Current faves: Valentine's Day 2023, food finds, the best Nike jacket and more

Hi, friend! How are you? I hope you’ve had some great moments in your week!

This week was a pretty good one for me, with some less-than-fun stuff mixed in. On the good side: I debuted an hour of new choreography in my LifeBarre class, which is always a lot of work, so it feels great to have it out there. I played tennis two times (one clinic and a doubles-for-fun session), I took Brady to swimming, and I took Brady to his tennis lesson (which I love watching). And I even had a personal training session with a trainer/friend at Life Time, which I hadn’t done in more than two years.

On the less-than-fun side: This past week, we also had multiple contractors in and out of our house for maintenance and problems. It seems like our 1999 house is starting to show its age, because in the last week alone, we’ve had plumbers, drywall repairers and garage door technicians addressing issues. And to add to that, this week, I also got all of our tax information gathered and out to our new accounting firm, which is another fun project that was rather time consuming for this self-employed gal. Good times!

This weekend, Dave and I are planning to get away for a night for a sporting event, and other than that, we’ll be hanging out and chilling!

Let’s get to the faves of the day …

Fun

Valentine’s Day 2023

I like it when a holiday falls on a weekend, but this year, we enjoyed Valentine’s Day on a Tuesday.

That day, we had all the usual school drop-off/pick-up lines, class, tennis and daily work/mom stuff to contend with. But what made it a special day were a few little things that were not part of our regular routine.

Brady delivered me some lovely flowers and a balloon in the morning (shown above) while I was drinking my collagen tea latte and doing some work on the couch. Dave put a special watermelon water in my gym bag, which I drank between class and tennis (what a nice surprise).

Brady was so excited to bring home a bag full of sweet Valentine’s Day treats from school. And we even got take-out sushi for dinner, which is a luxury we usually save for Friday nights. Finally, the day ended with world’s tiniest cheesecakes from Publix. They were bite-sized perfection!

Dave and I have never done anything super fancy for Valentine’s Day, and this year was no different. But I still wanted to do something, so I gave Dave some tickets for an upcoming event we’ll attend together next month, so we’ll have that to look forward. Overall, it was a simple and sweet holiday, and I had some quality time with my little group.

Food

A few food and beverage items I’ve been loving

While you’ve seen some of these make an appearance on the blog before, some of them are new. Here are a few items I’ve really enjoyed eating or drinking lately spanning from smoothies to yogurt to fish to even a prebiotic soda. All of these are tasty and full of good nutrients, and they were bought at Sprouts, Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s — my three main grocery stops.

Fashion

The Nike jacket I’ve been wearing every single day

Dave bought me this full-zip Nike hoodie for Christmas, and I’ve literally been wearing it five times a week since then. When it’s dirty, I do laundry to make sure I have it for the next day. I love to wear a zip-up, and this one is such high quality. I already shared about this one in this post: “Five of the best presents I got for Christmas that I’m using and wearing.” But because of how this hoodie has continued to find a spot in my.heart, it needed to come up again as a solo favorites mention.

I wear a lot of black to teach classes, and I always need something loose to zip up over my tanks. This hoodie provides a quick transition after I’m all set up for class, just to un-zip and get ready to go (I don’t love pulling sweatshirts over my head, because it messes up my hair).

This jacket is definitely an investment piece, but I’m pretty sure I’ve already worn it enough to be worth it. If you’re in need of a good zip-up and haven’t found the right one, this is one to consider. I’m in a small, and it comes in many colors (I’m tempted to get the camel color next). Find my Nike full-zip tech fleece hoodie here.

Workouts

My workouts from last week

Every week, I like to share a recap of my previous week of workouts. I share this to show you how I try to get diversity of movement in my week, and how I always take a rest day (almost always). But remember, I do a little bit more than the average person, because I’m a group fitness instructor. You absolutely don’t need to compare your movement to mine.

Workouts from the week of 2/6

Monday: Taught 1-hour barbell class, 9:45 a.m.
Tuesday: Taught 1-hour barre class with light weights, 9:30 a.m., took 90-minute tennis clinic, 11:30 a.m.
Wednesday: Did 45-minute solo full-body heavy weights session, 9:30 a.m., taught 45-minute barre class with light weights, 5:30 p.m.
Thursday: Taught 45-minute combo class, 9:45 a.m., took 1-hour tennis clinic, 11:30 a.m.
Friday: Taught 45-minute barre class with light weights, 10:30 am., taught 45-minute barbell class, 11:30 a.m.
Saturday: Took 90-minute tennis clinic, 11 a.m.
Sunday: Rest day

This past week was full of six classes, three tennis clinics, a rest day and a personal workout. I was lacking motivation for my personal workout this past week, but I did it anyway, and I’m glad I did. I really do notice the benefits, so I’m doing my best to stick to it once a week.

Here’s the solo workout I did in my neighborhood gym. This workout is focused on heavy and slower movements, because I do a lot of faster endurance movements in the classes I teach …

Best read of the week

Here’s an article that I thought was interesting and worth talking about …

Fitness trends for 2023. Okay, I know we’re well into the second month of the year, but I still think it’s cool to talk about what will likely be popular in the fitness world this year. Depending on the outlet/author of the article, the list of trends can be a little different. But what I’m seeing across different projections is that virtual reality fitness, rest and recovery, group fitness and hybrid fitness (a combination of at-home and in-person) options will be popular in 2023. I’m all for people returning to the group fitness studio and finally meeting and exceeding pre-COVID attendance levels, because I love what you can get out of group fitness. If you’re into this topic, check out this list of fitness trends for 2023 here.

Quote of the week

Here’s a good thought that popped up in the Headspace app last week after one of my meditations …

Blog archives of the week

Let’s look back at a couple posts …

Music. I absolutely love listening to music, and I spend a lot of time finding the right songs for the classes I teach. If you’d like a one-hour playlist for your next workout or house-cleaning session, check out this one … “The best barre class playlist I’ve made lately (for your next workout).”

Simple habits. Sometimes, it’s the simplest habits that keep us going strong and feeling good. Here are three that I swear by, and I’ve been doing for years … “Three super-simple wellness habits to get a better start to your day (and WHY).”

Thanks for coming by the blog today, friend! I hope you have a wonderful day and weekend.

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