Boston Ballet’s The Nutcracker (Ticket Giveaway)

Last Thursday was the first night that I started feeling in the Christmas spirit, and it was because I got to see The Nutcracker at The Boston Opera House!

As a former dancer, when I was offered a pair of tickets free of charge in exchange for a writeup on the blog, I jumped at the opportunity. I haven’t seen The Nutcracker in YEARS, and I knew right away that I wanted to invite my friend Erin to come with me. Erin and I danced together on the Providence College Dance Company back in the day, so I knew she would appreciate it more than any other friend of mine would, and Tim really appreciated NOT having to come with me. Erin and I were also trying to find some time to catch up before the holidays, but a weekend was just not working out, so this gave us the perfect excuse for a girls night out! We met for dinner before the show at Rustic Kitchen and then made it over to the show for the 7:30 start.

After we picked up our tickets at will call, we made our way to our seats in the orchestra section. I don’t know if I’ve ever sat in this section of the opera house before!

The dancers were absolutely STUNNING. In fact, they were actually so beautiful that Erin and I both teared up during different parts of the performance. It was so magical and made us miss our dancing days! I can never decide what my favorite scene is from the show, but the waltz of the flowers, Arabian dance, and the sugar-plum fairy get me every time. Also, I thought that this production cast Clara perfectly. She was spot on with everything.

Here are some press images of the performance courtesy of Liza Voll Photography since I couldn’t snap any as part of the audience.

And here are some fun fitness facts about The Nutcracker that I dug up to share with you guys:

• Boston Ballet dancers logged over 70 hours of rehearsal time to get ready for the Nutcracker.
• On stage, the three Russian dancers do nearly 40 jumps up to five feet in the air all in only one minute and 12 seconds. The lead Russian does 18-20 jumps, and his companions do 10. (I want no complaints the next time we are doing burpees in class!)
  
• Mother Ginger’s skirt weighs an impressive 45 pounds, and her (his!) feet are 18-22 inches off the ground on stilts that weigh 15 pounds per pair. This is all with 8 kids hiding under there!
• The bear’s costume weighs eight pounds, which is CRAZY considering the amount of jumping and turning he has to do without being able to see!
  
• The Nutcracker Prince repeatedly lifts 100-120 pounds of ballerina in just the Grand Pas alone.

Cool, huh? Nevermind the amount of athleticism it takes to rehearse for and execute 44 consecutive performances in just 5 weeks. I can’t even imagine!

I had such a wonderful time at the show, and it was a much-needed night to get my mind off of some things that were bothering me during an especially stressful week. A huge thank you to The Boston Ballet for my tickets and getting me in the holiday mood.

Want to go too? Enter to win a pair of tickets to one of the following Nutcracker performances next week!

• Tuesday 12/16 at 7:30pm
  
• Wednesday 12/17 at 7:30pm
• Thursday 12/18 at 1:00pm
• Thursday 12/18 at 7:30pm

All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog post telling me what helps you get in the Christmas spirit. You can receive one extra entry by sharing this giveaway on social media and leaving me a second comment letting me know you did so. This giveaway will run through Sunday 12/14 at 12pm EST, and I will announce the winner on Monday morning. Good luck!

OAKtoberfest 5k Race & Taste

On Sunday, I ran in the OAKtoberfest 5k Race and Taste at the Oak Square YMCA. This year the Y asked me if I would like to create a Fitness & Feta team to promote the race in exchange for a couple of free race entries to give away, so of course I said yes. I won’t lie, I wish I decided to get a little more creative with my team by creating t-shirts or something, but I just didn’t have it in me this year with everything else I’ve had going on. Next year, you guys!

We got to the Y around 9am to pick up our race numbers. I foam rolled and did a quick dynamic warmup, then found some of my F&F team. Here’s me with my gym buddies Mary, Missy, and Alice:

And here’s one of my dedicated 6am class members, Alanna, with her roommates. They went all out and dressed up as superheroes! Love it.

Before we knew it, it was time to line up.

And then we were off!

My first mile was a little rough. My legs felt heavy, which I attribute to doing my warmup too early and then getting cold again right before we started running. The two huge hills at the beginning didn’t help either, but I can feel the difference in my incline runs from lifting heavier this year. I didn’t get into a groove until those hills were behind me, so I must have made up some time on the downhills and flat road.

I ended up beating my time from last year by 8 seconds and finished at 24:38, which is a new PR for me. I was psyched!

Tim came in next with a time of 25:37, and my dad finished right behind Tim at 26:10. My dad won second place for the 60+ age group and won a New Balance gift card!

Soon behind Tim and my dad were my friends Missy and Mary. I am so pumped for Mary whose goal was to run in under 30 minutes. She did it!

We weren’t expecting my mom to finish as quickly as she did, but soon enough, she was right around the corner! My mom was planning to just walk the entire course, but she said once she started she felt inspired by some of the other people who were jogging around her. She ended up doing walk/run intervals and surprised us all! So proud!

After the race, there was a little after party with a live band, and local Brighton restaurants were offering free samples/tastes. I still miss having the little health fair party after the race, but that’s okay. We took a lot of pictures and just hung out for about an hour. I had fun chatting with everyone, especially Kaylin! She came back to join us for the morning.

Overall, Team F&F came in 2nd place out of all the teams. Way to go, guys!

Once things started wrapping up, my family went out for a post race brunch at a new restaurant in Newton, Cook.

Even though my brother and sister didn’t run in the race, they joined us for breakfast. I ordered the mushroom omelet for my meal, and we also ordered a side of apple french toast to share among the table. It was a great little fall flavored treat, and everything hit the spot after our run.

All in all, it was a nice little Sunday funday! Oh, and photo credit to RaceMenu for some of the pictures I snagged for this post.

–Let’s chat–
What’s a recent race you participated in? What’s one you’ve always wanted to try?

Tim and I are on the hunt for a good turkey trot to run in on Thanksgiving morning! Do you guys have any favorites?

Sweat, Snack, Shop: Birthday Bootcamp at Athleta

A couple of weeks ago, I teamed up with Athleta Legacy Place to teach an in store bootcamp class during the week of their one year birthday celebration.

I arrived around 6:15 to get situated, help clear the racks from the middle of the store, and make sure my music was okay. My class sold out pretty quickly which was AWESOME, and people started trickling in around 6:30. Of course my mom and bridesmaids were the first to arrive!

I started the night by welcoming everyone and thanking them for coming, introducing myself and my background, and going over some logistics. I also gave a short talk that would speak to who I am and hopefully leave everyone feeling inspired before we jumped into the workout.

“I’m passionate about empowering women through fitness. I love showing people that fitness is fun. It doesn’t have to be about spending hours on a boring piece of equipment, and it most certainly is not only about how we look. Fitness is about trying new things. It’s about how we feel, how it makes us confident, and it’s about feeling strong and happy in our own skin. Athleta’s tagline is “power to the she,” which I love because it speaks to women who see being healthy and fit as vital to life. It speaks to the fact that it is okay to make fitness and healthy living a priority, no matter how much else you have going on. And you know what’s awesome? That there are 30 of you here tonight, choosing to spend your time doing something for YOU, something healthy, and something fun.”

I then made everyone introduce themselves to someone they didn’t know since the social aspect of fitness is so important to me. As everyone was chatting away, I got my music going, and then we were off!

After the warmup, I used a tried and true format: bodyweight strength supersets with cardio and ab blasts in between each round. I tried to pick exercises that would show you don’t need a lot of fancy equipment or a gym to get a good workout in or feel the burn!

This took us right up until around 7:40, so if you are doing this on your own you can allot around 40 minutes for the workout, including the warmup. For the remaining 20 minutes, I had everyone find a partner and do the following partner exercises:

• Leg throwdowns
• Crab walks forward and backward + 4 hand claps
• Cross arm jumping lunges
• Plank reach and touch
• Back to back “wall sit”

Everyone was laughing and having so much fun together by the end of these! <—that is what I LOVE seeing and when I feel truly in my element. We finished class with some of my signature group situp lines and a stretch, and then it was time to mingle!

Here’s a sweaty pic of me and some of my gym friends… shoutout to Jen who took my class at 6am that morning AND came to the event to support me!

Athleta was kind enough to set up a table with veggies and munchies for people to snack on during the post class shopping event. They also offered a 25% discount off of any apparel purchased that night and two raffle drawings. So generous! I want to also extend a thank you to the folks at Hint Water who donated waters for us to stay hydrated and Joos who donated one of the raffle prizes for the night.

I would say the event was definitely a success! I ended up leaving with a nice thank you goodie bag from Athleta with a yoga mat, headband, water bottle, and hat. I also purchased this, these, this in white, and a pair of black leggings! Thank you to everyone who came to support me in my first event like this. I loved seeing so many familiar faces but meeting so many fun new people at the same time.
I left feeling inspired to do more things like this and less of what doesn’t fuel me, but you could probably guess that would happen. Stay tuned!

–Let’s chat–
Have you ever taken a fitness class in a store before? Were you at my Athleta event? What did you think? What does fitness mean to you? How do you interpret Athleta’s tagline of “power to the she?”

Let me know if you try the bodyweight workout at home or have any questions about it!