Reach for the Stars! Plyo Workout

jump into shape

Here’s your workout of the week! This workout is all about Plyometrics (jumping).  I love jumping exercises because they really get your heart rate up and strengthen your legs.  However, if you have knee problems, be careful as jumping is NOT advised for you.  This workout requires no equipment so it’s great to do during commercial breaks – enjoy;)

Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you’ll land among the stars!  Lots of luv, Brit

Reach for the stars

Continue Reading

Hottest Celebrity Bodies & Workouts

I have a love/hate relationships with celebrities.  I love the aspirational lifestyle, but hate the drama and shallowness.  However, there are a few celebrities that truly motivate me to live a healthier lifestyle because they have BOTH a killer body and an awesome work ethic – beautiful on the inside and out, just how we like ’em!

My super star intern, Kendra (follow her on Instagram @socialitedivas), did some research on my favorite celebrities and the workouts that keep their bodies smoking hot.  I’m gonna try to incorporate some of these workouts and health tips into my fitness routine.  Who knows, I may have Kelly Rowland abs by the end of the Summer – watch out now! 😉

Workout like a rock star! Lots of luv, Brit

 

Brit's Favorite Celebrity workoutsPINK

  • Kickboxing
  • Sprint Intervals
  • Eats fish and chicken with vegetables
  • Boot camp sessions
  • Snacks on Kale chips
  • Sit ups

KELLY ROWLAND

  • Eats mostly healthy which includes: fruits, vegetables, grilled fish and meat.
  • 1 hr in the gym every other day.
  • Yoga
  • Cardio few times a week
  • Biking and cross training.

TIA MOWRY

  • Cardio 3-4 times a week
  • Hiking, power walking/jogging, intervals on the treadmill, dancing, spinning.
  • Resistance training
  • Fresh fruits
  • Vegetables
  • Grains, lean cuts of meat/fish
  • Herbal teas and lots of water!

JENNIFER ANISTON

  • Loves the basic yoga pose – downward facing dog
  • Begin on a non-slip floor on your hands and knees with your knees under your hips.
  • Exhale and lift your knees away from the floor
  • Press palms into the floor and keep your head between your upper arms
  • Hold for 1 to 3 minutes then lower yourself back onto knees

JESSICA ALBA

  • Cardio & strength training
  • Use 3-pound dumbbell in each hand, step forward with one leg bend at the waist and all your arms to hang.
  • Round your arms, raise dumbbells to your sides until they’re in line with your shoulders.
  • Switch legs after 10 repetitiions aiming for three rounds of 20 repetitions each.

DEMI MOORE

  • Bikram Yoga performed in a room in at least 105 degrees.
  • Most effective  exercises for improving physical fitness
  • Make sure to check with a doctor before trying this class as it is not recommended for pregnant women and people with high blood pressure.

ZOE SALDANA

  • Squats with excercise ball and resistance band
  • Cable push-pull
  • Plank push ups
  • Walking lunges
  • Ball hams with excercise ball

JENNIFER LOPEZ

  • Standing inverted knee tuck with straight back and arabesque extend
  • Lean, tuck, kick combo.
  • Touch the ground side kick.
  • Do at least one hr every other day.

GWEN STAFANI

  • Triceps dips
  • 15 reps of dumbbell chest press
  • three minutes of cycling at a fast pace.
  • 20 reps of reverse barbell lunges
  • 12 reps of military press
Continue Reading

The time of my life…reflection from my get away to Greece

picstitch

Who has a case of the Mondays?  I DO! 🙁

Sorry for my lack of blog posts over the past 9 days.  Me and 3 of my BEST friends went on the ultimate girls getaway to the Greek Islands – eek!  We spent 2 nights in Athens, 3 nights Mykonos and 3 in Santorini.  I truly had the time of my life.  Even though the scenery was breathtaking and the food was delicious, I’m most grateful for my amazing friends.  It’s so nice to have people in my life who accept me for who I am… flaws and all.  On top of that, I actually have fun with them!  Could there be anything better?

Now that I’m back to the US and back in my usual routine, I’ll also get back to posting workouts and diet tips for you guys to enjoy  🙂

Here are some pictures from my trip. Hope your week is off to an amazing start!  Lots of luv, Brit

santorini bikini

 

santorini

 

mykonosgreek islandsgreek island sunset

Continue Reading

5 Reasons Fitness is a Mental Health Miracle Drug

True Beauty GRIT by Brit

I know I’m always talking about the external, physcial benefits of working out (6 pack by summer, J-lo legs, Michelle Obama arms).  But, let’s not forget about all of the ways that fitness helps us on the inside.  Maintaining our mental health is critical for overall wellness.  Here are the top 5 “non-physical” reasons I believe exercise is a mental health miracle drug.  Keep these in mind during your next sweat session!

  1. Super Self confidence – Pushing through physcial challenges gives us confidence which spills over into other areas of life.  Nothing is sexier than confidence 🙂
  2. Less Stress – Studies show that the most common mental benefit of exercise is stress relief.  Boss getting on your nerves?  Go walk it off.  Angry is not a good look.
  3. More Memory – A good sweat session boosts our memory capacity and brain power.  Jocks are smarter after all…and smart is HOT
  4. Addiction Control – Since our brains releases dopamine “the happy chemical” during exercise, we get a natural high – goodbye addictions!
  5. Real Relaxation – Moderate exercise can have the same effect on your body as a sleeping pill.  Who needs chemical drugs for a little R&R?  Not us!

When we are healthy on the inside, we are beautiful on the outside! xoxo, Brit

Continue Reading

Eliminate the Love Handles

Eliminiate Love Handles GRIT by BritHey hey ladies and gents!  Hope you had a FABULOUS weekend!  One of my best best friends from London came to visit me in Dallas this weekend.   We had a great time dining, laying by the pool and catching up on life.  This Friday we’ll be heading to Greece for our much awaiting summer vacation – eek!

As last-minute prep for our beach bodies, I designed this ab workout to focus primarily on the love handles (yes…that little layer of fat that sits so nicely on my side above my low-rise pants).  The workout incorporates some techniques that I use in my PiYo Strength (Pilates/Yoga fusion classes).  BTW, if you live in Dallas, you better come join me for PiYo on the deck every Saturday – it’s free and we have the best view in Dallas at the W Hotel 16th floor wet deck!

My “Eliminate the love handles” workout only takes 8 minutes – try it out and let me know what you think! Trust me, you will be sore tomorrow 🙂

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY8Yp__RrTk]

Continue Reading

Active Recovery #GottaHaveIt

Goin’ hard is great, but be sure to give your body some down time. On the weekends, I literally wear myself out teaching group fitness classes. So during the week days, I try to mix in an Active Recovery workout. For instance, this morning I did this “Treadmill Recovery Workout” at my hotel gym. It’s great fitness option because it keeps my cardio up, burns calories (about 250) and lets my joints recover so I can go hard next weekend.

Keep in mind, that extreme (high intensity) workouts are not intended to be performed more than 3X per week. This means no CrossFit or running sprints every single day! If we don’t give our muscles time to recover, they never rebuild. We want our muscles to rebuild because that’s how we develop more lean muscle mass. More lean muscle mass = more strength AND more calories burned while our bodies are resting – yay!

Try my “Treadmill Recovery Workout” on one of you lower intensity days and let me know how it goes. Enjoy!

Take it easy every now and then! Lots of luv, Brit

 

Continue Reading

To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the GIFT

Happy Sunday!  You guys know on Sundays I like to spread a little encouragement/inspiration, so today I want to share something that’s been heavy on my heart = Appreciating and Maximizing the GIFT of Life

the gift grit by brit

What is the “gift’?  That IS the question.  To me the “gift” is the privilege of having a human life.  As humans, unlike any other species, we have the ability to be BE and DO whatever we want.  Why?

  1. Because we have free will
  2. Because we can change

With hard work, can be WHATEVER we want to be and that’s amazing!

  • If we are weak, we can make ourselves  strong.
  • If we are dumb, we can study and become smart.
  • If we are lonely, we can find companions.

The list goes on and on. However, with this amazing “gift,” also comes a huge responsibility.  To me, that responsibility is to promote peace, abundant living and encouragement to others.  The cool thing is that we each fulfill our responsibility in different ways.  For me it’s through sharing fitness.  What is it for you?

While we all have different passions and different ways of encouraging each other, one thing that we have in common is that we have to continuously work REALLY HARD to perfect our craft.  It’s a life-long journey, but it’s so rewarding to know that our lives have a purpose and that we each play a crucial role in helping others live a better life.

As you start your week, I encourage you to think about your “gift.”  Are you making the most of it?  Are you giving your best?

Work hard, dream big, help others! Lots of luv, Brit

Continue Reading

SKIP into Shape! New Jump Rope Workout

I’m back on the road for work this week which means more Hotel Gym Workouts! There are jump ropes in the fitness center of my hotel, so this morning I made up a new jump rope circuit to “skip” into shape. It was a GREAT way to fight hotel gym boredom and to include some plyometric training in my routine. I felt super athletic while doing the exercises and got a good sweat!

Here are the details…

  • Calories Burned: 400-500
  • Duration: 40-45 minutes
  • Focus: Cardio + Lower body power and explosion from the jumping and burpees
  • Brit’s Commentary: Our bodies are SO efficient! This means we constantly need to change our workout routines so that our bodies have to adjust and thus, get stronger and burn more calories. Mixing a jump rope circuit into your usual cardio routine is a great way to SHOCK your body.

Remember, if we do what we’ve always done, we’ll get what we’ve always got. #GRIT

Lots of luv, Brit

 

Continue Reading

3 weeks till GREECE! #BikiniBody

mykonos

It’s almost Summer!  In less than 3 weeks I will be lying beach-side in Santorini and Mykonos, Greece! I’m SO excited.  I’ve never been to Greece before.  Have you?

Last year I went to Monaco and Italy which was AMAZING.  In preparation for the trip, I designed an Extreme Bikini Body workout which got me in tip-top shape.  I felt tight and toned in the Côte d’Azur! Below is a throw back pic from Summer 2012 at the Monte Carlo Beach Club!

grit by brit bikini body

Now, it’s time to get bikini ready yet again!  So I made a new and improved EXTRA Extreme Bikini Body Workout.  I plan to do this workout 4 times in the next 3 weeks to get me in super bikini shape.  On my off days, I plan to do power yoga and my teach my regular cycling and PiYo classes.

The workout is very intense with heavy cardio and lots of focus on the core – it’s designed to burn 1,000 calories!  Simply getting through the workout requires at lot of #GRIT which makes us feel strong and confident.  After all, confidence is the most important thing we need to look awesome in a bikini 🙂

Got a beach trip coming up?  Try the workout for yourself

Yay for bikinis! Luv, Brit

EXTRA Extreme Bikini Body Workout

Continue Reading