Today (November 27th), the Beachbody Holiday Sale begins. This year there are HUGE savings (up to 69%) on so many great products - P90x, Insanity the Asylum, Derm Exclusive skin care products, Beachbody exercise equipment, nutritional supplements and MORE! Click the image below to access the sale, but don't wait to order - many items sold out during last year's sale, be prepared to act fast!
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It seems you can buy a monthly subscription to anything these days - cookies, wine, shoes, etc. Well if you're a health and fitness nerd like me, you've been waiting for a subscription club JUST FOR YOU! Well, wait no longer - the Bulu Box is here! If you don’t already know, Bulu Box is a health, nutrition, and weight loss company that is designed to help make being healthy and feeling your absolute best easy for you. Every month, you get a custom box filled with the latest and greatest goodies from top health brands for you to try! It is an amazing way to learn about and sample the best new products out there for health and fitness. Once you have sampled a product that you like, you can purchase it through them at a discounted price. The best part? As a FitYaf reader, you can get this amazingly awesome deal at 50% off! Treat yourself or send a gift, and buy a Bulu Box today! How the Bulu Box works
How much does a Bulu Box subscription cost? Bulu Box memberships are $5/month with my discount code BULUGAN547. You can opt for a 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month subscription. If you sign up for a 12-month subscription you can save yourself a little cash by getting one month free. Shipping is always free!! When will I receive my first Bulu Box? And when can I expect each box after that? All Bulu Box orders are shipped around the 15th of the month. If you placed your order before the 5th of the month you’ll receive that month’s box. Any orders placed after the 5th of the month will receive the following month’s box. Your box should arrive 5 to 7 days after the ship date. Bulu Box offers subscribers more than just great product samples. They also offer a supportive and informative social media community of Bulugans, a blog with excellent free resources and articles, and reward system where subscribers earn points on purchases, for taking brief surveys, for getting involved in the community, and for sharing Bulu Box. Points can be used to purchase full-sized versions of any of the sample products from the Bulu Box online store. Have more questions? Please visit the Bulu Box FAQ page! Have you ordered your Bulu Box yet? What are you waiting for?!
As a working mother, she struggles to find time for her daughters, her husband and herself (Ace of Base was right - life IS demanding), so in an effort to keep both herself and her family active, she comes up with ways to sneak in exercise while spending time with her kids. Ashley also blogs for Kveller.com - click here to check her out! 8 ways to sneak in movement & exercise with your kids1. Dance Off
3. A nature hunt Another favorite game of ours is to pick leaves and glue them on paper or any art project. In the Fall we use leaves, in the winter, we use pine cones, etc. We just go on an adventure walk. 4. Obstacle course For days when you can't get outside, setup an obstacle course inside. All you need are the obstacles, which you can get from things you probably already have in the house: pillow, hula hoop, tape or ribbon, soccer ball anything you can think of to incorporate. You can have them jump over the pillow, run in the hula hoop, walk a straight line to kick the ball. When they are old enough, make it a two-story course that involves the steps! You can time each other for a race - of course let your kids win!! My 11 month old think it's hilarious and has a good time watching. Sometimes I carry her for the extra effort!
7. Playground fun I once saw a mom pushing the swing with one arm. I thought it was strange, but she eventually switched to the other arm. I suddenly realized she was working out. She even did squats while her daughter was playing in the gazebo. Take the kids to the playground, push them on the swing for 10-15 minutes. Use only one arm for about 5 minutes, then switch. You can also jog while your kid is on the slide. My daughter loves to play monster, where they are the beautiful princesses and I am the evil monster/step mother - I run around the playground and chase her and her friends. Just another way to get moving. 8. At home workouts Worst case scenario - just get on the treadmill during naps, or if your children don't nap anymore, have them play around you. I noticed that my oldest daughter, who is now 4, is capable of playing for 45-60 minutes near me while I am on the treadmill. She even likes to try and participate in Yoga videos. Sometimes I get interrupted but I think it's a positive thing to show her that mommy wants to be healthy. What creative way do you sneak in exercise while spending time with your kids? I have good news and bad news for you Fitness Friday lovers. The bad news is that I don't have new workout for you today. The good news is that I want to give you more of what you want! My Fitness Friday workouts have ranged from little challenges that you can incorporate into your workouts to shorter high intensity interval training workouts to longer full body workouts. I want to know what you like best! Take a second to vote and let me know what you want to see! And don't forget, you can always access my Fitness Friday workouts by clicking HERE.
Launching a new BODYPUMP workout is always an exciting time, and the launch of 87 certainly did not disappoint. This release is one of my favorite BODYPUMP workouts yet - the music is great and the back and lunge tracks are KILLER! My favorite tracks are squats & biceps for the music and back & lunges for the challenge. This year, the launch coincided with our Freaky Fitness Fest at the gym - a full day of free group fitness classes, prizes and even a dance class to learn the moves from the Thriller video. It was double trouble for me - I started my day team-teaching the 7:30am class with Jackie, and finished things up at the 6:30pm class with Alex and Carrie. Why is it important to strength train?It is important to understand the basics of strength training and why you should incorporate this activity into your training program. Muscle mass naturally diminishes with age. "If you don't do anything to replace the lean muscle you lose, you'll increase the percentage of fat in your body," says Edward R. Laskowski, MD, a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist at Mayo Clinic and co-director of the Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Center. "But strength training can help you preserve and enhance your muscle mass — at any age." It's the good old "use it or lose it" phenomena. The lean muscle mass that we all work so hard for decreases with age. If we don't add strength training to our routine then it will turn into fat. Below are some specific benefits of strength training.
And when it comes to BODYPUMP specifically? Well it's just downright FUN! Have you tried Bodypump yet? What are you waiting for?
Here are some other Body Blitz style workouts: Notes about this workout:
WarmupDo each for for one minute, as fast as you can:
Resistance Training, SET 1
Cardio, SET 1
Resistance Training, SET 2
Cardio, SET 2
Body Blitz Burpee ChallengeCore
StretchWhat is Tabata you ask? Just like HIIT, Tabata incorporates periods of work with periods of rest. During the period of work, you work at 100% intensity (maintaining proper form of course), then you partially recover during a short rest. The fact that you never "fully" recover is part of what makes this workout so effective. Typically the "work" period is 20 seconds and the "rest" period is only half of that or 10 seconds. This type of exercise was discovered by the Japanese researcher Izumi Tabata, who was known for his work with Olympic speedskaters. Tabata's research showed both aerobic and anaerobic benefits from this type of exercise. For HIIT workouts, you're typically doing high-impact moves that are more "cardio", but for a tabata workout, you can do strength exercises as well as cardio exercises. Due to the high intensity nature of the workout, tabata workouts are typically shorter than a traditional workout. You can use the Tabata protocol with almost any exercise, but lucky for you I put one together for you! The traditional tabata workout is designed to do the same exercise for the whole workout, but what is the fun in that? The first section is four cardio exercises, and the second section is four strength exercises, but don't worry - I squeezed some burpees in there too. Grab your stopwatch (or your favorite interval timer app) and let's go! Notes about this workout:
Tabata Cardio20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest for each move, twice (total = 4 minutes) Burpee45 seconds of work, 15 seoncds of rest, one time through (total = 1 minute) Tabata Strength20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest for each move, twice (total = 4 minutes) Have you ever done a Tabata workout?
If you've spent a day in my household, you know that my husband is the cook in the family. Although I "can" cook, he enjoys it more. Plus, he eat WAY more of the food, so it only makes sense, right? We pretty much have the same goals when it comes to meal planning - we like lean protein, and we try to avoid processed foods and foods with little nutritional value. While I'm not seen much in the kitchen, I do love finding recipes and coming up with ways to tweak them to fit our style. Recently, we took a chicken parmesan recipe and a rice recipe and combined them to make am amazingly delicious meal with lots of avocado!
This made for a delicious meal - it was very delicious, filling, satisfying and the best part was it was guilt free!
What are some ways you tweak recipes to fit your nutritional needs? We first met Robin when she shared her incredible weight loss story. She lost 105 pounds over 3.5 years, but it became much more than counting points and losing pounds. Today Robin shares with us her starting point, which she describes as "rock bottom" and some physical and unexpected mental changes that accompanied her weight loss. She takes us to her "sky high" moment half way through her first Broad Street Run in 2011. As one would imagine, pealing 105 lbs. off your body incurs some changes in your life. Changes along my journey came in small, medium, and large packages. Every single one that I could consciously recognize was sweeter than next. These changes help me manage the struggles along the way. During my weight loss and maintenance journey (truthfully, it will be never ending), I’ve often been asked, “What was your rock bottom?” Essentially, what pushed me to finally commit to a change? The answer I clearly remember. About a week or two prior to joining Weight Watchers (again…for the last time), I found that my arms and legs would randomly fall asleep while I was asleep. I’d wake up and not be able to move one or more of my limbs. I wasn’t laying on them, or constricting the blood flow in anyway. They would just be asleep. Then, after waking up, I would be quietly lying in bed, and my heart would race and my breathing would become erratic. Very scary! I had always thought that I was a relatively healthy person, well, save for the obesity, but this just got real. With that recent development and me just really, really feeling bad about myself, I needed to commit to change. So, on Sept. 25, 2008, I walked through to the door to what would become my Thursday evening home for 4 years. Along the way, the changes to my life varied in degree, but all were welcome! Physical Changes (just a sampling)
Mental Changes
I think the biggest takeaway is knowing that there are BOTH physical and mental adjustments that come with weight loss. Recognizing this helps us understand that it HAS to be a journey to allow us to get used to all the change.
Have you noticed some mental changes that accompany your physical changes while losing weight? When teaching a class, especially high-energy classes like my Body Blitz class, I often demonstrate low-impact options for people who may have injuries or are just beginning a workout program. While most exercises can be modified to be low impact, I recently got a request for a whole low impact workout from my friend Lauren's mom. So today, I bring you FitYaf's Fitness Friday LOW IMPACT HIIT Workout. Low impact exercise is a type of exercise where the amount of stress placed upon the joints of your knees, hips and ankles is relatively minimal. Often times this translates to never having more that one foot off the ground at a time. However, it can also refer to something like swimming, which is a great example of low impact exercise that is often chosen by athletes who have suffered a stress fracture. The athlete is still able to participate in cardiovascular exercise, without putting a large amount of weight on the injured body part. Last week I posted a high-intensity interval training or HIIT workout, and explained the benefits of combining high intensity intervals with short periods of rest for the benefit of excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. The good news? Low-impact exercises can be part of a great HIIT workout too - and that's what I have for you today! This workout plan was designed to help you push yourself to your max without doing any jumps. You don’t need equipment or a lot of space. Low Impact Exercises *from Shape.com Begin by walking or doing the elliptical for 5 minutes. Then, go through the exercises 1-8, doing each one for 50 seconds, as fast as you can while maintaining proper form, and resting for 10 seconds before continuing on to the next move. For your rest, grab a drink if you need to or march in place (just don't sit down). The 5th exercise (lunges) is a 2-for-1, since you'll have to do it once on each side! Once you're finished the 8th exercise, repeat 1-8 again two more times. Including a stretch at the end, this whole workout should take about 35 minutes. 1. Squat2. Reach-through
3. No-jump burpee
4. Plank extension5. Lunge (once through on each side)
6. No-jump tuck
7. Skaters
8. Plank extension (repeat #4) Do you prefer low-impact workouts? |
Jillian [FitYaf]fitness enthusiast. Archives
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To my readers, please note this website and blog is for educational and informational purposes only. For medical advice, dietary restrictions, and/or medical diagnosis, and before beginning any diet and/or exercise program, please consult a doctor or healthcare professional.
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