BEEP BEEP BEEP

That is the sound of my alarm when I wake up at approximately 6:15 every weekday (well 6:10 if I have to shower)...

So today I have decided to write about my daily routine! Just recently we have started High School Water Polo, so I will interpret that into my crazy (not really) routine. Let's get started!

I usually wake up at around 6:15, like previously mentioned. Somedays, when I actually shower (which is every eight days - no just kidding :) more like eleven), I wake up at around 6:10. Usually my dog greets me and tries to get me to rub her tummy even though I really got to get moving. Next, I get dressed, make my bed, brush my hair -occasionally-, and pack my school bag. I then walk downstairs and make some breakie. Usually I have toast or cereal, but sometimes, my mum makes us bacon or eggs!

My Mum's Type of Breakfast
Photo Courtesy of: Midnight Snack Beast

My Type of Breakfast
Photo Courtesy of: Gallery Hip

After breakfast, I make my lunch which usually consists of a sandwich (unless we have leftovers), chips, crackers, fruit snacks, juice, and cookies. I am supposed to save some of my lunch for a pre-swimming or water polo snack, but usually I just get too hungry. Why don't I pack more? Nobody knows. My friend, Brianna, also eats all my cookies, so that just adds to my hunger. After making my lunch, I brush my teeth and pack my swim bag. My sister and I run-off to school, in theory, at 7:05, but it usually turns out to be 7:07 which annoys the bajeezus out of me.

Once I get to school, I go through my normal school schedule which alternates between four classes every day. At 2:25, I run out to the curb to get picked up by my sister. Even though I know that I already ate all of my snacks at lunch, I check my lunch bag just to make sure that no food had magically appeared. When we get to water polo, I change and help set up the pool. The girls like to pretend that we can't put the goals in the pool because they are too heavy, but we are actually stronger than most of the boys. After water polo, we go home, I unpack my swim bag and my lunch bag, and then I start on my homework (lies... I actually watch Mako Mermaids while eating my peanut butter on bread and chocolate milk recovery snack). Once I am finished eating, I ACTUALLY start on my homework. Dinner is ready pretty soon after that, which is awesome since eating is my second favorite hobby (water polo is obviously my first... duhhh).

After dinner, I get ready for tomorrow, and sometimes even pick out an outfit. Next, I usually eat a huge bowl of chocolate ice cream and watch even more Mako Mermaids! Sometimes I like to picture that I am a mermaid myself...

Me With My Mermaid Friends
Photo Courtesy of: Coming Soon
Photo Edit Courtesy of: Me

I usually fall asleep at around 9:15 - 9:30 which is a lot earlier than most. I hope that you enjoyed my brief overview of my day and comment down below what your favorite Netflix show is. Stay tuned for more posts coming soon!

News Update

Hey guys! I hope that everyone is enjoying their February Break. It seems like there have been a lot of breaks recently which is obviously really good - more time for water polo! Haha just joking, more like more time for swimming. Ugh... Anyway, since it is break, I thought I would write about what's going on right now, past, and future.

So first things first, a few weekends ago, we had our ODP training weekend. It was basically the same set-up as the two camps, but only the people that made it went. I thought that I played a lot better at this camp and demonstrated my skills. At this camp, we did a lot more scrimmage, so it was easier for me and my sister to show-off our swimming skills. Also, we housed two girls from Colorado who were so fun to hang out with, and thankfully, they are on my team!

The next thing on our agenda was our UT High School 3A State Championships that took place on Friday and Saturday at BYU. Our team dominated, beating everyone by at least 400 points. Our team broke a few of the state records for the relays, and two individual events - the 100 breast and 100 back. Overall, everybody swam really well. You can check out our team's results here!

Park City High School State Team
Photo Courtesy of: Salt Lake Tribune

My sister, mum, and I are all leaving for St. George tomorrow for ANOTHER swim meet. Yay for me. This one is called the UT Senior State Championships. This is the championships for club teams, and swimmers that can't go to the 14 and under UT SC State Championships. I have never even to the Senior one but supposedly, its super fun. It is a prelims-finals meet, so you swim in the morning and try to make it back in the top three heats for the afternoon. At the end of the meet, there will be an amazing pool party with a foam cannon! That is basically the whole reason why I am going.

Foam Cannon
Photo Courtesy of: Wes 

In 3 weeks, my sister and I are flying off to Riverside, California for our ODP Nationals. This is what all of the ODP camps have been preparing us for. I am super excited to go, for I haven't been in a tournament in so long. I hope our team does well, for we have a few tricks up our sleeves.

Finally, we just received some exciting news a couple weeks ago. My parents surprised my sister and I and told us that we were going to be going to Costa Rica for spring break!! I am so excited to go surfing, hiking, zip lining, and many more exciting activities on the Osa Peninsula. We will be staying there for ten days, and I just know that it's going to be the trip of a lifetime. We will be going with another family as well which will be an amazing experience.

Osa Peninsula
Photo Courtesy of: Mar 1 Sport Fishing

Anyway, I hope that this wasn't too boring for you all to read only about me. Tell me about one of your Central America vacations in the comments! Stay tuned for more posts coming soon!

Keep Your Bod Feeling Like God

Hey party people, what's up. So, today I was thinking about how much my body was sore from previous swimming and water polo practices and decided to post something on how to keep your body feeling great! The most injury prone areas on my body are my knees, back, and shoulders. These tend to get overworked from the activities that I do, so I have to replenish them with a few exercises. The following exercises were taken and taught from various personal sources, and they work great for me! The following picture is of me procrastinating:

Photo Courtesy of: Me

Knees

To start off, we will talk about the needs for knees! I am just full of funny puns right now. If your knees tend to get kinks and pain in them like mine do, then these exercises and stretches will do you wonders! What most people don't understand is that it's not always a problem with your actual knee that is causing you pain, but more with your IT bands. You need to make sure that these are loosening them up with either a foam roller or a massage.

Stretching My IT Bands with a Foam Roller
Photo Courtesy of: Me

Anyway, the first actual knee exercise is the sitting exercise. The purpose of this is to get your glutes (butt muscles) and hip muscles stronger so less pressure can be taken off of your knees. To start off, you need to have a chair directly behind you. In this exercise, you are basically sitting down on a chair and standing back up again. Start with your knees shoulder-width apart. You are going to bend down until your bum barely touches the chair. As soon as you feel it touch, you bring it right back up. Basically, you are sitting down and standing up again. The key tip for this exercise is to make sure that your knees don't go past your feet because this can cause unwanted pressure inside the knee cap. You should do 10 reps of this exercise maybe once a day, depending on the condition of your knees.

Sit & Stand Stretch
Photo Courtesy of: Me

Back

Side View of Prayer's Stretch

The next stretch is for your back. After a few weeks, my back tends to get really tight which allows for several knots and kinks to appear. In order to release this tension, I do the prayer stretch. Many of you have probably heard of it before, since it is a popular yoga stretch. You want to make sure that you are doing it on a soft surface, so there isn't any pressure on your knees. The first thing to do is to get down on your knees and then drop your tailbone down to the ground. Next you will reach your hands out as far as you can in front of you and press down. You can try reaching your hands to the different sides as well for a good stretch on the sides of your back. I would recommend to do this stretch whenever your back is feeling tight.

Front View of Prayer's Stretch
Photo Courtesy of: Me

Shoulders


The shoulders are probably one of the most injury-prone areas on one's body. They are very complex and take a while to heal without proper care. I wouldn't recommend doing too much for your shoulders, for if they really start to hurt, you should go see a physical therapist (the link is a physical therapy place that I attend sometimes). I have plenty of experience from previous shoulder injuries from swimming, and they are not fun to deal with! A stretch that I would say helps a little is the double triangle. For me, it seems to release some of the tension, and hopefully it does for you, too! You can do this stretch either kneeling, sitting, or standing. Basically, you put the back side of each of your hands against your back and press. You should feel a stretch in the crease between your two shoulder muscles.

Double Triangle Stretch
Photo Courtesy of: Me

Well, I hope that this helped you in some way, shape, or form! Stay tuned for more posts coming soon!

My Thoughts on ODP: Part 2

This post is just a wee bit late, since what I am talking about took place last year... haha get it. Oh wait, never mind. It actually happened in the beginning of January! I guess it's not that late after all!

Anyway, on the fine weekend from January 3-4, my sister, my dad, and I traveled to the amazing town of Albuquerque. Just kidding.  I hate Albuquerque. It's pretty much a drug town. Everywhere you look, people are exchanging things in brown paper bags... and I'm pretty sure it isn't lunch. We stayed in this weird part of town. There was so little people walking around (besides the druggies), that I thought we were in the middle of nowhere! Turns out that we were staying in downtown Albuquerque. I know, shocker, right!?

What People Think of Albuquerque
Photo Courtesy of: Trip Advisor

The Reality of Albuquerque
Photo Courtesy of: Wikipedia 

So, right when we got there, we were super hungry since it was right around noon. We went to this restaurant called Tucanos which is a good Brazilian grill. The buffet/salad part wasn't the best, but then my dreams came true. They had a bunch of waiters walk around with these long sticks of meat that they would cut off onto your plate. There were all different types of meat being served as well as vegetables and brown-sugar glazed pineapple! It was amazing.

Even though the food before the camp was the best part, the camp itself was still fun. There was a lot more space than there was at the Salt Lake camp, so that was a plus. We learned a lot of new skills which was also fun. After the Saturday camp session, we all went to Kelly's which is a fun little pub. Right after that, Clark and Joe (who were boys from the camp) came with us to Olo Frozen Yogurt. I basically filled my whole yogurt cup with sour gummy worms. Olo was actually the place where they filmed parts of Walking Dead which is a show about drugs (surprise, surprise: drugs in Albuquerque!). The following video is Joe being super cool at Olo, the frozen yogurt place.

A few days after the camp, we got our results back. Fortunately, Alandra (my sister) and I made the team! We were very ecstatic, and just recently ordered our team gear. It's funny because I actually just got back from the third team training camp a few hours ago, but we can save that story for another time. Stay tuned for more posts coming soon!