Hiiii! Hope everyone had a fun weekend! I had such an amazing weekend filled with my closest friends, family and birthday celebrations. Reflecting on this weekend, I am feeling so thankful and incredibly blessed. I have such wonderful friends, the best family a girl could ask for and just so many positive things in motion right now I’m having somewhat of a pinch-me-moment. I’m so excited to take on my 30th year and begin this new decade and chapter of my life!
Now, let’s catch up 🙂
FRIDAY
I decided to stay in after celebrating my birthday on Thursday night. Had a pretty busy day Friday with some clients and a meeting that finished up just in time for me to catch the 420 class at Y2 Yoga with Kacy Pleasants. Kacy is one of my favorite teachers – she has a larger than life personality and just brings an element of fun & playfulness into the studio. Needless to say, I was SO happy to be able to make it to class! I hadn’t practiced one time this week and was desperately needing some yoga in my life. Headed home after class and just chilled out and started my Friday night Blog Post about my food & workouts from throughout the week. Half way through my blogging I decided to get up and go to the gym. I still had so much energy I decided not to waste it! So I ran over to the Y and got about 45 minutes of work in before they closed at 930. I did 10 minutes on the Precore AMT, 2o minutes on The Beast and then ran thru a quick leg circuit.
Pictured to the right is one of my favorite moves for legs! I call them split squats but some people may call them one legged squats – doesn’t matter either way. There are various ways to do this exercise…as you can see in the picture I used the BOSU Friday night. The BOSU just adds a little more focus on balance because the ball gives a bit.
Other options for this exercise:
You can simply do this same exercise on the floor and add nothing to it, which in that case would be a static lunge. Good place to start for beginners. Maybe even positioning yourself next to a wall for added support/balance.
Bench, Steps or Stability Ball: Place your back foot on any of these for a more challenging lunge. With your back foot elevated, you are able to lunge deeper and work the legs harder. Killer! I switch up my reps for these depending on what other exercises I’m doing. My number of reps range from 12-20.
Finished up with a little foam rolling and then back home. Took another shower…3rd for the day – this is normal! lol Ate some pineapple, finished up my blog post and then finally, finally went to sleep around 1am. I still had so much energy I had to force myself to go to sleep knowing I needed to be up for yoga in the morning.
SATURDAY
Up at about 745, coffee, 2 scrambled eggs and out the door to catch my 915 yoga class. Tanner taught an awesome class, as always. Great sequence and the studio was Hot Hot Hot! I knew I should have worn shorts! But opted for my Blue Lulu’s instead – haven’t worn them in a while so decided to pull them out of the closet. I love the black against the blue and threw on this black & white striped scarf – super cute!
After class I popped into Whole Foods to grab some greens to make my green smoothie for the day. I kept it really simple just greens & fruit, no extras. You can check out my Green Smoothie here. So yummy and super easy to make!
I spent the rest of my Saturday with my entire family to celebrate my birthday. Had such a nice, quality family day with the parents, sis, bro-in-law, niece & nephew. My mom made an AMAZING dinner for me. We pretty much had a Thanksgiving dinner. I ate entirely too much and don’t even care! haha it was so worth it.
We decided to have a European afternoon…We all sat down around 3pm to have coffee, cake and champagne before dinner. My dad is Austrian so this is pretty normal in my family. My mom made an incredible Pumpkin Cheesecake as my birthday cake, which went perfectly with our Thanksgiving/Fall Dinner. Waited a couple hours and then sat down for dinner.
Pumpkin Cheesecake. We put 3 candles on for my little niece to make a wish and blow out – so cute!
Pretty Fall Table set for the Birthday Dinner!
Roasted Asparagus! One of my favorite vegetables!
Spent a couple more hours with the family and then headed out to meet some friends for some drinks. Popped into Baku for a couple drinks and then headed over to the Music Factory to check out Club X – new spot that a good friend of mine just opened this week. Honestly, I could have just gone home after Baku but I got dragged out. Luckily, I found my second wind and had so much fun!
SUNDAY
Slept in til 10! So nice and so needed this! Pretty much just rolled out of bed threw on some black yoga pants, a white tank and a scarf — naturally, and headed straight to D&D for some coffee. Next stop, over to Whole Foods to get something to eat. Sooo, I LOVE D&D coffee but they don’t carry Almond Milk and I just don’t like the coffee at Whole Foods so that explains the logic behind this move…
Enjoyed some quiet time eating, getting my schedule together for the week, answering emails and flipped thru Yoga Journal. Then off to the mall. I needed to exchange a pair of Lulu’s that I got as a gift and were too big and I also had a birthday gift card to spend there as well! Got some awesome new stuff that I can’t wait to wear and show you all!
Whole Foods Salad – big Mish Mosh of Greens, Veggies, Raw Nuts & Seeds.
Rest of my Sunday was spent laying in the sun, blogging and working online until I headed to the gym to get some cardio in. Ran intervals for 20 minutes and StairMaster for 20 minutes. Then home to shower, eat and then back out to catch 7pm yoga class with Amani at Enlighten Yoga. Best way to end the day and my weekend. I actually walked into class with the intention to not stay for savasana just because I wanted to get home a little earlier to write this post and get some other work done. BUT, by the end of my practice there was no way that was happening! Which leads me to say…. it is so important to just slow down. Life is so Go, Go Go and I think most of us are guilty in that fact that we don’t take the time to just enjoy life and enjoy the present moment. I mean, I am a yoga instructor and here I am walking in the door already telling myself that I’m not going to stay for savasana – that’s just crazy talk. The whole point of your practice is that it prepares you for savasana.
With that being said, just a little reminder as you move through your week to take time for yourself. Take a yoga class, go to the gym, take a walk outside, read a book — whatever it is that brings a smile to your face and makes your heart happy. Life gets so hectic and we can easily forget to take care of ourselves, so maybe this week you make the time to do something special for yourself.
Much Love,
LS
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