I took some time to jot down an outline of a new workout before I drove to the gym around lunchtime. The workout ended up being pretty awesome and my face was dripping sweat by the end. I felt my booty burning thanks to the jumping lunges and wide-stance squats. Yowzaa.
I realize it’s still technically fall, but the fun winter graphics on PicMonkey were calling to me this afternoon, so I dubbed this circuit the “Winter Circuit Workout” so I could snowflake the heck out of the workout image. Yes!
Lunch
When I arrived home from the gym, I threw together a quick lunch.
I topped a mix of broccoli slaw and slivered almonds with shredded chicken and a bunch of cranberry sauce.
I made a fresh batch of cranberry sauce last night because I apparently didn’t get my fill over Thanksgiving. I love this stuff!
I also ate a banana on the side.
Questions of the Month: November
Each month (when I don’t forget – oops!) I try to take popular three reader questions and address them on the blog. Let’s dive right in!
- What kind of red lipstick do you use? Like you, I feel kind of nervous about using red lipstick for the first time, but I really like the look of the lipstick you’ve been wearing and feel like we have a similar skin tone, so it might work on me. Can you tell me what kind it is?
I am definitely a red lipstick novice, but along with red lipstick, I highly recommend using a red lip liner. A bunch of blog readers recommended this tip to me, and I echo it! It helps keep the lipstick in place and prevents bleeding. I’ve been using Revlon ColorStay lip liner in Red. As for the red lipstick itself, I love L’Oreal Infallible Ravishing Red. (Beyoncé knows what to endorse, baby!)
I’m wearing the Revlon lip liner and L’Oreal Infallible lipstick in the photo below.
My friend Leah also gave our group of girlfriends YSL Le Rouge lipstick on her wedding day which I love, but it’s very expensive, so I save it for special occasions. It seems to look good on everyone though!
I am wearing the YSL lipstick in the photo below.
The YSL lipstick is slightly less intense, in my opinion.
- Do you take any vitamins or supplements?
I’m pretty basic when it comes to my vitamins.
I typically take the following vitamins:
- L’il Critters Complete Gummy Vites multivitamin
- Nutrition Now Calcium Soft Chews
- Biotin supplement (for healthy hair and nails)
- GNC Omega-3 Citrus Chews (Ryan is obsessed with these, too!)
Can you tell that I like gummy vitamins? I am pretty bad about remembering swallow pills, but when vitamins taste like candy, I’m all in.
I absolutely love my calcium chews. They taste like Starbursts!
GNC sent me them to review a while back and I’ve been hooked ever since and continue to buy them. I also love Adora chocolate calcium discs, but cannot find them near me in Ocala, so I’ve converted to the calcium chews.
- I am looking for blogs to read that are outside of food and fitness genre. Do you have any recommendations?
I absolutely adore my friend Jen’s blog about mental health: The Pursuit of Sassiness. I find psychology and mental health captivating and Jen writes in a way that makes mental health accessible to everyone. She makes you think about your life and those around you. She discusses struggles we all face, why we face them and how we might be able to overcome them. It’s one of my favorite blogs!
Question of the Afternoon
- Do you read any blogs outside of the food and fitness genre? Please share your favorites!
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I don’t venture too far out of the food and fitness realm, but I do enjoy travel blogs!
Would love it if you checked out my travel blog…The {Happy} Travel Bug. Please let me know what you think of it compared to other travel blogs you read. I just started it this year. So I’m a newbie! happyhoyt.blogspot.com
Since I blog a lot about fashion and beauty, obviously I spend a lot of time reading those! I do read some food blogs, too!
I take Iron supplements whenever I’m feeling really tired. My iron has always been really low and no matter how I change my diet we(meaning me and my doctor) just can’t seem to keep it up. So I picked up easyIron from Whole Foods and also started drinking a morning shake using Vega Nutritional Shake. This also has some added iron and other supplements.
I love reading other blogs outside of my genre(home renovating/diy) yours being one of them which includes the fitness/recipe/lifestyle blog..I like the variety rather then just focused on fitness only.
You may like http://www.bullfrogsandbulldogs.com and http://nourish-and-flourish.net if you are not already following them both 🙂
thanks for the recommendations! i’ll definitely check them out!
haha I don’t read too many other blogs, just J’s Everyday Fashion because I love some of the discounts that she finds!
I love that blig, too! She always gives me such great ideas on how to revamp my wardrobe.
*blog Whoops!
i check her blog daily, too! love j!
How do the Omega 3 chews taste? I need to start including more omegas in my diet especially because I don’t eat much fish, but I am always nervous.
they’re pretty good. the calcium chews are genuinely tasty, but the omega 3 chews aren’t bad! i’ve never stuck with taking fish oil or an omega 3 supplement until now, so i think they’re a winner.
I enjoy Cupcakes and Cashmere – great fashion site!
I love to read Jessica’s blog littlebabygarvin.blogspot.com and I also enjoy Cyndy’s blog at thecreativityexchange.com. Both are non health and fitness. Of course my favorite is PB Fingers!
I just pinned her awesome chalkboards on pinterest (for when I get preggers)! How funny! Small blogosphere!
I love her chalk board creations!
I love, Kate from The Small Things blog, she mostly blogs about fashion, hair, and make up. She has AWESOME tutorial videos, product reviews and breakdowns of her outfits.
What sort of weights do you recommend for the workout?
Oooh must check out that blog–sounds like a good one!
I need to bust out some red lip color this season… 🙂
http://www.younghouselove.com
LOVE IT!!!
I’ll second that!!!!
I recently discovered http://www.younghouselove.com and I am enamored of it! I also enjoy author blogs to learn about new writing techniques or anything new in the Indie Publishing world.
I love reading health and fitness blogs, but my other guilty pleasure is reading fashion blogs. My ultimate favorite is J’s Everyday Fashion. Her fashion is always on point, approachable, appropriate for everyday, and affordable!
Oh, love the circuit workout! Circuits are the best. Makes time fly. I’m totally craving cranberry sauce now. I had none for Thanksgiving, I think I need to fix that asap and just make some.
I love Annies Eats, and also brown eyed baker everything they make looks so delicious and I’ve tried a fair amount of their recipes and they are so good!
I have some leftover fresh cranberries I need to use. Is that what you use in your cranberry sauce? Do you have a special recipe?
I laughed when I saw the Lil Critters because that is what I give my kids! 😉 I could really use some extra calcium in my diet. Can I get those Nutrition Now chews at other places as well? Don’t know where a GNC is.
I read mostly travel blogs, since that is what I write. I found your blog in the Angelos and can’t stop reading it. You make me laugh! And I have two teenagers, so getting a good laugh everyday is a must!
i wish i could tell you i have some wonderful, fantastic cranberry sauce recipe, but i just follow the one on the back of the bag and then i add a cinnamon stick!
Thanks. I’ve never tried the bag recipe, but now I will. I usually add some fresh orange juice to give it a little citrus kick, along with the zest. You might try that next time.
I also read J’s Everyday Fashion because she keeps it “doable” (for those of us that are fashion-challenged) and relatively affordable. She also takes time to show HOW to pull together outfits, which (I’m hoping) helps me to do more on my own.
I discovered this blog before I realized she is a best-selling author, too! http://www.Jennsylvania.com – It’s by Jen Lancaster. She writes HILARIOUS memoirs. I love her sense of humor. I read the blog in between her book releases for constant laughs 🙂
Love the looks of that circuit workout! Especially the fun snowflakes and winter colors, can’t blame you for wanting to play around with it!
Thanks for recommending such a unique blog! Sounds really interesting. One of my favorite non-food and fitness blogs is Thought Catalog. Great one!
My favorite blog EVER is actually not even health/fitness related! It’s called Young House Love (younghouselove.com) and it’s a DIY blog. I can’t get enough of it! I also have recently started reading Nice Girl Notes (nicegirlnotes.com) and I love the author’s humor. Both are very good!
i love young house love!
Young House Love!
What are “skaters”?
here’s a video demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMesEoLJdPQ
http://www.stephaniecotta.com
I love when people post circuits like that! Thank you. I always need a plan/new ideas or I’m totally lost!
I really enjoy the Atlantic-Pacific Blog http://atlantic-pacific.blogspot.com/
the college prepster(a friend of mine and she works for Levo League, an awesome organization in NYC) http://www.thecollegeprepster.com/
Thoughts from fabs http://www.thecollegeprepster.com/ (This is a spiritual blog by a woman in TX who loves the Lord and wants to share what He is doing in her life, she is REAL and a beautiful writer)
http://laurennicolelove.com/blog/ Similar to ^^^, talks about life, her spiritual journey. She also runs a site http://www.goodwomenproject.com (another site I really enjoy)
Sorry for the exhaustive list 🙂 Enjoy!
I just mainly read fitness blogs because I love them!! But I’ll read anything that fitness bloggers post 🙂 I take biotin also! It has really helped my skin!
For fashion, the Trend Diaries is good. Also The Sartorialist 🙂
I love MotleyMama! She’s super funny. It’s probably more towards a mommy blog, but she just puts a hilarious spin on things, and yet is deep and makes you think at the same time!
I love chewy vitamins too! The vitafusion MultiVites taste like fruit snacks 🙂
I LOVE chewy vitamins but I hate their price and how quickly it seems like I go through them. I found that splitting my vitamins into a daily container (think old-people containers) helps a lot. Since I have to take medicine daily for my asthma, it’s extra important I remember to take them…
I am a huge fan of circuit workouts…if the moves aren’t changing throughout the workout, I find that I am not mentally engaged or pushing myself!
OMG Julie! This is totally unrelated to this post, but I was on Pinterest today scrolling though the “Everything” category and a thing with a bunch of wedding pictures came up, so of course I clicked on it! I kind of scanned through the pictures until I was like hey wait a second, I KNOW them! Turns out it was you and Ryan in the picture where you were both on either side of a door. Anyway, I just thought I would let you know!
A lot of my blog features fitness and food, but also delves into the mind and mental stuff- because I blog about my life and what I go through. ahhahaha! I can’t believe you take gummy vitamins 😛 A kid at heart!
A friend recommended a beautiful new blog to me yesterday… It’s called untilfebruary.blogspot.co.uk and it’s written by a girl whose boyfriend is serving in the military in Afghanistan. It is witty and yet very emotional and the girl is really doing her bit to show her support for the troops. A really good read if you want something a bit different.
Okay I thought I was the only one that needed to make more cranberry sauce! I love it and always forget to make it throughout the year 🙂 And now I mix it in my oatmeal thanks to all of the foodie blogs I read.
We totally take gummy vitamins too! I take the women’s one a day. I also take a gummy fiber chew every day as well. Can’t get enough!
I don’t know if it’s technically considered a “blog” ….but I love catalogliving.net for a good laugh! Makes you look at catalog pictures in a whole new light!
Hi Julie…your blog is great. Love your style, by adding photos it’s nice to see what your writing about come to life.
Seeing your lunch with the cranberry sauce made me crave it….would you mind sharing your recipe it looks so good.
Again love your blog, your a breath of fresh air!!
hi lori! thanks for commenting! i wish i had a fantastic cranberry sauce recipe to share with you, but i just follow the one on the back of the bag (i use a little less sugar) and then add a cinnamon stick at the end. 🙂
I write a funny cartoon blog for moms. 🙂
I am the exact same way when it comes to vitamins. I only seem to easily remember to take the ones that taste good! 🙂
December 1st: nooooow snowflakes are acceptable!
You should join us at
Thethankfulnessexperiment.blogspot.com
Listing 5 things you are thankful for everyday
To help adopt an attitude of gratitude 🙂
How is Sadie today? The cone picture was pitiful yesterday.
I love crafts (hello, my email is CraftyJenguin haha) and cooking, so I follow a few crafting blogs, too. One of my favorites is delia creates (http://deliacreates.blogspot.com/)
I love how your vitamins mostly seem like candy 🙂
I too follow mostly health and fitness blogs, but outside of that I love a good crafting blog. I started reading Under the Sycamore because of her awesome craft tutorials. I quickly got wrapped up in her family and, more recently, their adoption process. Check it out:
http://ashleyannphotography.com/blog/
Love this post! I’m going to try this circuit workout in t-minus 15 minutes when I get my butt off the couch and get to the gym hahah. Anyway, the workout looks great and the snowflakes make it slightly more enticing 😉 As for other blogs, I really like ‘Thought Catalog’ (http://thoughtcatalog.com/), The Unprecedented (http://the-unprecedented.ca/), VMac & Cheese (http://vmacandcheese.com/).. and many, many more! I’m always amazed by how many beautiful blogs there are out there! Happy reading and happy holidays 🙂
Thanks for all your wonderful posts. As someone who loves to work-out and be healthy, I have to say I typically dislike (hate?) circuit training. I know its a total mindset thing but I can’t get around it! I tried your “heat things up – winter circuit workout” and I absolutely LOVED it! I ended with so much energy and positivity to keep going with my day! Maybe I’ve turned a corner…Thanks again!
Just tried this circuit workout! I was picking up around the house and got into a “need to workout” mindset, so I figured I’d give it a try. It was definitely a great workout! I feel like I got a good amount of cardio in with my muscles feeling comfortably tired! Thanks for the circuit!