We're Back in New England!

 A lot has changed in the last 9 months...

We left Hawaii and moved back to New England in September 2021 landing first in Portsmouth, NH. We rented a cute little downtown apartment until we could buy a house. Right on State Street, we were within a mile of both of the girls. It was perfect walking lifestyle living.

Less than two weeks after arriving back on the mainland, we got a dog! Quincy is a cream Gold Retriever and we just love her!

My stepson graduated from Marine Corps Basic School and was accepted to Flight School in Pensacola. We are so proud of him!

My mom came to Portsmouth for Thanksgiving. It was freezing while she was here, but we still took her to the beach in Rye! We also walked the FASTer Way 5K and got in the Christmas spirit with a walk through the Winter Wonders Christmas lights display at Sandy Hill Farm in Eliot, Maine.

All three of the kids were here for Christmas. We walked the Marginal Way trail in Ogunquit, went ice skating at Strawberry Banke and mrC went skiing with them. It fills my heart to see all of them together.

Living in Portsmouth means we get to see the girls all the time! We're loving that we can get together for meals and let the dogs play now that Quincy is almost as big as Ralph!

In May, we traveled to Cincinnati to see my mom and family. It was our first time back there since December 2019. It was so nice to see my BFF Sandy, my aunt Debbie and just hang out with my mom. We ate a lot of pizza, cooked a little and spent a fun day exploring downtown Milford.

Last month we bought a cute little house in Kittery, Maine! It's just a 10 minute drive from Portsmouth and is in the sweetest little cul-de-sac neighborhood. Our little city girl is loving the backyard and playing ball. We are enjoying our own outdoor space and the quiet. PS - We had the best realtor in the world, Devan - follow her! 

Where are you reading this from??

Catching Up from Ohio

Wow!

Time has flown by since my last blog post.

mrC finished his work in Connecticut and we wrapped up our stay in New England with a weekend visit to the girls in Portsmouth, NH.

The weather was great on Saturday for a day of hiking and exploring in Maine with D. We hiked Mount Agamenticus in Ogunquit and had lunch (we brown-bagged yummy sandwiches from Backyard Coffeehouse and Eatery off the main street) at the summit. We stopped to view Cape Neddick Lighthouse and then browsed Stonewall Kitchen in York. Later, back in Portsmouth, we met up with G for dinner. After brunch at Popovers on Sunday, we escaped the rain at the movie theater and watched Girl on the Train (just as good as the book!) and then went out for lunch before saying goodbye to the girls.

We spent one more evening with Booney and mrC's family before flying to Ohio for one more week of work for mrC.

The great thing about mrC working in Ohio is that we can see my family while we are here (we really are blessed that he gets to work in both places when we return to the US). We came to Ohio a couple of days early and spent time in Cincinnati at my mom's. We met up with my aunt at Howl at the Moon downtown and had a blast bowling after a great meal. While mrC works in Columbus, we get to visit with the BFF! We went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (little O's choice) and then met up for a free yoga session at the Athleta store the next morning.

After sticking to low intensity workouts (or no workouts 😳) for a couple of weeks, it feels good to use the fitness room here at the hotel for some HIIT cardio on the elliptical and cool down walks on the treadmill. I was feeling a little unmotivated doing the same at-home workouts and getting back on the elliptical is helping bring back my workout HAPPY.

Sprint Workout ---> 10 minute warm up on elliptical, 15 sprints: 20:20 seconds intervals, and 30 minute cool down on treadmill.

The fitness room at the Residence Inn Easton is TINY compared to what we had in Montreal, but it will do the trick while we are here. The room is steps away from the dining room making it super easy to grab some breakfast to-go.

It's a bit rainy here today, but the weekend promises to be beautiful and everything we love: cool temps and sunny, blue skies. It will be our last weekend in the US for about 6 months, so we are trying to soak up everything fall before we leave on Sunday morning.

Do you ever get in a fitness rut and feel unmotivated? How do you break out?
Tell me something you've been up to lately!

Shred Day 15: Half Way Day, a Bridge, and an Aquarium

Today is the halfway point of the 30 Day Shred Program, so today I did some reflecting.

NSV (non-scale victories):
Bought a size smaller shorts, ran 3 interval sprint workouts ----> 5.44 miles, kept up with the program while traveling to 3 different cities and visiting with family and friends, learned how to use strength training machines

Goals: 
To stay on track with the group through the end, avoid processed foods as much as possible, work harder to hit my custom macros each day, keep running

Today was kind of a wing-it-day until I'm back in line with the Shred group. I did a modified regular calorie day because I've been struggling to hit my daily calorie goals. Although I didn't do a workout, I did do a lot of walking and maybe some random yoga.

Here's what happened...

After breakfast my mom and I went downtown to walk across the Purple People Bridge.

This is my new top

I guess you could say that I have a thing for bridges, since I also crossed this one and this one. The best one might have been this one. But the PPB is the only I did yoga on!

Did you see my other pose on Instagram? ---> here

On the other side of the bridge, we met up with my aunt, cousin, and other cousin's daughter for a day at the Newport Aquarium.

Ever since my snorkeling adventures (here and here) I am really fish. I loved walking around today and seeing all the underwater life. I even touched some things!

Yep! Totally touched both of these!

The best part was walking across the Shark Bridge (are you surprised?)

Afterwards we had lunch and then my mom and I walked back across the PPB for some more downtown time.

My eats today:

Breakfast: scrambled eggs with ham, bacon, pb&j rice cake, coffee

Lunch: chicken quesadilla, water, chips and salsa

Treat: 4 Berry Smoothie

Dinner: veggie burgers, salad, diet dew

Tell me one of your NSV!
Do you like walking/running/biking across bridges?

Shred Day 13 & 14: Facing Fears and a Zoo Loop

Every time I lace up my Mizunos for a sprint interval workout I am scared. Up until a couple of weeks ago, I was not able to run my sprints and did them all on the elliptical because my knee is cranky as hell. I never now how my knee is going to feel during or after the workout and or even if it will want to work!

Yesterday my knee felt good, so I went to the park near my mom's house to do my workout. First, I walked a 10 minute warmup on the walking path. I love paths like this because you don't have to worry about traffic.

I switched up my 30 day Shred days so that I would be able to eat ALL THE PIZZA at the pizza party my aunt was hosting later and then I switched up the workout from interval run to sprint intervals for my knee. The goal: 25 sprints using 20 run/20 walk intervals.

To make it even easier on my knee, I ran the sprints back and forth on the mulch section of the walking path. It was a perfect match for my knee. I felt good, my heart rate was up and I was definitely sweaty!

For my cool down, I walked another 15 minutes on the path back to my car. I used my Nike running app for the first time in months. It felt so good, but it feels even better to SEE my resulting route (I accidentally stopped it after my sprints).

On our way to my aunt's, my mom and I hit up Athleta and had ourselves a little shopping spree. I'm a bad influence on her...she bought four pair of pants! I walked away with this, this, this, and this.

When you get the girls in my family in one room, it's all about sharing stories. My cousins, aunts, mom and sister (would you believe she's the blond next me?? She is!) are a riot and I'm really lucky that they indulge in at least one LaRosa's pizza party when I'm home for a visit.

Today I was fasting so I skipped breakfast and ran some errands with my mom. She's planning to buy a new front door, so we stopped at Home Depot to check out the options. Then we picked up a birthday printer for her at Best Buy. I hope she likes it :)

Then we spent the day walking the loop at the Cincinnati Zoo. It was warm and sunny today, so we broke up the walk with some indoor exploration as well as shady spots with the big cats.

What I Ate the last two days ---> not the best choices, but I'm back on track tomorrow!

Do you have any fears when you workout?
Do you like to run on hard or soft surfaces?
When was the last time you were at the zoo? ----> my last year of teaching in Ohio, so over 9 years ago!