Current faves: Las Vegas girls’ trip, outfits, food and weekly workouts

Hi, peeps! How was your week? Ours was great and quite busy. I taught three classes, did some freelance work, had a coffee date with a sweet friend who is going to join my Beautycounter team, went on a long-overdue walk with my ladies (the drab weather had been keeping us inside), played with Brady, managed some toddler tantrums and all the usual stuff.

This weekend, on Saturday afternoon, Dave and I are heading up to wine country to hang out with one of my college friends and roommates, who is visiting Sonoma with her future hubby — can’t wait to catch up. Other than that, I’ll be at home and at the gym cramming new choreography to launch the latest Les Mills BODYATTACK 104 on Tuesday in my class. Woohoo (but like, also nervous)!

Let’s get right into the favorites …

Fun

One crazy mom’s night out in Las Vegas

This is a favorite, favorite! I had SO much fun on my short getaway to Las Vegas last weekend with seven of my momma friends. We stayed at The Palazzo in a connected suite, we ate at great restaurants, we went to a show, we danced at a club, we rode a party bus, we laughed so much it hurt, and we even had a hair-and-makeup crew come and give us some glam before heading out for the night.

We’re all busy moms with lots of things going on, and we scheduled this time to get away, celebrate a birthday and just let loose. It was super fun from beginning to end, and I came back so relaxed, although QUITE tired hehehe. I can’t tell you the last time I stayed up past 4 a.m., but I sure did that on this trip.

If you haven’t taken some time to do something fun with your friends lately, I highly recommend it. It’s good for the soul!

Fashion and Beauty

My Vegas outfits  

Here are the BEST black jeans from Nordstrom, which are so soft and a recent purchase just for the trip. They are high waisted, and I wore them two days in a row, because they are that good. High-waisted pants are so darn flattering, I don’t think I’ll ever go back to mid-rise, and I definitely won’t go back to low-rise. Yuck. Anyone with me?

Here is my new embellished love shirt with puffy shoulders from Vici, which is cute, but has to be hand-washed, which is a bit of a pain.

Here is my sequins party dress from Lulu’s, which just screamed Vegas.

My Vegas makeup

And the makeup. While I got my hair done in Vegas by the glam squad, who came to our room, I did my own makeup and rocked a mostly Beautycounter look. I wore this foundation and then for the big winner — THIS red lipstick. Please excuse the blurry mirror selfie …

This bright red may be my favorite shade of lipstick I’ve ever worn, and I got a lot of compliments on it that night too. It’s the Beautycounter Red Color Intense, and it’s got a satin finish and hint of a peppermint flavor. Oh and it’s safe! (For a list of my other favorite Beautycounter products and my skincare routine, head here.)

Now let’s talk magnetic lashes — I bought these and heard from a lot of folks on Instagram that they were impossible to apply, and they were! But my girlfriend put them on me in two seconds flat, and they stayed on all night. I don’t know if I could get them on myself again all alone, but overall, they weren’t as much of a bust as they could have been, so I’m keeping them.

Food

Still going strong on the bowl lunch

Switching gears to normal everyday stuff here … I didn’t eat too many healthy meals over the weekend, but I did return to my bowl lunches this week. This particular one stood out, because it features riced sweet potato (purchased from the frozen section in Sprouts), sauerkraut, eggs, Mary’s Gone Crackers and tahini on top. Such a delicious combo.

Tahini goes with just about everything, in case you’re wondering. It’s totally not weird. 🙂 

Fitness

Weekly workout recap

And now we’re into the fitness.

Let’s look at my workouts from last week …

• Monday: 1-hour BODYPUMP class, 10 a.m.
• Tuesday: 30-minute CXWORX class, 10 a.m., taught 45-minute BODYATTACK class, 4:45 p.m.
• Wednesday: Practiced 20 minutes of BODYATTACK, 10 a.m., taught 1-hour barre class, 5 p.m.
• Thursday: Taught 1-hour barre class, 12 p.m.
• Friday: 25-minute weights workout, 10 a.m.
• Saturday: Rest day
• Sunday: Rest day

This past week was better in the diversity department. I taught my three regular classes, did two weights workouts and took two rest days too. Good stuff! 

Here’s the weights workout I completed … (You can find the rest of these on Instagram under my workouts highlights.)

Best reads

Good things from around the web and social

• Coaching. I really enjoyed this episode of The Skinny Confidential podcast with entrepreneur Marie Forleo — she took quite a few twists and turns in her career before starting her company and talks about that. However, the best part was that she gave really cool relationship advice, which I loved.
• Yoga. There are so many varieties of yoga out there, and I’m pretty sure I like Vinyasa the best. This is a helpful list of each kind of yoga, in case you ever need to make a selection for yourself.
• Mom hacks. This is such a good list of ways to streamline your life as a momma. Thanks for all the genius tips, Julie.
• Personal care legislation. Did you know it’s been almost 80 years since legislation in the U.S. has been updated around beauty and skincare products? And only like 30 ingredients are banned here, whereas more than 1,400 are banned in the European Union. Eeeek! Well, times are changing, and Beautycounter is helping to lead the way by working with political officials to put forth a new bill designed to make companies be more transparent and to test more ingredients that are potentially harming people. This article talks about the need for the new bill and why it’s necessary.

Favorite A Lady Goes West archives 

• Life lessons. Thankful for my little man for all that he teaches me … “Important life lessons I’m learning from my toddler every day.”
• Workouts. Because as the seasons change … “How to reinvigorate your fitness routine for spring.”

Have a wonderful weekend, my friends! Thank you for taking the time to stop by the blog today!

Questions of the day

How was your week?

When is the last time you did something fun with your friends?

What was your favorite lunch of the week?