Recap Post

Hi! These last two weeks have been such a whirlwind. Finals basically took over my life, and when I finally had a couple days to breathe, I took some time. Now I’m back and ready to get into everything! This will be a condensed post, but I’ll bring some key components of last week back.

Monday was a pretty typical Monday for me. I decided to do a 36-hr fast starting Sunday evening and going through to Tuesday morning. I felt fine and didn’t have any issues. I don’t always intermittent fast, but the weekend I had warranted a detox/reset for me! I went to the gym and I did a series of push-ups, triceps dips, bicep curls, chest presses, punches, flys, raises, and more!

Tuesday morning, I broke my fast with a green smoothie – it had spinach, ginger, blueberries, blackberries, hemp seed oil, chia, flax, collagen peptides, super-greens, and strawberries! I had a salmon burger and broccoli and zucchini for lunch. Once I got home, I did a quick yoga flow, made beet noodles (previous post), and then basically locked myself to my laptop to get a bunch of grading done.

Wednesday, I had a great workout with a resistance band. I focused on my inner thighs, glutes, and abs, and I did a few different circuits for each muscle. I was so hungry when I was done, and my mom invited me to Lou Malnati’s. After taking Oliver for a walk, I had two small slices of thin crust mushroom pizza and a Caesar salad. I also had a Truly hard seltzer – these are low carb and low sugar. I needed a drink after all that grading!

Thursday, I had a really busy day at work. I fasted throughout the day and then came home and had a very intense ab workout. I have been loving the videos from MadFit. They’re not super-long, but I found myself sweating bullets after this one, and I could definitely feel all my abdominal muscles being worked. When my husband got home from work, we had a glass of wine together and then took a long walk through the neighborhood since the weather was gorgeous. I made a quick trip to Mariano’s and picked up some Lara bars, Beyond burgers, Halo Top (finally found the peanut butter and jelly flavor!), and Bai drinks.

I got to start work later on Friday. I’d planned on sleeping in, but I woke up early and decided to go to the gym after my smoothie and apple cider vinegar shot! I had a great step-board/squat jump workout. After the gym, I got my nails done. I don’t do it too often, but I like to get a manicure once in a while to take care of my cuticles and nail shape.

After work, I had to pick up food for Oliver and then I went to go spend some quality time with him and take him for a long walk. He can never seem to get close enough to me! He’s my best bud.

Later that night, Julian watched the Twilight Zone while I read a book. We got takeout from Miller’s Ale House and I had the fish tacos. Early Saturday morning, I ran to GNC and got a few pre-workout drinks, went to a few stores, and then hit the gym for a heavy leg session. When I got back, I made a late lunch of salad, mashed cauliflower, and salmon.

I spent the rest of Saturday alternating cleaning with grading, and then in the evening, Julian and I watched some interesting YouTube videos about exploration of abandoned mansions, hospitals, etc. I could hardly sleep that night because we were going to a big festival the next day!

Sunday, I woke up early and made a breakfast of eggs, chives, tomatoes, and baby potatoes. I wanted to fuel up since we’d be spending the day at the Chicago Open Air festival. We were going to see Tool and we were so excited!

I was loving my outfit. I had a black metal-clamp crop top, black overalls, black tights, and Doc Marten boots. It was a beautiful, sunny day for an outdoor festival. We headed over around 3 and saw several awesome metal bands! We saw a few of our friends and enjoyed some drinks before the headliner, Tool.

Tool was great! It’s funny to think that we were infants when they were popular, but we’ve really gotten into them in the last few years and were so excited to see them. I love outdoor music festivals.

I had the next day off work, so I went to the gym early to complete a Monday arm workout and then decided to cool down by taking a hike in the woods.

It was kind of gray and chilly outside, but the air felt nice and always helps to clear my head. Later, I went to Aldi to pick up some groceries for the week. I got spinach, mushrooms, jalapenos, avocado, tomatoes, zucchini, blackberries, Romaine, cucumber, broccoli, bean chips, and a few new apple cider vinegar and K0mbucha drinks.

The rest of the week flew by. I was so busy with finishing grading that I didn’t have as much time to cook! I did pick up a salmon sandwich from Jason’s Deli, a green goddess cobb from Panera, and made some quick jalapeno poppers to eat with broccoli.

Now, it’s Friday night and I am packing for a small weekend trip Julian and I are taking. We’re going up to St. Charles/Geneva for the long weekend. We find the area so charming and we definitely need a little scenic getaway. I’m really excited! I’ll share all our travels next week. I hope your Memorial Day weekend is great!