I had been looking forward to this weekend all week. Nick was out of town in Portland, OR for work and not that I was glad he was gone (not at all) but I had pre planned in my head on Thursday that I was saying no to all social plans Saturday no matter what came up, because I knew I needed a day to be by myself and not have anywhere to be or anyone to see.
I’ve always thought of myself as an extrovert, and I think at the core I am, but living in New York has definitely made me crave more alone time. You’re constantly surrounded by people. And in my day to day job I talk to people all day long. The annoying “you should” noise in my head was like “you’re lame. stop isolating yourself. it’s summer and everyone is having fun.” But my inner self was like…you need this. this is good.
Backing up to Friday. I left work around 6, grabbed cheese and crackers and headed to my friend Nicole’s apartment for a cozy night in of drinking wine and talking for hours about all the things. And all the feelings. It was so refreshing after a long week. I left there around 10pm, biked home and feel into bed.
Saturday morning I had two new clients. I haven’t taken new clients in a really long time since life was at max capacity, so Cody has been taking almost every new client for the past 18 months.
I’ve restructured Nutshell a bit but still have some structural kinks to work out so I’ll talk more about that down the road — but the website has gotten a little revamp which is exciting!
It felt so good to be seeing new clients again. Honestly, when I started nursing school back in May of 2014 I didn’t know what the business and blog would become. To see it still thriving over 3 years later and to feel more passionate than ever about helping women had me feeling all kinds of grateful by 11am Saturday morning.
After the session wrapped up, I laced up my shoes and went running. Every Saturday in August is summer streets — meaning there’s a 7 mile stretch from the Brooklyn Bridge (near our apt) all the way up to Central Park where no cars are allowed, only pedestrians. It’s so awesome to run up and down the city streets with only bikers or walkers/runners around and there is all kinds of music and fun things going on.
It was SO HOT though. I walked near the end and talked to my friend Jess on the phone. Then swung by Whole Foods for a few bulk bins items and then walked home while catching up with my friend Kelli on the phone for a while.
Came home and immediately made a smoothie. 1 cup almond milk, 1 scoop protein powder (that’s 1/2 off right now), 1 frozen banana, frozen spinach and 1 tsp maca powder.
And then snacked on a bowl of popcorn.
And was still hungry so made a plate of goat cheese + jam and crackers later in the afternoon while reading.
If I’m honest, it was hard to not busy myself. As much as I want to be better at resting by myself and say that I know how to do that….I’m still working on it. So I turned off my phone and walked over to get dinner…mediterranean chicken salad from Chopt. I poured a glass of white wine, cozied up on the couch with dinner, ate some ice cream from the pint and watched multiple episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. It was wonderful.
Sunday morning was slowwww. I flipped through some cookbooks for meal inspiration but then nothing sounded good so I went to Pinterest. I decided on these insanely simply veggie burgers for lunch and thai turkey meatballs for dinner.
Then I ate the same breakfast that I had on Saturday morning…toast and yogurt. One slice slathered with butter and cinnamon sugar, the other with pb and banana and whole milk yogurt with granola and blueberries.
I answered a ton of email since my inbox was literally exploding. Ordered groceries online through Instacart (life is much easier with grocery delivery) and then went on a walk/jog along the river.
By the time I came home the groceries had arrived and I turned on some music and spent 90 minutes cooking up everything. Nick and I share the cooking duties based on whoever is less busy, but no matter what we never really spend more than 60-90 minutes meal prepping on Sundays. I get frustrated if it goes on longer because it starts feeling like “work.”
I made the meatballs, veggie burgers, a batch of cookie dough protein bars, roasted a bag of broccoli and threw together this chocolate banana bread with the rotten bananas leftover from last week.
Lunch consisted of another smoothie after I showered along with a cheese plate similar to yesterday (triscuits + goat cheese + jam)
I snacked on an apple and KIND bar on my up to hang out with my friend Anne before church. I lived with Anne (and Brittany) two apartments ago and that will forever be the best roommate situation ever. I love both of them.
Spent the evening at church, chatted with friends afterward and then biked home.
You’d think that after cooking for the week I’d just eat some turkey meatballs that I already made. But all I was craving was cheesy eggs and popcorn. So that’s what I ate for dinner. And forgot to snap a picture…
I’m wrapping up this post on Sunday evening while snacking on graham crackers with pb and chocolate.
And then I’m about to stretch on the floor, foam roll for a bit, watch an episode or two of Grey’s Anatomy (yes, I’m having a moment with this show currently) and then heading to bed early.
Nick flies home tomorrow morning and I’m very happy about that. Hope you had a restful weekend!
Your weekend sounds/looks lovely! Definitely my idea of a good time… especially the graham cracker snack at the end 🙂
I wanted to tell you that you’ve inspired me to start having cheese boards. I grew up eating cheese and crackers with some kind of fruit every day after school. During my disordered eating, cheese (and crackers… and fruit eventually) was SO off limits. Then for a while I thought I had a dairy issue. But this summer I fell back in love with cheese!! Goat cheese and herb cheddar = so good. So yesterday I made myself a little cheese board inspired by your pictures. I’m on an instagram hiatus (probably forever) otherwise I would have posted a picture and tagged you!
I TOTALLY feel you on introvert weekends – sometimes they are SO necessary – just having wine, ice cream and multiple netflix episodes to myself just does something so cathartic for me. I hope you feel rejuvenated this week!!
I totally agree. Hope your weekend was restful too!
I AM So jealous. I love alone time and need it to recharge. Its been a while since I’ve had some time alone, so you’ve reminded me that I really need to priortize that 🙂
I hope you find some time soon!
Your introvert weekend is my extrovert one 🙂 Love reading your recaps — it’s so nice that you and Nick been able to carve out such a full life in NYC.
haha everyone is so different and you do you 🙂
I love you so much friend; it’s so neat to see your refreshing honesty about how it’s hard not to busy yourself when you need to refresh and refuel. I do LOVE being around people, but I also need that introvert time. I’m so thankful God so graciously blesses us with alone time to count His goodness, see His grace and mercy and be refueled by that to continue with life especially in such a busy city like NYC.
I agree with needed some introvert time Emily – hope you get some too 🙂
Alone time is so important! Taking time for your self helps you give back to others!
Out of curiosity, what field of work is Nick in?
Yes agreed! He works in healthcare on the marketing and strategy side – use to be in finance but those crazy days are behind us thank goodness 🙂
Looks like you had such a great weekend! And that graham cracker, chocolate, pb combo looks amazing…
Hope you have a great Monday 🙂
it’s my favorite snack lately!
Gosh, why it is so hard to simply BE? I’m with you, Robyn – totally an extrovert, but alone time is much needed every so often! Love that you turned off your phone and enjoyed the time by yourself. The older I get, the more I’m like, YES me time is good. 🙂
SO HARD. I listened to a sermon and solitude and how we’ve lost that with busying ourselves and how that affects our spiritual life and it was SO GOOD. Hope you are well 🙂 xo
I definitely know that need for an introvert weekend! I always thought those articles “extroverted introvert” sounded so ridiculous and then I was like, but wait, that’s me lol. I know I need days to be ALONE. To read, catch up on life, or do nothing. Sounds like a perfect weekend, Robyn!
ha I so relate to extrovert introvert too. Hope you get some quiet space soon too!
Oh my goodness, GREY’S. Watched it in college and then gave up not too far in but recently restarted it on Netflix and I can’t. STOP. So so good. Looks like such a relaxing weekend, hope you have a great week! 🙂
Once you start it’s so hard to turn off!
That goat cheese, Triscuit, and jam combo is freaking calling my name. YUM. Have a great week, Robyn!
fav snack 🙂
Introvert time is the best- I need at least a few hours to myself over the weekends or else I go into Monday still feeling frazzled! Glad you got some good rest and food and friend time 🙂
Oh ps have you tried Headspace? Really good for relaxing/calming down!
yes! I should do it more 🙂
agreed!
What a perfect weekend! I totally agree – living in a busy city sometimes requires planned alone time. 🙂
agreed, yes..you get it 🙂
Totally get ya on needing an alone weekend once in a while. It’s such a nice kind of freedom to just do your own thing and not have anyone to check in with or have to be on time for anything/anyone else. Glad you enjoyed it!
yessss. to have zero expectations
great post as usual. I have ask what bread is that you use? and also what cinnamon sugar do you use? thanks!
cinnamon sugar is just cinnamon + sugar 🙂 bread is whole wheat from the bakery at the grocery
I am so with you on the rest thing. Although, I do tend to be more of an introvert and being around people all day literally drains me. I definitely crave my alone time. I had to set some boundaries for myself because I have family that really likes to try and schedule ALL THE THINGS. Eventually, I started telling them no. It was very difficult at first because I think family almost EXPECT that you will be at whatever they have planned, but now I try to listen to what I want more. If I WANT to go to this dinner or that wedding, then I will. But if curling up with a book and my sweatpants sounds more appealing, then I’m going to do that instead. With our busy lives and work schedules, we EARN the time off that we have and it is a blessing. I think we should take full advantage instead of scheduling ourselves silly. Recently, I discovered the “Do Not Disturb” feature on my phone and it has been the best thing ever. I have “favorited” all the important people in my life I want/need to hear from should an emergency happen, but now my phone is quiet otherwise. It’s the best!
I agree with you on boundaries – I don’t look at my phone in the evening and peak at it once or twice during the day. If not, you could spend all day on your phone!
I can always tell when I need some serious ME time. It’s so refreshing to just spend time Netflixing, cooking, and overall taking it easy when you get that “chill out” craving. I’m all caught up on Grey’s, but I can’t wait till more episodes get put on Netflix 🙂 !
xxMeah
love all those things too meah. 🙂
Alone time is absolutely necessary! I also consider myself an extrovert but I really enjoy my alone time. I just spent the weekend traveling with my boyfriend and when we got back, I needed a few hours to myself to chill and compress. I also love to binge-watch Greys during my alone time! It’s the best!
yes, like space to just BE!
Most of my weekends are introvert ones and I really enjoy that!
yes, enjoy what you love!
Every time I think I can’t possibly adore you or your blog more, you prove me wrong. Girl, I couldn’t relate more to this post. Firstly, I consider myself an extravert at my core, but being in college has definitely shown me that I need alone time. When you’re constantly surrounded by people, and especially being in college, where “the thing to do” is go hang out and party and just be “on” all the time, it gets seriously draining. It got to the point where I couldn’t deal with one more day of being around people so I just left campus and had a day all by myself walking around and reading in a coffeeshop, and it was seriously EVERYTHING. P.S. I just wrote a post about things I wish I’d known freshman year, and this is a major theme (I’ll include the link below). Also, we may as well be the same person in terms of our eating habits because I often have a green smoothie +snack plate in lieu of a real lunch on weekends, and no matter what I meal prep I end up having something insanely simple on one of the weekend nights because I don’t like to deny my cravings. <3
http://www.laughingmyabsoff.com/wish-id-known-starting-freshman-year-college/
You are speaking to a biiiiiiig-time introvert over here! This weekend of yours sounds right up my alley. I can’t wait for one of these for myself! 🙂
haha – I’m enjoying the introvert time!
the older i get, the more and more i CRAVE introvert weekends! some weeks i literally count down to friday nights/saturdays where i can just be alone, not having to talk to people, do what i want when i want…after crazy work weeks and talking to people all the time and being around people all the time and being ‘on’ all the time…NOPE. i need just me! and I’ve come to realize that is a-ok and totally normal 🙂
also, just found this blog a few weeks ago and have been catching up and reading older posts. let me tell you, its fantastic! true quality and i love how candid, honest, informative your posts are. as someone who struggles with a lot of issues you discuss, its really great reading your factual posts and others comments as well. any who, keep it up!