I got this pillow from a consignment shop last week
when I was in dropping some things off.
I am obsessed with it 🙂
One of my favorite things to look at on Pinterest or on other blogs is workout ideas, healthy recipe ideas, and general fitness plans and what people do in their personal lives to stay in shape.
I’ve been working the last two weeks at really getting back into a serious routine,
so I thought I’d put it out there to hold myself more accountable.
Also, people have e-mailed questions about this in the past and I’m trying to work on being more open on the blog and talking about my personal life more, so why not start now 🙂
I have done Tracy Anderson DVD’s and eventually her Metamorphosis DVD’s in the past, but I would always stop at some point and just do the treadmill with a mix of Tone It Up workouts and Popsugar videos and whatever else I could find online for free.
I finally decided to get back into the Metamorphosis workouts and ordered the Continuity DVD’s (The first Metamorphosis is for days 1-90 and I had done it sporadically for a long time so I finally switched to days 91+ and am sticking to the weekly schedule).
Her program is 30 minutes of muscular/strength training and 30 of dance.
The main focus is switching up the workout every 10 days so that you keep your muscles guessing and also so that you never build bulk – she’s all about long, lean, feminine muscles.
I was preferring to do a walk/run outside(lets be honest : walk) my first month here in Atlanta, but now it has gotten so hot that I’ve been following the cardio plan more closely and trying to push through the dance cardio. I’ve got to say, after about 2 weeks of it, I’m not hating the dance cardio as much as I used to (making sure I save a new Bravo show just for that 30 minutes has helped tremendously).
The last two weeks I have done 5 days a week of the toning and have been trying to do 4 days with 15-30 minutes of cardio – cardio is still the struggle.
I put my ClassPass on a one month hold for now – I wasn’t using it the way I did in Chicago, but hoping to get back to it for pure barre + other cardio classes soon.
In just 2 weeks I’ve definitely gotten a lot stronger and I’ve finally dropped a few pounds, which is something I’ve been unsuccessful with for the past year or so. It’s not that I’m not healthy or in shape, but my easy daily workouts and then eat whatever I wanted on weekends wasn’t working anymore. The weekend booze + food was slowly adding up instead of coming right off by Tuesday’s workout and clean eating like it had for years and years.
Hashtag this is 30 I suppose.
But it’s been amazing that in two weeks by doing this the pounds that weren’t coming off are seemingly coming off fairly easily again. I don’t want to jinx it – but one more month of this and I may finally be back where I always was.
The other change I started about 2 weeks ago was making a smoothie for breakfast.
I had tried this when we were engaged, but call me crazy I wanted to chew my food and it just wasn’t gonna happen.
Now, however, I am really loving my smoothies and if I am craving my usual yogurt and granola I have it after my workout or as an afternoon snack instead.
I think the smoothies have been a huge help in cutting a few pounds the last two weeks.
We got a NutriBullet and I really love it. It is much easier to make a smoothie than with our Ninja Blender – the Ninja personal smoothie cups were really small and it didn’t blend everything that well.
The NutriBullet leaves enough room for extra water or almond milk or ice so that you can get it to the consistency you want.
The smoothie I’ve been making has the following :
Spinach
1/2 of a Frozen Banana
Frozen Strawberries or Mix of Fruit
1 Scoop of Tone It Up Perfect Fit Protein (my favorite)
1 Scoop of Super Greens (I think this has helped a lot)
Handful of Chia Seeds
Almond Milk
Ice
I read about the Super Greens somewhere and decided to order them to try out instead of taking my daily probiotic pill in the morning. You definitely need to use something to help mask the taste (I wouldn’t recommend just ice and protein powder and the greens) but if you add fruit it does cover it up really well. Otherwise, a half of scoop instead of the full scoop definitely masks it more easily.
I’ll keep you posted on how things go over the next few weeks.
I know myself well enough to know I will not be giving up alcohol on the weekends or my Chik-fil-A or things like that. Life’s too damn short (slash pinot grigio and waffle fries are THAT good).
But my goals are to try to eat more real foods during the week, get a full 45 minutes to an hour a day of working out, and not consider the entire Friday night to Sunday night a free-for-all. I have gotten a lot better at making my own meals all throughout the week and eliminating as much processed foods as I can , so the weekend time will hopefully begin to slowly follow suit.
So, Some goals for the next 2 weeks :
Morning Workout = Tracy Strength Workout 5 days/week
Cardio Workout (Tracy or Otherwise) 30 minutes 5 days/week
Smoothie for Breakfast
Little to no prepared meals or fast food
Less dairy
Low carbs after lunch
I know I’ve talked about Tracy Anderson workouts on the blog before,
but my absolute favorite free arm workout of hers is this 8 Minute Arms with No Weights.
It was what got me hooked on her years ago – do it ever day for a week or two and I promise you’ll be amazed.
Health Magazine always has a lot of short workout videos of hers, and there’s also tons of other videos online for free too!
** update **
I had a question about how I do the dance cardio while watching TV at the same time:
I do the DVD on my laptop and then the TV right next to it watching my show. The dance cardio for Metamorphosis is just a lot of jumping around not anything choreographed so its easy once you’ve done it a few times to just glance over at the laptop and see if she’s switched to the next 8 count or something like that. Even if you aren’t a good dancer, you pick up on it quickly – and even if not, no one can see you and if you are behind or still doing the move from before it won’t matter 🙂
The link below is to a 15 minute cardio of hers that is similar to the DVD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UtEdFcN60k
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have other questions!
I have a really dumb question. How do you watch your Bravo shows and the dance cardio dvd at the same time and follow both?
I'll update the post right now! Haha not a dumb question at all – Good question 🙂
I do the DVD on my laptop and then the TV right next to it watching my show. The dance cardio for Metamorphosis is just a lot of jumping around not anything choreographed so its easy once you've done it a few times to just glance over at the laptop and see if she's switched to the next 8 count or something like that. Even if you aren't a good dancer, you pick up on it quickly – and even if not, no one can see you and if you are behind or still doing the move from before it won't matter 🙂
this link is a free 15 minute cardio of hers that is similar to the DVD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UtEdFcN60k
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have other questions!
Thanks! That makes sense. I'm still impressed with your multi-tasking! I did the arm video last night and liked it. Thank you for the link!
Meant to add that I loved this post and I have bookmarked the Tracy Anderson arm routine you linked to. I definitely need all the help I can get!
I second the above question
I'll update the post right now! Good question 🙂 I do the DVD on my laptop and then the TV right next to it watching my show. The dance cardio for Metamorphosis is just a lot of jumping around not anything choreographed so its easy once you've done it a few times to just glance over at the laptop and see if she's switched to the next 8 count or something like that. Even if you aren't a good dancer, you pick up on it quickly – and even if not, no one can see you and if you are behind or still doing the move from before it won't matter 🙂
this link is a free 15 minute cardio of hers that is similar to the DVD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UtEdFcN60k
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have other questions!
I am on the smoothie for breakfast bandwagon as well. I found that vega makes a protein powder that has greens already added in which helps the taste. I have been horrible about getting vegetables lately so it makes me feel a bit better.
Good to know I'll have to try theirs!! Thanks!!
The smoothie making is something I'm doing too. I am going to look at Tracy Anderson work outs ! I need to do a little more than walking.
Let me know if you like them! Theres so many free ones on youtube to try!
OMG I did that arm workout last night. Super tough haha.
haha Im glad you tried it! Who knew just holding your arms up could burn so much! It really works!