WEIGHTS Something making a huge difference in my day-to-day has been a consistent commitment to strength training. I have a tricky relationship with weights. I don’t love gyms, I definitely don’t love HIIT training, and I’ve never found a weight training program that I actually liked enough to keep doing. Rebecca Kennedy’s Five Day Split has turned out to be just the thing that keeps me challenged, motivated and (miracle of all miracles)- consistent. I’m about to complete my 4th week today. Essentially it’s a 5 day mix of shoulders, biceps, back, legs and a little bit of abs that you do for 5 days a week (2 rest days) and then repeat 4-6 times, ideally increasing the weights and your strength as you go. I love that the moves are mostly simple, and I can feel my self getting stronger each week. I love that the ab work is minimal. I have a diastasis (ab separation) and I need to do gentler ab moves than most fitness regimes entail- so moves that work my core in sneaky ways that are not ab moves per se, are ideal for me. I LOVE that each workout is only 30 minutes, and I like Rebecca’s overall vibe- encouraging, high energy but grounded.
I do have the Peloton Tread - which I use for hikes and power walks, but I’ve found that streaming the strength-training content from my iPhone or iPad is easier because I just can just move the video around with me. Do not ask me what I plan to do after week 6. I have no idea.
SHOW I have not started this show yet, but I have my eye on Manhunt on AppleTV+. It’s about the search for John Wilkes Booth in the days following Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. It checks many boxes for me: Suspenseful but not disturbing, historical fiction, Tobias Menzies (from Outlander!) and I think Apple TV+ shows are rising to the surface as the best of the best of streaming TV.
TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT Do I love it? Yes. Was I probably going to be very biased based on the crazy Swiftie energy that my 13-year-old and 15-year old daughter bring into my life? Also yes. Is it my favorite Taylor Swift album? No, I don’t think so. That’s Folklore. But I did stay up until midnight on April 19 (I took a couch nap with many, many episodes of Brooklyn 99 playing in the background)- and I will say that there was something indelibly magical when the Post Malone portion kicked in on Fortnight: Thought of callin' ya, but you won't pick up /'Nother fortnight lost in America/Move to Florida, buy the car you want. The girls and I had wondered what Taylor would do with the Florida!!! track. Would she lavish praise on our home state? Doubtful. Would it be an arch commentary on DeSantis’s “Don’t Say Gay” efforts? That would be amazing, but probably not- too overt. So, in the end, just being a part of this middle-of-the-night-on-a-school-night experience with my two girls, using technology to do something together that wasn’t possible when I was growing up. Who knows where we’ll all be for the next time Taylor drops an album? Maybe she won’t be their favorite anymore. Maybe they’ll be in college. I hope we’re snuggled in the corner of the couch watching sitcom reruns to stay awake. In my Wildest Dreams :-)
THIS DRESS is more than I can justify spending on even the loveliest of black dresses, especially because I typically find myself reaching for color or print, and I need another long dress like I need a hole in the head. But let me tell you that when I tried it on, this dress made me feel like a mid-century Hollywood film star at a premiere. It highlighted my shoulders and the dang hard work I’m doing with Rebecca Kennedy, it nipped in my waist while also being comfortable, and it is off-the-charts elegant. It is a black dress for the ages, if you’re in need of something like that. Also this one is to die for, if it ever comes back in stock.
COURTNEY GROW (no contest, the best person to follow on both Instagram and Substack right now). And no, I do not know how she manages the alchemy of being equal parts aspirational and approachable. Anyway- in her stories a week or so back, she was talking about how to approach formal / black tie events, and the importance of choosing one element to leave undone or more casual. Maybe it’s your hair, maybe it’s a leather bomber thrown over your shoulders, maybe it’s accessories that take the whole thing just- dooooown a notch. I fully support this concept and probably do this without much thought because I don’t really like getting super dressed up, and I’m always going to lean towards keeping things a little undone. But. I also started thinking about how this “one thing” concept can apply to the polar opposite of black-tie dressing: OFFICE dressing. Friends, I have left jobs in large part due to a stifling dress code, and I do not see myself ever committing to a denim-free workplace ever again. But I do think dressing in a polished and professional way pays dividends in how people perceive you at work, and if you want to wear something a little subversive like jeans, sneakers, sandals, a t-shirt or even shorts (eeeek, tread lightly)- I think you can successfully do so by choosing ONE dress-code breaker and leaving the rest profesh. For example: sneakers with a 3/4 length skirt, jeans with a sweater and loafers, sandals with trousers and a blouse. I think the other key component is to avoid cliches. Sneakers with a pantsuit, or jeans + pointy heels + blazer feel like they’ve been done one too many times. There is artistry in the “how” you wear the dang thing as well. I’ve seen one person in jeans and a t-shirt look far more polished than another person in a pantsuit. Let style prevail, always.