July 8th, 2011 — Acne, Fitness, Skin Care
Hello everyone! In today’s video I’m going to show you three simple yoga moves you can do at home that will help promote blood flow to the skin on your face. Why is this important? Because if enough blood isn’t getting to your skin cells, they can’t receive all the nutrients they need to heal and function properly!
Watch the video to get the demo…
November 16th, 2010 — Fitness
Yesterday morning I started a new exercise routine with my sister. I spent a lot of time hiking while I was traveling so got out of the habit of my usual running or skating routine. And since I’ve been back I haven’t picked up on my running again and hiking is not an option because there are no decent hikes around here. But I’ve always wanted to start Peak 8 fitness so I took up the opportunity of my recent laziness as a fresh start to a brand new exercise routine.
What is Peak 8?
I first heard about Peak 8 fitness from Dr Mercola but had already experimented with it a little in the beginning weeks of the Couch To 5k running program. Dr Mercola makes a very good point in his articles and videos about Peak 8. He references the body structure of a marathon runner or cyclist and questions if that’s the body shape you’re really aspiring to. It’s obvious when we look at these extreme athletes that endurance training is not building a strong body structure at all, instead it’s building a body that’s extremely lean, devoid of all fat and without a lot of muscle. I love a few bumps and curves on bodies. I love it so much that I wish I had a few more!!!
The basic concept of Peak 8 is to quickly raise your heart rate 8 times for very short bursts, with a cooling down period in between. Ideally you’ll be sprinting or cycling full throttle for 20-30 seconds with a 90 second cool down in between each outburst.
This is the fastest way to lose fat and build muscle in the body. Peak 8 actually stimulates the growth hormone in the body. I encourage you to visit Dr Mercola’s site to learn more about Peak 8 fitness because I personally feel that it is one of the best ways to exercise, especially considering the speed at which you can lose fat and build muscle.
I highly recommend you read this article and watch the videos on the page. It will give you all the information you need to know about Peak 8 – Flood Your Body With This “Youth Hormone” In Just 20 Minutes
What you eat after Peak 8 training does matter
It’s recommended that you do not eat sugar or carbohydrate for 2 hours after the Peak 8 exercise because these foods can impact the release of the growth hormone in the body. I feel that this information is vital to the training so I recommend you read the section on diet in Mercola’s article linked above.
My experience with Peak 8 so far
In comparison to the running I’ve done in the past I found Peak 8 to be really fun. I went out with my sister who is currently at a lower fitness level than me. So to cater for her at a very beginner fitness level, we ran just 7 sets of 15 seconds on full throttle sprinting, with a 90 second cool down walk in between each set. I felt good after, not pushed just good. My sister felt great too but just on the edge of what she could handle at this stage. She also woke up the next day with sore muscles everywhere whereas I didn’t have any sore muscles.
We also took her dog Ollie which was fun because he loved the sprints through the park too. But next time we’ll sprint near a dog park and keep him in the enclosure because it was a little tricky sprinting full ball with a dog attached on a lead to our hand!!!
Our aim is to get up to at least 8 sets of 20 seconds of sprinting. I feel confident that this will be achievable relatively quickly if we practice regularly. We’ve organized to train together for 3 mornings a week which I feel is the absolute minimum that you want to be doing to increase your fitness level. Ideally I’d love to go a bit more than that so I’ll see if I can drag myself out of bed early enough for some more mornings of Peak 8 fitness goodness.
March 8th, 2010 — Being Uber Healthy, Fitness
On Saturday night I went to a 5 Rhythms Dance class. It was one of the funniest ways to exercise, to express creativity and to feel safe to fully be present in the moment.
If you’ve never heard of 5 Rhythms before then neither had I before last week. I found out about it through a friend who I guess is even kookier than me (you know who you are and you know that I love your kooky self!). So when he invited me to the dance class I gave a shy little “sure” before wondering what on earth I had got myself in to.
I ended up dragging along my entire household plus one more. So our little group of six turned up to the class a little unsure of what to expect.
When we turned up the hall was full of about thirty lovely people warming up and moving along to the gentle music that was playing. We were instructed not to speak with each other after we’d entered the hall so this amped up my vulnerability a little. A couple of my house mates have just returned from a long holiday in India where they attended very similar dance events so they very naturally and confidentially joined the class and started to move along to the music with their own movements.
But then something very unusually wonderful happened. Within less than five minutes my vulnerability and shyness were completely gone. I then felt completely safe to move my body to the music in any way that I wanted to. This feeling of freedom was incredibly beautiful and I started to dance around the room with a huge smile on my face. And then the night just kept getting better and better. Continue reading →
February 2nd, 2010 — Acne, Fitness
Over the last few weeks my exercise routine has been suffering to the point where my friends have started to tell me that I need to do more exercise (meh!).
I used to be a fit little bunny and I felt so healthy and so clear on the inside for it.
So my mission over the next few weeks is to get back into a routine of regular exercise and reclaim that level of fitness back!
January 7th, 2009 — Fitness
We all know that exercise is good for our body and good for our skin, but sometimes making that effort to start a new exercise routine is really, really difficult.
Jogging always seems like the easiest option because you can do it from the front door of your house and all your really need is a pair of running shoes. But if you’re like me then you’re already huffing and puffing half way down the street and are seriously wondering why you even thought about this jogging idea in the first place.
So what if I was to tell you that there’s a program that guarantees you will be running 5km (or 30 minutes) non-stop without breaks after only nine weeks? And the best part is – this program is a free coaching program on the net. Where would we all be without the Internet??
