Happy International Yoga Day! #internationalyogaday

In honour of International Yoga Day, I'm going to share a few of my favourite yoga items today.

I've been practicing yoga on and off for over 17 years! 

(You can see some of the other yoga workouts I do in my Get Fit & Lose Weight posts.)

Yoga is great for so many things and can benefit anyone of any age.

Yoga can help with:

• Mobility
• Flexibility
• Strength
• Back issues
• Sore muscles
• Insomnia
• Stress reduction
• Lowering blood pressure
• Improving balance and more...

I've done many forms of yoga, from Hatha to hot yoga as well as Kundalini. Hatha is the more common form of yoga with traditional poses and sequencing. Hot yoga, as the name implies, is done in a heated room. Kundalini yoga is very different from traditional style yoga like Hatha yoga. It may seem odd at first to someone who is new to it, but it does a lot of work of the glandular and hormonal systems. I like to mix it up and practice all kinds of yoga styles!

There are many other forms of yoga and I have linked an article to some of the various styles of yoga here.

My Favourite Yoga Gear

My favourite place to buy workout and yoga clothing is at Old Navy. I wait for promos and check the clearance rack for great deals. Their workout clothing is great fitting and great quality! I think it's very underrated.

Here are a few of my favourite picks that I found on Old Navy's website today. The tank is on sale for only $5 today!

Old Navy Go-Dry Performance Muscle Tank

Old Navy Go-Dry Mid-Rise Mesh Yoga Crop for Women

Some of my Favourite Yoga DVD's. 

Traditional Style Yoga

Sara Ivanhoe's Yoga Body Makeover

Yoga Body Makeover by Sara Ivanhoe is your more traditional style of yoga. It has 6 different routines, each 20 minutes long. I really love this one. For some reason, it has helped me lose weight when cardio-kickboxing was making me gain weight, and it wasn't muscle I was gaining. I guess this is just what my body wanted. I did a new routine each day from this DVD and within a week I started to lose weight! It's a great DVD for anyone, beginner, advanced and everyone in between. Since the workouts are short, it's easy to fit it into your day. And, since it has 6 routines, it's hard to get bored.

Kundalini Style Yoga

Fat Free Yoga (Kundalini Yoga)

Fat Free Yoga Lose Weight & Feel Great  is a Kundalini style yoga DVD. This is one of  the most popular ones by Ana Brett & Ravi Singh. My other favourite by them is "Yoga Beauty Body." It's less popular but I love it!

Most of my Kundalini DVD's are by Ana Brett and Ravi Singh and I own quite a few of them and like to rotate them along with other styles of yoga.

Tools to enhance your practice

Besides a yoga matt, there are a few props that can enhance your yoga workout (Note: these wont help with Kundalini style yoga, but the more common/traditional styles like Hatha).

I'm sure there are other tools, but these are the two that I use when I'm practicing traditional style yoga. They help me deepen into stretches and keep good form. While they aren't necessary, I do find they are very helpful. Keeping good form is essential to prevent injuries, so I do think they are important.

Yoga Strap

A yoga strap can help you enhance your practice by deepening into poses and helping with form if you're less flexible. If you don't have a yoga strap on hand, try a belt.

Yoga Block

The other tool I use to enhance my practice is a yoga block.  Similar to the yoga strap, a yoga block can help you deepen into your poses and also help those who are less flexible.

Badger Yoga & Meditation Balm

I also like to use a meditation balm. These scented balms help you with relaxation and can help deepen your experience whether during yoga or meditation. 

These are some of my yoga favourites. I'd love to hear what yours are!

Amy

xoxo

*Not sponsored. 

30 Days of Fitness Challenge: Week 3 Follow Up + HUGE Skinny Teatox giveaway {over}

The last week has really been up and down with my workouts. I've had some rather large obstacles that made it impossible to workout on some days but life happens sometimes and you can't beat yourself up about that. Despite this I am sticking with the challenge and will update my progress and workouts completed in this post. If you missed the post regarding the challenge, here is a link to it 30 Days of Fitness Challenge.

Here is what I have accomplished for the last 7 days:

1. Yoga- Seane Corn Detox Flow Yoga (35 min)
2. Toning- The Firm's Hi-Def Sculpt complete workout (45 min)
3. No workout- family outing
4. Yoga- Trudie Styler's Weight Loss yoga, total body yoga (24 min)
5. Toning- The Firm Hi-Def Sculpt Express workout (25 min)
6. Yoga- Seane Corn Detox Flow Yoga (65 min)
7. No workout- sick :(

Weigh in:

• Starting weight: 145 lbs
• Last week: 143.5 lbs
• Today's weight: 143.0 lbs

The scale doesn't seem to want to budge very much but I'm definitely firming up and that's enough to keep me going. Hopefully next week will be better. I know that if I keep at it I will eventually see the results I want and that keeps me motivated!

If you haven't heard of Skinny-Teatox yet, they are currently holding a HUGE giveaway right now! I haven't tried their products yet but have been hearing a lot of buzz about them and hope to soon. Check out the contest if you are interested, it's a big one!!

$1,200 Victoria's Secret & Teatox Giveaway- Enter here!

Here is a link to their website if you just want to check them out- skinny-teatox

See you next week!

Xo Amy

30 Days of Fitness Challenge: Week 2 Follow Up

It's been 2 weeks since I challenged myself to 30 days of fitness. It's been a challenge alright. Trying to find the time and having enough energy are my biggest challenges so far. As much as I feel good after completing a workout and keeping up with the challenge, some days I feel like I just can't do it. Despite this, I am pushing myself and that's part of the point; sometimes we need a push and it has to come from within ourselves, no one else is going to do it for us. The motivation comes from whatever it is we desire; wanting a better body, better health, better sleep, a better outlook or just being able to fit into all our clothes.  Whatever our motivation is, we have to use it as a powerful tool to get ourselves going and to stay on track.

I don't want the challenge to end after 30 days, I want this to become a habit, a way of life. That is another point to this challenge for me- to make fitness a part of my daily routine, to find the time, to make the time, to find forms of exercise that I enjoy and keep at it!

Over the past 7 days of this challenge there were some days that I just wasn't up to doing much of anything. But, for the most part, I chose to do some form of activity rather than do nothing (with the exception of one fail day.) I will list the exercises that I chose to do over the last week and you will see that I found many options for those days that I didn't have the time or energy. I will link to items I used in my workouts this week where possible.

Here is what I have accomplished for the last 7 days (Day 9-15):

1. Fail
2. Yoga- Trudie Styler's Weight Loss yoga, total body yoga (24 min)
3. Yoga- Sara Ivanhoe's Candlelight yoga (45 min)
4. Toning- The Firm's Hi-Def Sculpt complete workout (45 min)
5. HIIT- 7 Minute Workout App -it's free! (7 sweaty minutes...lol)
6. Toning- The Firm Hi-Def Sculpt Express workout (25 min)
7. HIIT- Youtube video- Fitness Blender's Brutal Fat Burning Cardio HIIT (27 min)

Weigh in:

• Starting weight: 145 lbs
• Last week: 143.5 lbs
• Today's weight: 143.5 lbs

Despite my one fail day, I chose an activity on 6 out of the 7 days, which I don't feel bad about at all. I'm not beating myself up over a fail day or even a shorter workout day as it's better than what I was doing before this challenge ie. nothing! Even on some of my most limiting days I found a way to squeeze in a little workout. For instance, some of the DVD's I have offer shorter workouts, and I finally used an app that I've had on my cell phone for eons- the "7 Minute Workout." It was a great workout and I actually worked up a sweat! Even though it was only 7 minutes, it felt good to get in a workout that day. I'm impressed with the app. and will definitely use it again.

I've read a lot of research over the last few years which says that they are finding out that short bursts of exercise are more beneficial than longer more traditional workouts.  Along those lines, HIIT or "High Intensity Interval Training" is gaining more and more popularity due to its purported benefits over conventional workouts. Many of you are probably familiar with or have heard of it. HIIT is basically a form of exercise where you alternate high intensity exercises with low intensity ones. One example would be running quickly for a few minutes and then walking for 1 minute (your rest period). This style of exercise is supposed to burn fat much more effectively than a steady paced workout. Here is Wikipedia's description of HIIT.

I may not have lost any weight but that's okay, I feel I am toning up already!

If you know of any great workout DVD's or app's please let me know.

Xo Amy