4 week plan – GRIT By Brit

Free 4 Week Exercise & Eating Plan! Join the #GRITshapeup

October 9, 2014 12 Comments

Hello friends! Hope your day is going well. SO…I finally finished a big project I’ve been working on for a quite some time. After I reached my 2 year blogiversary this March, I decided to put together my top workouts, detox tips and nutrition advice in to a best in class 4-week shape up plan. I’m finally done and my first GRIT by Brit 4 Week Shape up Plan is ready for you to download. Yay!

I really hope that this is a community effort where we can share our progress and encourage each other to be our healthiest, best selves. That said please email me at [email protected] if you have any questions about the plan. Also, I highly encourage you to team up with some friends and do the plan together. There’s power in numbers! Share your workout photos and healthy meals on Instagram and Twitter with hashtag #GRITshapeup – I’ll start doing product giveaways for my favorite pics!

A core value of GRIT by Brit is “FREE” – I believe that we don’t have to be wealthy to be healthy. That said, I made my printable GRIT Shape Up plan 100% accessible to everyone. Just enter your email address in the subscription box to the right (below the search bar) and a link to download the plan will be sent to you. If you have any issues downloading, send me an email ([email protected]) and I’ll help you out. Be sure to keep us updated by posting pics or updates with hashtag #GRITShapeUp. I can’t wait to hear your success stories. Show your GRIT! Lots of luv, Brit

Just for Fun

September Shape Up: Blake’s Week 2 in Review

September 17, 2013 1 Comment

Hey gang. I hope your week is off to an excellent start. Blake, my fit friend from binanutshell.com has officially completed Week 2 of my September Shape up plan. Are you trying the plan for yourself? Do it!

If you were around last week, you’ll remember that Blake got off to an amazing start losing over 2 pounds in Week 1 – woo hoo! During Week 2, however, she’s experienced some setbacks. BUT we are all about showing our GRIT – passion and perseverance for long-term goals. Even though Blake had a “less than stellar” Week 2, we KNOW that she will keep on truckin’ and be successful in the end! Here’s her update. Wish her luck, strong to the finish! 🙂

Blake’s Week 2 in Review

Overall, I am saddened by my progress in week 2. I was really excited to keep up with Brit’s Shape Up September, but I wasn’t able to due to health reasons. I am just going to be upfront and say that even knowing that there are 2 weeks left in the month, week 2 was definitely the most difficult. Early in the week, I was plagued with a summer cold that left me lethargic, sneezy and coughing – which of course resulted in my not working out.

Also, I have an inordinate amount going on in my personal life – some really great things that I am not quite yet ready to share on the blog, but stay tuned for a personal life update soon!

Here is how last week panned out:

Diet

I managed to get two nights with smoothies in, one night without dinner at all, one business dinner, and two dinners out with friends. Unfortunately, most of those events were planned way before Shape Up September, so I worked around the dinners out by eating really healthy breakfasts and having a smoothie for lunch! Smoothies for the win!

Exercise

Monday: Brit’s GRIT Ultimate Body Burn workout video – seriously folks, if you don’t own this video, you should. Buy it on Amazon!
Tuesday: Brit’s 10 minute HIIT circuit – I had a super late meeting and didn’t get home until almost 10 and was starting not to feel well
Wednesday: Skinnygirl Yoga at home (note to self: downward dog does not feel good with congestion)
Thursday – Sunday: Sick, sick, sick

Hydration

Still focusing on having a full glass of water on my desk at all times. Hooray for this. Also, I think the water was really helpful from keeping me on the healthier side of sick… since the hubs was knocked out for twice as long as I was.

Week 3 Focus

This week’s focus is definitely going to be CARDIO! I am excited to get back to working out now that I don’t feel like walking up the three flights of stairs to my bedroom is going to make me winded.

Here’s a quick cardio workout I recommend for Blake in case she is pressed for time time next week – cardio is KING (wink,wink) xoxo, Brit

Total Body

GRITTY Circuit Workout – 40 minute Fat Blaster

April 24, 2013 6 Comments

Hi guys! So, I’ve been fairly successful so far on my 5 Day FOCUS Diet. I had one bad night (pad thai w/veggies for dinner) but other than that I’m pretty proud of my discipline to date and am feeling better all ready – yay! How’s the plan going for youOn another note, a colleague and I have been working out together in the mornings at our hotel gym. This morning we did an awesome HIIT workout from one of his men’s fitness magazines. It was very GRITTY so I wanted to create a similar workout to share with you. Now ladies, don’t be intimidated or turned off. Just because the workout is intense and was originally designed for men doesn’t mean that it isn’t beneficial for us. It won’t make us bulky or injure us if done properly. GRITTY = PRETTY 🙂

Brit’s GRITTY Workout Details

Duration: Overall, the workout took us about 40 minutes to complete and we were DRENCHED in sweat by the end (my booty has been sore all day).
Calories Burned: ~400-600
Equipment: All you need is 2 medium to heavy dumbbells (I used 10 pounds and my male colleague used 15 pounds).
Style: High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). There are 6 circuits and each circuit includes 6 X 1 minute exercise intervals. The workout nicely combines both strength and cardio training into combination exercises.

Instructional Photos

Regular Front Squat + Side Squat

Bent Over Row + Upright Row

Squat with Shoulder Press

Single Leg Dead Lift

Plank with hand shoulder taps

Inspiration & Motivation

Super Simple 4 week Slim Down

December 4, 2012 3 Comments

Meet my lovely cousin Chasity, our newest 4-week challenge chick on GRITbyBrit! We are just coming off of a very successful 4-week challenge story with Alex who lost 7 pounds and rocked a sexy new dress for her 29th b-day. Now Chasity is taking the challenge up a notch and striving to lose 12 pounds! I tried to make her plan very SIMPLE because it can be really challenging to be disciplined on SO MANY areas. Hopefully, many of you can try the plan for yourself and share your success stories with me.

Be sure to check back for Chasity’s progress report. Let’s go Chasity – wish her luck!

Chasity’s Goals:

Lose 12 pounds

Healthier eating habits

Tone upper body/ thighs

Increase Stamina

Tone lower abs/ muffin top

Workout Schedule: 1 hour M/Tu/Th/Sat/Sun
Workout Likes: Yoga, Pilates, Cardio/Dance style workouts
Workout Dislikes: RUNNING
Eating Habits: “I eat breakfast daily usually oatmeal during the week and a “country breakfast” on Saturdays 🙂 Frozen dinners for lunch during the week or sometimes I will eat fast food-raising canes is my often my choice. Dinner is just whatever I can get fast because I’m usually starving by the time I get home (meaning I tend to go for unhealthy food). I do snack a lot on like chips, pickles, cheese its, gummy bears, Oreos, cheese. I have Starbucks very berry coffee cake – my weekly treat. I don’t drink soda or coffee. During the week I don’t eat after 7 except on weds (eat after I get out of church around 9ish)” – Chasity

CHASITY’S 4-WEEK PLAN:

Inspiration & Motivation

4-week SHRED week 1 update: Alex adjusts to meet her goals!

October 29, 2012 3 Comments

: Alex on the right @ hair expo in Oklahoma City last weekend

In case you missed the kick off, Alex (@Alexandriawill) is my new 4-week challenge chick, CLICK HERE to check out her full 4-week GRIT by Brit SHRED plan. After 1 solid week on the plan, Alex has learned some lessons about herself, her eating habits and her fitness. Here are her thoughts:

Calorie counting is key, but too few calories are not beneficial – Really proud of myself on the calorie control because I was counting EVERYTHING I ate and if I didn’t know the calorie count, I would over estimate it. However, I realized I was not having enough calories at one point and ended up feeling a little sick. So I adjusted to ensure I got the calories my body needed while still staying in my budget.
Continuous diet adjustments are needed for success – I realized I needed to consistently eat smaller meals/snacks throughout the day instead of 3 larger meals. My eating habits are just that HABITS. On the weekends I eat 2-3 larger meals (probably 2) and 1-2 snacks where as during the week I eat much smaller meals with snacks every so hour. Since I’m working out a lot more during the week on the GRIT by Brit SHRED plan, my body wants more energy = food.
Gotta keep it together on the weekends – I realized I binge bad on the weekends, even with just 1-2 meals. Couple that with not working out and I just killed all the work I did for 5 days! I crashed and burned this past weekend with being out of town for a natural hair expo in Oklahoma City. I didn’t fully prepare as I wanted too and eating in Oklahoma City as a vegetarian on a budget was harder than I expected. I simply didn’t have time to find a Subway at 11pm when things close at 10pm. I also just went into a “screw it” moment and forgot my whole goal. I was walking around, presenting and dancing during the weekend, but overall my eating habits were very poor – time of month too! (maybe TMI, but hey, we’re family). Overall, I am proud of my progress so far and I will push even harder in week 2!

BRIT’S 2 POINTS OF ADVICE FOR ALEX

Great adjustment on the calorie intake! Remember, a calorie budget helps prevent over eating, but under eating can be counter productive to weight loss as well. When we don’t eat enough calories, our body goes into starvation mode and our metabolism slows down, thus we burn less calories at rest.
If you know it’s going to be tough to stick with the plan on the weekends, go ahead and adjust your week day diet and workout regiment to be more strict to make up for your “slacker” days. An extra 10-20 minutes of cardio and a few super lean meals will help balance things out so you can meet your goals.

photo(33) — Alex pumped up and ready to kick start the 4-week SHRED plan at Body Pump class with Brit

Inspiration & Motivation

NEW 4-week challenge: Chi-town shape up w/Lakshmi

September 6, 2012 9 Comments

I’m kicking off a new 4-week challenge with my friend, Lakshmi. Ordinarily, I’d give you my usual song and dance about how we became friends, blah blah blah. But I think a picture is a worth a 1,000 words when it comes to describing our friendship. So get to know her, check out her diet and exercise plan (maybe even try it for yourself) and check in every week for her progress reports!

Luv, Brit

Our friendship…

Meet Lakshmi a.k.a “Lak-sheezy”

I’m a girl with good intentions, but I am easily swayed off course. I try to work out each day and am able to eat well until the mid-afternoon. Then I find temptation taking over and a handful of miniature chocolates in my hand. I’ve got some major love for starch and sugar – and I need help curbing the cravings.

My goal is to not change in the short-term, but change in the long-term. I want to fix bad habits. It would be amazing if I could drop some lbs. But mostly I just want to get tone, feel confident about my body, and feel some control in my life.

I’m a consultant with unpredictable hours and very last minute travel. I make it a priority to get to the gym. It’s not always possible, but by in large, I’m there 4 – 6 times a week. My hours are long, which makes cooking and planning meals tough.

Help me!

Exercise – I’m a class girl. Unless someone tells me what to do, I will convince myself it’s okay to stop. The meaner the teacher, the better in my world.

Also, I walk to and from work (25 minutes each way) while listening to a live stream of NPR (how yuppie is that?).

As for my diet…

Breakfast – I try to do oatmeal and coffee. Sometimes I do museli with fruit.

Lunch – Salad or sandwich and a diet soda (I know, I know). On a bad day, I add in chips. And chocolate…

Snack – This is where I falter. My company is really good about supplying snacks. No good deed goes unnoticed, so I find myself often in our snack cabinet foraging for sugar and/or salt. Lately our miniature Hershey chocolates have been by downfall.

Dinner – I like starch, especially potatoes. Today I had some leftover gnocchi. Sometimes it’s a frozen dinner. I am tired when I get home from work (usually 8 or 9), so I’m in no mood to cook for one.

Dessert – I will have a tablespoon of PB. Or chocolate covered bananas from Trader Joe’s (4 pieces)

Here are things I don’t like: Running, chicken (it’s a dirty bird), cold meat on salad (unless it’s tuna), pork, ham, lifting weights

Here are things I’m allergic to: Shellfish, walnuts

Here are things I like: Spinning, yoga, potatoes, french macarons

Also, I’m awesome at taking my vitamins everyday.

Brit’s 4-week shape up plan for Lakshmi

Inspiration & Motivation

4-week Challenge: Jenny’s Week 3 Update – Maintaining in Malaga, Spain

August 5, 2012 1 Comment

Despite vacations, minor set-backs and work commitments, Jenny has done an excellent job staying on track with her 4-week challenge! If you are trying the challenge for yourself, stay motivated by keeping up with her progress. Here’s her week 3 update:

“My girl’s weekend in Malaga was really great! I found a nice balance between relaxing, getting in some workouts, eating healthy, and eating whatever I wanted! 🙂 I took the first day off from any kind of activity except for walking around, eating tapas, and drinking wine. But the next two days my friend and I got two solid workouts in at a local gym, and ate mostly salads. We also did a ton of walking around! It wasn’t so hard for me to eat healthy, since I’m actually not a huge fan of Spanish cuisine. But that said, my friend and I didn’t hold back on the Sangria or wine (Hey, you gotta live a little!). I found that it is much easier to keep up with diet and exercise when on vacation when you are with someone who is also health conscious and likes a good workout!

And now that I am back at home, I feel great – I don’t think I lost any weight, but I don’t think I gained any either. I’ve just gotten back, and I’ve already hit the weights and a spinning session! I love that way I feel after a rest day – super strong and energetic! Now I’m pushing hard for the next three days (spinning every day to get all three classes in + Pilates + Brit’s workouts!) – And then going to a Wedding over the weekend (and plan on looking fabulous in a new dress I bought in Spain!).

So here it goes with the last week of the four-week challenge – wish me luck!”

– Jenny

Brit’s advice for Jenny:

Keep your eye on the Prize – I want Jenny to be extra disciplined this week. She should revisit the goals she set at the start of the challenge and have FULL CONFIDENCE that she can achieve them!
Focus on Food – After a vacation, it’s common to want to hit the gym hard, which is a good thing. However, Jenny should be extra mindful of what goes into her mouth. She must be careful not to wipe out all of her hard work in the gym by consuming too many calories.
Stretch, Stretch, Stretch – Since Jenny has been away for a few days, it may take a her body a little time to adjust to the hardcore workout regimen. T0 prevent soreness and injury (and ultimately missed workouts), I want her to stretch for at least 15 minutes per day.

Inspiration & Motivation

4-week Challenge Euro Style: Jenny’s Week 1 Update

July 20, 2012 2 Comments

If you missed last week’s 4-week challenge kick off, make sure you check it out to see the full plan. Below is Jenny’s week 1 progress report. She’s doing a great job – KEEP IT UP JENNY!

“Week One: DONE! It’s been great! I did all the workouts this week + added a few Pilates classes #motivationbaby! I have been pretty intense about my workouts, so I really needed my off day. My pants are definitely looser on me. I never usually weigh myself (I think inches are a better indication, rather than kilos), I did this week. According to my scale, I’m down 1.2 kilos (American translation: 2.6 pounds), which is pretty good! SO, I will try to really focus on the diet this week. I have been good about not eating after 9pm, but since I’m going to bed around 10/10:30pm every night (gotta get up early for those workouts!), I think I should try to not eat anything after 7:30/8pm. Brittani has also recommended that I trade my breakfasts of fruit to one of protein, and I have a feeling this will be my ‘game changer’ this week. Let’s see! I have 10 more days until I’m in sunny Malaga, Spain – so I’ve gotta really focus!”

– Jenny

Inspiration & Motivation

NEW 4-week tone up challenge: Euro Style with Jenny!

July 10, 2012 5 Comments

Meet my friend Jenny. Like Jan from my previous challenge, Jenny is one of my best friends from college. Unlike Jan, Jenny and I bonded while working as TA’s for a brutal Labor Law professor, not over our love for football players. We would drag our butts to the gym after long study sessions and keep each other accountable for going hard!

Jenny now lives in Denmark working hectic hours in the Banking sector. However, the Danes focus much more on work-life balance so she DOES have adequate time to workout 🙂 Over the years, she has become very interested in nutrition and has tried almost every diet in the book (sometimes for a reason, sometimes out of curiosity, but usually because she likes the challenge – we clearly have the same neurotic tendencies). Still, she has had a very ad-hoc workout and diet schedule this past year and would like to re-focus.

Already having several fitness certifications and a long history of sports involvement, Jenny is looking to me for an effective push! Unfortunately, she’s also suffered from over training, which I had to keep in mind when making her plan. Her gluten allergy and lactose intolerance also had to be considered. In her own words, her goals are to:

“Get into those damn jeans – bought them last year when I was about 7 kilos lighter – they are too cute to just sit in my closet! Yes, “kilos” this is the EURO 4-week challenge”
“I have a long-weekend in Malaga with a friend coming up at the end of July – so I’d like to feel super sexy in my bikini!”

Below is her plan and of picture of her today on DAY 1 – we will get an update from her next week!

Wish her luck – GO JENNY!

Brit and Jenni 7 — Me and Jenny in 2006 – getting ready to graduate from college!

Workouts by Brit referenced in this plan:

Inspiration & Motivation

Tone Up Challenge Week 1 Report: Jan’s gettin’ in the groove

May 7, 2012 1 Comment

So, you guys remember my friend Jan from our 4-week Tone Up Challenge – well she has officially completed her 1st week and is kicking butt and taking names. Here is an update on her “toning up” progress.

JAN’S WEEK #1 PROGRESS REPORT:

Jan after week 1 — Jan gettin’ ready for her SPIN class this morning!

“So good 1st week! I changed up the days a little bit because I was sick, so did your #1 and #2 workouts and will do #3 on Tuesday, so I’m a little off. Felt really good doing a 5 day workout this week, but knees are swollen. So, I took Sunday off but went to Spin class this morning and feel really good about it. The #1 workout was good, did the AB portion twice (the 2nd 1/2). The standing up stuff didn’t work me out as much as I liked. The workout #2 was good, a little tough on my knees with the 1st 1/2 squatting etc, but still good to tone up my legs. I already am feeling good results, bc my body changes pretty quickly so LOVING IT!”

– Jan 🙂

BRIT’S WEEK #2 ADVICE FOR JAN:

Don’t get complacent. Jan did a great job on getting in 5 workouts in 1 week. Often when have a successful exercise week, we get complacent and think we deserve a “break.” This is also the case we we lose the 1st 5 pounds…we get excited and gain ’em back the next week. While you should feel good about yourself and proud of your accomplishment, make sure to keep up the hard work. This week, I’m continuing to push Jan to get her 5 workouts in!
Jan’s doing a good job of listening to her body to prevent over training; however, she is still pushing herself and ensuring that she gets ALL of her workouts in. It can be hard to balance the two, but she’s doing a great job!
Don’t forget your diet. This week, I challenged Jan to focus more on her 3 diet change ups: 1) protein at breakfast 2) healthy afternoon snack 3) and no eating after 9pm. She did pretty well the first week but there is ALWAYS room for improvement.

Stay tuned for Jan’s Week 2 update next Monday, WISH HER LUCK – Go Jan!