Marvelous In My 4th!
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Oof, rough to be back at work this morning, no? Especially if you had Friday off in addition to the 4th of July (alas I did not). But during your time off I hope you did all sorts of marvelous activities (and if you don’t celebrate the 4th of July, I hope your weekend contained mucho marvelous). I have to admit that my ego was getting in my way the day after the 4th, trying to make me feel guilty for the food and drink I consumed during my celebrations. I’m hoping putting this post together will squash said ego with a heavy dose of POSITIVE.
Props to Katie for making marvelous happen!
Marvelous is…a night out with friends the day before the holiday! No work on Thursday = treat Wednesday like it’s Friday night, right? I surprised myself by having enough energy and courage to stay out until 1:15am, during which I consumed several cocktails, bread, and a dessert.
Natural thing to do while waiting for the check – take pics.
Plus a very healthy seafood dinner!
Sea bass & cod with purple potatoes, fava beans, mushrooms, broccoli, asparagus – from Peppercorn’s Grill in Hartford. First time there and the food was delicious. I would go back!
I listened to my body, which was feeling particularly ravenous after the KILLER hour-long spin class I attended before my night out. I craved everything – lean protein, carbs, sweets, stiff beverages – and tried to honor all of them with a little bit of everything.
Sandwiched between two Jeffs!
We ended the night by surprising last weekend’s birthday girl Kaleigh at Pig’s Eye Pub, because everyone needs to feel a little college again.
Breakin’ it down with my girl K.
Marvelous is…killin’ it at the gym on the 4th. I accomplished 30 minutes of StepMill speed intervals, followed by a great upper-body weights session and core work. My gym cancelled classes for the holiday (tres lame) but I still made the best of what I had and left totally satisfied and sweaty.
Marvelous is…strolling into Whole Foods to get iced coffee and stumbling upon a salmon burger sale. Holy perfect BBQ timing! I picked up a dill salmon burger for me and a tequila lime burger for Kelly…2 for $6, can’t beat it!
Chicken & turkey burgers for everyone else, mua ha ha.
Marvelous is…rewarding myself for the killer gym session by sitting on my butt the rest of the day by the pool. Screw beach traffic, I drove 5 minutes and was by a body of water, that’s all I need.
Rockin’ a VS bikini!
Marvelous is…quality time with my parents! But you’re not surprised about that one.
Way to match your hair tie to your top, Mom!
Marvelous is…quality time with my blend and her awesome hubby! Kelly and Nick joined us for a BBQ (the day before their 5-year anniversary might I add) and it was fabulous to see them so soon after seeing them for Kelly’s birthday a couple weeks ago.
We are two pink lovers (as in we both love pink…but we are also lovers) so of course I had to share with her my super-fun bottle of Relax Pink! It was more boozy than we expected of a Spanish rose, but we did not complain.
On Wednesdays we wear pink.
Along with our grilled meat and seafood, we feasted on beans, my mom’s vinaigrette coleslaw, and an awesome tomato mozz salad that Kelly brought (complete with real Greek olive oil). That salad was my favorite food of the day, even better than the Whole Foods salmon burger.
Coleslaw & tomato mozz salad!
Kelly also contributed a loaf of sweet potato bread that we all ended up being too full to eat. Lucky me, I got to bring it home! I brought it to Fairfield over the weekend when I visited Kaitlin and it made for the most wonderful post-bar-night carby snack EVER.
How can you go wrong when combining sweet potatoes with bread?! Thanks for the pic Kelly 🙂
Marvelous is…trying a new beer! I have a stockpile of interesting beer single bottles that I purchased at the Willy Wonka of liquor stores, Yankee Spirits. Had to take advantage of the beer weather and bust this out, which was recommended to me by a “beer expert” at the store. I enjoyed it…refreshing and a unique flavor.
Stillwater Artisanal Ales Cellar Door – an American farmhouse ale, brewed with sage.
Marvelous is…rescuing this amazing glass from the trash can. My mom when on a cabinet-cleaning binge and was about to get rid of this gem. I know…WHAT?! I saved, washed, and used it immediately. Not to worry.
Alas the novelty quickly wore off when I remembered why I don’t drink alcoholic beverages with straws…gone too quickly.
As I said at the beginning of this post, I have had a lot brewing in my mind about fighting the guilt of holiday weekend enjoyment, as well as body acceptance. I was inspired to write a post about it last night and while I’m nervous to share it tomorrow, I’m also excited because I think some of my readers may feel the same way as I did when I was writing it.
Until then…have a MARVELOUS MONDAY!
What did you do for the 4th of July (if you celebrated)?
Did you have any fantastic holiday weekend eats and/or drinks that you want to share?
