I had so much fun at Saturday’s Boston Rose Cruise (check out Kat’s recap too!) – a whale-sized (aka large) amount of fun. Not only did Kat come to Boston to join me, my 90+ Cellars co-workers, and Eventbrite ticket-buyers for the three-hour Rose-only all-pink-wearing boat cruise, but my mom, sister, Greg, and Jen did as well!
MY PEOPLE! (Photo by Sean Fowler.)
I’m back, twice in one week, wahoo! I’m writing this post on Wednesday night because I had enough time to cook, but decided to instead make dinner leftovers and use the extra time to a) write this and b) have a glass of NY Cabernet Sauvignon. I didn’t have anything to drink the last couple of days because the event I worked on Sunday was pretty nuts (in a very fun way). But now I’m ready to relax with my glass and think out loud.
Link up with Amanda if you too are thinking out loud today!
1. My half marathon training has officially begun! Tuesday’s aforementioned personal training session didn’t happen because the trainer had to cancel – but never called me to let me know? So I was at the gym, without a plan, and decided to kick off training this week instead of next, which is what I had planned! And I decided to get this week’s longest run done – 4 miles. I’m no fool, I know that I should savor the fact that this week’s longest run is 4 miles, and believe me I am! I did at a 9:13 pace on the treadmill, with a 1% incline. With a side of Kardashians…enough to get me through. I’ve also been following a June ab challenge I found on Facebook, and though these earlier days are pretty easy, I know by the end it will feel very hard. Just like my runs – ha! But seriously, having plans to follow has been really helpful for me. I felt like I had no direction at the gym and now I have a couple of things to follow!
This past weekend I had the opportunity to travel to Nantucket for the island’s annual Wine Festival! I worked the Saturday afternoon Grand Tasting pouring 90+ Cellars and Ironside Cellars, but the rest of the weekend was spent tasting wine and food, exploring Nantucket’s shops and restaurants, and drinking champagne. Lots of champagne.
Jeannie and I hit the road Friday morning and JUST missed our high-speed ferry, but luckily we were able to walk onto a freight (aka slow) ferry so that we could get onto the island ASAP. Our next high-speed ferry option wouldn’t have had us on the island until about 6PM! The crew of the ship got a kick out of us for some reason and invited us up to steer the ship. Okay not actually steer, but I did get to sit in the captain’s chair and use binoculars!
Okay, so I know it’s supposed to be What I Ate Wednesday. But I am overdue for a recap of a “drank-based” event I attended a little over a week ago, and who says I have to follow WIAW rules? Nahhh. Cocktails are about no rules! Especially on Tuesday nights…
I was invited by Emily of NYC-based M Booth to attend one of many Brugal Rum tasting and immersion opportunities happening last week at Boston’s Cyclorama. The event, titled #RumRedefined, involved first a lesson/tasting about three of Brugal’s products – Anejo Rum, Extra Dry Rum, and Brugal 1888.
Our cute “tasting tray” – started with the Anejo!
My Taste of Nature bar giveaway ends tonight, and it has FIVE winners, so make sure you enter!
I missed the Marvelous In My Monday party this week but better late than never right? This week has been loads better than the last and I’m excited to link up with Clare today to share five marvelous things on Five Things Friday!
Thank goodness I was able to get back to my evening group fitness classes. Monday I took Danielle’s amazing spin class, and I took another pretty good spin class on Tuesday evening. Wednesday night I invited Jeannie to join me for Total Body Conditioning and I’m so glad I did because I may have copped out and done a not-as-tough StepMill workout instead if I hadn’t already committed to the class by inviting her! She was super curious since I am always talking about how tough the class is and yeah…it was tough. But we both felt great after and want to commit to going every week. I’m glad to have someone to motivate me to attend! Here’s one of the moves we did:
I know Monday is when I’m supposed to come in with a Marvelous In My Monday post and recap my marvelous weekend, negative thoughts and anxieties in all. I know I’m supposed to use MIMM posts as a way to remind myself of the marvelous in my life that I’m lucky to have – and then that’s supposed to cheer me up. But I really don’t feel like going that route today because I’m just feeling so meh. I have a lot of crap weighing on my mind, and it’s not all ED/recovery related. Instead of focusing on the marvelous to distract myself, I really just want to talk about it all and get it off my chest. So that’s what I’m going to do.
But I guess I’ll get the food/fitness stuff out of the way. My week last week was the most meh workout week I’ve had in a long time. I had work-related events going on a couple of evenings, plus Marathon Monday and plans Friday night, so the only day I was able to do an after-work gym session (which means my beloved group fitness) was Tuesday. That was great but the other days of the week were morning workouts, no classes, and by the end of the week I was just so over it. I have a hard time motivating myself without classes and getting wrapped up in anxiety about not working “hard enough” without a class only makes me feel less motivated to push myself.
Thursday I went out with coworkers after work and had an awesome time but woke up at 3AM with 1.5 hour long insomnia. When my alarm went off for the gym – another solo session – I debated for a bit and decided to say screw it. Rest day for me. Well I never went back to sleep despite the fact that I felt EXHAUSTED, which only made me feel lazy for skipping the gym. Thankfully my mood improved a bit after I skipped out on Friday afternoon wine tasting at work and also walked two miles to meet Annie for dinner (all the while phone chatting with Kaitlin).
Classy picstitch courtesy of Annie!
It’s Marathon Monday! This is my first Marathon Monday as a Boston resident and I hope to get out of work a little early today so I can meet up with friends and take in the event. To do that I had to put in Sunday work time, and since I write these posts on Sundays, this will be a quick one! And don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll do a marathon-centric blog post, but seeing as I haven’t experienced it yet I’m holding off!
It was a marvelous weekend despite a Sunday spent feeling pretty guilty about my eats/drinks from the night prior, and also not loving my body at all. But gotta push on and hopefully the meaningful day here in Boston will help me refocus on what is most important in life.
Tried out a new-to-us spot by the office with some coworkers on Friday, while we killed time before an event. Asian restaurants are not places to go for good cocktails but they are places to go for pretty drinks!
In honor of our 90+ Cellars Paint Nite, I had the job of dressing the most interesting man with our new Rose t-shirt. Which by the way I get to model on our website!
Happy Friday! Some of you may have the day off, but I am working a full day as well as events both tonight and tomorrow night. Luckily these events – Paint Nite and Wine Riot – are events I’d totally attend on my own time for fun. So I’m pretty cool with it, and am excited to write up blog recaps too. One of the many responsibilities of my new job that I sure don’t mind. I’ve got a few things I can talk about today so I thought I’d discuss five of them for the sake of alliteration, and in honor of Five Things Friday.
Check out Clare’s link-up!
They can’t all be amazing right? I’ve had a great track record so far but on Tuesday I went to the soft opening of a new North End speakeasy called Parla, and was left unsatisfied. The drinks, to be fair, were awesome. My first one (pictured below) contained both Domain de Canton and Campari and it blew me away! I also had a prosecco cocktail with more Domain de Canton plus mint and lemon – it pretty much screamed Kaitlin. I’d return to Parla in a second for cocktails!
It occurred to me after hitting “publish” this morning that I could’ve made today the day for an April Fool’s blog post. But those get old pretty quickly so I think I’d rather show this post to you guys today! 😉
Last Thursday I was invited to a Girl’s Night Out event at GEM Kitchen & Lounge, a restaurant that was already on my Boston restaurant to-do list. Talk about convenient! And though I received an invite, the girly soiree was open to the public and even came with a free glass of bubbly or sangria, free blowouts and makeup tutorials, and a super awesome goodie bag!
DJ Malyna O provided music and plenty of local Boston businesses came out to make it an evening to remember. My coworker Jeannie joined me and after we’d grabbed some bubbles, we decided to check out the vendor offerings while waiting for our turn for blow drys.
I’m back in Boston after my Mexico vacation and brief birthday stint back home. Coming back from vacation to a place where I’ve only lived a month is lovely because though I miss the warmth of Cancun, I really didn’t mind returning! I’m still so excited to continue to explore Beantown and also felt anxious to get back to my job, which I’m still loving. It feels like forever since I thought out loud so I felt a link-up with Amanda was in order!
1. Getting out of the hotel gym and back to the BSC feels great! Without a Stairmaster or group fitness, it’s super hard for me to get motivated to work out. Thank goodness for Danielle Dee’s Monday night spin class! That hour was the cherry on top of my first day back in my routine. Especially when Danielle said, “Good job, sweetheart.” to me after class. Hearing that direct “go you” from a group fitness instructor makes SUCH a difference. And it made me feel motivated to follow up the class with some core work! Tuesday night I finally tried a class I’ve been meaning to check out, Burn. I’d taken Step a couple of times from the instructor and he is so funny! The class was a series of tons of different exercises – not a repeated circuit, but seriously just cardio and strength exercises that were never repeated. I liked that the material was kept fresh and though it wasn’t as cardio-heavy as spin, I still felt it was the perfect workout for what I was feeling that evening. Here’s an example of one of the moves we did – partner push-ups.
I’m a 28 year old full-time working girl living in Boston (previously lived in Connecticut). I’m passionate about food/drink, restaurants, self-love, fitness, and the ever-present search for balance. I write about that journey on this blog – I hope you enjoy!
