Weekend Love & Workouts of the Week

Whoooooo I am exhausted! This morning we set off on a decently-paced hike up Mt. Seymour, and spent about 2.5 hours on the mountain total. I got to set the pace on the way up and did my damnedest to make it brisk and fairly unrelenting. My body is definitely tired now, and my feet are aching a bit - but in a totally good way. Check back here tomorrow for photos from today's hike!

It's been a good weekend around here. On Friday night we went down to the beach for a bit and threw our football around with Dave's friend Evan. It was the first football pass of the season! WHOO! From our beach, we could see a rain cloud across English Bay that was actively pouring rain down onto West Vancouver...

 

So that was pretty cool to see.

Yesterday I went to pick up a package at a Purolator, and in the process discovered an entirely new-to-me shopping center in Vancouver - the City Square Shopping Center. I swear I stumble upon a new mall every week. Of course I picked up a few things - a sage green fleece vest (on sale for $8.80!), a basic white long-sleeve tee with blue stripes, and a lavender bandana to use while hiking (which I immediately put to use today on Mt. Seymour).  Oh, and the package I was picking up at Purolator? THESE BAD BITCHES*, which you may have seen me post on Instagram:

.  you can find them here!  .

I'M OBSESSED. They're from Forever21 and they were on sale for $25, so it was kind of a no-brainer. And by that I mean, a total impulse purchase that I happened to not regret.

Last night we went out to dinner at The Sandbar, which I've been to (and written about) several times now. For Christmas this past year, David's brother's family gave us a gift certificate to the restaurant, and we were excited to finally get around to using it. I ordered some to-die-for salmon with citrus butter and jasmine rice, and Dave had a salad full of crab, shrimp, egg, avocado, and god knows what else. We also shared some oysters... and both wished that we had ordered way more. #SOGOOD.

We also watched a bunch of movies the last few days - one of my favorite things to do on the weekends. We watched The Fast & The Furious, 2 Fast, 2 Furious, and The Wolf of Wall Street. Have you seen Wolf yet? I really liked it!

Alright, now on to my workouts from the past week ~>

3/30 - 5 mile power walk to Stanley Park

3/31 (lower body and core)

10 mins elliptical

60 bridges

40 weighted v-sit twists holding 15 lbs

40 jump squats, alternating wide and close stance

30 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 5 lbs

60 calf raises, 15 lbs each hand

40 alternating weighted side bends, 15 lbs each hand

40 diamond clamshells each leg

50 Brazilian crunches

15 deadlifts, 15 lbs each hand

30 weighted crunches on exercise ball, holding 15 lbs

60 alternating forward lunges

50 plank knee to elbow

15 squats, 15 lbs

15 squats, 20 lbs

15 squats, 25 lbs

30 cobras

4/1 (upper body and core)

16 mins biking

12 chest press on exercise ball, 10 lbs each hand

30 weighted crunches on exercise ball, holding 15 lbs

12 deltoid flys, 5 lbs each hand

30 weighted v-sit twists, holding 15 lbs

12 close grip chest press on exercise ball, 10 lbs each hand

30 reverse crunch + leg raise

15 deltoid raises, 5 lbs each hand

40 plank knee to elbow

12 tricep extensions on exercise ball, 10 lbs each hand

30 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 5 lbs

12 upright row + lateral tricep extension, 5 lbs each hand

12 overhead press, 10 lbs each hand

30-second side planks each side

60 bridges

4/2 (cardio)

20 mins ellpitical

0:00 - 3:00 - warm-up

3:00 - 4:00 - all-out

4:00 - 6:00 - moderate

6:00 - 6:30 - sprint

6:30 - 8:00 - recover easy

8:00 - 9:00 - all out

9:00 - 11:00 - moderate

11:00 - 11:30 - sprint

11:30 - 13:00 - recover easy

13:00 - 14:00 - all out

14:00 - 16:00 - moderate

16:00 - 16:30 - sprint

16:30 - 18:00 - recover easy

18:00 - 19:00 - all out

19:00 - 20:00 recover  easy 

4/4 (lower body and core)

5 mins elliptical

40 side lunges + plyometric push-off (each side)

40 weighted v-sit twists, holding 15 lbs

40 calf raises, 15 lbs each hand

40 alternating weighted side bends, 15 lbs each hand

60 alternating forward lunges

50 Brazilian crunches

60 bridges

40 reverse crunch + leg raise

40 jump squats, alternating wide and close stance

40 Russian get ups, holding 5 lbs

20 deadlifts, 15 lbs each hand

50 plank knee to elbow

15 squats, 15 lbs

15 squats, 20 lbs

15 squats, 25 lbs

30 cobras

How are your workouts going?
Do we share any of the same common exercise moves?
Seen any good movies lately? Share with me!!

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Rain Drops & Cherry Blossoms Nails

Today's nails are brought to you by the letters V, A, N, C, O, U, V, E and R. It was a rainy day yesterday, and it most certainly influenced my nails.

In addition to the rainy day, I also happened upon this announcement from CraftyNail which outlined some nail art link-ups that will be happening throughout the month. The first of the April nail art link-ups had a theme of Rain/April Showers, which is especially relevant here in Vancouver... though it's rainy here pretty often, not just in April. Anycrap... hence the rainy nails.

And obviously, the cherry blossoms are starting to pop off around here as well, as evidenced by some of the photos that I shared earlier this week. The blossoms were already pretty much begging me to translate them onto my nails anyway, so I decided to combine my rainy nails with my cherry blossom nails.

I got to play around with a whole bunch of polishes for this mani. OPI Isn't That Precious, Sinful Colors Rain Storm, Milani Tip Toe Pink, Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Essie Little Brown Dress, and a Revlon Matte Top Coat:

I did two coats of Snow Me White on all of my nails, followed by the matte top coat. Using Rain Storm and the small end of a dotting tool, I made the raindrops by making a polka dot and then dragging the dot while lifting away from the nail, to create the drop effect. On my ring finger and thumb nails, I painted on the brown branches using a nail design brush. When the branches dried, I covered them in light pink polka dots, and then went back in and added some of the darker pink dots randomly.

I actually really like this mani! It's not perfect, but the color combination of the blue and the pinks makes me happy - especially against the white background.

If all goes as planned, I should be going on a great hiking and camping trip this weekend!! It's been way too long since I've gone for a hike. The plan is to head into Garibaldi Provincial Park and up towards the Red Heather Hut - a little hut that I wrote about back in January as well. We're keeping our eye on the weather reports to make sure that everything stays calm enough for us to camp out. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

What are you up to this weekend?
Anything fancy on your nails today?
Do you get cherry blossom trees where you live?

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{Linking with The Nail Files, Beauty Buzz, and Friday's Fab Favorites}

Springtime Around Vancouver - Tons of Pics!

It occurred to me over the last couple of weeks that I used to take a lot more long walks around the city than I have been in the last few months. I'm 90% sure that my lack of walking is contributing to a visible reduction in my ab muscles, and we CERTAINLY CAN'T HAVE THAT right on the verge of bathing suit season, now can we?? Nope.

So in an effort to get my groove abs back, I'm making a conscious effort to take more long, brisk walks wherein I force myself to engage my abs while walking. Sounds like ya grandmothah's workout, but seriously if you engage and employ the right muscles, you can turn a regular walk into a Walk+ (please note I've just coined Walk+ as a thing. Tell ya friends. And ya grandmothah.)

Anyway - all this to say that I've been going on walks lately, and naturally that means my camera has come with me! Here are some of my recent snaps from around Vancouver...

I just admired the way these colors lined up against each other...

There are cherry blossoms just about everywhere here in Vancouver...

Sometimes I'm fascinated when curbs and flowers meet...

A rainy railing...

Ducks playing in puddles in Stanley Park... 

Trails in Stanley Park, surrounded by enormous greens covered in moss...

Thanks for checking out my Vancouver pictures! Did you have any favorites?

Is anyone else getting down low with their cameras and right up in the face of some pretty flowers lately? Do you tend to bring a camera with you when you go out for a walk?

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My Haircut + Anti-Breakage Hair Tips

As I've mentioned already, I finally got a haircut last week after not having had one since last summer. My hair was hella long, which is my favorite way to have my hair... but it of course had plenty of split ends. Breaking hair is also a big problem for me, so I was also interested in chatting with my hair stylist about that to see if he'd have any recommendations for how to improve the problem.

Here's how my hair was looking when I went in to see James at Acacia Hair Boutique in Downtown Vancouver last Thursday:

Now, just to give full disclosure - yes, my hair looks like absolute shit above BUT a) it was partially wet in that photo and had just been taken out of a haphazard braid, b) it hadn't been shampooed since the Monday prior, c) I had just power-walked 2 miles in the rain to get to the salon. So try not to judge me too much based on the completely ratchet look I've got going on in that Before pic.

Originally my plan was to ask for some long layers - I brought in this picture of Kristin Cavallari as a reference:



I've been getting layers cut into my hair for years but have never been especially thrilled with how they've turned out.  I always kind of felt like they weren't very noticeable, whereas you really can't miss the layers in the picture of K. Cav above! Maybe my hair wasn't right for layers?

James didn't think so - with my breakage problems, he recommended keeping the hair all one length if I wanted to keep it long. He also recommended a few other things to help the breaking:

• I already use the Davines Mellow Anti-Breakage Lustrous Conditioner 1-2x/week, but don't currently use the Davines shampoo to go along with it. James recommended that I switch to using the complementary Davines shampoo, in order to get the full benefits of the conditioner I was already using. Note - they don't sell Davines products at Acacia, so it's not like he was telling me that in order to sell me an expensive shampoo!
• Normally I let my hair air-dry every single day - honestly, I can't remember the last time I blow-dried it. You'd think that would be a good thing for my hair - no heat products, right? But in actuality, since wet hair is naturally more prone to damage/breaking, the longer that it remained wet each day, the longer it was left "vulnerable"! So he recommended that I start making a point to blow dry my hair each day, making sure to use a heat protectant spray first. He said if I did this for a month, I'd probably notice an improvement.
• Finally, James suggests using an oil to help protect and nourish my poor, poor fragile strands. He'd used on my hair a Kevin Murphy oil treatment product called Young Again, which - I can't even stress enough - left my hair feeling incredible at the end of the appointment. I couldn't stop touching my hair, and when I asked James if that was due to the shampoo he'd used on me or due to another product, he said it was this oil! By the way, he also dished that you can make your own treatment at home using coconut oil. You can find lots of tutorials about that online!

So here's how much better my hair looked when James was finished with it:

He said it was incredibly satisfying for him to chop my hair - hair stylists must really get a buzz off of taking a woman's hair from bootleg to beautiful.

I couldn't resist buying a $40 bottle of the Kevin Murphy Young Again oil treatment before leaving Acacia. I learned after purchasing the Davines conditioner back in the fall that it's totally worth it to spend some money up front and invest in your hair with nice products every once in awhile. The $33 conditioner seemed expensive in October... but here we are on March 31 and I'm still making my way through it. Makes a $33 conditioner seem a little less frightening, right? I'm assuming the same will be true of this $40 oil treatment - it's going to last me awhile.

What are some of your favorite hair care tips?

Do you currently use any oil products for your hair?

Any other tips for me on how to improve the strength of my hair? I'm all ears!!

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Workouts of the Week (Including A New Cardio Workout!)

Wellllllll I got a bit of a late start today because I woke up at 7am to go for a hike.... then changed my mind and went back to bed for 3 hours! Oops. So I guess no hike today, but hopefully a walk through Stanley Park and a gym session later will make up for not getting up a mountain this morning.

This morning is turning out so lazy that I've even been contemplating making an order from The Breakfast Courier - an actual breakfast-delivery service that I learned about via a flyer in my mailbox last week. Breakfast delivery sounds SO fantastically New York City-esque, doesn't it?! Now if only they had a "doughnuts" section of their menu...

Anyway - enough about what I'm NOT doing today. Here are my workouts from this past week!

3/23 (upper body and core)

3x:

   - 12 chest press on exercise ball, 10 lbs each hand

   - 20 weighted crunches on exercise ball, holding 15 lbs

   - 12 deltoid flys, 5 lbs each hand

   - 20 weighted v-sit twists, holding 15 lbs

   - 12 close grip chest press on exercise ball, 10 lbs each hand

   - 30 Brazilian crunches

   - 12 deltoid raises, 5 lbs each hand

   - 20 reverse crunch + leg raise

   - 30 alternating medicine ball flys with 6 lb medicine ball

   - 20 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 5 lbs

15 squats, holding 15 lbs

15 squats, holding 20 lbs

15 squats, holding 25 lbs

3/24 (cardio)
For this cardio workout, I wanted to avoid boredom and crank out some high-intensity intervals. To do that, I mixed together 30 minutes of different interval intensities, as follows:

0:00 - 3:00 - warm-up

3:00 - 4:00 - all-out

4:00 - 6:00 - moderate

6:00 - 6:30 - sprint

6:30 - 8:00 - recover easy

8:00 - 9:00 - all out

9:00 - 11:00 - moderate

11:00 - 11:30 - sprint

11:30 - 13:00 - recover easy

13:00 - 14:00 - all out

14:00 - 16:00 - moderate

16:00 - 16:30 - sprint

16:30 - 18:00 - recover easy

18:00 - 19:00 - all out

19:00 - 21:00 - moderate

21:00 - 21:30 - sprint

21:30 - 23:00 - recover easy

23:00 - 24:00 - all-out

24:00 - 26:00 - moderate

26:00 - 26:30 - sprint

26:30 - 27:30 - moderate

27:30 - 30:00 recover  easy 

3/25 (lower body and core)

5 mins elliptical

30 jump squats, alternating wide and close stance

40 weighted v-sit twists, holding 12.5 lb dumbbell

30 diamond clamshells on each leg

40 Brazilian crunches

40 bridges

40 alternating weighted side bends, 12.5 lbs each hand

40 side lunges + plyometric push off, each side

40 plank knee to elbow

40 calf raises, 12.5 lbs each hand

40 reverse crunch + leg raise

20 deadlifts, 12.5 lbs each hand

30 cobras

15 squats, 15 lbs

15 squats, 20 lbs

15 squats, 25 lbs

1:30 plank

3/26 - 5 mile power walk into city

3/27 - 4 mile power walk into city

3/28 (upper body and core)

5 mins elliptical

12 chest press on exercise ball, 10 lbs each hand

40 weighted v-sit twists, holding 10 lbs

12 deltoid flys, 5 lbs each hand

40 Brazilian crunches

12 close grip chest press on exercise ball, 10 lbs each hand

40 alternating weighted side bends, 10 lbs each hand

12 deltoid raises, 5 lbs each hand

40 reverse crunch + leg raise

12 tricep extension on exercise ball, 10 lbs each hand

20 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 5 lbs

24 alternating shoulder raises on exercise ball, 5 lbs each hand

30 weighted crunches on exercise ball, holding 10 lbs

12 bent over rows each arm, holding 10 lbs

40 plank knee to elbow

12 overhead press, 10 lbs each hand

30 cobras

15 squats, 15 lbs

15 squats, 20 lbs

15 squats, 25 lbs

You know what's awesome? That there are an endless number of ways to exercise. Even though it might seem like I do the same basic exercises week in and week out, I always find ways to mix and match moves or switch in old exercises that I haven't done in awhile.

Let me know what your favorite exercises are, or if you have a YouTube channel or website you use for workout ideas!

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Pastel Nails: Sky Blue & Yellow Polka Dots

Deja vuuuuuuu! Like last week, my nails today were inspired by a picture posted by Design Love Fest - this time of the Vivetta collection for A/W 2014.

Easter is in the air (and on the TV commercials, and on the store shelves, and in my mailbox on all those annoying drugstore flyers), and so are pastels! When I saw this beautiful pastel blue fabric with the cheerful pastel yellow polka dots, I knew it needed to be on my nails. The particularly savvy blog reader may have even noticed me pin this image onto my Nail Polish Pinterest board last week!

.  pic via vogue via designlovefest  .

I grabbed two pastel polishes for this look - a not-yet-used light blue polish with pearlescent glitter from Forever21 called Sky Blue, and the dreaded Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow polish I picked up last spring. For some #blurgh reason, Sky Blue photographs somewhat greener/yellower than it really is. In real life it is a soft blue color, I promise. In fact, even Mellow Yellow looks like a bright yellow in these photos... it's definitely a soft, pastel yellow. Dammit. I need better lighting.

The glitter in Sky Blue is sparse, but it looks pretty in the bottle. This bottle of polish reminds me of Cinderella.

Pastels are notoriously streaky on their first coat (and sometimes even their second, third, and fourth coats), so I did one thin-to-medium first coat of Sky Blue on all my nails and let it dry really well before applying a second coat.

Then I just dotted on the Mellow Yellow with my dotting tool. 

When dotting with a pastel nail polish color, I recommend using only about 1-2 drops of polish at a time on your scrap paper, and only trying to do one nail per "puddle." That means you'll need about 1-2 fresh drops of polish for each nail that you dot. You may even need two puddles per nail, if your nails are long enough! Pastels are just so goopy and dry quickly - and the last thing you want is tacky polish when trying to make perfect polka dots on your nails.

I got a haircut last night, as you may have seen if you follow me on Instagram or Twitter. The cut itself is actually just totally straight - one length. It's not what I planned on doing originally, but it was based on the great consultation I had with my hair stylist, James, at the beginning of my appointment. Ultimately he cut off about 4"-5" and my hair a) is still pretty freaking long, and b) feels AMAZING. I'd gone so long without a haircut that it's crazy to remember how refreshing it really is!

Do you guys have anything good going on this weekend?
How long do you go between haircuts usually?
What are you rocking on your nails today?

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{Linking up with The Nail Files, Friday's Fab Favorites}