July Round-Up

I’m not going to lie, I’m having trouble coming to grips with the end of July. Not only does it signal that it’s almost the end of summer in my mind - SOB – on top of that, this time last year we were preparing to head to London for our European adventures, which I don’t have to look forward to this year. But despite all of my qualms, August has arrived and this little blogger is going to have to put on her big girl pants and let go of lovely July.

Let’s Review My July Goals:

Food:

I’m not looking to make any big changes with my diet or eating habits this month, just try to stay on track and try not to let my busy schedule or weekends away derail my healthy eating habits. It’ll be all about Sunday Prep Days, keeping healthy options around at all times – desk, purse, apartment – and carrying hearty, filling snacks with me, both during the day and while I’m traveling.

Arianna and I started up our healthy Tuesday night meals again this month, which I really look forward to. I love cooking and trying new recipes, and it’s really fun to have someone who’s also interested in raw & vegan fare to cook for. I cook for Sean pretty frequently, but we definitely don’t eat the same types of food.

I also have to admit that there was an inordinate amount of baking & sweet tooth satisfying this month – from The Wannabe Chef’s Dark Chocolate Cherry Zucchini Bread to Hungry Hungry Hippie’s Dessert Cubes to Pure 2 Raw/Purely Twins’s Almond Meal Chip Cookies to Choosing Raw’s Blueberry Ginger Ice Cream.

Couldn’t. Stop. Eating.

Fitness:

Physical therapy here I come. Time to step things up a notch, add more extra exercises and really prove to my physical therapist and doctor that I’m getting strong enough to proceed with the next steps in my treatment. Waiting for someone else to give me the green light is by far the most frustrating part of this injury, I feel helpless and that’s not a feeling that I’m used to.

Physical therapy went great this month, I kept it up really consistently and worked through soreness, exhaustion, and boredom. I miss the gym. My sessions are not interesting and there’s not much to share, but I’m getting the job done and I meet with my back speciality again at the end of August so fingers crossed.

Fashion:

As Summer persists I’d like to continue wearing lots of colors and prints on weekends and during evenings out. I have patterned dresses and some colorful separates for work and I’ll also continue to make an effort to incorporate less black in my daily looks, but obviously there’s a bit more formality and less flexibility or chance for creativity when it comes to office wear, so I’ll be focusing on my downtime looks.

Mission accomplished! And what’s even more exciting than just working hard at meeting my July fashion goals? My Mission: Put Together 2012 post got chosen by the IFB (Independent Fashion Bloggers) for their Links A La Mode piece.

Here are some of the posts with pictures of my colorful personal style triumphs for the month of July: Kisses, Celebratory Weekend, One Piece – Two Ways, The Dress Dilemma & Multicolored Pleats. Even Sean got his own fashion post this month - The Man Behind The Camera.

New Goals For August:

August is beginning to look like it’s going to be a month full of preparation. Sending invitations & picking menus for November, planning my Labor Day Weekend trip to New York City to visit my favorite boys & attend the IFB Conference, and schedule & plan an end-of-summer road trip down south to visit friends in Orange County, Los Angeles, and San Diego.

Food:

Now that Arianna and I are back on our healthy meal plan I find that I have TONS of motivation to get creative in the kitchen. And whether I’ve been in Sacramento or San Francisco, I’ve managed to find farmers markets most weekends in July, which I want to keep up during August so that the apartment is always stocked with healthy basics. I’ve been planning dishes around what I’ve been able to pick up which I love to do since it makes me feel extra healthy to eat seasonal, local, and organic produce.

Fitness:

Physical therapy, physical therapy, physical therapy.

I’ll continue to add extra moves to my “workout” sessions, but other than that all I can do is work hard and wait for results. I’m not a patient person and I’m not thrilled by this prospect, but I do believe that I’ve grown up in the last ten years and learned not to overreach when it comes to my back – the initial injury occurred when I was a springboard diver at Berkeley when I was 18.

Fashion:

July turned out to be, accidentally, something of a shopping month. With multiple trips to Zara, the Nordstrom Twice-Annual sale, and the Bloomingdale’s sale, my closet is packed with some great new finds. But that meant I needed to do another closet cleaning project – Giving clothes away, buying new hangers, and reorganized things so that everything is accessible for throwing together late Summer looks.

One of the things that I love most about closet cleaning & organizing is that you rediscover things you’d forgotten about in the depths of your closet. It’s almost like shopping! So I pulled this old friend out of hibernation for some much-needed love & adulation!

August will be more of the same fashion-wise, I want to expand my comfort zone and keep the color coming. I also want to head into the Fall season having exhausted every piece of bright, patterned Summer-wear in my closet!

How is everyone else handling the end of July and the prospect of the end-of-Summer? Are you approaching August with more maturity than me?

August 1, 2012 | Categories: Fashion, Fitness, Food, MCLV Style | Tags: 2012 New Years Resolutions, Ab workouts, Abdominal workout, Alloria Winter Photography, almond flour, Almond meal, Almond Meal Chip Cookies, back injurt, baking, Banana Republic, Banana Soft Serve, BCBG, Beginners workouts, Blueberry Ginger Ice Cream, boyfriend photographer, Button down, Carmichael Farmer's Market, celebratory weekend, Cherries, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Choosing Raw, Cleaning out closet, Closet cleaning, Closet organization, core exercises, CrossFit, Dark Chocolate Cherry Zucchini Bread, day to night, Definitely RA, Dessert Cubes, Diver, easy recipes, Engagement photos, Evan Thomas, Express, Express for men, Farmer's Market, Fashion, Fashion Blogger Fashion, Fashion Challenge, Ferry Building, Ferry Building Farmer's Market, Fitness, flashy clutch, Food, fresh produce, Gap, Gena Hamshaw, gluten free baking, gluten free foods, Gluten-free, Goals, Green dress, health, Health and relationships, health food, Healthy desserts, healthy eating, healthy living, healthy recipes, healthy snacks, herniated discs, Hungry Hungry Hippie, IFB, IFBCON, Independent Fashion Bloggers, Kate Spade, Kate Spade Handbag, Kisses, Links A La Mode, Lipstick kisses, loafers, lower back injury, Menswear, Mission: Put Together 2012, monthly goals, Monthly Planning, multicolored skirt, New Years Resolutions, Nordstrom, Northern California, Nude heels, one piece - two days, online sales, online shopping, Organizing, Paleo, peanut butter, Photographer, photoshoot, physical therapy, plank, Planning, planning a road trip, PLanning the month, Pleated Skirt, pleats, Primal, Pure 2 Raw, Purely Twins, quick & easy meals, quick & easy recipes, Quick meals, Raw Cooking, raw desserts, raw ice cream, raw recipes, relationships, Road trip, Sacramento, sale, San Francisco, San Francisco Fashion, San Francisco Fashion Blogger, San Francisco shopping, San Francisco Street Style, San Francisco style, Sean Fowler, shop, shopping, shopping online, Shorts, slipped discs, snacks, spinal injury, Springboard diving, Staying organized, strengthen your core, strengthing my core, Striped blouse, Stripes, Style, SugarLips, Summer clothes, summer dress, Summer fashion, Summer styling, the dress dilemma, the man behind the camera, The Wannabe Chef, Trainer, Twin Cakes, Union Square, Vegan, vegan baking, vegan desserts, vegan ice cream, Vegan recipes, veganism, Vegetarian, Vegetarian recipes, vegetarianism, versatile pieces, warm weather fashion, working out, workouts, Wrap dress, Zara, Zara Basics, Zara shirt, zucchini bread | 5 Comments »