Curated Weekly / 17

I have to admit, it feels really good to be getting back in the swing of blogging. I really have missed blogging and all of you. If you're a new reader or a lurker or even just an old friend, please leave a little comment or tweet at me and say hi! If you have a blog of your own, feel free to leave a link and I'll check it out!

This week has been really nice! I've just been relaxing and getting lots of exercise in. I gained like five or ten pounds over the course of the school year and while a lot of it was muscle, some of it was definitely from late-night Nutella snacking. I've been lifting a lot as usual, but also trying to get better about incorporating running and biking into my routine for some cardio.

I've got a really busy summer ahead of me! Lots of work (managing my ice cream shop!), studying (I'm getting certified as a group fitness instructor / taking an economics class online) and exercise (because the Freshman Fifteen is real).

What's going on in your life?

Your future self wants you to slow down [Olivia Adams PR]
6 productive things to do when you have nothing to do [The Wonder Forest]
This Humans of New York post has been stuck in my head.
3 simple steps to an even better you. [Career Girl Daily]
Life lessons from Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. [Positively Present]
Resources for diving into the Bible. [Brave Love Blog]
Favorite slow cooker recipes. [College Prepster]

I've been listening to a whoooole lot of Grateful Dead lately. They're the perfect mix of rock and folk and I just love it. My all-time favorite song is "Friend of the Devil" (links are Youtube)--it's the kind of song I can just listen to over and over and over. I also really love the Grace Potter cover of it. Seriously one of the most beautiful songs ever.

Also, just sort of a funny story: a few weeks ago, I ran a 5K and I had on an 8tracks playlist with really strong beats while I ran. You know, dubstep/rap and whatnot to get me going. Well, about a half mile before I got to the finish line, the playlist ended and flipped to the next playlist that I had favorited. Which was....hawaiian folk music. And I didn't want to stop running because I wanted to finish in a decent time, so I just listening to super calming John Cruz music while trying to pump out the last half mile. So that was fun.

Lately I've been studying to take my ACE exam to get certified as a Group Fitness Instructor (I passed!! Hooray!). And who knew, there is SO. much. information to learn before you can get certified. I have two textbooks full of information on anatomy and kinesiology and nutrition and teaching group fitness classes so I pretty much just have had my nose in them for awhile.

I did start one book last week that is super interesting, though I'm not too deep into it. It's called Stiff and it's basically about cadavers used for medical purposes and all that. Yeah, y'all knew I was weird, but it's official now. And there's another book I've been meaning to read called Beyond the Body Farm. You can read the whole description but it's basically all about the intersection of science and forensics and that's super interesting to me.