Tag: Fitness History

Becoming a Personal Trainer, New Routine, New Life.

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I’m back!image

   I have been on the move, Literally. Temporarily moving back to the U.S. from Germany for a few months, then back to Germany once again. Needless to say, it has been a busy and transitional period in my life. I’ve had many amazing experiences in the past few months and learned a lot about myself as an ever evolving person. It has been full of many ups and downs, times of both uncertainty and the sureness of my path. But I’ve kept going, kept pushing and believing in myself enough to accomplish some amazing goals and dreams of mine.

image   While in the USA I finished up my ACE Personal Trainer course, and am proud to say I am now a Certified Personal Trainer through the American Council on Exercise. Over the past 2.5 years I have learned so much through my own personal experiences, extensive research and Personal Trainer Studies. Fitness and Nutrition has become a huge passion of mine, and a major aspect of my life. I absolutely LOVE helping others, through sharing my story and experiences, and offering support and advice whenever I can.  I want to help people realize their true potential to make a change in their own lives for the better, that it is possible.

   While in the U.S. I was also working on a Fitness project, a Women’s Lifting Guide “Ready To Lift: Leg & Booty Guide“,  which launched successfully early April 2016. Timagehis was truly a passion project, as both Brittany and I want to help encourage women to get into the weight room and pick up those weights. We have both had a very positive experience in our transition to more weightlifting (which I will share more about in another post).  We want to help women find confidence in the gym, in their lives and in themselves.  The making of this Guide involved extensive research, testing of the program and flying across the USA to meet my dear friend and business partner in crime, Brittany. I am very blessed to have connected with her through Instagram and our passion of fitness and health living. We had a nearly a week together, filming and shooting photos for our guide, editing, eating and having great conversations.

image   I am still in a bit of a transitional period while I continue to get everything organized over here in Germany, but thanks to our Ready To Lift Guide and the amazing community that is growing behind it, I have been keeping up with a fairly normal routine. I think it’s so important to keep pushing yourself in new ways, be it with new exercises, heavier weights, adding int a new challenge, it all leads to growth. I am currently mixing up my routine with the Ready To Lift: Leg & Booty Guide as my base (3 lower body sessions), and adding in roughly 2 Upper body workouts and a small HIIT that include a mixture of body weight exercises, many more Weights -both free weights and some machines. I am loving the challenge of scheduling and creating my own personalized workouts, and I plan to soon have Personalized Training Programs available. I will share more on that topic soon as well.

   I want this space to be one that is helpful, inspiring and educational. So, from this point on, I plan to consistently share a variety of helpful Information, new Recipes, Fitness Challenges, and Fitness and Nutritional tips to help you on your own healthy journey. My domain name may have changed – so that it reflects who I actually am – but it is still dedicated to sharing my Healthy Living Dreams. Excited to be back, and moving forward with you all.

  Much love, Alena Elizabeth

 

One year of BBG ~ Review of Kayla Itsines Bikini Body Guide

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My Year with the Bikini Body Guides

I’ve been trying to find the words to write about my experience over the past year, but when I think back on it there is so much that happened, and so many ways in which I grew, and it has been hard to put it all into words. So this might come across as a ramble, but I want to share my history and experience with the guides.

I first discovered Australian personal trainer, Kayla Itsines’s Instagram account last year, around February/March of 2014, about 6 months after I made my big lifestyle change. I loved what she was promoting, that women should love and take care of their bodies through proper nutrition and fitness. She had recently began featuring her clients transformations and I was so inspired by all these women who had changed their lives around and become stronger healthier versions of themselves. This is one of the reasons I decided to start my own Fitness and Healthy Lifestyle Instagram account (@healthylivingdreams) Summer of 2014, to also share my journey to a healthier life. I began incorporating many of her workout tips, trying Pylometric (jump) training for the first time, and loved her style of training. Her workout videos inspired me to try new exercises and push myself out of my comfort zone. Over the next few months I continued to follow her tips, while also doing my own research and trying different training styles, but I never followed a plan of any kind.

End of August 2014, nearly 6 months after discovering her account, I decided I was finally ready to try out her training program, I was ready to follow a real guide and have more structure to my workouts. So I decided to purchase her guide. But the week I made the final decision, she came out with her 2.0 version, and from what I saw it featured more weights, which I had come to love and so purchased this guide instead. What I didn’t realize at the time, was the 2nd guide really was a continuation of the 1st guide, and was meant to be done after completing the 1st. The first few weeks were great, but towards the end of 2.0 I realized I had not properly built up my strength for some of the exercise combos (especially the arm exercises), and it was a serious challenge to finish the 2.0 guide. But I pushed through and I did my best, and finished end of December 2014. I also repeated a few weeks, as during this period I had a huge life change and had moved to Germany. You can read more about my journey with 2.0 here. ~Note: I Strongly recommend starting with the Bikini Body Guide 1.0, unless you have a very strong strength and endurance Fitness background.~

On January 5th, 2015, I decided to start the BBG 1.0 alongside Thousands of women from around the world, in a joint movement called #thekaylamovement. Literally thousands of women from all around the world came together to start fresh and start strong and work towards healthier versions of themselves. I felt Inspired and so Motivated knowing I was part of such a determined and supportive group of women. We were working towards our own individual goals but also working as a TEAM.

Those next 12 weeks were truly an unforgettable experience. Not just because it was my first time completing the BBG1.0, but also because I connected with some of the most amazing women who were on their own journey towards becoming a healthier version of themselves, and strengthened friendships with others I had known from the beginning of my Instagram journey. During those 12 weeks I pushed myself to new limits, and discovered a physical and mental strength I never knew I possessed. And even though I had to take a week off towards the end due to terrible case of food poisoning (or the flu) I still finished strong and saw and felt amazing results both mentally and physically.

Then began #thek2movement, with a new start date for any women (or man) in the world who wanted to start together, or continue on to the BBG2.0. I continued on, starting my 2nd round of this guide, but much better prepared physically. Overall, I started this with enthusiasm and determination to keep seeing and feeling progress. But as many people experience, I went through some down phases both in my personal and fitness life, and started to become very frustrated with my progress and lost some of my motivation. I stopped doing the extra challenges found in the 2.0 guide and barely finished those last few weeks. I felt unmotivated, frustrated and in a way stuck. I write this with honesty because I want you all to know that it hasn’t always been all uphill, I haven’t always had full on motivation or even loved the guides at all times and there was a point where I considered giving them up all together.

I was so thankful that I had planned a vacation right around the time I would finish up with BBG2.0 for the 2nd time. My body and my mind needed a break from the routine, and those 10 days were an extremely important time of rest and reflection of my journey up to that point. While I was traveling internationally in Spain and then England, the 3rd round of #thekaylamovement began, and I was still unsure of what to do next. But during my time in the U.K. I was so fortunate to attend a BBG Meet-Up in London, a workout session which I lead. Being around these other ladies, in person, pushing ourselves and each other during the workouts reignited my passion and love for these guides. One 35 minute sweat session and an hour or two chatting with other like-minded women was all it took to inspire me to keep going with my BBG journey.

So I came back to Germany and recommitted to giving it another go. Continuing on, jumping into Week 2 to be along side the group, and this time adding in the Nutrition guide for the 1st time, known as the H.E.L.P guide (Healthy Eating Lifestyle Plan). A nutrition and meal plan guide that does not revolve around counting calories, but teaches about minimal intake of each of the Macro and Micro nutrient food groups (grains, dairy, vegetables, fruits, healthy fats, liquids, vitamins, etc.). Although I had been eating fairly well and healthy, I hadn’t realized how low my vegetable, protein and calcium intake had been. I followed the servings sizes fairly strictly for the first 7-8 weeks or so (with the occasional treat meal and extra servings on the weekends). It worked well for a time, and taught me a lot, but as I’ve been on my fitness journey for about 1.5 years, my body was craving and needed more food. So, I recently have increased my servings from most of the food groups. I still aim to get in the Minimal servings as suggested in the H.E.L.P guide, but I eat more now. As our metabolisms get better, and our endurance grows, our bodies require more food to function properly and to fuel us in our daily activities.

As of August 25th, I have hit the ONE YEAR mark of my journey with the Bikini Body Guides (48 weeks of actual workouts, as I missed  a few here and there due to moving or being sick). When I started these guides I had no idea how long I would stick to it, or where my journey would lead me. I only knew I was ready to see and feel a change and work towards a Healthier and Stronger version of myself.  And Now One Year later, I am So proud of myself to sticking with it and for developing healthier habits and new found appreciation of my body. It was a completely new experience for me and I learned and grew in so many ways. Not only physically but mentally as well. Sticking to something and truly committing, picking yourself up and continuing to move forward even you feel unmotivated and that progress is slow is a huge mental accomplishment as well.  And knowing I was able to do this, gives me Strength and Confidence as I continue on my journey.

Edit* In just 1 week I will finish my 4th round of doing the guides! Over the past few weeks I have begun to incorporate extra weights, in place of one of the BBG resistance sessions and have been loving it. As I am studying to become a Personal Trainer myself, I have been enjoying coming up with my own weight routines and so will be focusing on developing these during the next part of my journey. The BBG will always hold a special place in my journey,  and perhaps I will continue to use it in some ways, as my HIIT workouts, or mix and match with my own. But just as I did prior to starting these guides, I will use my own knowledge to and research to create something that works for me and my individual needs and preferences. I’m ready to set some new goals and challenge myself in new ways, and very excited to see where this next part of my journey takes me.

If you are on the fence about starting the Bikini Body Guides, or your Fitness/Healthy journey in general, please don’t hesitate to email me with any questions you might have ❤  healthylivingdreams25@gmail.com

     Thank you to all who have been apart of my Journey this past year. You have all truly had such a positive impact on my life and my progress and I am forever grateful. ❤ Alena

ACTIVE LIVING: MY FITNESS HISTORY

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This Blog post is about the importance of Physical activity as well as a bit about my personal experience with different types of exercise, including cardio, lifting weights, plyometrics and part of my experience with the ‘Bikini Body Guide’ by Kayla Itsines. 

imageThere are so many different forms of exercise and so many people with an opinion about what is best for you. Sometimes it can get a bit overwhelming. But I find that it is important to remember that We are Unique Individuals! We are people who have different Goals, different Body Types and different Genetics. There is one thing we can’t argue with though, that Regular Exercise or Physical Activity of some kind is Absolutely necessary for our well being. Luckily for us there are so many different ways to stay active! We must each find out what works best for us as individuals and works for our goals. Whether you want to lose weight, get toned, get stronger, be able to run a marathon, get bendy with yoga, etc. there are so many options! Just to name a few, there’s swimming, walking, running, cycling, gymnastics, surfing, crossfit, lifting weights, yoga, resistance training, hiit, etc. We each have the choice to decide for ourselves, learn what we like best and learn what works well for our own body. It may take time to discover what we like best, but the journey can be rewarding and such a great learning experience.

Over the years, I have tried a variety of different types of exercise. However, it has been over the past year that I have really discovered the most about fitness and the healthy eating habits that work best for My Body.  {{ Check out my ‘About Me‘ for more information about my lifestyle change and fitness journey! }}  When I returned home from living abroad for the 2nd time(in Sept.2013), I was doing mostly cardio, 45 minutes to 1 hour+ on the elliptical, followed by some Abdominal exercises or a little work with the machines. This lasted for a couple of months and while it definitely helped me lose some initial weight, in addition to completely changing my eating habits, I still felt weak and was having so much trouble toning up. So I started doing more and more research online about different types of exercises and payed close attention to other people at the gym. I also started using social media sites such as Instagram and discovered so many amazing Health and Fitness accounts, and I will forever be grateful for those discoveries. I found fitness and food tips, daily workouts, insightful and educational posts about different types of exercises and more. This really sparked my motivation to try new things and step out of my comfort zone in the gym!

image One of my first big changes, during Spring of 2014, was to start lifting light weights and using more of the machines. I was nervous to pick up the free weights or get on a weight machine and look like an ass in front of the more experienced lifters, but thanks to seeing other women around the World doing the same, and the support of my sister (who is very knowledgeable when it comes to fitness) I quickly got over myself and went for it! Everyone starts somewhere after all. I started with super simple routines with free weights, but was still mostly relying on the machines.

      One of my Biggest discoveries on Instagram was Australian Personal Trainer, Kayla Itsines. She is the creator of the Bikini Body Guide, a 12-Week training program that uses variety of different training techniques. I discovered her Instagram and Website last February (almost a year ago!) but didn’t buy the guide right away. I was still learning, wanted to go at my own pace and didn’t feel I was ready. But I saw all these amazing women changing their lives and saw Kayla, a relatively small girl completely Destroying Stereotypes about smaller women. She was So Strong and Fit and her Strength and  Workout Videos truly Inspired me.. So I started slowly but surely started incorporating some of her recommended exercises, such as Box Jumps, Tricep Dips, Lunges and Step-Ups! Some of my Absolute Favorite Exercises Now. I followed her tips and also started using some weights when doing Squats, Lunges and Started using a variety of new machines and free weighted exercises.

Slowly but surely I was getting stronger! Finally this Summer I decided to buy her training guide, but just as I was really ready to buy it, she came out with a 2.0 version. A continuation of her 1st guide. By this point I felt that my fitness level had greatly improved (it had been about 5 months) and I was much more into lifting weights than anything else, and knew the 2.0 exercises required the use of more weights. So, I purchased the 2nd Guide beginning of September and finished it 1st week of January 2015. Towards the middle/end of the 2.0 Guide I realized how much better it would have been to have done the 1st guide from the beginning! and so I decided after I finished the 2.0 guide (with some modifications) I would go back and Start fresh from the Beginning. So, I am on Week 6 from the 1st guide and I’m Loving it!! And I discovered that the 1.0 guide does actually incorporate some weights.

>>I HIGHLY Recommend starting with the 1.0 Bikini Body Guide! If I could go back in time I would start with this one, but instead I’m doing it now, alongside thousands of other women around the World with #thekaylamovement, which started January 5th, 2015 and is still going strong! I’m currently on my 4th round and just hit the 1 year mark!!<<

I really love the fast paced, timed workouts from the guide, but I do still like to go at my own pace and do some extra weighted workouts sometimes, although much less than before (will do a separate post about that Very Soon!). With the BBG, each session, (which are a variety of Legs & Cardio, Arms & Abs, and Full Body workout) has two different circuits, each of which you repeat twice. The goal is to repeat the 4 exercises and the listed repetitions as many times as you can can in a 7 minute period. Then you rest for a short period (30-90 seconds), and go on to do the 2nd circuit in the same way, and then repeat the 1st and 2nd again. It takes a total of roughly 30 minutes or so. It has been such a great experience having this guide and challenging myself to do all these exercises.

image Every week my fitness knowledge grows, thanks to easily accessible knowledge sharing through sites like Instagram, certain blogs and the internet in general. Each and every day I learn something new about about how to take care of my body, how to sculpt it, nurture it and heal it. My fitness journey has been such a learning experience, and I am grateful to have found my own healthy balance with exercise and eating. I am so excited to see what the future brings and what I can accomplish.

I encourage you All to do some of you own Research, ask friends with Fitness experience for help and find a supportive community of like-minded people with similar goals, whether it be on Instagram, Facebook or in the “Real” World.

Keep Believing in Yourself and Never Give Up!
Will share my Weekly Schedule, including my BBG Routine and extra Workouts very soon!
Love, Alena