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, 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