Recommendation: things to do when you return home from traveling

Back from the big apple (recommendations and reviews to come soon!) and completely exhausted. Its hard to get back from a trip on a Sunday and start the week with full force. Where to find the energy to unpack, do laundry, grocery shop, etc?? We took it easy last night after getting home - unpacked our suitcases, ordered in, and watched a netflix. I think that really helped me decompress so that I could make this a manic monday and go grocery shopping, start the laundry, and prep a few meals for the week (and stay sane by slowly sipping 1 glass of red wine).

In an effort to catch up on my blogging, here are a few random recommendations that have helped make my life easier in the past 24 hours:

- unpack as soon as you walk in the door. you are not going to want to do it at any point and the longer you wait, the more painful it gets. like a band-aid. rip it off. get it done. quick

- buy fruit as a snack for work...and then slice it the night before work or morning of. i am like clockwork and need snacks at 10:30 and 3:30 every day. if I bring a whole apple or pear, I will not eat it, guaranteed. slicing it the night before only takes minutes and ensures that I get some fruit into my body the next day! this is especially great after traveling b/c if you are like me, you are used to eating all day everyday on vacation and you'll need little snacks to hold you over and get you back on a normal eating schedule

- be realistic when grocery shopping after a busy weekend. If you didn’t get your normal errands done and they are going to carry over to the next week, don’t plan crazy meals that take tons of prep work! TJ’s is my go to place for this as they have tons of pre-made and quick-cooking dinners. For tonight, I got this fantastic vegetarian (for you carnivores, I can’t taste any difference) french onion soup from the freezer section. It takes 40 minutes in the oven but is nice b/c you can pop it in, then change into sweats, and do a quick chore.

Before:

After:

- take a quick tally of your trip - i'm talking food & beverage, transportation, sights and misc. in nyc i just stuffed all receipts in my purse so that i could do this when i got home. its not necessarily to track the money but moreover to have an idea of what this trip cost, in case you want to take it again. i put mine in excel (i can't help it, i love excel). i plan to take those totals and put them back into our itinerary (i told you i love lists and planning) and will file that in our travel file (and/or google docs) for future reference when we go to the big apple next. flights and hotels and circumstances will change but at least we'll know roughly what the trip will cost

ok, that's all i've got for now. exhaustion is taking over. stay tuned for nyc tips!