Monthly Archives

October 2014

Fitness

How to have your best workout ever

October 29, 2014

Any guesses as to how to have your best workout ever? …

Amazing workout music!

Seems obvious, but having music that will keep you pumped and motivated can be key to getting through a hard workout. Of course there are other factors that come into play, such as endurance and strength, but having a great playlist can give you that extra push and keep your head in a positive place. I cannot tell you how many times I have gone to the gym with thoughts such as “Ugh, this workout is going to be SO hard”, “I just don’t feel like it today …” running in my head. Your mind has a lot of power over you and so it is vital to make sure you feel positive, excited and pumped for a workout.

My Favorite Music to Workout to

I recently discovered the Ubercast (courtesy of Kayla Itsines blog) and love it! There is a new podcast every month featuring an hour’s worth of really cool and upbeat tunes. Below is the latest episode, so give that a listen to the next time you workout and let me know how it went. It helped me tremendously this week. I am currently on week 6 of Kayla Itsines BBG and I impressed myself. I took minimal rests and kept pushing myself (just 1 more burpee!!). I was getting a little bit bored of the music that was on my gym playlist; it’s always good to update it and/or download music podcasts!

https://soundcloud.com/uberjakd/the-ubercast-ep-16

[Tweet “This is how to have your best workout ever!”]

If you know of any other podcasts with upbeat music that is perfect to workout too, then I would love to know. The more good music, the better!

Honestly yours,
Alice

Featured image courtesy of Dallas News

Fitness

Kayla Itsines Round 2 – Week 5

October 26, 2014
Kayla Itsines Round 2 - Week 5

I cannot believe it has already been a month since I have started! This month has been so full of workouts, food, friends, ups and downs. It is amazing how much can happen in a month.

Kayla Itsines Round 2 – Week 5

I was really nervous for this week because even though all of the Kayla Itsines workouts are hard, things really get turned up a notch for weeks 5-7 and weeks 6-8. Needless to say, my body felt like lead for most of this week! The arm workout was definitely the most challenging for me though due to the crazy combo of mountain climber push ups, decline push ups, and tricep dips with legs raised. I was only able to get through 1 and a half sets of each arms and abs workout and it was so hard driving back home after lol. I am excited to see how much stronger I get over the next few weeks though and I welcome the challenge (and having my arms more toned!). The abs and cardio workout wasn’t bad at all although I still couldn’t get through 2 sets of each circuit :/ One circuit had 3 minutes of jump rope (which only gave me 4 minutes to run through the rest of the exercises) and in the other circuit, the raised leg sit ups really take me a while to get through. Does anyone else take a while doing raised leg sit ups?

Kayla Itsines Round 2 - Week 5

Food wise, this was a great week. I have been obsessed with eating warm brown rice and chicken salad with this fabulous sun dried tomato and herb goat cheese that I picked up at Safeway. It is delicious, healthy and surprisingly quite filling. I also picked up some sprouted ancient grains tortillas at Whole Foods on Friday and have been using that to make delicious turkey wraps with tzatziki. I was particularly hungry during the weekend (think ‘that time of the month’) so I ate a little more than usual. Ooh, and I got an amazing health package delivered to me on Friday by the kind people at Purity Organic! Purity Organic are a local and San Francisco based company that make organic juices, teas and coconut water. Everything I have tasted so far has been so delicious and I am excited to slowly make my way through everything they have to offer 🙂

[Tweet “Make this easy & healthy salad – 2C salad leaves, 1/2C brown rice, grilled chicken, sundried tomato and herb goat cheese!”]

Kayla Itsines Round 2 - Week 5

Along with the usual 10 million hours of studying in the library, I attended the Breast Cancer Walk in golden gate park this Saturday morning. It was so much fun! A family friend of mine died from cancer not too long ago and my godfather died of throat cancer, so I loved to think that I was helping out a great cause today. I gave my friends some juice and coconut water which the kind people over at Purity Organic gave me, and they loved them!

Kayla Itsines Round 2 - Week 5

Kayla Itsines Round 2 - Week 5

Today is rest day (from fitness anyway, I spent the whole day in the library as per usual lol)! 

What did you get up to this weekend?

Honestly yours,
Alice xx

P.S. If you missed it, make sure you check out my review on The Balanced Blonde app by clicking here.

Blogs I love, Fitness, Health

The Balanced Blonde App

October 23, 2014

The Balanced Blonde (a.k.a Jordan Younger) is a blogger who recently released her own app! For those who do not know Jordan, let me give a little bit of background information about her. 

Who is ‘The Balanced Blonde’?

creator of The Balanced Blonde App Jordan Younger

Jordan was formerly known as The Balanced Vegan, before changing to The Balanced Blonde (read more about that interesting development here). She is a gorgeous and very sweet blogger whom I recently discovered, and who is one of the few bloggers in the health and wellness sphere that is relateable. She is very down to earth and is honest in how she tries to keep an active, healthy, and happy life. Jordan was kind enough to answer some questions I had about the app.

HF: Where did the inspiration come to create an app?

TBB: I wanted to create an app for a few reasons. The first and most important reason is because I am hugely passionate about bringing health and wellness to as many people as possible, and creating an app seemed like the best way to reach the largest amount of people in the most affordable way for them. There is a stigma that eating healthy has to be expensive and time-consuming. While I do invest quite a bit in organic produce and fresh fruits and veggies, I do NOT spend a lot of time in the kitchen. These apps were created for the busy, on-the-go, kicking booty young/old/everything in between business women and men, and moms and dads who want to be as healthy as they can without dedicating their whole lives to cooking healthy food. It’s all about BALANCE, yes?
 
Secondly… I am totally obsessed with creating as much for my readers and following as possible, and an app seemed like the logical next step. I love sharing healthy recipes, wellness tips, food photography and above all else CONNECTING and giving back to the amazing following who I appreciate ever so much. I could go on and on, but these are the main reasons. Oh! And Cyrus Kiani from TouchZen Media reached out with his expertise and an amazing plan, and the rest was history!

HF: What else can we expect to see from The Balanced Blonde and TBB app in the future?

 
TBB: Well, The Balanced Blonde is doin’ some exciting things over here!! I am working on my memoir right now titled Breaking Vegan that will be out in October 2015. The memoir is a firsthand account of my battle with orthorexia, my journey through veganism, and how I found balance again. The second half of the book is a step by step guide to finding balance in your life and living healthfully without letting it take over. There is a fitness guide, 25 recipes never before seen on the blog or app, and a lifestyle guide. And TBB App will continue to be updated once a month with 4 new (free) recipes per month, and 1 new (free) healthy living guide per month. I hope to continue adding and creating as much as possible! And of course TBV Apparel is up and thriving, and we are hoping to get that into stores ASAP. Right now it’s available on www.theblondeveganstore.com and we have a ton of fun with it. And of course I will continue blogging on the daily, because that’s my bread and butter! And connecting with all of my amazing peeps.
 
All exciting stuff, huh?!

My Thoughts on TBB app

Jordan asked via social media to email her if anyone wanted the pre-release link for the TBB app, and of course I did! She was kind enough to send me the link and I wanted to let you all know what I thought about it. I downloaded it on Wednesday afternoon and my first thoughts upon opening it were “SO CUTE!!!”. The app opens up with a beautiful collage of various recipes and then takes you to a recipes page which features breakfast recipes, dessert recipes, and more. The ‘Jars of Yum’ was probably my favorite section as I love anything that I can put in my mason jar and easily bring around with me. You can favorite recipes you like and you can also add them to a ‘shopping list’ so that you know exactly what ingredients to buy. There’s also a section where you can view  Jordan’s clothing line ‘Truth, Balance, Virtue’. I think this is a great idea because a lot of times, I find browsing through online stores on my phone to be such a hassle. They are not optimized at all, whereas TBB app is 🙂 

 review of the balanced blonde app

A real stand out feature for me was the ‘Guides’ section. It contains several guides which give you really detailed and informative advice. Here’s a teaser … “Debunking the Diet Myths” and “8 Tips for Losing Bloat & Water Weight”.

Stand out recipes: Blueberry Mint Cocktail, Chocolate Quinoa Dessert, PB & J Chocolate Oats, and the Mashed Avo Breakfast Pizza

The app does come with a price however. At first, like most people, I was not too happy about paying for something. But I got over that really fast because you know what? $3.99 is the price of a latte from Starbucks and quite frankly, I could tell that Jordan put in so much hard work and time into the app. The app gives you a wealth of resources and will be updated once a month with more free recipes. Although yes, you can find healthy recipes online, I absolutely love the variety and creativity of the recipes and the fact that you can create shopping lists, organize your favorites and have it all stored in one easy place. Also, just an FYI, there are no recipes involving meat. But you can add meat to a lot of the recipes if you want, and it’s always fun to experiment with meatless meals.

Do any of you know about The Balanced Blonde? What are your experiences with the app?

Honestly yours,
Alice xx