+20 SECONDS OF AGONY + GENTLER WORKOUTS: I loved two of the unexpected fitness wisdoms from comedian Nikki Glaser’s recent interview with Goop. First, she comments: “I love doing one thing every day, even for 20 seconds, where you’re in agony—like holding a plank—because once you get done with it, everything else seems easy for the rest of the day.” I deeply related to this, and I think this is part of the blessed psychology of exercise. Is there anything better than driving home from a sweaty run? You’ve already accomplished something good, and nothing can erase it. The rest of the day is upside. Later, she observes: “Being gentle with workouts is new to me. It was always about like, you have to run seven miles per hour…now I just do 30 minutes on a treadmill with a 12 incline, three miles per hour. It works. And then you get emails done—even take it down to a 2.5 if you are gasping and mess with the incline, but [I’m not] running as much anymore. I was always running.” It reminded me of a big shift I made about a year ago: I stopped tracking my runs. I know (gasp!) — this runs against our collective Magpie religion. But I found I was being too hard on myself, too competitive. If I had a slower run, or petered out early, or didn’t reach the four mile mark, I wasn’t giving myself credit for what I had done. It was leading me to a deficit mindset. Now I run without watch and without app. I have my usual routes and I know their rough mileage, but I really don’t pay attention to pace or time or distance anymore. For me, this has been huge. It has led me to think about exercise in a binary: did I run, or did I not? Doesn’t matter how long or far. If I moved my body, I consider it a win. Gentler running!
+JOAN DIDION ON HEMINGWAY: I loved this clip of an interview with Joan Didion, in which she talks about studying Hemingway’s sentence construction. In it, she comments: “They appeared to be so simple but you’d come away from a string of them with this overwhelming feeling….You know what was going on. There was withheld information.” An absolutely perfect description of Hemingway’s writing. But the thing I love most is when Charlie Rose asks, “but you got it,” as in, “you cracked the code on Hemingway,” and she says, simply, “yeah.” Yeah?! I absolutely love her shrugging confidence in her craft.
+FOR THOSE WHO ALSO GREW UP ON PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: This clip. LOL.
+EYEING + BUYING: Can’t stop thinking about this spectacular Zimmermann dress from a new favorite e-boutique called Casalina. So many fabulous pieces from brands I love, but a little different from the assortments I’ve seen elsewhere. I also currently have this gorgeous sky blue pochette crossbody in my cart — it’s 25% off this weekend with code COSFRIEND.
This week, I stocked up on these 20 oz Stanley quenchers in the cutest mint green color while 25% off. I literally bought four to stock my gift closet! These are a great gift for girls aged 5-9. I personalize them with these vinyl stickers (10% off with MAGPIE10)! I also ordered my children new lunchboxes (ugh, I know, we almost made it to the end of the year!) because theirs were actually falling apart. I found these on sale at Nordstrom Rack! More great NRack finds here.
And, last note, I had to order one of these adorable “Story in Gold” pendants for myself. You can submit artwork from your child and they’ll engrave it onto the necklace! You could also do this with your husband’s writing, or a little sketch from your mother, or some other hand-drawn memento from a loved one. How sweet?! I scanned in this little note my son wrote me when he was four that I also have framed on my desk. He was just learning the shapes of M and A and would write really long Mamas — mamamama — or mamam. A great mother’s day gift for yourself. If you do buy, try code JENSHOOP at check out. I believe it gives you 30% off!
ZIMMERMANN CAFTAN // SKY BLUE CROSSBODY (25% OFF WITH COSFRIEND) // CROCS FOR KIDS (ON SALE!) // VARLEY ZIP TOP AND SHORTS // 20 OZ STANLEY QUENCHER (25% OFF) // VINYL ALPHABET STICKERS (10% OFF WITH MAGPIE10) // CUSTOM ENGRAVABLE HEART PENDANT // LUNCHBOXES
+A NATURALIST’S MANTRA: “Despite all our accomplishments, we owe our existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.” – Paul Harvey. What a way to put our own trivialities into perspective.
+BESTSELLERS: This white dress (almost sold out; a few left as of time of writing!). I also have this in my closet and cannot wait to style now that the weather is warming. I was also delighted to see two very chic Banana Republic finds in this week’s list; they’re still running their 40% off Friends and Family promotion. All my picks from the sale here.
01. TUCKERNUCK LACE CAFTAN // 02. JULIA AMORY BETTY DRESS (USE JEN-15 FOR 15% OFF) // 03. BANANA REPUBLIC WHITE EYELET PANTS (40% OFF!) // 04. VERONICA BEARD EYELET DRESS // 05. TARGET MARY JANE FLAT // 06. FARM RIO TOP // 07. PERFECT STRIPED TEE // 08. BANANA REPUBLIC DRESS (40% OFF!) // 09. GAP GAUZE SHORTS // 10. UNTUCKIT WHITE OXFORD DRESS // 11. DORSEY RIVIERE NECKLACE // 12. ANN MASHBURN POINTELLE CARDIGAN
+SPRING SHOES FOR CHILDREN ON SALE: Wow did I find a treasure trove of great spring shoes from some of my favorite brands this week — all around 30% off. I literally just bought my daughter a pair of lilac crocs at full price, and now I found this pair in a color I slightly prefer for 25% off!
NIKE SOCKS // ADIDAS SOCKS // NEW BALANCE BIG KIDS SHOES // NEW BALANCE TODDLER SHOES // FROSTED LILAC CROCS // HOKAS // FLOAFERS // RAINBOW CROCS // MINI MELISSA JELLIES
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I echo a lot of the sage wisdom that’s already been commented here, and add one more element. Years ago, the coach of a running group I was a part of told me to never forget that the workout is the workout. The warmup isn’t the workout, the recovery intervals during the workout aren’t the workout, the cooldown isn’t the workout. The workout is the workout. Basically what he meant was if you want to see progress (and not injure yourself!!) don’t go 110% effort ALL the time. Save the effort for when it really matters. Keep the easy parts easy and the hard parts hard. You can’t go hard all the time and expect good results. And I think that’s true of a lot of things at life, not just running. Save your energy for when it really matters. By definition, not everything can be a priority.
Love these sentiments. It also reminds me of a time my friend was talking about running, and she had a strong distinction between “the warm up” part of the run, the “all outs,” the “steady parts.” I think she had different language for this but I realized that I literally only had two speeds: running and not running. When I was running, I was trying to go as hard and fast as I could. She was the first person who made me realize maybe I didn’t need to be going at a level 10 at all times, and that I was probably not doing myself any favors by moving with that level of intensity. For one thing, my runs were much shorter! For another thing, I really hated running. Ha!
xx
Just queued up the Goop podcast & the Mel Robbins one mentioned below – thanks for the recs!
Adding my voice to the work-in-progress sentiment on reframing workouts and fitness. I spent 15 years running every. single. run. as hard and fast as possible, no matter the distance and was shocked that I spent years navigating injury after injury. Over the past two years (thanks to a great male running partner who runs FAST when it matters and also VERY SLOW), I’ve come to realize that workouts still “count” when they’re gentler. Adding in more structured classes on strength building & reformer pilates helps with balancing this “all or nothing”/”must be gasping for air every second of the workout” decades-long mentality, too. I admire you for running without a watch – I try to work that in every so often as someone who glances down at her Garmin every… 10 seconds?… while on a run (I know, I know). Solidarity with this chorus of like comments!
I deeply relate to this — everything! I need to pin up the words: “workouts still count when they’re gentle.” Yes!! On a more data-driven level, Landon has told me that some of the bike rides he does that have NO “all-outs” (i.e., you’re going as fast as you can at a very high resistance level) and instead have a series of “hard climbs” (high resistance, but more moderate speed) burn more calories! This really helped me understand that just because you’re not going to the point of breathless doesn’t mean you’re getting an incredible workout.
xx
Ah, that’s really interesting! I’ve actually become a recent Peloton convert (riding the trend wave about 5 years late, ha) and am loving the challenging, steady state/heavy hill climb interval rides with certain instructors. It’s been a nice to balance my default running-as-cardio with some longer Peloton spin classes – here’s to new reframes and challenges!
Hi EMM! I, too, am a peloton devotee – please share your leaderboard name if you’re comfortable! I’m bookwormbike. I generally don’t participate in the hashtags but might make an exception for pelotonmagpies 😉
It’s definitely a challenge to dial it back for some workouts. As a former runner who did a lot of 5k and 10k races, I like the competitive nature of the leaderboard but find myself still going hard during the 1 min cooldown at the end to get my output higher, which is not the point of cooldown! I do everything from low impact to HIIT & hills, but have been incorporating more low impact lately when my body is in the low energy phase of my cycle. Challenging to undo years of hard workout habits, especially when I haven’t felt a physical benefit from the new approach yet…but easier to be motivated to hop on the bike when I not feeling super energized.
Pelotonmagpies!! OMG. I currently use Apple Fitness for my cycling videos but this may convince me to get a subscription…
So relate to the comment about it being “challenging to undo years of hard workout habits.” I was just talking to a friend last night about how this phase of life (late 30s/early 40s) has been a lot of UNLEARNING. Like, rewiring how I think about food, alcohol, fitness, sleep. What worked at 34 just doesn’t work any more — or doesn’t feel right or good anymore. Interesting.
xx
Amen!! New reframes and challenges! xx
Hello!
I implore everyone to listen to the Mel Robbins Podcast episode 275 with Dr. Stacy Sims! Dr. Sims explains how to workout and get healthy as a woman. She explains that we are women, not small men and we respond differently to food and exercise. So so enlightening!
Thank you!! Will be listening!
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Re: the workouts, I’ve realized tracking things leads to unhealthy tendencies for me. Two things are true for me: yes some foods have been manipulated in ways that are unhealthy for my body AND it’s so much healthier for me specifically to eat all foods without guilt or shame. I don’t have any history of disordered eating or over exercising, but I was very ill as a child and they tried many series of restrictive diets to try to manage my symptoms, and decades of PT-mandated exercise programs, and the same again when we went through infertility. As a result I’m very sensitive to scrutiny of my body. I’m an overachiever in so many senses and I need to work hard to keep that mindset away from my body and my family’s bodies. The antidote for me has been tuning into the sensory joy of movement, of fresh air, of the foods I put in my body whether they’re kale salads or Doritos. It’s added such vibrancy to my days and made my body a welcoming home again, even if I still do deal with far more chronic issues than most my age. I think with so many things, tuning into the joy quiets the mind.And joy will make us keep coming back in a way punishing ourselves won’t!
Love these thoughts and relate deeply. I definitely don’t do well with any kind of hard-and-fast rules about exercise or diet. It leads me to bad places — I need more loose / general / forgiving guidelines, just as you said. I wish I enjoyed the exercise a little bit more — I really struggle to find joy in running, doing weighted workouts, etc, but I also love the way I feel afterward and can see the mental, emotional, health benefits so clearly that it’s worth a little bit of boredom / discomfort / blah to get it done.
xx