After early morning wake up calls to be at the gym or the yoga studio and long days where I commonly teach into the evening hours, unwinding when I get home is something I really look forward to. One of my goals in the new year is to revamp my evening routine to make it even more relaxing. I have three main areas of focus.
1) Menu Planning for the Week I’ve often said that preparing meals is one of my favorite parts of my evening routine. And that’s true but I have LONG been out of the habit of developing weekly menus. I’m much more “get a lot of stuff at the store and then figure out what to do with it” these days. So I’m going to attempt to get back to sitting down on Saturdays or Sundays to make up the menu for the week and do my big shopping trip on Sundays. And yes, I will share my meal plans with you!
2) Baths and Reading We have this AMAZING bath tub in our new place and can you believe I’ve only used it once? Reading in the bath tub is an activity I really enjoy so I’m going to make it a priority to use it more regularly. Baths are so relaxing to me and also so helpful for workout recovery. I’m really looking forward to meeting this goal. 😉
I also picked up a few new books at my favorite local used bookstore for some new reading material.
3) Uninterrupted TV Time with Hot Tea While we chat and catch up on our days while I’m cooking and we’re eating dinner, I am the WORST about continuing to work or scroll through Instagram once we hit the couch. We’ve talked several times about having a technology “lights out” time and I think that it’s time to put that in place. One of our evening rituals is to watch a show before bed to get some cuddle time in so I want to actually be present for it and give 100% of my attention with a cup of my favorite hot tea. It’s such a cozy ritual.
We have so many shows that we enjoy watching together but we are always looking for recommendations for new series since we blow through them so quickly. Over the weekend we watched the pilot for Second Chance on FOX. It’s a new action-drama series that kicks off on January 13.
The pilot episode definitely grabbed my attention. I liked the story line and the cast was killer (Dilshad Vadsaria is so lovely and you will not tire of looking at Rob Kazinsky.) I also liked the focus on the twin dynamic between Mary and Otto because I find twins and their bonds to be fascinating. The show really gets the wheels turning in your head about the future of tech.
The basic plot line is this…
Seventy-five-year-old Jimmy Pritchard (guest star Philip Baker Hall, “Modern Family,” “Magnolia”) is a shell of his former self. A drinker, a womanizer and a father who always put work before family, Pritchard was forced to resign as L.A. County Sheriff for corrupt conduct more than a decade ago. Now, some 15 unkind years later, he is killed when he stumbles upon a robbery at the home of FBI Agent Duval Pritchard (Tim DeKay, “White Collar”), one of his two children.
But death is surprisingly short for Jimmy, who is brought back to life by billionaire tech-genius twins Mary Goodwin (Dilshad Vadsaria, “Revenge”) and her brother, Otto (Adhir Kalyan, “Rules of Engagement”), founders of the social networking empire, Lookinglass. Resurrected as a younger, better version of himself, with physical abilities of which he never dreamed, a re-animated Pritchard (Rob Kazinsky, “True Blood”) is given a second chance at life. What will he do with it? Will he try to repair the damage he did to his family? Will he embrace a new sense of purpose or fall prey to old temptations?
Here’s the show trailer.
We’ll definitely be tuning in for the season!
Tell me about your evening routine. What do you do to relax and unwind?
What is the name of your favorite used bookstore?
It’s called Julia’s Café and Books! It’s a division of Habitat for Humanity Charlotte.
Always a mug of peppermint tea and over the last few weeks I have been forcing myself to read for at least 40 minutes before bed even when it’s a struggle! Once I get into the story again, it’s so relaxing, it’s just that initial settling down!
I’ve been reading to unwind right before bed a lot more recently and loving it!
A bubble bath with a book sounds so great! I like to spend at least one night relaxing with a bath!
I LOVE taking epsom salt baths – so relaxing and great for recovery. That bath tub is gorgeous!
My nightly ritual is to put my phone on airplane mode about 30 minutes before I want lights out (the TV is usually off and hour before that) and then I make some tea with Natural Calm and read for those 30 minutes while sipping. Then I brush my teeth and lights out!
Putting your phone on airplane mode is such a good idea! I might have to start doing that!
I love this post! I do my meal planning and grocery shopping on Sundays, as well as any meal prep I can do ahead (anything to save time during the week!). My evening routine is very similar to yours, except I shower instead of take a bath, but I always light a candle and dim the lights to make it more relaxing. Then I read on the couch with a cup of Yogi Bedtime Tea. Right now I’m reading Harry Potter and loving it! Then I watch TV until I start to drift off then I head off to bed!
That sounds amazing! I love yogi bedtime tea!
Your meals always look so amazing! Would you consider posting a weekly meal plan of sorts?
I am in such a desperate need of a good nightly routine. Usually I fall asleep with my youngest and wake up groggy and useless. Then I struggle to get organized in the morning when time is so very limited. I look forward to seeing your meal planning because if I tell my family it’s another night of pork tenderloin there is going to be a mutiny. It’s just so easy and pairs so well with different sides.
I too caught the first episode of Second Change and LOVED it.
Another one that looks interesting is the Colony. Features a favorite from Lost, and has potential for some interesting twists and turns.