Hey! Here we are, friends. Another week of this incredibly strange time has passed. This week, I felt a lot more highs than lows, and that’s a good thing — because the week before I was having a rather tough time.

This week, I did some work each day during Brady’s nap, completed some short workouts, played outside with Brady, took a bunch of family walks, had a virtual wine happy hour with friends and that’s about it. 

I want to thank you for coming to the blog today to read. I appreciate you! And if you ever have any questions, post requests or if you need support, please feel free to email me — I’m here for you! 🙂

But let’s do the faves, shall we?

Current faves

Fun 

Easter festivities

Let’s be honest, our Easter last weekend wasn’t all that special hehehe. In fact, it was basically a regular Sunday. However, in the afternoon, we did put on a little Easter egg hunt for Brady — which was so darn cute.

He had a lot of fun finding the eggs in our front and back yards, and he narrated the whole thing — (bit of a talker, much like me).

And then he got to open his Easter gifts, which he loved too, including a new book from the “Little Blue Truck” series from us and a bubble gun from some of our friends. We’ve read his new book maybe 10 times a day since then …

I hope we don’t have to celebrate any other holidays during quarantine. But at least we were all healthy, safe and together for this one. 

Routine

Slow evening jogs with a podcast

This week, I tried to do things differently than the first four weeks of this quarantine.

I am a creature of habit and tend to get into pretty set routines. However, right now, because we’re barely leaving the house except for walks — I’m trying to veer off routine to keep things interesting — I’m fearful of falling into a rut, if not.

That’s why, this week, I decided I was going to go for a slow jog every evening by myself and listen to a podcast. I took a break from listening to podcasts for a while, because I was always listening to music to prep for my group fitness classes — but of course, I don’t have to do that right now, so podcasting has come back in a big way.

I looked forward to this quiet time each day — both to fill my mind up with inspiration and information (I listened to a mixture of helpful podcasts and purely entertaining ones) and to move my body in a gentle way too. The weather was perfect for this little activity. I even wore shorts a couple times, which I haven’t done in forever. Each time I came back in such a good mood.

Food 

This drink is heavenly

I shared about Genius Juice coconut-smoothie water in a faves post when I first tried the original version a couple months ago. And well, I have to share about it again, because now I’ve tried the flavored version.

If you see this brand in your local grocery store (we find it in Whole Foods), splurge and give it a go. It may be $5 a bottle, but dang it is good. Trust me. 

Super easy pancakes and waffles

I used to make waffles or pancakes on Sunday mornings all the time and then somehow fell off that after Brady was born. Too bad, because waffles are such a treat. 🙂 

However, as I’ve been working my way through the fridge and pantry like crazy (anyone else find that their grocery stash goes by sooooo fast these days?), I found a bag of Birch Benders “Banana Paleo” pancake and waffle mix from a while back and decided to give it a go.

I made waffles on Sunday for Brady and me, then pancakes for us a few days a week as well. They were so good and so quick too.

The beauty of Birch Benders mix is all you do have to do is add water for pancakes and water and oil for waffles. This particular version is dairy free, gluten free, low glycemic and made from only a few ingredients (like cassava flour, coconut flour and almond flour). I’m a fan.

Full-fridge lunches

Speaking of keeping food in the house, I used to go to three or four different grocery stores throughout the week. But right now, Dave is doing one big grocery shopping trip a week for us from only one store. That means, we get really low on food until he heads out for that big shop. 

My favorite meal of the week is the first lunch after he’s gone shopping — because we have everything I want! Here’s a good example of what my lunches look like when we’re stocked …

That’s a whole bag of mixed frozen veggies, which I sauté in a pan with olive oil. One Vital Farms egg, half of an avocado and some dried beet chips — all covered in sea salt, turmeric and black pepper. Lunch perfection.

As I write this post, we’re running a little low again, so I look forward to his shopping trip today or tomorrow. 

Fitness

Weekly workout recap

Here’s how I got moving last week …

• Monday: 30 minutes of BODYPUMP, 11 a.m.
• Tuesday: 1-hour of POP Pilates, 2 p.m., 2-mile run, 6 p.m.
• Wednesday: 30-minute GRIT Strength via Les Mills On Demand, 10:30 a.m.
• Thursday: 30-minute Barre3 workout, 3 p.m.
• Friday: 45 minutes of BODYATTACK, 10 a.m.
• Saturday: 30-minute POPSUGAR Fitness weights workout, 11 a.m.
• Sunday: Rest day

Another week of home workouts. I switched it up this week and tried a couple new streaming workout videos, because I wanted to test them out before adding them to Monday’s blog post. I also took a full rest day, lifted weights three times and did cardio twice, so it was a complete week for me. I’m hoping to continue switching things up, so I don’t get in a home-workout rut.

Best reads

A few things from around the web …

• Empathy. I truly enjoyed this short episode from Brené Brown’s new podcast, because it is all about how we cope in crisis, handle empathy and learn to support our families too. Highly recommend it.
• Digestion and regularity. I think this is an important health article for everyone to read about working on the efficiency of your digestion during quarantine. If you’re having issues with your stomach and regularity, this one could also tell you why.
• Try new things. Here’s a list of things you can try out and/or learn if you’ve got some extra time on your hands right now. I haven’t used TikTok yet, but I’m sure I will soon. Have you?

And here’s the quote of the week from the Calm app, which I use to do my daily morning meditations …

A Lady Goes West favorite archives …

• Home workouts. I tried and tested this list of free workouts just for you … “10 effective free at-home workout videos.”

• Fertility and hormones. I continue to get questions from women about healing their hormones, so I wanted to bring this one back up … “How I protect my fertility and hormones (life after recovering from hypothalamic amenorrhea part 2).”

Thanks for reading the blog today, my friends! Be good, stay well and all of that. 🙂 

Questions of the day

What’s one good thing that happened in your week?

What’s one thing you are looking forward to doing when life returns to normal?

How has your grocery stash been holding up?