Spring Break In Salt Lake City

March 30, 2015

This past week has been my spring break, although it really hasn’t felt like it. I still have a ton of assignments to finish although it’s been really nice to spend it in Salt Lake City and not have to go into work (I work part-time on campus back in San Francisco).

After a full week of staring at my laptop and trying to get all my school work finished, I decided that I needed to relax and do something FUN! Saturday was such a gorgeous day, so my husband and I went to get Mexican food from Cafe Rio (so delicious) and then we went to Red Butte Garden and Arboretum.

My husband ordered the incredible looking smothered burrito (yes, SMOTHERED!) and I got a cancun shrimp taco with beans and rice.

Got to wear the lovely jewelry from my latest Rocksbox set (I am an affiliate, you can use the code ‘alicexoxo’ to get a month free).

On Sunday, we went to Penny Ann’s for brunch where I got the Oregon omelette with sourdough toast and a hot chocolate and my husband got the pork chili verde skillet with hot cakes (highly recommended if you want to go all out). Later on that afternoon, we went hiking on Desolation Trail. Hiking is such a fun and social way to be active and soak up some beautiful scenery; I actually wrote about things to do before you go hiking in this post. Plus you get to wear cute workout clothes and get a tan (something which I desperately need)!

Wearing my new Lorna Jane top, Victoria’s Secret Sports bra (my new favorite), shorts from Cottonon and my good ol’ Asics (similar here).

HAHAHA, I wanted to take photos that made it look like we were falling off the mountain … I’m an idiot I know 😛

I feel so excited to move to Salt Lake City after graduation. There are so many outdoors activities to do and the community is very health and fitness oriented. They have tons of yoga and fitness centers, Whole Foods and Sprouts (where I can continue buying my favorite coconut water, yay!) so it feels a lot like California. Don’t get me wrong, it’ll be weird to have to uproot and move again but I am open to change and excited for this new chapter. Plus, once my husband finishes his PhD the plan is to move back to California so it helps to know that this isn’t a lifetime change.

How was your weekend? Do any of you from Salt Lake City know what the best hiking trail is??

Honestly yours,
Alice

P.S. CONGRATULATIONS to everyone (myself included) who was part of The Kayla Movement and completed the BBG 1.0. Well done!! Will you be continuing to 2.0 or redoing 1.0? I am moving onto 2.0, gulp, wish me luck!

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Fitness

Kayla Itsines Round 2 – Week 6

November 2, 2014

Happy second day of November everyone! The temperature has definitely started to cool down in San Francisco and honestly, I do not mind at all. San Francisco is not equipped to deal with hot weather and I was finding it really hard to sleep during our brief heatwave. I am currently in Salt Lake City for the weekend (visiting the boyfriend) and it is starting to feel really cold here. My nose does this weird thing where it feels like it’s been punched if it gets ‘hit’ by a cold gust of wind. That only happens when it gets to a certain temperature!

Kayla Itsines Round 2 – Week 6

Okay enough moaning about the weather, onto health and fitness. I weighed myself a few days ago and I have maintained my 7 pound weight loss which is awesome. The abs and arms workout for Kayla Itsines this week were not as bad as I thought they were going to be; which means I have gotten stronger! The leg workout was crazy though. I was really proud of myself because I pushed myself incredibly hard on Friday to complete as many exercises as possible, and my legs are actually still sore! The leg workout this week was full of big explosive plyometric moves such as tuck jumps, jump lunges, and split squats (to name a few). I feel like I have hit a bit of a plateau unfortunately. Eagerly awaiting abs, haha!

I’ve been having a lot of wraps this week with that yummy wrap I told you all about last week, which has been a nice change of pace from the pita wraps I was eating. I went to this amazing Japanese BBQ place in San Mateo on Monday called Gyu-Kaku and loaded up on protein for the week 😛 Has anyone else ever been? I am so obsessed. And this weekend, my boyfriend and I had some fun dining experiences. We went to get Japanese food at Tsunami on Saturday night and got an amazing spread of sashimi, sushi, ahi tuna poke, gyoza, miso soup, and mussels. I LOVE Japanese food!

And this morning we tried out a breakfast hot spot called Penny Ann’s Cafe. My boyfriend and I have heard that it was really popular and had won a lot of awards. Since it is right by where he lives, we decided to check it out. Be prepared to wait if you do! We arrived at 10:30am and had a 45 minute wait for a table of two. Worth it though! I got the pork chili verde skillet with sourdough toast, which was absolutely delicious, and my boyfriend cot the corned beef hash omelette with hot cakes. The hot cakes were really moist and fluffy … I am glad I only had a few bites of his and not one for myself! I didn’t manage to get any photos because we had already dug right into our food before I remembered. Sorry!

How was your weekend? What do you usually do if you hit a plateau?

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway with Harmless Harvest so you can win some delicious coconut water! Enter here

Honestly yours,
Alice

Fitness

Kayla Itsines Round 2 – Week 3

October 12, 2014

Out of the past three weeks, I have to say that this week was probably the most successful. I could tell that I had become much stronger because even though the workouts were still hard, I paused a lot less and I was able to do two rounds of each circuit for most of the workouts. I still found the burpees and push ups a little hard but they definitely were not as killer as they were doing the first week.

Kayla Itsines Round 2 – Week 3

Got some cute new workout clothes from CottonOnBody to help keep me motivated and … because they are amazing!

1. Couldn’t find the exact same top, but this one is similar
2. Printed Core Capri
3. Running Short

New workout clothes!!! That was a good workout, I felt so motivated haha

I am continually surprised at how good my progress is my second time around. I have lost more weight than I ever thought possible in the past 3 weeks; I have lost 7 pounds so far! For those who are regular readers of the blog, you will know that I do not think that weight loss is that important. However, I am pleased because I have been carrying around an extra 10 pounds for the past year and a half that I have not been able to shake so this is definitely a mini victory for me. I went on a very low carb diet about 2 years ago where I got quite thin, but then as with all drastic diets, I gained the weight back as soon as I started including carbs back into my diet again. It is really motivating to see that my body is responding so well to eating healthily, and getting enough nutrients from every food group without excluding anything. It just goes to show how dangerous drastic and exclusionary diets can be.

Fitness and health aside, I am in Salt Lake City for the weekend and having a great time. I took Alaska Airlines as they offer affordable tickets and I literally had one of the best flight experiences I have ever had! First off, the plane was half empty so I got a whole aisle all to myself. Secondly, the flight is only an hour and a half long which is NOTHING compared to some of the international flights I have taken. A flight from San Francisco to Phuket (where my parents live) alone includes at least 1 stopover and is about 18 hours overall … it is pretty horrible. I have not got much planned as I have a lot of work to get done, but I want to try a few new restaurants while I am here. Salt Lake City has a surprisingly good variety of restaurants and some of the best Mexican food I have ever eaten.