Current faves: Games, activewear, hair and weekly workouts

Hi, my friends! Happy March! How was your week? Another one came and went over here without a lot of big happenings, unlike last week with far too much going on, so having less to manage was fine by me. 

It’s Friday, so let’s get into our usual round-up of random favorites that have been making me happy lately, with links and weekly workouts at the end. Sit back and enjoy …

Fun

Taking Brady to his first sporting event

This past weekend, the Santa Cruz Warriors (the minor league team), played a basketball game at Oracle Arena in Oakland, and Dave and I decided it was the perfect time to try taking Brady to a sporting event (because Dave didn’t have to work at it). The game was at 5 p.m., and we got there about 20 minutes before tip-off, so we could walk around the concourse a bit and see the sights. Brady was totally in awe of all the people — and yet it was WAY less people than would have been there for a regular Warriors game. (He was decked out in his Warriors matching leisure suit, which he wears every single game-day, rain or shine.)

(Here are my shoes and here is my belt bag.)

Our seats were only a few rows up from the action on the floor, which was nice, and we tried to keep these noise-reducing headphones on Brady as much as we could, but it wasn’t as loud as a regular game. We sat him in the seat between us, and we had to hold the seat in place, because his little body wasn’t big enough to keep the flap of the retractable seat down. 🙂

Anywho, he was pretty wiggly and wanted to touch everything, including the people in front of us, so we had to keep him contained at all times (big surprise there). I think his favorite part was watching the opening ceremonies with all of the lights and spectacle.

We stayed in our seats for maybe 30 minutes, and that seemed like plenty of time before calling it and heading home to get to the night-time routine. I’ve definitely found that short activities are best for toddlers his age. Overall, I think he had fun, it was just the right duration of time, and it let me know that we need to wait for him to get a little older before trying his hand at a regular Warriors game. And I definitely will require the help of another adult when we do. Fun times!

Fashion

Recent Fabletics purchases

After ordering Fabletics clothing nearly every month for a long time, I took a major break. Here’s why: I was not thrilled with the styles and fit for a while and received a couple items I didn’t like. Well, I’m happy to say that Fabletics has definitely improved across the board. There’s a lot more to choose from, they constantly have deals, and you can now “skip the month” on the website without calling them to do so, which was a bit of a pain.

This is my latest 2-piece outfit in pink and green, and I love it. It’s more of a barre/yoga type of aesthetic, and it’s so light and comfy. Totally a fan, and I’ve only had it two weeks and worn it like four times. Haven’t checked out Fabletics yet? Give it a go. Here’s my referral link, if you do.

Book 

“Heart of the Matter” by Emily Giffin

I finished another fluffy chick lit fiction book this week, and it was worthy of sharing — the “Heart of the Matter” by Emily Giffin. 

This book was a quick read, had a few twists and turns in the narrative, and overall was just enjoyable. It’s about a married woman whose husband is a surgeon and gets involved a bit too much with another family, and during that process, the woman learns a lot about herself. I have to say that the last few fluffy books I’ve read are not GREAT books, but they are good books, and they are an escape, which is a nice change of pace from reading heavier stuff, so I like them for what they are. I’d heard great things about the author, Giffin, so I picked this up quickly from the library without hardly reading the description, and it worked out. Brady was with me and pulling books off shelves, so like my last visit to the library, this had to be a short one.

I’ve gone through maybe five fiction books over the last couple of months, and so my next book is going to be nonfiction for sure. I have a copy of “Becoming” on my night-stand that I can’t wait to read. Anyone else read it yet?

Side note: I’m LOVING having a library card and checking out books rather than buying them. Not only is it cheaper, but it’s also better for the environment. One small point though: This may seem silly, but I like to run a cleansing wipe over the cover of the book before reading it, just in case. 

Beauty

DryBar membership gift

I meant to share this one last week! Dave gave me the BEST gift for Valentine’s Day EVER — a membership to DryBar for a few months. I’ve been to DryBar a few times before and absolutely love getting my hair scrubbed, rinsed, blown out and styled, because the stylists there do such a good job (way better than I can do on my own). It’s a MAJOR treat, so having the ability to go more regularly is such a nice way for me to get out of the house for a little pampering. Especially since I live with my hair in a sweaty bun all week long running after Brady and teaching classes or working out.

I used the first one last weekend before we out to dinner in the City. The curls fell a bit, but into the perfect tousled look.

The “BarFly” membership includes two blow-drying sessions a month and a discount on products. I never buy the products, but I will definitely be using my blow-dry allotments without a problem.  Can’t wait to go again. If you’ve never had the chance to have someone else blow-dry your hair, you are missing out!

Fun fact: If you have a student salon near you, you can go there for a much cheaper rate.

Fitness

Weekly workout recap

And now we’re into the fitness.

Let’s look at my workouts from last week …

• Monday: 45-minute BODYPUMP class, 10 a.m.
• Tuesday: 30-minute CXWORX class, practiced BODYATTACK for 40 minutes, 10 a.m.
• Wednesday: Taught 1-hour BODYPUMP class 9:30 a.m., taught 1-hour barre class, 5 p.m.
• Thursday: Practiced BODYATTACK for 40 minutes, 4:30 p.m.
• Friday: Practiced BODYATTACK for 40 minutes, 11 a.m.
• Saturday: Rest day
• Sunday: Rest day

This past week was full of practicing BODYATTACK! I’m sooo excited to tell you that I’m going to be teaching a regular BODYATTACK class again starting next week! Yes! It’s been almost 2.5 years since I taught my last BODYATTACK class, so there’s been a lot of work to do to get back into the condition I need to be — and it will be an ongoing work in progress. More to come on that! The rest of the week was pretty straightforward, with rest days, resistance work and some core too.

Links

Best reads from around the web

• Hair health. I can totally attest to the fact that you can take your hair from thin to thick with a few lifestyle changes. My hair was much more thin when I was struggling with my hormones and not eating enough to sustain my activity levels. Nowadays, my hair so almost TOO thick. Check out this one for some tips on how you can improve your hair.
• Protein bar accolades. The RxBar chocolate sea salt was named top protein bar by a snacking survey. I mean, it’s good, it’s got a very clean ingredients list, but it’s definitely not my favorite. Anyone else?
• How to choose your shoes. I like to wear totally flat shoes for BODYPUMP and weightlifting and cross-trainers with more padding for BODYATTACK and cardio. Here are some other tips on how and why you should put more thought into your footwear choices for your body’s overall functionality.
• Healthiest country. Spain was recently declared the healthiest country in the world. The people of Spain love fish, olive oil and lots of nuts. I’m on board!

A Lady Goes West favorite archives

• Group fitness. I LOVE to write about group fitness, almost as much as I love to teach it. Here’s a reflective post … “What I learned from taking time off from teaching group fitness.”
• Barefoot training. This post is SO old, but it was my first piece that was ever re-published on POPSUGAR, and I stand by it today … “Is it better to work out in bare feet?”

Hope you have a wonderful weekend, my friends! Be nice to others, hydrate and try to get some fresh air too! 🙂 

Questions of the day

What’s something great that happened in your week?

What are you up to this weekend?

Have you ever taken a BODYATTACK class?

What are your favorite brands of sneakers?