Ok ok so before we begin I am not a licensed physician nor nutritionist. If you are ready to begin an active physical and healthy lifestyle please consult your doctor if or for any reason you may not be 100 percent as what you can do due to past or linked health ailments. I have a variety of friends who are currently doing the same programs as I am and endure trying health conditions, but their doctors have advised them on what they can and cannot do.
If you've been following us on instagram since summer, you see we've incorporated fitness and wellness more in hopes to inspire you to move your body. Also because we only share products and experiences we truly think are worth sharing and give value to our B2B fam.
So I write "HOW I" but this is also an honest review from a former skeptic individual about "home workouts" who has adapted #Beachbody programs as my main source of #fitspo. Yes I'm talking the majority of physical fitness I do, I do at home. I also chose to tackle my fitness at home for a variety of reasons but here are my top 3 why's (before we get into the "How To"). Then I'll finish off with cliff-notes of the programs I enjoy and some hybrid calendars:
1| AFFORDABILITY | For an ENTIRE year I pay only $100 bucks for unlimited streaming. There are hundreds of programs to choose from and each come with anywhere of a weeks worth to a few months worths of workouts and each have recommended meal plans for what your goal is (weight loss or maintain and strength building).So we are talking thousands of workouts to choose from.
2| VARIETY & CONVENIENCE | I've learned that life happens and I've made excuses in the past to why I can't drive to the gym and get a sweat in. Now I just walk to my "home gym" and "press play" from my laptop or tv. Sometimes my cell phone when I'm traveling (you can pre-download workouts for when service is crap). I also don't want to always do the same workout over and over and like to change things up, so when I'm done with one program, I can hop to the next. Sometimes I just want to chill and stretch so I check out the yoga and other low impact programs.
3| COMMUNITY | But wait aren't you at home? Yes except since purchasing my #beachbody account I've found a community of ladies where we meet virtually to workout on #zoom and for the ones that were local, we get together and either workout from one of our programs or visit a local yoga or cycling class! Get this, we even have a #nosnoozecrew where we pop in Mon-Fri from 5am-7:30am. There was a time when I was gifted a personal trainer and would meet him several times a week at 5am and it was magic (more on that later). I also had all these extra hours in the day and got so much "me time" in. So having these ladies waiting for me or vice versa has kept us accountable and has played a big role in developing discipline. Because to be honest, there are days when motivation will lack. It will feel so far away, but then when my accountability group sends me a text " Hey lady where you at?" it get's my ass going and pressing play. The first 5 minutes are always brutal but then you laugh at yourself because you know how accomplished you feel when you show up and didn't have to do it alone. * Contact us if you like to join the #nosnoozecrew.
HOW TO TRANSFORM AT HOME (3 key areas)
FIND YOUR WHY:
Find your WHY! Why do you want to get into the best shape of your life? Find your basic reasons and then YOU NEED TO DIG DEEP. Write it down, put it in your vision board and read it everyday if you have to! I had a few reasons that got me started: I had missed feeling the top of my game not only physically, but mentally. When you work out and get the right nutritional habits going, your mental clarity is expanded and the fog of stress lessons and lessons. I was wasting money at the gym, too lazy to drive, creating too many excuses not to show up and a personal trainer for me was not in my budget. I wanted to save money and time in my fitness journey. My wedding was coming up and looking and feeling amazing on your wedding day was not going to remedied with only hair and makeup.
But if I really dig deep, I wanted to start my new life with my husband from a FULL glass of water. Sh*t make that a full glass of alkaline water, cause I'm feeling really good right about now! I want my to runneth over. He's my everything and the reason I've been able to grow and succeed with him is because we always knew of the importance of making sure we are happy and grounded with ourselves first. How can you help your partner or family from an empty cup? You have to nurture yourself to handle what life may throw at you, so last year I little by little got better each quarter and improved my health and fitness. The first three months I tried to establish a routine at the gym, eat better, gave up sweets for lent. Then a third into April, I knew my consistency and nutrition was still not where I wanted it to be and August was my " I better be in a good place" month since wedding related events would begin to take place...
NUTRITION THAT WORKS FOR YOU:
Quotes you hear, that I believe are true "Abs are made in the kitchen"..." 70 percent diet, 20 percent fitness"... One thing I always knew was when I would weight train, keeping muscle gains was extremely hard. I have a sensitivity to whey protein and had never tried plant base alternatives. I did some research and found Shakeology, a brand I always had heard of but never took into consideration. They had variety of plant base flavor protein shakes with all the super foods that would cut the cost significantly by buying this one product, versus bags of other supplements I didn't care to keep track of. I'm horrible at taking actual vitamins and I prefer to eat my vitamins( but it's not like I actually calculated or balanced meals anyway. Funny enough this find led me to Beachbody and was sold under one umbrella. I was like "Great one stop shop", but is it BS?. I did my reviews, asked a few friends who I remembered had tried it and figured why not. I also liked the whole "no contracts and money back guarantee" and " helps with sugar cravings". I ordered my chocolate plant based super food the last week of April and started May 1 and have been drinking it ever since!
The other major tool was that each fitness program had nutritional guides, recipes plus grocery recommendations. I don't know about you, but I get overwhelmed with meal planning and finding what works with what. These programs were curated and designed and calculated by the trainer themselves. Thank God for "PORTION CONTROL CONTAINERS" by Autumn Calabrese. Basically I went all in and trusted the program I began with, which was 80 Day Obsession. She really reminds you of how important your diet is, and I don't mean a starvation diet. For 80 Day it was "timed nutrition" and it was a program that I always felt fueled and satisfied and could even have wine if I wanted to. Towards the end of the program she introduces you to carb cycling and breaks it all down for you. Shredding the body and seeing all your hard work pay off! She gives you plenty of helpful tips when potentially prepping for an event and how you can use carb cycling to look your best when actively training. After this program I remain wanting to work with the nutrition guides given as they go hand in hand in yielding great results!
HOME GYM LIFE
The reason why I'm able to be consistent with this is because of three things Convenience, affordability and guidance. I can workout whenever I want from the comfort of my own home. It makes it harder to make excuses as to why I "can't go to the gym". I don't need to fend for a bench or machine nor any particular corner. I was also tired of the people who don't actually workout and make it a social hour. It's just much more affordable and still provides new and improved programs every quarter allowing me to explore a variety of training. A lot of people worry with equipment and that becoming costly. The amount of money you save from an actual gym membership is substantial, the $40-100 a month i would have spent at a gym, I just bought myself several sets of weights for life . I have weights varying from 2 pounds to 25 pounds and you don't need to buy all these weights all at once. You slowly are building up to heavier weights. The thing is, you may not even want heavy weights and there are plenty of programs that don't even use them, just your natural body weight! So boom - no cost there.
If you want to explore resistance bands, step ups and more you can either purchase from beachbody or visit your local Homegoods, Walmart, Target, FiveBelow and more for discounted products. I can't begin to tell you how many items I've found in clearance and put to good use. You know what is also great about saving money doing the home gym life? I have zero "gym class guilt".What I mean is, I now feel i can have fun and explore random venues providing a unique fitness experience whenever I want to. The community I've built with the locals of Beachbody get together from time to time and we'll hit up a cycling class, yoga sesh and even do a Tony Robbins workshop! Yup we did that for 2020.
The most IMPORTANT thing about these home workouts I've discovered is that I DON'T HAVE TO THINK of what comes next. They have calendars, apps and sheet trackers for all my developing needs in this journey. Before "pressing play" I would try and find some workouts here and there from instagram profiles I followed and any workouts I could replicate from past training sessions with my trainer. The guidance from the Beachbody super trainers is great for all levels and there are a ton of online facebook support groups where the actual trainers themselves answer my questions!
So below my take on all the programs I've done and truly enjoyed. I've completed each program in it's entirety. I always focus in on one program to finish and then add some workouts to create a hybrid, however if the focused program is 6 Weeks Of The Work or 80 Day Obsession, only do those on it's own. The only exception I am making is I'll be adding 2-3 upper body workouts a week from, The Work, to my current program, Barre Blend. I want to get back a certain muscle mass and strength from The Work for my own personal goals. I've created a cheat sheet, if you will, based on my experience and results. You have to go with what goals you want for your body when it comes to the physical workout. Your results also depend on how much you want it and are willing to push yourself!
Remember the universal goal with nutrition is to eat the best and nurture your body as much as possible with the right foods( Thank goodness Beachbody does all the meal planning for me!). I also believe in enjoying life, so I tend to go to my "Healthy-ish" ways which is Mon-Fri eat clean and Saturday or Sunday enjoy a fun meal or two and a drink (or just 2 days of your choice out of the week). If there are special occasions, enjoy the SH*T out of it- LIFE IS WORTH LIVING, because one BAD meal isn't going to ruin your progress, just like one GOOD meal isn't going to fix it! Maybe add an extra cardio sesh to be safe, lol!
MY BB PROGRAM CHEAT SHEET|
BARRE BLEND: 30 MINUTES. Currently doing this program and loving this low impact, mega burn in the booty and legs, workout. You don't ned more than 5lbs and you can use a sturdy chair to act as your bar!
6 WEEKS OF THE WORK: 40-60 minutes. Whole body building and toning. The most advance of all workout programs. TOP 3 FAV!
80 DAY OBSESSION: 30-50 MINUTES. Whole body building and toning. TOP 3 FAV.
A LITTLE OBSESSED: 30 MINUTES. An intro week to 80 DAY, but also great for traveling.(some workouts need weights, resistance bands, others do not)
A LITTLE MORE OBSESSED: 30 MINUTES. An extended week to 80 DAY, but also great for traveling.(some workouts need weights, resistance bands, others do not)
LIIFT 4: 30-40 minutes. 8 weeks. Upper Body & Core dominant. Circuit & Hiit training. Great for traveling if you have access to weights. TOP 3 FAV.
MORNING MELTDOWN 100: 20-25 minutes max. Cardio and time under tension. Great sweat cardio and core dominant. Great for traveling (some workouts need weights others do not).
INSANITY: You will sweat your ass off. Cardio HIIT heavy. Great for Traveling
Now for a few #beforeandafters (more on my insta)
*post completing Liift4 with MM100 hybrid.
*Thigh comparison after finishing phase 2 of 80 Day Obsession.
*November 2nd 2019, feeling beautiful, confident and strong on my wedding day!
*Full body from when I started in May 2019 to top of End of December 2019. Honeymoon and Holidays pushed me to stay on track as much as possible.
Currently my goal is to continue to lean out my legs and sculpt and define my muscles more than ever before. I'm also about to do a 21 day cleanse called, The Ultimate Reset. This is not a starvation cleanse. It requires a lot of clean food, water and a variety of super greens and other amazing supplements to restore your gut flora, clean out and reset that digestive traffic in a safe and steady pace and just overall boost EVERYTHING. No crash diet here, although weight loss is a potential side effect to the 21 day cleanse, that will not be my focus. I'm also looking forward to getting back the #mealprep game. Life is so much easier when food is done and ready to go and I needed a push to bring this routine back. Will keep you posted on how it all turns out. You can watch as I go on our instagram stories with The Ultimate Reset and currently Barre Blend, post photos to follow.
Below find my example of my hybrid calendars. Liift4 was always my go to base. I really enjoyed this 4 day a week program as it was simple and to the point. I loved how jacked my arms got and haven't found that in any other program until The Work, but like stated before The Work is more advanced so complete this one or 80 Day Obsession before you visit The Work!
* I made this pin-able so have fun pinning or save to your phone/desktop!
MY FAVORITE 30 MINUTE WORKOUT HYBRID COMBO CALENDAR [CHOOSE ONE TO PAIR WITH LIIFT4]
CURRENT SCHEDULE HYBRID WITH BARRE BLEND [CHOOSE ONE TO PAIR WITH BARRE BLEND]:
Well that was a lengthy post, but hey it's been a while and I had to share an amazing way to live the home gym life! Again like I’ve said in our Instagram posts and on our stories, I’m no fitness nor nutrition expert, but I do the due diligence of only working and training with professionals and the teachings they have given me. If you are someone who wants to save money, feeling excited to get your body into your dream fit and health state- you gotta try this [CLICK HERE]!!! If you have more questions, want a free sample workout of the ones listed above- Contact Us or visit my Affiliate site for more[CLICK THIS]!
" You choose how you show up!" - Rachel Hollis
For your pinning pleasure:
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