Showing posts with label Healthy living. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Healthy living. Show all posts

Monday, May 7, 2012

Healthy Living: Working out for beginners


Hey Everyone

Hope you all had an amazing weekend and that you feel good, I'm in my bed feeling not so good.  Today I'm going to talk about my workout routine, I'm not doing a heavy workout, but it works for me. I'm having a normal body shape, but I needed to tone down, get stronger muscles en get flexible.

Taking dance classes is a great workout and you stay in shape. I'm not talking about only taking some hiphop. If you combine  hiphop, jazz ballet or normal ballet and dance technique, it will really help to be flexible and to have stronger muscles.

I stopped dancing so I'm not that flexible anymore and I lost the movement I had in a week, and I thought it was time to do something about it.

Step 1

I start my routing with stretching. I start from my neck, to my shoulders, arms, belly, hips and then I'm stretching out my legs. It's hard to explain, but this video below is an example on how you can stretch, I also do stretches lying flat on the ground, and the butterfly stretch,...  It is more of a stretch routine, that dancers do.


Step 2
In step 2 I'm doing exercises that are focusing on my but and thighs, because that is my problem area.

Thigh raise
Thigh raise

1. THIGH RAISE: Lying face down, raise your legs —from just above your knees — so your feet are a 
few inches off the ground (above top). Bend your knees, keeping them off the ground, and hold that position (above bottom). Start with five ­seconds and gradually work up to 15 seconds. Slowly unbend your knees and, with control, lower your straight legs to the ground, then repeat

leg bend
2. BYE BYE TO YOUR INNER THIGHS: Sit on the floor with your back straight, knees bent and legs wide apart. 
Place your left arm directly over your left knee, using your right hand to support yourself by your hip ­(pictured left). While sitting straight, move your right foot to your left hand and hold for five seconds to start. Begin with five reps, then repeat on the other side

Kick-kick
Kick-kick
3. KICK-KICK: Sit straight, on the floor, with your right knee bent and left leg straight out (above, top). Lift up your left leg so that your foot is at least 6in off the ground (above, bottom). Hold for five seconds to start, then, with control, lower leg. Repeat on the other side

pony kick
pony kick
4. PONY KICK: Get down on your elbows and knees (above, top). Keeping your back flat, slowly raise your left thigh to about 45 degrees, with your knee bent and pointing your heel up to the ­ceiling (above, bottom). Hold for
five seconds. Lower leg and repeat five times or more — before repeating ­exercise and same number of repetitions with your right leg

Ballet thighBallet thigh
5. BALLET THIGH: Holding on to a railing or the back of a chair, stand with both feet facing forward. With your chin up, move your right leg back with the toe touching the floor (left). Then raise your right leg back at an angle (not straight back) — lead with your heel, until your heel is 12in off the ground (right). Hold for five seconds, then lower leg and repeat. Start with five repetitions and work up to 20 or more. Repeat on the other side

THIGH CHAIR
6. THIGH CHAIR: Stand about a foot away from a wall with your feet straight ahead. Slide your body down the wall, until you are sitting with your thighs perpendicular to the surface (pictured). Hold this position for between 30 seconds and two minutes
Source: Dailymail

Step 3
Crunches and setups! I'm doing 5 x 10 setups, 1 x 10 crunches and 1 x 10 side setups (each side).

Step 4

I'm not using a kettlebell, instead I'm using a large bottle of water, or something else that is heavy.
I also use that bottle of water to train my arms.


I would suggest doing this routine at least 4 times a week, I'm trying to do it everyday but sometimes if I'm busy I'll do it 4 time a week. Once I get used to these exercises, I'll change up my routine and do a new post!

Don't forget to put on colorful and cute workout clothes and to listen to your favorite songs! Let me know in the comments below what your favorite workout songs are.

xoxo B.


Thursday, May 3, 2012

Healthy Living: Diet

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Hey lovelies

I'm having a cold and I'm feeling a little miserable lately, but I can say that I've been eating healthy! I'm not really doing a specific diet, because I'm really bad at that, I just made up some rules and guidelines to follow, and so far it has been pretty easy. I'm not on a crash diet or I don't have a weight goal.

My Diet Rules:
  • Drink 1,5 liters or 8 glasses of water a day
  • No sodas, alcohol, or any kind of very sugared drinks, also no coffee
  • Avoid sugar and fat: no cookies, candy, chocolate, potato chips, fries, pizza, premade food,...
  • Eat at least 1 piece of fruit a day
  • Drink at least 2 cups of tea a day (green or black)
  • Think fresh: try as much as possible to eat fresh food
  • If you like pasta, like I do, I would suggest to eat it once a week, but you have to eat the whole grain pasta
  • I love bread, but always eat brown bread  
  • I love chocolate, so as a snack I love to eat a cracker with some light chocolate spread
  • Count calories! This will keep make you realize with what you're eating and how much calories there are in a type of food.
I guess these are all my rules, I'll also show you what a menu would look like for a day.

Menu:
  • Breakfast: 2 slices of brown bread with Peanut butter, light jam (I need something sweet ;p), 1 glass of fresh orange juice and a cup of tea or a bowl of muesli with chopped bananas or a smoothie,...
  • Lunch: 2 slices of brown bread with chicken slices and tomatoes (or another vegetable) with some olive oil and balsamico
  • Dinner: Fish with potatoes and spinach or a salad with shrimps or chicken with rice and vegetables, just get creative with vegetables, chicken, fish,...
  • Between meals: a cup of tea, water, cracker with light choco

I also would suggest to cheat once a week, Saturday or Sunday, I love oreo's so I would eat that, or I'm going to Titanic 3d so I'll eat popcorn!! (Which is actually a healthy snack if you're making it yourself with a tiny bit of sugar)

These are just some rules and guidelines, but no specefic meals and recipes, I'll post some meals that I eat, like a smoothie or salad, so look forward to that!

So I hope you enjoyed this and let me know below what your favorite rules are to diet/eat healthy and what you favorite healthy meal/snack,... is.

xoxo B.

Monday, April 30, 2012

Glam up your Monday: Bikini season?

Happy Monday Lovelies

My internet has been very slow since Friday, because I used it all up. Wednesday it should be fixed and then I can start with my normal blog routine.

Tomorrow is the 1st of May, can you believe it? School's almost over and almost 50% of 2012 is gone. But for me that means it's June and that means it's MY BIRTHDAY ;) I'm thinking about doing breakfast since it's my favorite meal of the day. But June is (depends on where you love) the start of the Bikini season, and since tomorrow is the 1st of May that means I still have 1 month left to get in shape!

I'm very bad at dieting, because I love food. And since I stopped dancing I'm not getting enough physical exercise anymore. I don't need to lose weight, I just want to get in shape and eat more healthy. So I'm going to write blog posts about it and take you with me on my journey :p











I love the Victoria's Secret bikini's



Have a nice week!
xoxo Blair