Hi, hi! 😀 I missed you guys yesterday! But I can explain my absence…
Guess who had a craaaaaa-zy Saturday night?
Errr, well… not this girl 😉 Unless, of course, your idea of crazy involves hitting up a favorite bar grocery store to restock on some essentials – because in that case, I went wild.
[Trail mix – Baked lentil chips – Salsa – Steelies – Canned pumpkin]
[Plain/Strawberry Greek yogurt – Almond milk – Cottage cheese – Kombucha]
Or not. Really, the only thing wild about it was the bill. Very ouch. But hey, a girl’s gotta eat [the foods that she loves], right? Right.
I did briefly entertain the idea of hitting up the mall to do some typical girly shopping, but inevitably decided against it. I have enough clothes to wear [for now], and there never seems to be enough food to eat. Besides… grocery stores are mercifully empty on Saturday nights because all of the “normal” people are out having a good time, leaving me to wander the aisles in peace 😀
My only complaint would be that people aren’t the only thing missing from the stores – a lot of my favorite products are, as well. They were out of the good eggs, there was only one baggie of trail mix left, and I had to resort to buying cranberry kombucha because all of the better flavors were sold out. Grumble.
Ahh well. Ya win some, ya lose some.
So, really, I don’t have a good excuse for my absence yesterday. Oh wait, yes I do – rest. Who says rest days only apply to exercise? As much as I love writing, sometimes I just get burnt out. Sometimes I really don’t want to sit down at the computer or think about coming up with a good post.
Sometimes I just wanna enjoy a beautiful day outside…
… finish up a good [but extremely bizarre] book…
… or spend some quiet time cozying up to a cup of tea…
So that’s what I did, and it was glorious 😀 But the best part about it? Devoting an entire day to doing absolutely nothing at all completely recharged my batteries, and left me more than willing to tackle everything on today’s to-do list, which included:
… a mid-morning trip to the gym…
… where I did 20 minutes of HIIT on the treadmill, followed by a lifting routine from NROLFW…
… which I completely rocked thanks to this beauty of a snack…
[cottage cheese mixed with vanilla protein powder and cocoa powder … banana with almond butter]
… which was amazing…
Then I spent most of the afternoon in the car or on the phone, taking care of business for work…
… which I only managed to get through thanks to [a few of] these gems…
… and a bottle of my not-so-favorite flavor of kombucha…
Then I had a bit of time to blog and make dinner…
[Pumpkin Chili Mexican Scramble]
… and soon I’ll be headed out the door yet again to do some more apartment shopping; and I hope that I find something I like soon because I’m hoping to be out by the end of the month. Fingers crossed.
But where was I going with all of this…? Ahh yes. Rest. I absolutely adore it. My workouts are always 100x better after I take a few days off, and I feel 100x more productive after I have a day or two to just chill. I used to run myself ragged by working out 7 days a week and constantly feeling like I had to be on the go, but these days I take make sure to take two days off from exercise every week, as well as a day or two to do nothing but chill. And it’s been nothing but great.
Hope you’re all having a restful night, loves 😀
. – . – . – .
Who loves rest days as much as I do?
Which do you prefer: shopping for clothes or shopping for groceries?
Any good book recommendations? I recently finished reading The Help, The Kite Runner, The Hunger Games, Room, and Her Fearful Symmetry. I’m planing on picking up A Thousand Splendid Suns next, but is there anything else I just need to read?
I like both shopping for clothes and groceries, but for clothes I really need to be in a certain mood 😀 While I can go grocery shopping anytime and have fun. Rest days.. I don’t really know about them. I mean I do like them but I feel like I need to be doing something. If I’m out and about then yes, totally love them because I have more time for other things, but if I have nothing to do resting can get intimidating. I’ve been looking for some good books. I’ll be sure to check those out :]
Rest is such a beautiful thing in every aspect of life!
Book recommendation: “Handle With Care” by Judi Picoult” Soooooooo good!
That is my kind of wild crazy night!! i don’t know why anyone would think that is ‘uncool’. It’s fun! 😀 You might like the Poison Study if you liked Hunger Games. It is a trilogy and I just finished the 1st one. I liked it!
yey for apartment shopping how exciting!! ive just bookarked the pupkin chilli recipe sounds right up my street!
ooh thats a touch one clothes shopping can be good and bad depending on my mind set so I would go for food shopping as food can make me happy:) it has taken me a while to relalise this lol.
I love to read, espeically jodi Picoult books
That’s the exact same brand of pumpkin that I’m hoarding in my pantry! Except my label’s only in English… I cracked into another one today. Now I only have one left… oh nooooes.
Since I was on vacation, I didn’t “exercise” on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. It was weird, because the hotel had a gym and I could have worked out if I really wanted to. But for the most part, I didn’t want to! Except for a brief 2 hour period one afternoon when I had nothing to do while the rest of my family was at the waterpark (sadly too cold for me….) I didn’t even think about working out–I was having too much fun. 🙂 If I’m busy like that, I don’t mind rest days. When I have nothing to do and get bored though, I absolutely hate them!
I hate rest days, but I am having one today, so I am trying to relax.
Any Jodi Picoult book is AMAZING!
Is that Liberte Greek yogurt good? I have tried Oikos, Chobani, Fage, and now Dannon. Dannon is terrible, and I have never heard of Liberte…
Dang it. Just realized it is only sold in Canada! :'(
Hehe yeah. We don’t get Oikos, Chobani, and Fage. We get Liberte, and we’re lucky that it’s good, ’cause there’s not much else to choose from!
Grocery shopping is seriously one of my favorite activities in the world. People make fun of me for being so into it. I think I’d rather go to a grocery store than a clothing store. Haha.
And, I DEFINITELY love rest days as much as I do!
I would recommend “Cutting for Stone” – it’s next on my “to-read” list. I’ve heard amazing things about it. (BTW – just finished “The Help” and LOVED it! Want to go back and read it all over again!)
I absolutely love your strawberry mug!
You don’t like cosmic cranberry?
Lol I do like it, but there are flavors that I prefer. This one kind of just tastes like plain old cranberry juice.
I love rest days! I take AT LEAST 2 days off from exercise and try to take a day off once a week from blogging. And I totally agree that you’re more than ready to jump back into the game after you’ve rested. I seriously hate clothes shopping. It bores me to tears. Which would explain why no one likes bringing me along to shop with them 🙂 I’m reading Atlas Shrugged right now and it’s something like 1500 pages long so I think I’ll be reading it for the rest of my life. It’s good (if you’re into character development especially), just looooong. I’ll be coming to you for recommendations if I ever finish.
Shopping for food > shopping for clothes.
Shopping for groceries is preferable because I don’t have to try things on… but it’s so annoying when the store doesn’t have in stock what I want! Which happens quite often…
I like the idea of “chill” days in theory — but I’m just not very good at them! I get antsy if I’m idle for too long.
Books… um, I wouldn’t even know where to start.
<3 <3
Hey Amanda,
I DEFINITELY prefer grocery shopping to clothes shopping, but really get irked when they run out of stuff. Once, the store did not have beets..not good cause I love them. I got carrots instead but they aren’t the same.
As far as books, oh man, don’t even get me started. I LOVE reading 🙂
I recommend How to Read the Air, Ordinary People by Judith Guest, also Michael Chabon is an interesting writer to look into.
If I have to choose between clothes shopping and grocery shopping, I absolutely always choose the latter. I don’t mind wearing the same clothes for years, I’m just not a girl who’d be happy to brag about a new bag or some fancy dress. But if I buy something great at the grocery store, I will make sure that everybody knows 😀 .
Add some coconut to the cottage cheese and it will be absolutely perfect!
I love days of nothingness and I love to go grocery shopping! Sometimes I stumble upon a day where I can just stay in my pj’s all day take a shower and get back into pj’s. As for books I am sort of behine on current up to date must reads as I have a toddler and I just can never seem to find the time. I do love to read though maybe I will pick some out of what everyone is recomending.
I’m so jealous of your grocery store & that it has all those products! I have to go to 4 different grocery stores just to get all my favourite foods. 😛
Hmm I really like clothes shopping when I’m in the mood for it. But I’m always in the mood for grocery shopping! I get really excited when I’m shopping for a new recipe or buying a new food! Ok that makes me sound like a total freak haha!
Book rec: Fried Green Tomatoes. I just read it this summer and I fell in love with it. And the movie is fantastic too.
ohhhh Amanda you are so much like me, I would much rather to to the food stores on a Saturday night whilst every else is out partying. ( oh yes i do that 😛 )
Ohh thats hard, because i love to buy clothes but sometimes I get more enjoyment out of browsing the supermarkets for food. 😀
Rest days are so good, our body uses alot of energy just for every day activities so its so important to sit down but our feet up and enjoy the relaxation.
As for books, I really would recommend books by Dorothy Koomson one of the best being The Ice Cream Girls. Also Books by Jodie Picoult are very good too The Pact is really good. 😀
I missed you too! 🙂 But taking breaks from blogging is so important because you can feel all blogged out and you start to feel the need to do it everyday because everyone expects it from you which is definitely not always possible when we have busy lives, plus yeah, we need some chill time too!
Your crazy Saturday nights sound just like mine – totally wild aren’t they compared to every other 20 year old who’s out in the nightclubs?! But hey, I would MUCH rather spend my money on good food rather than alcohol thankyou very much 🙂 I definitely definitely prefer grocery shopping like x10000 more than clothes, which is so bad for me to say because I’m a fashion student. Gah, so I’m a bad fashion student then!
I love rest days, I just wish I could have more ‘complete’ rest days, i.e. doing nothing – no blogging, no computer time etc but with me working full time and trying to study to complete my diet and nutrition advisor course its tough! I do try and make time for at least an hour before bed of doing nothing but chilling with my man 😉 Oh and I totally love grocery shopping more than clothes shopping and as a lover of fashion that’s saying something!
Hi Amanda,
Does her fearful symmetry get better/start to draw you in a bit later in the book or did you like it from the beginning? I found it really hard to get into and stopped about a quarter in…but I’m wondering if I should have kept going and would have liked it eventually…
Just wondering if it was a personal preference thing or I was being too impatient!
The same thing happened to me. I actually bought the book over a year ago and read about 1/4 of it the first time and put it down. But after finishing my last book and having nothing else to read, I decided to pick it up and give it a second chance. It does get better, and there are definitely some interesting plot twists. The story itself is really twisted and bizarre, though… definitely not something I was expecting.
I think I love and treat clothes and food shopping just the same… I often go into a foodstore (even if it’s just the same local supermarket) to ‘browse’ just in case there might be something new, ha ha, like you do with clothing stores.
I used to travel a lot with work and was in a different country every week. One of my favourite things to do was to browse through all the local grocers and supermarkets admiring all the foreign produce! Ha ha.
I’m glad to hear you had a great rest day! Those are important and leave you feeling amazing the next day 🙂
As much as I do love clothes shopping, sometimes I’m just not in the mood. However, I’m pretty sure I’m ALWAYS in the mood to go grocery shopping 🙂
It’s been soo long since I’ve read an actual book rather than a whole bunch of textbooks. Those are some great ones you listed though!…I really want to read The Help.
I missed you yesterday, but I figured you only where busy or needed some rest! It must take some energy to come up with so many beautiful posts, day in and day out 😉 So happy you enjoyed your day off!
As much as I love to shop for clothes, I would much rather shop for food any day! It is just so much fun! I have a favorit small store where I buy my fruits and veggies. The people who work there, are from Turkey and just so sweet! I always feel welcome, and almost like I know them 🙂 And they have the best prices on fresh, local and often organic produce- makes me so happy!
Oh, you can look forward to A Thousand Splendid Suns! One of the best books I have ever read!
Oh, how I miss my cottage cheese with cocoa powder!! :)) And is that a gunpowder green tea you were drinking? Because that´s my favorite 🙂
I really love how you spent your wild Saturday night :)) Mine included drinking hot tea and reading a book, so I also showed my wild side 🙂 I am all for shopping for groceries rather than for clothes, because as you said, you can never have enough food, but clothes – well, that´s another question.
It is great you are able to take a nice rest day and just enjoy it!
Have you ever read anything by Haruki Murakami? It is a bit of a Japanesse postmodern, but with a really good plot, a bit of mystery hidden, a lot about relationships in current society..
Its always nice to hear about other peoples rest days. And I love all the good you bought at the store! Definitely some yummy eats in there!
I missed you
You have an EXCELLENT taste in books! I say that because I’ve read everything you just listed EXCEPT The Hunger Games because I’m currently reading it 😉 I really want to read A Thousand Splendid Suns once I’m done.
I love rest days too but I hate having them too often or I just get incredibly bored. Like in the Summer when I’m not working I get so bored that I wish I had uni assignments or something to do.
I have to say I love grocery & clothes shopping equally but some days I feel like doing one more than the other. I prefer to go clothes shopping with friends because when I go alone I can never decide whether I should buy something or not. 😛
xxx
Oh gosh that’s a hard question! Pick between shopping for clothes and grocery shopping?! Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, I’d probably say shopping for clothes. 🙂
Girl, you’re busy! But I’m glad you’re haveing fun along the way. 🙂
Rest days are most definitely very important and when it comes to shopping I would much rather shop for food than for clothes. Call me crazy? 😉
“In the Country of the Young” is a book I 100% recommend. It’s one of my favorites; a beautiful (although slightly sad) read.
Oh my god. Rest days are the best. I get suuuuper hungry and eat mahh brains out. Love it. <3
Oh man, that’s such a hard question–clothes vs food! I think I’m gonna go with clothes, because as much as I love hitting up Whole Foods, I love spending a day at the mall more!
Rest days are always great, even if it’s just a break from blogging, technology, etc. I’m better at taking those kinds of rest days–I still struggle with giving my body the rest it needs from exercise but I have a feeling if I gave it a break, I would feel so much better and have more energy. I like being active in some way everyday, though, so that’s also why I never take a full day of no exercise. Some days I’m more active than others, so it mostly balances out 🙂
i love rest days! 🙂
What IS your favorite kombucha flavor??
I love both clothe and grocery shopping…. both too much to choose just on e:)
From the ones I’ve tried, Trilogy is my favorite. But I haven’t seen any of the more delicious sounding ones, like strawberry and mango…