Monthly Archives

October 2014

Fitness, Health

What is Fitmob? + Athleta Giveaway

October 20, 2014

This weekend, I had the good fortune of attending a Fitmob class and seeing for myself firsthand what Fitmob was all about. I first heard about Fitmob from my boss of all people, and I had been interested to learn more ever since. So …

What is Fitmob?

What is Fitmob?

What is Fitmob? Good question – Fitmob wanted a way to help motivate people and make fitness fun again! They have a really cool community based approach to fitness that let people workout both indoors and outdoors within their own neighborhood. They essentially are creating fitness communities within San Francisco and holding great workout classes for people to attend! It’s a very innovative approach and so on point, as most people enjoy working out with others and not alone. Fun fact, Tony Horton is one of Fitmob’s co-creators. Yep, the P90X guy, how cool is that?!

My experience with Fitmob

If you go on the Fitmob website, you are prompted to enter your zip code and are then brought to a page where you can browse through a bunch of different workout classes. I decided to try a class called ‘UrbanKick’ this saturday because I absolutely love kickboxing.

 review of fitmob training in san francisco

 Fitmob Headquarters; easy to spot!

I went with a friend (double the fun!) and unfortunately, we could not do UrbanKick because there was no power in the Fitmob HQ, and the door was locked! The instructor, Justin, was quick thinking and asked if we would all be alright with going to a park nearby and doing a bootcamp style workout. I did not mind although I asked if we could do a more cardio focused bootcamp since I had done a Kayla Itsines circuit the other day, and he was very accommodating. The workout itself was great! We started out with a warmup consisting of high knees, jogging on the spot and sprints (shudder) and moved on to some leg work (think squats, squats, and more squats!) and then finished up with some core work. It was definitely a good workout although the park was pretty muddy and I got my new Asics all muddy!!! I wish I had worn my old Nikes haha, but oh well. Justin was such a fun instructor and kept us all laughing despite wanting to yell obscenities at him when he made us do jumping lunges (they are HARD!).

review of fitmob training in san francisco

 Me and my lovely friend, Amy

review of fitmob training in san francisco

 Me and Justin, our instructor!

Although I do prefer doing my own workouts, I think Fitmob is definitely something to try if you want to be motivated and to have fun whilst working out. There was a great community feel and everyone was very friendly and welcoming.

Athleta Giveaway

Onto the fun stuff … giveaway 🙂 Who doesn’t like the chance to win free goodies? And this is a truly good one as you get the chance to win a $25 gift card to Athleta! Athleta is a chic brand that sells activewear such as yoga pants and lots of other fun workout clothes. All you have to do is follow the instructions below, easy peasy!

EDIT: Although it is not required, I would love for you to leave me a blog post of what you answered for the question. I was supposed to make that option ‘Leave a Comment on the Blog’ as opposed to ‘Answer a Question’. You don’t have too, but I would truly appreciate it 🙂

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hope you all enjoyed this post. I am so happy I finally tried out Fitmob and I hope you try it out soon too!

Honestly yours,
Alice

Special thanks to Sverve on behalf of Fitmob for sponsoring this post & giveaway. All views remain my own unbiased opinions.

Fitness

Kayla Itsines Round 2 – Week 4

October 19, 2014

I cannot believe it has already been a month since I jumped back onto the Kayla Itsines train! Although the last two weekends have seen me indulging a bit much, I can see that my arms and core are much tighter, and that my clothes are fitting better. I decided not to weigh myself because it is coming up to be ‘that time’ of the month and because I had more food than I should’ve this weekend. Oops! I do not want to discourage myself so I will weigh myself again in a few weeks and focus on the physical changes more. I will have to be more active in ensuring that I do not indulge every weekend. Every few weekends sure, but I want to give my all during my Kayla Itsines challenge.

Kayla Itsines Round 2 – Week 4

The rest of the week food-wise was fine though. I am obsessed with having brown rice in my salads as it makes them much heartier and gives a great texture. I met up briefly with a good friend of mine this morning and we got some green smoothies! Needless to say, I made a custom smoothie and while it was very healthy, the taste was not so fun. I don’t know why the photo is so small! If you go to my Facebook page, you can see a bigger sized version of the photo 🙂


Kayla Itsines Round 2 - Week 4

Fitness wise, I feel SO much stronger! My big weakness for this week was previously the push ups with mountain climbers, and although I am still not 100% at them, I was able to do much more in a row than I could two weeks ago. Ahh, progress is so satisfying! I had the most ridiculous experience at the gym on Friday by the way guys. I normally always workout in the group exercise room at the gym because it tends to be less full and there is more space to workout. There was thing young guy (guessing 14 or 15) who I kid you not, was facetiming his girlfriend. He kept doing a few burpees every couple of minutes and saying ‘I love you’ constantly too. I tell you, I was SO frustrated!! Plus I forgot my headphones so I could hardly drown the guy out. Ugh. Sorry for the tangent, just had to share with you. Who comes to the gym to Facetime people and do 30 burpees in the space of 20 minutes? Thank goodness I look like such a bad ass doing my Kayla Itsines workouts (might be exaggerating heehee). Especially with my new ASICS 😀

Kayla Itsines Round 2 - Week 4

That’s all from me! I have to get back to doing work and studying, sigh. Who else here is a graduate student? Can we complain together please?!

Keep your eyes peeled for an exciting post tomorrow which may involve free stuff … wait, what? 😉 

Honestly yours,
Alice xx

P.S. Don’t forget to subscribe to Honestly Fitness to get early insider scoop as to what is happening tomorrow!

Health, Products I love

5 Healthy Foods I am Loving!

October 15, 2014
top 5 healthy foods I am loving

For the record, in this post I am not telling you that you NEED to be eating these foods. I am simply sharing what 5 foods I like and always seem to be eating, as a way to share their nutritional benefits with you and to inspire you to include these into your diet. Some of you may already know and eat all of these, but I am sure there are a few out there who haven’t tried them or do not eat them regularly. And here at Honestly Fitness, I want to help everyone 🙂

1. Brown rice

brown rice is a really healthy food and a great source of carbohydrates

 Brown rice is such a powerhouse of a grain. I like eating it because it has more texture than white rice, is a good source of fiber (de-bloating, ahoy!) and is a complex carbohydrate. As such, it helps to keep you fuller for longer. It is also full of vitamins and minerals such as iron (important for the ladies), vitamin B-6, and magnesium. 

 2. Strawberries

strawberries are a really healthy food and low GI

 Okay so I truly hope all of you reading this post have tried strawberries before! Strawberries are such tasty gems of a fruit, and very healthy for you too. They are also full of vitamins and minerals, are low in calories, and has a lower sugar content than many other fruits.

  3. Oatmeal

oatmeal is a healthy food and makes for a great breakfast

Mmm, this was most certainly an everyday staple during the winter when I lived in England and still something I eat at least twice a week. Not only are they a comforting and heath breakfast, they are also high in iron, high in fiber, and low in sugar. I normally have rolled oats with some skimmed milk and berries when I do have it for breakfast, and it honestly keeps me full and satisfied for hours. 

And yes, the oats in the photo on the left are the ones I use to make my oatmeal 🙂

  4. Asparagus

asparagus is a healthy food and has a lot of fiber

 Hehe, okay so my love affair with asparagus took a while, but now I am madly in love with it! I found that baking asparagus with a small amount of olive oil, pink himalayan salt and black pepper created a mouthwatering dish. Like most vegetables, they are low in calories, but they are also high in fiber (seeing a connection here?) and have a variety of minerals and vitamins including potassium, vitamin A, vitamin C, iron and more. I dare you to not like asparagus after making it the way I like it 😉

5. Coconut water

coconut water is a healthy food and packed with electrolytes

 Having lived in Asia my whole life, I was surrounded by fresh coconuts and enjoyed their delicious flesh and coconut water almost daily. Since moving first to England, and then to the US, I have been pretty disappointed in many of the commercial brands of coconut water … they do not taste like fresh coconut juice! I always order a coconut if I see it on a restaurant menu. Finally after endless searching, I found a bottled coconut water that has my seal of approval; Harmless Harvest coconut water! It tastes JUST like the real thing. Some of their waters are pink, which I would love some more explanation about, as I have never had a fresh coconut with pink coconut water … Anyway, coconut water is fabulous because it has a bunch of vitamins and minerals, and is great to have if you are craving something sweet. Have it in moderation though, as it is fairly high in sugar.

 [Tweet “5 Healthy Foods I am Loving! Have you tried them?”]

 

Let’s see, today I have had 3 out of the 5 foods I just posted, haha! Oh, I truly am a creature of habit. I love my healthy lifestyle, and I love these healthy foods. What are your favorite 5 healthy foods?

Honestly yours,
Alice xx