Fitness Friday!

Hello from Atlanta. Take a peek at my week so far:

In the meantime, it's that day again! Since I'm out of town and don't have a lot of time to spend on a computer, I'm not going to be able to link up with the normal Fitness Friday link up, but I really like being able to post about fitness every Friday! So I'm doing it anyway.

I can say one thing for sure though: It is so, so hard to be healthy when you're out of town. And when you don't have your own car and are stuck going to eat wherever your shuttle van is going. I'll be honest and say that no one made me eat the giant bowl of frozen yogurt on Wednesday or the delicious cheesecake on Thursday (NO ONE SAYS NO TO THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY, NO ONE), but this girl is used to living off of pretty healthy food. It's been kind of fun eating out this week, but my stomach is soooo ready for some food with decent nutritional value!

Coincidentally, it's also hard to work out when you're out of town (especially when you're at a conference that has three daily sessions). Here is my sad little weekly workout log:

Saturday: 40 min. cardio, arms + lower body
Sunday: 50 min. cardio
Monday: Nothing (this was the day I left for Atlanta and didn't get to my hotel til after 10pm)
Tuesday: 25 minute cardio (which I actually highly regret, because it was performed at 5:30am, and it made me feel sick and I spent the rest of the day exhausted for it.. that last photo up there is photographic evidence of my misery)
Wednesday: Nothing
Thursday: Nothing
Friday: I'm flying back home today, but after a few days of poor eating and getting very little sleep, a workout is probably not what my body needs. Not today anyway.

Anyway, in light of a bad week of working out, I found this survey floating around on the web somewhere and I honestly can't remember where from or else I'd link to them! But I saw it and tweaked it a bit, but thought I'd answer some questions about some of my fitness preferences!

1. Fuel

For whatever reason, I pretty much can't do any cardio with even an ounce of food in my stomach. I have to not eat about 2+ hours before I run or eat incredibly light all day. It used to be really irritating but now I just work around it.

2. Favorite body part to train

Butt! Only because mine is a flat, flabby nightmare if I don't do something about it. It's not like squats and lunges are actually fun. But neither is a floppy butt. I also really like arms, because my arm muscles respond very quickly to weights. I've amped up my arm workout in the last three or four weeks and am already a little scared of my growing biceps, so I may take it back down a notch.

3. Workout gear

Every month I tell myself I'm going to use some of my clothing budget to invest in better workout gear. But then I get to the store, and $15 for a sports bra feels like highway robbery, and really, what's wrong with owning only one sports bra if you work out 5-6 days a week? Yeah. I know. I need another sports bra. Or three. I'M WORKING ON IT!

But really, I usually wear just some yoga pants or capris, my Nike's, a tank or tee and my one, hot purple sports bra.

4. Sports Drink

I bring a Powerade Zero to every workout sesh at the gym. I've been looking into finding some good protein drinks for after my weight training sessions, but most of them seem pretty high calorie, and it's hard enough for me to keep my calorie intake at a low enough level without the help of a calorie-laden drink.

5. Time of the day to workout

I'm 90% useless during a morning workout. I get woozy and tired way fast (and apparently nauseous and irritated... see photo above). Usually my best workout comes somewhere between 5-7pm, when I've gotten a lot of food & water in my system to help my energy level stay up.

6. Workout shoe brand

Nikes! Mostly because they're cute, if we're being honest.

7. Post-workout meal

For whatever reason, I feel I usually end up with either eggs or turkey bacon (or both) on my plate after a workout, and steamed veggies. Anything with some protein!

8. Rest days: 1x a week, 2x a week, never ever ever, or other?

Usually rest 1-2 days a week but I'll take 3 days off if I need to or my schedule forces me to. I want to keep myself on a consistant schedule and keep working on my goals, but I never want my life to be totally centered around the gym.

9. Music: Current Playlist

I get really bored by music when I workout if it's not constantly changing and upbeat, so I just put on the Pop Fitness station or the Israel Houghton station (for some holy pop fitness!) on Pandora and go with that.

10. Number one reason for working out

To tone up (look better) and be strong and healthy! My goal is to be more motivated by keeping my body healthy than I am motivated to look good. It just is too slippery a slope (in my opinion) to be motivated to work out solely by how you feel you look.