Liebster Award (x2!)

I’m going to be a terrible person and not pass this on, not because I wouldn’t like to, but because life (namely, school, which really is the basis of my life) has not been going so well lately (understatement of the year) and I need to redirect all my attention and focus to that, as my future is pretty much riding on this upcoming exam. (I know this sounds dramatic, but it’s unfortunately pretty true. :[ ) If anyone would like to answer questions though, feel free! :D They’re at the bottom of this post! (Let me know if you did; I’d love to read em’!)

I’d like to thank Annmarie (fitfoodiemama) and Niki (overwhelmedheart) for nominating me! :] They are fellow GGSA’s from Team Stellar! (I love our team. Everyone’s so incredibly supportive and awesome!) Go check em’ out! :D

Annmarie asked the following:

1. Where is your favorite place to travel and why?
I love going to Hong Kong for the shopping and the food. :D I pretty much save all the shopping I need to do specifically for trips to Asia, although finding my size over there can be difficult at times due to the presence of certain anatomical parts. I’m considered a size “L” or “XL” there, and sometimes, shopkeepers will just take a look at me and go, “We don’t have anything that fits you here; I’m sorry.” It’s hilarious.

2. What is the last good book you read?
I think the last book I read for leisure was over winter break: Divergent, by Veronica Roth. More specifically, I read the whole trilogy. I liked the first two a lot, but very much detested the last one.

3. What did you want to be when you were little?
I think I had a billion interests even then, so I think I fluctuated between wanting to be a vet, a doctor, and a piano teacher. I did actually end up teaching piano for a while and am [hopefully] on track to becoming a doctor somewhere in the future. I couldn’t go through with being a vet because I can’t stand the thought of having to put animals down. :[ I remedy this by volunteering at no-kill shelters (I actually live at one right now, har har) and my compromise to myself is that one day, when I’m done swimming out of my endless student debt, I’ll be able to help fund them.

4. What is your favorite way to be active?
Lifting weights and pole dancing!

5. What is your go-to breakfast?
It varies, but these days, I’ve been cycling through one of the following:

• Ginormous smoothie with kale, frozen fruits, juice or almond milk, and protein powder
• Cottage cheese with half a sliced banana, cinnamon, dried mango + 1 tbsp peanut butter
• Fage 0% Greek yogurt with granola from one of my billions of bags of granola + 1 hardboiled egg

6. If you could eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Salmon sashimi! <3

7. What are your hobbies outside of work/blogging?
Lifting weights, dancing (hula, Tahitian, pole, salsa), BJJ, archery, cooking.

8. Would you ever be able to go a day without your phone?
Yes indeed! I have it on eternal silence these days because I need to focus on studying.

9. Do you prefer to exercise in the morning or at night?
I prefer getting it done in the morning because then I’m already awake and energized. These days, however, I’ve been finding it extremely difficult to wake up early in the morning. :[

10. What is your favorite thing about blogging?
I like that it gives me something to look back on. I’m a huge sentimental packrat and this helps to remedy my having to save anything and everything [kindasorta].

Niki asked the following:

1. What is your favorite way to sweat?
It’s hard to choose just one. :[ Can I go with lifting weights, BJJ, pole, and/or aerial silks? :]

2. What song always gets you going?
Lindsey Stirling’s pieces always make me want to choreograph some kind of super pretty dance for pole. :] I get a kick out of the 90’s pop/boy band songs that the guys like to play in the gym, and I chose Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” as my pump-up song for my Wingate test. (In short, I’m pretty much all over the place.)

3. How do you make it work?
(I’m assuming that “it” is referencing how I’m currently living my life.) These days, I’m really not sure. I still sometimes feel as though the school accepted me by accident and that my being here is a total mistake. I’m working on this whole negative self-talk thing though, because it’s pretty darn destructive.

4. What is your mission in writing a blog?

• Recipe documentation of all the things I’ve made and plan to make
• Record of awesome memories with friends/family + my life in general
• Get more involved in the world of fitness/food-blogging
• Inspire others to live happy + healthier lives

The last two are my newest goals because until recently, this was pretty much a private blog where I dumped all my random thoughts/recipes).

5. Does your faith play a part in any of your fitness/health journey?
In a sense, it does. I’m a Seventh-Day Adventist, so there’s a big emphasis on healthy living/eating, which goes hand in hand with what I want to do with my life, so it works out quite well. :]

6. Morning person or night owl?
I am most definitely a night owl!

7. If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would it be?
I’m on a tropical kick right now because I’m really jealous of anyone that gets to go out and enjoy the sunlight (while I shut myself into windowless cubicles so as to curb my temptation to frolic in the wilderness), so I’m going to go with Costa Rica. (I’d also love to explore Colorado and Oregon at some point in my life. I hear Crater Lake is absolutely beautiful.)

8. How did you get started on your fitness journey?
I worked in a music library in undergrad and because I’m weird, I would sometimes read the course catalog for fun (if I didn’t feel like studying). Exercise Biology had some of the most interesting classes I’d ever seen, so after some negotiations with the deans from the two colleges I was under, I switched my major in my junior year and got the okay to obliterate my unit cap and take all the classes I wanted (as long as I graduated in 4 years). I loved the courses I took, and I also figured that I should probably stop being a disgrace to my major and actually partake in some form of physical activity.

I did Tahitian and hula and PE classes every now and then (tumbling! <3), but that was only twice a week, so I took up lifting weights. And kickboxing. Eventually, this also expanded to pole dancing, ballroom dancing, salsa, aerial silks, yoga, pilates, BJJ, Muay Thai… Long story long, I loved everything, so what I do now is pretty much governed by what I have around me (e.g. at school, I have weights, BJJ and Muay Thai; at home, I have Twirly Girls and groupon discounts for yoga/pilates/etc.). I’d do it all if I could, but there are only so many hours in a day. :[

9. If you could buy one thing (fitness-related) and money was no object, what would it be?
This is a difficult one. I’d really, really love to have a gymnastics room in my future house decked out in springboard, stallbars, and a bunch of tri-fold mats. I also really want a dance studio with aerial silks (+ all the equipment needed to rig it up and a ceiling high enough for that. And for my poles.).

10. What do you wish you could un-buy?
My 50mm pole, because I have really small hands, so grip is an issue (Platinum Stages’ portable poles are also really, really slippery; I have no idea why), so that money could have gone towards those gymnastics mats instead. le sigh.