Hello my dear lovies,

Hope you are ready for another lower body workout routine.  And the good news is – It’s Summer Themed Workouts Time!  This little number looks simple but trust me it’s a butt burner. This workout consists of only 4 exercises, two of them are bodyweight only and for the other two I was using my 40 lbs VersaFit bag.

I can tell you right away that you will easily beat my time, cause today I was really struggling. The weather here in FL had reached 90 degrees, and everytime I am working out I feel like I am soon to faint.

I also wanted to congratulate all of you guys who have tried the push-up challenge program, and shared your progress. I am really happy that all of you guys had so much progress with your push-ups!

Now have a good warm-up and let’s workout!

Workout Explanations

All I used in this workout was my Gymboss timer and my 40lbs VersaFit bag from Power Systems. Don’t worry if you don’t have the bag that I use, you can make your own by checking it out ” Fitness Equipment On A Budget ” post, or you can use other equipment you might have such as dumbbells, kettlebell or a backpack filled with something heavy.

Please watch the workout recap part of the video for proper form explanations.

Set your timer as a stopwatch. There is 5 rounds of the following sequence.

• Half One Leg Squat & 1 Pulse Up – 10 reps on each leg
• Side Jump Lunge with Rotation – 15 reps on each leg
• Mini Dead Lifts – 30 reps ( Please watch workout recap video for this exercise )
• Bag Swing – 20 Reps ( you can do 30 reps if you like, but with my bag being 40 lbs 20 reps was enough )
• My time for this routine was 34 minutes and 43 seconds

After this workout I did 3 sets of Bridges on a balance ball, 20 per side. And 3 sets Toe Lifts, 25 reps each with my 40 lbs bag.

Then I did some jump rope skipping for 10 minutes and a stretch after.

Nutrition Tip:

If you are having a terrible craving for a certain food – have some! There is no need to feel guilty about it. When our body craves something you better give it what it wants, otherwise later you will crave it even more and end up eating a lot more. We don’t really need to live our life in deprivation, it’s all about a healthy balance. I’ve written a great article called ” Is It Healthy To Always Eat Healthy? “, give that a looksie, it’s quite interesting.

Have fun with your workout!

Tati

Hello my Lovies,

Today I finally have another Ab workout for you. It’s been a while since I’ve done a new one, but I am regularly going to start making more Abs routines. This one is probably one of my favorite abs routines that I’ve done so far. There are 10 exercises and every exercise is very challenging.

The secret to great abs is quite simple and it looks like this: Good Nutrition + Proper Training of Core and Abs + Proper Rest & Recovery = Great Abs.

Anyone can have defined abs!  Your genetics have absolutely nothing to do with your abs. In my family I am the only person who has muscle, especially abs. If I were to believe my genetics then I should of had skinny legs, no abs, flat butt and I would have to starve my self to be thin, because in my family everyone gains weight very quickly. I remember my grandma making fun of me for eating a lot, she use to say ” Ha Ha, wait and see when you turn 25 you’re gonna get fat with these eating habits because in our family we tend to gain weight quickly “. Now I am 29, and I still eat the same if not more then I used to, and I can proudly say that my metabolism hasn’t changed at all, it’s actually better then it was before. So next time someone tells you that with age we loose muscle and our metabolism slows down,  prove them wrong!

One more thing that I would like to point out, as girls we want to have nice abs but we also want to have a thin waist, so I would recommend to avoid doing too many side plank holds and do more side to side bends. To make my waist smaller I do side bends about 4-5 times a week 20 – 60 reps, 20 at a time. Side to side bends really help to tighten the side muscles without bulking them up. You can do that while you watch TV, or right after you wake up in the morning. If you are a guy then you can skip on side bends and do side planks holds instead.

Now let’s get to the workout! Assuming you are going to add this Ab routine after your regular workout, then you should of already warmed – up.  Make sure to watch workout recap part of the video where I go over the proper form of every exercises as well as variations for beginners.

Workout Explanations

I did use my timer as a stopwatch, but this workout is really not about time at all. It is all about focusing on form and contracting your abs the correct way with every rep. In this routine I used 12 lbs medicine ball and a balance ball. If you don’t have the equipment, I show you the variations in the video. You can also make this equipment your self, check out this pos ” Fitness Equipment On A Budget “.

There are 10 exercises total but there is only 1 round so make it count!

• Slide & Touch ( using a medicine ball ) – 30 reps
• Reptile – 30 reps
• Side Plank Mill – 15 reps per side
• Side To Side Medicine Ball drop – 30 reps
• Oblique Knee Tucks – 30 reps
• Sitting Bicycle – 30 reps
• Pulse Ups on a Balance Ball – 30 reps
• Slow Leg Raises & Butt Lift – 30 reps
• Let Switch using a momentum – 30 reps
• Oblique Climber Jump – 30 reps

Always watch your form, because form is more important then speed!

Hello my Lovies ,

I have a great homemade granola recipe for you. I’ve came up with this recipe sometime ago and I’ve been wanting to share it for a while now, now I’m finally doing it. What’s great about this recipe is that it only has few simple ingredients and it’s very easy to make, just like the rest of the recipes I have. I am super lazy when it comes to cooking, shame on me , that’s why everything I cook has to be simple.

I gave up on buying granola from the store a long time ago, because even the one that promises to be low on sugar, still has loads of it, and if it doesn’t than it doesn’t taste that good. But this little number is absolutely delicious .

The Ingredients:

• Old Fashioned Oats – 2.5 cups ( never buy any other kind of oats, old fashioned only )
• Dried Cherries with no sugar added – 5 oz
• Raw Nuts ( I used Almonds ) – 1.5 cups
• Organic Honey – depending on how sweet you want your granola to be, I personally don’t like it very sweet so I don’t use much.
• Cinnamon – to taste
• Sea Salt – to taste

Heat up your oven to 365 degrees. Place the oats on a tray and salt it, speed out the salt evenly.

 

Bake it in the oven for 25 minutes, or until the oats are golden.

Then, add cherries, nuts and cinnamon and mix it well. Lower the heat of the stove to 345 degrees and bake it for an additional 10-15 minutes.

Honey should be poured at the end because you want to keep all the enzymes it has to offer and if you heat honey it looses all of the enzymes.

Enjoy it with a glass of unsweetened almond milk. I prefer not to pour my milk into the bowl, that’ way I can taste the granola better.

Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!

Tati

Hi everyone,

Hope you are ready for another upper body workout routine . This workout wasn’t very long but it will give you a great burn. After this workout I did an Ab routine and 10 minutes of light skipping.

Thank you very much guys for all of your feedback on video format, I am now sure everyone is on the same page and we all want edited workouts! We tried to shoot outside but it started to rain pretty bad so we just stayed inside, next week I’m hoping to get back to the park.

I also want to thank you guys for your kind words of support, I am so lucky to have you guys and every morning when I wake up and read your comments it makes me smile from my heart up , thank you for that guys .

Now let’s have a warm-up, practice good exercise form and get to the workout!!

Workout Explanations

In this routine I was using my new Gymboss timer, my 40 lbs VersaFit bag from Power Systems and a pair of 20 lbs dumbbells ( 10 lbs each ). If you don’t have a bag like mine you can easily make one, I have a post ” Fitness Equipment On A Budget “, give that a looks and you can make a bag like mine.

This routine was made up of 2 parts and both parts were a circuits were proper form time challenge. That means even though it’s a time challenge you still have to watch your form first, then you can worry about your time.

Part 1

Set your timer as a stopwatch. There is only one combo in this part and you will repeat this combo for the total of 15 rounds.

• 3 bear push-ups & 3 bag pick extensions ( that counts as one rep )

Part 2

Set your timer as a stopwatch. There are 4 exercises and you will repeat them for the total of 3 rounds.

• Side Triceps Kicks – 15 reps
• Crab 2 Side Plank Lift – 20 reps
• Shoulder Press Circles – 15 reps
• Crown Lift – 15 reps

My time

Part 1 – 6 min 47 sec

Part 2 – 15 min 32 sec

Have a wonderful workout!

Tati

PS – Guys, there seems to be a problem with viewing some of the old videos on the site, I am trying to figure out exactly whats wrong, for now I am slowly going over all of the old posts and attaching the links so you can watch the videos on YouTube.  Some of those links are at the bottom of the posts and some of them are right below the video.

I wanted to say thank you to Ellen for letting me know. 

Hi Everyone,

Today I have another fun lower body workout which includes isometric training in the first part of the routine.  As you know if order for our body to keep progressing we have to switch the style of our training all the time, because our body adopts to training very fast if we don’t change it, we will hit plateau, that can be frustrating.  This routine will throw your body for a loop!

Before I explain your the workout I would like to say Thank you to Lilija for being a sweet Angel and sending me a new Gymboss, because on my old one the clip broke , and now I have a whole new timer with a full on working clip .

As some of you already know if you are friends with me on Facebook that last week I hit a really rough patch and things seemed to crumble pretty quickly.   Right now things are still getting worked our and I pray that they do, if things do end up working out and I’m staying positive and keeping my hopes up, then I will share more details with you guys on what happened.

I’m just a big believer that when we have problems it’s best to keep the details to our selves until things workout, because when we share the negative things with others, we our selves as well as others invest energy into those things which makes bad things happen even more like plague.  I always teach people to look for lessons in life and not problems, and invest your energy only into positive outcomes, then the negative will disappear.   From my personal experience when life shakes us to the core it means that there is something we are not seeing clearly, and we have to get out of our comfort zone and look closer.  That’s how we find solutions.  In order for us to discover something new we have to let go of something old, it’s part of the 11 Laws of the Universe, or to be exact it’s the Law Of sacrifice.  We need to sacrifice something old to discover new possibilities, we need to not spend time mourning what’s lost only then the new things will freely come into our life.  If we sit around crying and thinking why why why is this happening then we are blocking our energy and we will become stuck until we learn to let go.

Now let’s workout!  But not before warming-up first and practicing the proper exercise form in the mirror.  

Workout Explanation

Please make sure you watch the workout recap part of the video, because some of the exercises like ” Skater Lunge ” look deceiving in the video and need a proper explanation.

In this workout I was using a proper form, my timer, my 40 lbs Versa Fit Bag from Power Systems
, and a pair of 20 lbs dumbbells ( 10 lbs each ).  This workout is broken down into 2 parts and you will complete both 2 parts for the total of 3 rounds.

Part One – Isometric Interval Training

Set your timer for 2 intervals of 11 seconds and 11 seconds for the total of 10 rounds.  Or you can set your timer for 1 interval of 11 seconds and the total of 20 rounds, you pick .  There is only one exercise and you will quickly switch legs as the timer beeps, trust me this is a lot harder then it looks so don’t bring your pillow !

• Weighted Isometric Back Lunge – Keep your abs pulled in at all times and your back straight, try not to take any breaks at all and push really hard!

Part 2 – Proper Form Time Challenge

Set your timer as a Stopwatch.  There is 4 exercises.

• Dumbbel Swing – 30 reps
• Skater Lunge – 20 reps each leg
• Proper Form Jump Tuck – 30 reps
• Weighted Toe Raises – 25 reps

Both parts of this routine are done 3 times total.  I was totally done after this workout and I didn’t do any cardio.  But if you have a few lbs you need to loose then you can do 10-15 minutes of very light cardio ( not intense cardio or you will loose muscle ).

My scores

Part 2

Round one took me 5 min and 37 seconds, Round 2 took me 6 min and 54 seconds, Round 3 took me 7 min and 21 seconds.

Fitness Tip -

If you guys ever notice in my videos that I almost never move my face muscles when I workout, I hope you know that I do that on purpose, it comes with practice though.  When we workout the only muscles that should be working are the one’s we are working on, our face always needs to be in a relaxed state then you will create better results on your body.

Another thing that is absolutely necessary when we workout is visualization.  When we workout we need to visualize that our body is burning fat and building muscle, we have to feel it and concentrate on that, our mind is as much part of this process as our body, don’t’ ever think that you can build your body without involving your mind.  The mind is the one that gives results, exercise only stimulates the muscles but if you want to look a certain way, you have to have it down to a detail in your mind.

PS - I’m not sure if you noticed but I’ve started naming my workouts after my favorite China Glaze nail polishes, cause I am a bit of a polish freak LOL .  I just though it was a fun and original Idea and it fits me very well .

I also wanted to share with you another cool fitness site I found – Konkura Sport.  It is a website where people from all over the world share their fitness challenges and you compete agains each other.  Check it out it’s fun .

Tati