Happy Friday, friends!

I am here for one massive life update for you. We’re talking social media/blog updates, fitness lately, food lately, and some scenes from my personal life. Let’s get right to it.

Blog and Social Media Updates

If you’ve been a part of my Fitness & Feta newsletter in the past and/or a participant in any of my past blog challenges, you should have received an email blast from me last Saturday announcing some of the exciting changes I’m working on for Fitness & Feta. Basically I’m working really hard behind the scenes on my rebrand and new website, Achieve with Athena. I decided to push out my new email subscription list prior to the new site going live, and the emails will be where I’ll share more of the day-to-day stream of consciousness, more frequent workouts that won’t be on the blog, and of course insider info, discounts, and giveaways that you’ll have access to before anyone else. I’ll also be letting my email subscribers have the opportunity to provide input and feedback on the look, feel, and ease of navigation on the new site before it goes live.

To be a part of my insider group, please subscribe here. Don’t worry, I would never overflow your inboxes with an email every day, but you will probably hear from me around twice a week. I’m shooting for something motivational weekly on Mondays and a pump day workout on Wednesdays at least every other week for consistency. I’m also trying to bring a form of Friday Favorites back via the email group!

As far as social media goes, all my channels have remained the same for now! I’ve started posting a Try It Thursday series on both Facebook and Instagram, do if you are looking for new fitness ideas, follow along there. Another form of social media that I’m completely obsessed with lately is Snapchat! Snapchat is absolutely becoming one of my favorites, and I’ve been sharing a lot of behind the scenes stuff there, including insight into mindful eating and quick and easy recipe creation in real time. It’s also a great way to get a behind the scenes look at the raw and uncut daily stuff. I enjoy following some of my favorite bloggers on Snapchat because it gives me a better idea of what they are like in real life!

Happening next week: Snapchat Tuesday Takeover!
My gal Sherri from Fun, Fit, Flavor and I are actually going to be hosting our first Tuesday Takeover on Snapchat next week on the 23rd! We’ll be swapping Snapchat accounts to give each other’s followers a day in the life of a fellow healthy living blogger.

To follow along, go download the Snapchat app, go to Add friends, and search me by fitnessandfeta and Sherri by funfitflavor. Then add us! If anyone is interested in doing any future Tuesday Takeovers on my Snapchat, shoot me a message at info@achievewithathena.com.

Fitness Updates

After Tim and I got back from our honeymoon, I started doing the Superheroine Fitness program again. I got through the first two phases from October-December before starting to feel bored with the plan and stopping it. I took a brief hiatus over the holidays from longer strength workouts and instead focused on simply going heavy during shorter metabolic stuff. After the New Year, I wrote myself a new strength program and have been enjoying it! I feel like I’m finally back into a groove with my lifts and feeling strong again, which is awesome. I’ve been prioritizing my strength sessions and have been pretty consistent about getting 3 days a week in.

My main other forms of fitness right now are spinning and yoga, so nothing really out of the ordinary! I recently added a third class to my weekly teaching schedule and am teaching the 5pm spin class on Fridays at the Y. I actually really enjoy this time slot because it’s a great way to start the weekend, but it’s not so late into the night that it cuts into any potential Friday night plans. I feel like I’m getting more confident as an instructor and improving at planning classes, which is one of my goals for the year.

Aside from my own class time, I still love getting to my friend Emily’s 6am Wednesday spin class and taking other spin classes via ClassPass when my schedule allows for it. I’ve scaled back big time on the number of classes I take through ClassPass during the week, but I’m still aiming for one yoga class a week along with the occasional social sweat date somewhere else. I have a couple of new studio reviews that will be coming your way soon!

Finally, my last fitness update for you guys is that I am pursuing a new certification! Everybody Fights is opening a new location at Gym It in Watertown, and I am currently underway with getting their BoxFiit cert so I can hopefully teach classes there. Everything is done online and submitted via video, so I am liking the go at your own pace aspect of the certification. Stay tuned for more updates on this!

Food Updates

As far as food goes, after we got home from our honeymoon, my nutrition was ALL over the place. Honestly, Tim and I kind of just settled into eating whatever and whenever, because hey, we got married and we didn’t have to plan anything. Charcuterie for dinner? Yes, please! Out to eat all the time? Sure!

Then the holidays hit. Of course I’m not beating myself up that my nutrition wasn’t 100% spot on, but by the time Christmas came and went, I wasn’t feeling very well and think I put on a little weight. I’m not 100% sure since I don’t weigh myself, but my clothes just weren’t fitting right. Now we are participating in our CSA again, and I’ve been working on some more mindful eating strategies. I think being a little more honest with myself about my nutrition, along with getting back into a steady strength routine, is just helping me feel like myself again!

Life Updates

Finally, here are some pics and snippets from life over the past three-four months. Just the highlights!

Mom’s 60th birthday party:

Thanksgiving:

Annual Portsmouth getaway:

Christmas parties times a million:

Christmas Eve:

Christmas Day:

New Year’s:

Super fun dinner party:

Healthy eating party:

Blogger dinner at The Social in Newton:

Bachelorette for three of the gym girls:

My Galentine Buddy Exchange package from Tali. So fun!

First married Valentine’s Day weekend:

And that’s that! Moving forward, I’m still not sure where these types of life updates will fit into the new plan for my emails versus blog posts, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out as I go along. As always, thanks for sticking with me through my journey!