Oh, Monday. It seems like I was just gushing over how happy I was about the arrival of Friday night. The weekend passed so quickly and I’m proud to announce that I did…pretty much nothing. I spent a lot of time alone and loved it.
I took myself to yoga, Starbucks and the farmers market on Saturday. Sometimes I get kind of tired of doing so many routine things on my own. I admit that enjoy having a partner to do things with like go to the farmers market, plan meals and run errands but this weekend it was refreshing and a good mental break to go solo.
I picked up peppers, sweet potatoes, eggplant, spaghetti squash, chard and bok choy at the market. I spent the remainder of the day around the house baking, organizing, downloading music and decompressing. I thought about work ZERO and did not check my work e-mail (except to get my CrossFit Level 1 test results – I PASSED!) and I didn’t update the blog.
I put together a pretty amazing playlist for yoga on Sunday morning. Yes, you read that right…I taught Sunday morning yoga for the first time in four months. It’s been a long break but it was good to be back. For newer readers, I gave up my classes at the yoga studio where I taught for almost a year and a half due to general work/life craziness. I’m starting to dip my toe back in the teaching water so we’ll see where it takes me. I love to teach but only want to do it if I can 100% committed and there for my students with good and positive energy. It felt nice to be with them yesterday morning.
Lunch at Whole Foods after class. It kinda turned into a brunch salad bowl. I started with a bed of baby kale and then piled on scrambled eggs, caprese salad, pumpkin slaw, turkey bacon and a tofu scramble. Of course I had a sweet potato biscuit on the side. Obsessed.
After my grand proclamation that you were going to have to drag me out of the yoga studio this weekend, I actually ended up running on Sunday afternoon. It was the most perfect weather and I wanted to be outside. Can we take a moment to appreciate the lovely piece of construction equipment that was parked in my front yard all weekend? They’re doing work on my street and apparently in front of my house seemed like a good place for the crew to leave their stuff this weekend.
Back to the run, I listened to my awesome yoga playlist above and knocked out just under 8 miles. It was a slow 8 miles but my longest run in many months so I am proud.
Grouper was on special at the grocery. It is one of my favorites and I love how thick and meaty grouper fillets are. I picked one up and seasoned it with TJs lemon pepper grinder and Dizzy Pig’s Raging River. I sauteed it in a bit of olive oil and served it with mushroom risotto and sauteed spinach. It was a great dinner.
I will leave you with two things…
1) I have been so lucky to connect with fellow blogger Erica who lives in Florida. She went through a breakup last week and posted the most amazing video blog about the experience, how she is dealing and how she is moving forward. Erica is so brave to put herself out there in ways that I wish I could. I’m sure most of you can imagine how difficult it is to publicly deal with a breakup.
2) This…
Have a good week.
Yay for Ellie Goulding on the Yoga Playlist – her whole new album is amazing!!
obsessed with her.
Jen – thank you so much for sharing my video. I put myself out there because I hoped it would give solace to others going through the same thing and, to be honest, I’ve been interested every day when I get to your blog to see how you are coping with your transition as well. Just seeing other people you admire (because really, you kick so much ass) be strong and beautiful and confident helps keep me trying to do the same.
I think you are both awesome. Erica I just watched your vlog and you are strong and inspiring and kick just as much ass as Jen 🙂
erica – thank you so much for your comment. i hope it was okay that i shared your video. i have definitely done a lot more “behind the scenes” coping. it’s been a tough year. i really loved everything you said about attitude and choosing to live in this day…especially the part about still being in your normal routine. those are the things that are so easy to forget.
bess – xoxoxo. erica is a bad ass.
Ditto! Loved your honesty on the video, Erica.
You girls are awesome 🙂
Thank you so much for posting your playlist. I’ve now discovered some new songs that I love! So happy to hear you are back at Y2. I get emails from them and saw that you were teaching Sundays again. I’m definitely coming in as I really enjoyed the few yoga classes I took with you at the Y. I’m going to need it after I hopefully complete the MCM this Sunday! Any advice would be greatly appreciated! 🙂
Listening to Where Are You Now….love it.
you’re welcome. glad you’re finding some new stuff. would LOVE to see you in class.
the MCM was an amazing experience. seriously, i so wish i could do it again. you will have so much fun. it’s extremely well organized and the scenery and crowd support are great. the only advice i have is to be prepared for huge crowds at the finish. the line to get on the metro was hours long. we ended up walking about a mile and a half to another stop.
The MCM was amazing! There was a lot of anxiety leading up to it as we were afraid Hurricane Sandy was going to impact the race. Fortunately the storm didn’t hit till Monday. As you said, the crowd support and scenery was great. But yes, just getting to my husband after crossing the finish line took forever. By the time I got to him I was freezing!! Fortunately I brought clothes to change into but it sure took awhile to warm up. My friend and I ran together and decided to run at an easier pace than we train and I’m really glad we did. We didn’t hit “the wall” and both of us are recovering well.
linda – that is awesome! i’m so happy that you had a great experience and were not impacted by the storm. i get really cold after i run too! congratulations and happy recovery! 🙂
I love your playlist, Explosions in the Sky is a great band! And hearing Adele’s ‘Skyfall’ made me even more psyched to see the new Bond film – I think this winter is going to be pretty epic, movie-wise!
love adele’s new song!
Sometimes you can’t beat a weekend alone…though sometimes it does drive you crazy. Awesome photo bomb by the digger!
My husband wasn’t out of town this weekend but was definitely out of the house all weekend for a conference and it was refreshing as well. Love the guy, but everyone likes some alone time!
You are so tan! Lookin’ good chica! Sometimes it’s nice to do things alone. That sweet potato biscuit…OMG I need it. I’m going to have to get lots of songs on that playlist!
it was nice to get a fall tan at the beach a couple of weeks ago. you’ll like some of these songs. based on what you’ve posted previously, i think we have similar workout music preferences.
I love that quote at the end, it reminds me of the song Hero by Regina Spektor (reallllly good song).
oh, will check out!
Weekends alone can be so refreshing! I always feel energized, productive, and ready to tackle the week ahead. Good for you for not thinking about work and enjoying a long run! The weather has been amazing and still rocking shorts! YEAH!
this is my most favorite time of the year to run!
Love that quote, it is so true. Congrats on passing the exam! That is amazing. I’m glad to hear you are connecting with friends and moving forward in life! Its tough to have your life so public on a blog and have people see you deal with tough times, but it will make you so much stronger!
thank you, lisa!
You look gorgeous as ever!
I always wish there was a yoga class like yours where I am in the UK 🙁 Your playlist looks great and I don’t think we have the calibre of teachers over here that you do in the US. You might even achieve the impossible and make me able to do crow pose (so sad that is my lifetime ambition with yoga – I am not a natural by any means! Headstand is just a distant dream).
Congrats on passing your CrossFit exam, Jen–woohoo! 🙂
I need to find a place in Atlanta that plays yoga playlists like that. I’m not too big into yoga (though I enjoy it), but every class I’ve ever gone to just has, for lack of a better term, weird music.
Lazy weekends are the best!
Also, I wish I could take your yoga class! Coldplay+yoga sounds like heaven.
Sometimes weekends alone are just what we need to de-stress and reboot. It’s great that you had the opportunity to teach a yoga class as well!
I think a recreation of the sweet potato biscuit is in order…?! I live nowhere near a WF so I am having to live vicariously through you!
Dang girl – look at those muscles. CrossFit must be working for ya! 😉 8 miles is always something to be proud of. Good for you.
Jen,
I shared your blog with my yoga instructor(who is amazing) and she LOVED it! Thanks for transparency, honesty and just a great read!
Pam
Love your blog Jen! Thinking of moving to charlotte- what is your fave thing about the city?