Kayla Itsines Round 2 – Week 2

October 5, 2014

Kayla Itsines Round 2 – Week 2

Week 2 of Kayla Itsines BBG (bikini body guide) is an interesting week. I personally think that it is much harder than week 1 because of all the jumping we have to do in the legs workout circuit (one word: jumping lunges) and the commandos and mountain climber/push up combos destroy me during the arms workout. I found these really, really hard the first time around as well. They are just demon exercises honestly haha, and if you do like them well then kudos to you! Honestly I am surprised I managed to do the full body workout today, because my abs were still incredibly sore from Friday’s arm workout.

Food wise I didn’t do as well as I would’ve liked, but it was not too bad. I stuck to the HELP guide during the week, but had a bit too much over the weekend. I had a cider on Friday night and on Saturday night, I went out for dinner with some friends. We went to a really nice place in San Francisco called Zerozero SF. Have any of you ever been there before? We shared a delicious roasted cauliflower dish which I recommend whole-heartedly. It tasted so buttery due to the rosemary oil that it was lavishly cooked in. I also got their salad special of the day which was this incredible octopus salad with butter beans with chorizo oil. I have never before had something with chorizo oil, but I would buy it by the gallonful if I could … it was DELICIOUS! Probably not overly healthy though lol. And tonight since I did the total body workout quite late, I was STARVING and got a big chicken pad see ew. I am staying positive however and making sure I am more mindful next week. I.E. do not let myself get too hungry!

My octopus salad, yum!

I weighed myself on Friday and I was still 4 pounds less so that makes me really happy. I am hoping that I can maintain this weight-loss and any extra is truly a bonus. My waist looks as if it is tightening up, but again, it is still too early to tell. I am excited to see what results I have when the first and second month pass.

Honestly yours,
Alice

Fitness, Health

Kayla Itsines Round 2 – Week 1

September 28, 2014

Today marks the end of week 1 of Kayla Itsines bikini body guide! Feels weird to say that considering I already completed the program a few months ago 😛

Kayla Itsines Round 2 – Week 1

It truly blows my mind how the exercises are still SO HARD. In all fairness, I am using an app I downloaded recently called ‘Pacer’ to keep myself accountable and not rest for too long between sets … but still. Week 1 was HARD. I would have to say that the legs workout was the hardest workout for me this week. I will always have a love/hate relationship with burpees. I absolutely love the benefits of burpees (burns a lot of calories and hits a lot of different muscle groups), but they use up an enormous amount of energy.

Lol, death by burpees – for more silly photos visit my Instagram

I am surprised at how easy it has been to follow and stick to the H.E.L.P guide. For those of you who do not know what this is, the H.E.L.P guide gives you a 7 day meal plan and a general guide to healthy eating. I did not feel at all deprived and in fact felt full of energy throughout the whole week. You eat something from every food group everyday, and I think that aspect of it helps a lot in making sure you do not feel deprived. I can still have my beloved carbs, cheese, and lattes! Lattes are so necessary as a graduate student. The only time I really deviated (i.e. ate out with a friend) was for dinner tonight, but we went to a tapas place so it was still easy to stick to having foods recommend by the H.E.L.P guide. It is pretty flexible so I can honestly go anywhere provided I can get some lean protein, vegetables and complex carbohydrates.

The BBG gets the ‘job done’

And by this I mean you get an effective and intense workout in less than 30 minutes. This is why it is so important to make sure that you are truly pushing yourself throughout the whole workout and pushing yourself to the edge. My ability to do masses of push ups have decreased but I still did as many as I could, right up until my arms gave way lol.

I am excited at how everything has been going so far and I look forward to the challenge of week 2. I weigh myself every Monday, buuut I sneakily weighed myself this morning … 4 pounds lost, eek! I am so happy but I need to not get my hopes up too much. As long as my body looks better, then that is all that matters; I try not to get too hung up by the number on the scale

How did your exercise routine go this week? Did you make sure to push yourself to the max? If you wanna give the BBG a go, you can click on the photo on my sidebar and buy the guides (affiliate link, fyi).

Honestly yours,
Alice xx

Fitness, Health

Redoing Kayla Itsines Bikini Body Guide

September 21, 2014

As many of you may already know, a few months ago I completed Kayla Itsine’s bikini body guide (<— affiliate link which helps me pay for Honestly Fitness). I felt good! I felt more confident about myself, had toned up, and was so much fitter than I had ever been. I was busting out push ups and burpees like nobodies business!

Summer has taken its toll however and although I lost a little bit of weight when I went to visit my boyfriend in Salt Lake City, I gained some weight when I came back to San Francisco and drastically cut down on the amount of exercise I was doing.

Redoing Kayla Itsines Bikini Body Guide

The other week I thought, enough is enough! I want to be able to do tons of push ups again and to look like a total (fit) bad ass in the gym again. I decided that I was going to do Kayla’s bikini body guide again and then continue on and do her bikini body guide 2.0. This time around I want to pair her workouts with her H.E.L.P. nutrition guide so I can give you all a better review of whether it is worth it to combine her workouts with her nutrition plan.

I am nervous guys! I did her legs and arms workout this week from Kayla’s free week of workouts and they exhausted me. The leg workout literally crippled me (I did it on Wednesday and couldn’t walk for a couple days) and I did the arm workout this morning. I can tell that I am not as strong as I was … but that’s okay, because I know that I can work back up to it 🙂

I am excited for this journey and I hope I can stick to the nutrition guide. I will be keeping you all updated with my progress over the next few weeks and letting you know how everything is going. Is anyone else starting the bikini body guide and/or following the H.E.L.P. guide?

Wish me luck 🙂

Honestly yours,
Alice