Kayla Itsines Bikini Body Guide Review

Kayla Itsines BBG Review, annamarialocke.com

Trying out new at-home workout programs has been one of my favorite things ever since I took a "personal fitness" gym class in high school and discovered Pilates and step aerobics. I had been a completely sedentary bookworm my whole life until that point, and I was so surprised to discover that exercise could be FUN, not torture! And now I've made it my job, haha. It's funny how life works, isn't it?

I love mixing up my routine so I don't get bored, and I LOVE challenging myself with tough circuits that push me to my max. I also love being able to work out from home, because let's face it, sometimes I don't have the time or mental energy to get my booty to the gym.

Are you the same way?

If you follow any active living Instagram accounts, you might have seen thisKayla Itsines Bikini Body Guide (BBG) program making the rounds on social media. Kayla is a personal trainer out of Australia who is transforming women on the inside and out with her intense 12-week circuit training program. After hearing so many of my Instagram friends rave about these workouts, I decided to look into the program a bit more. I like Kayla's philosophy on healthy living, because her goal is to help women gain confidence and inner strength by challenging themselves with hard workouts and fueling their bodies with clean, healthy foods. She promotes an active and healthy LIFESTYLE, not a quick fix or crash diet, which is something I'm definitely on board with.

On her website, there are three circuits you can download for free and try before you buy, which I definitely recommend if you're thinking about the BBG. I'm a sucker for freebies so I downloaded them, did all three circuits (one for lower body, abs, and arms) and loved them enough to drop $60 for the complete workout guide because I knew it would be worth it for me.

1. Circuits are my absolute favorite style of workout

2. I have enough inner motivation to push myself without a video or class

3. I'm motivated by a challenge

4. My goal was to mix it up and keep myself excited about my workouts

Done!

(Kayla also offers a nutrition guide, but since I've been doing my own research on clean eating for almost six years, am a member of the Tone It Up nutrition plan, and am obsessed with the 21 Day Fix, I have a good grasp on how to eat to fuel myself so I didn't purchase it.)

I'm proud to say that I stuck with the program the full 12 weeks and just finished it up on Tuesday! You get three circuits per week, and I completed all except two of them while I was traveling during my wedding craziness in September. Kayla also recommends doing low impact steady state cardio (LISS) a few times a week, which basically means powerwalking. Once you make it to the second half of the program, you can incorporate high intensity interval training (HIIT), aka sprints.

Kayla Itsines BBG Review

(post Week 10 Lower Body--you will torch calories and SPARKLE with sweat!)

I didn't keep track of my LISS and HIITs, but I did make it a point to take at least one powerwalk every week, plus I threw in the 21 Day Fix workouts, running, spin class, and the occasional Tone It Up circuit. Overall I work out for 30-60 minutes, 5-6 days/week and take 1-2 days as COMPLETE rest days (no walking, no yoga).

Here's how it works, and a sneak peek of the free workouts!

Kayla Itsines BBG Review, annamarialocke.com

If you can do the program with a friend in real life, it helps SO much. This was my favorite circuit, lower body when I visited my friend Kaite in Wisconsin! 

FAQ

How did you not give up?! What are your tips for staying on track?

I didn't give up because of my personality. I'm an "all or nothing" girl, and if I'm committed to something 100%, I will see it through no matter what! You just have to want it bad enough. That being said, 12 weeks is a LONG time to stick with a consistent program. If you fall off track for a week, just pick up right where you were and keep going. Don't start back with Week 1, because your body doesn't automatically revert back to your original fitness level and you'll end up getting discouraged. Keep moving forward!

How do the workouts compare to Tone It Up or Beachbody?

They're just different! 

Tone It Up

focuses on daily cardio and resistance or light weights ("toning") routines. I love the Tone It Up workouts, but sometimes they aren't enough for me. The BBG is a next level kind of program and is NOT for fitness beginners. Tone It Up is a great place to start if you're new to a regular workout routine!

Beachbody programs are all video based, and I love every single one I've tried. There are endless different programs based on your goals and preferences. Whether you like dance cardio, athletic style training, heavy weights, kickboxing, a little bit of everything, high impact, low impact, long workouts, short workouts, beginner, advanced. Whether you want to gain muscle and strength, lose weight, increase your flexibility, or all of the above. Whether you want a nice trainer or a yell-in-your-face trainer, there is a Beachbody program for you. The main difference between Beachbody and Kayla's BBG is that the BBG is NOT a video based program--it's a PDF download and you can do the circuits anywhere, home or gym. This flexibility is great, but it's not great if you NEED a follow-along video to stay motivated and push yourself.

Is the BBG worth the money?

It's $60 for a 102-page PDF file with 12 weeks worth of workouts, instructions, and an exercise glossary with pictures and instructions on how to do the moves. You repeat each circuit on alternating weeks, so in total you receive 18 different circuits (21 if you include the free preview circuits which are different than any in the guide itself). So in my opinion, yes it is definitely worth the money, especially if you're like me and need to invest in yourself in order to actually make shit happen. That being said, you only get out of it what you put IN. So if you're going to do 2 weeks and then give up, really think about where your money is going!

What equipment do you need?

I did the complete program at home using a set of 10 lb dumbbells, 5 lb ankle weights that I put on my wrists to ghetto-rig 15 lb weights, a kitchen stool for step-ups, a small step-aerobics bench, and a jumprope.

Ideally, you need a bosu ball, medicine ball, dumbbells, 2 benches, and a jumprope if you're going to do the moves as she specifies. There are only a few different moves that actually require 2 benches and a bosu ball though, so I just got creative and improvised for those.

Do you think starting at Week 1 is a step back if you're already in good shape?

Nope. The circuits are killer and I'd only attempt this program if you have a solid fitness base, and have been working out consistently for at least 3-4 weeks already. If they feel easy, push yourself harder and use heavier weights!

Are you going to do Weeks 13-24?

Kayla recently released a "next level" program. I might do it in the future, but for now I need a break! 12 weeks is a long time and I'm sick of the circuits, haha. I'm planning to focus on spin class and lifting for the remainder of November, and then jump into Insanity Max 30 when it's released in December!

Did you get results?

I went from being able to do 10 "real" pushups to 24. 

My 5k running time went from 27:30 to 24:50. 

I can do 20 jump lunges without taking a break. 

Burpees don't phase me. 

I've increased my spin class "sprint" resistance two gears on the bikes at my gym.

My upper body and legs have never been this lean and muscular.

Kayla markets this program using dramatic before and after pictures of girls in bikinis. I didn't take progress photos because that wasn't my goal--and to be honest, I had 3 weddings, an anniversary, a birthday, 2 additional trips, and Halloween in the 12 weeks I did this program so my nutrition wasn't consistently 100% on point, BUT I can definitely feel a difference in the way my clothes fit and in my endurance!

That being said, if you commit to any intense fitness program for 12 weeks and consistently push yourself, you will probably get similar results. 

The key is to find something that works for YOU, because let's face it. If it's not fun, then you're not going to do it.

If you have any specific questions feel free to email me at annamarialocke@gmail.com. I'd love to chat!

xo Anna

what I'm doing with my life

Have you ever gone on a trip with a group of other people (you may or may not have known them before) that breaks you free from your normal bubble and routine and immerses you in an experience so powerful that it ends up shifting your perspective, the way you view yourself, and maybe the entire trajectory of your life itself?

You are rocked to your core, you feel AWAKENED, you can't help but ugly cry when it's all over because you have to return to reality, the magic is over, and nothing in your world will ever be the same.

But it is the same. YOU are the one who is different.

These trips might immerse you in a foreign culture on the other side of the world. Or they might be a short weekend somewhere close to home. You might go into the trip KNOWING it will change your life, or it might take you completely by surprise.

I've experienced a few of these kinds of trips, and I'm starting to recognize a pattern: I feel completely comfortable with the people I'm with, comfortable and safe enough to be MYSELF without holding back, because I know I'm accepted and I belong.

-My high school exchange trip to Germany.

-My campus ministries mission trip to Biloxi, MS the spring after Katrina.

-The seemingly inconsequential summer weekend after my freshman year of college where I returned to campus to help with freshman registration and ended up meeting a guy named Ben.

-The seven weeks I spent snowed in at Holden Village in the winter of 2008.

-This past Labor Day weekend where I went up to northern Wisconsin with a couple girlfriends I met on Instagram, of all places.

This past weekend is going to be added to that list. I flew to Dallas for my first live Beachbody event, a training conference hosted by my upline organization. Yup, basically a fitness cult convention, hahaha. But it changed my life. It shook me to my core and made me really look at what I'm doing with this opportunity. On the outside, it's just another network marketing thing like Jamberry Nails, Mary Kay, or that fancy mascara that I am thisclose to buying because I am a mascara addict and my translucent lashes need all the help they can get. There are even tons of other health supplement companies that sell magic shakes and pills and vitamins that promise to give you the same results that the stuff I “sell” does.

But Team Beachbody is SO SO SO different. The word Team comes in front of the brand because that’s what it’s all about—a sense of belonging and acceptance by a group of the most positive, values-driven, enthusiastic people helpers you’d ever find, who are all committed to making a difference in the lives of the people we love as well as complete strangers. The focus is on helping people achieve the types of accomplishments that seem too huge, personal, and scary to even dream about. What is something that YOU reallyreallyreally want, but you think it would be impossible to do or achieve? Get out of debt? Find a job that 100% satisfies and fulfills you and makes you excited to wake up in the morning? Run a half marathon? Run a mile? Feel good about yourself and squash the little voice in the mirror that tells you you’ll never be pretty enough/never be smart enough/never be skinny enough/never be good enough to get what you truly want? Instead of squashing that dream and telling yourself you'll never make it...why don't you face your fears and embrace what you want out of life? You are worthy of happiness! YOU ARE ENOUGH.

How you view yourself is how you view the world. Think about what it means to lose 10, 50, 100 pounds. You aren't just physically different—you’re an entirely new person! I have a friend who has to accept that she can't define herself as the “fat girl” anymore. She is literally a brand new person on the inside and out, and she's using her experiences to inspire other women to create a new, stronger, more confident identity too.

I’m helping women (including myself) realize that there is more to life than a thankless, stressful job that sucks our energy and joy and that we are WORTHY of taking control of our own success and happiness. How amazing would it feel to be able to redefine your entire life based around your core truths and values? To create a reality that YOU design to perfectly fit your unique strengths and talents?

For years I felt like I didn’t “deserve” the level of “success” that my best friends were achieving straight out of school. Steady jobs, good paychecks, they are even buying houses now, what the heck! I felt trapped, I felt worthless, I felt like I didn’t have control over my life and was just waiting for a magical opportunity to present itself but I was too scared to go out there and make it happen because I had zero self confidence in myself. I felt like no one wanted to hire me because I was never good enough or fit XYZ qualifications.

I just accepted the "quarter life crisis."

It was an ugly, vicious, bitter cycle and I was becoming a version of myself that I absolutely hated to see, because I knew that I was meant to be as happy as the little girl in fourth grade who dreamed of becoming an Olympic gymnast and designed a wedding magazine with her best friends. What happens between childhood and adulthood that strips us of our joy and makes us so bitter and cynical?

Do you even know where you're headed? Do you even like the direction you're going, or do you have this deep, suppressed, desperate anxiety that there’s something MORE out there if you could only figure out what it is? Do you know for certain that something has to change, but you don't know what to do about it so you’re just going to keep chugging along with the status quo because it’s “safe” and “secure”?

WAKE UP. Face your life.

Surround yourself with people who are successful, people who lift you up, people who share your values and vision, people who are true and real and raw and messy but who embrace themselves anyway and empower you to do the same.

The name of my little team of coaches is Inspire Joy because my deepest desire is to empower women to find their joy and share it with the world, to help them realize their own self worth and feel beautiful in their own skin. To live their truth.

Would I ever have guessed in my wildest dreams that I'd end up being a network marketing professional? Um, hellllllls no. Laughable! Yeah go ahead and laugh and think that I'm crazy. I have degrees in Biology and Geography, I've published an academic paper on forest fires, I thought I wanted to become a pediatrician for most of my life, I am an introvert and I will always detest sleazy pushy salespeople and the heartless profit-driven corporate world. But I've also always known that I am meant to help others, I'm meant to be creative, I love being constantly challenged, I have an insatiable desire to learn new things, empathy and intuition are my strengths, and most of all I know deep down that I'm MADE to be happy and light up the lives of the people I love.

And here I am. And it is amazing. I can finally be true to myself, and by simply embracing who I am and what I struggle with and what makes me happy, I'm making a massive, rippling impact in the lives of women who are just like me, who share my struggles and my joys. My drive has a direction and I finally feel legitimate. I've been a bystander and a lurker and a sponge for years, while I struggle to find a "job" and figure out my "career" and freak about the future, what will happen, where we'll live, what to do after we have kids, well now the answer is so clear and obvious and staring me in the face.

Here's the secret: stop trying to fit society's mold or traditional definition of success. Stop trying to be perfect. Just be YOURSELF. 

Be brave, be daring, be vulnerable, stop hiding, get out in the ring, wake up early, carve out time to have FUN and spend time with the people who matter the most, connect with strangers and turn them into friends, redefine your comfort zone, take lots of selfies along the way, open yourself up, and watch miracles happen.

This is just the beginning!

xo Anna

Beachbody does not guarantee any level of success or income from the Team Beachbody Coach Opportunity. Each Coach's income depends on his or her own efforts, diligence, and skill. See our Statement of Independent Coach Earnings located at https://images.beachbody.com/coach-office/downloads/statement_of_independent_coach_earnings.pdf for the most recent information on our Coaches' actual incomes.

chocolate ganache olive oil cake

Yesterday we celebrated Ben's 29th birthday! We first started officially "hanging out" (college speak for dating) around the weekend of his 21st birthday, which seems crazy to me. We've come so far in the past eight years!

Birthday boy in his birthday scarf...awww ;)

It's become tradition for me to make some form of baked pork and apples with a chocolate cake for Ben's birthday dinner. Sometimes I try to "healthify" the cake, sometimes we go for the store bought ice cream cake, and sometimes I just have to go all in.

Enter this magical vintage cookbook I inherited from Ben's grandmother Mimi. Favorite Recipes of Home Economics Teachers from 1963? GOLDMINE!

I chose a simple looking chocolate cake recipe from among the 57 options (no exaggeration, just counted them all) and tweaked it to bring it up to 2014 standards. 

A little "rustic," but this chocolate cake turned out SO moist and delicious! And of course the ganache is always a bonus. I replaced the shortening called for in the recipe with olive oil, hooray healthy fats! If you're intimidated by the idea of making a cake from scratch, you need to give this recipe a shot. It is just as easy as a boxed mix and SO much better for you (...at least less unhealthy?) without the extra preservatives.

Chocolate Ganache Olive Oil Cake

adapted from

Favorite Recipes of Home Economics Teachers, Desserts Edition

Cake 

1 1/4 c sifted unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 c cocoa powder

1/2 c olive oil

1 1/4 c sugar

1 c milk

1 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

Preheat oven to 350*F.

Sift together dry ingredients in a bowl. In a stand mixer or separate bowl, beat together olive oil, milk, sugar, vanilla, and eggs. Add dry ingredients and whisk until batter is smooth, 1-2 minutes.

Grease two round 8" cake pans and divide batter evenly between them.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until the edges start to separate from the pans and a toothpick comes out clean! 

Allow cakes to cool in the pans before assembling and frosting.

Ganache

8 oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped (I used 2 blocks of Baker's)

3/4 c heavy whipping cream

Bring the cream to a simmer in a small sauce pan. Turn off the heat, add the chocolate, and stir until chocolate is melted. Allow ganache to cool for 15-20 minutes, whisking every once in a while, until it is thick enough to be used as frosting.

Once cake is cool, place one layer upside down on a plate. Spread about 1/3 of the ganache over the first layer. Add the second layer right side up (so the flat bottoms are together...yeah I didn't do it this way haha) and spread the rest of the ganache over the top!