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pilates

Fitness, Health

Mint Studios Spring Open House

April 29, 2014

So I mentioned in last week’s Sunday Summary that I wanted to write a post on the spring open house that I attended at Mint Studios because my brief little summary of it did not do it justice!

Let’s start with this – what is Mint Studios?

Mint Studios offers yoga, barre and pilate’s classes including pilate’s reformer. If you guys do not know what pilate’s reformer, please go and try it right now .. at Mint Studios!! I got to experience pilate’s reformer for the first time during Mint Studios spring open house as they were offering several complimentary classes throughout the evening. My class specifically was called the cardio sport pilates reformer class and it was so fun and upbeat! I have always wanted to try a pilates reformer class, especially after reading about how several Victoria’s Secret models do it regularly 🙂

The actual reformer machine itself is a bit strange to use, especially when you are new and have no idea what you are doing, but it is easy to get the hang of. The pilates reformer machine kind of looks like a bed, with a flat platform called the carriage which moves up and down on wheels within the frame of the machine. The carriage is attached on one end to a set of springs which provide varying levels of resistance (so it can be used for all levels!) and on the other end is a footbar. The machine also contains straps with handles which can be pulled with your legs or arms.

mint

 Image from www.mintstudiospilates.com

The teacher for this class that night was called Lisa and she was great; she made sure to check everyone’s form and to see how they were feeling in general. I was really surprised at how much it worked my core, especially because I thought I had quite a strong core to begin with. I woke up the next day and literally couldn’t stop touching my stomach as it felt really nice and flat, it was a bit ridiculous. I felt as if it had made my core muscles pop, had made them ‘wake up’ for lack of a better metaphor. I would love to try the other pilate’s classes and come back for a full session as the complimentary class I took was only 30 minutes long – but long enough to make me know that I loved the workout.

In addition to this fabulous and hard core (pun intended) workout class, there were several San Francisco local vendors present too. Project Juice in particular caught my eye because Brandon, Project Juice’s community wellness manager and health coach, was there and handing out samples of the juices they make. Although I do not regularly buy juices, I certainly note their nutritional value and enjoy drinking them on occasion for a healthy pick me up. My two favorites in particular were the D-Tox juice and the Mint-Chip Shake. When I tried the d-tox juice I was honestly expecting a rather bitter and unpleasant taste but on the contrary, it was really refreshing and sweet! And I think the mint-chip kind of speaks for itself .. it tastes like a mint chocolate chip shake but is much healthier 🙂

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Got to sample these lovely juices!!

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Ensoma Spa were also there offering complimentary brow waxes (which I missed out on due to a dinner date, boo) and there were free protein bars from Premier Protein. I took home the mint chocolate protein bar (obsessed with this flavor combo) and it was delicious, although it perhaps was not as ‘wholesome’ a protein bar as some others. But still pretty tasty honestly.

I am so glad I found out about Mint Studios spring open house! I love finding out about health & fitness events, and hope to attend more in the future. I had a very fun night and I hope some of you try out their classes soon. If you do, let me know which ones you did!

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?!

Kayla Itsines Week 9 BBG

This photo is from Mint Studio’s website and is an example of the hardcore Pilate’s Reformer class I did

Kayla Itsines Week 9 BBG

 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

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Sunday Summary

January 26, 2014

I love and hate Sundays; I am happy because it is still the weekend, but sad because Monday looms ahead (although I love Mondays during the holidays hah). I am currently enjoying a big mason jar of lemon water as lemon water has many wonderful benefits such as improvement of digestion, vitamin C which boosts mineral absorption, and an antioxidant called d-limonene. Drinking it from a mason jar is fun, and practical because when you finish the lemon water, you can just add some more water to it, put the lid on and store it in the fridge for later!

lemon water edit

I tried out a new workout class in San Francisco on Thursday called ‘Elesculpt’ and I am really excited to tell you all about it! I have also stocked up on baking goods (thank you Whole Foods bulk food bin) and have bought an electric hand mixer so now I can finally experiment in making some healthy desserts for you all 🙂

I am continually amazed at the support Honestly Fitness has received, from comments on the blog to support from social media networks. It is so exciting to be engaging with you all and posting about topics that I think are current and relevant. I have a lot in store but as always, I want to know what YOU want to read, so please feel free to leave me a comment, or to contact me privately by going to my ‘Contact’ page and filling out the form.

This week I have been loving the newest ab workout video that Blogilates posted called ‘5 minute ab express.’ I usually try and do some moves targeting my abs at the gym, but I do like to do something different every once in a while so my body doesn’t get used to the same old thing. Even though this was only 5 minutes, jeez, it is a killer!! If you have never heard of Blogilates, I suggest you visit her page ASAP. She is very real and honest, and posts some incredibly difficult but very fun workouts.

I have also been doing a lot of yoga (as per my New Year’s resolution!) and although I have a lot of yoga video’s on my external hard drive, again I like to do something new and not do the same old routine again and again. I absolutely love Tara Stile’s, and her ‘Morning Yoga for Flexibility‘ video has been a long-time favorite of mine. It is under 10 minutes and since you can find the video on Youtube, you can quite literally roll out of bed and do the video. Now that I have made yoga a daily necessity, I do not know what I would do without it. I plan to do a post on yoga in the future because I think there are a lot of misconceptions surrounding yoga and what it can do for you. Quite frankly, I do not believe it should be practiced with the sole intention to ‘get skinny.’

Hope you have all enjoyed Honestly Fitness this week, and hope you all had a wonderful weekend! What did you do for the weekend? And to all of you in Australia, hope you had a great Australia Day!

Honestly yours,
Alice