Reality of You

Real talk about health, fitness, and weight loss.

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App Workout Challenge Day #3: FitStar Yoga

APP WORKOUT CHALLENGE

This is part of the 30 Day iPhone App Workout Challenge. Join and read all the posts here.

Welcome to day three, you fit people you! Now that we’ve run from zombies, done crunches like we were in a 90’s infomercial, and ate protein pancakes to help aid recovery, it’s time to do some yoga.

I’ve written about the benefits of yoga in the past, and today we’re doing yoga with one of my favorite yoga instructors, TARA STILES! For those of you who did the 30 Day Youtube Workout, you’ll remember doing several weight loss yoga and strength training yoga routines.

Well, Tara Stiles is back with an app that offers personalized yoga routines that grow with your ability.

Let’s get started!fit star yoga

App to Download: FitStar Yoga (free in the app store)

Workout Length: 40+ minutes

Type of Workout: Yoga

What you need: Yoga mat

About Fit Star YogaFit Star Yoga Review

I like this app because during the workout, you can tap the screen to let the app know that a pose is too hard for you, and at the end of the session you can let the app know if any of the poses were too easy.

Future workouts will be adjusted to meet your exercise level.

This app is also great since you can also change

Today’s Workout

Do the yoga intro, and then one yoga workout of your choice. This app offers great themed yoga that keeps the sessions interesting. Since the app is so personalized, it’s up to you to decide what you want to do, just make sure you’re challenging yourself.

Today’s workout is about recovery as well as improving your flexibility, balance, and strength.

One of the things I’d suggest if you’re up to it is to try and make yoga a daily practice. If you’re up to it, I challenge you to do yoga each day for the rest of the 30 day challenge in addition to the rest of the daily challenges. It’s a great stress reliever and without yoga, there is no way I could stay sane.

Also, for those of you doing this challenge in real time, happy fall! I finally got to break out my favorite sweater since it went from 85 to 60 degrees overnight here in LA. (Los Angeles does seasons like college students do essays — haphazardly and overnight.)

Good luck and see you tomorrow!it's fall clothing yay

-Amy

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I Tried Hanging Yoga and Now Everything Hurts (Workout Review)

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I feel like it’s my responsibility as a girl who runs a health blog to continue to explore the great wide world of fitness and tell you what works and what doesn’t. So, dear readers, I ventured out to The Yoga Hangout and did exactly what you see in the picture above: hanging yoga.

What Is Hanging Yoga

It’s exactly what it sounds like. There’s a strap on the wall, and you do all sorts of yoga poses in mid-air using the strap in different ways. In my class we did a TON of suspended side planks and as a result it hurts to laugh because my obliques are so sore.

One of the moves we did in class was a plank/pike. We lowered the strap so it was like six inches off the ground, put our ankles in the strap and did a plank so our feet were off the ground suspended by the strap, and then proceeded to “pike” in a v-shape, keeping our legs straight and drawing our hips up and feet towards our hands.

Is Hanging Yoga Effective?

[Read more…]

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5 Tips For Better Beach Yoga (Beginner Routine Included!)

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I’m in Maui, and I thought, hey! I should do some yoga by the beach! So I did. *gasp* *trumpets*

I’ve got some tips you might want to read, along with a simple routine for you to follow. If you’re not a yoga person, I wrote an article on why you should be!

Right after my yoga session, I also went running along the coast, and it was gorgeous. Such an amazing experience. And i had no idea I could get that much sand in my tennis shoes.

Anyways, here are the tips!

1. Bring a mat or a beach towel, or find a grassy spot.

As nice as it is to just be like the chick in the lovely stock image above and say I’m going to be one with nature and just do this yoga on the sand don’t. Downward dog is tough when the sand is caving in around your hands and feet, and 99% chance you’re going to get it in your eyes and under your nails and it’ll be gross (unless you’re truly a badass Yogi, then congrats because I don’t know how you do it.)

I was lucky enough to find a nice grassy hill by the water that was just as good, so I didn’t need a towel or a mat.

2. Plan a routine — and then do what you want.

It’s nice to have a routine to start with, and then kinda do what you feel like. If you know a few moves you want to do to start off with, then you can really just enjoy the sound of the waves as you move through a simple vinyasa flow or a few asana poses, and then just improvising from there.  [Read more…]

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4 Reasons to Do Yoga

I had my first yoga class today, and it was amazing. I have never felt so relaxed and in touch with my body. The aches and pains and soreness from all the running I’ve been doing lately just melted away, and it was one of the best fitness experiences I’ve had to date.

So other than personally telling you that yoga is the best thing you’ll do for yourself, I’ve also got a host of other reasons why you need to start doing yoga.

Here they are:

1. Run Faster

Yoga teaches body awareness, and helps improve your stride.

“When you stretch your body properly, and strengthen opposing muscle groups in balance, you increase your range of motion, and can move more quickly through space. For example, the space between the start and finish lines.

The yoga breath has been shown to increase endurance in marathoners by twice the distance in just one session!”

Source

2. Lose Weight [Read more…]

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App Workout Challenge Day #4: 7 Minute Superhero Workout!

APP WORKOUT CHALLENGE

This is part of the 30 Day iPhone App Workout Challenge. Join and read all the posts here.

Are you ready to save the world and get fit while doing so?? Six to Start, the company that made Zombies Run, also made today’s intense workout where you complete HIIT moves in order to save the world from perilous scenarios! I hope you’re ready to go because today’s workout is going to be intense!

sixtostart7minutehiitappreviewApp to Download: 7 Minute Superhero Workout ($2.99 in the app store)

Workout Length: 12 minutes

Type of Workout: High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

What you need: A wall to sit on, somewhere to place your ipad/ipod/etc. [Read more…]

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3 Things to Know About Protein and Weight Loss

ProteinandWeightLoss

The fitness community can pretty adequately be summarized by these three things: protein powder, yoga, and fruit water. 

Today I’m here to talk about protein, which always seems to be at the center of every blog post ever (I know, I know, I’m #basic now that I’ve broken down and am blogging about protein and protein powders but I’m only answering your questions ok???)

1. Know how much protein you need per day to reach your goals.

Protein helps with weight loss because it boosts your metabolic rate and decreases your appetite (source.) The common recommendation for those trying to get lean is around 1 gram of protein per pound, although it does really depend on how active your lifestyle is and your goals.

I really hate the nitty-gritty details of protein calculations, so if you need more info on this, I would recommend this website.

2. Protein powder and shakes aren’t necessarily the answer.

The main issue with protein powders, bars, and shakes is that these things can contain high levels of sugar and artificial ingredients. Supplements might make sense if you’re struggling to reach your daily protein goals as-is, but make sure you do your research. Pick protein that is plant-based, and doesn’t have soy as too much soy can increase your estrogen levels too high.

As a rule, I try and stay away from supplements except for daily multivitamins, but I’m giving Vega protein powder a try to see how it affects my workout schedule and the results of my training, and I’ll let you know how it goes!

3. Try and eat protein at every meal.

Whether that’s meat, fish, legumes, tofu, or whatever else floats your boat, try and make protein a center for your meals.

I love bean soup, quinoa and fish, avocado eggs, and things like parfaits for snacks.

Make whole, healthy foods your first stop, and only use protein powders for things like post-workout recovery drinks. Protein powders don’t have all the nutrients that whole foods have, so I would warn against using them as meal replacements too often.

…

There you have it! What’s your favorite source of protein? Let me know in the comments!

30 Day iPhone App Workout Challenge!

APP WORKOUT CHALLENGE

Join us in November for the 30 Day iPhone App Workout Challenge! This #AppWorkoutChallenge is going to be APP-solutely amazing!

Get ready for a month of fitness and bad puns! iPromise you will be in shape and wanting to kill me for my killer wordplay by the end of the month 🙂

READ BELOW FOR HOW TO SIGN UP!

Benefits of the 30 Day App Workout Challenge

Let’s face it: gym memberships are expensive — and even when you do pay, how often can you motivate yourself to go?

The main factors keeping you from working out include:

  • being bored by your workouts
  • not having a structure or plan
  • cost of a gym membership
  • lack of a community
  • not enough use of #unnecessary #hashtags in your #favorite #fitness #blogs (I got you covered #blessed)

With the 30 Day App Workout Challenge, I want to come up with a plan that:

  • Introduces you to the wide range of fitness apps I love like ZOMBIES RUN and LOLO TREADMILL TRAINER that will take your training to the next level
  • Create a structured, thought-out fitness plan that integrates STRENGTH, FLEXIBILITY, INTERVAL, and CARDIO categories to provide a dynamic and effective training plan to help you burn fat and lose weight
  • Is useful and challenging to ALL LEVELS OF FITNESS with blog posts that explain how you can customize your workouts each day to get the most out of them
  • Is something we do TOGETHER as a community! Use the hashtag #APPWORKOUTCHALLENGE to post pictures of your progress, your workouts, and your struggles
  • IS FREE!!!!!!!!! Because I’m broke, you’re broke, and getting fitness is hard enough without the cost.

Consider Donating

I spend a lot of time trying to make sure these workout challenges are up to your standards and mine and will actually provide real results (other than an increased usage in your phone’s data.)

Please consider donating a few dollars that would have otherwise been spent on a gym membership to help me do what I love and provide you guys with awesome fitness resources!

-Amy




How to Sign-Up

Sign up for my EMAIL LIST so that you get daily updates during the challenge! As a bonus, you’ll also receive cool subscriber-only printables and such:

In order to stay motivated for each day of the challenge and get all of the additional fitness tips that go along with the challenge, be sure to LIKE Reality of You on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, & follow me on Tumblr!

The 30 Day App Workout Challenge

Day-by-day posts coming soon! Be sure to sign-up to get them!

Day 1: Zombies Run Interval Workout

Day 2: Carrot Fit Interval Strength Workout

Day 3: FitStar Yoga Workout

Day 4: 7 Minute Superhero Workout

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7 Day Clean-Up: Passing the FBI Fitness Test and Other Fitness Goal-Setting Tips [Day 3]

7daycleanupnew

This is part of the 7 Day Clean-Up Series. See all posts in the series here.

This summer, my best friend was like, “Amy, we have to be able to pass the FBI fitness test. Y’know, for fun. Also job security since we’re graduating.”

I foolishly agreed, thinking that it couldn’t be that hard. I work out, and I’m also currently training for my third half-marathon (in part because this guy I like asked me to run it with him #priorities).

The first part of the FBI fitness test is 60 seconds worth of sit-ups. Easy. Doing yoga has its benefits.

Second task: 60 seconds worth of push-ups. I was able to get through about one push-up before collapsing, and could only get through 30 seconds of knees-on-the-ground push-ups. Clearly my upper body strength needs work.

Third task: a 300-meter sprint. That’s about 3/4 of the way around the track. Suffice to say my “sprint” was more of a “light jog.”

So while yes, I am in fairly good shape because of yoga and lifting, my endurance and upper body strength needs some serious work. My best friend and I want to be able to pass the test before winter.

While you may not be training for a life of adventure and mystique within the walls of the FBI like we are (or pretending to, anyways), it’s good to set goals you can actually measure.

If you don’t have fitness goals, you don’t have any indication of where you’re at now and if you will have made any progress six months from now.

3 Great Fitness Goals to Set:

  1. Pass the FBI or President’s Fitness Test
  2. Complete the 30 Day Shred
  3. Complete the 30 Day Clean Eating Challenge

So set some goals and get ready to join the FBI.

Or just get really fit.

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7 Day Clean Up: Staying Motivated to Work Out [Day 2]

7daycleanupnew

This is part of the 7 Day Clean-Up Series. See all posts in the series here.

Hey everyone! Welcome back! Today we’re going to sit down and get an epic workout plan in place for you, talk about ways to maintain that workout plan, and the secret to staying motivated.

Day 2: Making a Workout Schedule

Step 1. Design your weekly workout plan using this guide. Make sure you’re working out enough days to reach your goal and have a good balance of activities you enjoy. For example, I love yoga so I do it all the time, but I find variety by trying different types of yoga like hanging yoga and different vinyasa flows.

Step 2. Create a workout calendar. I have a workout calendar I hang on my wall, and I make myself check off each workout so I feel motivated to get it done so I can check it off. I highly recommend making one of these! At the start of every week it helps to plan out what workouts you’re going to do so that you can stay motivated and look forward to it.

Step 3. Double check to make sure your workout schedule isn’t falling into any common traps or problems. Having a balanced schedule is a bit of an art, but make sure it’s well rounded with strength and cardio and you should be golden.

Here’s this week’s workout schedule for me: [Read more…]

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7 Day Clean Up: Eat Clean, Live Clean [Day 1]

7daycleanupnew

This is part of the 7 Day Clean-Up Series. See all posts in the series here.

Introduction

Here’s the thing about leading a healthy life and eating clean: it takes constant work. Sometimes you fall off the wagon and have to reset yourself.

The 30 Day Clean Eating Challenge is a good introduction to eating clean, but this 7 Day Clean-Up is more of a check in that you can do anytime you feel like the siren song of junk food seduces you back to the dark side.

Eating healthy and exercising is tough, so don’t get down on yourself for

Day 1: Plan, Prep, Detox, Re-Focus

If you haven’t prepped for clean eating before, check out this post.

There are three things you should do on day one:

  1. Remind yourself why you’re eating clean. There are so many important reasons to eat clean: you’ll feel more energized, you’ll live a longer life, you can continue to improve your body and mind — pick a reason that matters to you and write it on a post-it note where you can see it.
  2. Pick recipes and go grocery shopping (but not when you’re hungry). Go grocery shopping with a list and a game plan about what recipes you’re going to make this next week. I don’t supply a meal plan because everyone is different as long as you stick with the clean eating basics, any clean recipe will do to help you reach your goals! We’ll be talking more about macro nutrients and other ways to make sure your diet is balanced later this week.
  3. Detox, do yoga, meditate, and reset. The holidays are extremely stressful, so make sure you’re taking time out to relax. I took a meditation class, and saw my stress levels decrease dramatically. I highly recommend trying this body scan meditation and do it every day for at least a week to begin to de-stress. A clean life begins with a clean mind. Not to mention most of the aspects of unhealthy and binge eating stem from cravings and other constructs or emotional needs not being addressed in our minds.

Day 1 Recipes

On day one, I suggest making some foods that carry over throughout your busy week, like the following: [Read more…]