Current faves: Fitness planners, fashion, food and weekly workouts

It’s about that time for some favorites! I hope your week has been a good one. Ours has been a mixture. While I would say my week was good because I was super productive, got a lot done, did my workouts, taught a class and spent a lot of time playing with Brady, there was also a lot of scary stuff going on too. The smoke in the Bay Area was terrible for a few days in a row — so bad that we couldn’t go outside AT ALL because it wasn’t safe. And so many families lost their homes in the fires, which is the worst part. It’s not fun, and it’s hitting a little too close to home. (Sharing an article in the link section below on how you can help.)

Outside of that, we’ve got a busy weekend ahead (with a little bit of social stuff too), because we’re gearing up to be gone for a week to Florida to spend time with my family and some friends. I’ll still be posting on the blog while we’re away, so come on back for it, otherwise, you can catch me on Instagram.

Anyways, you didn’t come here for the sob-fest, you came here for the favorites, and I can do that for you. It’s a mixture of fitness, food, fashion and beauty today. Thanks for stopping by, and here we go …

Healthy Lifestyle Tools

Be Healthy Every Day Weekly Planner

Where are all of my hard-copy write-it-down-with-real-pen planner friends at? I’m one! Although I took a break from using my bullet journal for nearly a year after Brady was born (I actually threw my old one in the garbage at 37 weeks of pregnancy and never wrote down a single thing until about three months ago, when I started a new one). Anyhow, I love the feeling and the organization of a real planner.

Well, planners are getting super customized these days, and one of the ways they are customized is toward a healthy lifestyle. I was recently sent two different types of “healthy living” planners and wanted to share them with you in case you guys are interested in something like this for yourself.

The first one, which is adorable, is the “Be Healthy Every Day Weekly Planner” by Maria Marlowe, an integrated health coach. It’s a cute color, has cute writing and is well organized. However, the first downfall is that the book doesn’t stay open when you write in it, it just pops back closed. But I think it would be more pliable the longer you use it.

The cool thing about this 52-week planner is that Marlowe knows it takes a while to develop a new habit, so she has you add one new healthy living habit every couple of weeks. She also offers recipes, tips on meal prep, motivational quotes and stickers to track your progress on the pages. There are various challenges on the pages, and there are also empty spaces to write down your actual to-dos and record what happened during your day. I love the idea of this book and think it would make a cute gift. It’s available on Amazon here.

Fitlosophy Fitbook Fitness Journal

So this one is more of a journal/planner hybrid, and it’s focused on fitness and meal prep. The small spiral notebook is very user-friendly and definitely stays open and is easy to flip through, unlike the planner mentioned above.

This “Fitlosophy Fitbook Fitness Journal” offers space for a 12-week plan, complete with pages to document your strength training sets and repetitions, as well as keep a food journal. There are places to lay out the weekly outlook, as well as to record the day-to-day stuff.

I like that this book exists, and that the company has a line of motivating fitness-based products. I think this would make a good gift for someone who is trying to get a handle on their health and is eager to be accountable. I don’t think this is a good gift for someone who is on the obsessive side and wouldn’t be in a healthy place when tracking their food in the food journal, nor documenting their stats.

The good news is that this book asks you to think about what went well each week and what were the setbacks too. I think it’s always smart to reflect. I saw this line of products in Target the other day, but you can also get it here on Amazon.

Thanks to both companies for sending me each of these to review and share with you.

Fashion

Graphic workout top

I don’t always love clothes with writing on them, but I was so drawn to this top and I’ve gotten a ton of questions about it. It was a recent purchase and is pretty reasonably priced. Here’s the link.

Beauty

Beautycounter sale coming next week!

For those of you who are interested in Beautycounter, but not sure where to start, I’d LOVE for you to sign up for this email list and start to learn more about the brand, because there will be big sales for a limited time for Black Friday next week, and that could be the perfect time to place your first order.

Here’s what you can find on Beautycounter …

• Safe and festive make-up
• Facial treatments like peels, masks and more
• Safe and effective skin-care lines for sensitive skin, kids, aging, acne control, etc.
• Body products
• Kid and baby products
• Sunscreen

You can place your order online using my links too, or you can reach out to me, and I can help you choose what’s best for you and help you make your order. Reach out soon so we can figure out what you may need and you can pull the trigger on sale day. Yay sales!

The most beautiful hair

Can we just take a minute and admire the back of sweet Brady’s head? His blonde curls kill me. I can’t …

Food

A hydrating pick-me-up in a can

Because I’m not a coffee drinker, I don’t really ever get canned drinks with caffeine in them (energy drinks repulse me). Well, sometimes, and I mean very rarely, I pick up one of these espresso-infused coconut waters, and they are so good. I can’t finish a whole one — otherwise I’d be bouncing off the walls (a LOT of caffeine) — but they are a nice treat. Dave likes them too. We have two in our fridge just waiting to be consumed. 

Organic chicken bone broth

Now that the weather is colder, I’m back into bone broth. I rotate between a few brands, and right now I’m using this organic chicken one from Sprouts. I add sea salt, black pepper and turmeric for some extra flavoring.

I’ve also been adding bone broth to the water when I make lentil pasta and on top of veggies when sautéing them. Lots of collagen and protein goodness in bone broth, if you’re up for it.

Fitness

Weekly workout recap

And now we’re into the fitness.

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

• Monday: 1-hour BODYPUMP class, 10 a.m.
• Tuesday: 30-minute CXWORX class, 10 a.m.
• Wednesday: 25-minute solo full-body weights workout, 11 a.m., 1-hour walk, 3:30 p.m.
• Thursday: Taught 1-hour Bootybarre class, 12 p.m.
• Friday: 15 minutes of BODYFLOW stretching, 10:30 a.m.
• Saturday: Taught 1-hour Bootybarre class, 10:30 a.m.
• Sunday: Rest day

This week of workouts was a good one, although I didn’t hit my goal of three resistance sessions. I went to the gym on Friday morning to potentially do a solo GRIT Strength workout, but I didn’t have the energy or motivation, so I ended up doing some light stretching. I had been a little sore from a workout earlier in the week, and it just seemed like the right choice. The good news is that I taught two barre classes and enjoyed most of my workouts.

Suggested reading

Best links from around the web

• California fires. It’s been pretty scary in our state this week. If you’re moved to help, here’s a good article on four ways to do that.
• Social media limits. Do you limit your time scrolling each day? According to this recent study, there’s a time that you should keep it to in order to maintain your well-being. (Hint: It’s 30 minutes or less!)
• Back training tip. For all of my BODYPUMP lovers and those of you who do clean and presses in your workouts — you HAVE to have enough weight on the bar for this to be a back exercise. This is a good tip on how to check if you have enough.
• Baby yoga. My beautiful friend Whitney posted this a while back. I remember when Brady was small enough to put him down and he wouldn’t move. If you’ve got a tiny tiny tot, try these six simple yoga poses you can do with a baby.

Favorite A Lady Goes West archives

• Les Mills. I love to write about Les Mills group fitness, and it had been far too long since I had done so on the blog, so I hope you enjoyed this one … “Review of Les Mills On Demand.”
• Cycling. In case you’ve ever wondered, I’m breaking it down here … “The difference between FlyWheel and SoulCycle cycle classes.”

Have a great weekend, lovelies! Be good!

Questions of the day

What are you up to this weekend?

Are you traveling for Thanksgiving?

Are you going to work out this weekend?

Do you like a hard-copy planner or do you keep it all digital?