Off Week (Recap Blog) – Workouts, Baking, Smart Sweets & Self-Care Sunday

We decided to take this past week off of the blog, Instagram, etc., to relax, rejuvenate, and take a much-needed social media break. (Other than hopping on to post our Smart Sweets review blog & YouTube video, which we already had scheduled! – If you’ve been considering trying Smart Sweets, or have already tried some of the flavors, but not all, I would highly recommend giving it a read!) Anywho, the break was incredibly rejuvenating and sparked me with the motivation to get back at it, with a whole new sense of motivation. Isn’t it funny how taking a short break can do that sometimes? It also inspired me to start doing weekly recap blogs. 🙂

Some of my favorite bloggers over the years have done these types of recap posts and they often end up being my favorite blog posts. It’s so fun to get a peek into someone’s life (that’s a little more in-depth than an Instagram post.) I love learning more about people’s hobbies, what they’re cooking/baking, if they explored any new places, etc. & I feel like one of the best ways to do that is with recap blogs.

I’m going to try my best to start doing recaps more & more often and hopefully get to the point where I am doing them weekly. (We still have a ways to go for that though!)

Honestly, I didn’t realize how much work actually goes into it. 1. Making sure you take pictures of basically everything you do. 2. Trying to remember what you did throughout the week. 3. Doing anything interesting enough to merit a recap blog! Haha

But this is something I’ve been meaning to do for a while now, so I don’t want to hold back any longer. Here goes nothing!

My First Legit Recap Blog

This off-week was much needed and I’m so glad we did it. As much as I love blogging and Vitality Vixens as a whole, you need a break from everything sometimes (even really good things.)

I’m the type of person who likes to load way too much on my plate then complain about being stressed and having no free time. Is anyone else like that? I’ve made it a point in 2021 to try and take that down a notch & make more time for the important people/things in life.

I’ve also been trying to do more *self-care* in general. I’ve never been a huge self-care fanatic, but I love the idea of it and think it’s so important. Honestly, I’m just not sure what to do sometimes! I honestly enjoy working, especially when it comes to the blog, so taking time to relax is a challenge. (Besides to binge watch TV shows – I’m great at that… But it’s probably not the “healthiest” form of self-care.)

If you guys have any suggestions on things you love doing for self-care, I would love to hear them! I want to start putting some time aside on Sundays for self-care Sunday. Now, I just need an itinerary to schedule every minute of my self-care Sunday. 🤣 Just joking, but some ideas/inspiration would be nice!

How I spent the off week

Throughout the off week, I’ve been baking a lot of new recipes (can’t completely take time off the healthy recipe game hehe.) I made a peanut butter banana bread and an iced coconut latte that I’ll be posting the recipe for soon!

I’ve also still been working at my office job every day, so it wasn’t a true “off week” or vacation week.

I’ve been trying to get to the gym every other day, so this past week I did legs, a push day, legs again, then a pull day. I’ve been really slacking on hitting the gym (or working out in general) this past year, so I want to get back into it more.

I don’t ever feel bad about myself for taking time off from working out. I think it’s a natural ebb & flow of life and there will be times when you can’t (or just don’t want to) workout. 2020 was an extended version of that for me. Even when our apartment gym was re-opened, I still didn’t feel motivated to go much.

In all honesty though, it definitely took a toll on my mental health. I have always been an active person, whether it was sports growing up or sticking to a workout routine in my adult years. But when I take too much time off from working out, it starts to make me feel more down and anxious.

I’m glad to be getting back in the swing of things when it comes to working out and I can already feel the improvement in my physical and mental health. I’m feeling stronger again and getting less tired when walking up the stairs at work. 🤣

Outside of working out more, I’ve been strongly committed in my health journey to watching more Ozark. LOL, but really though. Have you guys seen it?! If you have, you understand where I’m coming from when I say once you start you can’t stop watching. It’s one of the most addicting shows that I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying something because I’ve been addicted to a lot of shows.

Jeremy & I have been watching it together, which I have a love-hate relationship with. I love it because it’s more fun to watch with someone else and it gives us something fun to do together on the reg. But I simultaneously hate it because I have to watch it at a normal pace instead of watching an entire season in one night… So it’s probably better for me overall, but still…

I’ve been pairing my Ozark/Bachelor watching with some organic pinot noir. If any of you guys struggle with hangovers/headaches from regular wine – try organic!! I just started doing this a few weeks ago & will never go back. It’s shocking how much different I feel after. Not to mention Trader Joe’s has a $4 bottle with a bunch of different varieties. It’s a win-win!

I’ve also been looking up vegan recipes to make next week. We’re doing a fun challenge for our next YouTube video and I need vegan inspo! I’ve eaten vegetarian before, but never fully vegan, so honestly I have no idea what the heck I’m doing.

Even though I have a Bachelor’s in Dietetics and know a good amount about nutrition in general, when it comes to eating vegan… I am stumped. I know what I can/can’t eat, but when it comes to putting meals together, I don’t even know where to start…

Any vegan readers out there? Give ya girl some tips! (Literally, any tips as I’m a complete beginner at this.)

Mary & I have also been trying all of the Smart Sweets flavors to do a full review on our YouTube & the blog. One flavor was a huge disappointment, but I have 2 favorites that I would buy again & again… You’ll just have to read the post or watch the video to see which ones those are. 😉

Okay, I think that’s enough for this initial recap blog. I’m going to work on taking more pictures in the future for these types of blogs because this one is severely lacking. Like I said earlier, it’s so hard to remember to take pictures in the day-to-day! I take pictures of almost all of my food, but nothing else lmao. I’ll work on being better about it!

Let me know if you like blogs like this & want to see more in the future. Or if you hated it, let me know that as well! I’m open to feedback & would love to know what you guys like vs. dislike on the blog.