Not in that order, though! Happy Monday friends. As you can tell from the title of this post, my mind hasn't had much focus in the past couple weeks when it comes to blogging. Work has been very busy and FUN and it's stealing all of my effort. I love my job so much, you guys. It doesn't feel like work!! The hours are long, I get home late, but I leave every day with a big fat smile.  Since I don't have a recipe, a workout or a super deep motivational speech to share, I'm going to share some weekend shenanigans and what I've been loving lately. 

Pizza

I think that Philly should be known for it's pizza rather than Philly cheesesteaks. The pizza here is so damn good. Michael and indulged in a pie from Slice. We got half Hawaiin and half Florentine. I have to say, Michael's choice of Hawaiian was better than my half. The best part about the meal is that we got to bring our own beer. These BYOB laws in Pennsylvania are still blowing my mind - it's awesome! 

Beer

Michael and I are most likely moving to Conshohocken when our lease is up in the summer and there's this amazing little bar and beer store there called the Boathouse. We went to tour a couple apartments and had to stop to pick up a few brews. If you haven't tried Ballast Point beers, you're missing out. They have a brand new one called the Habanero Sculpin and it's INCREDIBLE. It's spicy and hoppy and has so much flavor. Try it out. It was great with the pizza but I could really enjoy it with some tacos or chips and guac. 

Puppies!!! 

We pet sit an ADORABLE pup this weekend. We want a dog so bad but can't seem to bite the bullet yet. There's this app called Rover that's basically like Airbnb for dogs. Michael created a profile and we got our first request to watch a dog on Saturday night. Her name is Hanna Montana. She is a 4 year old pit bull and was just the sweetest girl ever. She had a lot of energy, but we tired her out with a long 4 mile walk yesterday!

Come on, look at that face!! For now, Rover will satisfy the puppy withdrawals I have been feeling. 

Spin

Although I'm at City Fitness full time as a trainer, I have been LOVING subbing more classes at Body Cycle Studio. Indoor cycling will always be my favorite group fitness class to teach. I'm serious, sometimes I get chills. Am I crazy? Are there any other spin-obsessed people or instructors who can relate? I program all of my Spin profiles to the music and when the playlist is on point and the energy of the class is high, it just feels incredible. I've been able to sub at least 1-2 classes per week, but I'm real excited to take on my first permanent class soon in the next couple months! 

Music

And on that note, here's the playlist that's been rocking my world this past week. Candyman by Aloe Blacc and Zedd is my new favorite song, FYI. 

Coffee

Iced coffee to be exact. Michael makes iced coffee in the French press and it's out of this world. I make bad stale coffee in the coffee pot that is not out of this world, so we turned that into coffee ice cubes for the ice coffee. GENIUS IDEA!! 

And I believe that's all I have for this morning! 

XO - Rach

Let's chat...

Are you a dog or cat person?

Hot or iced coffee?

Favorite beer?

Favorite pizza?

Favorite song lately?

I hope everyone had a cheerful Memorial Day weekend! I got back to Philadelphia today and had a very fun, all-over-the-place weekend. Before I share my weekend travels, I wanted to share all of the fun classes I did last week, thanks to Class Pass. If you haven't heard of class pass, it is a service that you can subscribe to monthly and attend unlimited group fitness classes at the studios and gyms that are partnered with class pass. There are SO many studios that I can have access to with class pass, so it is really fun to try new classes every week. So here is what I did last week:

Monday - rest; tired from the weekend and pooped after work

Tuesday - 45 minute rowing class at RowZone - LOVED this!! The class included intervals on the rower and strength intervals off the rower.

Wednesday - Bikram Yoga - PHEWWW I can't believe I made it through the 90 minute class. Not sure I'll be back, but had to try. 60 minutes would be plenty for me. I enjoyed the heat, but the excessive sweating was a little ridiculous.

Thursday - 60 minute cycle at Body Cycle Studio - this was a fun class and a really nice little cycle studio! Going to try my best to audition to teach here...

Friday - rest; work and then traveled to Allentown after work!

Saturday - watched the CrossFit East regionals while I ate chicken fingers and fries (hardest workout all week?)

Sunday - 3-4 mile run/walk + probably 2 more miles of walking (didn't track anything) around Prospect Park in Brooklyn with Michael. The weather was in the low 70's and we just wanted to be outside all day. Plus the amount of dogs in the park made it worth it (I'm a tad obsessed.)

Today - bussed back to Philly, schlepped to get some groceries at Whole Foods and helped my roomie build a bed so that was enough moving around for me! Just relaxing and enjoying the day off :)

I love variety and the variety that class pass allows makes me really excited to workout. I am also trying to run more during the summer before the northern cold weather takes over in only a few months (yikes, not ready.)

Anyway, this weekend was a blast. I got to Michael's place in Allentown around 6 p.m. on Friday. He made steak and rice and we downed a bottle of wine - we were sleeping by 10:30 (we're crazy partiers, I know.)

Saturday morning we left by 7:30 to head up to Hartford, CT to watch the CrossFit East superregionals! CrossFit isn't really my thing, but I definitely like to learn about and respect every form of fitness. Plus, watching the athletes is really fun and exhausting in itself! It was also fun to see a new city even though we only saw a small part of downtown.

Our original plan was to camp in Connecticut Saturday night and go hiking on Sunday morning, but literally every camp site was booked. We clearly do well at planning ahead! Luckily, the wonderful people, Steve & Diana, that I lived with last summer in Brooklyn were home for the weekend and generously offered for us to stop by and stay the night!

It ended up working out perfectly because New York was on the way home, and I had not seen them since last summer! We had a lot of fun catching up on Saturday night. On Sunday, Michael and I got up early to grab coffee and enjoy the beautiful day.

I had plans to take Michael to Smorgasburg. We got on the L train to Williamsburg, where I remember the food festival being last year (it happens every weekend on Saturdays and Sundays from April-November.) We got there and I realized that on Sundays it is at a totally different park! Go me. We stayed in Williamsburg for a delicious lunch anyway and got to enjoy walking around without the crazy masses of people.

We picked up some craft beer on the way back to Steve & Diana's house to enjoy while everyone prepared for a big BBQ. More food! Steve is a chef and made killer ribs and chicken on the grill, and Diana's potato salad is amazing. They make sure everyone is well fed!

 We hit the road after dinner to go back to Allentown. I'm really happy that I live so close to New York now because Steve and Diana really feel like family away from home in Florida. I'm never one for making plans and I think that this weekend just reminded me how much more fun traveling is when you don't really have a set plan. We had no idea we would be stopping in Brooklyn but so glad we did! It's all just an adventure, right?

The weekend was well spent, but I'm ready to get back to work tomorrow to keep learning new things. Have a wonderful Monday night and Tuesday morning.

- Rach

Happy Hump Day! This post consists of some random thoughts as I sit here drinking this amazing latte from Cymplify...

Job Hunt

I have a job interview today. This is one out of two that I've had so far and I've applied to about 50. Who's in the same boat? Isn't it fun!! This weekend is a bit freed up for me so other than enjoying the amazing weather (supposed to be in the 70's this weekend!) I plan on applying for about 30 more. It's a hefty goal but I am getting real determined because April is around the corner. I also recently started my free trial of LinkedIn Premium, which has been making the job search a little easier. Thank you, LinkedIn!

Instagram Layout

Instagram released a new app this week called Layout. If you are obsessed with Instagram like I am this is pretty exciting! It's a new photo editing app that allows you to get really creative with photography layouts. It's very easy to use! You can create a custom layout or use one of many layouts that the app provides. Read more about it here.

Healthy Skin

Lately my skin has been looking and feeling really healthy to me and I thought I would share a few things I have been doing differently! I have always had pretty healthy skin, but it's usually really dry, sensitive and easily irritated. I don't use a lot of skin care products but there's two that have made a big difference lately!

Vitamin C Oil - I have been applying this every night after I wash my face and I absolutely love it! It is a little oily, but it has made my skin extremely smooth and hydrated when I wake up every morning. It has a ton of antioxidants that are beneficial for skin. It reduces inflammation, promotes the growth of collagen and diminishes the appearance of sun damage. Miracle oil! According to Dr. Oz, it can drop a decade off of your face. Not sure how much truth is in that statement, but I have definitely noticed a positive change!

Lush Love Lettuce Exfoliating Face Mask - A friend lent me some of this to try out last week and I absolutely love it!! It's awesome. Totally natural ingredients, smells awesome and makes my skin feel amazing. Because of the natural ingredient list, it needs to be refrigerated, and when you apply it, it feels cool and soothing. Unfortunately there is not a Lush store in Gainesville, but as soon as I am near one I am going to pick up some more.

This Newfie Video

I have an obsession with big dogs. Half of my Twitter and Instagram news feeds consists of dogs. I cannot wait until I can have my own Golden Retriever/Huskie/Aussie/Newfie/German Shepard/All of the above. So I'll leave you with this adorable video that I've watched way too many times:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEdRUyN6Kfo