Sunday Happenings

It was a long week but a great weekend to rest and relax. I completely updated the template of my blog, hope you like it! Still working out some kinks, but will hopefully get those fixed soon.

Here are my Sunday Happenings this week.

Kelly Clarkson's emotional performance on American Idol
If you haven't seen this yet, get your tissues ready. Kelly Clarkson was a guest judge this week on American Idol and at the end she performed her song Piece by Piece. She wrote it when she was pregnant with her little girl and now she's pregnant with her son. The song is about how her husband loves and cares for her, and how she didn't have that growing up. Sadly, her dad left her family when she was a little girl. It's a very touching song and reminds me how thankful I am for my amazing husband and dad.

Sleep Cycle

I felt like I hadn't been sleeping as well lately, no idea if it's true or not but I've heard how waking up in the middle of a REM cycle can cause you to feel tired. So I recently downloaded an app called Sleep Cycle to see if it would help me feel more rested. I set what time I want to wake up and it'll wake me up within 15 minutes of that time. So if I want to wake up at 7:15, my alarm will go off between 7:00 and 7:15. I've done it for about the last 3 weeks and I think it's really making a difference. Pretty neat and it will show me trends, etc. after I had been using it for a few weeks.

Comparison Trap

My bible study is going through a book by Sandra Stanley (her husband Andy Stanley is the pastor of our church, Buckhead Church) called The Comparison Trap. It's easy to get caught up in comparing myself to others around me, especially with social media being everywhere now. Here's a word of encouragement from the book this week. 

MacKenzie Bourg

I'm obsessed with the song Hallelujah and I've heard some really beautiful covers of this song. MacKenzie Bourg who is currently in the top 10 of American Idol's final season performed Hallelujah on his YouTube channel. 

Wine + Girl Scout Cookies

Houston and I have bought wine from a website called Club W for several years. They are private label wines getting you nice wines at a discount, typically between $13-18. Their blog posted this last week and I thought it was truly fabulous - they paired their wines with Girl Scout Cookies. GENIUS.

See the full blog post here

Hope everyone has a great week!

xx, A

Gettin' Ready for Spring Break!

I know what you're thinking... 2 posts in 1 day?? Don't worry this probably won't happen very often.

I was just talking to Houston earlier today and told him that I really wanted to be more dedicated to healthier eating habits and workouts this semester. I want to have a healthier lifestyle and be more comfortable in my skin. He is amazing and tells me everyday that I am beautiful and is always so incredibly encouraging in my efforts to be healthy (when I try), but I am not thrilled with how I look and he is the BEST person to help me because he is so knowledgeable about health and fitness! So he told me that if I wanted him to, he would help me come up with a plan for my diet and fitness schedule! If you can't tell... I'm one very lucky gal:)

So after that great talk with Houston, my sweet friend Jaime had some of us girls over tonight to catch up now that we are all back in town (we start our final semester of college this Monday! Where has the time gone??) We were talking about how we all want to be in good shape for our Spring Break cruise, and decided we are all going to join our local Pure Barre, at least until Spring Break in March!!

Above is a video to help explain what a PB class looks like.


I am so excited because I love PB! It's so much fun and I love the workout, and I am also much more likely to go if I have a friend with me (social butterfly, right here).

PB really helps me to tone up, but I get faster results for my stomach if I'm running. So what I've decided to do is do my cardio on Tuesdays and Thursdays (I don't have class on TTh this semester - hallelujah!) and then I can go to PB classes with my girlfriends whenever they're free!

Now I'm posting about this so I can have a little more accountability. I'm not sure how many people actually read this (besides my sweet family and supportive friends), but this way I feel like I'm posting it out there for the world to see and I (hopefully) will be more diligent with my healthy living!

We (Juliann, Jaime, Courtney, Kristin and myself) are going to start our memberships this weekend at PB and I am so excited to get back! I haven't been in "Pure Barre shape," as I like to call it, in awhile so it might take me a few weeks! But here we go:)

Last thing --- Have y'all heard of this phone app called GroupMe?? I'm obsessed. My friends just showed it to me tonight and it operates how text messaging should on the iPhone (sorry Apple)! It's similar to WhatsApp if you've had that, but you can turn on a setting where you can receive them as text messages if you want, and you can also turn notifications off and/or take yourself out of the group message if you want to stop getting buzzed every 5 seconds... GENIUS! I love group texting, but sometimes it can drive me crazy if I'm out of town and can't hang out with my friends trying to make plans in the group text or my family loves to group message but sometimes I'm in the middle of things and can't respond, so this gives you the option to turn on the notifications! A highly recommend it!

Okay, sleep time! I have a business meeting in the morning! Eek:) I'll keep you posted on my newest entrepreneurship idea as it evolves!

-A

Fitness Update:
Juliann and I went to the gym at school today and I did:
10 minutes on the elliptical
10 mins sprint/walking on the treadmill
4 planks 30 seconds each
each side plank 30 seconds each
2 sets of 10 squats
2 sets of 10 lunges
3 sets of 30 rep "back dancing" (as PB calls it)
and 20 reps captain's chair leg raises