Hey there! I have been wanting to write sort of a life update post, and I just haven’t sat down to do it. I have been getting a lot of messages on Instagram asking me if I have started a new diet or program recently. The truth is, I am almost two full weeks into it, and I haven’t yet talked about it. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I started seeing a functional medicine doctor. During that visit, I had a lot of blood taken to run labs. She ran everything from vitamin levels, hormones, cholesterol, iron, glucose, thyroid, inflammatory markers, etc. I went back two weeks ago, the day before we left for the beach actually, and got my results. She gave me pages and pages of print outs of my labs. The good news is a lot of my stuff came back great.

The main thing I need to work on is my hormone levels. They are soooooo out of wack. I am very estrogen dominant, and lacking in progestogen. I also have an elevated inflammatory marker. Neither of these things was all that surprising. My doctor said that the best way to regulate hormones is to do intermittent fasting, and make sure I am hitting the correct macronutrients with whole foods. She suggested that I sign up for a round of Faster Way to Fast Loss. As this program does intermittent fasting, carb cycling, macros and fitness. I was already following someone who does rounds of FWTFL so I signed up with her coach and it started the day we were traveling back from the beach. (Last Monday)

I will be honest and say that I lacked planning last week as I tried to reacclimate myself back into work and our routines after a few fabulous days at the beach. I didn’t quite hit my macros those days. I did get in all the FWTFL workouts, and this week I have been killing it on all fronts. I also committed to doing a mile a day in May with Heather from My Life Well Loved.

I will definitely come back and share my thoughts on the whole program after I have completed the six weeks. So far, I am really enjoying it, I have already seen results, and I like the workouts way more than I thought I would. I am happy to answer any questions in my DMs about it.

Favorite Finds: Since I am striving to hit all the macros, I am basically having a smoothie every day. There are so many combinations, so you don’t get bored. I didn’t want to clean out the huge Ninja blender every day, so I grabbed this one. It has been perfect and I highly recommend if you are in the market. It is on sale right now here, this is how much I paid for it.

I really want some platform sneakers for summer, and I saw these styled several ways. Love the espadrille look of them, and they are such a great price! They just really elevate any outfit.

I grabbed this sports bra and plan to get more from them. Really holds the girls in place and perfect for my strength days to keep everything divided and comfortable, especially when I am doing upper body. I also love them for walking/jogging. I cant do the regular sports bras that squish everything into a uniboob. You big chested ladies know what I mean! Bonus for certain colors being on sale! But worth it full price too. I am slowly replacing all my old ones with this type.

Favorite Listen: I really enjoyed this episode on the Well Fed Women podcast. She interviews Dr. Aviva Romm, who I follow on Instagram and have listened to on other podcasts. There is so much good information in this one on hormones, PCOS, endometriosis, and other nuggets pertaining to women’s health. There are a lot episodes that are on this podcast I want to go back to listen to. But if you are having any issues with your period, hormones, etc, I would definitely check out this specific episode.

Favorite Recipe: This recipe for chocolate peanut butter chia seed pudding has been going strong for something extra to hit my macros. A throw back from when we used to swap recipes on Tuesdays with Kate and Emily!

Favorite Funnies:

Linking up for Friday Favorites! I want to wish all your ladies out there who are moms a very Happy Mother’s Day! No matter what stage of motherhood you are rocking, you are a superstar to your kiddo(s) and I hope you have someone in your life telling you that on the regular.

Coming at you with some book reviews! I went through a rut of not reading for a solid two weeks, but still managed to finish out April strong. I can take or leave Love Your Life….but the rest I suggest adding to your list!

The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth

Sally Hepworth has become a must read for me over the last few years. Her characters are always so well written, and this book is no exception. It was hard to put down, as the book alternates between the three main women. A lot of heavy topics are covered in this book from domestic abuse, rape, miscarriage, binge eating, alcoholism, murder. It was all handled really well.

My only gripe is that I had an early ARC edition, and my ending did not match with the rest of my book club. I think they got off better than I did. As my ending was very open ended with not as much closure. I can only assume that early feedback made her change it? Either way, this book was still enjoyable and I can’t wait for more from Hepworth.

Bottom Line: Read it!!!

**I received a copy of The Younger Wife from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are of my own.**

Love Your Life by Sophie Kinsella

I am not sure what I want to say about this one? Overall, I liked the story. But there were a lot of things that bothered me about it. The insta-love was not believable for me. Honestly, I never really felt the chemistry between Ava and Matt. There were so many red flags that were ignored, and Ava felt very immature to me. I did love Matt and Ava’s friends though. Nell and Topher crackers me up. I think I wanted this book to be My Not So Perfect Life. I enjoyed that one so much!!!! This one just fell flat in a lot of ways. The middle was a little dull and boring. I really like the way the book ended though. The timing there felt right, the characters seemed to grow, and I just love how it all turned out. So that makes it hard for me to rate this one.

Bottom Line: If you are a fan of Sophie Kinsella, I would check it out. Overall though, it was just ok for me.

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

I was instantly hooked on this book. I didn’t know much about it going into it, and that is the way I think it is best to approach this one. So I am not going to say much about it, incase there are other people reading this who haven’t gotten to this one yet. I am just going to leave you with, it covers a hard topic…but it was done so well. This book made me smile, but it was also very raw and heartbreaking. I am glad it ended the way it did, even though part of me was like but but but. I could hardly put it down.

Bottom Line: Read it!!

The Friend Zone by Abby

I loved this book! I read books two and three in the series first, but I loved them so much I knew I had to go back and read the start of it all. I loved that Kristen dealt with a lot of the female problems I do. It was so relatable for me. There are so many books about girls with anxiety, I think there should be more about girls with PCOS, endometriosis, etc. But anyways, Kristen and Josh. Swoon!!!! Their banter was so good and the connection felt real. I loved how badass Kristen was…in almost every way but one. I think it would help if you read these books in order, but it is ok if you don’t. It was 100% worth it for me to go back and read this one, I enjoyed it so much!

Bottom Line: Definitely recommend this series. Love it!

Starry-Eyed Love by Helen Hunting

This is the second book in the series, though it could be read as a stand alone. I loved getting to visit with the Spark sisters again. I feel differently about Avery (the sister from the first book) after reading this one, though. I hope there is a book for Harley, I just loved her relationship with London. They seem very close. As for London and Jackson? So cute! I really appreciated the realness of the way London felt about her position at Spark House and the things she struggled with. I like that both Jackson and London had some baggage from the past, and they really dealt with it well throughout the book. It just felt realistic to me as far as the pacing went.

The audio version was done well. I like that we have a male for the Jackson parts of the book. Both narrators are captivating.

Bottom Line: Read it!

**I received an audio copy of Starry-Eyed Love from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are of my own.**

Game On: Tempting Twenty-Eight by Janet Evanovich

Diesel is back! I always love the books that have Diesel in them. This is one of my favorite series, and I never miss a book. Stephanie Plum, Joe Morelli, Ranger, Lula, Grandma Mazur…the whole gang is back for another. This time we get some crazy hackers, which I really enjoyed. Stephanie still hasn’t completely committed to one of our guys, and I am shocked that Rex is still kicking in his soup can. I just love the wacky characters and Stephanie’s antics. I never get bored.

Bottom Line: Love this series. If you are looking for a cozy mystery series with fun characters, this is for you.

Linking up with Tanya to bring you our Amazon purchases for April. We didn’t have a ton this time.

Food Scale

I am tracking macros and had to whip out my food scale. I haven’t used it in so long, I realized it didn’t work anymore. A friend recommended this one to me, and they are currently running a coupon for it! Very affordable.

Mixed-Up Salt

My coach had this in her recommendations for salads. I love seasoning my salad, it makes such a difference and makes it closer to restaurant quality.

Pill Container

I have had to add some supplements to my daily lineup, and there are so many to keep up with now I decided the best way was to set myself up each week. This has been working great and was the perfect size to take on vacation with us as well. All my bottles live in a container in the pantry so they aren’t taking up valuable counter space and I pull them out Sunday mornings and do the lineup for the week.

Tap Shoes

Zoe goes through dance shoes so quickly. I usually have to buy several pairs of both tap and ballet shoes each season. One day she woke up and didn’t fit in her old ones anymore, so I ran to Target to buy some before class that night. Worst mistake ever. She got about 4-5 classes out of them before the taps fell off BOTH shoes. Such junk. Target has been a major disappointment for a lot of things this year. Enter Amazon. I usually get her tap shoes from here and they last as long as they fit her feet. I have never had the taps come off before.

Shower Gel

This has become a regular purchase for me. Love this scent and the clean ingredients. I no longer use any synthetic fragrance products on my skin. Bath & Body Works and other brands like that are total garbage and full of hormone and endocrine disrupters. It is amazing how much of a difference I have seen since changing over to cleaner products.

I didn’t realize until today that Mother’s Day is next weekend!!! It comes early this year it seems. I always love throwing together a little wish list. Right now I am in desperate need of some summer shoes. I purged so many last year that were very worn.

Raw-Edge Hem Tank // Half Baked Harvest Cookbook

Bauble Bar Custom Bracelet Zoe’s name// Stack Bracelet to go with Custom Bracelet // Pink Slides

Gold Slides //Tan Slides

What do you have your eye on for your wish list this year? What are you getting your mom?

I have so much I want to update on. I hope to come back Monday and talk about our vacation, and have a life update sometime soon as well! Not to mention it will also be time to hit you all with a book post, I have read a few good ones this month. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Friday!

We got Zoe’s dance pictures back this week, oh my goodness!!! Speaking of dance, I have several friends out there who have girls that just started. Heads up on the Target tap shoes…they suck!!! If you look super closely in the red outfit photo, you can see her tap has come loose on the foot in the back. She has only worn these shoes maybe 5 or 6 times. Once that tap comes loose, they’re done. Even though they look brand new everywhere else. I had grabbed them in a rush one week, as it seems we grew out of our old shoes overnight and I didn’t want to wait for shipping from somewhere else. Never again.

This weekend we have a little trip planned, an egg hunt and of course Easter on Sunday. I cannot believe it is Easter already! Luckily, I had been collecting things here in there over the last few months so I didn’t have any last minutes scrambling for Easter basket items. I did drop the ball slightly on egg hunt stuffers. I don’t like to do tons of candy, and Zoe has already done two egg hunts that were mostly candy. I went by Dollar Tree yesterday to grab some temporary tattoos or stickers or something, and the place was RIDICULOUS. There was a line of at least 20 people to check out at one register. No thanks! I think I am going to just stick dollar bills in some of the eggs.

Favorite Finds: These shoes have memory foam and are the most comfortable heels I have tried in awhile. I have plantar facetious and a very high arch, shoes are quite the struggle for me. They aren’t too heavy, even though they look chunky. I’m not saying I will walk around all day in them, but I can definitely wear them for awhile and be ok.

I also really like these camis. They are under $20, look great under blazers or even alone. They have an adjustable strap and have a silky/satin finish front and back. I find that a lot of tanks from Loft and other places are cotton in the back. I like this better. There is a little slit on the sides that makes the fit super flattering. They run true to size as far as camis go. I tend to order a size up for length, and I like a looser fit. The “purple” is more of a pink color to me, just like in the photo. The other colors I have seen in person and are true to their representation online.

Favorite Recipe: These hot honey chicken bowls look good, right? I think I might try them for lunch or dinner soon.

Favorite Funnies:

Linking up for Friday Favorites. I hope you all have a great weekend!