OMG YOU GUYS ITS HALLOWEEKEND!!!!! AKA….the best weekend of the entire year! Can you tell Halloween is my favorite holiday?! I try to go all-out every year. Here are some of my favorite looks from the past few years:
You’ll have to wait until my next post in 2 weeks to hear about my weekend (and also to see my costumes!), but that’s ok because I have a ton of great info for you this week to tide you over! Let’s get right into it
Favorite Health/Fitness Articles
Stop Mindlessly Foam Rolling by Dr. John Rusin
How To Work With A Female’s Mentrual Cycle For Best Results by Nardia Norman
Top Fitness Trends for 2017 via ACSM
Fitness Professional vs. Fitness Celebrity by Erica Suter
15 Static Stretching Mistakes by Eric Cressey
Meal Plans Usually Suck by Brian St. Pierre
Why Nutrition Science is So Confusing by Dr. John Berardi
My Body, My Business by Erin Brown
What’s Your Exercise Personality? by Garrett Wood
The Dark Side of Calorie Counting by Chrissy Giorgetti (me!)
Favorite Non-Fitness Articles
The Afterlife of a Ballerina by Alice Robb
Favorite Recipe
Sweet potato fries! I always love making and eating these, but I especially love them in the fall. I have 3 go-to “recipes” that I use. They’re not really recipes….the only thing that changes are the seasonings! But each one brings a whole new flavor to the fries, whether you’re craving sweet, salty, or savory!
Sweet: coconut oil, cinnamon, and nutmeg with a small sprinkling of sugar
Salty: olive oil, Himalayan pink sea salt, and pepper (classic)
Savory: olive oil, rosemary, salt, cloves and oregano
I always bake my fries at 400 degrees for about 20 min. You can flip them halfway through, but I usually make so many at a time that I just don’t have time for that! I try to find the biggest sweet potatoes in the store because I know they’ll yield the most fries 😉
Favorite Exercise
A bicep-curl finisher that I learned from Jordan Syatt of Syatt Fitness. It was in one of his email newsletters one day, and that day happened to be my bench day.
Bicep-Curl Finisher: as many curls as you can do with an empty bar in 3 minutes, without ever putting the bar down.
I read the newsletter and thought I’d try it at the end of my workout that day. Let me tell you, it was KILLER. And then I couldn’t move my arms for like, 2 days. The first week I did 68 reps. I’ve been doing this for 5 weeks now, and this week I hit 100 reps! I am using the EZ-curl bar, which weighs 15lbs, because I literally couldn’t curl the 45-lb barbell once. My next goal is to progress to that bar, which I think will happen soon as my biceps are getting stronger! I’m also hoping that adding this once a week will translate into my chin-ups. I don’t really ever train biceps, so maybe that’s the missing link as to why I still can’t do unassisted chin-ups!
Currently Reading
Inferno by Dan Brown. Can’t decide if I’m going to see the movie in the theater when it comes out, or just wait for the DVD. Tim and I decided to wait for Girl on the Train, because we heard the movie was terrible. Did anyone see it? What did you think?
Currently Netflixing
I’ve taken on the daunting task of re-watching Gilmore Girls from the beginning in hopes that I’ll finish before the new episodes are released at the end of November. I don’t think I’ve seen every episode, it was one of those shows that I watched when it was one but never really followed. I like it though, so I figured I’d familiarize myself (again) with the characters and story. I’m almost done with season 1, and I just started last week, so I’m hopeful that I can finish by November 25!
Favorite Activities
I’ve had a pretty low-key couple of weeks, which is great because I feel like I’ve been going a mile a minute lately! 2 weeks ago, Tim and I went out to his hometown of Pittsfield, MA for the weekend. I love going out there, it’s so peaceful and nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. We spent most of Saturday outside doing fall activities. We drove up to the top of Mount Greylock, the highest peak in Massachusetts, and got to see some spectacular views. If you’re a huge Harry Potter fan, you’ll also know that J.K. Rowling has revealed that the American school of magic, Ilvermorny, is at the top of Greylock. They had a sign up there, which I wasn’t expecting at all! I had a fun time pretending that I was a witch and not a silly No-Maj.
After Greylock we had lunch at Tim’s favorite spot, The Olde Forge. He says that they have the best wings in the world and he has yet to find anywhere with better ones. If you have some suggestions for him, he’s on a mission to find better wings than those of the Forge! I have no opinion, I don’t like wings!
After lunch we went to Jiminy Peak, which is one of the ski mountains nearby. They have all this cool stuff going on when it’s not ski season. We went on a scenic chair lift ride, which was actually incredible. The views and the foliage were amazing! After that we went on the alpine slide (a super long slide that goes down the entire mountain. You take a ski lift up to the beginning of it!), the mountain coaster (a self-controlled roller coaster down the mountain. It was terrifying, mainly because Tim was driving), and the mountain swing (basically a giant swing, similar to those swing pirate ship rides at carnivals). It was such a fun day!
Your November Challenge
November is just a few days away, and since the next Friday Faves post won’t come until we’re already 2 weeks into the month, I’m going to tell you now!
November is Gluten-Free Diet Awareness month. While it has gotten much easier in recent years for those who are gluten-free to find food they can eat, many people still need to prepare most of their own food. Part of the reason that I prepare almost everything I eat in my kitchen is because it’s so hard for me to find GF food on the go. Your challenge this month is to try making one gluten-free dish. It could be a classic dish you love that you made GF, or something completely new. Appetizer, main meal, dessert, snack, whatever you want! Send me a picture of your completed food and the recipe, and you’ll be entered into the drawing for a free month of online coaching with me!
I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with and to hopefully learn some new recipes to try!
Please remember that if you participated in the October challenge to send me and email with what you did! Don’t forget, you could win a free month of online coaching with me!
Before I finish up this post, I want to wish a Happy 2 Year Anniversary (it’s tomorrow!) to my wonderful boyfriend, Tim. He is so supportive of me and encourages me to pursue my dreams. This blog would not be here without him, and I couldn’t imagine my life without him! Love you forever!
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