fitness friday!

what i've been doing / /

water. the whole drinking 1 gallon a day thing? going really well. on work days, that is. i will chug water all. day. long. and pee about 8 times a day! (that's at least once every hour while i'm at work. awkward! haha). but when i'm at home, i don't drink nearly as much! you see, the water in herriman is GROSS. you should hear me curse at my dishwasher every time i unload the supposedly "clean" dishes. it's so awful! it tastes really bad too, plus tap water isn't my favorite. i like water to be ice cold. so we've started buying those giant water dispensers for the fridge that cost like $2 for 2.5 gallons, and that's been okay. but it's still a lot harder at home. i'm workin' on it. by today, i'm starting to think that maybe 1 gallon is a little too much, so i'm not going to worry too much about getting to a gallon, but i will make sure i'm getting half my body weight in ounces for sure.

push-ups. devin and i resolved to do push-ups together every night. with his job and all his climbing, he is getting some major back muscles (it's pretty attractive, in case you were wondering.) but now he's got to even out his chest so his back isn't overcompensating and causing him to slouch and bring his shoulders forward. and i mostly just want Gabby Douglas arms (seriously. google her. she's a babe. and an olympian and all.). we've been doing 2 sets of 15 each night and it's ROUGH. I'm glad we started with 15. Our first plan was 25! Psh! We're both sore all day every day from it, but it's nice to do it together. We plan on going up 5 push-ups per set each week so next monday we'll start doing 20! I have already felt like i'm getting better at them. It's also easier to just get in my push ups while I'm at the gym and I'm already working out.

working out. well, obviously! on saturday, i met Danica at the gym and let her be my trainer for the morning. we did cardio/back/butt/abs and I about died. It was really hard and I maybe cursed her name a few times in my head because she is pure MADNESS in the gym, but it was so great. I felt sore and in pain in the best way and I can still feel it in my behind! She taught me a lot of really awesome moves that I use a lot now. i took sunday off. because i deserve at least one day off, right? we still did our push ups, and I ended up doing a mini ab circuit while i was at it. monday, devin and i went to the gym together and that was a lot of fun. i am surprised by how much i liked working out with him! i say that because when you're working out, you're gross and sweaty and making weird faces and weird grunting sounds and you're hurting.. it's a pretty ugly state.. but we had a good time anyway! on tuesday, i came home from work sick and skipped out on the gym. i probably would have passed out or worse if i had gone, so i just accepted it. i took work off on wednesday as well, still feeling awful, but by the evening, i was able to make it to the gym for my "orientation" which was really just a free session with a personal trainer. i learned a lot and it really helped me to see exactly where i'm at with my overall health and knowledge of health, where my goals are, and how to attain them, but it was also very vague and he wouldn't answer a lot of my questions. he put me through a GRUELING work out that i hated so much and LOVED at the same time, and then tried to sell me on getting a personal trainer 2-3 times a week for $50 a day! uh... no thanks, but nice trap there... by thursday morning, i was almost positive my legs were going to fall off. the only way i even knew they were still attached is because i could feel the pain when i did so much as bend to sit down! (TRX band squats... my new worst enemy / best friend). he also worked my biceps and triceps harder than i'd ever worked them and stapling anything at work was an embarrassing task... so thursday night at the gym, i avoided all those areas and focused on core/butt/back again... for the 3rd time this week! i still did cardio and today i'm definitely more sore than i was yesterday, but so be it! today i'll go to the gym and i think i'll just stick with cardio and abs to stay safe and hopefully try some trx bands again tomorrow.

what i've learned / /

being sore. being sore sucks and feels awesome at the same time. i feel like if i'm not sore, then i'm not doing much. i've also learned that you'll reach a point in your workout where your soreness is null and doesn't matter anymore and you can hardly feel it anymore, so you just keep going. just keep going. i have come to learn that the feeling that i'm about to die will always pass. it really always does. i get a second wind every time and power through to the end of each workout and feel great afterward and high-five myself for lasting the whole time. it's a major feat in my book!

this new recipe: my new favorite snack. i've always been a big fan of peanut butter and apple slices as a snack, but this takes it to a whole new (and even healthier) level. here's how easy it is:

1 container vanilla greek yogurt (i used chobani and i think it was 6oz)

3ish tablespoons peanut butter (i honestly think greek yogurt tastes like sour cream. every flavor. i totally hate it, but when i mixed it with enough peanut butter, it was good. i didn't measure, but i'm guessing it was about 3 tablespoons, or maybe a little more. the recipe i saw called for only 2... so i think it's really up to you.)

1 tablespoon honey 

a tiny bit of cinnamon (again, up to you. i only did a little, because i didn't want it to be too cinnamony. i did a pinch and it was just what i wanted)

mix it all up, makes about 4 servings. i dipped applies in it. i think it would be amazing with strawberries, but i'm sure you could use it for just about anything. crackers, waffles or toast (that would be so yummy!)... use your imagination.

what I want to try / /

did i ever tell you that my mother in law is a personal trainer? she's this tiny, fiesty little woman and she's so fit and so strong! so after my personal trainer teaser session, i realized that i would benefit most from a custom workout. i also realized that i don't have hundreds of dollars a month to spend on that kind of attention in the gym, but then i remember my mother in law, and my free buddy passes... so i'm hoping i can convince her to come to the gym with me and put together a routine! she'll be the biggest help, i think.

like i said, when i did my free session with the personal trainer, we did some trx band squats and they were so awful. i loved them. i want to learn some more moves with the trx bands because i think i benefited a lot from the squats. i mean, it's 2 days later and i'm still feelin it!

this weekend we have a lot of plans with family. tonight, we're heading down to devin's parents to hang out with the babies who are in town and tomorrow i'll be making macarons all afternoon for easter dinner, then we're heading to ogden to have a big sleepover party with all my siblings in kelli and sean's new house. sunday, we'll head back down to devin's parents for easter dinner so i'm almost positive my weekend will be full of junk food and it will be really hard to get to the gym, but i'm going to do my best. i'm already planning on using 1 day this weekend to cheat and eat easter candy, because... easter! but i want to do my best to stick to the healthy stuff. on monday, my march challenge will be over and i can have soda again! i haven't been craving it at all these past few weeks, so i'm not sure i'll drink too much, which is okay with me! i'm glad i went a whole month without diet coke. that's a pretty big deal for me since i'm an addict!

(uh... these posts are getting too long and too detailed. and probably really boring. i'll write less next week, i promise. haha!)