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Kayla Itsines Round 2 – Week 10

December 7, 2014
Kayla Itsines Round 2 - Week 10

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a lovely weekend and that your first week of December was a good one. This week has been a busy one as I am nearing the end of the semester (i.e. lots of assignments are now due). Let’s start off with my usual talk about my week’s workouts and nutrition before I end the post with a short recap of my week.

Kayla Itsines Round 2 – Week 10

You know, for some reason I had gotten the impression that week 10 of Kayla Itsines (read more about her bikini body guide by clicking here) wasn’t that bad. Why I got that impression, I do not know as it was so much harder than I imagined!!! I could only just about make it through one round of each circuit (for all 3 workouts this week; legs, arms, and abs). I had honestly though that I had gotten better at snap jumps but when I saw I had to do 50 of them for the abs workout, it almost killed me. I think I find it so hard because every part of your body is being used; arms, abs and legs. I am definitely miles stronger at doing commandos however, as those really did not scare me quite as much as they used to. How do you guys find snap jumps and commandos?

Oh gosh, I just started thinking about tomorrow and the legs workout I have to do. I wish I had a workout buddy who was also doing the Kayla Itsines bikini body guide!

Nutrition

The cold weather is really making me crave warm soups and SWEETS! I had an awful beef stew from campus during the week that I highly regretted and about a million mocha lattes although I did order just an espresso today to try and stop that trend. I have been making my baked zucchini fritters a lot as they are delicious, healthy and filling, and tried my hand at making a roasted cauliflower soup with cumin which was absolutely delicious. In terms of sweeties, I’ve been nibbling a lot on cookies that I had baked for one of my classes and macarons … you will find out how I got these macarons in my weekly recap 🙂   I think that perhaps I should revisit my article on how to kick sweet tooth and take my own advice!

Kayla Itsines Round 2 - Week 10

I also went to try Kin Khao, a Thai restaurant, with my friends and that was great. The portions were a lot smaller than I thought they’d be so for once I left a restaurant without feeling completely stuffed! For anyone in San Francisco who is looking for a more upscale and unique Thai restaurant then I would highly recommend Kin Khao. And do me a favor, order the rabbit green curry! Oh and get this – the drink in the photo is blue limeade. The drink is served to you blue and turns pink when the lime juice is added.

Macarons!

The most exciting part of my week was definitely when I attended a FRENCH MACARON BAKING CLASS this morning!!! I am planning on writing a recap post so for now I will leave you with this photo …

Kayla Itsines Round 2 - Week 10

Apart from attending Kin Khao, seeing the beautiful Christmas tree in Union Square, and the macaron baking class, my week was very busy and full of studying and work. I think that my goals for this next week will be to reduce the sugar I have been having and to make more soups, since my body is definitely starting to crave something other than my cold (albeit delicious) wraps and salads.

Kayla Itsines Round 2 - Week 10

How were your weekends? What workouts are you currently doing?

Honestly yours
Alice

P.S. Featured cover image is courtesy of @befitsmoothies on Instagram.

Fitness

Keeping accountable over the holidays with Fitbit

December 3, 2014

Fitbit? Like, that exercise tracker that celebrities like Ryan Reynolds and Kelly Ripa have?” 

Umm, yes and no! Fitbit is actually the brand name of several products including the Fitbit Flex (that Ryan Reynolds has) and quite a few others. These products help people track a whole bunch of things such as their activity, sleep and calories burned. The product I’m going to be talking about today, however, is the Fitbit Aria and how I think it can help keep you accountable over the holidays. 

Fitbit Aria

To give you some background information, the Fitbit Aria is a “wi-fi smart scale” that helps track your weight, body fat and BMI (I don’t think BMI is particularly important though). Since it is a wi-fi scale, before you use it you have to set it up so that it can link to your home wi-fi so that it sends over your information to your Fitbit online account whenever you weigh yourself. It also recognizes up to eight people and helps keep you motivated by earning cute badges such as weight loss badges, sending you achievement alerts and a weekly email about your measurements. Sounds so cool right?!

 I’m not going to lie; when I received my Fitbit Aria in the mail, I totally squealed. The packaging itself was beautiful and high-tech looking, so I couldn’t wait to open it up and see my beautiful new Fitbit Aria! I received a flashy black Fitbit Aria and yes, it is beautiful. Here’s a photo juuust in case you don’t believe me.

Fitbit Aria review

Fitbit Aria review

I have loved using it so much, especially since my former scale was getting pretty old and inaccurate. I normally don’t like weighing myself, but since the Fitbit Aria provides so much information, I actually look forward to stepping on the scale (except if I had a slice of pumpkin pie the night before, my weakness)! Although I think that keeping track of your progress through how you look is important, since I am already quite small, being able to keep track of my measurements is so important to keep myself accountable. Especially over the holiday season! Since I am a smaller girl, a lot of the time I’ll just be like “Ehh, I can totally pig out, it won’t affect me thaaat much.” And yes my dears, indulging here and there is perfectly healthy and balanced. But in America where you have Thanksgiving and then Christmas a month after, a whole month of indulgence can take its toll. And don’t even start on the holiday drinks at Starbucks and the holiday goodies that pop up EVERYWHERE …

“It keeps you accountable over the holidays”

The Fitbit Aria provides graphs and charts so that you can easily visualize your progress, which has been really useful in seeing when I have been indulging a bit too much. Sometimes it’s hard for us to tell ourselves to back off the pumpkin pie for a while, and I like that I have the Fitbit Aria to do this for me!

Fitbit Aria review

I wish I had the Fitbit Flex though as I think having the two products together is a perfect complement. Regardless, I do love my new Fitbit Aria and have found it really useful for making sure I stay accountable this holiday season. No one wants their hard work to go to waste, and I think the scale is a great way to ensure I maintain a balance between holiday indulgences, eating healthy foods and staying active. 

With that said, I think I am going to go for a workout! How do you #findyourfit?

Honestly yours,
Alice

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Fitbit through their partnership with POPSUGAR Select. While I was compensated to write a post about Fitbit, all opinions are my own.

Fitness, Health, Products I love

Kayla Itsines Round 2 – Week 9

November 30, 2014
Kayla Itsines Round 2 - Week 9

Happy Sunday night to those in California! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend and a wonderful Thanksgiving for all those who celebrated. I had such a wonderful couple of days and I am sad that they are over but thankful that they happened. My lovely boyfriend flew in from Salt Lake City on Wednesday night and we drove down to the Central Valley and spend the next few days visiting his family (mine are all in Thailand) and generally having a good time. We did some shopping, saw the new Hunger Games movie and ate lots of good food. I made my first pecan pie last night and it turned out really well although the top was a bit too brown.

Kayla Itsines Round 2 – Week 9

So, Kayla Itsines really kicks it up a notch with the workouts for week 9 of the bikini body guide. Like, it was kind of ridiculous and I only managed about 1 to 1 and a half round of the arms and legs workouts. The ab workout was comparatively easy and I managed 2 rounds of those exercises. What did I personally find hardest about the workouts? Definitely the crazy amount of plyometric moves in the leg workout and all of the push ups and mountain climber AND push up combos in the arm workout. Basically sobbed my way through the arm and leg workouts haha.

Did a 15 minute sprint HIIT workout in addition to some fast walking and was absolutely dripping in sweat. I am happy to report that although my foot was a little sore afterwards, it seems to have completely healed now. Woo hoo!

Kayla Itsines Round 2 - Week 9

Kayla Itsines Round 2 - Week 9

Feeling much more confident and strong 🙂

Nutrition

Hehe, sooooo Thanksgiving isn’t really a conducive environment for the most stellar nutrition. The first half of the week was fine but I definitely indulged a lot from Thursday to Sunday. But I do not mind; as you all know, my mantra is about being balanced and happy. I know that for the most part that I eat very well and mindfully so a few indulgent dinners will not hurt. All of the desserts were so good. For Thanksgiving dinner, we went to a very fancy restaurant and I had a huge lamb dish and shared some appetizers and dessert with my boyfriend and his dad. The next day we had a huge sushi dinner and the following night we had a huge Thai meal. Ahh, food coma heaven 😉

For some examples of what I have been loving to eat, click here and here 🙂

Being Happy and Balanced is what counts

That’s all from me, a short and sweet post. Love you all and thank you again for reading and caring about Honestly Fitness 🙂

What did you do for Thanksgiving?

Honestly yours,
Alice

P.S. Don’t forget to check out my Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram page 🙂