Sunshine state trip, faves and weekly workouts

Hi, friends! I’m coming at you from F-L-O-R-I-D-A. Brady and I arrived on Wednesday evening, after a very long day of travel, including a layover in Houston and a 90-minute drive from the Tampa airport to my parent’s house — wow. It was definitely our longest trip together, and we relied on the kindness of a couple of strangers a few times when my hands were totally full boarding and exiting the plane. I literally did not have enough hands for all the things I was juggling, when it came time to bag up the stroller for gate check.

Overall, Brady did his best, which means he was chatty, active (grabbing everything in sight) and smiley and made some friends too, but I counted down the minutes until we were safely at our destination — because traveling alone with an 8-month-old is no joke. No joke.

This was a fairly last-minute trip (I booked it three weeks in advance), because even though I was completely dreading the travel alone, I really wanted to come, so I sucked it up and did it. Not only did I want to spend more time with my parents (seeing them at my brother’s wedding in April was just too short), I also wanted to celebrate my mom’s birthday with her, and it’s today. (Happy Birthday, Mommy!) So far we’re having a great time relaxing and hanging, and we don’t have much on the agenda for the few days I’m here, which is just how I like it.

Now for the faves …

Food

Cauliflower Pizza Crust by California Pizza Kitchen

Last weekend, Dave and I hit up our local CPK to have a delicious and large Sunday lunch and try out the new Cauliflower Pizza Crust, before we went to the Warriors game. He worked, I fanned.

It was beyond tasty with just the right crispiness. I would totally choose it instead of regular pizza after trying it too. Mmmmm! Even though there are several other frozen cauliflower crust options from other brands that you can make at home, they are always a little bit soggy and never quite as good as the real thing. Oh and the CPK one is made with gluten-free ingredients too.

We’ve been to the CPK in Walnut Creek so many times and never had a bad bite. 

Our CPK is one of the newer designed concepts, with a big bar, a big menu, lots of sunlight and good service. Also, stroller friendly on the patio, which is something we have to consider now, of course.

We started with a watermelon refresher mocktail, some corn chips and guacamole and this super nourishing warm vegetable salad. I LOVE roasted and cooked veggies on a salad and need to do that more at home, because you know I love my warm food.

And then a margherita Cauliflower Pizza Crust pie … so simple and fressssssh.

Thanks to the CPK team for hosting us! They also sent us home with some strawberry shortcake, which is the perfect light dessert for summer (although you know carrot cake, red velvet and all things cream cheese have my heart as my favorites).

GIVEAWAY — By the way, I’m giving away a $25 e-gift card to CPK to a lucky winner on Instagram, and it ends today, so go enter!

Veggie beet and walnut wrap 

This beet and walnut wrap is a major food highlight as of late. You guys know that we often go to our same spots for lunches on the weekend to pick up take-out. Well, I decided it was time for a change, so I did a little research and came up with The Lettuce Inn a couple towns away in downtown Concord, known for its vegan options (they also serve some animal products, so not entirely vegan). 

I drove 20 minutes to pick up some food for Dave and for me, and decided on the beet and walnut wrap for myself, which had avo, veggies and the perfect amount of spice. I could eat this wrap EVERY single day and will definitely go back. (It was a tiny spot with only a couple of tables, although it’s right across from a park, so you could totally grab your meal and find seating elsewhere, and while I was there I watched a festival in the park that day with a cheerleading squad — so fun.)

It felt good to support a local shop focused on healthy food, which is always good to do to keep those spots in business. 

Events

Dairy blogger event in SF

*This portion is not exactly sponsored, however I was compensated to attend this event and will be sharing much more about it and Real California Milk soon in a full sponsored post. I just wanted to tell you a little bit about it right away.

The day before I came to Florida, I had a really nice day, and it reminded me I need to get out more. 

I spent the morning in San Francisco at an event for a few health influencers hosted by the Real California Milk Dairy Farmers. We learned about the families who own the dairies in California and how California is the number one producer of milk in the U.S.. So cool!

We also did some food styling and made our own dairy-focused creations using yogurt, cottage cheese and cheese — some of my faves. I enjoyed playing with food and meeting some lovely ladies from around the state, whom I hadn’t met before, like Monica, Jenna and Berniedette and more. Oh, and I enjoyed putting on regular clothes during the week. Yay!

The event took place the Ketchum Food Studio in the Financial District, and it was an awesome space. Ketchum is a PR firm, and apparently they were the first PR firm to ever have a food-testing studio — lots of good counter space and equipment for sure. A far cry from my set-up at home, but hey — it gets the job done.

I was away from Brady for more than six hours and used a new babysitter, who just happens to be the cousin of a friend and blog reader, Katie. She did a great job, and we totally plan to use her again. I didn’t worry too much at all, now that I’m getting more comfortable with other people watching Brady here and there (it’s been like four times now), and that felt so good. He had some bottles ready in the fridge, and I traveled with my trusty manual pump, of course.

Overall, not only did I like being out with real people in the City during the day instead of just at the gym or with Brady, I loved learning, chatting with fellow bloggers and working with food styling — something I’d love to be better at. You’ll hear a bit more about all the dairy soon, as I’m working on a sponsored post after the event coming soon. But this had to make the favorites, because I’m so happy to be able to get out and do things like this again here and there.

Beauty

Fresh powder manicure

One of the first things on my agenda yesterday on the first day of our visit was to head out for a manicure, as that’s not so easy to do for me at home. I don’t love using valuable weekend time for it, but often have to. (Anybody else? It’s like this: I like having my nails professionally done, but I don’t like the process of getting them done. However, I recently started bringing earphones to listen to a podcast during manicures, and that makes them go by much faster.)

I’m still only getting the SNS powder manicures (way better than gel, because the powder is stronger, lasts longer and doesn’t require a light and apparently you can try doing it at home too, which I haven’t done), so I found a place near my parent’s house to go. Well, don’t you know, they did a hybrid version of SNS and ended up using an LED light to set my nails as the last step anyway. Oh well, they turned out pretty nice, so it’s all good.

My nails have grown so long the last few months (collagen and postpartum hormones, I guess), and while I love the look of long nails, it was actually starting to become a pain, so I opted to cut them pretty short during the manicure. I usually go for reds or brights, but selected a pink for a change too.

By the way, I broke a nail pretty bad during the beginning of my flight with Brady and didn’t have clippers or a file available, so that added to my annoyance that day — you know what I mean — having a chipped and jagged edge nail is the worst.

Sports

NBA Finals game 1 in Oakland

Go Warriors! I was pretty pumped to get to go to game 1 of the NBA Finals last weekend with some of my usual lady friends. (Dave’s little sister, Gwena, drove almost two hours up from Santa Cruz to stay with Brady for the evening, which was amazing too — free babysitting!)

It was awesome that the Warriors won that night, and even better that the series is now 3-0 as of today. Tonight’s game is a big one, and I’ll be watching it for sure, which is pretty late on East Coast time. I tell you what, it’s been a great few years to be a Warriors fan.

Fitness

Weekly workout recap at 34 weeks postpartum 

Now on to fitness. Here’s a look at my workouts from last week …

• Monday: Took 1-hour BODYPUMP class, 10 a.m.
• Tuesday: Took 30-minute BODYATTACK, 30-minute CXWORX classes, 9:30 a.m.
• Wednesday: 1-hour walk, 10 a.m.
• Thursday: 30-minute lower-body weights workout, 11 a.m.
• Friday: Taught 1-hour BODYPUMP class, 10 a.m.
• Saturday: Taught 1-hour Bootybarre class, 11 a.m.
• Sunday: Rest day

This past week of workouts was another good one. I taught two classes, took two classes, did a solo workout, had a walking day and a rest day. Lately, I’ve been missing yoga and have been craving some stretching and flexibility training, so perhaps we’ll see the addition of that again soon. Too bad more yoga studios don’t have childcare, or I’d be there. Quite frankly, I could easily do a streaming session at home, but haven’t been making time for it. I really should. 

Suggested reading

Best links from around the Web

• Food: A new kind of crust? First there was cauliflower crust, which is awesome (see above), and now beet. A lovely reader sent me this earlier in the week, and clearly I will be trying it out soon.
• Home: Now that I’m a homeowner with a little baby under my roof, I’m more and more interested in nontoxic cleaning products without harsh chemicals. This is a good one on how to clean your dishwasher, fridge, naturally etc.
• Moms: I KNEW that mom brain was a scientific thing. Moms, read this one, and it will make you feel so much better.

A Lady Goes West archives

• Something I’ve wanted to write for a long time … “How to learn to be less rigid to find your real health.”
• BODYPUMP at home? Check out this one from a while back … ““A 20-minute BODYPUMP-inspired full-body barbell workout.”

Oh, and it’s shorts season for Brady — especially here in Florida right now …

Have an awesome day and weekend, my friends! Be good!

P.S. If you’re interested in joining the A Lady Goes West Book Club, we’ve just started reading “You Are a Badass” and will be doing discussing in this Facebook Group. We’d love to have you!

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