Greetings from Las Vegas, my friend!

I love Vegas, and I’m so happy to be here for the IDEA World Fitness Convention. While this is my fifth time at the biggest fitness industry conference of the year, it’s my first time attending it in Las Vegas, because it’s always been in Southern California when I’ve gone.

Luckily we’re mostly indoors, but the highs have been around 115 degrees, so that’s pleasant. I’m staying in a room with my friend, Giselle, and we haven’t seen each other since the last IDEA in 2019, so it’s been great to catch up. Here we are on day one of the conference right before our first session …

I’m sharing some behind-the-scenes on Instagram, so catch me there, and I’ll share a recap next week of what I’m learning and doing. (And here’s a video about day one.)

In other news, our kitchen makeover is nearly complete, and our backsplash repairs were finished up on Monday. We’re just waiting on one more piece of hardware, and we need to order new light fixtures, before the project is totally done. It’s so nice to finally have white countertops– it brightens up the whole house. (Fun fact: We had brown-ish granite countertops in both our California house we owned and California townhouse we rented, and I’ve always wished for white — it just took about seven years to get it).

Before leaving for Vegas, I taught two classes, took Brady to the dentist, and even did some organizing I’ve wanted to do for a while. You know that one kitchen cabinet that collects a bunch of kid junk? We called it Brady’s “crafts cabinet,” but it was basically all of his school projects, crayons, trinkets and other things mixed into one, and it was an overflowing disaster zone. On Tuesday afternoon, I pulled everything out, trashed half of it, moved some things, and got it totally transformed. It felt great! 

And now let’s get to the regularly scheduled current faves of the week …

Current faves of the week

Fun

Our first annual Ballantyne Brawl Adult Field Day

We have a very fun group of neighborhood friends. And in case you missed it, I made a little video about this activity here.

Last weekend, we got together for our first annual field day. This event was totally put together by my sweet, crafty and creative friend, Andrea, and she hosted it at her house too. We played corn-hole, beer pong, flip cup, a silly balloon-in-a-cup game and a ball-racing game. And it was truly a good time for five couples, all using babysitters on a late Friday afternoon/evening.

I do love some friendly competition, and we split into two teams for this event, and we diligently kept score on the chalkboard.

I’m very happy to report that the team Dave and I were on came out on top as the champions! I’m fairly skilled at college drinking games, and so I definitely did my part to support our team. (Big shout out to my University of Florida degree for that!)

Andrea even had a trophy for us, which she is having engraved, so we can pass it along each year and make this an annual thing. 

(My shoes, my biker shorts, my sunglasses and my lipstick)

We had drinks and nibbles, and the snack highlight for me was definitely the frozen grapes. Why have I never thought to freeze grapes before? It’s such a tasty treat on a hot day! The second runner-up snack was the sweet/salty trail mix. Yum!

We listened to some old-school music popular back in our college days, wore casual clothes and laughed, joked, competed and had a blast.

After the official competition was complete, we went over to another friends’ house and had pizza for dinner before heading home, victoriously.

We’re so happy to have this fun group of great people in our lives, and I can’t say that enough. Also, we’re already looking forward to the next field day to see if we can keep our title as champs. I’ll show you a better picture of the trophy once it’s safely displayed on our mantel. 🙂 

Workouts

My workouts from last week

Here’s where I share a recap of my previous week of workouts. I share this to show you how I try to get diversity in my week, and how I always take a rest day (almost always). But remember, I do a little bit more than the average person, because I’m a group fitness instructor. 

Workouts from the week of 7/11

• Monday: Taught 1-hour barbell class, 9:45 a.m.
• Tuesday: Taught 1-hour barre class with light weights, 9:30 a.m.
• Wednesday: Taught 45-minute barre class with light weights, 5:30 p.m.
• Thursday: Taught 45-minute combo class with weights, 9:45 a.m.
• Friday: Taught 45-minute barbell class, 11:30 a.m.
• Saturday: Taught 45-minute barbell class, 9:45 a.m.
• Sunday:Took 90-minute tennis lesson, 11:30 a.m.

This past week of workouts was full! I taught my usual five classes, subbed an extra barbell class and did a tennis lesson. I needed a rest day, and I’ll be sure to get one or two this upcoming week after the conference.

Deal of the week …

New to clean beauty? Save 30 percent! If you’ve been wanting to try Beautycounter makeup or skincare, did you know you can get 30 percent off your very first order? You can! If you want some help figuring out what would work for you and your skin, reach out to me. Otherwise, head here to shop around and use the code CLEANFORALL30 for your first-timer savings. Thank you!

Best read of the week …

Here’s an article that I wanted to share with you:

How to make exercise fun and what to do if you don’t like exercise. This article from my favorite nutrition coaching company, Precision Nutrition, is so good. Maybe you love to exercise and you don’t need any words of motivation, but I’m sure you know someone who does not love exercise and does need some. This article is all about how to help yourself get moving a little, even if you never fall in love with official exercise. There are some super-useful real-life tips worth sharing with someone who needs a little boost to move more. And for me, it was another good reminder that not everyone is into fitness, and that’s okay.

Quote of the week …

Here’s a thought for you today: “Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.”

Blog archives of the week …

Let’s look back at two blog posts worth revisiting, including a recent one:

Nordstrom favorites. I had a good time scouring the Nordstrom website and finding all these recommendations to share with you, including what I bought for myself … “My top picks for women under $100 from the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale 2022.”

Breakfast. I haven’t made an oatmeal bake in far too long and pulling out this post reminded me I need to … “Make this cacao baked oatmeal for a week’s worth of breakfasts.”

That’s the post for today. As always, thank you for reading the blog, and have a wonderful weekend. Stay hydrated and stay moving! 🙂 

Questions of the day for YOU …

How was your week?

What are you up to this weekend?

Have you ever been to Las Vegas?