Weekend adventures as told by food pictures and my weekly workout report

On Sunday evenings, I always scroll through the pictures on my phone to pick out which I will post in my usual weekend recap, and don’t you know this past weekend I only took a few pictures — and they were all of food. No people! But that’s okay. Let’s do a quick look back at the weekend and then talk workouts. Oh, and hello! Hope you had a great weekend, friends!

Whole Foods media preview

On a very rainy Friday, I had the opportunity to check out the brand new Whole Foods coming to Ygnacio Valley Road in Walnut Creek. While we already have a small Whole Foods in downtown Walnut Creek, the new WF is much bigger and has a lot more ready-to-eat food options. It opens to the public on November 2, and I got to tour the store and learn quite a bit about Whole Foods as a company while I was there.

This is the 463rd location, and Whole Foods has some pretty cool standards in place to keep its offerings healthy — for instance, no products with high fructose corn syrup are stocked on the shelves, no artificial coloring is used in the baked goods, and there’s a major push for local and organic food. Yes!

While I don’t do all of my shopping at Whole Foods, I love to stop in for specialty items and pre-made meals. But after seeing everything offered at this new location, I may need to become a more frequent customer. Hello, cheese section …

Perhaps the highlight of the tour that day? Trying caviar! There were tons of samples available to our group, and the caviar topped my list of incredible tastes. I had actually never had caviar before and clearly didn’t know what I was missing. Wow! So good! It’s soft and has a rich and delicious fishy flavor. I’m pretty sure it’s too expensive for a regular thing, but at least I know what it’s like now.

One more fun fact I learned: Whole Foods offers a Thanksgiving meal for eight people for only $99. Can you believe that? What an easy way to host, if you’re in need of a spread. You can even order it online.

Weekend adventures in Walnut Creek

On Friday evening, Dave and I went over to a friends’ house for dinner. There were four couples in attendance, and we sat around in the kitchen chatting over wine and appetizers, then moved to the dining room for dinner. (Girls on one end of the table, boys on the other, of course!) While we had fun with our peeps, Dave and I had to be the first to dip out, because I had to wake up early on Saturday to teach. Sadly, I’m never very much fun on Friday nights, and that’s the life of a group fitness instructor.

Saturday included all of the usual suspects: teaching BODYPUMP and hanging out with Dave and Rudy. Dave and I tried to check out the new True Food Kitchen in downtown Walnut Creek, but the line was pretty long, so we ended up at Lemonade instead. That was totally fine by me, because it is always oh-so-good — just look at my plate of deliciousness below featuring Brussels, curried cauliflower and roasted chicken with tzatziki sauce! I licked it clean.

Dave enjoyed his roasted chicken sammy too and was pleasantly surprised with the little restaurant. After that, we did a little shopping in the afternoon and were home in time to host Dave’s little sister, Gwena, and her friend for a brief hangout. They were heading into San Francisco for some Halloween fun by way of Santa Cruz, and we were happy to see them even if just for a bit.

On Saturday evening, Dave and I went to our old faithful spot, Va de Vi for some appetizers and dessert at the bar. We always sit next to interesting people there, and this time was no different — perhaps that’s why we always like to sit at the bar at restaurants — you get to people watch, chat with others and sit next to each other instead of across. While we were there, we enjoyed nibbling on a fabulous cheese plate, ahi tuna tartare, meatballs and a sweet and tasty dessert sampler platter with vanilla ice cream. Everything was perfect.

Who needs an entree when you can eat food like that?

Sunday was the epitome of nothing to report. We laid around, watched TV, booked our tickets to Florida for Christmas, did some stuff around the house, and the only time I left was to take Rudy for a walk on the trail. It was the perfect lay-around catch up on nothingness day, and we both needed it. Sundays are almost always my rest days, and I like it that way.

And that was the weekend and not a single person pictured! This week is going to go by in a flash, because I have activities every single night Tuesday through Saturday. While I usually like to reserve my evenings for vegging at home after work, a couple of events popped up that I’m excited about. 

My weekly workout recap

Let’s take a look at all of the ways I’ve been moving lately …

Weekly Workouts

• Monday: Did 45 minutes of Bootybarre at home
• Tuesday: Taught a one-hour BODYPUMP class
• Wednesday: Did 45 minutes of Bootybarre at home
• Thursday: Taught a one-hour Bootybarre class
• Friday: Did 20 minutes of full-body weights
• Saturday: Taught a one-hour BODYPUMP class
• Sunday: Rest day

Overview of the week

What stands out from this week of fitness? A whole lot of barre, right? I was practicing and learning the choreography to teach my first Bootybarre class on Thursday, so I spent a lot of time doing it. While I will continue to practice it as I get better, it probably won’t appear this often in my week again. The good news is that I also taught BODYPUMP twice and lifted weights very briefly on my own once, so I got my three sessions of resistance training in. Sadly, my month of free yoga at CorePower is over, so I didn’t fit in a yoga class this week, but at least there is a decent amount of flexibility work in the barre class. It all balances out! 

Lots of good #food from the #weekend and a #weeklyworkout report by @apstyle ... Click To TweetP.S. Thanks to Meghan for today’s “Week in Review” link-up. See you back here later this week, my friends!

Questions of the day

What are you most looking forward to in November?

How was your weekend?