I hope everyone had a fantastic Father’s Day and a great first day of summer! We had a great day yesterday full of family and food (shocker!).
We went over to Donny’s parents’ house for lunch. Donny’s sister, Cathy, and her family (husband Jay and three kids Kyle, Elena, & Carlie) were in town from Tennessee and then Donny’s oldest brother along with his wife and daughter (Gemma is almost 3 months old now!) were all here to celebrate. Donny smoked brisket and ribs, then we had coleslaw, fruit salad, beans, potato salad, and four desserts!
We hung out for a while at the Edson house and then ventured over to my parents. My grandpa requested fish & chips for dinner, so Donny fried up some beer-battered cod and my mom baked french fries!
We live rough lives getting to celebrate with both family, don’t we?! I love that we live so close to our families and can spend holidays and celebrations with them. It was really nice to have (almost) all of Donny’s family around too!
Now I want to share with you some of the things that I have been loving lately. These aren’t sponsored products or anything, I just like them so much I want to tell you about them! Here goes…
Norwex Body Cloths: If you have not heard of the company Norwex, then you should look into it. They have cleaning products of all sorts that help you use less chemicals in your house. For example, their window cloths are to be used on windows without using Windex, etc. They have everything from body towels to kitchen towels to mopping systems, etc.
I happen to use the Norwex Body Cloths on my face. They have cleared up my acne like no other! You simply get them wet and then start scrubbing/wiping your face…no joke, that is all! No make-up remover is necessary and no face wash is necessary. I typically rinse my face off to get most of my eye makeup off and then use the cloth, but that is only because I don’t like seeing black marks all over my pretty cloths! I have been using them for about 3 years now and I don’t see going back to another product again. I do use a facial lotion along with the cloth, but no other cleanser is needed. I was seriously skeptical at first, but my acne is so much better than what is was before.
I recently recommended these to a friend of mine and she seems happy with them too! If your acne is a hormonal thing then these obviously won’t work, but if it is caused by oil or bacteria then these should help! A bonus to the cloths is that when you travel you can throw one in your toiletry bag and you don’t need a ton of liquid products in your bag. Stick one of these in a ziploc bag (so it doesn’t get anything else in your bag wet), throw it in the suitcase, and you are good to go!
Food Prep Containers: I recently (and I mean recently) purchased some food prep containers. There are quite a few different brands online, but I chose these from Amazon. They are basically plastic storage containers that are microwave-safe (yay), dishwasher-safe (double yay), and are stackable.
I typically prep my meals the night before or a few days before. With these, I can fit my whole meal into one container instead of 45 different containers. They will then easily stack in my refrigerator for me to grab at night while I am packing the next day’s meals. They will also fit nicely in my lunch box!
I prepped a few different items yesterday and today to take for meals this week and I am already loving these silly little things! I can lay them all out on the table and quickly weigh the food I will take and move along. Seems like a little thing, but when you are packing 8-10 meals for the week this saves some time! I am also hoping it saves room in the dishwasher because I have 2-3 containers per day, instead of 7-8 per day (I’m not exaggerating…).
Mumford & Sons new song “Believe”: Need I say more?!?! I mean, it’s Mumford & Sons! Their first album, “Sign No More” was good. Their second album, “Babel” was fantastic. If I base their third album, “Wilder Mind” on this song, then it was be amazing! If you do not know what song I’m talking about (I’m not saying I’m mad, just disappointed) then you can listen to it here.
I have been meaning to buy the entire album and just have not done it yet. My friend Scott has it and he said that he really liked “Believe”, but now that he has listened to the entire album it is his least favorite song! That means everything else rocks…. just writing about this and not owning the album makes me feel foolish. I may just go buy it tomorrow!
Fabletics: Have you heard of Fabletics? It received a lot of press when they first released it but it is Kate Hudson’s brand of active wear. I like Kate Hudson and all, but I would never purchase her active wear just because she came out with it. However, they were offering some pretty good deals on your first order and I happen to love active wear so… I bought some. Turns out, it is awesome!
I am always afraid that when I buy leggings online they will be thin material. I have a sizable rear so I don’t need anything being see through on the ol’ bottom! These were definitely not thin material. I picked out a two-piece outfit (there are several options) and I loved the top and I loved the bottom. They are good quality workout pieces.
Instagram: It took me a while to hop on the Instagram-train and I am so glad I did! It is my new favorite form of social media (sorry Facebook, Instagram is where it’s at!). I have not fully grasped the #hastag thing (do you # when you say hastag?!?!), but I use them with confidence and pretend like I know what I am doing! In the past, if I have a few extra minutes somewhere or if I was waiting on someone then I would get on Pinterest on my phone. Now I have traded both Facebook and Pinterest in for Instagram!
If I am being honest, the only reason I joined was to see certain pictures that my favorite radio hosts talk about! I’m serious… I love JohnJay & Rich, which is a syndicated radio show that is on in the morning. I started listening to them when I was going to CSU and they are hilarious. I know, I know….I work for a radio station! I should be listening to our programs… I do, I swear. 90% of the time I listen to one of our seven stations, but when I get ready in the morning I turn JohnJay & Rich on in the bathroom and get ready for work. Then I go back to being all-Media-Logic-Radio and listen to our own stations.
Anyway, now that I have tattled on myself (sorry bossman!)….JohnJay kept talking about these pictures he posted on Instagram and was Instagram-this and Instragra-that! One of the pictures he was referring to really caught my attention. I had to see it! Twenty minutes later I had an Instagram account.
I needed it for the blog anyway so it was about time I bit the bullet! Follow me @eatliftplayrepeat. I post more pictures on there than I do on the blog. It is easier to post day to day things that I am doing on there and, ya know, sometimes each picture doesn’t need a whole blog post, right?So add me on Instagram. Shameless plug: over.
I follow a few people on Instagram, I but mostly use it for fitness & food motivation! Some of my favorite Instagram accounts that I follow are @fitmencook (one of my favorite healthy eating blogs), @ashleykfit (IFBB Pro Ashley Kaltwasser), @bretcontreras (the glute-training guru, if you will), @jesshilgenberg (IFBB Figure Pro Jessie Hilgenberg), and of course @johnjayvanes & @richberra (not fitness or food related whatsoever).
There are a bunch of others that are fantastic so if you are on Instagram and want some more awesome peeps to follow for nutrition and fitness advice, then let me know! I would love share 😀
What are some of the things you are loving right now?!
