Kayla Itsines Round 2 – Week 3

October 12, 2014

Out of the past three weeks, I have to say that this week was probably the most successful. I could tell that I had become much stronger because even though the workouts were still hard, I paused a lot less and I was able to do two rounds of each circuit for most of the workouts. I still found the burpees and push ups a little hard but they definitely were not as killer as they were doing the first week.

Kayla Itsines Round 2 – Week 3

Got some cute new workout clothes from CottonOnBody to help keep me motivated and … because they are amazing!

1. Couldn’t find the exact same top, but this one is similar
2. Printed Core Capri
3. Running Short

New workout clothes!!! That was a good workout, I felt so motivated haha

I am continually surprised at how good my progress is my second time around. I have lost more weight than I ever thought possible in the past 3 weeks; I have lost 7 pounds so far! For those who are regular readers of the blog, you will know that I do not think that weight loss is that important. However, I am pleased because I have been carrying around an extra 10 pounds for the past year and a half that I have not been able to shake so this is definitely a mini victory for me. I went on a very low carb diet about 2 years ago where I got quite thin, but then as with all drastic diets, I gained the weight back as soon as I started including carbs back into my diet again. It is really motivating to see that my body is responding so well to eating healthily, and getting enough nutrients from every food group without excluding anything. It just goes to show how dangerous drastic and exclusionary diets can be.

Fitness and health aside, I am in Salt Lake City for the weekend and having a great time. I took Alaska Airlines as they offer affordable tickets and I literally had one of the best flight experiences I have ever had! First off, the plane was half empty so I got a whole aisle all to myself. Secondly, the flight is only an hour and a half long which is NOTHING compared to some of the international flights I have taken. A flight from San Francisco to Phuket (where my parents live) alone includes at least 1 stopover and is about 18 hours overall … it is pretty horrible. I have not got much planned as I have a lot of work to get done, but I want to try a few new restaurants while I am here. Salt Lake City has a surprisingly good variety of restaurants and some of the best Mexican food I have ever eaten.

SO EMPTY!

Destination, Salt Lake City!

What are you all up to this weekend? Who else just finished week three of Kayla Itsines bikini body guide?

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

TRX Training Center Review

September 18, 2014

Thanks to my wonderful one month ClassPass membership (read more about ClassPass here), I had the opportunity to try out two TRX classes at the TRX Training Center. I decided to write a TRX training center review for any of you who may interested in taking a class there. I use TRX exercises occasionally in my workouts but I had always wanted the experience of doing a class. Even though I can work up quite a sweat on my own, there is something about having someone push you to your limits and telling you to do “JUST ONE MORE!”

The first class I tried was the ‘TRX Circuit Training’ class. I completed Kayla Itsines bikini body guide (BBG) a few months ago (read my review here) and since her workouts are circuit based, I thought this would be a really fun class to try.

Ah, if only I were as fit as I was when I was doing Kayla’s program … I really got my butt kicked at the TRX circuit training class!

The class is a mixture of strength moves done on the TRX and cardio based moves such as jump rope and burpees. The class was essentially structured so you would do a few sets of exercises on the TRX (which were timed) and you would then take a short break and do some cardio based moves without the TRX (also timed). Every part of your body gets worked out in this class; upper body, core and legs. My core is definitely my weak point and the TRX really challenges you because you use the whole weight of your body to support you. The instructor for the class was Miguel, and he was fantastic! I feel as if most instructors do not check on their students form much, but he was great at making sure my form was on point. I would love to take another TRX circuit training class with him (although a little scared haha).

Me dying in the TRX circuit training class

The second class I tried was the TRX Body Blast class. Although this class was just as hard (I had to pause and catch my breath multiple times), it was more of a strength based class. You do get cardio in as you are moving at a fast pace but you are not doing dedicated cardio based moves as you would in the TRX circuit training class. Again, this class worked every inch of my body and left me feeling extremely sore. This class was much fuller than the TRX circuit training class and I have to say, I felt a little intimidated at first! I had nothing to worry about though as everyone was really nice and welcoming.

“Bottom line: TRX is an incredibly

effective and challenging workout”

I feel so lucky to live in a city with a TRX training center! I hope to try out some more classes in the future. I was particularly interested in trying out their TRX rip training to see what that was all about. It will have to wait however because next week, I plan on restarting Kayla Itsines Bikini Body Guide and then continuing onto the bikini body guide 2.0 … I am SO nervous. I did the legs workout from her free week of workouts downloads and today my legs are so incredibly sore and stiff. I forgot how intense the workouts were!

So wish me luck 🙂 Also, how many of you have ever tried a TRX class before? Let me know if you have or if you use it at your local gym. Would love to see some of the routines you guys do with TRX.

Honestly yours,
Alice

(featured image via http://yubfit.com)

burpees