Kayla Itsines Round 2 – Week 6

November 2, 2014

Happy second day of November everyone! The temperature has definitely started to cool down in San Francisco and honestly, I do not mind at all. San Francisco is not equipped to deal with hot weather and I was finding it really hard to sleep during our brief heatwave. I am currently in Salt Lake City for the weekend (visiting the boyfriend) and it is starting to feel really cold here. My nose does this weird thing where it feels like it’s been punched if it gets ‘hit’ by a cold gust of wind. That only happens when it gets to a certain temperature!

Kayla Itsines Round 2 – Week 6

Okay enough moaning about the weather, onto health and fitness. I weighed myself a few days ago and I have maintained my 7 pound weight loss which is awesome. The abs and arms workout for Kayla Itsines this week were not as bad as I thought they were going to be; which means I have gotten stronger! The leg workout was crazy though. I was really proud of myself because I pushed myself incredibly hard on Friday to complete as many exercises as possible, and my legs are actually still sore! The leg workout this week was full of big explosive plyometric moves such as tuck jumps, jump lunges, and split squats (to name a few). I feel like I have hit a bit of a plateau unfortunately. Eagerly awaiting abs, haha!

I’ve been having a lot of wraps this week with that yummy wrap I told you all about last week, which has been a nice change of pace from the pita wraps I was eating. I went to this amazing Japanese BBQ place in San Mateo on Monday called Gyu-Kaku and loaded up on protein for the week 😛 Has anyone else ever been? I am so obsessed. And this weekend, my boyfriend and I had some fun dining experiences. We went to get Japanese food at Tsunami on Saturday night and got an amazing spread of sashimi, sushi, ahi tuna poke, gyoza, miso soup, and mussels. I LOVE Japanese food!

And this morning we tried out a breakfast hot spot called Penny Ann’s Cafe. My boyfriend and I have heard that it was really popular and had won a lot of awards. Since it is right by where he lives, we decided to check it out. Be prepared to wait if you do! We arrived at 10:30am and had a 45 minute wait for a table of two. Worth it though! I got the pork chili verde skillet with sourdough toast, which was absolutely delicious, and my boyfriend cot the corned beef hash omelette with hot cakes. The hot cakes were really moist and fluffy … I am glad I only had a few bites of his and not one for myself! I didn’t manage to get any photos because we had already dug right into our food before I remembered. Sorry!

How was your weekend? What do you usually do if you hit a plateau?

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway with Harmless Harvest so you can win some delicious coconut water! Enter here

Honestly yours,
Alice

Fitness, Sunday Summary

Sunday Summary – Kayla Itsines Week 11

May 11, 2014

Kayla Itsines Week 11

I literally spent Tuesday through Saturday with the stiffest and most sore legs I have EVER HAD!!! For those who follow me on my bikini body guide journey, you will know that I have now completed week 11 of Kayla Itsine’s bikini body guide .. yay! On Tuesday, I did my leg workout and although I have done it once before in week 9, I truly pushed myself to the max this time. Hence the stiff legs for almost the entire week! It was pretty ridiculous, every night I would go to bed thinking ‘okay, so tomorrow they won’t be sore anymore’ and then wake up with equally sore legs -__-

I love the workouts for week 11 though. They are so intense and really make you realise just how strong you are. I have to say, the ab workout for this week has been my absolute favorite of the entire guide. It hits every part of my abs and makes them feel oh so tight and toned afterwards.

The arm workout is great too, although I have much more of a love/hate relationship with it. I did approximately 157 push up variations when I did my arm workout for this week, so hopefully that gives you some indication as to how ridiculous it is. But hey, at least now I can do that many push ups!! I normally do my workouts in the group exercise room at the gym, but for some reason an unannounced class was being held in there when I arrived on Friday, so I had to do it in front of all the cardio machines. A little embarrassing to say the least but I did look pretty bad ass doing all those push up variations, so it didn’t really matter in the end.

In other news, I was doing SO WELL on my #HFsugarfreemay until this weekend. It was my boyfriend’s graduation and so I wanted to bake him some yummy treats which inevitably ended up with me tasting these yummy treats too .. oops. Regardless, I think trying to stick to sugar free as much as feasibly possible as it is really quite helpful. It made me stop putting honey in my tea, stevia/brown sugar in my coffee and just made me think more about whether I really wanted that dark chocolate or not 😉 I am all about balance so having sugar/sweets/ice-cream or whatever once in a while is alright as long as you are being mindful about your choices and not completely gorging on whatever your indulgence is. With that in mind, I will leave you with a photo of my boyfriend and I at his graduation, haha.

So all in all, it was a great week and I am so excited (but kind of sad) to be finishing Kayla Itsines bikini body guide next week. Be excited for that next week and also for a really, REAAALLLYYY exciting post on Tuesday. Trust me, you will not want to miss it!

Honestly yours,
Alice

Fitness, Health, Sunday Summary

Sunday Summary: Kayla Itsines Week 9

April 27, 2014

What a wonderful week this was! I hope the same goes for all of you lovely people too.

Kayla Itsines Week 9

I have now finished week 9 of Kayla Itsine’s bikini body workout and OMG .. I do not understand how I got through it. Weeks 9-12 differ from the first 8 weeks because now you incorporate 1-1 HIIT session (for an explanation of what HIIT is, click here) and the strength circuits are now fully targeted on certain parts of the body. It is such an amazing feeling to have such sore legs, arms and abs every single week. You get through one week and you think ‘surely next week, I won’t be as sore’ but you are, every single time. I love it, and I cannot wait to show you all my progress at the end of the 12 weeks. It may not be as dramatic as some of the others, but I am noticing the difference, and that makes me happier than you could know.

Whilst I am on this fitness thread, I went to a fabulous spring open house held by Mint Studio’s in San Francisco! I am planning on writing a dedicated post to the event, so for now I will give you all a quick recap. Mint Studio’s offers pilates, barre and yoga classes, and were offering free classes for the night, and had partnered with vendors such as Project Juice, Ensoma and Premier Nutrition to bring a host of complimentary goodies. I was particularly enamored with the healthy juices offered by Project Juice and definitely plan to try more! I tried my first everrr pilate’s reformer class and now I know what all the fuss is about … my abs are SORE, even now two days later, and it was such a fun and new way to workout. Can’t wait to try it again. Who wants to go with me?!

This photo is from Mint Studio’s website and is an example of the hardcore Pilate’s Reformer class I did

Mmm, all the juices I got to sample from Project Juice!

My relationship with food has also become so, so much healthier. Instead of constantly worrying about the occasional slip up, I have a much more balanced approach to eating and just living life in general. I do not binge anymore (everytime I was presented with a tasty and ‘bad’ food I would eat it until I felt ill) and I genuinely look forward to making healthy meals and doing my food preps at the start of the week. Obviously I still have moments where I feel a little guilty, but I am usually able to stop myself eating more than I need too. I love how I have been able to shape this aspect of my life and I am so grateful for it; your body deserves to be nourished with the correct foods and kept active and in shape. I am not a fan of the whole ‘food is fuel’ thing because come on, our bodies are not machines. They are unique and INDIVIDUAL creations that require personalized attention, and only you can know what foods and exercises truly make your body flourish. That being said, I think that I do tend to eat a bit too much sugar (foods with sugar in them, I’m not knocking back tablespoons here lol) so I think I may post some of my meals in next week’s Sunday Summary as a way to keep me on track .. we will see.

That’s all from me this week! I am curious to see how many of my readers are living in the Bay Area, so please leave me a comment below if you are. I would love to meet up with you all at some point, maybe for a gym date 🙂

And as always, if you have any questions or requests for posts please either leave me a comment below or shoot me a message at honestlyfitness@live.com

Honestly yours,
Alice

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