Coffee Conversations

Happy Friday! Today is going to be a good day, for two reasons. First, it’s Friday and that’s always a step in the right direction. Second, it’s supposed to get up to EIGHTY ENTIRE DEGREES today. EIGHT. ZERO. That’s shorts weather, people. I can wear SHORTS today. Can you believe it? It’s truly a Christmas miracle, only four months later. I’m thrilled to absolute pieces. It feels safe to say that many of us have suffered long enough with this never-ending winter, so sunshine and warm air is a delight.

Tomorrow morning, the first of my weekly outfit details email will go out! If you missed it on my instastory earlier this week, I’ll be sending out an email one time a week, typically Saturday morning, which includes all details for shopping my Instagram photos from the previous week. I’ll also include any sizing, fit, color information that I think you should know before buying something you see! If you’re interested in receiving this one-time-a-week email, you can sign up here.

I’m heading out of town again this Sunday, this time to Florida! I’m meeting my mom in Orlando for a couple days for a little girls’ trip. I’m looking forward to spending time with her and relaxing for a few days. Mike and I have been unusually busy the last month or so, with it not letting up for the foreseeable future, so I’m happy to take advantage of some downtime when I can.

I’m so tempted by these espadrille sneakers. So tempted. I don’t have anything like it in my closet, but I just can’t decide if I will get enough use out of them or not. I love that they’re different!

Mike is on a mission to eat a bit better than we do now. In theory, I love the idea. While we don’t eat particularly bad, we could definitely cut some things or swap out some things for healthier versions. For example, we don’t need to always have ice cream in the freezer…because we will eat it and then I will buy more. Or we can get a side salad instead of fries when out to dinner. I’m all about it until it comes to meal planning and making a grocery list and then I collapse. I left him in charge of picking recipes for dinner this week and he did a great job! My favorite thing we ate were these teriyaki salmon bowls. They’re going to become a staple meal for us. You could easily swap out for chicken or make it a vegetarian meal, too!

EA introduced two new curated boxes this week: The Beauty Babe Box and The Weekender Box. Don’t forget to shop the curated Mother’s Day collection, too!

Hope you have a great weekend!

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Hi there!

Lauren Bown Lifestyle Blog is an online destination where I share my personal style, beauty finds, and bits of life in hopes to inspire other women to feel good in their skin and find the beauty in the ordinary.

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7 Comments

  1. 4.13.18
    sb. said:

    Send some of that warm weather up north? I live by the Canadian border, and we're about to get walloped with both snow and ice! 🙁

  2. 4.13.18

    Try Skinnytaste.com for healthy, delicious recipes. They are a family favorite in my house and easy to prepare.

  3. 4.13.18

    We did a Whole30 in January and I have found myself still using a lot of the recipes for our weeknight meals. So even if you don't want to do the whole30, you could try looking at those meals on Pinterest.

  4. 4.13.18
    Amy Bang said:

    Eighty degrees?! In SW MN we've got thunderstorms today, turning to ice, turning to a blizzard warning for upwards of 15" of snow tonight & tomorrow! #overit

  5. 4.13.18

    Yum! I love a good teriyaki salmon bowl!!

    Kim

    http://trendkeeper.me .. fitness routine switch up!

  6. 4.14.18

    Hi there!

    Just wanted to chime in on the health(ier) eating…it's amazing what a difference (whether it be weight, blood sugar readings, cholesterol readings, etc.) simple swaps in your diet can make. Some changes I've made over the past year that have yielded beyond amazing results for me have been:

    *Swapping out wheat pasta for regular pasta in dishes. The texture and flavor took some getting used to, but I don't even notice the difference if I'm making a heartier sauce with it. So for example, meat-based sauces such as bolognese, or alfredo. Wheat pasta goes well with Pasta Primavera dishes and also pasta salads.

    *Try to make half your plate (or as close to it) vegetables. I roast a pan of veggies about every other day and keep them on hand – asparagus, broccoli, sweet potatoes, carrots. You can play around with the seasonings, but I usually just use sea salt and pepper unless I'm roasting carrots. For carrots I like to use cumin and curry. The reason I choose to roast them is because it doesn't take too long and I don't have to really check on them too often, so I'm free to do other things while they're cooking.

    *Try to cut down on white flour – try wheat bread whenever available. I use a lower carb bread that I really love because it's so hearty – Dave's Killer Bread Good Seed bread. It comes in two different slice sizes…a bigger one and a smaller (lower carb) size. I prefer the smaller size because it fits in my toaster for when I'm making peanut butter toast in the morning.

    *Try to incorporate fish in your diet 2-3 times a week. I usually accomplish this by keeping frozen salmon fillets on hand and cooking them in the oven a couple of times a week for dinner. Cod fillets work well too, so does frozen shrimp.

    *I was never a big fruit lover, but after cutting out my ice-cream-every-night-after-dinner habit, I find that keeping fresh mixed berries on hand seem to quell that ice cream craving I get. It's definitely not the same thing as ice cream, and while I still occasionally have ice cream, I find that a bowl of mixed berries satisfies that post-dinner dessert craving that I get sometimes. The grocery store I tend to shop at the most (Publix) will wash and chop them and package them. If I can cut down on prep time, I'm more likely to buy fresh fruit like that (same goes for above when I was talking about roasting veggies – a lot of times I'll buy them pre-washed and chopped, like broccoli. I'll still give them a little rinse, but it still cuts down on prep time!)

    Anyway, I could go on and on and on about this topic, but like I already mentioned above, these are some small changes that I've made in my household this past year that have given my boyfriend and I great results. Maybe they'll work for you too!

  7. 4.19.18

    I think your weekly newsletter is an awesome idea! I'm so annoyed by the liketoknow.it changes so I'm really looking forward to the emails! Thank you for making it easier!!!