As sad as I am to be leaving my family, I am very looking forward to being with my friends and doing all the learning and activities back at Boston University. It’s been almost 8 months after all!
I don’t know how I’ll do jumping back into reality after what feels like a five month vacation (with study abroad and winter break), but these last few days of break have been the perfect last hurrah.
Here are some things I’ve done before going back to reality:
as always, topped with Greek yogurt, peanut butter, cinnamon, maple syrup + glass o’ milk
2) Gone on long, contemplative walks around the neighborhood.
3) Had lots of solo dance parties in my room.
4) Tried a new fitness class for free with a voucher that came in the mail! It’s called Body Burn, and I think the concept is similar to that of Orange Theory Fitness. You wear a Polar heart rate monitor across your chest, and you try to keep up your HR elevated at around 80-90% of your max HR throughout the entire 45 minute circuit training class.
Since I went to the relatively new Friday 9AM class, I was the only one who showed up, so it was basically a 30 minute personal class with a swole Italian-American trainer. It was fun! Some treadmill, rowing, TRX, weights, resistance band work, and abs. It wasn’t the hardest thing ever, but I wasn’t pushing myself that hard (my quads were still sore from Wednesday + plantar fasciitis). Hopefully I can go again one day!
5) I’ve eaten a lot of cold roasted vegetables straight out of their container. Doesn’t take much to please me.
G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S
6) Madre and I went on a sushi and bakery date on Friday ♥︎
7) I ate plenty of said bakery items.
huge, buttery poppy seed rolls
amazing apple cinnamon cake (look at all that apple! and the crumble topping 10/10)
8) I saw Daliza and Michael on Friday night! It was lovely catching up with those two.
9) The fam and I attended a 6 hour defensive drivers’ course on Saturday. #weekendthings. It’s for insurance reduction. We went three years ago to a different company’s course, but this year’s by AAA was a lot more interactive and less boring 🙂
10) We went to Mass and a huge, fancy {Groupon} dinner at Xaviars X2O on the Hudson on Saturday night!
just some of the goodies: brown butter pine nut ricotta ravioli for my appetizer (THE BROWN BUTTERRRRR) // Madre’s seared tuna sashimi appetizer // my banana walnut bread pudding // Madre’s carrot cake // Ben’s warm chocolate lava cake // delicious quail with kale, mushrooms, and fingerling potatoes for my entree // Ben’s grilled octopus appetizer // complimentary chocolate almond truffles after the whole meal (“omg they’re giving us more food.”)
We share everything when we eat out, but this was still SO MUCH FOOD (thanks to Groupon – three courses were included for EACH person!). And if what’s pictured above wasn’t enough, Pop had a pâté plate for his appetizer, Ben had pork chop for his entree, Madre had an incredible stuffed chicken for hers, and Pop had rabbit and egg noodles for his. They also had complimentary cheese biscuits to start, so you know we were on board for that.
The food and the company were just splendid 🙂
10) I ate some refreshing soluble fiber the next morning in the form of delicious chia egg white banana oats for the first time in a long time!
11) I’ve been movin’ and groovin’ in the good ol’ basement.
Saturday: Michelle and Lori’s 100 burpee workout (subbed full burpees for the side burpees) before the defensive drivers’ course
Sunday: 700 reps of Jess’ killer 1000 rep workout (subbed bent over rows for the T pushups)
My workouts were feeling just meh last week, which is totally fine, but it was nice to finally feel like I could attack Sunday’s workout and finish feeling totally spent!
I was keeled over on my side right before I took this photo
12) I ate a slice of Chicago deep dish sausage pizza that my aunt sent us.
oh hot dang
13) I packed a crap ton of stuff for college, because Megan and I are living together in an apartment, wee!!
14) I’ve indulged in watching Kyle Hanagami’s dance choreography on repeat.
I can’t wait to dance again (not this well, but I can try)!
15) Lastly, I’ve been blogging (obviously). I will miss the freedom to blog at a leisurely pace, but alas, schoolwork calls!
I hope you all have a great Monday! Dance, eat lotsa carbs, and let someone know how much you love them.
So tell me:
Two things you did this weekend!
Best thing you ate this weekend?
Have you ever tried Orange Theory Fitness or something similar?
How has your Friday been? I hope it’s been a good one! Who’s ready for the long weekend?! (Even though I’m still on summer vacation, so there’s no difference to me…sorry.)
Today started with the usual blog-reading while standing at my counter. I took a nice long time, because I was waiting until my mom came back from her gym (that she’s attending with a Groupon deal–typical) with the car so I could head to my gym. This week has been filled with dance, and I’ve been loving moving artistically again. But it was also fun to get back into “workout-workouts” today.
Breakfast
Classic:
Moves
I started with 10 minutes on the elliptical and then GUESS WHAT? I ran on the treadmill! As you may know, I am not a fan of running, but I wanted to challenge myself and step outside of my comfort zone. I only ran 10 minutes, but it went surprisingly well! I usually run at a speed no greater than 7.3 maybe, but that felt slow to me today, so I ran at 8.0 and increased the speed throughout the 10 minutes. I even went at 10.0 for the last 30 seconds! The weird part was that I didn’t feel quite as tired as I usually do when I’m running. My mile was around 7:30, which was my PR earlier this year..but I feel like I could have ran faster today! Maybe that bootcamp class helped? Or burpees? I dunno. Actually, I’m skeptical and think that perhaps that particular treadmill was defective or something. Like maybe the treadmill went slower than the speeds shown on the monitor. Well, let’s just massage my ego and say that maybe I’m getting better at running. 😀
Moving on. I completed one of my favorite circuit workouts from Jess at Blonde Ponytail: You Can Ring My (Dumb)Bell Workout. Cute name, right? Ya won’t feel so cute after you finish though. This kicks my butt every time! I’ve gradually cut down my rest time in between workouts and increased the weights so that it keeps challenging me. ‘Twas a doozy!
I came home, showered, and then got ready to host my “little sister” from company, Lilly! We both dread sewing our pointe shoes, so we decided to have a little date so that we could eat healthy food and sew our shoes together (does that make us sound like prima ballerinas or what?!).
Lunch
Options for our sandwiches (Lilly’s a vegetarian, so it’s pretty easy to find food for her 🙂 )
Lilly’s creation:
I believe it contained pesto, mozzarella, tomato, and spinach! I may have missed somethin’.
She even added that basil leaf for garnish. She’s got the presentation aspect down-pat.
And mine:
Two sunnies, toast with mozzarella and roasted bell peppers + basil for garnish (inspired by Lilly)
Plus sides
It was a beautiful day for eating outside and everything was delicious! The best part was this though:
I’m only on level 33 and I’m already stuck. I’m too lazy to actually strategize in that game.
I feel sugar crushed because of all thedesserts I’ve been eating these past few days. They definitely bit me in the butt during my workout this morning. I was just lacking energy and my muscles fatigued faster than usual. I’ve never truly realized the effects of junk foods versus high-quality fuel during my workouts until I started eating more nutritious foods and increasing exercise in this past year. Nutritious food really does make a difference, kids!
I’m still thankful I squeezed in a decent workout at the hotel fitness center though. I started with 10 minutes on the stair stepper and then a 10 minute jog/run on the treadmill (woo, I ran again!). Then I started Jess’s Travel WOD (thought it was fitting).
That’s when I started to feel my energy drag. Instead of 5 rounds, I did 3 and took longer breaks than I would have liked. I modified to knee pushups for the second two rounds, but used a 25 lb. dumbbell for the squats. Even after three rounds, I was shaking like a leaf! Ohh well. Ya win some, ya lose some. It was a humbling experience.
I was going to do ab work, but then my stomach said, “Ha. I think not.” Too much water glugged right before. Sooo I did a plank instead.
We’re back to my cousin’s house for the day! They were kind enough to host us for another delicious midday meal.
Turkey cheese burger, bean salad, tortellini, greens, and lots of fruit
Then the girls went to get hair cuts! We basically had the salon to ourselves with my aunt’s favorite stylist, Andre. He’s awesome! I got a little more layers and about a half-inch off. Nothing dramatic. Ben didn’t even notice the new ‘do. Expected.
Everyone’s lookin’ goooood! Thanks, Andre!
We also had some fun at a playground nearby. Oh to be a kid again… No comments about my 12-year-old appearance, thank you. 😀 But I decided to test some upper body strength racing up the poles against these two monkeys:
Blisters–long time no see!
They also picked some apples from a random apple tree. They’re all still smiling, so seems like they were safe to eat (after washing of course).
I think I’m going to go jump on my cousin’s trampoline now. Then it’s dinnah time! Kabobs are on the menu!
So tell me: Do you notice the effect of too many desserts on your workouts? Any new ‘dos recently? What’s for dinner?!
Daily Moves and Grooves 