Happy Friday! As we close out April I wanted to take a moment to pause and reflect on what's happening and making me happy right now, because this month has been INCREDIBLE!
I'm starting to become a strong believer in the idea of marking "fresh starts" by your birthday instead of January 1st. Let's face it, January is the worst possible time to feel motivated and inspired when it's dark, freezing, and all you want to do is hibernate until spring...and it's such an arbitrary marker of time.
Birthday months, however, are magic. (If your birthday is in January, rescind my previous statements!)
Birthdays are where the real fresh starts happen.
In case you can't tell, April is my birthday month!
It's not my favorite month of the year, at least in the midwest, because the bipolar weather drives me CRAZY (we literally went from 40-80 degrees in a 2 day span here in Chicago the other week), but I always feel a sense of new beginnings and energy starting to buzz deep inside of me.
The month began with fun times and FRIENDS!
I hosted a brunch for the local coaches on my team Inspire Joy, and we had a great time bonding, connecting, drinking mimosas, feasting on our fave healthy brunch foods, and watching crazy snow blow horizontally out the window.
April isn't just my birthday. It seems like all my best girlfriends were born this month too!
My best friend Ashley came into town for a weekend with her husband Matt and we met up with some other friends to do Trapped in a Room With a Zombie, which was pretty much what it sounds like -- you're locked in a room and have 60 minutes to solve clues and puzzles to escape, while a zombie tries to eat you. I was voted "most scared of the zombie." What can I say, I'm super gullible and easily frightened, haha!
Then the next weekend, my friend Anna visited and we had an epic girls' brunch at Yolk and a day of shopping on Michigan Ave!
On the fitness front, I've been getting outside to run more (and found an awesome track near our apartment), and started Tony Horton's new bootcamp program, 22 Minute Hard Corps!
I FINALLY convinced Ben to do the program with me. It only took two years of Beachbody coaching to get him on board, but seriously the workouts are only 22 minutes so there's literally no excuse.
We're halfway through the 8 weeks and I'm surprised by how much I love this program! I'll definitely share a review later this month. It has also been super motivating to have Ben doing it with me :)
Despite the random SNOW we've had this month, the flowering trees are finally blooming and it makes me so so so so so so happy. I've been trying to get out of the house everyday to get my 10,000 steps in and the photo feed on my phone is full of flowers.
When we finally buy a house I'm going to plant a forest of flowering trees in our yard (except for the ones with white flowers that smell bad...can't ever remember which tree that is)!
And then it was my BIRTHDAY! I turned 29 on the 26th.
My parents came up to visit last weekend and we had a blast! As the oldest child, it's rare for me to get one:one time with them so it's always special :) The weather was finally warm for a hot second, so we had a great time exploring our neighborhood, eating tons of delicious food, and drinking way too much wine.
My actual birthday was a chilly rainy Tuesday so I took myself on a date and checked out the 3 Arts Club at the new Restoration Hardware flagship store and gallery downtown and oh my gosh it's so gorgeous, I felt like I was inside Elle Decor. I'm going to go there all the time and pretend it's my house! As soon as I publish this blog post I'm actually going back there today to meet my friend Amanda for lunch haha.
Then Ben took me out to dinner at Gather, my favorite restaurant in our neighborhood (get the cured salmon!).
One of my coaches Leslie has the same birthday as me, and she summed it up perfectly: "It may sound vain, but having a day that reminds you of how loved and cared about you are is truly such a gift."
YES! Amen.
I am feeling so incredibly blessed and loved right now, and looking back at posts I wrote just two years ago makes me realize how much can change in such a short period of time.
I'm finding myself and my purpose, and I'm feeling so excited and hopeful about this year. I'm definitely ready to take my twenties out with a bang!
xo Anna
As an independent Beachbody coach, links to products are affiliated with my account and I do receive commission. Feel free to contact me if you're interested in doing a program or have any questions!