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Fitness, Sunday Summary

Sunday Summary – Kayla Itsines Week 11

May 11, 2014
review Kayla Itsines Week 11 BBG

Kayla Itsines Week 11

Kayla Itsines Week 11 BBG

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.

Kayla Itsines Week 11 BBG

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

Health

Project Juice

May 6, 2014

If you follow me on Facebook and/or Instagram you will no doubt have noticed the various photo’s of juice that have been posted.

I was kindly invited by Brandon Waloff, Project Juice’s community wellness manager and certified holistic health coach who attended the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, to visit their location in Russian Hill and to sample a few of their juices. I met Brandon at Mint Studio’s spring open house and chatted with him about Project Juice as he was giving out samples of their juice. Before I go any further, let me tell you a bit more about more Project Juice and what I think makes them stand out from other juice companies.

review of project juice San Francisco

 Brandon Waloff, Project Juice’s community wellness manager at their Russian Hill location

Project Juice is a San Francisco based company that was founded a few years ago by Rachel Malsin and is co-founded with two others, Devon Briger and Greg Malsin. Rachel had various food allergies and began to modify her diet by implementing raw foods and juices which inspired her to live a new healthier lifestyle and to bring this lifestyle to the Bay Area. Fast forward a bit to Rachel moving from Long Island to San Francisco and starting Project Juice after noticing a gap in the market for high quality, cold pressed and organic juices!

Project Juice opened their first location in the financial district in the summer of 2013, then opened their Russian Hill location the week before Valentine’s Day and recently opened another location in Palo Alto. So there is an option if you want to avoid San Francisco traffic!! Project Juice are also planning on expanding to new locations and have a lot of exciting new ventures, such as implementing food into their programs and creating a smoothie bar. Part of their mission is to provide the best juice possible, and all of their ingredients are organic and are locally sourced whenever possible. What I found really incredible about this company is that they realize that diets do NOT work. There is not one size fits all and Brandon, who Project Juice’s certified holistic health coach, will work with people on developing cleansing programs that fit YOU and YOUR needs as opposed to forcing you to stick with a rigid plan that may not make you feel nourished or energetic.

review of project juice San Francisco

So now that you know the deets on Project Juice, I can now continue! Their Russian Hill location was lovely; it had a great ambiance and they had various other healthy food products in stock if you wanted some nibbles with your juice.

review of project juice San Francisco

After sampling a few of their juices and learning a bit more about the company, I was given 3 juices of my choice to take home and try out. I was so excitedddd haha, it was literally like getting an early birthday present (which is on May 22nd, so actually pretty soon)!! I absolutely love all things healthy and Project Juice seriously has so many amazing flavors with unique ingredients. It was extreeemely hard to pick just 3, but in the end I finally decided on D-Tox, Turmeric Mylk, and Swiss Beetz. I had tried D-Tox before at Mint Studio’s spring open house so I couldn’t resist getting a bottle of that, but the other 2 were completely new to me. I chose them because they contained some pretty rare ingredients that I had never seen in a juice before!

D-Tox

review of project juice dtox drink San Francisco

Mmm, this drink was really unexpected for me … but in a very, very good way. I don’t know why, but whenever I see a product that says ‘detox’ I think of something kinda nasty and bitter. D-Tox was far from that, and it was actually very sweet and refreshing. It contains pineapple, mint, apple, and chlorophyll .. I know right, you’re thinking ‘what the heck is chlorophyll’ … Chlorophyll has a number of interesting properties, such as increasing your red blood cell count, is packed full of protein and nutrients, and has been said to help slow down the aging process (you can read more about chlorophyll here)! Very, very interesting and something I have never ever seen in a juice before! You should definitely make this juice one to try if you have a sweet tooth and want a healthy drink 🙂

Turmeric Mylk

review of project juice turmeric mylk San Francisco

Oh man, this juice is awesome!! I was surprised at how creamy it was and how the turmeric blended in perfectly with the rest of the ingredients. Turmeric (a common ingredient in curries) is a spice which has been linked to its ability to help fight various types of  cancer. This juice contains almonds, alkaline water, dates, turmeric, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, vanilla bean, and sea salt … mmm, delicious. I made my boyfriend try it (he does not like juices lol) and even he admitted that it tasted great, victory!

Swiss Beetz

 review of project juice swiss beetz juice San Francisco

As the name makes oh so clear, this juice contains beets! It also contains apples, carrots, cucumber, lemon, and ginger which makes for a really cleansing and refreshing juice. It had a lovely sweet and sour taste and the flavor of the beets did not at all overwhelm the other flavors. All of the ingredients complemented each other really well, very impressive. As much as I love beets, they do have a very strong and distinct flavor which is hard to mask! I let my housemate try some as she is a nurse and always interested in trying new healthy foods, and she agreed that it tasted great. I adored the addition of lemon and ginger, my favorite healthy combo of all time. I swear, lemon and ginger tea works everytime I get sick.

So there you have it! Project Juice have so many more flavors to offer and I hope you all try them! They have several locations within San Francisco and a new location in Palo Alto. They have plans to expand so I look forward to seeing where their new locations will be.

review of project juice San Francisco

review of project juice San Francisco

I hope you enjoyed this post! Have any of you ever tried Project Juice before? If not, what brand do you usually buy, or do you make your own?

Honestly yours,
Alice

Sunday Summary

Sunday Summary: Kayla Itsines Week 10

May 4, 2014
Kayla Itsines Week 10 BBG

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.

Kayla Itsines Week 10 BBG

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.

Kayla Itsines Week 10 BBG

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.

Kayla Itsines Week 10 BBG

 

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