Weekly Recap: Birthday Week

How has it been over two weeks since my last recap post? Sheesh, it's been a busy few weeks! Let's start off with it was birthday week! Yep, this year I turned 30. Goodbye 20s, hello 30s. Is 30s considered middle-aged??

My sister mailed me the sweetest little surprise shirt to celebrate my birthday. Obviously, we're still under quarantine so I was spending my birthday home with my husband and could not celebrate with our larger family, but it was so nice that everyone still found ways to make my birthday feel special! Yes, I wore the birthday shirt the whole day!

Food,

Well, I'd give myself a D for intake over the past two weeks. But hear me out, it's birthday's fault! My thoughtful husband bought me too many gifts and my favorite was an ice cream maker! I know, right. Trying to lose weight naturally means DIY ice cream, yes? Lol.

It's so easy to use and I've already begun testing recipes to share here on the blog. Plus, you can also make margaritas, frozen yogurt, gelato, sorbet, and slushies with it so I think it will get tons of use. He knows I'm trying to be more environmentally conscious too, so he gave me a pair of reusable cartons to store our batches of ice cream without single use paper products.

In other news, I've been one of the millions of people watching the news with hopes that we will hear good news and ease of restrictions. I know that various companies are re-opening and I want to be ready when my firm reopens (although I still think it's some time off) so I bought a few masks for my husband and I. Not that I ever thought face masks would be a fashion statement but this is what I bought.

I didn't know how many to buy but I knew I wanted multiples so I could wash them between wears. I also thought it would be nice to have a few work-appropriate options and a few fun ones. I plan on keeping one in my purse and suitcase too. I can't wait to not have to wear them though.

FOOD

The weather was nice on my birthday so I had some lunch and worked from my patio for the afternoon. It was the perfect temperature, warm with a hint of wind, and it was nice to just get outside. A girl can go nuts cooped up inside as much as I have been. 

As far as dinners go, let's just say all bets were of throughout the last two weeks. Here are some of the meals we enjoyed.

For my birthday we had a very special birthday surf and turf (one of my favorite "special occasion" meals) with green beans. Other dinners included a baked chicken parmesan with zucchini noodles, a shrimp and tomato pasta with garlic bread, and Mediterranean gyros (which I shared how to make here). We've been enjoying dinner on the patio when it's nice out.

This was by far my favorite dinner. Baked cod with roasted potatoes and broccoli.

We've also been enjoying PLENTY of desserts. Again, it was birthday week! We enjoyed some of our first batch of homemade ice cream (a delicious peanut butter reeses concoction), a graham cracker caramel vanilla smoothie (using our second batch of homemade ice cream--standard vanilla), peanut butter pie (my birthday cake this year), and the most delicious tray of desserts from Edible Arrangements that my best college buddy sent me.

WORKOUTS

The last two weeks have been consistent with work outs. I typically did 30 minutes on the Peloton per day.

And I was so excited because I made it to 150 bike rides. We've had the bike since the end of November so I think that's pretty good. And most of my rides are 30 minutes or more.

I'm also loving the Live from Home Rides that they are doing. I really commend Peloton for figuring out a way to continue to push the classes forward even with their actual studio closed due to covid-19. The studio is in New York City so it's good they prioritized the safety of their instructors and employees.

I also had so much fun this past week doing FaceTime workouts with my sister (she lives in Pennsylvania) so even though we can't hang out with each in person we still find ways to see each other and chat, and in this case, workout!

She sent me a YouTube video that she saw on Pop Sugar (who else loves Pop Sugar?) that was a HIIT dance class to Disney music. She paired up with another youtuber, Emily Thorne from EMK Fitness.

We enjoyed it so much we were thrilled when we saw That Disney Girl put out a second version!

Each class was about 20 minutes and it was so fun to shake the stress of quarantine and work away and jam out to some old school disney classics! I love a fun workout. If you have any other fun youtube workout videos please share them with me in a comment below!

How are you staying active during quarantine?
Do you enjoy dance class for fitness?
What is your favorite workout?