I have had a really nice weekend. Spring finally decided to arrive in Charlotte and it’s been all blue skies and sunshine. I was able to take some space from work and spend the weekend doing things I wanted to be doing. One of my favorite things about this weekend was having long blocks of time where I could just hang out at home without having to rush off to be somewhere.

Here’s a look at some Friday/Saturday highlights in photos.

I met a friend for lunch at Dean & Deluca on Friday. I built my own salad with spinach, mixed greens, salmon, mushrooms, oranges, artichokes and a huge scoop of goat cheese.

I organized a happy hour for Metro CrossFit on Friday so I swung by to hang out with everyone after I finished coaching a CrossFit class. It was a beautiful evening for sitting outside.

I got home late from the happy hour in desperate need of a shower and dinner. I ended up going out for a late sushi dinner at Sushi Guru at the last minute. I think I ate this roll at 10 p.m. but it was still so delicious.

I was beyond excited when the owner and chef sent out a plate of toro. Toro is a fatty cut from around the belly of a bluefin tuna. It has a higher fat concentration (in a good way…think pork belly for tuna) and more developed flavor. This stuff is literally melt in your mouth good.

After sushi I promptly passed out into near comatose sleep and didn’t wake up until 7:10 the Saturday morning. Last week wore me out.

While I have been teaching yoga, I haven’t been able to practice yoga much lately due to my schedule and also trying to give my hip a break from intense stretching (I have maybe practiced 3-4 times in the last month) but I took advantage of a free Saturday morning and took superflow at Y2. Someone asked me yesterday if it was a tradeoff to keep teaching when I don’t have much time for my own personal practice and I said no! While I love to practice and I need to practice, I also need to teach to feel like myself. I always tell people that I think I get as much from teaching as my students do from taking.

But I digress, oh my god. I remember what it is like to not practice yoga. My hamstrings were so insanely tight that I ould barely fold forward in my first sun salutation. My legs have been feeling tight in general when I run lately so I knew I needed to get to my mat. It just shows how important it is to stretch out and lengthen the muscles that you contrat and shorten from running and strength training.

Breakfast after class was a green smoothie and a slice of Ezekiel Cinnamon Raisin toast.

I grabbed a sandwich at Whole Foods before teaching a hot yoga class at Y2. I got a turkey, mixed greens, brie and fig jam on cranberry walnut.

My Saturday class was a little smaller than usual (probably due to people wanting to be outside in the sunshine and not sweating away in the yoga studio!) so I took advantage of the extra space and mixed things up a little. We did partner abs and backbends and then finished with a lot of wall assisted stretching at the end of class. I think everyone appreciated the change in routine.

After class I met up with a group of yoga teacher trainees from the studio to go over assisting and to talk about being a new teacher, finding your voice/personality, how to plan classes within allotted time frames, etc. Teaching is WHAT I LOVE TO DO more than anything in this whole entire world and I so love working with small groups like this.

I have a big scary exciting goal to start traveling around the country to lead yoga workshops within the next year and yesterday’s class and small group got me so on fire about making that happen. Stay tuned…you guys will certainly be the first to know when I start planning these workshops and I will be happy to come to your city! 🙂

I can’t believe I just wrote those words down.

Part 2 of my weekend coming soon. Off to grocery shop, cake bake and cookout.

What do you love to do more than anything else in this world!?