) I forget what kind we had (some type of trout?), but it was SO good. Paired up with a side of baked potato and broccoli and I was a happy camper!

Saturday

Since I was in bed embarrassingly early on Friday night, I was up and ready to head to the Y for a 9AM class. Although it wasn’t the instructor I was hoping it would be, it was still a great class and I really liked a lot of the moves that we did- especially this cool “skier” squat. Our heels were up on weights, toes pointed towards each other and we squeezed one of those small weighted balls between our knees. With our arms, we held very light weights and did a lat raise combo. Love!

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014Mom met me for the 10:15 Zumba class! I haven’t taken a Zumba class in MONTHS and MONTHS, but I was surprised with how I was still able to pick up very quickly on the steps and dances… must be that former dancer in me? Regardless, we had a blast!

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After a well-deserved shower, mom and I went to get pedicures (as part of her mother’s day gift). Wow, was I was overdue for a pedi! Getting to sit there and relax for about an hour was really quite nice:)

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Lunch at the Springvale Publick House with a beer tasting post pedi was even nicer 😉

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I went to elementary school and high school with one of the co-owners of this restaurant and I have to say, he has got quite an impressive business going. The food is outstanding (and everything is made in house- salsa, dressings, fries, chili, etc.), the beer and wine selection is quite large and the prices are amazing! Every time I drive past and both times I have been there, it’s been really busy and that makes me so happy for them!

After lunch, mom and I did a little shopping and then I went to visit my old boss from my summer job of 7 years at Shaw’s Ridge Farm. The summers I worked there were some of my most favorite summers. By the end of my time there, I was running the place with the help of some very dear friends (Meredith recently moved to Australia and has her own blog- check it out!). To this day, the ice cream Mr. Shaw makes is still the best I have ever had!

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All I wanted for dinner on Saturday night was BBQ on the grill. Thankfully, my dad is a grill master and loaded up the grill with all sorts of goodies!

003Not long after dinner, I retreated up to my room for some quality time with my iPad to catch up on shows I missed last week (Nashville and Grey’s Anatomy). Mom came up to check on me and thought I looked “too cute” and that it would be a “great pic for the blog”. Someone offering to take my picture?! You don’t have to ask me twice!

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I realize now that this post is getting quite lengthy, so I will save my Mother’s Day recap for later this week!

This past weekend was exactly what the Doctor ordered. I was in bed early every night, fed delicious food and drinks, able to get some workouts in and, most importantly, I was able to spend time with my parents!  Any one else feel like you just need to “get out of dodge” sometimes? Meaning, escape the crazy, fast paced city life? Let me tell you, hearing the “peepers” and birds and seeing the stars was so refreshing! But now, it’s back to the grind. I was ready for it, though!

Questions for you: What was the best part of your weekend? Favorite thing you drank or ate? How often do you treat yourself to pedicures?