Living Lindsay

Happy Thursday friends! I hope you are having a terrific week! My MRI is tomorrow morning. I can’t say I’m super excited about it as I’m not really a huge fan of being stuck inside a small tube for 30 minutes. I’ll be channeling my inner Yogi tomorrow for sure!

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I love to shop. Seriously. It makes me REALLY happy. So when the Hubs tells me to go ahead and shop as he did on Mother’s Day, I’m one happy girl. Lately, I’ve been on a huge dress kick. I’ve never really worn dresses, other than on “special” occasions. I never looked at dresses as casual attire and to be perfectly honest, my day to day wardrobe typically involves Nike Tempo shorts and a cute tank or tee from Old Navy. Not fancy, but super comfy!

These are my fave Nike Tempo’s:

But lately, I’ve been loving dresses and have purchased several in the last few weeks! They’re still comfortable and they’re very easy to wear. In other words, I can just throw one on with a cute pair of sandals and be off on my merry way.

Loft has some adorable dresses right now so I thought I would share the ones I’ve purchased. The fabrics are beautiful and they are SOOOO comfortable!

I love love LOVE this dress! I’m a huge fan of blues and yellows and this one called out to me.

Blues and yellows are front and center on this one as well. It’s bright and perfect for spring/summer:

I love maxi dresses and the rope tie really sold this one for me. The pattern of the stripes makes it flattering as well:

This one is just cute and comfy. Nothing flashy, but it fits really well and I love the colors. I also bought it in a rich navy blue and a pretty aqua blue:

And how about girly ruffles? This is another soft and comfortable one, but the ruffled neckline adds some additional girly flair:

And I have my eye on these wedges, also from Loft:

So what do you think? I’ve loved adding these dresses to my wardrobe and love wearing them even more.

Tell Me:

Dresses: Yay or Nay?

Enjoy your day!

Lindsay

Hey Hey Hey!

I hope you are all doing extremely well! I know, I know. It’s been a REALLY long time since my last post. Life sometimes gets in the way and I always promised myself that anytime writing a blog post feels like homework at the end of the night, I just won’t do it. However, unlike the way I used to feel about homework, I love my blog and all of you and I definitely didn’t intend to take THIS long of a break.

I wish I had some AMAZINGLY awesome news to share. But unless you count the fact that Wal-Mart now sells Biscoff Spread as incredibly exciting news, then I’ve really got nothin’.

(I, however, think it’s extremely exciting that Wal-mart sells Biscoff spread. And it’s only $3.89 a jar!!)

In a nutshell, this is what I was busy with over the last two weeks:

1) getting myself BACK to the gym after my forced two week break as a result of hurting my back. It’s amazing how HARD it is to recondition yourself after taking time off and it ISN’T fun!!

2) a sick kiddo – just a common cold, but in our house, that means sleepless nights and breathing treatments. He’s doing great now though!

3) family visiting – my sis and her hubby visited us for a few days. It was a great time! We shopped a LOT! It was my Mother’s Day gift from the hubby. I’ll share pics of some my purchases later this week.

4) doctor visits – I had to visit an allergist to have a panel of allergy tests completed.

That pic was taken about an hour AFTER the test. My arm swelled like a balloon in reaction to many of the outdoor allergies and also cats, mites, and cockroaches. That just makes me a squirm. So gross. I’ve always had allergies so none of those were a surprise, but I had to get the test because I had a horrible allergic reaction after teaching a Body Combat Class not too long ago. The same thing happened back in August and I thought it was the result of a new vitamin. But since then, I stopped taking that vitamin and six months later, had the same reaction. After the class, I broke out in head to toe hives, turned bright red, and was itchy from head to toe. My legs swelled – it was NOT fun. Benadryl helped and unfortunately the only result of my allergy test was: we really don’t know what is going on. It could be Exercise Anaphylaxis, or basically an allergy to exercise. Great, right? That’s just what I need. Or, you can be allergic to something (i.e. a food), but never know it UNTIL you eat it just before exercise. You can eat it any other time and be fine, but exercise will induce a reaction. Fun times!

My most recent setback: my right upper arm/shoulder. It’s been hurting since January and I’ve ignored it, hoping the pain would go away. It hasn’t, so I went to an ortho and he believes I tore my rotator cuff. I have an MRI scheduled for Friday and if it is torn, I’ll have to have surgery. Surgery means I will be out for THREE TO FOUR MONTHS!!!! What?!?!? There obviously isn’t anything I can do about it, but I’m obviously TERRIFIED of what this will mean for me in terms of weight loss/maintenance. I know I’m going to have to be SUPER diligent with my eating.

In regards to blogging, it will probably take me 2 weeks to type one post with my left hand so hang in there with me!

I’ll keep you posted on the results of my MRI. If you are a person who believes in prayer, please say one for me and pray for this: No cuff tear, no surgery. Just really bad tendonitis.

I’ll take tendonitis any day over a surgery for a tear. So pray for tendonitis. Please and thank you.

5) Family pictures! I’ll share more pics in a later post, but here are two sneak peaks:

I know this is getting super wordy, but I wanted to touch base to let you know where I’ve been and what I’ve been up to. Thank you for sweet comments and emails expressing concern and letting me know that you missed my posts! Much love to you!

Some recent eats:

And some recent new additions to my front porch:

I searched high and low for those cushions. I found them at Target and found the complementing pillows at Home Depot. It’s all about the corals and aquas this summer, folks!!

Tell Me:

What have you been up to lately? I miss hearing from all of you!

What are your favorite colors for the summer? I love wearing bright colors like coral, aqua blues, and yellow, but I also love keeping it simple with whites, grays, and khaki shades.

Enjoy your day!

Lindsay

Happy Monday friends!

Did we even have a weekend? Our weekend seemed to fly right by, probably because we were pretty busy. We had a birthday party to go to on Saturday afternoon, and on Sunday, the Hubs spent most of his day painting and assembling Carter’s new easel.

I basically watched and “advised” since my back is still hurting a bit. I won’t be teaching Body Combat until Saturday to give it time to heal and I haven’t worked out since last Friday. It’s killing me! But have no fear. Last night, I was able to get my heart rate up a little with a fairly simple living room workout.

I pulled out my aerobic step and basically stepped up and down for 30 minutes, increasing speed every so often to add some intensity. I followed it up with some light weights (biceps, triceps), and some stretching.

I felt so great afterwards and my back responded positively – in other words, it didn’t hurt any worse. So that’s great news! I’m not going to overdo it though, as I definitely don’t want to take ten steps backwards.

Since workouts have taken a backseat to my back injury, I’ve been paying extra close attention to what goes into my mouth.

Breakfast:

A simple bowl of oatmeal made with oats, almond milk, a mashed banana, cinnamon, chia seeds, chopped apples, and almond butter.

Lunch:

A whole grain wrap with spinach, broccoli slaw, and “mayo free” tuna salad: 1/2 mashed avocado, dijon mustard, lemon juice, dill, 1 can albacore tuna. So good!!

Dinner:

Mama Pea’s Better Than Ever Black Bean Burger with homemade sweet potato fries and a very veggie-full salad. Salad dressing was flax oil, rice vinegar, sea salt, and pepper.

For me, a day isn’t complete without a sweet treat.

It doesn’t look very pretty, but it’s a fave around here! I made banana soft serve using my YoNanas machine, and then made a chocolate raspberry sauce by mixing Coco Cardio (you can use cocoa powder) with agave nectar and a few drops of the Chocolate Raspberry Stevia by Sweet Leaf.

Mixed it together, plopped it into a cone, and voila!

Ice cream face accomplished!

Tell Me:

What is your favorite “living room workout”?

Favorite post meal healthy sweet treat?

Until next time,

Lindsay