Tag Archives: Fitness

A personalized fitness plan is changing my body [Giveaway now closed]

A personalized fitness plan is changing my body [Giveaway]

(Photo credit: Photo by Ryan Liberto on Reshot)

Not so long ago, I mentioned how I’d returned to the gym after a rather extended time not exercising. I was really happy to be working out again, and I was pretty confident that I knew what I was doing there. But I just didn’t see much in the way of results, and generally felt a bit unfocused in what I was doing.

I knew that I had to do more, or change things up, but I wasn’t sure that I had the time. I also kept finding routines and programs that looked like random crap thrown together by an avid Pinterest influencer (no offense, I love Pinterest after all) rather than an exercise program built on any real understanding. Which is why I was so thrilled to hear from Carla, offering to give me a personalized fitness plan (and one for you, too, but more on that in a moment). Continue Reading

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Tips for returning to the gym after a (long) break

returning to the gym deadlifts

I will confess, I was already a gym slacker before I got pregnant. I wasn’t going as often as I used to and was generally looking for a change. Then I spawned a person, and at my very first doctor’s appointment, I was told that I couldn’t lift heavy weights while pregnant. It was a disappointment, but also sorta a way of letting myself off the hook.

Fast forward 2.5 years, and I’d gained quite a bit of weight and hadn’t been in a gym for years. Sure, I did yoga for a while, and I was constantly carrying around a 10kg (22lbs) human, but I was out of shape. When we moved into our new, awesome home, we joined our local gym and I returned to weightlifting at last. I’m still in the early days, but I’ve learned some important things. Continue Reading

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5 reasons I love my Fitbit AltaHR

Fitbit AltaHR

A couple weeks back, I went to a lovely breakfast with the iStore. It was a wonderful morning of getting spoiled, complete with delicious food, and a gorgeous locale. It was for Mother’s Day, and the PR team went out of their way to make us feel special. Everything about the event was fantastic – from the rose gold cutlery to the incredible goody bag. That’s right, we got amazing presents, too. It was such a treat. One of the presents was a Fitbit AltaHR, which I had wanted for a long time and instantly fell in love with. Now that it’s not just love at first sight, I thought I’d share a little bit more about why I like it so much.

First, though, can we all just pause and marvel at how beautiful this cutlery is? I mean, I don’t even care about rose gold in general, but this is really so damn pretty.

(Disclaimer: Yes, there are now some affiliate links in this post, but the content was written prior to that and is in no way influenced by the links. If you click on these links, I could earn a small commission.)

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You can’t suck at yoga

suck at yoga

At the time of writing this, I have done 15 consecutive days of yoga. That is more than I’ve ever done before; I usually got bored and abandoned the daily yoga idea after a few days or a week. I find it so helpful to have great emails sent to me each day – a new routine, a new focus every day. It’s about more than the physical; the emotional and cognitive journey has already been profound. Even so, I was wondering if I’d stick with it once the month was over. Would I continue to find videos? Would I keep enjoying it without the daily changing routine? Parts of it are still so daunting. I struggle with many of the regular poses (like downward f-ing dog) and finish the 30 minute videos dripping with sweat. With some poses that I can only do while heavily modified, I sometimes feel like I’m not strong enough, not flexible enough.

I recently caught up with my friend Sadaf, and she commented that she saw that I was doing yoga now (she has for years). A part of me didn’t feel like I was good enough to be considered in the same league as I imagined she was in. I replied, “yeah, but I sorta suck at it”. She laughed and made the best possible comment. You can’t suck at yoga. It’s only once it came to the West that we started making it a competitive thing somehow, trying to be able to push ourselves into ever more complicated poses, outdoing the person on the next mat. It’s not about getting into the “perfect” tree, chair or crow pose, something that is mirrored in what the woman running the #YogaRevolution often says. Continue Reading

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Thoughts after a week of daily yoga

daily yoga

I have done yoga now and then, but never really managed to make it a part of my daily life. I’d get into it and enjoy it for a time, but then lose interest or focus on other things. Usually, my issue was boredom – how many sun salutations can you do before you’re well and truly sick of it? Of course yoga is more than that, but I’d usually find myself doing a set yoga routine for a short while before becoming bored and moving on to other exercise, which is why I’m so surprised that I’ve stuck with the daily yoga and really found myself enjoying it.

As I mentioned in my New Year’s goal post (heh, goal post), Cassey invited me and some awesome mommy bloggers to join her in a #YogaRevolution. It’s quite a cool concept; the woman organizing it has a yoga YouTube channel and this year for January she is doing 31 days of yoga. But it’s not just about the yoga, it’s also about boosting a mind-body connection. She sends daily emails to explain the videos as they come up, and each movement is beyond the pose, beyond replicating what we think it should look like, but really finding what feels good and works for ourselves and moving from there. It’s more introspective and enjoyable, while still obviously helping to tone, stretch and feel good. Continue Reading

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4 Comments Fitness, Health