Birthday Week in Review

Guyssssssss, OMG I have never been more excited to be posting. You may have noticed that the blog was down for the past few days, and it’s sort of been the worst. It went down on my birthday, right as I’d published a long post on my 20 lessons learned by 20 (feel free to read here!)

Seriously, I get so upset when little LMAO has problems because I am NOT that good with technology and often feel a bit helpless when things go wrong on the back end. Thankfully, it was a very minor issue that I was able to resolve by just calling my hosting service, but it’s something I didn’t really have time to do last week, and so I was just kind of quietly stressing about it until yesterday when I finally had the chance to call.

PHEW! Now that that’s out of the way…in terms of quick updates, my crazy week was adorned with lovely birthday celebrations with my absolutely incredible friends.

We went to Matchbox the day of, and it was SO much better than our dining hall haha. Everyone was really happy to be getting off campus for dinner. If you’re in the DC area, I def recommend it for the delicious pizza and ambience. The gifts I received were all so thoughtful and incredible, and just reaffirmed how lucky I am with my friends. Seriously, I don’t know what I did to deserve these people.

I went home to NYC to celebrate with my best friends and family over the long weekend. I went to see the new 50 Shades movie with the gals (heh, yearly tradition) and then we had a late dinner at Union Fare. The movie was so wonderfully terrible, and I feel like the entire theater was cracking up through it hehe. It was a fantastic girls’ night. 😀

Sunday morning, I took my mom and grandma to an adorable East Village spot called Nobody is Perfect, which was so wonderful! They had bottomless coffee with brunch, so I was pretty wired by the end. The ambience, the service, everything was TOP NOTCH, and we all left very full and happy. 🙂

In the evening, the baking bug came over me because how can I possibly come home and NOT bake, so I made one of my favorite banana bread recipes. I never use the maple syrup, since for me it’s plenty sweet with the bananas and chocolate chips! I just use almond milk to make up for the liquid.

Also, funny sleep story. So last week, because it was seriously insane, I was averaging about 5 hours of sleep every single weeknight, and then Friday-Saturday, my first night home, I slept for a straight 14 hours. Pretty sure that’s a record for me, but I think I really needed it. Thankfully, things should get a bit easier from now until spring break (just 2 weeks from now!), so I’m going to get back to trying to prioritize sleep.

Also, something to note. This past week I haven’t felt my best, health-wise. I worked out only once the whole week, ate a TON of sweets, got very little sleep, relied quite heavily on caffeine, and definitely had very elevated stress levels.

By Sunday, all I wanted was some real whole food, a nice solid workout, and a return to a healthy sleep schedule.

Here’s the thing, there’s nothing wrong with having a week where you’re not feeling your best, as long as you know what you need to change to feel better again. For me, I know I love sweets but when I have too much too often, I don’t want them as much. I know I don’t need intense exercise every day, but at least some movement (last week saw a LOT of sitting and writing papers). And I know I need both adequate sleep and time to relax and unwind.

But life happens, you know? We can’t always be slowly sipping matcha lattes and getting our toenails painted. Sometimes, life does get pretty hectic, and we can try our best to still take care of ourselves, but sometimes we just need to ride out the storm. And it’s just one week out of 52. If anything, it will only make you more thankful for your healthy lifestyle and that much more excited to make some better choices for your bod and mind.

Wishing you an abundant week with so much joy, lots of plant-y goodness, and plenty of relaxation. <3

I’m hoping to get an awesome smoothie recipe to you on Wednesday, so stay tuned for that!

Linking up with Meg for Week in Review

Any highlights from last week? 

Did you do anything for Valentine’s Day?

What’s your record for amount of sleep?

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