Hey peeps!

It’s raining nonstop in NYC at the moment so I’m sitting comfortably on my bed in mismatched sweats with my hair tied up looking like who did it and why lol. I went to yoga this afternoon and then headed to the nail salon to get a fresh set and now I feel like a new woman. Except for the fact that every muscle in my body is aching. But that’s a good thing, right?!?!

Before heading to yoga earlier, I put on two separate pieces of workout wear from Forever 21 (a sports bra top and leggings) and realized that they actually matched perfectly! I felt so cute and ready to take on my workout (because these things matter lol). So, it inspired me to do a blog post with a list of my favorite places to buy cute exercise gear without breaking the bank. I promise you won’t find any high-priced Lululemon anywhere on this list. ;) Listen, I’ll be honest. I’m not great at maintaining a workout routine — sometimes life feels so incredibly overwhelming just trying to keep up with every single thing on my list that working out honestly falls by the wayside. For starters, I have a very fast paced, high stress job, then I try to keep up with the blog and social media, I go to therapy every 2 weeks, I try to make it to church when I can, I have a million friends so I try to keep up with all of them and hang out whenever possible. And then you want me to exercise too?!? It’s TEW MUCH. Ha.

Soooo, I figured that if you’re like me and cute clothes motivate you to do things, then an affordable workout wear list should be just the thing to cure your ‘I don’t want to exercise’ issues. Or at least, it might help a bit. Check the list below and let me know if you have any other ideas!

Forever 21 - seriously how cute is this set (top & pants) and this bra? Also love this crop top to throw on after you finish sweating it out.
ASOS - Honestly about to buy this Adidas sports bra right now. Love this set (top & pants) too. Also, looks like they’re having a special sale on Activewear today. Use code: ACTIVE20 and see if it works for you.
Century21 - Cute leggings (I love black & white if you haven’t already noticed lol). Also might buy this hoodie right now ugh not supposed to be shopping. :-/
TJ Maxx or Marshall’s - of course you know it’s best to just go into these stores and look around if you have some free time
Nike or Adidas Outlet stores - do you have one in close proximity to where you live? If not, make sure you check them out when you’re traveling!

In totally unrelated news, my look for this shoot made me feel so cute! haha I love this beret from the men’s section of ASOS (men’s section because I have a huge head AND braids) and have worn it at least 4 more times since this day. The skirt is an oldie but goodie from Amazon, the boots are Steve Madden (no longer on the site) and the MTV t-shirt is from Forever21. I don’t see it on the site but they have several other really cute graphic tees and crewnecks here. What do you think of the look? I hung out with my friends in Brooklyn for our holiday gift-exchange and then headed to dinner with my sister at Brooklyn Chop House that night — which, ironically, is not actually in BK but in lower Manhattan. The food was decent but the service was not great. Not sure if I would recommend it honestly. Maybe on a Tuesday night or something lol. Saturday night was wayyyyyy too packed and it felt like there was just so damn much going on around us, it was driving me nuts.

Anyway, check back later this week for a new edition of #AcesList! I have some goodies to share. Thanks for reading. xoxox - Ashley