January 15, 2015

AMRAP & Protein Energy Balls

January 15, 2015/ sherri d'alessandro

So, I've mentioned before that I typically like to save Thursday as a 'rest day'. That didn't work out today because we are heading up to Maine tomorrow (yay!) which means that I likely won't get much of a workout in over the next 2 days. Tonight, I needed to pack and make some treats so I wanted to do something quick. I don't "do/take" crossfit, however, I do like some of the body weight AMRAP workouts that I see posted. I think they are effective since you end up pushing yourself pretty hard for a short amount of time. It works for me because I have a # of reps that I want to get in, in my head so I tend to push it. I modified one that I saw on Pinterest. And, as mentioned on fb, my main goal was getting a good workout as quickly as possible so I called this "Get-this-workout-over-as-fast-as-possible-so-that-I-can-finally-have-a-glass-of-wine-AMRAP".

After I finished this, I quickly posted it on facebook and marched into the kitchen to make protein balls. We MAY go hiking on Saturday, so I think it'll be a fun treat to have. Plus, this recipe was stupid-easy.

I subbed in maple syrup for honey because that's what I have in my kitchen AND maple syrup has more anti-bacterial and anti-oxidant properties than honey so I think it's a better option.

As stated, mix the almond butter, cocoa, vanilla, and maple syrup.

Add the remaining ingredients and mix it all together. I only needed 1 tbs of warm water.

Refrigerate for an hour and then roll into balls. Place into a sealed container and refrigerate again. Done and done!

These have a nice chocolatey flavor that isn't too sweet. The ingredients are awesome! Anti-oxidants, fiber, protein, vitamin E, omegas, etc. Much better and cleaner than buying a protein bar at the store! Enjoy and have an AWESOME weekend!

January 14, 2015

What's in my bag?

January 14, 2015/ sherri d'alessandro

What is it about those magazine articles that reveal "what's in my bag" so appealing? I guess we are all a little nosy by nature, right? I would say the other reason they are a 'must read' is because we are looking for some cool things to put in our OWN bags. Anything that makes our lives more organized, healthy, and prepared, right? So, today I'll show you what's in MY bag (or my POCKETBOOK as we from BOSTON say). I can 100% guarantee you that this post will look completely different in the summer so I'll re-post again once the warm weather hits.

The vehicle: This Madewell brown leather bag that I bought for myself last fall. It is one of my favorites and goes with EVERYTHING. I'm actually super practical when it comes to pocketbooks (er, bags) because I don't really like to switch them out much. I know, so odd for a chick.

Here it goes, from the top:

1. Hand cream
2. Black driving gloves
3. Red marker pen
4. My favorite new wallet
5. Glasses case
6. Random pencil, probably from a tasting event
7. Work cell phone
8. Hair elastic
9. Ginger chew
10. Tiny hairbrush
11. Eyedrops
12. Work keys
13. Eyeglass cloth
14. 12,745 lip glosses and chapsticks
15. Another pair of black gloves
16. Personal keys

Some explanations...
1. I am the Marketing Director at a large, outdoor lifestyle/shopping center. I wear gloves every single time I step out the door (which is often) so that's why there are two pairs. It's necessary.
2. My PWG tag gets more use than most things in this bag.
3. I rarely reapply my lip gloss/stick, but, for some reason there is always a minimum of 7 in my bag

1. These are actually Rob's eyedrops (he wears contacts), but, I usually always have a bottle in my bag. They are an instant beauty boost.
2. This mini brush is essential for when you have an after work meet-up or event.
3. Ginger chews are so necessary. They help soothe an anxious stomach (think, gingerale) and they are also little sweet if I have a craving.
4. Hair elastic. Need. Always.
5. I think this pencil is from a beer tasting, not sure

6. This is my work cell. I used my personal cell to take the photo. I get this question a lot... "Why do you have two phones?" Answer: I am in Marketing, I run 7 social media accounts and my email inbox is kind of crazy. It makes it much easier to keep it both separate. Especially with a blog.
7. Marker pen... I like using these pens for cards so I like to be prepared.
8. Crabtree hand cream. When I worked at Crabtree, Krista and I actually executed everything about this cream. The fragrance, the packaging, the size of the bottle, everything (except for the name, which is a different story for another day......-___-........) Anyway, it's one of my favs and it's so essential. I use it probably 5 times a day, in and out of the cold.
9. The other pair of gloves!

That's what's in my purse today! Some missing items would be random vitamins and ibuprofren. I usually have both. What are the essential things in your pocketbook? Um, bag.

January 12, 2015

Weekend Sunshine XIX

January 12, 2015/ sherri d'alessandro

Flashback! I haven't written a "Weekend Sunshine" post in a very long time... just about a year to be exact. That being said, since Friday Favs didn't happen this week, I thought I'd resurrect a little "Weekend Sunshine" to make up for it. Plus, this series was started in the cold and dark days of winter to bring a little 'sunshine' to the blogosphere, so it just seemed fitting.

This weekend, 11 of us went up to Loon Mountain for the weekend. It was fun! The addition of the INSANE Pats game, definitely made it even sweeter. Weekend getaways make the winter soooo much more fun and a lot more bearable, am I right?! We mostly ate, drank, laughed, and of course, had moments of close panic-attacks from 4:30pm-8pm on Saturday night. (side note: once again I was kind of terrible at taking pictures... ugh... but I was able to capture a few)

This was our awesome view from our townhouse.

On Saturday, I had an unplanned gym sesh which actually ended up being pretty great. This poster was up in the gym... straight out of the 1980's (just like the equipment). It was hilarious and awesome.
If you're wondering why we weren't skiing... well - only our two elites went skiing. Everyone else stayed behind mainly due to the early Pats game. I brought all of my stuff and intended on going if someone would join me since I haven't been skiing in 4 years and I'm not exactly the best skiier in the world. The boys decided the pool was a better idea so Shannon and I decided to squeeze in a quick workout and meet the boys to play basketball in the pool (insert laughter) I'm soooooo good at basketball, especially in the pool. All 5foot1andahalf of me. The Pool was 5 ft deep. Go ahead and picture how that worked out. Hahaha

My workout consisted of dead lifts, cleans, weighted squats, plyo squats, bench press, back flies, plyo hamstring curls, and some cardio (squat thrusts, burpees, bear crawls, etc). Oh, all of this was completed after I wolfed down an amazing cronut that Rob picked up for me... (errrr, all of us) while the boys were out getting everyone coffees (best bf eva).