Being cliche and wanting to be healthier

I know you're supposed to talk about getting healthy, and working out and eating less sugar and all that jazz around new years but I don't follow those rules so here's my blog post about it in May.

I've been wanting to jump back in to eating A LOT better and working harder on being healthier in general so I'm declaring June as my kick-off. We don't eat terrible or sit on our tush all day but there could definitely be some room for improvement.

Some goals of mine (and I'm hoping to rope Josh into it too), and obviously they are super cliché, don't judge.

Eat less sugar
I am a sweets girl to my core so this is obviously a hard one. I seriously ate ice cream almost daily the first year of Beck's life (thank you breastfeeding). I usually do pretty well on the no sweets at all except one day a week thing. It's the perfect balance for me so I'm going back to it!

Incorporate more vegetables 
I told you this was cliche... but seriously, I need to find ways to incorporate more vegetables. I love almost all vegetables but my laziness gets the best of me when it comes to preparing them for lunches and dinners. Meal planning and prepping, green smoothies, juicing and lots of baby carrots for snacks are in my future.

Buy athletic shoes and actually work out more
My excuse for not working out as much is that I don't have any athletic shoes and it's actually a pretty legitimate excuse so I'm planning on getting these tomorrow! I usually walk at least 2 miles a day (thank you stroller with a odometer) but my goal is to up that and take Beck on longer walks since it's nicer outside. I'll be setting daily steps/mileage goals and working to reach them everyday. I also have a month long abs/arms/legs workout I'll be doing to tone up my non-existent muscles. It only takes 10 minutes a day and it's killer.

Take better care of my emotional health
It's so easy to forget this one (especially as a mom) but I want to make it a priority. The plan is to not overcommit and put too much onto my plate (ie. say no to more things), take more baths (they are life-giving for me),  unplug from social media more often, and take real days off from working every week. Stress be gone!

I think thats all my goals for now. Any tips??? It's not going to be a huge change from what I'm doing now but I'm hoping the little improvements here and there will make a world of difference.

Sunshine on a cloudy day

Just an excuse to post a couple photos from a few weeks ago. Walking around town on a rainy day, stomping in puddles and waiving and saying "byeeeee" to everyone. That smile!

Today we're having a slow day—eating cinnamon rolls, playing with dinosaurs, watching dinosaurs on netflix, doing pretty much everything dinosaur these days. It's grey and drizzly and I've got the diffuser going with clove and cinnamon essential oils. Cozy in here!

Hope your weekend is amazing too!

I ♥ NYC

Last week I took a long awaited trip to NYC for four days with some friends! It was my first time in the city and we took full advantage of every second we had. We stayed at an airbnb in the east village and walked 10-11 miles a day and ate every possible chance. We took a few cabs and rode the subway twice but other than that we walked everywhere, which was fun (and tiring!).

Some of my favorite things we did:
Food/drink- Milk bar, blue bottle coffee, sweetgreen, thompson square bagels, sundaes and cones, grimaldis pizza (best pizza in my life!!!), Cafeteria, laduree, shake shack, peoples pops and mad square eats.
Sights- top of the rock, chelsea market, the high line, walking/shopping around soho, flatiron district, the library, central park, walk across the brooklyn bridge, and of course times square (overwhelming but fun to see for a minute).

Such a fun trip and I know I'll go back again and again (and stay in chelsea!).

Like I expected, it was super hard to be away from Beck for 4 days but we survived and I pretty much haven't left his side since I've been back. Leaving your kid for the first time is rough guys, don't let anyone tell you otherwise! It's a good thing I stayed so busy on the trip :)


Oh!! And of course, I wasn't going to go to nyc and not go to Taylor Swift's building. I don't know if she was in NY when we were there but it was fun. Not as extravagant as you'd think huh? She's so humble guys ;)

motherhood.

"Nothing prepared me for the privilege of being yours"

This is the age of: his giraffe obsession, running (never walking), yo gabba gabba watching, the stink eye, always showing off his belly button, running to the window every time the trash truck comes, and saying words that only we understand like luh-luh (love you) and tak-tuk (trash truck) and other words that everyone understands like byeee and Up and hot.

And even though some days are long and hard, everyday is the best day.


(Some extra photos that didn't get posted from this day. They were too good to leave out forever though.)

Make your own baby wipes! What?!

Ok, before you start judging and thinking I've gone major hippy on you... hear me out. I've seen dozens of diy baby wipes on the net (mostly pinterest) but when I looked at what they were made out of—paper towels—I always dismissed them, thinking how could a soggy paper towel possibly remain sturdy enough to clean Beck's tush, surely they would just crumble to pieces right??

Wrong. A couple friends had made some recently and I was blown away. When I ran out of store-bought wipes I ran to the store for a roll of paper towels to put it to the test myself. I had everything else already at home to make them and honestly, it was just super fun to do. And they are awesome! They work so well it kind of makes me mad I didn't try this a year ago. They clean super well and are moisturizing too, thanks to the coconut oil! They are also safe to use on hands and faces too, of course, since its made entirely from natural (like truly natural) ingredients.

And at less than $2 for a roll of paper towels (which makes two tubs), they are way more affordable than any "natural" wipes you can buy which is a major win.


Here's how you make them! I adapted the recipe slightly from here

1 roll of paper towels—I used viva and they are perfect!
1 3/4 cups distilled water, or boiled and cooled but still warm
1 Tablespoon coconut oil
1 Tablespoon witch hazel
1 Tablespoon castile soap (Dr. Bronners)
2 capsules of vitamin E
Lavender and Tea tree essential oil, 3 drops each
A container to store the wipes in!

Cut the roll of paper towels in half and place one half cut side down in the container.
In a bowl, mix together the water, coconut oil, witch hazel, castile soap, and vitamin e and stir until everything is blended together. Add essential oils then give another quick stir.
Pour the mixture of the paper towels in the container and let it sit for 5-10 minutes until its absorbed then put the lid on a flip the container over to make sure the wipes are well soaked.
Pull the cardboard center out of the wipes, which will pull the innermost wipe up to start your roll off.