Current faves: Dinner event, food, fun and weekly workouts

Hi, my friends! How are you? I’m doing well-ish. This week has passed by in a blur, that’s for sure. Having my Mom here has been totally awesome, but I think I’ve been trying to fit in too much during her visit, because a cold made its way around our house this week, and I rarely ever get sick, so it must be a sign to slow down. Anyone else ever feel that way?

But today, let’s keep it light and get to our regularly scheduled selection of favorites …

Events

Inspiring dinner event in Russian Hill in SF

Earlier this week, I ventured into Russian Hill in the City for a dinner hosted by a company called Brandless. Brandless is a pretty new company, sold only online, with a mission to get healthy and useful body, home and grocery food products into the hands of people for a very reasonable cost — like everything is $3, which is incredibly reasonable. I hope to talk more about Brandless soon, but wanted to show some highlights from the dinner I attended, because they’re worth sharing.

All of these photos are courtesy of Brandless too …

I walked into the door happy to see some local influencers that I’ve met before and really enjoy hanging out with, and then I also met some new people, including a few gals I’ve followed for forever and was hoping to meet in person one day. It was an excellent group, and we were treated to an amazing dinner as well as conversation. And Brandless made donations to Feeding America in our names …

Now while the food and scenery were both great, what was absolutely the best part was the conversation. I don’t know the last time that I had dinner table conversation with such inspiring, strong and smart women about such important topics — health, wellness, fitness, the Bay Area, you name it. We each shared a little bit about ourselves and focus and then just chatted. I loved it! I had originally planned to leave by 9 p.m. so I wasn’t out too late, but the first time I even thought to look at my watch it was already 9:15 p.m.. Time flies when you’re having fun.

It’s not easy for me to get out to these things, and I’m so glad I made the effort for this event. I love learning about quality companies and spending time with like-minded gals — away from my usual night-time set-up of momming and staying home. Thanks to Brandless for a great night.

Fun

Seeing a show with my Momma

This week, my Mom and I went to see Mamma Mia the musical at our local theatre, the Lesher Center in downtown Walnut Creek, which resulted in another late night for me. The show was super cute, and I loved the tunes and dancing. It had been a fairly stressful day for me trying to get a bunch of things done that I was behind on work-wise, and we even considered skipping the show (actually tried to sell our tickets and had no takers), but both my Mom and I were so glad we went. Good times and a perfect show for a mom and daughter to see! Oh, and I wore this new shirt, with my favorite black pants …

Food

Tasty bone broth

Now that the temperatures are cooling down, I’ll probably be having bone broth a lot more often. I recently got a shipment of some Osso Good organic bone broth, and it’s delish. I usually have to add sea salt, turmeric and pepper to my plain varieties to drink straight up, but this kind is good as is. It comes frozen, so you defrost the pack when you’re ready in the fridge, then heat up your servings in a mug or pan or add it to dishes you are cooking (I’ve added it to boiling water for lentil pasta before — major flavor booster).

Osso Good is made in Marin, California and it’s a quality product. The beef version is grass fed and the chicken version is antibiotic free.

So what’s the deal with bone broth? It’s warming, nourishing and has a lot of valuable protein and collagen too, and it also has gut healing properties to help your digestion and tummy. Apparently it’s pretty easy to make, but I like to get it already done for me. Thanks to Osso for sending me the samples.

Books

Because everyone else is reading it

I ended up ordering the book “Girl, Wash Your Face” because it seemed like it was getting a ton of coverage. Quite honestly, I listened to the author, Rachel Hollis, as a guest on a podcast and I didn’t really like her. But I heard good things about the book, and I’m about halfway into it. I can tell you for sure that it’s not as good as “You Are a Badass,” which I reviewed here and we read together in the A Lady Goes West Friends Facebook group. (P.S. I’m still trying to decide what our next official book will be. Let me know if you have any suggestions.) 

Anywho, I’ll share more thoughts when I’m done. It’s a quick read, and I’m enjoying it, I just don’t think it’s quite as significant for me as some other non-fiction books, but maybe the second half will change things. Anyone else read it and have thoughts?

Apps

Check the safety of your products with Healthy Living

I just learned about this Healthy Living app yesterday and am still working with it, but so far, I’m totally liking it. Basically, you download the free app, then scan the barcode of the beauty and body and home products that you use to check to see what the EWG, Environmental Working Group, thinks of the ingredients and their safety, as far as chemicals and additives. 

I try to use nontoxic products, and you can read more about that in this post, “Five nontoxic body product swaps I’ve made to my daily routine,” but I still have a lot of work to do. This app is definitely eye opening. Nobody is perfect, but making a few changes here and there certainly adds up.

Fitness

Weekly workout recap

Here’s a look at my workouts from last week. 

• Monday: 45-minute full-body weights workout, 11 a.m.
• Tuesday: 45-minute SoulCycle class, 10:30 a.m., 45-minute barre class, 7:30 p.m.
• Wednesday: 30-minute GRIT Strength class, 7:30 p.m.
• Thursday: Taught 1-hour Bootybarre class, 12 p.m.
• Friday: 30-minute CXWORX, 9:30 a.m.
• Saturday: 25-minute BODYPUMP workout, 10:30 a.m.
• Sunday: Rest day

This past week of workouts was all over the place! I took a lot of classes and did one solo workout, and I had a lot of variety. I did three official resistance sessions, so that’s all good stuff. I only had two days that had workouts an hour long — the rest were much shorter — and that’s fine by me. Remember — workouts DO NOT have to be an hour to be effective! 🙂 

Suggested reading

Best links from around the web

• Kitchen cleaning. I’m guilty of a couple of these mistakes when it comes to cleaning up the kitchen. Whoops!
• Stop rushing. This is a simple list of ways you can slow down a bit and stop rushing from task to task in your life. The first one? Just breathe.
• Productivity. Have you heard of the concept of deep work? Basically, it means to truly focus. I love this article on how to do it. (Hard to do as a mom much of the time, am I right?)
• Dance. I like to watch the show, “World of Dance,” and this performance was the first ever to get a perfect score. It’s totally captivating!

A Lady Goes West favorite archives 

• Have you ever tried a FlyWheel or SoulCycle class? Here are my thoughts … “The difference between FlyWheel and SoulCycle cycle classes.”
• Not sure what to do in the gym? Here’s some structure … “What should you do in the gym?“
• And just for fun, a walk down memory lane, as we approach the 1-year mark for little Brady … “My second trimester of pregnancy favorites.”

And I’ll leave you with this picture of my two little men and me last week when I was all dressed up before I went out for a baby sprinkle …

Have a most wonderful weekend, my friends! We don’t have a ton on the agenda, except a dinner party with friends and some birthday party planning for little Brady — and some relaxing. Talk soon! xoxoxo

Just some food, fitness and fun favorites on A Lady Goes West Click To Tweet

Questions of the day

How was your week?

What are you up to this weekend?

What’s your favorite part about attending a birthday party?

Read anything good lately?