Girls Weekend

I'm back!  I'm hoping for good this time but I keep saying that and then I go a couple of months without posting so I'm not going to make any promises.  I did tell Ryan that I wanted to blog more so hopefully he will keep me in check!

Last weekend, some of my closest college friends and I had a girls weekend in Nashville!  Last year, so many of us got married or had babies that it seemed like we were seeing each other every month for bachelorette parties, weddings, baby showers, etc. This year we didn't have any excuses to get together so we decided to make one by celebrating everyone's 30th birthday this year with a girls weekend in Nashville (where two of the girls live).  Boy oh boy am I glad we decided to do this - it was a blast! In fact it was so much fun that we decided to try and make it an annual tradition - we promised to make it a tradition for the big years when we are celebrating major birthdays but hope to do it every year!

I decided to fly in Thursday morning to get a little extra time with my friend Anna and her sweet little girl Carter.  She picked me up from the airport on Thursday and I worked from her house while we played with Carter in between.  Below are some pictures from our fun day - isn't she just the cutest?

A few of the other girls got into town Thursday night and everyone else got in town on Friday.  Friday night, our hostess with the mostess, Sarah, cooked a fabulous dinner with delicious wine pairings and we just ate, drank and caught up.  It was exactly what we all needed!

We woke up Saturday morning and a few of us decided to go to a workout class.  It was brand new for me and although I'm glad I went, it was really hard and I was sore for days.  After the class, we showered, packed up and went to Arrington Vineyards for a day of wine tasting.  What is more perfect for a girls weekend than sitting outside on a beautiful day at a beautiful vineyard tasting wine?  Absolutely nothing! We had the BEST time!

Anna, Lauren and I doing the tasting

Beautiful view of Nashville from where we were sitting all day

All the girls at the vineyard

After the tasting, we went back to Sarah's, quickly changed and got ready for dinner.  That night we went to one of the best restaurants I have ever been to in my life - Lockeland Table.  Absolutely everything we had was amazingly delicious. I will definitely be going back on my next trip to Nashville and HIGHLY recommend it for anyone visiting.  After that, we decided to go to one honky tonk downtown (since we were in Nashville and all) and then called it a night.  

This girls weekend was amazing and just what I needed!  I feel so lucky and blessed to have great friends from college that I stay in touch with, celebrate major moments in life with but, most importantly, find a reason to celebrate even the smaller things in life with just so that we can be together!

I'm in Memphis for the golf tournament this week - I have plans to post about that soon!

Clean Eating Challenge

"Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." - unknown idiot

I've never liked this quote. I think whoever said it has never tasted chocolate pie (but that's besides the point).  Who decides what skinny looks like? Who says skinny looks good on everyone? Who decided that being skinny was most important, above all else?  I just hate this quote.  It gives me the heebygeebys every time I read it and makes me, quite honestly, want to go eat more chocolate pie.  Then I saw this, updated, version.

"Nothing tastes as good as healthy feels." - uknown

I still think maybe whoever said this hasn't tasted chocolate pie BUT I'm much more on board with this saying.  Especially as I get older and my body feels every bite of chocolate pie, and tends to let me know it.

The truth is, I do feel a lot better when I eat better.  I feel more energetic, happier, less stressed, just all over better.  I firmly believe in the 80/20 rule when it comes to food and I have never been someone who completely eliminates anything.  It works for some people but it just doesn't work for me and I'm okay with that.

I have found that when I travel it is really hard to eat healthy. I have also found that when I get home from traveling, I tend to bring those not so good eating habits with me and I don't eat very well.

So, since I just came off a two week travel and one week post travel bad eating binge, I decided to do a week of clean eating.  Yep, just one week.  Just to kind of reset my system and get me back on the right track. I want my body to feel good and energized again and I want to feel good about my body again.  So, today started my one week!

I have found that planning ahead is key to sticking to this challenge.  I go to the grocery store and try to shop only on the outside aisles and plan all of my meals for the week.  I prepare them ahead of time and it makes my life so much easier that week, and it also prevents me from making the easy, not so healthy choice when I'm super busy.  I also try to drink only water when I'm doing this clean eating.  Nothing is better for you than drinking a lot of water and it's so simple!

So, wish me luck on my week of clean eating.  I'm hoping it leads to healthier weeks ahead and a happier me! Do you struggle with times of not eating well and feeling tired and unhealthy?  Try this challenge sometime - it's manageable and you'll be surprised by the results of something this simple!

Life Lately

So I've already failed on my resolution to post more this year...sorry about that.  Honestly, I haven't posted because I haven't had much to post about. I haven't been traveling as much as I did last year, we haven't been doing any major home projects, weddings/babies have slowed down so life is kind of simple. Simple is nice!

With that being said, although I haven't traveled as much this year yet..Ryan and I made a big decision that I would travel MORE this year.  Here is why:

1. I am lucky enough to have a job that allows me to work from anywhere.
2. Ryan gets to chase the sun and go to warm, sunny, beautiful places.
3. We want to start a family soon so this may be the last year that I can travel full-time without any other worries.
4. We are newlyweds so we need to be together as much as possible, right?

There are many more reasons that we discussed but I think you get the point.  As I am writing this blog post, I am sitting in a hotel room in Palm Beach, looking out at the sunny 80 degree weather and not one bit jealous of my family and friends back in Charlotte who are looking out of their widows to snow.

So, that has been life lately.  Not super exciting, but hopefully it will get more exciting soon!

And I promise (for myself) to write more.  This is fun and I want to carve out time for it!