New Challenge from Cassey Ho

Cassey Ho’s newest challenge starts January 2nd and continues through the month to the 29th. Although the challenge is simple to explain, it won’t be simple to do and I’ll admit right off the bat that I won’t be able to succeed 100% in it.

It’s an eating challenge. While it’s a “diet” challenge, it’s also not. It’s not an “I’m going on a diet and I’m going to lose weight and get thin this year” kind of challenge. It’s an “I’m going to change my dietary habits and see how certain foods affect me” kind of challenge.

Here it is in a nutshell:

Cut Out 5 Types of Food/Drink:

1. Dairy
2. Gluten
3. Added Sugar (as opposed to naturally occurring like in fruit)
4. Processed Foods
5. Alcohol

Hey! I’ve already got 1 out of 5 perfected! I don’t drink alcohol. Ever. I’m not against it or anything. I used to love beer (and there are times I miss the taste). That was my go-to alcoholic beverage. Then I found out I have a gluten sensitivity and the way I felt after drinking a beer wasn’t normal. It felt like my blood was poisoned. Not a hangover, just poisoned blood flowing through my veins. I got the same feeling after eating too much gluten. I’ve never cared for other types of alcohol and eventually I came to dislike feeling tipsy so I stopped drinking altogether. Not a big deal. I don’t miss it at all. If I could get some non-alcoholic, gluten-free Sam Adams beer, I’d be a very happy camper. But I doubt it would taste the same so there’s really no point.

Keeping dairy out won’t be a problem since I’m lactose-intolerant and I don’t have a whole lot of dairy anyway. Here’s what I’ll have issues with during this challenge:

• cheese
• bread
• processed foods
• sweets

But I’m going to do my best to erase cheese and sweets from my diet and cut back on the bread as much as possible. Processed foods…well…my favorite soup (which I eat 1-2x a day) has hot dogs and spam in it and my fav snack is peanut butter and celery. So that’s going to be extremely difficult. But I’ll cut back on it all. As in no extra processed foods outside the soup and eat less peanut butter with my celery…and only eat it with my celery.

There isn’t a challenge in the world that will make me cut down on the amount of sugar I put in my coffee every morning. I already went through the process several years ago of cutting that down as much as possible. It took a month of slowly cutting back so my taste buds could adjust before I reached the point where it was unbelievably nasty so I stopped and stayed where I was. Everyone else in my family who tries it thinks it’s nasty and needs more sugar so I figure I’m good.

Cassey has provided a free PDF that people can download which you can download on her blog post – Take the 28 Day Reset Challenge. This is a FREE challenge. You can buy the Blogilates 28 Day Reset meal plan (there are 2 versions – a regular version for meat eaters and a vegan version) to help you with this. In fact, it would be really helpful if you did because it gives you meals so you don’t have to guess at what to eat.

I have the 28-Day Reset meal plan (non-vegan) and I can attest to the meals being super nutritious, tasty, and easy to make. Some of them can get pricey (in my opinion), but that’s because I’m not used to buying a lot of those ingredients. “Expensive” and “cheap” are relative terms, but the meals are good and that plan would make the challenge a lot easier to accomplish. However, you don’t need to buy it if you don’t have the money for it. The free PDF provided on her website should be help enough to do this.

If you have questions about what you can and can’t eat, you can ask me here or you can ask people on her blog or on FB page – Blogilates. Tons of people are available to help you out if/when you need it. I’ve done a challenge like this before – it’s how I found out dairy and gluten are bad for me. I’m really glad I did find out because I spent my entire life thinking I wasn’t a breakfast kind of person because I always felt sick to my stomach after eating breakfast. Well, I always had cereal or shakes etc that had milk in it. I cut out dairy and have stopped feeling sick (unless I eat it, gluten, or too much sugar).

It’s true that I lost beer because of gluten but I’m still super happy I discovered my intolerance. I get super gassy and bloated and can seriously win (against men!) belching competitions if I eat the “right” kinds of food beforehand. As for the smell…damn. Just damn. I’m like Shrek farting in a fish pond – fish die. That stench is no joke. And the acne can get super bad. Ugh.

It’s all kinds of badness when I eat the wrong foods. But I don’t experience all of that with every kind of dairy and gluten product. I know what triggers the worst side-effects and I treat that stuff like it harbors ecoli or the plague.

As for the fitness portion of this challenge, it’s even more simple.

Exercise 6 Days A Week

That’s it. It could be walking, bike riding, a POP Pilates class, anything! The PIIT28 program (1.0 or 2.0 if you’ve progressed that far) goes perfectly with this but I’m not asking you to join that as well. As with the Blogilates 28-Day Reset meal plan, you can if you want but they’re both going to be difficult so you’re forewarned. I’ll be doing POP Pilates and walking. Also, my YMCA is holding a Couch Potato Triathlon from Jan 9 till Feb 24th so when that starts I’ll also be biking and swimming. I even have a new swim top for it! High necked so I won’t have to worry about my boobs falling out. Yeah, my ladies have issues staying put and my swim tops are low cut.

So join me (or not) this new year in a new challenge to get healthier and see how food affects you. We’re trying to reset our bodies here or at least get as much of the bad stuff out as we can. Good luck to everyone!!

POP News

Quick POP Pilates update!

Coming January – POP 8!!

The new POP format is coming out in January! Get ready for some brand new POP fun to learn for your classes if you’re an instructor and experience in your class if you’re one of the students. Are you excited? I’m excited!

POP Pilates For Beginners!

If you’re interested in trying POP Pilates but aren’t sure if it’s for you or if you want to try something new but aren’t sure if you’re strong enough etc for it (or any variation of any reason that might lead to trying POP Pilates), here are a few videos from Cassey’s new POP Pilates for Beginners series. Remember, her series usually come in 5’s so there should be 2 more on the way in the near future.

1. Flat Abs Workout | POP Pilates for Beginners – 18 minutes
2. Arm Fat Blaster | POP Pilates for Beginners – 15 minutes
3. Butt Lifting & Thigh Sculpting Workout | POP Pilates for Beginners – 17 minutes

FYI, those video times include the verbal intros and endings. The workout itself isn’t quite as long. In fact, throughout the videos, Cassey gives explanations on how to do each move and how to modify the moves to make them easier or harder. While you’re getting a good workout in, you’re still getting plenty of rest time to get through the burn.

Enjoy the workouts! I’ve embedded the Arm Fat Blaster video here because you can stand or sit in front of your computer and do these moves. No need to crane your head around to see the screen. It’s super simple. Looks can be deceiving though…

Potential New Class

As you know, I’m currently experimenting with PIIT28. The experiment is to change all cardio moves from high to low impact and see how it goes. Not a huge experiment, it’s true, but this will give me an idea if the program is still doable by people who have bad knees or if it’s a waste of money. Honestly, it can never be a “waste” of money per se if it succeeds in getting you moving and it’s going to make you fitter no matter how you modify the cardio.

A squat is still a squat even if you don’t add in a jump.

My butt can attest to that.

But, you know, if someone pays for a program that’s both cardio and strength training, they’re going to want both. So far, I can say with all sincerity that, despite changing all jumps to their low/no impact counterparts, I’m still getting my cardio in. Granted, I could do with a bit more cardio, but by the end I’m sweating and my muscles are tired. Not exhausted, but a good degree of tired. The following day my legs are sore. It feels good. I mean, it hurts but it feels like I’m working hard.

Doing this program made me kinda curious (okay, very extremely like totally excited kind of curious) about the idea of teaching it as a class. So I spoke with both my boss and the people in charge of PIIT28 to see if it would be doable at my gym and legal etc. I’m glad I did speak with the PIIT28 people because I love what Cassey Ho has done and I don’t want to accidentally steal her hard work.

I broached the PIIT28 people with my class idea etc and also asked if they had considered creating a certification for people to teach actual PIIT. Here was their answer:

Hi Kathryn,

We have not developed a PIIT28 group fitness class certification, but it is something that we hope to do in the future.

If you were to teach a class like this we would ask that you do not brand it as PIIT28 or PIIT since those are trademarked titles.

Thank you for reaching out to us about this and we are hopeful to one day have a PIIT certification program which will allow you to use Cassey’s name, branding and choreography to help people reach their fitness goals.

All the best from The POP/PIIT28 Team!

My class idea was to keep a similar format of alt cardio/st moves but change the moves themselves so I wasn’t stealing Cassey’s workouts. I had toyed with the idea of promotional PIIT28 classes but they didn’t comment on that so I’m going to steer clear of it. Now my biggest brain buster is what would I call it? I can’t call it PIIT because, as they pointed out, it’s a trademarked title.

Cardio and Pilates…CarPit!

Yeah, I’m laughing. Makes me think of two things: 1) carpets and 2) the armpit of a car.

We’re low on Intermediate classes at my YMCA so maybe we can make a new class that combines lower intensity cardio and Pilates strength training. I wonder how difficult a class can get before it’s branded as an Advanced class. Maybe switching the cardio and strength training so there’s more ST and make the cardio moves more low impact?

Anyway, if anyone loves PIIT28 and was wondering about there ever being a certification to teach it or to go to live classes, then there’s your answer – they’re hoping to create a certification sometime in the future. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed! I, for one, would LOVE to teach it!

Click on above to buy PIIT28 1.0 program