Studio Pilates – My Personal Journey

 

I celebrated a win on Sunday! I did my 20th Studio Pilates class at the Wellington Point Studio. CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES COME ON!! Studio Pilates is a total body exercise, developed almost one hundred years ago by Joseph Pilates, to rehabilitate injured WW1 soldiers and later, for strength and conditioning of dancers, pretty cool right?

Studio Pilates is a total-body workout, with powerful cross-training benefits, focusing on strength, mobility, endurance, body alignment and breath control. 

I decided after having my third child via a C Section, that I wanted to give reformer  pilates a try. I had heard from one of my girl friends how much it had helped her with her postpartum recovery, plus I  wanted to re build my body, make it strong and allow it to recover safely before returning to my usual high-intensity workouts that I love and have done for years now. During this process though I feel in love with pilates. I have a Studio Pilates down the road from me, with 3 young children , this was so convenient as I could sneak off early morning when David (my husband) was not working and do a class.

The classes go for a total of 45 minutes, you only have to arrive 5 minutes early and you just need light workout clothes and some grippy socks. Because I’m used to high-intensity workouts or home work outs using weights, I found it took a while to get out of the mindset that you really have to be dripping with sweat to get a workout. NOT TRUE BY THE WAY! Although I do still love to sweat a few days a week at home, these Studio Pilates classes were really something my body was loving. I found it helped to sculpt my body in places I have always struggled with. I mentally felt strong too, as I feel I was also practicing mindfulness in the class. I would concentrate so hard on the movements that my mind would only focus on one thing and that was PILATES!! I would also be so proud of my body and what it could achieve each class.

The class starts with a stretch, while you do that, the instructor comes and personally greats each individual. They also check in on how you are feeling and if you have any injuries. I loved this as I could explain about my scar and how I was feeling that morning after a night of breastfeeding haha. They were really supportive of each client and their individual journey. They also are there to modify the exercise if need be for you if you do have injuries or if you are more experienced. I find it very personalised.

I feel my body is starting to feel stronger, look more sculpted and my T Zone area and Pelvic floor muscles are improving with each class. I love what it is doing for my posture too, I have a natural arch in my back, so I have found that these classes are helping me to switch my abdominal muscles, pull them in and support my body when I am holding my babies or doing simple daily tasks. I look forward to working hard in future classes to continue to improve my strength too. I will be adding in some more cardio and weighted classes in the next month along side my Studio Pilates classes. So I look forward to seeing more progress and how Studio Pilates can compliment that too. I have made some new friends, found a new passion and I love that I am seeing improvement every class. From the moment I finished the orientation class I have been hooked, I will defiantly be continuing. Will keep you updated!

To find your local Studio Pilates Studio visit here – HERE

Want to know more about Studio Pilates?

Website –www.studiopilates.com

Instagram – @studio_pilates

Hair @c_ba_hair

Photographer @wyldefolkstudio_

Living Clean for $10 a day.



I feel like I have been doing a few big food shops of late, then at the end of the week I am chucking food out. I have been thinking of ways I can cut down on wastage in my everyday life (thank you to my good friend Rachelle, the editor of Maximizer Magazine for inspiring me).

I LOVE coffee to, but I only ever buy one as a treat when I go out, nothing wrong with that but I am trying to save money. So I probably wont be able to afford a coffee, since I am only budgeting $10 a day on food and drink. So goodbye soy lattes and hello to homemade coffee (only for a week ekkkk haha).

$10 a day sounds easy right? I actually think this is going to be a big challenge. I added up my weekly costs for 5 days, this includes, food at home and at cafes, protein powders, superfoods, coffees, teas etc. it was a whoping $146 one week and $138 the next I was spending. This was calculated on a  Monday and Friday basis over the past 2 weeks.

So the rules…

  • Maximum of $10 to spend of food and drinks on a daily basis.
  • $50 over 5 days budget.
  • I will have to include food or drink supplements in the total cost.
  • Can buy from farmers markets or the super market.
  • Can use foods from the veggie/fruit patch and the herb garden at home, not included in the daily cost.
  • Can use any spices in the pantry, however not allowed to buy any more.
  • This is just for myself, no other family member.
  • Will update at least 4 times on the blog and daily on my Instagram & Facebook, my food posts and proof.
  • Will snapchat evidence every meal and state the total cost.

 

Wish me luck everyone.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Big love,

Alice xoxo

 

Instagram – @aliceinhealthyland

Facebook – Alice In Healthyland.

Snapchat – allyb1987

Breakfast Club


Once upon a time, I was part of the “don’t eat anything until 1100hrs” club. I was a major breakfast skipper. I thought that eating less in a day would make me lose weight. In fact it did the complete opposite. I gained 10kg and my metabolism slowed right down. I’m not saying the the meal skipping was  completely to blame for the weight gain, but it defiantly contributed. 

I now wake up every morning, do my 30-45minute walk, then come home to eat. 

I have usually smashed two meals before 1100hrs now! Haha! 

Over the past week I have been eating very strictly and sticking to a meal plan of healthy food choices. Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day, so I’m going to share with you my top 5 picks. 

SMOOTHIE BOWL


1/2 a frozen Banana

30g vanilla protein

50g spinach

ice

30g oats

1. Blend all ingredients together and enjoy straight away.

Note – this is a great meal on the run in smoothie jar, or you can sit down to it in a bowl, topped with your favourite granola.

Eggs on Rye


2 slice rye toast

3 tbsp organic tin tomatoes

2 organic eggs

30g cottage cheese 

1. Cook the rye.

2. Spread the tin tomatos evenly on the toast.

3. Cook the eggs with the 30g cottage cheese wished in.

Breakfast Protein Loaf 

250g organic oats

2 organic eggs

90g vanilla protein (can use almond meal and vanilla essence of you refuse to use protein)

1 Apple

Cinnamon

1 tbsp maple

1 tbsp coconut oil or peanut butter for good fats

50mls coconut water.

1. Preheat oven to 180degrees

2. Blend all ingredients together.

3. Put in oven proof dish.

4. Mix in 100g blueberries and a small handful of trail mix on top (optional). I also added a chopped Apple.
5. Bake for 30-45min on 180 degrees. It truly all depends on your oven.

Note – Serve warm or cold. Serves 5. Can freeze.

Great for meal prepping for the week.

Protein Pancakes

30g oats

1 egg

30g vanilla protein

1/2 apple

1/2 tsp cinnamon

50mls water.

1. Blitz ingredients in blender

2. Place mixture in the fry pan and cook untill golden each side.

Note –  It’s so easy. Topped with Greek yogurt, blueberries and prunes.

Breakfast Burrito



1 mountain bread

Greens from the garden (spinach and kale)

30g cottage cheese

30g basil and oregano tin tomatoes

2 organic eggs

1. Cook the eggs

2. On the mountain bread, place the cottage cheese, tomatos, cooked eggs, green and salt and pepper to taste.

3. Enjoy cold or you can place in the sandwich presser.
All these breakfast meals took no longer than 15minutes each to make. Some of them can be pre perpared the night before.

I hope you found some breakfast inspiration in this blog post. 

See my Instagram for more healthy breakfast ideas and recipes. @aliceinhealthyland

Thank you,

Alice xx

My Healthyland Blueberry Smoothie 

My wedding is coming up in under 3 months. I decided to meal prep and plan my weekly meals again. Since becoming a mum I LOVE my outings to Cafes with grandparents, aunties, uncles, friends etc, but I am a huge fan of home cooking. 

There are so many cafes around that serve healthy, nutritious foods, but I want to go back to having my 4-5 good healthy meals a day. Not just breakie, cafe healthy lunch and dinner. Or coffee and forget to eat. My training is doing well, but I miss my passion creating food recipes for you all and myself. 

So watch this space, the next week I will be sharing my healthy meal prep with you all and sharing some clean recipes on my blog.

This is my afternoon tea today. It’s a blueberry, greens smoothie.  I am time poor as I’m trying to sort out work and spend time with my little man!
Recipe

Ingredients

60g Frozen Blueberries

30g Vanilla WPI Protein

1 large leaf of Kale

1 large leaf of Spinach or handful of spinach leaves

Crushed ice.

100mls filtered Water

Method

1. Place all ingredients in a blender.

2. Blend up untill the ingredients is nice and smooth.

3. Serve immediately.

Enjoy.

Alice xoxo

Being your own MOTIVATION

Okay we all set goals with our body, we have certain expectations that we wish could happen overnight. Baby steps is what gets you there and you tend to maintain more.

I started off weighing 77kg. I got down to 57kg at my lightest, if I slowly creep but I get to hard on myself. I forget how far I have come.

I used to be a meal skipper and the binge on treats or eat healthy but not push myself at the gym. To lose the weight I trained hard and ate a very well balanced diet with proteins, greens and good carbs.

I continue to eat healthy and train hard but my weight has slowly creeped back up to 61kg. I think it’s because my head has not in the positive mindset!

Negative feelings about your body has been proven to make you gain weight due to your mood. When I am positive I am in a brighter headspace which clearly puts less stress on my body. I am less likely to get tired all the time, you can be more energetic with positive thoughts. I believe in myself more and I am more passionate about the good foods I put in my mouth.

So this weekend I am going to take the time to love myself more and stay positive.

Love you body, you only got one!

Be your own motivation!!

Alice in Healthyland xx

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