April Recap: A Month of Staying at Home

April was one of those months that felt like it flew by. When I looked back through the photos on my phone it was weird to see what all had passed since the beginning of the month. Colorado was under a Stay At Home order, so that meant aside from grocery shopping and a few other errands Brandon and I were mostly at home. April kicked off with a visit of snow and I was super over it. Anyways, I broke up the month of April into categories to recap!

Work at Home Life

My husband worked from home 90% of the time. He spent a lot of his mornings and afternoons in video conferences. Some days he’d be done early. Others he would be working most of the day. Thankfully, he had the entire kitchen and living room to work in, so we weren’t in each other’s space since I have my own office. Most days that he finished early he went over to a friend’s house who was fixing up his house to sell and it helped keep him busy. I know he’s looking forward to physically going back to work. So far in May, he’s been going into the office a little more.

The CrossFit gym I coach at was closed for the month. Photography is not an essential business and with the gathering restrictions there was simply no photography work to be done in the form of actually photographing something.  I already work from home for my business, aside from when I’m out photographing a wedding or engagement session. I was supposed to photograph two weddings this month and those were rescheduled for later on in the year, so that was disappointing.

My photography website has been getting all the attention the past month. Before I was constantly frustrated and not happy with my website hosted through Squarespace. I was constantly changing and tweaking things, but was never happy with. And I had recently redesigned it in January!

I’m in an amazing photography Facebook group and people have always raved about their ShowIt site, so early on this month I made the jump. Building a new website up is a lot of tedious and detailed work. There is a big learning curve with having to learn a new platform too. There were lots of google searches made, YouTube videos watched, and articles read. Along with that I’ve been working with another wedding photographer who helps people select photos for their website and with website copy. She has been rocking my world and I’m so, so happy with what she’s helping me create! You can check what I currently on my site. It should be officially done early next week: www.skylar-rain.com

One CrossFit related thing I focused on this month was finishing up a nutrition certification course with Precision Nutrition. I’ve been wanting to start offering nutrition coaching, so that was one step forward in the right direction. I’ve worked with a nutrition coach for a long time and it truly has transformed my mindset towards food and my body. I have a LOT of knowledge in that area that mostly hangs out in my brain, so I want to start sharing about my experience over the years and also put out educational information as well.

Daily Walks

One of my favorite things I’ve added into my daily routine this past month is walking. Once the “stay at home” life began, I quickly realized that majority of my steps came from coaching at the gym. So I started walking around my neighborhood and I have loved it! Typically I would either walk for one hour or would take two 25-30 minute walks (lunch & evening). I would put a podcast on and set off! 

When April started out I was usually wearing my North Face jacket with a beanie and gloves, and/or wearing my long down Eddie Bauer coat on top for the frigid days. The last couple weeks of April have been gorgeous and warm here in Colorado, so getting outside for a walk was an easy choice. Even now that I’m getting back to coaching again, getting in at least one walk a day will be a priority.

Fitness at Home

Did anyone else realize how little workout equipment you own at home?! Yep, I definitely did! Thankfully, the owner of our CrossFit gym loaned out equipment to members. I had bought a pair of 12lb dumbbells. From the gym I borrowed 8lb dumbbells, 35lb dumbbells, 35lb kettlebell, an abmat, and a couple of bands (for stretching, pull-aparts, good mornings).

For the past year and a half, I’ve been following a functional bodybuilding type of programming. They released a Dumbbell Physique program that I cruised with for the month. Our CrossFit gym also did weekly team workouts called “The Corona Open”, so once a week I knocked out my team workout (not with my team members evidently).

I really didn’t mind working out at home. I knew I was following a program that would help me keep most of my strength. I used to do yoga more often, so I incorporated a yoga routine at least once a week too and that felt really good.

I’m someone who typically doesn’t struggle with motivation to workout. I would have an occasional day where I didn’t feel like working out, but most days I was ready for a break and to get moving.  My body and my mind always feel 100 times better after a workout. If I don’t get some kind of movement in I’m usually irritable or grumpy. Nobody wants that.

Food

Nice weather this month meant lots of grilling! Or I should say Brandon did lots of grilling.

Aside from grilling, our meals stayed similar to what they were before. One of our favorite dinner combos that we’ve been obsessed with is ground beef on top of  air fryer gold potatoes, along with a type of veggie (mostly for me). Lots of hot sauce or red chile sauce is keep for the topping!

For Easter I baked two quiches for the first time. The stores were sold out of frozen pie crust, so I bought a roll of Phyllo dough, and did a criss-cross layer of dough. That took awhile. The rest of the process was easy! I was super impressed with how they turned out, and they tasted freakin’ good too.

Connecting

My college girlfriends and I have been doing Google Hangout calls since all of this began and aim for once a week. Those have been super fun! We all don’t know why we haven’t been doing them more often. It’s nice to hangout and chat about the week and random things, instead of having to do a massive life catch up with everyone.

I also went home to New Mexico at the end of April for a quick weekend to hang out and relax. With returning back to coaching at the gym, I knew I had to get a weekend in at home before my schedule picked up again.

Ok that covers the month of April! I had to get this posted before we got too deep into the month of May, but hopefully the rest of May keeps making progress to the world slowly reopening. We shall see. Have a great weekend everyone!