Relax + Re-Charge

This weekend was such a whirlwind!

After the masquerade party, I stayed up till 1am. Then, I woke up promptly at 7am for a 5 hour Zumba Instructor workshop with my company. Phew! I was pretty zonked after that and promptly re-heated some frozen soup and made toast for a quick lunch. Hubby reminded me via text that our neighbors were having a birthday party, so I went there. Then, I came home, had a quick dinner, and got ready to go out again! I went to a dueling piano bar with some friends to celebrate my friend Megan’s first day of school! She’s getting a second degree, and I’m super proud of her. Happy School Megan! 🙂 Anywho, I stayed up again till about 1am. For whatever reason, I woke up early-ish on Sunday (around 8:30am)…maybe it was Bailey licking my hand? lol I barely had time to make breakfast and get ready for the day before it was time to head out to teach Zumba. I stayed after to work on choreography with some friends from class. Then, it was time to meet another Zumba co-worker to do paperwork. And that brought me to dinner time. After dinner, I finally had the chance to blog my masquerade party post before it was time for bed. Thank goodness I had Monday off from work, because after this weekend, I seriously needed to re-charge. I slept in till 10am! That’s how I know I’m really exhausted…sleeping in that late. Phew!

Anywho, I was off from work today to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. In honor of MLK, here’s a great quote by him:

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

IMG_6268.jpg

Since I had some time this morning, I decided to make my multigrain pancakes and raspberry sauce (click for recipes).

IMG_6262.jpg

I had 2 bags of flours (teff and spelt) that were almost empty and decided to throw them into the pancake mix. They were extra-multi-grain. lol

IMG_6265.jpg

They were also fabulous!

IMG_6266.jpg

I added chopped almonds on top for extra texture.

IMG_6272.jpg

Ooh and I tried making the sauce sans lemon to see how it turned out. It was pretty good, but I liked the tang of the lemon juice in the sauce.

IMG_6282.jpg

It was lick-your-plate, clean-your-fork good. Ooh la yum! 🙂

IMG_6294.jpg

Bailey says hi!

IMG_6295.jpg

I worked hard to get a head-tilt photo for you guys. lol.

IMG_6303.jpg

Lunch was leftovers from dinner last night – fresh spinach spaghetti with meat sauce using Hickory Nut Gap grass-fed beef.

IMG_6308.jpg

Hubby bought some focaccia at the same place where we got the pasta. I didn’t have time on Sunday to make focaccia from scratch, even though you guys know I luuurve to make it!

IMG_6311.jpg

Since I had the afternoon off, even though I was spending most of the day relaxing and re-charging, I decided on doing some baking.

IMG_6318.jpg

I’m also working on a new recipe for you guys!

IMG_6322.jpg IMG_6325.jpg

An instant, no-bake granola bar for one!

If you’re like me, you like homemade granola bars, but don’t like how it makes such a big batch, or such a mess, or takes so long. I’m hoping this will be a winner. 🙂 It doesn’t quite have the same rich taste as a baked bar, but it’s also a fraction of the effort. 😉

***

Even though I was being lazy work-wise all day, I wanted to stay on track fitness-wise. I went to Zumba tonight and had such a good time. At the Master Class with our new ZES, we saw a new dance for How Low Can You Go. The instructor did it tonight and though I liked it the first time I saw it, I reeeally liked it the second. I gotta get the song so I can do it in my class soon! It was so F-U-N!

IMG_6328.jpg

For some reason, I decided to make homemade enchiladas for dinner. Not sure why. The recipe looked really easy and though it was, it wasn’t a weeknight-post-zumba kind of dinner. I should have stuck with something faster. lol.

IMG_6331.jpg

Oh well, it was still delicious. We had Spanish rice pilaf and some spicy blue corn chips.

IMG_6334.jpg

And I got to try my baking experiment – a new dough ball flavor – Chocolate Coconut Almond. Nommmy nom! The recipe needs tweaking before I post it, but it’s gooooood!

Thank goodness I had today off to relax and re-charge. Sometimes I feel like I get so crazy-busy during the week, I need the weekend down time to get back to normal. lol Know what I mean?

Do you use the weekends to relax and re-charge? Do you build time in during the week?

20 thoughts on “Relax + Re-Charge”

  1. I totally need downtime, every day. At least like 30 mins of just sitting at my ‘puter vegging out and drinking coffee. The other 95% of the day i go-go-go and yeah, I overwhelm even myself. lol

    Love the nobake granola bars. I am all about those too! So easy and handy 🙂

    Reply
  2. I don’t have too much downtime during the week but I do try to carve out a half hour or so between dinner and the gym just to chill with a magazine or something along that lines. Blogging is actually a relaxing thing but at the same time I know it’s also a “responsibility” of a sort. Yeah, when the weekends come though, there’s a HUGE need for some r&r!

    Reply
  3. I definitely use the weekends to relax, except for Sundays. I am the most motivated person on Sundays, no clue why! I really enjoy the hours between 3 – 5 p.m., because I’m coming home from work, chilling for a bit before anyone gets home, and starting dinner with the iPod going.

    Reply
  4. I don’t think I am very good at relaxing in general, but I am definitely not good at relaxing during the week – the gym is pretty much my only “re-charge” time, which is why I’m trying to get to hot yoga more during the week!
    I really want to try Zumba too – so I think I’m going to try to add that this weekend – it sounds so fun (although I am worried about my overall lack of coordination…)!

    Reply
    • Ooh yoga would be fab for re-charging.

      You should totally try Zumba! You really don’t have to be coordinated. We have a lot of people in class who aren’t “coordinated”, but you know what…they get in there, they dance their asses off, they get a great workout, and they have so much FUN! It’s not a dance contest…it’s your let-loose time! lol 🙂

      Check out my Zumba 101 post for tips before your first class: https://thechiclife.com/2010/03/zumba-101.html 🙂

      Reply
  5. i try to get at least an hour to myself every day to unwind, and then i really use the weekends to unwind + recharge. i don’t know how, but i think long weekends go by faster than regular 2-day weekends do. probably bc you get it into your mind that you have all this time to do so much, and then poof, it’s gone!

    Reply
  6. That second pic of Bailey is ADORABLE. I love how so many animals do that head tilt thing- it’s so cute!!

    If I don’t have “me” time every day, I go nuts. Luckily I see cardio as a time of relaxation because I can just let my mind wander, although vegging out on the couch works too!!

    Reply
  7. I absolutely need to re-charge and it’s typically on Saturday.

    but at home I move more than I do at work, chasing a toddler.

    I have been back on track with the EIM Challenge. YAY.

    It was a much better week!
    xo

    Reply
  8. I need to get better with my schedule to plan downtime on the weekends and during the week. Lately I have been leaving room for neither and it is starting to get to me.

    Lots of yummy recipe creations coming out of TCL!!!! 🙂

    Reply

Leave a Comment