I had planned to finish up Wellness Week posts on Friday,
but life got in the way and I got tied up with a few things for the
guest bathroom and a crazy day with the girls.
when in doubt, blame the twins……
Today’s post is all over the place…. much like my life.
A highlight of the weekend was having Tuesday’s post about my workout routine make it into Mackenzie’s Weekend Reading list! I have read her blog for so, so long so I was so excited when I went to read her weekly links and saw MY NAME there 🙂 If you don’t follow her, you’ll love her. It’s blue + white heaven, she has the cutest little baby boy and always has great home projects going on.
She shared the link for these blue + white striped heels in the post too and I am in love.
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I wanted to share a favorite dress that you can wear for so many occasions, and it’s only $68!!
With the long sleeves and midi length it’s conservative but it has the leg slit to show a little bit of skin too.
It’s also uber comfortable and feels like you might as well be wearing a nightgown – win, win!
dress and shoes run true to size.
my heels are sold out but the kitten heel version is in stock in black and nude
belt is old but similar belt here and here and here and here
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I wanted to share some favorite FREE workout sources. For years I have watched TV and just googled a workout video to do at home. There are so many great resources out there that won’t cost you a penny!
If you’ve followed for a LONG, LONG time you’ll know that Tracy Anderson’s 8 Minute Arms video is my ride or die. You think just holding your arms with no weights for 8 minutes isn’t hard?! TRY THIS. I fully credit it for strengthening my arms years ago – truly. Just this will change your arms. It’s insane. It’s what made me a Tracy follower. I think it’s the best arm workout around. I could go on and on and on but do this arm workout for 2 weeks and TELL ME you don’t have the best arms you’ve ever had. SERIOUSLY.
{I used to do A LOT of Tracy Anderson a few years ago and did mostly Tracy Anderson leading up to our wedding. I had the DVD’s for her Metamorphosis workouts where it changes every 10 days to a new workout, but you can also just google Tracy Anderson Day 91-100 or Metamorphosis 21-30 etc and lots of free videos come up.}
Popsugar Fitness is another one of my favorite resources for free workouts. Just google popsugar fitness and before you even go to their website there’s videos that show up for you to click on. They have everything. HUGE resource for workouts of all different types and lengths of class times. All for FREE. This 10 minute abs from 2015 is one I have done a zillion times.
You could work out for free for forever with PopSugar alone.
YouTube is another great place to find anything and everything. You can type in a type of workout and length of time and a ton of options immediately come up. The options are endless. A favorite thing about Youtube is it offers suggestions next to whatever video you choose, so you can find similar workouts or scroll through other options easily.
Basically…. with a phone or a laptop, you have free workouts to last you a lifetime.
If going to a studio is your thing, almost everywhere will offer you a first free class if not a first WEEK free. You could spend a few months just getting free classes places if you really felt like it! If a studio doesn’t have a free class advertised – which is shocking – just call the studio and ask. Say you want to take your first class free and I’d be stunned if they are stupid enough not to offer this to get people in the door!
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The Peloton Bike
I get asked constantly about the Peloton bike whenever I share it in my instagram stories,
so I thought I’d answer some commonly asked questions about it here.
Before I answer any questions, know this: I MUTE THE BIKE.
I MUTE THE INSTRUCTOR AND WATCH BRAVO. For 99.9% of my rides. Or I talk on the phone…. which shows you the level of exertion I am using. (I swear I used to go hard at spin…. it’s just not my thing these days to be pouring sweat and have to find time to shower before the girls wake up from their nap. I talked more about this in Tuesday’s post too.)
My husband and I used to spin together 3-4 times a week before I got pregnant. Once the girls were born it got harder and harder for him to make it to class since it would be the one hour he’d get to be with them after work before bedtime.
(For me it was obviously just never going to be worth it to have a spin membership again….. no time to leave the house regularly for workouts.) We had talked about a Peloton in the past but he likes the class environment with the “racing” and competing against other people and seeing all the stats. I on the other hand NEVER went on the board, sat in the back row, covered my monitor with my towel and just danced and rode. For his birthday in October we decided to get the Peloton because it has a 30 day at home trial, and the if he didn’t like it compared to class, we would return it. Luckily, he loves it! And I love it too; I just don’t spin as frequently anymore and instead do it 1-2x a week…..while I watch TV.
truly one of my favorite gifs of all time.
Is the Peloton bike worth it?? YES! If you know you like spin! If you are not someone who regularly spins, why on earth would you buy a spin bike?! I’ve gotten a lot of questions from people who have never spun or spun once or twice and ask if they should get the bike, and my answer to them in HEYYLLL NO. Some people HATE spin! Don’t put a giant piece of workout equipment into your house unless you know it’s a workout you enjoy doing regularly. Or do…. what do I care. But make sure it isn’t a waste of money!
They have a calculator on their website where you can enter in the number of times you spin and it’ll tell you how much you’ll “pay” per ride or save versus going to a studio.
Even though I don’t spin like I used to, it still saves us money just based on Kip’s monthly membership alone.
APP + Different Bike: ALSO, know that you can just download the APP and get ANY BIKE you like which tons of you said that you do when I polled you about it on Instagram before we bit the bullet on the Peloton. You pay I think $29.95 a month for the app (?) and then can get a far cheaper spin bike delivered off of Amazon. A lot of you do it that way and love it. (This is great for people like me who don’t care about the stats or the racing or the live rides….. but my husband wanted all of those bells and whistles and that is why we didn’t go that route!)
The app has far more than just spinning – it also has tons of strength workouts, yoga, meditation, bootcamp, etc. (Again…. I use none of this…. but people rave about it?!)
Favorite instructors? Well…. as I said…. I mute the bike. Sorry not sorry – my motivation is watching my Bravo shows or having a distraction while I watch the nonsense of The Bachelor. BUT, when I have actually listened, I like Cody and Ally Love the best. Those seem to be the top popular instructors that people recommended to me, too. And my husband rides to Cody most frequently.
How do you mute the bike and ride?
No joke I get asked this all the time…
Ummmmm….. I mute the TV attached to the bike…..
and I turn the volume up on the TV playing trash reality programs.
Kidding…. but seriously.
Maybe it’s because I’ve worked out while watching TV for a long time that I don’t find it difficult but ESPECIALLY with spinning it is SO EASY. The Peloton shows you on the screen the range the instructor is wanting you to be in for speed and also for resistance, and you can glance down and see when they are in or out of the saddle, etc. ALSO, that’s the beauty of spin. You can do whatever you want! Make it as easy or as difficult with speed and resistance as you want that day. There is truly no easier workout to do while watching TV than a Peloton spin class. It’s glorious.
To summarize my rambling – I think it is TOTALLY worth it and will even SAVE you money like it does for us if you spin regularly, especially if there are two of you in your house that both will use the bike.
You can always try the 30 Day in home trial too if it’s something you’ve been debating for a long time!
also, the only referral code they give you is for $100 in clothing, but you get $100 credit for apparel if you end up getting one here’s a code: 3BQ6EA
If you’re wanting a review from someone who fully utilizes the back – which DUH I’m guessing you do –
Sarah just wrote a full blog post about it last week!
Check out her post for a FAR BETTER review than mine 🙂
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The girls saw their first snow over the weekend 🙂
They seemed confused slash unimpressed?!
But it was fun for us nonetheless!
Hope you all have a great start to the week!!!
