Food and fitness latest favorite things
Ohhhh hey, friends! It’s the end of the week and about time for another batch of favorites. But before we get to that, I want to tell you what I’m up to this weekend. I’m flying to Chicago all alone with little Brady. We’re meeting my mom there, staying in a hotel and attending my brother’s bride-to-be Stephanie’s, bridal shower in Michigan City, Indiana (about 90 minutes from Chicago and where she is from).
I’m definitely nervous about this solo cross-country adventure. And due to direct-flight timings, we’re getting there late on Friday and leaving early on Sunday — the same day that the time changes. I am SO excited to celebrate Stephanie (whom I LOVE) and meet her family for the first time, but the logistics of this trip have turned out rather overwhelming with a tiny passenger in tow. Say a little prayer for me with this fellow …
Moving on, this week flew by, and there wasn’t enough time in the day to get everything done that I wanted to. But that seems to be the case these days. We hit up bring-your-baby-to-the-barre class again, which was awesome, we went on a walk with friends, did some solo workouts at home, blogged (three posts woohoo!), ate lots of food, slept as much as we could and ran a bunch of errands to prepare for this weekend’s big trip.
Brady’s not so sure about the barre studio, but he was a good sport again, and this was my favorite workout of the week. Thanks for having us, Open Barre.
Let’s get into a quick recap of the rest of the faves …
POPSUGAR free at-home workout videos
Do you want to hear again that home workouts are not my preference? They aren’t. I often do my Les Mills instructor videos at home, but sometimes I need something different. I’d like to thank POPSUGAR for so many free and diverse workouts just a keyboard stroke away. (And by the way, when I am feeling unmotivated, I go back to this one on how to get motivated to work out at home.)
Here are three really good ones, all 30 minutes in length, and all of which I’ve done recently.
- 30-minute yoga-barre hybrid workout
- 30-minute power yoga flow for tight abs and butt workout
- 30-minute full-body strength workout
You need minimal equipment for two of them, but really you can do all of these with just your bodyweight if you want. I love Anna Renderer, the host who is either part of or leading all the workouts, and I had the pleasure of meeting her a couple of years ago in L.A. — super sweet gal!
Moral of the story? Need a free workout to complete at home or even the gym? Head to POPSUGAR for a big library of options.
All the veggie burgers for lunch and dinner
If you are what you eat, I will probably turn into a veggie burger, a banana or almond butter. I’ve been on a major veggie burger kick for several weeks now, and I don’t see that ending any time soon. And believe it or not, Dave will eat some too (not the hemp ones, but the kale ones he’s fine with, because they have a little spice).
Here’s a shot of my tiny hand-cart from a shopping trip this week, when veggie burgers were on sale …
I buy multiple boxes a week and my favorites are as follows: Dr. Praeger’s kale veggie burgers, Dr. Praeger’s spinach cakes, Dr. Praeger’s mushroom risotto veggie burgers, Hilary’s Eat Well world’s best veggie burgers and Hilary’s Eat Well adzuki bean burgers. I like all of these because they are gluten free, soy free and full of superfoods and good stuff only, but beware the Hilary’s ones get a little firm in the oven. Veggie burgers don’t always have a lot of protein though, so I always pair them with eggs and some additional healthy fat. Yum!
And for some more food talk, here’s one of my favorite lunches from this week, which actually didn’t feature a veggie burger. Sauerkraut, two eggs, half of an avocado, cauliflower rice sautéed in coconut oil and a rice cake topped with tahini for some crunch. Lunch perfection.
Best reads from around the web
Here are a few things I enjoyed reading …
- Female hormones: If you’re sick of hearing about female hormones on this here blog, well — sorry — but I’m not going to stop talking about them (more details on why here). It’s SO important, and for many, many years I didn’t know or care about my hormones, and I ended up getting very messed up because of it. I think all women should be in tune with their cycles and they should be having them each month too. I did a lot of alternative methods and followed Eastern medicine in order to get hormonally healthy and get pregnant, and one thing I didn’t try but heard about was seed cycling to support each phase. It’s pretty simple. Check it out here.
- Ice cream: Kombucha ice cream, what? While there may be too many steps in this recipe for me, I’d certainly like to get my hands on some kombucha ice cream one day.
- Healthy treats: I don’t make other bloggers’ recipes very often, but I think both of these sound fantastic. And you know I’m into rice cakes and all things carrot cake — so peanut butter frosted rice cakes and carrot oat bars are right up my alley.
- Morning routine: My morning routine is not what wellness-blogger-dreams-are-made-of right now, due to Brady responsibilities, but I’m so inspired to make some changes once we have this sleeping thing down better and maybe, just maybe, I can even wake up before Brady and have some solo time each morning too (a Christmas miracle that would be). I love this idea of morning pages.
Speaking of Brady, this little nugget is so darn cute …
We have a set of three of these footie jammies, and they are the best because of the reverse zipper. Also, Brady loves this chair.
A Lady Goes West archive favorites
In case you’ve missed a few posts, thought you may want to check out some of these good ones that live in the blog archives …
- From earlier in the week, this list was reader request, check out: “The best health, wellness and fitness podcasts.”
- Breakfast made easy, find out my secret ingredient to oatmeal, check out: “The creamiest warm almond butter oatmeal breakfast bowl.”
- Because we all need a little refresher some times, check out: “Friendly reminder: Six ways to be a polite group fitness participant.”
And that concludes our weekly chatty favorites conversation, my friends. Have a good one! Send some happy traveling thoughts over my way. I’ll try to post on Instagram, but may have my hands full. We’ll see!
Sit back, relax and enjoy some favorites over on A Lady Goes West ... Click To TweetQuestions of the day
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I used to do Popsugar workouts all the time and always forget about them, I’ll have to check those ones out. And for a healthy dessert I recently made these ‘cookie dough’ freezer bars from the Toasted Pine Nut and they were so good!
Good luck traveling with Brady this weekend and have so much fun at the shower!
Cookie dough freezer bars? I need this recipe – although it’s probably too many steps for me – you are a way more skilled baker hehehe. Thanks so much for well travel wishes, lady! Happy Friday! 🙂
My morning routine consists of rolling out of bed at 6:30 and leaving for work at 6:40. It’s not ideal but I have sooo much trouble getting out of bed in the morning, even though I go to sleep early (between 9:30 and 10). I just started listening to the Model Health Show podcast at your recommendation. I listened to an episode about sleep deprivation on my way to work this morning and while I don’t think my issue is sleep deprivation, I did find some of his insights helpful and I’m already looking into buying some reishi mushroom products to try to improve my sleep quality.
Hi Julie! Definitely try to listen to more of the sleep-related episodes, because according to Shawn, you should feel refreshed and energized in the morning if your hormones and sleep are on the right cycle. I know it’s tough! But hey — you must be very efficient at getting ready if you are out the door so quickly ehehe! Good luck! Let me know if you have any questions!
I love having the Popsugar workouts to fall back on for at home workouts and Anna just seems like the sweetest and most energetic person! I just saw the other day that she is expecting – so exciting for her! Enjoy your weekend away and I hope your travels run smoothly with little Brady!
Hi Ashley! I saw that she was expecting too! So exciting for her. 🙂 I look forward to seeing her stay active throughout her pregnancy and how she takes the POPSUGAR channel in that direction for a bit too, hopefully. And don’t you love that the POPSUGAR workouts are free? It’s a good product to not have to pay for it! Happy Friday to you, lady! Thanks for the well wishes on our travels!
I am going to look at some of those workouts. I don’t have weights at home, but that yoga workout sounds right up my alley. Right now, I am trying to get in a cycle of 3 Sun A and 3 Sun Bs after feeding Emmie and before letting the dog out to try to get those hips open again and also to start working my chest!
Hi Susie! For realllls, the hips! I felt SO awkward when I first tried to do yoga again. Like I was so tight and weird hehe. But it gets much better. Hope you are feeling okay, lady! 🙂 Keep up the good work, momma!
I will totally check those workouts out! I just did a popsugar one this morning actually. I used to dislike them and find them a bit cheesy or,eh, not quite top quality instruction, but I’ve relaized there’s great ones too.. just have to find the right instructors. So it’s great to have a few tried and tested ones ? It’s tough some days with the home workouts for me, but I just put the video on anyways and once I start I always get through it, and am happy I did Something. Some days I put more effort than others but I try my best.
Oh you’re a brave mama with those travel plans!! I would be nervous too but I bet you guys will be totally fine and it will only make you braver and more confident. Hope your little guy is a champ traveller!
I agree — some of the shorter and older POPSUGAR workouts weren’t amazing — that’s why I like to share the ones that I try and enjoy, and they have gotten so much better as time goes on. Thanks so much for the travel pep talk, Rose! 🙂 Happy Friday!
I love those popsugar videos. Hope you guys have a great time in Chicago.
Thanks, lady!! 🙂 Happy weekend to you!!
Hey, you’re going to be in my neck of the woods! I live in south bend, IN which is 30 minutes or a little from michigan coty! Michigan city is a cute little beach town (with a good outlet mall!), and it’s close to a lot of even cuter towns in southern Michigan like New Buffalo. You should check it out if you have time!! But have so much fun- good luck traveling!
Hi Susie! So funny — the shower was actually at a restaurant in New Buffalo, then we went to dinner at her parent’s home in Michigan City! I toured the whole area! It was lovely and so peaceful there — and we went to check out the water in New Buffalo in the downtown. Wish we had more time!!
Hey Ashley, you are already in Indiana. You are in my home state. We are from West central Indiana so pretty far from Michigan City. That is a flight for you two. Hope it all goes well. My wife likes veggie burgers so I get my share of them. I find them tasteful. We are having an exciting weekend with two big events. St. Pete is having the Indy car race and just down the road from us is a big golf tourney with includes Tiger Woods. His first appearance here. Everyone is so excited to have him. And he is playing really well. Only 2 behind the leader. Have a great weekend. Safe trip home Sunday.
Hi Richard! Lots of excitement in your weekend for sure! I hope you enjoyed it all! And I loved visiting your home state of Michigan this weekend! 🙂
Hi Ashley,
If you are what you eat, I will turn into a grilled cheese sandwich with avocado and tomato 🙂
You’re a soldier, traveling with kids is complicated, so I commend you just for trying.
My morning routine is a little hectic with three young ones. There are just so many things I can’t anticipate from wanting the purple hair tie they can’t find, to insisting on wearing their shoes on the wrong foot because they want to do it on their own.
If I start way early, everyone is on time, and there are no casualties to my sanity.
Lately, I’ve been drinking this raspberry passion tea as a coffee substitute. It’s delicious, and my favorite color, so I can’t stop drinking it 🙂
Hi Daniel! Okay grilled cheese with avocado and tomato sounds delish! And man, three kids! That’s a lot of work! Props to you hehe, I can only imagine your mornings!