My Favorite Things: July

Time for another roundup of favorites! These monthly posts seem to just get longer and longer … I may have to turn them into a bi-monthly feature. Thoughts?

Favorite Products/Services

Bombas Socks

Is there anything better than that new-sock feeling?? Maybe it’s just because my socks get so worn down and disgusting, but putting on a fresh, never-worn pair of socks is heavenly to me. Bombas sent me a bunch recently and I love them–so comfy! And the best part is that for every pair of socks purchased, Bombas donates a pair. Since socks are the number-one requested item at homeless shelters, this is pretty awesome. I love companies that give back!

My FitBit Flex

I go through phases with this thing. I was super into it when I first bought it then quickly lost interest; used it for the month while hosting a DietBet so other betters could follow me then ditched it. It’s an on-again-off-again relationship. Recently though, two of my friends got FitBits and we’ve been competing against each other in daily step challenges and it’s totally motivated me to wear mine again. Nothing like a little friendly competition to pique my interest. I did a full review of the flex HERE if you’re interested (bottom line: it’s great for tracking steps but just know that it doesn’t do much beyond that before buying it—it’s a pedometer).

Two-Tone Firmoo Glasses 

This is the second pair of glasses Firmoo has graciously gifted me, and I love these even more than the first! The two-tone frames are a fun change, and I was really excited to see that Firmoo now offers the option to get blue light-blocking lenses. As you can probably guess from the blue tint in the pictures, I went for those! By blocking out blue light from TV, computer and cell phone screens at night, studies have shown that you’ll get a better night’s sleep. (Blue light can cause melatonin suppression in our bodies.) You can check out Firmoo’s new arrivals or 15%-off frames — all their frames are super affordable and you just customize them with your prescription.

Breather

I already mentioned Breather on the blog (it’s where I shot a ton of recent workout tutorials), but it’s worth repeating that you can get an hour free with the code PUMPIRON! Available in NYC, San Fran, Boston, Montreal & Ottawa, Breather rooms can be rented right from your smartphone for meetings, getting work done (they all have Wi-Fi), relaxing (most have yoga mats) or even photoshoots. As someone who works from home and often needs to get away from the apartment to be fully productive, I’ll definitely be using Breather again. (Pictures are from their location on Boylston Street). 

Henry Bendel Make Up Case

My friends at Popsugar sent me their Must Have box as a little gift, and in it was this Henry Bendel make up/toiletry case. I don’t use a ton of make up so it’s the perfect size and the metal mouth allows the bag to stand open wide. I love it!

New Discover Weekly Feature on Spotify

Spotify now sends its users a playlist of personalized songs each Monday. I’m assuming they use some algorithm that takes into account songs you currently have in playlists and have listened to. The past two weeks, I’ve loved my Discover playlist and have found a ton of new music for classes and everyday listening. Thanks for making my life easier, Spotify!

THESE LEGGINGS !! 

These Onzie leggings need to be in my closet yesterday. I’m obsessed! And the best part is they’re called Crazy Girl Leggings (haha).

Favorite Eats

Grilling Out by the Pool

Can’t. Stop. Eating. Fish. Tacos. And they’re even better on the grill!

Pesto Scramble from Fog Island

One of my favorite breakfast spots on Nantucket, we always hit up Fog Island when we’re visiting. The pesto scramble with avocado is my go-to (it’s the ultimate hangover cure, I swear). 🙂

Pescatarian Blue Apron Deliveries

You might remember that the first time I tried Blue Apron, I forgot to set my dietary preferences and got a ton of meat I normally wouldn’t eat. With all the weekend weddings and travel, I haven’t been grocery shopping much this month, so I decided it’d be a perfect time to try Blue Apron again, this time making sure to request vegetarian and fish dishes only. I did it this week and last week and everything was delicious! My only complaint is that when you go the vegetarian route, you get a ton of pasta dishes. I’m not anti-pasta by any means but it leaves me feeling so weighed down and I think I’ve eaten more noodles in the past two weeks than I have in the past year. 

Carbo-loading aside, here were the meals I received:

• Squid Ink Linguine Pasta
• Summer Soba Salad with Sweet Corn
• Fried Egg-Topped Summer Saute
• Cod & Miso Soba Noodles
• Summer Corn & Vegetable Chowder
• Summer Bean & Mushroom Pasta (I subbed the pasta for quinoa because I had reached my noodle overload)

For now I’m back on the grocery store train, but I’m sure I’ll revisit BA at some point in the fall to switch things up again. 🙂

Matt’s Munchies Fruit Snacks

Joe grabbed these by chance at DeLuca’s the other day and they are so tasty! New favorite snack.

Favorite Workouts

The Ramp.

As if a workout on the megaformer isn’t hard enough, there’s now a ramp to elevate the back end of the machine so that gravity works against you. There’s one at Btone for the instructors to use and clients can book a private class if they want to ramp it up as well. I did my first class on it the other week and it makes work on the machine at the back SO much harder (I just had it on level 1–I honestly can’t even imagine having it any higher for ab work). I think a private class is the way to go with this thing because if the routine isn’t designed with the ramp in mind, it can make transitions clunky and other exercises easy or just awkward with positioning. So in other words, don’t have ramp FOMO during regular group classes. 🙂

Bar Method in Wellesley

After I wrote this blog post about popular workouts I’ve never tried, I was inspired to start crossing them off the list. Bar Method’s Wellesley location is on ClassPass so I went after subbing at the Btone location across the street (so convenient). The studio was gorgeous and I really liked that the instructor (Jen) came over and corrected my form several times. I don’t do barre often so I always appreciate the little adjustments! I’ll probably never be a hardcore 4x/week barre person, but it’s a great way to switch things up once in a while.

Gilt City Cyc Event

This is the second event I’ve been fortunate enough to get invited to at Cyc and the ride was just as good as the first! One of their NYC instructors, Steph, was in town to teach it and she rocked. Afterwards, there was a quick ab workout at David Barton’s and samples of Freshii, Blue Print juices and Pinkberry. Let’s be real, I went for the free Pinkberry. (Kidding … or am I?)

These Superset Pyramid Workouts: Bodyweight & Kettlebell

I’ve been loving this workout structure lately — talk about a boredom-beater!

Opening Ride at Handle Bar’s New Cambridge Studio

I used to spin frequently at the Handle Bar‘s first studio back when I lived in Southie so it was fun to have an excuse to ride with them again! The new Harvard Square studio is gorgeous and the class on Sunday was great (Elise was the instructor).

Box & Bell at BFX

I had heard good things about Box & Bell and finally tried it this Monday–I loved it! The class was divided into 6-minute kettlebell AMRAPs and shorter rounds of bag work; you go back and forth between them three times (or at least we did in the class I took–not sure if the structure is the same every time). I really like that the instructor (Ike) took a few moments to go over form with the bag work and explain the basics of boxing (what the numbers mean, how you should stand, how your feet should pivot as you throw different punches). I’ve only done two other boxing classes (one at George Foreman’s & one at Peter Welch’s) and neither gave much explanation for newbies so I felt like a total spaz. Now I get it! And it made it a lot more fun and effective.

Favorite Reads & Watches

First off, I finished Yes Please, which I mentioned I was about halfway through in last month’s favorites post. There were a few chapters where I really enjoyed reading Amy’s insight on life, but all in all, I was expecting a funny book and was a little disappointed in that department.

Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town

I read this for a book club I’m in and couldn’t put it down. Written by John Krakauer (same guy who wrote Into Thin Air and Into the Wild), it recounts true events that happened in the college town of Missoula, Montana and explores the reasons why rape is so infrequently reported, and when it is, why it’s so hard to convict the accused of it. I found the book pretty eye-opening, and while some parts are hard to read, it’s definitely worth reading.

Articles/Blog Posts

• Optimistic People All Have One Thing in Common: They’re Always Late via Elite Daily | This made me laugh because the two most optimistic, perpetually positive people I know (my boyfriend and one of my college BFFs) could literally not arrive on time to something to save their lives. I’ll keep this article in mind next time I almost miss a flight because Joe is putting gel in his hair … 🙂

Netflix

• Locked Up Abroad | This show gives me major anxiety but I love it. Joe and I were so pumped when new seasons got released to Netflix! One of the episodes is about Henry Hill (the guy Goodfellas was based on), and while he wasn’t technically locked up “abroad,” I still loved it—scandalous historical stuff like that is my favorite! Skip episode 1 in season 6 (From Hollywood to Hell) though—oh my lord this guy is painful. You can actually tell that he’s lying about his story to make himself look cool. You know what, I take it back—watch that episode. It’s almost funny how much of a tool the guy is haha.
• Downloaded | This is a documentary on the rise and fall of Napster, and even though I was more of a Limewire girl back in the day (ha!), I really enjoyed watching this. And I had no idea that one of the original Napster guys was also a major player in starting Spotify (and Facebook). Bet he’s really poor…

Videos/YouTube

• Whine About It | GO TO THIS TUMBLR IMMEDIATELY AND WATCH EVERY SINGLE VIDEO. Guys. These videos are hilarious. I discovered them and then accomplished approximately 0 things the rest of the day because I couldn’t stop watching and giggling to myself. The one below is amazing and so is the one about why kids are the worst.

• Andy Sutton, Pro Hockey Player, on Lagree Fitness | Any time I try to get my guy friends into a Btone class, I get the same skeptical look and response: “Yeah but isn’t that just for chicks?” No!! Joe has done it before and loves it, and he’s always saying how he thinks it’d be a great workout for hockey players, so I got super excited when I saw this Andy Sutton interview.

Speaking of bro-ing out on the megaformer, for the entire month of August if you refer a new male client to Btone you get a free class for yourself. Hop on it, Btoners!

Favorite Moments

Long Weekend on Nantucket

My wine glass was the only one prepared for this picture…

Joe and I had a wedding on Nantucket and decided to turn it into a long Thurs-Mon weekend. It was SO much fun! The wedding was incredible and we had a couple extra days to just relax at the beach and hit up the brewery. Being from Martha’s Vineyard, of course my heart is there, but man do I love that other island, too. 🙂

Dress I wore to that wedding is by Indah (check it out HERE).

Hitting 100K Followers on Bloglovin’

UM WHAT?!?! 100,000?! Is that even a real number?! I am so, so very grateful for all of you who follow this blog. Whether you’re a regular commenter or just skim a post here and there, you are the reason I’m able to do this as a full-time job. And wow—talk about a milestone. Hitting even a thousand followers on any network is exciting as a blogger, so one hundred thousand is blowing my mind. I think it’s time to go all Madonna on you and officially start referring to myself as Pumps. 😉 (I’m kidding)

A Boston Harbor Island Wedding Weekend

The second wedding of the month was on Thompson Island (one of the Boston Harbor islands) and it was an amazing weekend. Friday night was a cocktail party at Pier 6 and then Saturday a boat took everyone out to the island for the ceremony and reception. Sunday morning rounded out the festivities with a brunch at the Boston Harbor Hotel pavilion. I was FEELIN’ my outfit for Friday night, so snapped a few (literally like two hundred … I’m embarrassing) shameless selfies: 

WEARING | pants from Anthropologie // top from Urban Outfitters // shoes are Vince Camuto

And I loved my dress for the wedding as well: 

WEARING | Dress is by Keepsake (check it out HERE) // Shoes are by Mia Limited Edition (old but I found a sz 9 HERE and a sz 6 HERE if you’re dying to own them)

Foot Reflexology & Bodywork Appointment

For Joe’s birthday last month, I got him the very self-serving gift of a couples’ foot reflexology and deep tissue massage (hehe…). We had our appointment last Friday and it was 90 minutes of amazingness. The place we went to is right around the corner from our apartment, and while it definitely has a hole-in-the-wall feel, I thought the service was great. It was a painfully good reminder that my calves are absurdly tight.

Favorite Deals & Sales

• Athleta Semi-Annual Sale – up to 60% off
• Revolve – up to 80% off | I am obsessed with Revolve and summer weddings have given me a bad (good??) excuse to shop the site waaaay too frequently. 🙂
• Golden Tote – 40% off with code WAREHOUSESALE40 | I did a review of Golden Tote HERE (I loved it!) and they’re not offering 40% off for the next couple days. Hop on it!
• Sweaty Betty Spring/Summer Sale | Fall lines are about to come out, which means lots of summer sales right now!

Favorite Old Posts

I’m stealing this idea from Julie! I love that she started including some old flashback posts in her Things I’m Loving Friday posts, so I’m copin’ her style, yo. 🙂

• Bodyweight Circuit with Running Pyramid Workout | Great for the gym/treadmill or track!
• My 2014 Reading List | LOL. Out of the 16 books I ambitiously set out to read, I got through … 2. Go me.
• 10 Workouts You Can Do on Vacation | No equipment required!
• How to Cook Spaghetti Squash (My Favorite Way) | Not as quick as the microwave, but tastes delicious! 🙂
• 20-Minute Bodyweight Interval Workout | Quick ‘n dirty.

Alright, that’s it! I’m off to the Vineyard until Wednesday and couldn’t be more excited. I haven’t spent this long of a stretch at home in years so even though it’s only five days, I plan on treating it like a full-on summer vacation. My list of things I want to do is so long–so many places I miss eating at; different beaches I want to bum it on; yoga studios I want to try–it’s going to be great. Hope you all are equally as excited for your own weekend!

What’s on your highlight reel from July?

Most of the pictures in these posts are from my Instagram if you want to follow along and see the highlight reel in real time. 🙂

BONUS FAVORITE | I’m not typically a celebrity-crush girl but … 

Disclosure: This post isn’t sponsored in any way, however there are a few affiliate links throughout it. Thanks for your support!