Tag Archives: friday faves

Happy Friday

It’s easy to lose track of days while on maternity leave, but Friday’s  still feels amazing!

Let’s start with food since I am hungry ALL.THE.TIME these days.

I am loving Ludlow Coffee Supply cold brew.  It’s right up there with La Columbe, which is insanely high praise. The staff is awesome too.

Blue Diamond Chia Seed Nut-thin Crackers — these are addictive but fairly filling.

Elise’s Candied Walnuts — I made a small batch to put in salads and they are delish!

Hal’s Mango Flavored Water – Highly recommend if you can find this limited edition flavor.

Also on the food front, it’s so nice to be able to enjoy breakfast out during the work week.  Frank has been working from home throughout “paternity leave,” but I’m already sad that he’ll be returning to the office full time next week.  It’s been nice to have adult company to at least enjoy meals with even if he is working for most of the day.

Lebanese yogurt with grapefruit, mint, honey and granola plus baguette with jam from Jack’s Wife Frieda.  Delicious.

Fitness

I definitely look forward to working out again. I can tell that I lost a lot of muscle during the last four weeks of pregnancy where I was really just doing cardio.  While it will be at least 4 more weeks before I get the all clear to do activity other than walking, here are some workout studios/plans  that I am excited to check out once it’s time to get back in action:

B MVMENT –

The description ” Music guides our classes like an internal GPS – no more 8 counts or reps.  The beat blended movement forces you out of your head and INTO YOUR BODY. It is in THIS magical place that you integrate your human experience instead of escape it.  All formats incorporate elements of shaking + vibration to help release stored trauma and stimulate cellular reorganization.”

This is hot workout that seems to be all about release.  Totally different, kind of wacky, but definitely intriguing.

BRRRN – This is a workout done at cold temps! 60 degrees, 45 degrees or 30 degrees.  I actually saw it on Kelly and Ryan (which I can watch now) and it looks intense. I don’t know if I’d enjoy anything cooler than 60 degrees, but I’d like to give it a try.

PFC  – Prenatal Fitness Club. I wish I had known about this studio while I was pregnant. I found out about it the day after my due date! It has classes tailored to your pre and post-natal needs and weekly info sessions on a variety of mom-related topics. I’m excited to check out the postpartum rehab class, which allows you to gently commence your workout routine post-baby. The best part is that you can bring the baby!

Fitnessista’s Postpartum Fitness Plan – I’ve heard great things about this 12 week plan, and I’ll definitely need workouts I can do at home!

Mom Stuff

Pre-birth, I stocked up on witch hazel pads, made pad-sicles, bought numbing spray, none of which I needed since I had a c-section.  I also haven’t needed any of the  nipple creams or breastfeeding pads that I bought yet.  However, one thing I overlooked was nursing friendly clothes.  Other than the 10 nursing bra’s (I found bras to be SO UNCOMFORTABLE during pregnancy that I tested a bunch of different ones, natori brand are definitely my favorite) and 1 nursing dress I bought, I quickly realized that I was going to need many more nursing friendly clothing options.  You can make due with v-neck tees in a pinch, but I’m happy I ordered a few dresses and tops, so I can easily feed the baby without taking off my entire shirt or wearing the same outfit everyday.

Pea in the Pod is my favorite maternity wear site. I really love their pajama and robe sets, they make nightime and morning feeds so easy. I was also happy that when I finally got of a hospital gown (which I wore for almost three days due to the epidural and IV), that I had something semi-feminine, yet comfortable to wear.

I also purchased the Clip Down Cold Shoulder nursing top, the  Ripe Lift Up Nursing Dress,and a few other tops that seem to be out of stock now.

That’s all for now. Enjoy your weekend!

The first Friday of March! I’ve always loved March because it’s my birthday month, even if the weather is still pretty cold and dreary. Enter bomb cyclone noreaster!  At least we’ve got March Madness to look forward to!

There’s a bunch of random things I’ve been loving this week, starting with…

Reusable Food Bags – so random, but I’ve been seeing them around and finally ordered a set of four from amazon.  I’ve been mainly using them for storing vegetables, like baby carrots and snap peas once I open the original plastic bag.  I’ve also seen a lot of suggestions to use these to prep smoothie packs for the freezer.  Hopefully, they’ll allow me to cut down on my plastic baggie usage!

HQ – Is anyone else playing this app-based trivia game?  My sister introduced me to it over Christmas and I’ve been playing it several nights a week ever since.  I’ve never won, but it’s still fun. Basically, it comes on a 9pm (and 3pm for really hard core folks) and you have 10 seconds to correctly answer 12 questions.  They start super easy and then get more challenging. There always some really random questions in there – if you took latin in high school, you’ll probably do well. Anyways, the prize pot is pretty small, so the winners sometimes get like $5, but if you like trivia, check it out! Just a warning, the hosts are a little annoying, but they do grow on you.

Our Coravin – We are obsessed with our Coravin. I’m not really using it right now, per se, but it’s still my favorite gadget of the moment. If you haven’t heard of these, they let you pour a glass of wine without opening tay, he bottle!  You don’t even need to remove the cork. Basically, a small needle is inserted into the bottle, and as you pour argon gas is released into the bottle pressurizing the wine/bottle.  The cork itself reseals in minutes.  This is clutch in so many situations: you only want a glass of wine, but don’t want to open the bottle.  You want white to start and red to finish, but don’t want to open two bottles.  You need a glass for a recipe. Your partner’s pregnant, but you aren’t drinking for two.  You don’t want to open a nice bottle of wine that you might not finish. Clearly we are fans, even if I really haven’t got to use it for myself yet. I got ours for 50% off on black friday, so they do go on sale.

Omega’s for Dogs.  My omega obsession is clearly out of control! I’ve even started giving Pettitte a daily fatty acid boost with the Protect Paws Omega 3-6-9.  I’m hoping these help with his allergies and paw chewing, it would be great if they also allow us to cut down on how often he has to get allergy shots.  But the reason I’m actually mentioning this is because when you purchase any product I Heart Dogs website, they donate meals to dogs in shelters. I bought the omega supplements and dental chews and my purchase feed 21 dogs in shelters.

Google Trips. I’m not sure if I’m loving this yet, but I’m giving it a try.  A few weeks ago our cruise plans went abruptly awry.  I had to completely start over planning a new trip over the last couple weeks and there is a lot going on with flights and multiple hotel changes.  While waiting for the train this morning, I download the app and entered our four flights, four hotels and dinner reservations. Some of them came up based on info in my email, other things I had to add manually, but getting everything in took about 5 minutes total.  The thing I like already is that the app links reservations to the emails in my inbox for quick reference.

The other features seem to be for finding activities and restaurants while your on the trip, which could be cool.  In the past, I’ve used an app called tripcase, but I like how this allows me to further indulge my google obsession.  Has anyone else used this?

I saw this trinket plate in the gift shop on our babymoon. I kind of regret not buying it because it really struck a cord with me.  (I also love a good trinket plate.)  Sometimes I feel like I’m not in touch with passion and I don’t have a good roadmap of where I want to go. The interview or job question I hate the most is where do you see yourself in 5 to 10 years.  Hate it!

Ali on the Run’s Podcast Episode 57 really made me stop and think. I listened to it all the way through, twice.  She really articulated everything I’ve been feeling career-wise.  On one hand, I’m happy and content, I enjoy my day to day, I have good life balance and good benefits. On the other hand, I’m not always sure this is what I’m meant to be doing.  After I graduated college, I read a book titled, Should I Do What I Love or Do What I Do, so I Can Do What I Love on the Side.  At the time, I was trying to get an editorial assistant job at a magazine. I’d had 5 great internships and had been able to do some freelance pieces at a few of my favorite magazines, I even got an interview for my absolute dream job at Self.  I didn’t get the job and after a few more months of fruitless interviewing, I took a job at a non-profit organization I believed strongly in.  I had been working 7 days a week at 5 different jobs for about 6 months at the time, and I needed some financial stability. I told myself I’d continue to freelance, which I did…for a while. I also started this blog around that time. Anyways, almost 12 years later, I don’t know whether I’ve ever answered the question the book title asks.  In any case, I really appreciated Ali’s honesty and totally related to every last bit of it. I’m not afraid of failure, I’ve failed before.  But I am afraid of others knowing I failed, which may be at the heart of my problem.  At this point, I plan to stay at my job for a while, it’s fairly new and I really like it. I just want to start taking some time to make sure when it’s time to make the next step, I take the right one.

Whew! I think I should end there!

Whether your weekend is packed with activities or you have nothing on the docket, I hope you enjoy it!

Happy Friday.

I really don’t need anything more than the fact that it is Friday, after two short weeks, a full work week seems long!

What am I loving this week?

Blanket Scarves

I wrap myself in this one from JCrew factory (60% off) and I am comfy cozy at work, almost as if I was at home on the couch.  Very helpful for chilly offices.  I also have a cape, which serves the same purpose.

Classpass Credits

If  you are on classpass, you know this, but now instead of a certain number of classes per month on classpass, you have credits.  I really like this change because it makes things even more flexible and eliminates the studio limits per month.  I have a 45 credit plan, so I can take approximately 5 nine credit classes per month or after I’ve used two classes at a studio, I can go again for additional credits.  For example, I always max out my two classes per month at Mile High, so if I want to take a third class there I’ll need to use 12 credits instead of 9.  I could offset this by going to a lower credit class or gym session.

I’m also considering adding the Blink membership to my Classpass.  For $15 a month, it gives you access to all Blinks in the area.  This is great because the Blink closest to my apartment is $25 a month.

I’m still going strong with my four class per month Orange Theory membership, as well.  It’s expensive, but I’ve found that I’ve been feeling a lot stronger on my outdoor runs since starting OTF.  The fact that my last 5 classes have been endurance (30 minutes of running) is probably a factor as well.

Chef’s Club

We tried Chef’s Club for dinner last night.  The concept is really cool, the restaurant features rotating chef’s, so it’s always changing.  Currently Chef JJ Johnson, a James Beard for Rising Star Chef of the Year in 2015, is doing the first long term residency. The space is gorgeous and the Afro-Asian menu had so many delicious sounding options that it made it hard to decide what to order.

Udon Noodles

Roti with dips – my favorite dish of the night

ConCon sticky rice with eggplant curry

Tamarind chicken with braised collards

We really enjoyed our experience and are excited to check it out again when the chefs rotate.

Finishing Up Holiday Shopping Early

I’m almost done with holiday shopping –and it feels great.  It helps that my family did Elfster for adults, so I only have to buy 1 gift rather than 8, but still.  Now I just need to commit to stop buying things, I have a tendency to keep picking up things even after I say I’m done.

Speaking of gifts, I liked this article on the Art of the the Gift Basket. I love making gift baskets for showers, but have never done it for a holiday gift.