Crushing it and the best food, fitness and reads from the week

Hello, my friends! I hope you’ve been having a most fabulous week! Ours has been good, right back into our routine after last week’s trip and starting off a new month on mostly the right foot. Now, let’s talk about favorites! 

Favorite time of the week: Crushing it with The Crusher Wines

This portion of the post is sponsored by The Crusher Wines. Thanks for supporting our sponsors.

Ever since Dave and I started dating, our favorite time of the week together has always been on Friday evenings. For much of our relationship, I was working in the corporate world (as was he and still is), and when our work-week was complete and we came together to hang out on Friday — it’s like we could both take a big deep breath, right at the beginning of the weekend. 

While things have changed tremendously since we were living in downtown Orlando and dating, what hasn’t changed has been our love for that Friday evening ritual — although it now takes place at home after Brady goes to sleep and is certainly a bit more casual.

Our Friday evening wind-down ritual

Here’s what we like to do …

• Finish up our chores, work and emails, put Brady to bed, shut down our phones and post up outside, with Rudy, of course.
• We each pour an adult beverage (Crusher Chardonnay for me and a red for Dave) and sit back and relax, and sometimes I even stretch my sore muscles after a week of workouts too.
• Then, perhaps the most important part — we talk about what we are proud of from the week — what we accomplished, what activities we crushed, what made us happy, and what we’re looking forward to over the weekend.
• It’s a mini-gratefulness practice, which we do together, over good wine, and I don’t see it ending any time soon.

There are some Fridays in which Dave works at a game, or I sub a late class and we have to skip, but if we’re home, we make it happen. It’s so easy to get busy with all of our to-dos, stresses and new parent issues, that this is the perfect time to actually take a moment to be appreciative and proud of what we’re doing each week. Wine and discussing wins? Yes, please. 

As you know, a cold white flavorful Chardonnay is my drink of choice while I’m chatting about crushing it, and I’m totally loving the 2016 Chardonnay from The Crusher Wines, which has the absolute perfect flavor profile for my palate. And I happen to think it pairs excellently with our Friday night weekly meal too — sushi. 

I have to thank the Crusher Wines for fueling our weekly ritual. By the way, the 2016 Crusher Chardonnay is a California-made wine, and it’s got a roasted almond finish, with toasty pineapple oak and pear too. So basically, it’s delish.

Bottoms up, peeps. Don’t forget to take a moment to think about your wins each week too! We’ll be over here doing that tonight for sure.

A tailored wellness plan in the Super Woman Rx book

I took a several month break from reading (thanks to little Brady boy, LOVE you heheh), but I’m back to it. Outside of my all-time favorite books in health and wellness, which I recently shared, I’m always on the hunt for worthy reading. I received the book Super Woman Rx, by Dr. Tanseem Bhatia (Dr. Taz), from a PR agency months ago and was never able to pick it up until now. I briefly mentioned this book last week, because a recipe in it gave me the inspiration for my new favorite golden milk tea latte. Well, I’m done with the book now and wanted to share my overall thoughts.

Here’s the deal: It’s not-your-average book, as you actually take a quiz before you get into the meat of the book, so you can find your specific “power type” and personalized wellness three-week plan, then you can skip right to your section.

There are recipes, ideas for supplements, workouts, beauty products and more — so it’s a resource you’d want to hold onto after you finish reading it. I definitely want to try some of the snack recipes and home-made beauty regimens Dr. Taz swears by.

“Super Woman Rx: Discover the Secrets to Lasting Health, Your Perfect Weight, Energy and Passion with Dr. Taz’s Power Type Plans“

This book is great for someone dealing with low energy, health issues, stress, nagging extra weight or other women-related problems — while trying to “do it all.” And yes, this book is exclusively tailored to women. After learning about how Dr. Taz changed her life for the better and sought out a way to combine the best of Western and Eastern medicine in her super-popular wellness practice, you’ll take the quiz, then learn about how to eat, exercise and live the right life based on your particular type. I totally enjoyed the personalized part, because we are not all the same and cannot all follow one blanket plan when it comes to our health, and Dr. Taz certainly appreciates that. And you know I’m ALL about the power of Eastern medicine. (Check out my thoughts on acupuncture here.)

Dr. Taz believes there are five types of women, and I’m a Savvy Chick, which is a combination of the Boss Lady and Gypsy Girl types, and we’re equal parts ethereal artist and commanding chief. Reading through the commonalities of those who are Savvy Chicks, I do relate to many of them (strong work ethic and drive, but occasional pull to flow with creative energy, making us sometimes irritable because of this contrast — ummm YES, that’s me), but not all. And while I won’t be changing my diet based off of what I learned about my type (Dr. Taz suggests Savvy Chicks should eliminate dairy and gluten, and I’m not willing to do that — hello ice cream and pizza), she also suggests going electronics-free until after breakfast, drinking a warming tonic in the morning and learning to connect to the ground more to keep hormones in check. I’m down with all of that for sure.

Basically, this book was interesting and educational and is a pretty quick read. While it’s not a game-changer for me, because I’ve already worked to optimize my health throughout the past few years, I loved some of the ideas and will keep it around to check back for recipes and recommendations for quality supplements too.

QUICK NOTE: More to come on this, but we’re going to do a book club in the month of June in the A Lady Goes West Friends Facebook group. Hop over there and join us, and I’ll share more details about what we’ll be reading soon. And if you have any book ideas, feel free to leave them in the comments of this post.

Sweet Brady is 7 months

This is a quick fave! Our little Brady is 7 months-old as of this week, and he’s becoming quite the little man. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a LOT of work, but he sure is cute.

He’s actually made some strides in the night-time sleep department since I wrote his 6-month update, but we’re still working on the day-time naps. He’s also eating some solids, and I’ll share more about him in a post for another day.

Best eats and meals from the week

Here are a few things I totally enjoyed eating this week …

Blender Bombs! These things are delicious and awesome. Made by a healthy living blogger, Blender Bombs are superfood balls of goodness you can mix into a smoothie to kick up the nutrition factor or eat alone — and they are so dense and tasty — I’m pretty obsessed. I’m running a GIVEAWAY for two winners over on Instagram now, so go check it out and enter.

I had this delicious salad lunch after our trip when we were back in the Bay Area on Sunday at Urban Plates, and it was heavenly. Beets, salmon, goat cheese, bread … well, yes, please.

And my lunches at home this week looked much like this …. roasted broccoli covered in turmeric, a veggie burger, sauerkraut, an avocado and two fried eggs. The usual goodness.

That about does it for food. Oh and do you like my new gold fork? 🙂 

Weekly workout recap at 29 weeks postpartum 

Now on to the fitness …

Here’s a look at my workouts from last week — and it’s not your average recap …

• Monday: Took 1-hour BODYPUMP class, 10 a.m.
• Tuesday: Took 30-minute BODYATTACK, 30-minute CXWORX classes, 9:30 a.m.
• Wednesday: Rest day
• Thursday: Rest day
• Friday: Rest day
• Saturday: Rest day
• Sunday: Took 45-minute SoulCycle class, 10:45 a.m.

This past week of workouts was much lighter than normal, because I took four full days off for my trip to Atlanta for my brother’s wedding. Sure, I could have brought some sneakers and tried to visit the hotel gym while I was away, but quite frankly, I didn’t want to spend any time doing anything that wasn’t family, fun or wedding related. It’s totally okay to take a few days off from exercise and get back into it when your schedule allows. It won’t kill you, I promise!

That being said, I still fit in three solid days of workouts throughout the week when I was home, so it’s all good. I went back to BODYATTACK after quite a long time away (in fact, I haven’t taken a class since teaching it for the last time in 2016 — wow!), and it was KILLER! I’m excited to be challenging myself in the gym again on a regular basis.

Best reads from around the web 

A few things I enjoyed reading …

• Arm moves: Shapely triceps and shoulders are the key to upper-body aesthetics. This looks like a fun do-at-home tricep toner.
• Eating rules: You know I’m a fan of Eastern medicine and Ayurvedic practices, so this simple article on how to eat according to Ayurveda speaks to me. I don’t do all of these things, but would like to. Warm food? Eating slowly? Yes, great tips.
• Fun laundry fact: You should wash your bra after every wear. You heard it here first. 

Favorite A Lady Goes West archives

In case you want to keep on reading …

• Wedding fun: Loved this trip and loved writing about it too … “Our super-fun trip to Atlanta for my brother’s beautiful wedding.”
• Working world: Remember when I worked in the corporate world? This one has some perspective on both ways of life … “Career real-talk: What it’s like to work for yourself or someone else

That’s it, friends! Thank YOU for coming to read the blog today. See you soon! 🙂 

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Questions of the day

Tell me, what’s your favorite time of the week?

What’s one thing that you CRUSHED this week?