I’m coming off an awesome weekend in Charlotte visiting my sister Hannah! She moved there over the summer and I jumped on tickets for a super-cheap flight a few weeks ago so I could finally check out her new home. I met her friends, saw her beautiful apartment, shopped, got a couple of workouts in, and of course ate and drank all the things.
Turkey burger on rye from Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar, complete with rosemary ham, pesto, cheese, and an egg!
Long-time readers of this blog will know I have a love affair with Newport, RI and make a point of visiting at least twice a year. Last November I took my first ever off-season trip, and found it to be an ideal time to visit. Restaurants are less crowded, but still bustling enough. Hotels are WAY cheaper. And there’s something charming about a seaside town in the winter.
Like being able to use a hotel fireplace!
The November trip was my boyfriend Jeff’s first ever visit to Newport, and he loved it. So I thought returning to there during his birthday weekend was the perfect way to celebrate his special day. But instead of the usual big-chain hotel, we stayed in a more special place – Gilded Hotel, one of two Lark Hotels Newport locations.
I hope you all had a great 4th of July weekend! I first want to start by thanking any readers who gave me positive feedback in response to my recent #TransformationTuesday Instagram. I’ve definitely been feeling some self doubt since getting back from four days in one of my favorite places – Newport, RI. But this summer has been so much fun so far and I’m glad that I’ve embraced every opportunity I’ve been given to enjoy myself…especially given the winter we had.
View from our timeshare deck!
My family has been going to Newport every summer since we moved to New England. And as of a few years ago, I’ve started taking my own trips with friends, because one Newport visit per summer is not enough. Here are some previous Newport posts from this blog:
Recently my parents got a timeshare for the 4th of July week, right in the city’s downtown. It’s awesome to be able to arrive, park the car, and not move it for the entirety of our stay! Newport is the largest city on Aquidneck Island in Narragansett Bay. And on Sunday, my family took the high-speed ferry to Block Island for the day. Hence the title of this post – two islands.
Lately I have been hearing the same proclamation a seemingly endless amount of times: “You’ve been everywhere!” And I can’t say I’m surprised to hear that. Despite the fact that hearing this proclamation immediately triggers my brain to think, “You’ve been going out and drinking and eating too much and slacking on the gym!”, I’ve been practicing fighting that thought and feeling thankful for all I have been able to do so far this summer.
I’ve been to Knoxville, Tennessee to see my little sister graduate from college…
…Nantucket (with work) for the Wine Fest…
…Connecticut for my dad’s birthday and a wedding…
This Thursday morning I take off for a four-day trip to Mexico to watch one of my closest friends, Rachel, marry the love of her life. And just like my last warm-weather-vacation, I’ve spent the weeks leading up to this one worrying about the whole bikini thing. But unlike my last vacation, which took place in March, I’m bombarded with the “get-beach-body-ready” messages that are so common this time of year. (Oh, and I’m pretty sure I weigh a few pounds more than I did on that last trip.)
Just wanted to say a quick thank you for your support in response to recovery the Instagram I shared this morning. Your support helps me keep on keepin’ on!
Man, it’s good to be back in Boston. I had fun Friday and Saturday in Nantucket for the Nantucket Wine Festival, but when I woke up Sunday I was so happy that I had an early ferry booked. I wanted to get back home and back to reality! So as you can imagine, I have a few trades for Trade Em Up Tuesday.
I would AND wouldn’t trade…barely having any photos to share from the weekend. I did a lot of Snap story updating, but plain old pictures weren’t really something I was feeling. The would trade is the fact that I continue to have a lot of body image issues when it comes to photos. It probably doesn’t seem like it since I post what many consider to be a lot of pictures, but I probably delete about 10 for every 1 that I like. And taking that many photos would have been exhausting, so I just kind of gave up. I even posted one photo that bothered me so much after the fact that I ended up taking it down. It just wasn’t worth trying to “fake it” at that point.
Comfy roomy dress on point for day one.
I’m coming off another weekend on the road, this one spent in Knoxville, Tennessee to watch my little sister Hannah graduate from the University of Tennessee! I am exhausted, and bummed that my work day doesn’t end until 9PM tonight, but am so also glad that I made the trip south to celebrate with my sister and see my family and our friends as well.
Despite the fact that I handled this Tennessee trip better than either of the last two I have taken, I still dealt with the usual anxiety over drinking more than usual, out-of-routine food, and working out less. However I also realized that I didn’t drink or eat a huge amount more than I would lately on a weekend, and the rest day I took was the one per week that I’ve gotten used to taking (and sometimes it’s two).
Manhattans and fried pickles aren’t unordinary weekend occurrences nowadays.
That in itself is perhaps a sign of progress in my journey to stop punishing myself via restriction and overexercising, but more so comes back to my concern that I’ve really been overdoing it lately and need to reel it back in.
Being a planner is a good and bad thing. Organization can be a key to success. “Fail to plan, plan to fail”, right? Meh. Planning has definitely helped me in life but can also be my downfall. I’ve found in the last year or so that failing to plan can lead to happiness, and ease of mind. This weekend was the perfect example of that. Here are all the things I did not plan for this weekend, that ended up happening. (And look, here I am, still alive!)
Hopping a train from South Norwalk, CT (I was already in the area for an engagement brunch) to NYC to see friends that I’d found out, only the night before, were going to be in town all the way from Ohio.
I’m back, and I don’t just mean back to this blog (sorry about that inadvertent hiatus, guys!), but also back from an amazing vacation with my family. I’m lucky to have parents that love going on fun trips; we went to Mexico last year during my brother’s and sister’s spring breaks (which thankfully fall on the same week). This year we went to Mexico again, but also to Belize, and also to sea…we took our first family cruise!
How did it go? Well, spoiler alert…
Sorry that I’m so late to the game in announcing the winner of my Tuttorosso Tomatoes giveaway! The winner of the prize pack is Amy – thank you for entering and I will be reaching out about getting you your winnings!
It’s been a busy holiday season with no time to blog much…followed by a vacation during which I did not feel like blogging much. Sorry about that! Long-time readers already know that I go to Florida every Christmas season with my family. We use to split our time between my grandma and grandpa’s apartment and hotels, but now we have a condo of our own in the Palm Beach Gardens area.
My grandparents and I
I’m a 28 year old full-time working girl living in Boston (previously lived in Connecticut). I’m passionate about food/drink, restaurants, self-love, fitness, and the ever-present search for balance. I write about that journey on this blog – I hope you enjoy!
