Ladies’ night, date night and my weekly workouts

Greetings, friends! It’s a weekend-lifestyle-workout type of recap coming your way today! And I hope this blog post finds you well. Did you do anything fun over the weekend? Are you rested for the week ahead?

Good news! I actually have different things to report from this past weekend than the last few repeat weekends, and we had a totally full house. Ready for it? Let’s jump in!

The weekend

Friday night ladies’ night

On Friday afternoon, I was very excited to answer the door and receive a bouquet of a dozen roses from my friends at Whole Foods for “Galentine’s Day” (Valentine’s for girlfriends), which came just after I returned from getting a manicure — talk about a good start to the weekend! I was in major need of some self-care too.

I quickly put the flowers in a vase in the kitchen and got to work making a batch of coconut brownies to take to a little party later.

Shortly thereafter, Dave’s parents arrived all the way from San Diego, and they stayed with us throughout the weekend, along with their new rescue pup (which made Rudy very happy to have a little friend around). They were our first overnight house guests too, so they got to try out the guest room and guest bathroom accommodations. They were pleased!

Those brownies and those roses …

Because we had babysitters around (which we NEVER do), Dave and I both headed off for our respective evenings out after I did the bed-time routine and had Brady asleep in his crib.

Dave went off to hang with the guys, and I went off to hang with the girls. Remember the first week of January when I had a mommas’ night out in downtown Walnut Creek? Well that night, because we had so much fun, we booked our next get together, and decided on a pajama night and here it was! Woohoo!

Several of us girls met at my friend Clare’s house in Alamo for appetizers, wine, dinner, brownies and a whole lot of fun. And let me just tell you, going to a party in your pajamas is THE BEST! I stayed for almost three hours before sharing an Uber home with my friend, Kicki.

Oh and it was National Pizza Day, and we went to town on some pan crust Papa Murphy’s …

Goodness it felt great to get out and laugh with my pals. Loved it!

Saturday barre, shopping and a dinner date

On Saturday morning, I was pretty tired, because Brady decided to have multiple wake-ups later that night — good times. But I was off to teach Bootybarre, which pepped me up quite a bit — endorphins tend to do that.

That afternoon, I went with Dave’s mom to look around at some antique stores for cool pieces for the house, but we came away empty handed — armed with some good inspiration though. While we were gone, Dave and his dad were busy doing all sorts of tasks on our house to-do list, and things are really starting to come together.

And then there’s Brady, who turned 19 weeks on Saturday and is doing so good with his tummy time …

In the evening, Dave had to go work at a Warriors game, but he was able to leave just a bit early, so the two of us could go out to dinner. It’s so funny to think that we used to go out to dinner twice a week every single week for the first eight years of our relationship, and now we haven’t been out to eat since October. I forgot what it was like!

We decided to dine at Postino, one of our favorites in Lafayette, and we had some seriously delicious food. A burrata appetizer plate, bread and garlic butter, salmon and veggies for me, chocolate pasta for Dave (so weird, but so good, and I ended up finishing it for him), and some chocolate cake for dessert. Oh and we had adult conversation and enjoyed a meal without quietly staring at a baby monitor. Joy!

Oh and we took a bad picture under overhead lights of the two of us before we went out, and it’s not blog worthy, so all I have for you is some food to document the night — but I promise I wore make-up and did my hair …

Here’s the best part of the night: We were able to give the baby monitor to Dave’s mom for a portion of the night too, and so she handled some of Brady’s wake-ups. Then, when I took the monitor back over, that little angel slept three hours straight, so I didn’t have to do much — ehhehe. Another thing that I never imagined saying before kids is that having two three-hour stretches of sleep was all I needed to feel darn good. Ohhhh how things have changed!

Sunday chores and pampering

On Sunday, it was a pretty low-key day. It started out with a big warm bowl of Bob’s Red Mill muesli, then I ordered a big area rug online for our family room and took Rudy on a walk while listening to my favorite podcast, “The Model Health Show.”

We are still exploring new areas of our neighborhood, and I just love it here.

For lunch, we had our old standby — Urban Plates, and I got my favorite salmon salad, (and that makes two helpings of salmon for the weekend) …

In the afternoon, I ventured off on my own and got my car washed (don’t judge, because it’s not a drought right now, and I happen to LOVE going to the car wash), and then I got a pedicure, using a gift card my sweet mom had put in my Christmas stocking. And fun fact: I brought my laptop to the nail salon and worked on the majority of this post while my feet were getting scrubbed and rubbed. Three cheers for soft feet and productivity! I used this color — a Valentine’s inspired motif, of course.

That night, we had True Food Kitchen take-out — (ancient grains bowl with grass-fed steak for me, and by the way, when you get take-out from the Walnut Creek location, the portions are ridiculously small, although quite pricey, and this totally maddens me) — and chilled with Dave’s parents, as they soaked up time with snuggly little Brady before leaving in the morning to head home to San Diego.

We closed out the weekend feeling pretty accomplished on the house front and also glad that we got to spend a little time alone together and hang with our friends too. Overall, quite a good weekend!

My postpartum weekly workouts

As we always do on Mondays, let’s look at how I’ve been moving this past week.

By the way, these weekly workout recaps I do are 100 percent truthful and designed to show you how I try to create a balanced week of fitness, while taking care of Brady full time and doing all the other things I do. When it comes to fitness, you have to make it work for your current lifestyle, even if it’s not exactly how you want it to be (i.e., I miss the gymmmmmm!). Here we go …

At 18 weeks postpartum …

• Monday: 30 minutes of CXWORX at home, 30-minute walk, 12 p.m.
• Tuesday: 1 hour and 20 minute walk, 10 a.m., 15-minute swing-set workout, 12 p.m.
• Wednesday: 55 minutes of BODYPUMP at home, 30-minute walk, 12 p.m.
• Thursday: 25 minutes of BODYATTACK at home, 30-minute walk, 12 p.m.
• Friday: 30 minutes of CXWORX at home, 15-minute walk, 12 p.m.
• Saturday: Taught a 1-hour barre class, 11 a.m.
• Sunday: 30-minute walk, 12 p.m.

This was a Les Mills group fitness at-home type of week. I did four Les Mills classes (or portions of classes, in the case of BODYATTACK), in my own living room in my bare feet — which is not my preference, but you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do. I also taught barre, went on quite a few walks and also figured out how to do some TRX-style moves on the swing-set/play-set in our backyard that came with our house — something I plan to do again this week. My core is definitely getting stronger each week, and CXWORX is helping for sure.

I didn’t make it to the gym for a solo session with weights this week, but I did plenty of movement overall — still shooting for that goal of three resistance sessions, which I didn’t quite meet — I got my steps in though.

That’s all I’ve got for you friends! I’ll see you back here soon. Thank YOU for reading! 🙂

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Questions of the day

What’s a fun way that you’ve gotten together with friends recently?

Where is your favorite place to work out?