On the road again, a party, faves and weekly workouts

Hi, friends! Hope your week has been great! We’re off on the road again for the weekend to a place I’ve never been before — Colorado. And this time, we’re traveling as a family of three and leaving Rudy with some friends (having him in tow when we went to San Diego a couple of weeks ago was a bit of a circus). More details coming up on Instagram, so be sure to follow along.

This week has been a good one, including lots of workouts, work, healthy food, Brady snuggling, and the usual. As always, at the end of the week, I like to throw some unrelated things together and keep it light on the blog, so let’s do the faves …

Friends

Dinner party fun

Last weekend, we hosted a dinner party for some of Dave’s long-time coworkers and their significant others, who all have become great friends over the years. It’s been almost six years since we moved here and Dave started his job, which is so hard to believe. (This is a different group than the one we have rotating dinner parties with, BTW.)

We all live pretty far apart, so group get-togethers are few and far between, and we were eager to have everyone come check out our house. The timing was perfect, because we were able to break in our new outdoor table. We got this one (with the benches and extenders), and it seats 10. The weather was absolutely awesome, once the heat of the summer day went away in the evening too. 

So leading up to the dinner party, we had planned to get a lot more done on Friday than we ended up doing. Then on Saturday (the day of the party), I taught my regular Bootybarre class late morning and had a hair appointment on the calendar, which kept me away from home quite a bit. Brady decided to do short naps on that day, so Dave didn’t get as much cooking done as he was hoping to while I was gone.

So it was a bit of a fire-drill when I arrived home, and we scrambled to get the food cooked, table set, house ready and Brady asleep before our friends showed up at 7 p.m. I was a sweaty mess trying to pull things together, but it ended up working out, even if I had to get dressed quickly after one couple had already arrived.

We had pizza from the pizza oven for an appetizer, then baked ziti (Dave did the cooking and he made this recipe — not even slightly healthy or carb-free, of course), salad and garlic bread for the entree, with cheesecake and tiramisu for dessert. And wine. We had a whole lot of wine. It was literally the perfect party, and I loved hanging with all of the wonderful folks who attended.

Fashion

Nordstrom anniversary sale

I get most of my clothes from Nordstrom Rack and Nordstrom too, and Nordstrom is one of my favorite spots for online shopping, because of the free returns. Well, they are having their big anniversary sale now (in fact, the public access starts today), and some of my go-to items are discounted, and there are some things I totally have my eye on — because I don’t shop that much, and when I do, I like a deal.

• THESE PANTS! These are the best pants I’ve bought in a long time, and they are on sale. They are super fitted, but soft and slightly stretchy and very high-waisted (they run a bit small, and so I got one size larger than usual). I’d like to have them in every color, because I wear them all the time, and I may get these too. I’m wearing the black in this pic …

• These sneakers have been some of my go-tos for years and are the shoes I always taught BODYATTACK in as well. I’ve had multiple pairs of this style throughout the years.
• I wore this dress to my brother’s rehearsal dinner in Atlanta and had a lot of compliments. It’s so comfy and fits great — very flattering and one that will last a long time.
• This dress looks comfy and is on my list of potential purchases, because it’s one of those dresses you could wear anywhere. Maybe in the sleeveless version too.
• These sunglasses in white are so darn fun!
• I’ve wanted hard-case luggage for forever, and I’m tempted to pull the trigger on this style.
• Adorable slides.
• And, finally, I’ve wanted a belt bag for a while, and it needs to happen soon, while they are still cool, or while they are cool again, because they went out of style for a very long time. And if you aren’t familiar, a belt bag is a fanny pack. Yup. And they’re back. Casual. Dressy.

Food

Big ol’ veggie-filled dinners

Going strong with early dinners (well, during the week only so far, because we let our dinner time slide on the weekend and ate closer to 9 p.m. then hehhehe), and here are a couple of good ones.

(Half of a sweet potato covered in cinnamon, two eggs, sautéed cauliflower cooked in coconut oil and turmeric, kimchi, an avocado and two veggie burgers.)

Yes, I eat a lot of veggie burgers, and I’m totally okay with that, because the ones I eat on repeat have all real-food ingredients, so they are super healthy. My current favorites are Hilary’s Eat Well burgers, which I find at Sprouts, Whole Foods or Safeway for around $3 a pack.

(Black beans covered in green salsa, two eggs, sautéed cauliflower cooked in coconut oil and turmeric, sauerkraut, an avocado and two veggie burgers.)

Cacao overnight oats

This week, I’ve been back to having overnight oats for breakfast, and my current special ingredient is cacao powder, which is rich in antioxidants and in magnesium (something we all need more of for proper metabolic functioning and sleep), and it also tastes great.

Here’s what’s in my oats, all mixed together to sit overnight in the fridge:

• 1/2 cup of organic old-fashion oats
• 1 teaspoon chia seeds
• 1 teaspoon hemp seeds
• 1 heaping tablespoon of cacao powder (I use this one)
• Splash of your preferred type of milk (enough to cover oats)
• Splash of sea salt
• Scoop of almond butter, banana and almond flakes (added in the morning before eating)

By the way, I keep getting questions on Instagram about the rugs that are pictured in my food pictures. This one is in my office (shown above), and this one is in my living room.

Events

Livermore Taste Our Terroir

Bay Area friends! Even though it’s basically in our backyard, last year was the first time Dave and I truly explored Livermore Valley Wine Country, and we liked it so much, we went two times.

Our first visit was during the region’s annual Taste Our Terroir weekend, which is coming up next weekend again, starting July 26. There are a bunch of events to choose from, featuring food, wine, music and more. Last year, I was pregnant during the progressive dinner we attended, but I still got to have allllll the good eats.

This year, Dave and I are going with some friends to the Lobster Bake, which sounds super fun. I wish I could go to the Yoga in the Vineyard (how cool does that sound, but I’ll be teaching barre at the same time), so maybe next year. If you’re a local and interested in checking out any of the happenings, see the line-up here.

Fitness

Weekly workout recap 

Now on to the fitness.

Here’s a look at my workouts from last week …

• Monday: 30-minute full-body weights workout, 10 a.m.
• Tuesday: 30-minute BODYATTACK, 30-minute CXWORX, 9:30 a.m., taught Bootybarre, 5:30 p.m.
• Wednesday: 1-hour walk, 9 a.m., 20-minute full-body weights workout, 12 p.m.
• Thursday: Taught 1-hour Bootybarre class, 12 p.m.
• Friday: 1-hour walk, 11 a.m., 30-minute full-body weights workout, 4 p.m.
• Saturday: Taught 1-hour Bootybarre class, 11 a.m.
• Sunday: Rest day

This week had some repetition. I taught three barre classes, took a couple of classes and did my own workout three times as well. I broke my policy of no more than one workout a day on Tuesday, because I was at the gym doing my morning usual 1-hour class (which is a combo of 30 ATTACK and 30 CXWORX), when they asked me to come back that night to sub barre. I agreed and ended up with a heavy day. I felt fine though.

All of my weights workouts were short this week, but at least I completed all three and had some good long walks too. By the way, I’m starting to share what I do for my solo workouts on my IG stories. Just descriptions now, but perhaps videos are to come.

Suggested reading

Best links from around the web

• Smarts. Just another reason to eat veggies, heal your gut and sleep a lot. Turns out it can affect our brain and IQ. Check out this one.
• Communication. Voice memos! Have you sent or received any? Apparently they are becomingly increasingly popular, instead of texting, because they add a personal element. I love that. I’ve only received one, but may try to send some myself.
• Food. I always get asked why I eat so much sauerkraut and kimchi, and the answer is number one: because I like the taste of both, and number two: because they both are fermented and have a lot of good-for-the-gut probiotics and bacteria. This article talks about why fermented foods are a great addition to your diet.
• Sweat. This looks like a short and fierce bodyweight workout you can do if you want to sweat and be done in about 10 minutes.

A Lady Goes West favorite archives

Hold the phone, because this was a three-blog-post week on A Lady Goes West, which hasn’t been happening a lot lately. 

I hope you didn’t miss …

• Two protein-filled meals featuring my favorite dairy foods
• Positive thoughts and a book review of “You Are a Badass”

And something from the archives …

• 15 things you should know about working out when you’re pregnant
• A total-body sculpting workout

Oh and one more thing! Our little Brady is sitting up nice and proud these days, and it’s adorable …

Have a most wonderful day and weekend! And if you feel like it, go say hi on Instagram or Facebook to see our adventures this weekend. Love ya, peeps! Be good! 🙂 

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Questions

What are you up to this weekend?

What’s something awesome you’ve learned lately?

What are you most grateful for today?