fitness friday

I gave up on fitness friday for awhile because it got boring and repetitive and we were doing a lot of rock climbing, but i'm back at it! It will probably start being a lot more sporadic though... 

I've been raving about Tracy Anderson for awhile now, but today I actually posted my favorite videos from her! What I love most is that they are each only about 10 minutes, but you BURN! The first few times I did the arms one, I felt pretty silly, but my arms felt like they were going to fall off, and I feel like I am stronger and more toned after only 2 or 3 days in a row. The abs one I started more recently, and it's the same. I love her crunch variations - I never realized how much leg work can affect your crunches! The standing abs part made me feel even sillier than the arms video, but they work so I'm a happy camper. You should give these a try! 

Other fitness things: downloaded the "my fitness pal" app - love it. obsessed with it. never thought i'd like counting calories so much, but it's become pretty fun even though it's tedious. Also? Because of the app, I got my butt of the bike and started doing the elliptical because I burn a zillion more calories and it's fun to enter the cardio on the app! 

fitness friday, sort of. but not really...

it's finally friday! i'm just going to be honest: i haven't thought once until just now about fitness friday. so maybe we'll all just take a break, BUT, do yourself a favor and look at some of my favorite youtube workouts: search for sadie nardini's vinyasa yoga (she's a rockstar/yogi. she's the best), do every tracy anderson video you can find, and did you know you can find jillian michaels' 30 day shred videos? even if you don't want to do the fitness plan for all 30 days, i'd recommend doing the phase 2 workout if you've only got 20 minutes!

okay, back to the important stuff: friday. it's finally the weekend! i love the weekend! it's like a mini vacation! especially when the weather is nice. we tend to get out of the house more on the weekend, and even take more small trips! i'm hoping we'll get out camping within the next month or so, but i'm not really willing to sleep in a tent if it's under 30 degrees so we'll just have to wait and see! anyway... we've got a bunch of fun stuff going on, starting tonight with a show by our dear friend, Joshua James! (do yourself another favor while you're on youtube and take a break between those workout videos by watching his "Queen of the City" music video. sort of creepy, but in the most brilliant way. and he's sooo talented!) i've only seen joshua live for about 2 milliseconds a few years ago at a rooftop concert series performance, so i'm pretty excited. next week, my mom and little sister both have birthdays, so we'll be celebrating all day tomorrow at Gardner Village (excited for a girl's day with my mom and sisters!), and again on sunday with my mom's side of the family. it's going to be a very busy weekend, but i can't wait!

fitness friday!

i've been slacking a lot this week with everything that we've had going on, but i've still been eating good and i'm okay with it. instead of my usual posts, i thought i'd share my favorite fitness pins! some of these i've tried, some of them i really want to try, and some of them are just cool. but all of them are awesome.

tracy anderson is my hero. i'm sort of obsessed with this woman and her techniques...

this arm workout is SO BAD!!! i can't do it all the way yet! she's a genius.

 

toned and sculpted arms workout here

fitness friday!

what i've been doing / /

working out. this week started off really slackish-like. the weekend pretty much did me in. i didn't do much working out and i ate a lot of crap. i already knew that would happen, so i'm not upset about it. i didn't do any workout monday or tuesday (tsk tsk, katie!) but i went into this knowing 3-5 days a week would be plenty, and i still had 4 days left to get in some exercise. plus on tuesday, i tweaked my knee (i have an old, old injury from the beginning of my climbing days circa 2005). by wednesday, i was actually missing the gym. i was lacking that adrenaline rush i get from a good workout. i wasn't sleeping as well, and i wasn't sore (so i knew something was wrong!) i went to the gym wednesday after work, totally killed it, and felt super afterward. on thursday, i met up with danica again and we sort of wimped out because i was sore from wednesday and she was sore from a killer kickboxing class, but we worked out nonetheless. i'll go to the gym today and tomorrow and probably keep it simple. maybe tomorrow i'll go hard again, depending on how i feel. i'm impressed with myself that i've actually turned gym-going into a natural habit! i've taken to getting home from work, playing with coop for a few minutes, feeding him dinner, and getting back out the door and to the gym before i give myself time to make excuses. so far it's worked out pretty well!

what i've learned / /

cravings. whooooaaa. this was really weird. i love love LOVE candy, junk food, fast food, crap food, pure sugary treats (cotton candy and peeps happen to be in my top 10 favorite treats of all time, and both are made purely of sugar. peeps are even sugar... rolled in sugar, so...) all of the above. i'm a huge sucker for all that stuff. give me a greasy burger with a large (like, XL) order of fries and take me to a candy store and you'll have my heart. probably. that being said, i was pretty excited to cheat easter weekend and eat lots of candy and bad food. i tried to keep to healthy meals and snacks, but i ate plenty of candy and desserts (which I hadn't done all of March). none of the treats really hit the spot, i ended up feeling nauseous after just a few pieces of candy, and i was craving VEGETABLES. WHAT. what is happening to me?! i was sort of mourning my lost love for candy, but i guess it's really for the better right? granted, i can still eat candy like nobody's business, as long as i do so in moderation, but i have been feeling sick after every unhealthy meal and every treat. so that's pretty awesome. i was even all bummed on monday when i didn't have any vegetables or fruits to take to work with me, and went straight to the store after work on tuesday so i could stock up on produce and greek yogurt. (again, who am i????) as weird as this change has been, i think it's also pretty awesome. it's not as hard as i thought it would be to make healthier choices, and i really do feel better and happier and more energetic when i eat those meals as opposed to eating a fast food lunch and wanting to take a nap right after...

epsom salt baths. these babies are lifesavers for sore muscles. epsom salt is basically good for just about anything related to your health, but it's so relaxing and relieving to get into a warm bath with a few cups of epsom salt when my muscles are sore and cursing my name. i feel like i get almost instant relief when i get into the bath, but it certainly doesn't cure the pain from the soreness, just tames it a little bit. but still. aaaamazing. plus it makes my skin baby soft.

what i want to try / /

i'm not really up for anything new right now, but i can tell that my muscles are starting to adapt to the workouts i've been doing, so i've gotta switch things up. i think it's called muscle confusion, right?

*sorry. these posts are getting sort of lame. it's been good for me to track my own progress and hopefully it's maybe benefiting some of you a little bit maybe but it's whatever. i'll try to be more creative next week.

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!)

fitness friday

So, have you heard of GBO Fashion? Cutest blog. This girl is so bubbly and so genius and also a total beaut. Funny thing is, my husband actually introduced me to this blog. Once upon a time he went to church with Shannon, and she's since become one of my favorite fashion blogs to follow. BUT. She's also been doing this killer series she calls FITNESS FRIDAYS. She's a weight lifter extraordinare and I love love love her concept for this series, so I thought I'd join.

You see, what happened was yesterday I joined a gym. Like, I'm an official gym member and stuff. First time ever. And the thing is just that I don't ever really do a lot of working out. I do quite a bit of vinyasa yoga at home and even had a brief relationship with Jilian Michaels workouts on youtube, but it didn't take me very long to realize that working out at home just wasn't going to get me anywhere. I lack a lot of motivation when there's a dog shoving tennis balls in my face while I'm doing downward dog and at least 10 new episodes of my favorite shows in my queue. I needed to get outta the house to actually get something done. So I broke down, found a really awesome, really nice, really affordable gym, and now I'm loving it. (says the girl who knows nothing and is only on day 2).

I really want to make this a thing for me. I want to be that girl that goes to the gym regularly and eats healthy foods and makes it a lifestyle, but... I know nothing! So my plan is to learn what I can along the way, and do some documenting while I'm at it. And become that fitness-lifestyle-girl who everybody loves and wants to be (cough coug shannon cough cough). So for my first Fitness Friday post, here's what I've learned so far:

/ / Soda. I haven't had a diet coke in over 20 days (it is my March goal to not have any soda or basically anything but water for the whole month.) annnnddd I don't really miss it usually (I do have my moments) but I also don't feel like I've noticed a change. A little lame. I was really only ever drinking Diet Coke with the occasional Dr. Pepper, but really nothing has changed. I drink just slightly more water than I used to, so I'm sure that once March is over (just so I can say I finished), I'll be back to my beloved DC, but since I haven't even had any real major cravings for it, I'm sure I'll drink it less often. (apparently, the chemical combinations in diet coke literally kill brain cells, so...)

/ / CardioCinema. The single most effective way ever to get cardio in. Ever. I hate cardio. I hate running. I sort of like the elliptical sometimes and I'm decent on the bike, but when it comes down to it, I still hate cardio. BUT, put me in a dark room with an awesome movie and surround sound, and I'm set. I'll spend an hour in there and feel like I can go longer! It's the best idea. I just like having my mind engaged in something else, so I can focus on that instead of the grueling workout. It's the perfect distraction.

/ / W A T E R . Period. Tons of it. I'm drinking about 96 ounces of water a day (that's 3 standard nalgene's worth. thats how i measure, because i drink out of a 32 ounce nalgene every day). I want to up the intake to 128 ounces a day, which is 1 gallon of water (4 nalgene's worth). That's a lot, but I think I can do it! I drink like a horse at work - the hard part is when I'm at home! But it makes such a difference. I keeps me feeling full, it gives me lots of energy, and I have clearer skin because of it!

/ / Making a plan. What I have realized over the past several months is that when I decided to just work out, at home, on a whim, I did it because I felt guilty, and I didn't give it a lot of effort. Yesterday, I spent all day getting psyched about going to the gym. I had already made the decision in my head that I was going, so when the time came, it only broke my heart a little bit to put cooper back in his pen and hit the gym. I only spent about an hour there doing cardio, but it was time well spent, and time that I had set aside, prior to going, to be at the gym. It was easier. And when I checked in and the employee looked at me and smiled and said, very sincerely, "have a great workout!", I was even more excited. It made me that much more willing to go today, which I wasn't even originally planning on.

G O A L S :

/ / make it to the gym 3-5 times a week. Do a different work out each time (legs, arms/shoulders/back, core - thanks for the idea, Danica!) and try to do cardio on the other days, and yoga at home or other online workouts on days off.

/ / drink 1 gallon of water every day.

/ / make a meal plan and follow it! abs are made in the kitchen - isn't that whay they say? i've been making a very concious effort this month, along with my no-soda goal, and have successfully avoided fast food, most candies and desserts (most... haha) and have made a real effort to eat healthier and it's working! devin and i also take regular "plastic fasts", which is where we don't swipe our cards unless it's for groceries or gas, for however long we set the plastic fast for. that helps a lot, becuase i know i can't spend money to go out to eat (and also keeps my shopping habits under control). i even went to a new restaurant this month and instead of getting some big burger or sandwich, i got salmon. and i was very proud of myself.

anyway. there we go. i'm excited to learn more about what it is that i'm trying to obtain and share what i learn here! if you have tips, good clean eating recipes, killer workout playlists, or anything else (like a gym membership so we can be workout buddies), let me know!