Great Start To My Week, Kona Kase Review & Happiness

Good evening Beautiful,

Happy Monday! Monday, Monday, Monday! Monday is my favourite day because for some reason, it flyyyyyyys by! I had a good day today! I’m not sure why, originally when I woke up I felt super productive, rested, and ready to take on the world! Then I got to work, it was quiet, the music was low and the weather was all grey and gloomy. I really thought that I’d much prefer to be sitting on the couch, wrapped in my quilt, reading a great novel (or finishing The Wealthy Barber). Unfortunately wanting to be home on the couch reading isn’t grounds for leaving work early, so I was at work all day. It didn’t turn out to be too bad, I got a lot of stuff done AND I got to sip away at my tea while I was at it.

I was determined to not let this week start out like last week, so at 1:30pm, I made my way up into the not-so-busy gym to do a workout with weights instead of running. When I was training for my half, I never did weights and lost some muscle mass for sure. When I wasn’t running as much, I got my muscle mass back, so I’d like to 1. Maintain my muscle mass and 2. Potentially build some more! Like always, I started with my big muscles first, chest and back.

Chest Press Machine, 55lbs, 2 sets, 10 reps
Pec Dec Machine, 55lbs, 2 sets, 10 reps
(I alternated these two since they are beside each other in the gym)

Lat Pull Down Cable Machine, 60lbs, 2 sets, 10 reps
Standing One-Arm Cable Row, 30lbs, 2 sets, 10 reps
(I also alternated these two since they are beside each other in the gym)

Then I went and did my shoulders. I love working on my shoulders, I think it’s so good looking when women have nicely shaped arms and shoulders!

Lateral Raise Machine, 50lbs, 2 sets, 10 reps in set 1, 7 reps in set 2
Shoulder Press Machine, 30lbs, 2 sets, 10 reps in both sets
(I alternated!)

Then I did the challenge that was put on by the girls over at Go Fit Gals. I’m taking part in their LBD Challenge (little black dress challenge) and they had a lower body blast for today’s challenge which looks like this:

25 crossover lunges
25 glute presses
15 crossover lunges
15 glute presses
10 crossover lunges
10 glute presses

AND I was supposed to do this twice through but I didn’t read that part and only did it once. I think that it might be a good thing because my legs are still a bit wobbly when I’m walking up stairs. I also did a set of bicep curls with 15lbs dumbbells in between sets of the lunges/glute presses. After that I was getting sweaty (finally) but I knew if I pushed it too hard I’d be crippled for days so I stopped there and went to stretch and foam roll my legs. Good news! My legs foam roll MUCH easier than they used to – I’m getting the kinks out finally! Haha, it feels soooo nice.

If you’re interested in more information about the LBD Challenge, you can find it here! Registration is closed for this 6 week period, but keep checking back often because they hold them multiple times throughout the year!

A few weeks ago I received a message on Twitter from the lovely guys over at Kona Kase asking if I’d like a free Kona Kase to review. Heck yes I did! I love reviewing and giving my honest feedback about products. Today I got my Kona Kase in the mail and I couldn’t be more excited to share with you what’s in it and how I feel about it!

Here’s the contents of the box.

I loved it! I know many of you subscribe to Bulu Box, which is somewhat similar in terms of what they say they offer you. Unfortunately I wasn’t a big fan of Bulu Box after receiving two boxes and I cancelled my subscription. A lot of the stuff in the Bulu Box I would never use but the Kona Kase totally lived up to my expectations in terms of what I thought I was originally getting in my Bulu Box (are ya with me still?). Basically, every single thing in the Kona Kase I will/want to use! The first thing that popped out at me was the lovely hand written card from Taylor at Kona Kase! Such great penmanship… J

There was about 9 different products in the box, and if you see any that you have questions about, feel free to email me and I can let you know what it is!

The Kona Kase is $15 per month and I think that’s really good value! Considering I’ve basically thrown out a whole box of stuff from other boxes I’ve tried, this is great because I want to use everything!  If you’re interested in signing up for Kona Kase, click here and register!! I highly recommend it!

There has been a lot of talk about happiness lately. I read a post from one of my favourite blogs today, The Paleo Project, about how 10% of your happiness is dependent on your career, income and living situation. 50% is based on genetics, meaning you could have everything go wonderfully right in your life and because of genetics you can either still be miserable or you could have everything go wrong and you'd still be really happy with your life! 40% of your happiness is up to you. You need to decide what makes you happy, and you need to do it and live it. You can find the post here.

Then I was reading my friend Molly's blog and she's started the 30 Days of Happiness Challenge, where you share 1 thing per day for 30 days that you're grateful for. Another friend of mine, Shelley, has been writing about the 30 Days of Happiness for a while. It's been very inspiring to read so much on happiness and how it's up to you to be happy. It definitely makes me think about what makes me happy... I want to share it with you too, so you can read Shelley's blog here, and Molly's blog here, and maybe follow the 30 Days of Happiness Challenge for yourself! Let me know if you do :).

And one of the last reminders about my giveaway! 4 different gluten free baking mixes that I’ve used and love! You can check out the detailshere and enter!

What's one thing your grateful for?

Stay sweet.
xoxo