Challenges and Calendars

Lots of updates today!

• 30-Day Flat Abs Challenge
• 30-Day Butt Lift Challenge
• Workout Calendars
• February Weight Loss Challenge
• Blogilates Book

30-Day Flat Abs Challenge

I didn’t get around to mentioning this before but all this month of January I’ve been doing Cassey Ho’s 30-Day Flat Ab Challenge. It was tons of fun and I finished it yesterday! WOO! I did every single day. About 3 or 4 times I accidentally skipped a day so the next day I would start the day off with the previous day’s missed line-up. Later in the day I’d do my JanYOUary workouts and finish with the current day’s Flat Abs line-up.

Double the burn!! It was all good. There were times when I’d lose count of my roll-ups so I’d add 1 or 2 more on at the end to make sure. My abs would probably be flat by now if my diet had been good but it wasn’t so I’m still pudgy. But that’s okay because my abs are tons stronger. I have no idea how I was able to do all of that but I DID IT!!!

2. 30-Day Butt Lift Challenge

Everyone loved Cassey’s ab challenge and begged her to make another challenge for this month so she did! Thank goodness my abs get a break. They’ve been sore since Day 1 of the abs challenge. Now my butt gets to hurt starting tomorrow. But I LOVE working my butt now. Cassey has worked my butt so much in her videos that I’ve actually started to enjoy it. It’s so much stronger than it used to be and I feel like it looks way better. Less cellulite.

Don’t ask me to prove that though as my tape measure doesn’t really agree with me. It’s all about mental image though, right? I believe I look better than I used to so I do. My confidence will show through and make others see me the way I do as well.

3. Workout Calendars

Today’s the last day of the JanYOUary Calendar! WOO! Thank goodness I’m almost done. I really started to slip by the end. My left hip flexor is hurting so that I have to RICE it a lot. It’s annoying and I’m always forgetting. But at least I’ve found ways to stretch it that actually work now. Or maybe it’s just that it’s gotten so stiff that my stretching works now. Pfft. Ah well.

I feel I need to back off a bit from the calendars so I won’t be moving on to the FABruary Calendar (which will be available tomorrow on Blogilates…if you want the code for it, sign up for Cassey’s newsletter – it’s easy and free, just go to Blogilates and sign up). Instead, I’m going to try out her new Beginner’s 2.0 Calendar.

I’ll be adding in cardio from her printable cardio routines and her videos here and there as well. And that leads me right into…

3. February Weight Loss Challenge

Cassey is starting a new kind of motivation for those people who can’t push themselves on their own or with a buddy etc to lose weight. She’s started a group on DietBet for people who want to wage money that they can lose a certain amount of weight in February. It’s called the February Hot Body Challenge.

As you may imagine, it’s not free. It costs $30 to join the group but you get that money back…if you reach your goal by the end of the month. Starting February 2nd, you take a pic of yourself on the scale and also the weight the scale shows (you wear normal clothes). You have to send this in to the site as proof of your weight. It ends March 1st when you take the same pics over and send them in. Your goal is to lose 4% of your body weight within that time period.

The $30 you gave at the start goes into a community pot in the group. That pot will be divided evenly among the winners at the end of the month. If you succeed in your 4% weight loss, you get your $30 back PLUS your share of the community pot. If you fail, you lose your $30.

It scares me to bet that much money on my weight loss because I have no income (I made a deal with my husband for a monthly allowance or else my spending gets out of control) and lots of things can go wrong in a month, so I won’t be participating. However, I do like the idea so I’m going to do a much safer version of this with my husband as the banker. I’ll start February 2nd and take the pictures and give them to my husband. Then March 1st I’ll do it again and if I’ve lost my 4% then he’ll give me $30.

Good luck to me!

4. Blogilates Book

Last but definitely not least…

 

Cassey Ho’s book is coming out!! She can tell you better about it than I can so here’s the video she made about it.

Since I was going to buy it anyway when it comes out in April, I went ahead and pre-ordered it yesterday so I can get the free tote bag as well! Woo! She shows it in the video but, in case you didn’t watch the video, you can get a glimpse of part of it in the above pic of her book. Train Like A Beast Look Like A Beauty.

AHH!! I’m so excited!!!

JanYOUary Calendar & 10-Day Yoga (End of Transformation)

When I say this is the end of my transformation, I don’t really mean it’s the “end” end. I wasn’t a caterpillar who made a cocoon and popped out a butterfly. If I was I’d have wings and last I checked I wasn’t that cool.

I mean I’m all caught up with my transformation story. Or I will be as soon as I tell you about the calendar currently killing me.

Today is the 27th so I have videos like “Bodacious Back & Sleek Shoulders” to look forward to. Although that video has been on the calendar before, I’ve never done it because I hadn’t recorded it yet. But I have it now and I’m looking forward to trying it for the first time. It’s from Cassey’s Bikini Blaster series.

Toward the end of December, I started falling off with my exercise so I gave myself a new goal – instead of pushing myself to do every single video every day (which is impossible as I don’t buy the calendar on the Blogilates app so I never see the special video of the month; ie “New Year New You” for this month), I would push myself to do 1 video every day at the very least.

THE VERY LEAST.

This has made my life so much easier and I usually find myself doing far better than I would otherwise. Instead of dreading doing 5 intense videos, I look at the list for the day and start with 1 video then pick another and another. My average is 3 videos a day plus stretching after if I’m being good. However, there are days when I’m not feeling up to it or the videos given are super hard and I can’t bear to do more than 1 or 2. There are other days when I’m on top of the world and I get 4 videos done. I almost never get all 5 though. I think maybe it’s happened once this month.

Another reason for not doing every video every day is that my left hip flexor is having problems so I have to ease up on it. I’ve seen the doctor and his only advice was to stretch it, ice it, and take Ibuprofen. Considering I was trying to stretch it before, this might not seem like helpful advice. But I never thought to ice it or take Ibuprofen because I didn’t think it was enflamed or anything. And he suggested if my stretching wasn’t working to try different angles. Ding ding ding! Why that didn’t occur to me before when I do it with other muscle groups, I don’t know. Sometimes we need reminders from other people.

Oh yeah. And I should get up from my desk to walk around and stretch and not sit around so much. When my problems with that have gone away, I’ll increase the videos that center around those muscles but until then I’m taking it easy with them (maybe 1 or 2 of those videos instead of 3 or 4).

As for the 10-Day Hot Yoga Challenge from Absolute Yoga Academy, I’m having an awesome time! I’m on day 5 today though I haven’t done the pose yet. I almost never get the pose posted on the right day due to my own problems with internet and picture-taking but I always do them. I’m more flexible than I was in the last challenge and I was more flexible in that challenge than I was the last time I had done some of those poses. Stronger too.

(Standing Forehead to Knee Pose)

Woo! Look at those straight legs! Please don’t look at my curved back and hunched shoulders though. I was super excited to be able to get my legs straight because I’ve never been able to grab my foot and straighten the leg before. Then to get my head that close to my leg? So happy! My form is rotten though, I know.

This one is better…

(Standing Bow)

Don’t tell me my form’s bad on this one. If it is I don’t see it. Oh! Do you like my new yoga mat? Christmas present from my cousin! It’s from the Blogilates store; Cassey Ho designed it. I love it!

When it first came it stunk like new rubber and my sweat brings the smell out still, but I think it’s slowly going away the more I use it. The smell encourages me to always wipe it down with lemon wet wipes in the hopes that it’ll start to smell like lemons after awhile. So far it still smells like rubber but only when I really get movin’ on it.

I still can’t believe it’s long enough for me! My last one was way too short but there hadn’t been any other options at the time. My toes are so happy to be included on the mat now.

Today’s hot yoga pose (Day 5) is 2 in 1. Tree and Toe Stand Pose. I can both on their own. Let’s see if I can do them together.

To see my attempts at the 10-Day Hot Yoga Challenge, you can go to my Facebook page (CousinK8) or to my Instagram (kstjshin). You can still join in if you want. Just go to Absolute Yoga Academy and click on their Hot Yoga Challenge link. It’s free and open to all.

20-Day Yoga Body Challenge (Transformation Cont’d)

I tried to be a yoga person before but I never found a convenient way to practice. There were classes at my local Y that I liked before I canceled my membership, but the times weren’t convenient so it wasn’t often that I was able to go. I found a DVD I liked at the library but I haven’t bought it for lack of money. The one yoga DVD I own I’m not all that fond of.

As you know, my transformation has been with POP Pilates. If there’s a difference between POP Pilates and other Pilates, I don’t know what it is. I’m too new to this form of exercise and am content to just do what I’m told.

I don’t remember which month it was – November or December (or both) – but I stumbled across a 20-day challenge from YogaBody Fitness International (also at YogaBody Naturals) on Youtube. It was the 3^rd day or so of the challenge and I was sure I could do the poses given so far so I signed up through e-mail. Every day they’d send me a video tutorial (which was also shown on Youtube) of the day’s featured move. Usually they gave variations on how to make it harder or suggestions on where to stop to make it easier. It was okay if you couldn’t do the pose so long as you tried.

Some days I nailed it like when they asked for a Fish Pose. I was able to give them the harder Fish In Lotus Pose.

Other days I’d laugh at myself such as when I realized there was no way I was touching my toes in the Revolved Head-to-Toes Pose.

Usually I did a fairly good job (in my opinion)…

(Camel Pose)

(Bound Side Angle Pose)

While other times I did a great job for me…

(Attempted Dragonfly Pose)

(Bird of Paradise Pose – my version is wilted…I guess it was out of season and the flowers were dying)

My most difficult, and therefore greatest, success was Crow Pose.

I tried this move a couple years ago for the first time but couldn’t get my feet off the ground. It was an unbelievably hard move and something I never thought I’d be able to accomplish. As difficult as it was this time around, I was able to hold it for a solid amount of time without wobbling. I was so excited!

Except this move wasn’t part of the challenge. The real pose was to get into Crow Pose and then move into a Tripod Headstand before finishing off in Crow again.

I knew I didn’t have the upper body strength to do that so I broke it into two poses and tried them each individually. The first, as you know, was a tremendous success. The second was an epic failure.

Epic.

Failure.

I was in the process here of lifting my legs and I was thinking, “Holy Cow! I’m gonna do it! I’m really gonna do it!!!”

And then I freaked. And fell. Into the couch. Except my legs didn’t go straight back, they went back and to the side because my somersault was interrupted by the couch. My neck creaked and kind of crunched. There was pain. I pushed myself to continue to roll to the side into a sitting position. And then shocked momentum at what had just happened carried me down onto my back. I waited. Was there any pain? Numbness? Tingling? Could I feel everything? Could I move everything?

Yes, I was fine. But my neck was sore and a bit stiff, like I had just gone to the chiropractor to have it popped. It was worse the next day and the pain didn’t abate for about 4 days. After about 2 weeks, I was pain-free and able to do whatever I wanted again without fear. Of course, by that point, Cassey Ho’s calendars had the 9 Steps to a Headstand video on the relaxing/stretching days. HA! As if I was going to subject my neck to that kind of thing again. Not likely.

My husband was so scared because he was the one behind the camera. He got the fall shot by shot but I deleted them after examining them to see where I went wrong. He made me promise not to try it again. As exhilarating as the prospect of success was, I wasn’t keen on risking the fall again.

I tried. I failed. End of story. I’m cool with the headstand on your elbows against a wall, but I don’t think I’ll be trying the Tripod Headstand again anytime soon if ever again. However, if I was allowed to keep my knees on my elbows instead of raising my legs up straight, I’d be cool with trying it again.

(My husband had no difficulties doing this pose. He’s been able to do it since childhood and flipped himself into it with no hesitation or practice that night.)

My poses (over 20 of them…sometimes I did both variations of a given pose) during the 20-Day Yoga Body Challenge are on Instagram (kstjshin) and on Facebook (CousinK8). If you want to see how to pretzel yourself up too, go to YogaBody Fitness International (or YogaBody Naturals…same thing)on Youtube and watch the videos. Or if you’re interested in repeating the challenge on your own, go to the same place.

I had a lot of fun during those 20 days. Some of the poses were easy and others were quite challenging. Watching the video tutorials gave me confidence that I could do them though because the ladies in the videos made it all look so simple. And, broken down into increments like that, they were simple. I simply followed the steps given and I would usually find myself in what I thought was an impossible pose (*cough*Bird of Paradise*cough*).

Always challenge yourself. Don’t shy away from something because you think it’s too difficult. If you go ahead and try it, you may be surprised at what you can do.

Speaking of yoga challenges, I was just sent an invite for another! The Absolute Yoga Academy is starting a new 10-day hot yoga challenge this Friday (1/23/15).

It all starts 23 January, and you can find more information about it here:

Your 10-Day Hot Yoga Challenge!  
Yoga tutorial videos will be released each day from the 23 January onward.

We have tons of great prizes (over $2,000 in prizes in total). Enter to win by posting your photo to Facebook and/or Instagram with tags #HotYogaChallenge and @AbsoluteYogaAcademy and that’s it! 
Prizes will be announced every day, and yes, we ship worldwide!

Next time I’ll get myself all caught up with my transformation through Blogilates and end with the JanYOUary Calendar.

DecemBURN – Transformation Continued

As my husband says, “Oh my holy cow.” I gained so much strength and flexibility from the Blogilates Beginner’s Calendar. I thought I was ready for one of Cassey Ho’s regular monthly calendars.

I was and I was not.

As difficult as I thought the Beginner’s Calendar was at the start of that calendar, Decemburn was so much worse. It burned. Big time. I took more breaks and used more modifications in order to get through it. Toward Christmas I started to slack off because my son was out of school for winter break. For once my husband took a ton of time off for the winter break too. There were too many movies watched and too many afternoons of watching my husband nap. I got lazy.

But I didn’t give up. I just didn’t do every single workout every day like I had been pushing myself to do. The workout line-up had gotten so difficult toward the end of the month that I found myself making more and more excuses to procrastinate and then not do them. It occurred to me that I was pushing myself too hard and didn’t want to continue again so I backed off after Christmas and promised myself that, as long as I did at least one video a day (preferably 2-3 at least), then I could consider the day a success and be done.

With that in mind, I felt renewed and was able to push myself (not difficult to do anymore) to do a few workouts every day for the rest of the month. Though I started to fumble early to mid-20s in the month, I finished strong and happy.

Sometime during December (or possibly during the Beginner’s Calendar), I found Cassey’s How To Do A Headstand video. After watching it I thought I’d try it. I’d be against a wall so what was the worst that could happen, right? I’d fall over. It was more a battle of conquering my fear of falling. And that fear I did and do have.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Not a flattering picture but I’m more interesting in the fact that my feet are above my head! And I’m not leaning against the wall! Woo!

Around that time I also started a yoga challenge. I’ll comment more on that next time.

I’m Baaaaack! Beginner’s Calendar: Start of Transformation

*Warning: This is long.*

To those of you who noticed I was gone, thank you! I love you guys! To the rest of the world, I took a break from blogging a couple months ago because I was no longer the “Fitness Freak” I was when I started this blog. I didn’t feel like I was qualified to say anything about fitness much less give advice about it when I couldn’t stick to my own exercise plan. Every challenge I set for myself, no matter how small, ended in failure. Entire weeks would go by with me sitting on my butt doing diddly squat.

We should all do squats, right? They’re awesome for our thighs and butt! However, “diddly” squat is not a squat and should be avoided at all costs.

I said before that I needed time to get my life back in order. Experts say that daily exercise becomes a habit if kept up for 3 months so I thought to wait 3 months before coming back to this blog. After that amount of time, I’d be able to succeed at the goals and challenges I publically set for myself rather than advertise them to the world and then publically fail. However, I’ve been caught up in the New Year wave and have been doing so well in my fitness goals and am so happy with where I am right now that I thought I’d come back early.

What have I been doing for the past 2 months?

I’ve been transforming myself into a Popster!

Cassey Ho from Blogilates has been so influential in changing my attitude etc. In all honesty, I don’t think I would’ve been nearly so successful if it hadn’t been for her. All it took was one comment from her on her Facebook page and I was hooked. She showed me that she cared. Out of the hundreds of comments to her post, she responded to mine. It wasn’t long and it wasn’t the most original but it was personal. She had read my entire comment and replied to me. It made me feel awesome and special which is something I hadn’t felt like in a while.

I started with her Beginner’s Calendar to ease myself back into the exercise world. Lemme tell ya, it was difficult!

I told myself during every workout that it was okay to go at my own pace, to make modifications, to rest when I needed it. Every workout. I needed the reminders because I’m the sort who will go all out until I want to die and then I don’t want to do it again the next time or I feel depressed because I couldn’t keep up with the instructor and I eventually give up.

That first week I was SO sore! The pain (a good pain) peaked during the weekend (I started on a Monday) and then that rest day on Sunday allowed my muscles to regain some semblance of life so that when the 2^nd week started, I was no longer so sore. Nor did I get as sore until week 4 when Cassey upped the game with more (and harder) workouts.

That workout that’s repeated every Monday – POP Pilates for Beginners: Total Body Workout – was super hard for me in the beginning but it got progressively easier every week. Every repeated workout got easier which is why you will see that Cassey adds on different workouts to go along with them.

My body adjusted and got stronger. Every day I worked myself as hard as I could with each workout, taking breaks and doing modifications whenever I needed them. There were times I so didn’t want to do it but I pushed myself to get it over with because the videos are short. Most of them are 10 minutes or less. A lot of them are in the teens while some killers are in the 20s. With a video being 5 minutes, I’d tell myself, “It’s only 5 minutes,” and I’d do it. Then the next video would be about the same and I’d tell myself the same thing. Next thing I know, I’ve done 20 minutes or more and I’m done for the day! There were many a day when I’d break up my exercise time and do a video in the morning, another in the afternoon, and another in the evening or whatever. They were short and didn’t get me sweaty so it was totally doable.

I got through the entire Beginner’s Calendar without skipping one workout. Not one! For the first time in over half a year, I succeeded at a fitness challenge. I even met the goals I had set for myself for the first month. I felt stronger, I had lost 5lbs and a total of several inches, I was healthier, and most importantly I was happy. Every day felt like Christmas because I was so proud of myself and what I had accomplished.

It also felt like Christmas because my husband let me spend money on early presents for myself.

I’ll leave the second month of my transformation for the next post. If you’re inspired so far though and want to try the path I took, take a trip on over to Blogilates and see Cassey Ho’s site for yourself. She has exercise/motivational/recipe videos, calendars, printable versions of many of her workouts, an app that you can download that has all that and more including a forum where you can talk to other Popsters and post videos/pictures of yourself etc. And the best part is that it’s all free! She has some dvds out as well and a couple sites that sell clothes, yoga mats, fitness journals, etc (ShopBlogilates and BodyPop). Some of it can get pricey (most notably the Bodypop active clothing line), but it’s all good quality. At least, my clothes haven’t fallen apart yet anyway.

Anyway, until next time when I go into the DecemBURN calendar!

Oh! By the way, Cassey’s made a new Beginner’s Calendar.