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

Friday Fare, Health

Asian Pear & Spinach Salad with Creamy Cider Dressing

April 25, 2014

This week’s inspiration comes from my good friend Alyssa, a lover of good and healthy food. She gave me the idea for this salad although I have made a few tweaks which I hope you will enjoy. This is a meatless salad with its protein source coming from the cheese (I give two different options), almonds and pumpkin seeds. You can always add some lean protein such as grilled chicken, beef, shrimp or fish to make the salad a little heartier, although in all fairness it is pretty hearty as it is because of the nuts, seeds and cheese! I added shrimp to mine though … surprise, surprise 🙂

Enjoying a twelve essentials ‘Suja Juice’ drink with my salad for the greenest of all meals!

Asian Pear & Spinach Salad with Creamy Cider Dressing

Alice Williams

A light and refreshing salad drizzled with a delicious cider dressing.

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Ingredients

For the salad
2 cups or more spinach
1 medium - sliced asian pears
1-2 tbsp - almond slices
1-2 tbsp - feta cheese crumbles personally blue cheese is a my fave cheese on salad but it's pretty high in sodium so it is not something to have daily
1-2 tbsp - pumpkin seeds
For the homemade dressing
1/2 - 1 tbsp - dijon Mustard
1 tbsp - olive oil
1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Juice of 1 lemon
Grated lemon zest - 1 lemon
1 tsp - black Pepper

Instructions

1. First, let us start by making the dressing. Combine all of the salad dressing ingredients in a small bowl and use mix all the ingredients together. You could also use a food processor to do this as well.
2. Set aside your yummy dressing. Get a plate or salad bowl and put the spinach leaves in it, and then pour some of your dressing into the plate or bowl. Toss the spinach and the salad dressing so that your spinach leaves are nice and .. well, dressed!
3. Add the rest of the salad ingredients and toss them all together.
4. Eat and enjoy!

Asian Pear & Spinach Salad with Creamy Cider Dressing

I hope you enjoyed this edition of Friday Fare, and if you share it on instagram or twitter, please hashtag #fridayfare and tag me in your photo’s so I can see your lovely re-creations! Do you have any requests for future editions of Friday Fare? I am always open to suggestions because I want to make sure I am tailoring my posts towards what YOU want 🙂

Honestly yours,
Alice

Health

40 easy meal ideas

April 23, 2014

40 Easy Meal Ideas

Okay, so this is not really a post, but more of a post share. I came across this awesome infographic with 40 easy meals ideas the other day on Ben Greenfield’s website (someone I admire and trust in the realm of fitness and nutrition) and thought I would share it with you all. Although it is titled ’40 easy meals for busy athlete’s’, I do not see why you cannot incorporate some of these meals into your own diet!

Mmm .. oh my, I am getting hungry now after seeing all 40 easy meal ideas haha! Hope this helps you, and bear in mind that most of these 40 easy meal ideas are high energy, so you should not be gorging on the dipped dark chocolate every few hours, for example!

Honestly yours,
Alice