Sunday Summary: Kayla Itsines Week 10

May 4, 2014

Early happy Cinco de Mayo everyone! Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of a victory in 1862 in the fight for independence from French forces which is celebrated by both the US and Mexico. I went to my first ever cinco de mayo party the other night and it was extremely fun. And yes, I did have some sangria and a margarita (or two) which is unusual for me since I normally do not drink. I view alcohol as a source of empty calories and as not benefiting your body in anyway whatsoever, but I will have a drink on a special occasion.

Photo courtesy of the amazing photographer VK Ree’s

Kayla Itsines Week 10

I have now finished week 10 of Kayla Itsine’s bikini body guide (hands down the hardest arm and abs workouts of the entire program) and cannot believe I only have two weeks left!!! I found the gazillion snap jumps and the spider push ups so incredibly hard .. thought my arms were gonna fall off. Although my transformation so far has not been crazy and incredibly dramatic, the progress photo’s I have been taking show that my stomach is more toned and that my legs are getting smaller. I am so proud of the changes (small or not) that have happened so far plus I can do much much more push ups than I was ever able too, which is an achievement in itself. Since I had quite a lot of sugary foods and drinks this weekend, I really need to be strict for the next two weeks in order to reap the full benefits of Kayla Itsine’s workouts. I normally do eat a very healthy diet but I am just going to be stricter with counting my macro’s and calories for the next few weeks. Counting macro’s and calories may not work for some but it definitely works for me.

Dying after week 10’s leg workout

In addition to my kick ass (literally) workouts, I was kindly invited by Project Juice to visit their Russian Hill location in San Francisco to sample some of their juices and to check the shop out in general. They gave me a few juices to take home and try and I will be doing a post on Project Juice and their delicious and very healthy juices this tuesday, so look out for that! Project Juice has fantastic values and I was truly impressed by what they had to offer .. which is quite rare in the health and fitness industry. If you follow my Facebook page and my Instagram, no doubt you will have seen what juices I have tried so far.

That’s it from me! I have received a lot of questions regarding the type of equipment you need for Kayla Itsine’s bikini body guide, so to get your answer please click here and scroll down to the comments section 🙂

Hope you all had a great weekend!

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

Fitness, Health, Sunday Summary

Honestly Fitness Recap: Kayla Itsines Week 8

April 21, 2014

I am now 2/3 of the way through Kayla Itsine’s bikini body guide!

Kayla Itsines Week 8

Yeah, I am that excited. Not even gonna give you guys a ‘hello’ or ‘sorry for being terrible at posting lately.’ I am truly sorry about that and I hope you can forgive the busy life of a master’s student for making me unable to post regularly! I have had a few personal issues too which have not helped anything, but mostly I am just really busy. This is why I decided to do a recap post, just to let you all know what has been going on in my life.

Okay … so back to workout news. The legs and arms workout for week 8 of Kayla Itsine’s bikini body guide were bloody hard. Seriously, I do not understand how my legs still ache so much after all this time. I like it! Not complaining, more surprised than anything. I am actually rather terrified for the remaining 4 weeks as I have looked through the strength workouts, which look very, very hardcore. Wish me luck!!

In addition to continuing to work out regularly at my second home (the gym), I was doing pretty well food wise until this weekend hehe. I had planned a cheat meal for Friday night because some of my cohorts (code word for the people who started the MA program the same time I did) and I had planned to grab a meal together at Burgermeister. And guess what Burgermeister serve .. burgers! Friday wasn’t too atrocious despite that though and had half a burger and some fries. Saturday night was pretty bad .. pizza, pasta, some wine … oops! Oh well, I haven’t had alcohol in the longest time and I stuck to just having one glass. The nice thing about this process is that despite eating ‘bad’ foods from time to time, I genuinely crave healthy food now and know that I could never go back on this lifestyle. I felt so bloated and just plain unwell, and although some foods are worth it in very small amounts, it is just not worth it to incorporate them into your daily routine. I am very happy with my eggs, veggies, quinoa and lean protein thanks!

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine from England called Shivvy came to stay with me and we had a lovely time. I am surprised at how well we both ate despite the fact that we went out quite a lot. I think the first 2 major desserts we shared put us off eating badly for the rest of the time! We were thoroughly tourist-y and did all of the San Francisco ‘must-do’s’ such as Golden Gate bridge, Alcatraz island, Chinatown and Haight Ashbury. To conclude this recap, I leave you all with various photo’s of the fun times we had. Hopefully this makes you want to come and visit this beautiful city!