Giving Back

Hey welcome to Try-Athlete the blog where I try all the latest fitness and diet trends so you don't have to. Since Christmas is just around the corner I wanted to share a couple things I have done to give back. 

I believe it is as important to receive as it is to give back. Being a healthy person also involves helping others, during the month of December I helped three charities and here is what I did.

My boss teaches a cooking class to the local Boys & Girls Club every year. This year it started December 5th and helped out last year so I decided to volunteer again this year. It's a strange feeling you get from helping others, it makes you feel just as good as they feel. Each Thursday we have taught the Boys & Girls Club about nutrition and how to make a healthy meal. This last week, we taught them how to bake a potato, sweet potato,  make chicken soup and broccoli soup. Each week I'm thrilled when I see how excited the kids are to cook and create healthy food for themselves. I always leave feeling really good about myself and I am genuinely happy I got involved.

The second thing I did this month was donate toys to the Los Angeles Children's Hospital. My sister and I won't be spending Christmas with each other this year so we got together before to celebrate a "Sissies Christmas" which stands for sisters Christmas. We met up at Chateau Marmont and had a wonderful breakfast together. We wanted part of our day to be helping out at a charity or giving back, so we researched and found out the Children's' Hospital was doing a toy drive. My sister and I set out to find toys and the specific items they had requested such as playing cards, coloring books, baby rattles, bubbles and more. We didn't stop till we found everything on their list and we had a great time doing it as well. We went to a couple different stores and listened to Christmas music on the way, it was truly a great time. After we purchased all our toys we headed to the Children's Hospital to drop off the goods. The helpers thanked us for our generosity and we felt like we had made an impact. We decided that every year we would make giving back/helping a charity a Christmas tradition.

The third thing place I helped  was a soup kitchen my friend helps out at. She had told me about it and I really wanted to help. Since I just went out and bought all new baking ingredients (all gluten-free, sugar-free and organic) I didn't know what to do with the other stuff I had. I wasn't going to use the baking supplies ever again but I didn't want to throw them away. I remembered the soup kitchen and had a thought, I should donate my baking stuff to them. I asked her if that was something they would take and it was. So I donated all of it. 

I know it's the holiday season and that's when most people give back but after this month I want to start making this a monthly tradition. Each month I want to give back in some way. I think it's healthy for the soul. Well from one Try-Athlete to another have an amazing holiday, whatever you celebrate and until next time stay strong and stay fit!!! Xoxo

LesMills Combat Week 2

Welcome to Try-Athlete the blog where I try all the latest fitness and diet trends so you don't have to. This week was week # 2 of LesMills Combat and I was still sore from week one. I am starting to see results on my body. My abs are coming back, I used to have a six pack and was unmotivated for a couple of week and noticed my six pack was starting to go away. But this week I started to see definition again in my abs so I am going to keep it up.

Week 2 brought some new workouts I hadn't done yet. One was called "Hiit: Plyo" using high intensity interval training with cardio. This workout was tough, and definitely got my heart rate up. Just like last week their was a burpee series and that was the hardest part of the workout. Doing burpees for 3 minutes straight will tire out just about anyone.

The other new workout I did was "Combat 60," a 60 minute kick-boxing aerobic workout that worked my entire body. I noticed that I'm using my shoulders a lot with this workout and my arms are sore almost everyday. I'm excited about this because I played soccer growing up so I've always had defined legs but it has taken me awhile to build up my arm and shoulder muscles.

Another thing I wanted to touch on this week is diet, because 70% of your of how you look is based on your diet. So like I said earlier I was unmotivated for a couple weeks and I wasn't eating as healthy as I usually do and I definetly saw that on my body. But last week and this week since I started LesMills Combat I have been back to my healthy diet. LesMills Combat comes with a meal plan/nutrition guide and I've tried to follow it to the best of my ability. I am a vegan so their are a few modifications I have made here and there to accommodate my dietary restrictions. A typical day includes oatmeal for breakfast, a smoothie or energy bar for a snack mid-morning, rice cakes with hummus, avocado and tomato for lunch and a vegatable salad for dinner. Grazing on bananas and nuts as snacks when needed. 

I'm starting to feel like my old self again having endless energy and I attribute that to working out and eating healthy...that truly is the secret to my success. I would recommend this workout and diet guide to people that are looking to work hard and see results. Hang in there Try-Athletes and until next time stay strong and stay fit!

LesMills Combat

Welcome to Try-Athlete the blog where I try all the lastest fitness and diet trends so you don't have to. It's been a couple weeks since I've posted and I apoligize I took a couple weeks off for Halloween and Thanksgiving. I'm back in full force now trying a new workout DVD series called LesMills Combat combining kickboxing, strength and high intensity interval training. It was time for me to try a different DVD series since I was a little burnt out doing Insanity and Asylum for many years so I went to the BeachBody website and found LesMills Combat.

This is my first week doing the LesMills Combat program and I'm excited to tell you all about it. The first video labeled "Combat 30," was cardio kickboxing for 30 minutes. It was a great start to this new workout, it got my heartrate up immediately with kickboxing combos and every other song rotating upper body to lower body. I was doing roundhouse, front and back kicks and we even did jump kicks. I really enjoyed this first video and was pumped for the next day.

Day two was "Kata" 45 minutes of kickboxing aerobics. It was intense and taught different routines from the previous day. I did expect the tempo to be a little faster on a couple of the routines that was my only critique of this video. I was still sweating and getting a great workout but just felt at a couple of points I could go faster than the video was going.

After a little disappointment from the video of day two I went into day three not knowing what to expect. 

Well let me tell you, the video labeled "Power Hiit" a 30 minute workout bringing together strength and high intensity interval training, kicked my butt. This workout started with cardio and then threw in some weight training and kept going back and forth like that. We worked arms, legs and abs and this workout had me dripping sweat and it was only 30 minutes long. I have tried other workouts that were only 30 minutes and they rarely made we sweat and work as hard as this video did. I actually had to take a break from one exercise (burpee with a jump and then squat) because I was so tired. When this workout was over I was sore from head to toe, I can't wait till tomorrow for my next workout.

This is my first week doing LesMills Combat but so far I would definetly recommend this to people that want a workout challenge but also enjoy kickboxing and having fun. The music in this DVD series is upbeat and it pumps you up while you are working out. I will keep you posted on how week two goes and until next time stay fit!