Hi! I'm Meredith. Join me while I run and cook my way through single motherhood. It is always an adventure trying to teach my 12 year old son the benefits of an active lifestyle combined with healthy eating while of course, still leaving room for dessert.
I have fallen out of my usual blog routine due to moving last week! At least I have a good excuse, right?
I’m obsessed with my new home — the high ceilings, bright natural light, and that everything NEW feeling is very exciting.
I’ve been really busy organizing cabinets, closets, and rooms, and really love how clean, neat, and functional it all is!
With all of this natural light, I really should amp up my sharing of my meals. Not sure that will happen, but here’s a picture of the first salad I made in my new home:
Can we talk a few Friday Favorites?
Watch for the spring launch tomorrow from Stoney Clover — I already want every item coming out because the patterns, new styles, and prettiness is just so my style.
Well, last week was quite a busy week and it’s looking like the next couple of weeks are insane too because I’m moving! I kinda knew I might be moving (within the same area) but wasn’t sure how fast it would happen and well, it happens at the end of next week!
This means I’m scrambling to organize, pack, order some new things, and then move into my new bigger, brighter home with lots of storage space and a pretty balcony. I’m very excited but very busy which means the blog will be lacking until I’m settled. I haven’t moved in 14 years so although I’m super organized and often clean things out, there’s still a lot fo do.
My workouts are not lacking but will be a little different, I’m sure. My focus when I’m this busy and working hard physically to pack my house is on yoga and doing what feels good through the chaos.
Last Week’s Workouts
2 Yoga Classes
2 Pilates Classes
2 Runs
1 Spin Class
I never made it to a barre class and skipped the walking class that I normally take on Sunday before pilates in favor of walking easy myself on the treadmill before pilates. I just wasn’t up for inclines — moving is a physical activity and I have to balance that into my usual workout routine!
Monday – 4 Mile Run (outside!)
I don’t recall the last time I ran outdoors before today!
I cannot tell you how amazing this practice felt — I was so tired and so busy packing and planning but I knew that escaping for yoga would be worth it, and it was.
I’m totally back to running after that brief week with my hamstring bothering me. I mean it when I say that I never run with any sort of aches or pains so for me to have said my hamstring didn’t feel right, means it really didn’t feel right.
But I’m all better now and hey, that didn’t take long!
Last Week’s Workouts
I was really in the mood to run after testing out running last weekend to realize my hamstring was better! I am, however, being really careful not to push my pace too quickly and risk my hamstring feeling tight again.
4 Runs
2 Barre Classes
2 Pilates Classes
1 Yoga Class
1 Walk Class
1 Spin Class
Monday – 20 Min Run + 45 Min Barre (2 lb weights + ball + band)
My hamstring felt fine and normal during my 20-minute warm-up run on the treadmill today before barre! I was still cautious, gradually increasing the speed from 6 to 6.8, hovering between 6.3-6.5 with inclines between 1 – 3%.
Tuesday – 20 Min Run + 45 Min Spin (Beats & Bands)
Wednesday – 60 Min Bala Bangle Barre Burn
Thursday – 30 Min Run + 60 Min Pilates
I signed up for Vinyasa Yoga today (my favorite Thursday class!) but they called me from Equinox shortly after to say the instructor was sick and yoga would be changed to pilates at the last minute.
Friday – OFF
Saturday – 30 Min Run + 60 Min Vinyasa Yoga
I skipped spin and the run class in favor of an easy run on my own. While I kept it easy with speeds between 6.3- 6.8 and inclines between 1 – 4%, I did slowly increase my speed to the 7 – 7.5 speed range in the last ten minutes while paying attention to my hamstring to ensure all felt fine. All was good!
Sunday – 45 Min Precision Walk Elevate + 45 Min Pilates
Both of these classes have become so popular that I have to sign up when registration opens 24 hours in advance to get my spot! Seriously, people show up without signing up for pilates and are turned away lately.
This week totally got away from me but I wanted to pop in today with some favorites worth discussing!
Glossier at Sephora!
Glossier is now available at Sephora! I’ve been writing about my favorites from Glossier for a few years now so it’s really nice to have it available in-person at Sephora.
If you are new to Glossier, here are my top picks:
Also from Sephora, I recently bought the Ilia Lip Oil. It feels really nice on the lips and the color stays put. I’ve been alternating this lip oil with my favorite Tarte Maracuja Juicy Lip Plumps. I never loved a gloss as much as I love these from Tarte!
[show_shopthepost_widget id=”4949603″]
Fashion Favorites
I think I like these shorts with the matching top from Aerie for summer days at the beach, or after the beach.
It turned out to be a full week without running for me, which is really fine – I’m grateful that I gave my hamstring a chance to heal from whatever was bothering it, and that it didn’t take too long because I stopped running immediately the week before when I noticed it didn’t feel “right”. I did try to run on Wednesday, but when I felt my hamstring in the first two steps, I quickly decided to give it more time.
By Saturday’s run attempt, I felt fine!
I will say though, I did the elliptical for the first time in easily a year, and that was a nice change! The range of motion felt perfect for my hamstring and provided me with a nice warm-up option before barre and pilates.
Last Week’s Workouts
I love that I have so many workout options that I barely realize how many days I go without running.
2 Walking Classes
2 PIlates Classes
1 Barre Class
1 Barefoot Sculpt Class
1 Yoga Class
1 Spin Class
Monday – 15 Min Elliptical + 45 Min Barre (ball, strap, 2 lb weights)
I hadn’t used an elliptical machine in a year, and I never tried one at Equinox until now! My hamstring felt well enough to try it out and when I didn’t feel anything while pedaling, I kept going as an easy warm-up before barre class.
Tuesday – 10 Min Elliptical + 60 Min Pilates Fusion (ring + 2 lb weights)
My hamstring feels better today! I still warmed up on the elliptical because that feels really nice right now. Also, this pilates class was so challenging in such a great way.
Wednesday – 30 Min Elliptical
I went outside to run but within two steps I “felt” my hamstring so I didn’t push it – I went home, changed my clothes, and headed to Equinox. The elliptical felt nice and then I did a few rounds of free weights before stretching.
Thursday – 45 Min Precision Walk Elevate + 60 Min Vinyasa Yoga
I did okay with today’s treadmill walk class! While I kept my speed a little slower than normal and only went up to a 12% incline when the rest of the class was at 15%, my hamstring felt much better.
Friday – 20 Min Elliptical + 60 Min Barefoot Sculpt (2 lb weights + ball)
Saturday – 20 Min Run + 45 Min Spin(Beats & Bands)
I was able to run today! I started with a one minute run/one minute walk to see how my hamstring held up during the intervals. Once I noticed I was fine, I stayed with an easy pace (6.3 -6.5 speed on treadmill) and an incline between 1.0-2.0%.
Sunday – 45 Min Precision Walk Elevate + 45 Min Pilates
My hamstring feels so much better! I may try running outside today OR I may not. I don’t mind not running, but the weather is so nice for this time of year and I already did barre and pilates so far this week. I’m just so proud of myself for realizing that my hamstring hurt during Saturday’s run and that I was smart enough to back off immediately, rest it for a few days from running/walking, and feel like myself again. I just don’t understand why people push themselves into injuries.
Recent Meals
I eat oatmeal every day for breakfast but never take a picture of it. However, I had the baked oatmeal at the Premier Diner on Monday for lunch and did take a picture because it’s such a big beautiful bowl of goodness.
From what I understand, the diner makes one batch of baked oatmeal every morning. When it runs out, they don’t make more until the next day. I was lucky to get a big bowl served with a side of milk that I pour on top to mush everything up — it’s just so good.
In other lunch news, I had this big chopped salad from Town Bagel. I would be lying if I listed the ingredients – I really don’t remember well enough to do so.
I do remember what was in this salad that I made for lunch:
Romaine
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Mushrooms
Onion
Dr. Praeger’s Veggie Burger
Chickpeas
Avocado
Feta Cheese
Balsamic Vinaigrette
My new routine after yoga is to come home, shower, and make mashed avocado on Ezekiel toast and/or an egg on toast. There’s mashed avocado under that egg, by the way.
The staff at Mario’s gets really confused if I walk in to order something other than “my usual” which is the whole wheat margarita pizza to go, not heated up.
I decided, on a whim, to order the eggplant pizza for a change. The girl rang it up but the man who usually boxes up my pizza put the whole wheat margarita pizza in the box first. When we told him I did something crazy and got a different slice, he boxed the eggplant pizza but they gave me the margarita pizza to take home (for free) too.
My son ate my free margarita slice so fast as a snack before I could even decide if I wanted a bite or to wrap it up.
I always say how much I enjoy the lentil pasta from Trader Joe’s – I really do! It’s so great to have on hand for a quick and easy, healthy but always tasty dinner.
I cooked mushrooms in a pan with olive oil while cooking the lentil pasta separately. Then I combined everything in the pan with the Trader Joe’s plant-based bolognese sauce. Really is such a good combination!
Apples!
I mentioned last week that I’ve been back to eating an apple almost every night.
This was an organic honey crisp warmed with cinnamon and a little bit of peanut butter.
And this apple was a Granny Smith not warmed, sprinkled with cinnamon, peanut butter, and a few dark chocolate chips.
I’m so glad that I’m the type of runner who knows when to stop running.
In Saturday’s run class, the instructor suggested I start the first speed section at 8.0 — that’s fast for me at the start of a workout and I should have known that.
However, I went with what he said because I had already run a one-mile warm-up. I also figured that running is mostly mental and for sure the 8.0 speed range is within my abilities, I just don’t push myself very often anymore.
The first couple of minutes into the intervals I was fine but by the third or fourth round as we increased the speed, I felt my hamstring more than I should and I JUST KNEW not to continue in that speed range. My hamstring didn’t feel right for me.
This was too fast too quickly into the workout so I slowed down to an easy run but after maybe 15 minutes (I don’t know for sure), I switched to walking.
Being in the class setting is sort of like a race environment and you feel a bit bad to “drop out” but I couldn’t care about it — I don’t do injuries, and certainly not injuries I can prevent.
I’m not stupid. I don’t need to finish a run if there’s a risk I may injure myself. It’s more important to me to catch whatever I feel and then it goes away fast than continue because I don’t want to stop in front of others, risking my chance of causing a real injury.
I’m so glad I stopped when I did to only have a little hamstring soreness now — I spoke to Laura immediately to tell her what happened and she told me NOT to run for three days (no problem with that at all!) and to skip Sunday’s incline walking class (I had no problem with that either!).
Again, better to be smart and deal with minor issues than be selfish and stubborn only to have major problems that sideline you from everything!
Last Week’s Workouts
3 Runs (1 class, 2 on my own)
2 Pilates Classes
1 Walking Class
2 Yoga Classes
I didn’t get to barre or spin last week! I was more in the mood for running than spin, and barre was just an accidental miss due to timing and choosing pilates fusion on Tuesday which I don’t normally do.
love matching moments!
Monday – 30 Min Running Workout (Equinox+ App)
My abs felt a bit sore so I skipped barre today and chose a running workout from the Equinox+ App! I don’t recall the exact workout but it was intervals with inclines going from 4% down to 0% and my speed ranged from easy at 6 to as high as 8.7. At one point I was at 8.3 on a 4% incline and that’s HARD.
I finished with a cool down to reach four miles total.
I really enjoyed today’s pilates class. The instructor who usually teaches the evening pilates fusion class subbed today’s morning class time – I really liked her style and structure for pilates fusion.
Wednesday – Outdoor Walk
Thursday – 45 MIn Precision Walk Elevate + 60 Min Vinyasa Yoga
Friday – 4 Mile Run (treadmill)
I made up today’s running workout on my own. Since I plan to do tomorrow’s run class, I didn’t go too fast in this workout. I think my fastest speed was 7.6 with easy sections at 6.0.
10 min warm-up
10 min 1 min hard/1 min easy
10 min 2 min hard/1 min easy
cool down to 4 miles
Saturday – Precision Run + 60 MIn Vinyasa Yoga
Things started out okay with me running a warm-up mile before the run class started. But then we quickly jumped into the workout after two minutes and the instructor suggested that I be at 8.0 with a 2% incline, which in hindsight, was definitely too fast for me so soon into the workout. By the time I was at 8.5, I knew my hamstring did not like what was going on so I slowed down to 6.0 and held that for a while before deciding to switch to walking to finish out the class.
Sunday – 45 Min Pilates
I listened to Laura’s advice and skipped the incline walk class for today. PIlates felt great!
—
I may try running outside on Wednesday but I’m not sure yet! For now I will stick to barre and pilates, maybe spin once I feel nothing in my hamstring. I’m fine with not running until the weekend too! I’ll just see day by day. I already feel much less in my hamstring but I don’t mess around — I will wait until I feel nothing in that spot of my leg so I don’t cause an injury.
I don’t know how it’s Friday already but I will take it! All week I was on call for jurty duty but each day at 5:00 PM when I called in, I was told by the recording to call back the next day. Well here we are at the end of the week and I didn’t have to appear and have been released from “duty” — I’m a very happy person!
I have a few favorites to share from the week, let’s take a look…
Glow Bar
I had my monthly 30-minute facial at GlowBar a few days ago — I these appointments so much! It’s just 30 minutes during which the esthetician decides which treatments your skin needs at that moment. Every appointment at Glowbar follows a format but looks a little different in terms of treatments and products used because your skin may require more or less hydration or exfoliation — I love the personalized attention.
Glossier Lip Balm
I placed a new Glossier order to restock what I think is the best lip balm – Glossier’s Balm dotcom.
I like to have several tubes available to me at all times. One for my gym bag, one for my makeup bag, one in my bathroom, and at least one unopened on reserve.
I ordered the Balm Dotcom trio which lets you pick three types while saving a few dollars. I chose two more unscented plus a birthday cake version for the light scent and sparkle.
These two tubes below were actually both in my makeup bag at once – in winter espcially, I can never have enough.
Oh! And I also ordered a Body Hero Exfoliating Bar for the shower! I will let you know what I think of it – I’ve heard great reviews but never bought it to try for myself until now.
Now is the time to shop lululemon’s We Made Too Much section for winter running accessories. Grab them on sale and use them this year or put away for next winter!
I figured out the image loading issue with my blog that I mentioned last week. What I haven’t figured out is why my blog emails stopped sending a few weeks ago! My initial approach of pretending there wasn’t a problem and that the issue would fix itself didn’t in fact fix it. I’m hopeful that whatever I managed to tweak in the system yesterday will have the emails start sending again after today’s post.
Recent Meals
I have a few dinners and an excellent dessert to discuss for this week! I wish I had a few lunches to share but I didn’t stop to take pictures of them — I will do a better job for next week.
Pizza!
It had been at least a month since I last had the whole wheat grandma pizza I discovered from La Focaccia.
The crust is so airy and light that it sits so nicely in my stomach. Not to mention, it’s quite delicious.
I’m also still enjoying the whole wheat margarita pizza with a salad for dinner at least one night a week. This has been a routine dinner staple of mine now for about five years!
I’m really trying to have wild salmon for dinner one to two times a week.
I had this salmon with a baked potato and roasted cauliflower.
And another night I made the wild salmon with a baked sweet potato and rainbow cauliflower.
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed that I’m posting more to my stories again. I shared about these rainbow cookie cupcakes last week!
When I arrived at Small Cakes, there were two rainbow cookie cupcakes left so I bought them both – one for me and one for my son.
My son did not eat his cupcake the day I bought which, to me, means that it was now anyone’s cupcake the next day. He didn’t really agree with me but hello, eat it the day I buy it or it’s up for grabs.
I’ve also been eating an apple again every night as a snack. I bought organic honey crisp but also decided to go back to granny smith apples too. If you are a longtime reader, you may recall that I lived on big granny smith apples for years! Then I got tired of them. Well, now they are back in my life so I will share some new apple snack photos next week. In the meantime, I did a quick “apple” search in the blog media library which revealed tons of results from over the years.
Another solid week of workouts at Equinox is in the books for me which included a little more focus on/interest in running.
I’m finding it exciting to switch up my runs with the Precision Run class, and the Equinox+ App which I remembered to finally try using for running workouts. At this point in my “running career,” I’m really just looking for variety and different ways to make running fun. I’m not training for a race or even planning to run a race ever again (never say never) so it’s all about what keeps me running happily on a leisurely basis.
I knew eventually I would take the Precision Run class at Equinox, and well, here we are. I took my time deciding to take the running workout class because there are so many other great classes I like taking and running is something I can do myself at other times. HOWEVER, It’s enjoyable to do something different with my running and challenge myself in running workouts that are told to me vs me making them up for myself in real-time. I like the class setting for running too, really so fun and different — I’m all for different workout experiences right now.
Last Week’s Workouts
2 Runs (plus 2 warm-up runs)
2 Barre Classes
2 Yoga Classes
2 Walking Classes
1 Pilates Class
1 Spin Class
Monday – 10 Min Run + 45 Min Barre (2 lb weights/ball/ band)
Even just a 10 min run satisfies me when I want to do other workouts but want to run too.
Tuesday – 10 Min Run + 45 Min Spin (Beats & Bands)
I would have liked to run slightly longer before spin but I ran out of time — either way, the 10 minutes made me happy. I always get more out of spin when I run a little first as a warm-up. Also! I love the addition of resistance bands in the new Beats & Bands style spin class.
Thursday – 45 Min Precision Walk Elevate + 60 Min Vinyasa Yoga
Friday – 30 Min Treadmill Workout (Equinox+ App)
I finally remembered to try one of the running workouts available in the Equinox+ App! I picked an intermediate ladder workout but instead of walking the easy segments, I slowed my running speed to 6.0 – 6.1 which definitely made things harder as the run progressed.
The running workout ranged inclines from 1 – 5 with speed ranging for me from 6 in the easy portions to 8 as my fastest. It was a great run and a fun change for me!
Saturday – 45 Min Precision Run + 60 Min Vinyasa Yoga
This was my second time taking the treadmill run class. The regular class instructor (who was out last week) is SO NICE and educated on running — he checked in with each runner throughout the run and even checked my form. He said that I have good running form and that I’m so light on my feet as I run that I don’t put a lot of impact on my joints which is great – and may explain why I never feel discomfort in my knees or hips.
When we chatted further after the workout, he suggested that since I’m an experienced runner, I should definitely run the easy segments vs walking them in the next class. I told him that I figured that was the case but I found the walk segments a novelty and something different. I’m definitely not against the run/walk intervals but I can certainly run the entire duration of the class.
Today’s running workout ranged inclines from 0 – 5% with my fasted speed at 8.6.
Sunday – 45 Min Precision Walk Elevate + 45 Min Pilates
The Cookie ChRUNicles 