6 Awesome Things I’m Loving (And Sharing!)

So this is a little bit of a random post, but there are a few new things I’ve been using lately that I’ve been loving. I figured I’d share, because these are all things that are either making my life easier, or even happier, and who would say no to that, right?

6 Awesome Things I’m Loving

First up – my new obsession. Coffitivity. What is it? It’s this website that just plays a continuous loop of faint background noise from a cafe. Conversations you can’t quite pick up, muffled laughter, softly clattering dishes. The idea is that ambient noise, similar to what you hear in a cafe, helps boost your creativity – or at least more so than a silent environment. They’ve had a lot of press, which they link to on their page, and I admit I haven’t even looked into what the research is behind it. All I know is I tried it out when I was writing over the weekend at home and I LOVED it. It’s bookmarked on my laptop. In fact, I’m listening to it right now!

Next up – remember when I told you I was ordering a ‘Believe I Am’ training journal to document my marathon training? Well, I bought it, I’ve been using it, and now I remember how helpful it was when I used to keep a pen and paper training journal years ago.

What I especially like about it is its feature of a space to list your goal for each month. Breaking down big goals (like running a marathon) into smaller goals makes it much easier to get to that end result without feeling overwhelmed. For example, the next few weeks my weekly mileage will be mid-30’s, which is more than I’d ever usually run if I wasn’t in training and enough to make me start worrying about the potential for injury. But instead of focusing on that, I’ve set my goal for August to get my long runs done at the faster end of my long run pace range. That goal sounds so much more innocuous than ‘run 120 miles this month’.

Fun fact: I’m a sunscreen addict. I don’t leave the house without it and at 18 months old my son knows when we go out to play he has to get slathered first. I pick up his baby sunscreen and he starts babbling happily, “Ow-side? Ow-side? Suh-scree! Suh-scree!” LOVE HIM. Anyway, I’ve been using this Vichy sunscreen (and disclaimer, I actually received this in my swag bag from the Fitness Magazine FitBlogNYC event, so I guess technically this is kind of sponsored? I didn’t pay for this product, is what I’m trying to say!). I LOVE it. It smells good, it lasts well, I put it on my face and it doesn’t make me look greasy, but best of all, it’s a foam – it’s like slathering mousse on. It’s pretty cool. I haven’t even been game to look online to see how much it actually costs, because I’m pretty sure it’s way more than I’d usually pay for sunscreen, but it’s lasting pretty well, so I won’t have to make that decision for a while! 😉

Totally unrelated to training or fitness, but super adorable, is this Cookie Monster app I downloaded on my phone for Roman. He loves pretending to talk to his Daddy during the day while Fran’s at work (any object Roman happens to be holding becomes a ‘phone’), so when I saw this app, I bought it immediately. It’s called ‘Cookie Calls’ and it’s 3 different FaceTime calls with Cookie Monster, as well as a couple of voicemails Cookie has left for you. 🙂 Roman thinks it’s the best day of his life when he hears my phone ‘ringing’ and I show him that Cookie wants to FaceTime with him! I do wish it had more recordings, but for 99 cents I can’t really complain.

Now, this is not a new concept at all, but I’ve rediscovered how awesome chocolate milk is as a recovery fuel after a run. It’s so important to refuel soon after you work out (ideally within 30 minutes) and low-fat chocolate milk is not only the right combination of carbs and protein for post-workout recovery, it’s also easy and quick when you’re in a rush. Plus, it’s delicious and is a treat. 🙂

Finally, I’m sharing a product that I was so skeptical about before I tried it, but ended up being really impressed. We bought this Arm & Hammer natural deodorant, because we wanted to go aluminum free. And guess what? It works just as well as the aluminum-full kind! Plus it was really cheap, it was on crazy-sale at our local pharmacy so I stocked up. Sadly, Fran is allergic to something in it, so he actually switched to the Bert’s Bees men’s natural deodorant, which I think he likes (but doesn’t think works as well as the Arm & Hammer). You should try it out!

So those are the 6 awesome  things I’m loving recently! 

What have you discovered recently that you love?

How much would you pay for sunscreen?

Do you have any favorite apps you’re loving?