PiYo Review

Wow! I can’t believe I’ve finished my THIRD Beachbody program already. I love PiYo but not for the reasons that you may think. PiYo is a melt of Pilates and Yoga, and suitably named. Prior to this program I had never taken either type of class and, I’ll admit, I’ve skipped the stretch and yoga sections of both T25 and 21 Day Fix because I thought they were less important. I figured that these types of things would never help me reach my goal because my goal at that time was specifically to lose the baby weight. However, after reaching my goal weight I decided to work on improving my flexibility and though some PiYo would be a big help (plus it was on sale! So I really couldn’t say no). PiYo is a 60 day program and, like all Beachbody programs, comes with a schedule and a nutrition plan. The schedule starts off easy and then gradually introduces workouts that make you really thankful for child’s pose! The nutrition plan is very similar to the one for 21 Day Fix with the exception of the containers and the addition of a “secondary grains” food group.

Why I will forever be in love with PiYo:

1. Flexibility – I can put my hands on the floor WITHOUT bending my knees! What?!? Yes this is huge for me. Now, I didn’t take before pics of my flexibility (because really who thinks to do that??) so I’ve taken pictures of about where I was before and where I am now. AMAZING! I danced for 14 years of my life and have never been this flexible. It works.

Before

After

2. Strength – Specifically core and shoulder strength. I can actually hold a plank for longer than 2 minutes. One day I will grab a magazine and time how long but I got bored the last time I timed it and gave in at the 2 minute mark.

3. Great party tricks – There’s one move that Chalene tells you you can use to show off at a party and be like “I bet you can’t do this”. And I always thought, who on earth would actually do that?? The answer, ME! Ok so maybe it wasn’t a party, but I did show it off while at a friend’s house for supper!

4. Easy, but hard – I have an internal battle with this. It always seems like such an easy program compared to the other programs I have done and yet I sweat more and gain more strength than I did with the other programs. If you want something that makes you reap the benefits of working out but doesn’t feel like working out, this is it!

5. Pain relief – It’s not like I have chronic pain or anything like that but I do seem to continually have a sore back. You know the usual stress points that always have giant knots that you just can’t seem to lose. Well PiYo got rid of them for me. I found myself asking my husband for way less back rubs while I was doing the PiYo program and now that I haven’t done it for a week my knots are all back. Time to get back into it I think!

The not-so-great parts:

1. Portion Tracking – I think I was spoilt by 21 Day Fix. PiYo doesn’t come with a chart to track how many portions of what you have eaten each day. It’s a small downside but it caused me not to really follow the nutrition plan like I should have. I also think I could have easily made my own or found one on the internet. This was pure laziness on my part.

2. Results – Pretty sure this one is all on me… I didn’t have any definition results like I was hoping for but I also didn’t follow the nutrition portion of the program. Afterall, abs are made in the kitchen! Next time around I will be sure to follow the WHOLE program and not just do the workouts.

3. Length – Once again spoilt by T25 and 21 Day Fix I was shocked that the workouts range from 25 minutes to 50 minutes! This is something that I’m just going to have to get used to since I plan on starting BodyBeast next which has hour long workouts.

I will definitely be continuing this program. I plan to combine PiYo with any program that I do in the future, mostly for the pain relief aspect. The flexibility that it’s given me and the tension that it’s relieved has given me a passion for PiYo that I never thought I could have.

If you would like more information on my experience with PiYo just comment below or send me an email! If you are ready to commit to this program or any other Beachbody program, click here.

Focus T25 Review

The title says it all, so let’s get down to it! This was the first ever Beachbody program that I bought and completed. Actually this was the first ever fitness program that I have ever completed. Now that’s saying something! Here’s the quick breakdown of what you get: The program is 10 weeks long and comes with a schedule of workouts. Each workout is 25 minutes long (on the nose!) with a 3 minute cool-down, aka stretch, on top of the 25 minutes. You workout out Monday – Friday with an option to do a double workout on Fridays. Then there’s STATurday where you record your results for the week and Sunday is a relaxing stretch routine. The program comes with a “nutrition plan” which basically tells you what the best food choices are but nothing specific. 

Here’s what I love about Focus T25:

1. 25 minutes – Seriously who doesn’t have 25 minutes in their lives that they can spare?

2. 5 days a week – this one is killer for me. I love my weekends. I can get up at whatever time you want me to during the week (these days it’s 5am) but on weekends I want to sleep as long as my little darlings will let me (like 6:30am, don’t laugh at me! That’s a whole 1.5 hours extra sleep!). So when I found a workout program that let me sleep on weekends I was totally game for that!

3. STATurdays – this quickly became my favourite day of the week. Tracking my results every week gave me the motivation I needed to keep going and push harder.

4. Results – WOW! I was losing 1-2, sometimes even 3, pounds per WEEK! And inches galore! T25 uses a technique called HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) that ramps up your metabolism and keeps it high for HOURS after you’ve finished your workout. So essentially I was working out for 25 minutes but my body thought I was working out for hours.

5. Two sets of discs – Just as I was nearing the end of Alpha, the first 5 weeks, I began getting a bit bored with doing the same set of workouts. But then alas! There was Beta and I had a whole new set of interesting workouts to do!

And, since no one can love everything about a program, here are the cons:

1. The “Nutrition Plan” – I use “” because really I’m not sure anyone would really call this a nutrition plan. It showed pictures of foods that you should be eating, calculated your calories, and gave a couple recipe ideas but there was no real guideline for how much of what you should be eating. If you want to work on your nutrition, this program is not going to help you there.

2. Plyometrics – A really big word that basically means jumping around. This may be some people’s cup of tea in a workout but not so much mine. Two reasons: 1) I have bad knees and it hurts to do this much jumping and 2) I was working out while the kids slept which doesn’t bode well when there’s a 140Lb woman jumping around in the next room. Luckily the modifier does low impact so that helped but it would have been nice to say I could keep up with the hot shots.

3. Shaun T – Sometimes he gets that crazed look on his face and you think he’s going to jump out of the screen and punch you in the face if you don’t listen… Ok, not really a con, but had to fit Shaun T in here somehow! Sidenote: A lot of women would put him in the “loves” list as easy on the eyes but to me he’s just the guys that kicks my butt and that person doesn’t even make the friends list haha.

Overall, this was my soul mate program. The workouts kicked my butt but the results were totally worth it. I would recommend this program to anyone and everyone. When I started I was extremely out of shape and I was still able to handle the intensity of the workout. So if you think you can use your “I can’t keep up with them” comment as an excuse, don’t. Give it two weeks and you won’t even need the modifier, unless, of course, your kids are sleeping! You get out what you put in, but in the case of T25 you get out twice as much as you put in.

If you would like more information on my experience with Focus T25 just comment below or send me an email! If you are ready to commit to this program or any other Beachbody program, click here.

“Bad Planning, Letting Go, Conquering Fears, and Climbing Mountains”

We are officially back from our 5 year anniversary camping trip! It seems like whenever I plan a trip something always has to go awry. Who knew you needed to have your passports with you if you were planning on crossing the US border?! OOPS! What a test of our marriage though! Instead of getting angry at each other we worked through it. We weighed our options, 1) drive 16 hours there and back to get our passports and continue on our planned trip or 2) cut our losses (we had paid for campgrounds across the border) and explore our home country. This was tough for me at first because I love to plan and hate when plans don’t work out the way I had hoped. It took me a little while but I finally put it into perspective. The point of this trip was not to see the coastline or the California redwoods, though it would have been a nice backdrop I’m sure. The point was to work on our MARRIAGE, to have time ALONE, to have time TOGETHER, to be ACTIVE, to UNPLUG, and to RECHARGE. None of these were going to happen if one of us was driving while the other slept. We let go of our original plans and made a new plan: to fly by the seat of our pants.

Our first night was spent in Waterton. The following day we drove part way up a small mountain and then hiked the Lineham Creek trail. The trail was gorgeous, starting in a wooded area and continuing through some open meadows with great views of mountains and valleys. We followed it over streams and through paths that had rather steep drop-offs until the final view of a beautiful waterfall. We were fortunate to meet some more experienced hikers at the end of this trail and learnt some incredibly beneficial information! For example, we should really carry bear spray when hiking in the mountains; probably should have a backpack to carry food, water, and extra clothes if we did a more difficult hike; and what the best stops, drives, and trails were between Waterton and Banff.

Upon the guidance of our new hiking friends we chose to check out Lussier Natural Hot Springs next. After all we weren’t opposed to “a little bit of gravel road driving” that is until the “gravel road” turned American Loggers on us with a steep drop on one side of the narrow lane and a rock wall on the other. Needless to say we powered through but I’m sure glad Scott was driving since I’m sure my vertigo would have put us right over the edge! If you are ever on the 93 south of Radium Springs be sure to stay at Whiteswan Campgrounds and check out the Lussier Springs. Our campsite backed out onto a serene glacial lake at the base of a mountain for only $18/night! The natural hot springs are truly a step above the pools that Radium and Banff offer. Four different rock pools with four different water temperatures and a blue-green glacial river rushing in the background is truly relaxing. 

Lussier Hot Springs

The "gravel road" to the hot springs.

Despite all these amazing adventures so far, I have to say my favourites were in Banff. Upon arriving in Banff around 4pm on Monday we set up camp at Johnston Canyon campground, bought bear spray, and set out on a 1.5 hour stroll through Johnston canyon which was highly populated compared to the Waterton trail and we probably didn’t need the bear spray! It did offer spectacular views of multiple waterfalls, some educational facts about the creation of canyons and limestone, and a surprise visit with some friends from home!

My favourite waterfall of Johnston Canyon

As I’m sure you’ve already noticed, the activity that I wanted to do the most on this trip was hike. But after our new hiking friends mentioned a mountain that you could actually SUMMIT in just 4 hours, we both set a new goal to summit Cascade Mountain near Banff. The mountain has an elevation of 4,392 metres, what an accomplishment! We began our day by driving up Mount Norway to the ski lodge parking lot around 9am. The trail led us down Mount Norway to a bridge that connected to mid-way up Cascade Mountain. From there we began a steady climb. When I say steady I actually mean every part of our legs, buns, abs, etc were in pain. The slope was easily 45 degrees on the easy sections and ranged to close to a 60 degree incline. The first 3 hours of our climb were spent in heavily forested area and towards the end we were becoming rather discouraged at ever reaching the end. We took turns using our precious breath to encourage each other and make noise to deter wildlife encounters. It was all worth it once we finally reached the edge of the thick forest and were able to see the view.

I found the next part the most difficult in terms of conquering my fear of heights. From the concealed forest path with trees to block my view of how high we were actually climbing we switch to open stretches of rock piles that showed exactly how high you were and how far you could plummet to your untimely death. As long as I didn’t look behind me I just kept climbing. I pushed that voice that said “look how far you are going to fall” to the back of my head and chose instead to tell myself “don’t think, just do”. And guess what?? I DID! We made it to the summit of Cascade Mountain right around lunchtime and sat down to a snack amongst a view so extravagant and magnificent that I wonder how people dispute God's existence. His Glory was surrounding us from every angle and in every way. 

The pile of boulders and shale that we climbed to reach the top

WE MADE IT!

The small white buildings in the background was our starting point.

Banff in the background.

 
As much as I wanted to soak in this glorious view and experience at the top of the mountain, I found my mind wandering to how on earth I was going to make my way down this mountain. Going down was my stumbling point. I have often become overconfident and climbed a ladder onto a roof, or ended up in various other viewpoints from which I have had to be carried down from or have crawled away from an edge. I honestly had a picture of Scott carrying me down this incredibly steep, rocky slope to the safety of the covered forest. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the same vision as I did. So we began our climb down and one rock at a time I DID it AGAIN! The slope down raged against both of our knees and we were very thankful to reach the car at just 4:30pm. We can officially say that we summited Cascade Mountain in just 7.5 hours!!

On our way down. Very, very slowly.

We sumitted the peak on the left.  It would have been another 4 hours total to get to the other peak and back.

After a full day of climbing we were sore to say the least and wondering how we would conquer another hike tomorrow morning. We were thankful when we received a message from Scott’s parents to come back home to our girls who were missing us. As much as I work-out at home and stay fit, nothing compares to working every muscle in your body at the same time while consuming less oxygen at higher altitudes. To those of you who are feeling unchallenged in your workouts or like you need a new perspective on life, go climb a mountain!