Whether you are in Australia soaking up the summer heat or walking through the winter Christmas markets sipping mulled wine in London, there is no hiding the fact that the Silly Season is upon us. Only 5 sleeps until the most wonderful day of the year; Christmas. Continue reading “A HEALTHY SILLY SEASON”
It is good to mix up your gym routines and do different classes / styles of training. From zumba to swimming, from walking to weight circuits and from pilates to body attack. It’s all good and will all be doing different great things to your body. But what is the ‘quickest’ way to burn 300 calories? Continue reading “THE QUICKEST WAY TO BURN 300 CALORIES?”
To kick off week two of #NutritionalNovember why not start with some girl power preaching. This post seems relevant considering a female jockey, Michelle Payne, won the Melbourne Cup for the first time ever on Tuesday last week and it sure as hell caused a few raised eye brows amongst the gents… but all I can say is GO GURL!!! With the ever-growing health and fitness industry women are becoming more and more independent and successful. There are so many women CEO’s absolutely killing it and slowly (but surely) taking over the world. Bit dramatic? Check out my top 6 and make up your own mind.
So I am lying on a pebble beach sunning my backside with my toes just touching the lapping water. I am in Kotor, Montenegro without a care in the world. Nowhere to be. Nothing to be done (we do have a load of washing in our apartment going on at the moment… thanks to Rob) and no one to attend to. It has been 2 weeks since we packed up our lives into 16kg and lugged it to our backs flying half way across the world. Continue reading “EATING HEALTHY WHILST TRAVELING”
There are 24 hours in a day. 1440 minutes in a day. Therefore 15 minutes is 1.042% of a day. Can you spare 1% of that for a workout? Continue reading “THE 1% WORKOUT”
This Ab burner is by the wonderful Kiera Underwood – check out her blog >> HERE!! I saw this one morning whilst scrolling through my instagram and thought “oh yeah that looks simple enough I might try that at the end of my next workout” but believe me IT”S A KILLER!! Continue reading “FAB AB WORKOUT”
Sorry to everyone for the LACK OF posting and commitment over the summer holidays. I was too busy soaking up the sun, spending time with my loved ones, eating amazing foods and having an absolute BALL back in my home city!!! BUT I’m back and have plenty of new and exciting things in store for you all.
Lucky for us, living in the beautiful country of Australia, means that our Christmas holidays are full of summer heat and beautiful coastlines. Many families escape to the coast for weeks of BBQ’s, beach walks, outdoor cricket, swimming, hammock time and other active living activities in the sun.
Yes I ate whatever I wanted. Yes I drank to excess (so not me). Yes I ate copious amounts of chocolate. Yes I nibbled all arvo long on cheese platters. Yes I REGRET NOTHING and yes I HAD THE BEST TIME!
The most important part about getting back from holidays, both mentally and physically is accepting the time off and then getting back into routine. But it’s not that simple. After having a month off your fitness levels will most likely have decreased (don’t worry this is easy to get back) and your body isn’t used to your normal training routine. You need to ease back into it. My first class back was a lovely ‘body balance’ mix of Yoga, Tai chi and Pilates, and let me tell you I was sore even after a few downward dogs and sun salutations.
DO’s and DONT’s FOR GETTING BACK INTO ROUTINE
DO:
DON’T:
Don’t worry if before Christmas you could do 10 push ups on your toes and now you can barely pump out 2. Good things take time – trust the process!
K
Today is the final day of Nutritional November!! Well done all of you wonderful fit and fabulous people who have followed my blog daily for the last 30 days. I hope that you enjoyed ‘Nutritional November’ just as much as I have enjoyed writing my little tips, recipes and health and fitness knowledge daily and are feeling fit and confident ready for summer. I must admit I have learnt a lot too and it really did help keep me stay on track and motivated – just in time for December and the silly season so thank you to each and every one of my followers and supporters!!
It has been quite a commitment writing on my blog daily and has proven to me that “if there is something that you really want – you will make time for it.” Ain’t that the truth! So what did you get out of Nutritional November? Did you learn something? Are you feeling healthier or more confident? Did you do something you thought you couldn’t? Did you make one of my healthy recipes? If you answer yes to any of those questions then congratulations and well done!!
As the final hurrah for Nutritional November I ask that you write down 5 things that you really like about yourself. They key to feeling confident and being happy is to feel good about yourself. It is very easy to beat ourselves up over little things but this just damages our self esteem and contributes to poor confidence – NOT the way to a healthy lifestyle.
Ok so I will go first: (no judgment thanks)
1. I like my toes. I get a lot of crap for my short, same length, stubby little fat chipolata sausage toes – but I love them!
2. I like how I crack myself up (hey if you cant laugh at your own jokes how can you expect other people too?)
3. I like how I am comfortable talking to strangers and sparking up random conversation when waiting for my coffee or lunch.
4. I like my ability to motivate people and make them feel good about themselves
5. I like my will power to do anything I put my mind to (except limiting peanut butter)
Now it’s your turn! You don’t have to show anyone if you don’t want to just get writing and start raising that self esteem!!
Thanks so much for being a part of my nutritional November and challenging me everyday to be a healthier and fitter version of myself!! I think we all deserve a BIG FAT SCOOP (or two) of peanut butter straight from the jar!!!! And a big thank you to the lovely sisters Jayne and Katie from Sweat and Oranges www.sweatandoranges.com.au who gave me the idea of nutritional November and inspire me daily to be fit and healthy.
K
Too many wines or cheese last night? No worries. The number one rule of a healthy lifestyle IS NO GUILT!!! Guilt only causes stress which inevitably causes weight gain so let it go! An indulgent Saturday night was probably exactly what you needed after a busy week!!
Want to get your body moving?? I am calling this THE ‘AB‘ WORKOUT. Not only is it an ‘abdominal’ workout it is also a created by the amazingly talented West Aussie icon ‘Amanda Bisk’ aka AB. This girl has an out of control gorgeous strong body and is stunning on the inside and out. I got this quick little Ab burner from her super popular instagram page >> @amandabisk but for more workouts and great healthy advice head to her blog for a sunday read HERE!! Thanks Amanda!!!
THE AB WORKOUT
3 ROUNDS
20 x sit ups
20 x side crunches (each side)
20 x knee to elbow plank
20 x alternating toe touches
There is a video of her completing these exercises if you need more information on her instagram page @amandabisk! just scroll through and have a ponder!
K
Firstly HIIT huh?? HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. If you have heard the buzz surrounding it, you now that it’s a super fast, very effective way to work out. Basically HIIT involves short intense bursts of exercise with less intense moves or complete rest in between.
The reason why so many people are loving HIIT at the moment is because it is crazy efficient as you only need to spend 15-30 minutes in the gym whilst still coming out with the same if not more benefits as the usual 1 hour class.
When you turn up the intensity on your workout you are making your heart work harding as your heart rate sky rockets.
HERE IS A SIMPLE 15 MIN HIIT SESSION TO GET YOUR COVERED IN SWEAT AND FEELING AWESOME (well not during it but after I bet you will)
Now I say simple because the exercises are simple ‘to understand’ however this quick feisty workout is anything but easy. There are 5 exercises. Complete each exercise for a total on 20 seconds followed by 10 seconds of rest before moving on to exercise 2, 3, 4 and 5 etc. Rest for 90 seconds at the end of the first set (once all 5 exercises are complete) and then repeat a total of 3 rounds.
1. Squats (add small jump for the advanced)
2. Push ups
3. Kettlebell Swings (it wouldn’t be a kale and the kettlebell circuit without one. Full kettlebell workout on the blog HERE)
4. Step ups (can use a step or bench/chair 30-50cm high)
5. Plank (now that you know the correct form from Friday’s NN DAY 7 post HERE)
REST 90 seconds!!! Complete 3 rounds in total
Try your absolute hardest for the 20 seconds and earn your 10 second rest. The harder your push the more intense the intervals are and therefore the higher your heart rate will go burning more fat and calories. GOODLUCK!!
K
Photo source: www.sweatandoranges.com.au
KATIE MORGAN 
