Total Body Tabata Workout

February 24, 2015 No Comments

Hey guys! I hope you’re staying warm and dry! It seems like 80% of the US is covered in ice and snow – even us Texans! However, we are still bringing the heat at GRIT Fitness! Yesterday, we kicked off the week on a positive note by NOT canceling our scheduled classes despite the rain/ice storm. That turned out to be a great decision because several of our clients popped in the studio ready to sweat. We had an awesome time and definitely brought some heat to the his cold weather!

Our member, Kelli, showed her GRIT by rolling to Turbo Kick class during yesterday’s ice storm in her hubby’s big body truck!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, so here’s a quick run down of what happened over the weekend…

On Friday, I taught my usual noon Turbo Kick class. Shout out to my friend from the Junior League of Dallas, Emily, who’s also a fierce member of our fit family at GRIT fitness (in the middle of the photo below). She took her first Turbo Kick class last Friday and loved it. In her own words, “This is what is must feel like at a rave…with music blasting and lights flashing”…she also suggested we start using glow sticks during Turbo Kick classes and turn the lights off. haha. I like it!

My Turbo Kick rock stars! From left to right: Lew, Jenny, Emily, Me, Kelli

On Friday night I enjoyed a fun yet healthy dinner with my girlfriends at Dodie’s Cajun restaurant in Dallas. I had a decision blacked salmon salad and several glasses of Pinot Grigio. Perfect way to wind down after a long week!

My yummy blackened salmon salad from Dodie’s on lower Greenville, Dallas, TX

On Saturday I taught my usual spin class at BEYOND Pedaling and PiYO (now “Flexin’Flow”) class at GRIT Fitness. My friend Jackie, fellow instructor from my days at 24 Hour Fitness, did the honors of guest teaching our Dance Cardio class – it was a hit! Here’s a link to a little video clip of the fun: Post by GRIT Fitness.

Midday I did a little dance of excitement because the new business cards I ordered finally arrived – yay! What do you think?

My new biz cards with my fitness photo on them! Not sure if photos on biz cards are tacky, but whatever, I like it!

Later I stopped by Dallas North Park Mall because THE Lorna Jane, founder of Lorna Jane Active, made a pit stop in Texas. It was great to chat with her and get a little photo op. I loving meeting fellow girl BO$$’s – very inspiring!

Me and THE Lorna Jane posing with my LJ Diary at Dallas North Park mall

I wrapped up my Saturday by doing absolutely nothing. Sometimes going on chill mode is a great thing, right? On Sunday I slept in, went to brunch with some friends and then get back to work making playlist, writing our weekly newsletter and preparing for the awesome week that I’m now enjoying.

Before I go, I want to share this new Tabata workout I created! At Fossil corporate HQ, I recently started teaching a Tabata bootcamp and I LOVE IT! Tabata is a form of High Intensity Internal Training (HIIT) created by Japanese scientist Dr. Izumi Tabata. You can CLICK HERE to read more about the history of Tabata. 1 Tabata circuit lasts 4 minutes, but it’s super intense. The structure of the 4 minutes is as follows:

Workout hard for 20 seconds
Rest for 10 seconds
Complete eight rounds

I highly encourage you to give my Total Body Tabata workout a whirl. It consists of 5 Tabata rounds and can be completed in 30 minutes. Expect to burn up to 500 calories – woo hoo! Enjoy! xoxo, Brit

Just for Fun

THE Lorna Jane visits Dallas – Join the Party!

February 18, 2015 No Comments

Hey gang! Happy Wednesday. I hope your week is off to a great start! Things are good on my end. We are cracking away at GRIT Fitness leading classes and having a blast! I’m especially looking forward to this weekend because, THE Lorna Jane, founder and creator director of Lorna Jane Active is visiting Dallas! She is definitely a GIRLBO$$ I look up to. I got to connect with her last Summer at IDEA World Blogfest and she was SUPER nice and SO inspiring! So that’s one event I’m looking forward to. Additionally, I received the honor of leading a 2 group fitness classes in the Active Living Room of Lorna Jane West Village, Dallas – yay! I’ll be teaching PiYo next Tuesday, Feb. 24 at 7pm and 7:30pm at Lorna Jane West Village 3700 McKinney Ave, Dallas, TX 75204. Come out and “move, nourish, believe” with me!

And just for some added Lorna Jane fun, here’s a flashback to some of my all-time favorite LJ outfits…

BRIT’S FAVE LORNA JANE ACTIVE LOOKS

Happy HUMPDAY! xoxo, Brit

Legs

Love Your Legs – 20 minute muscle toning workout!

February 16, 2015 No Comments

Hey Gang! Happy Monday. I hope you had a lovely Valentine’s weekend! I enjoyed a fun V-Day at GRIT Fitness with my instructors and clients. We hosted a special “Sweat with your Sweetie” Valentine’s Day workout, so it was fun to have so many dudes in the house (see above)! We also enjoy healthy snacks and mimosas after class. Great times!

Last night, my girlfriends and I drank the Kool-Aid and saw 50 Shades of Grey! I loved it. (I also read all of the books – wink wink) Have you seen it yet? What are your thoughts?

I’m still overflowing with V-Day fever so I made this 20 minute “Love Your Legs” workout. I’ve incorporated these exercises into my PiYo classes and I’m receiving very positive feedback from my clients. That said, I figured I’d share. Give this workout a whirl and let me know how it goes. It’s a great option if you’re snowed in and can’t make it to the gym. xoxo, Brit

Photos from POPSUGAR and Women’s Health Magazine

Just for Fun, Lifestyle

February Fitness Favorites

February 6, 2015 No Comments

Hello Friends! Happy Friday! This is a been a WONDERFUL week for me – I couldn’t have started the month on February on a happier note. That said, I want to share a few highlights that have kept me smiling and that I hope make you smile too 🙂

I started the week by enjoying a yummy Sunday brunch with my girlfriends. Not only are each of these ladies super smart and fun, but they’ve each supported my new business tremendously by taking classes or teaching classes at GRIT Fitness. Having supportive (and fun) friends is such a blessing.

This week I did a better job of staying true to my “No work on Sundays” rule, which means I could enjoy and extra glass (or 2) of champagne at brunch. Later that day I got great news that my long-time client and friend, Nena, won our “Commit to 30” challenge at BEYOND Pedaling, the cycling studio I teach at. Nena completed 33 cycling classes in 31 days and celebrated her 31st birthday last Sunday. How cool is that?! I always love to see my clients set a goal and crush it! Nena showed some serious GRIT so her commitment was rewarded with a free year of spin classes at BEYOND – yay!

Me and Nena smiling for the camera after she completed my 8am class last Saturday – her 31st ride!

On Monday it was time to RISE and GRIND! For me this means getting to the studio at 5am to dust mop the floors and get ready for our 6am classes. Honestly, nobody tells you about the “real work” of owning your own business. Let’s just say my cleaning and building maintenance skills have increased substantially. I have never worked so hard in my entire life, but the cool thing is is that I LOVE going work every day. I’ve also never been happier in my entire life, so the trade off is worth it.

This week 14 new members joined our studio – yay! I wanna give a special shout out to the these 3 girl BO$$’s from Baylor hospital (across the street) who are the newest members of our fit family. They WERK IT OUT in our hip hop class after working long days as nurses and OBGYN physicians. Smart, fit and fabulous – what more can we ask for? We also discovered that we’re all members of the Junior League of Dallas, so we are planning some “no shower happy hours” to mix and mingle after our workouts. I love creating a strong fitness community, it makes working out so fun…like “adult recess”

Latoya, Tiffany & Lauren – our baddies from Baylor Hospital

So with the transition to February, I started a new “Love Your Body” challenge for the GRIT Fitness members. Whoever completes 16 workouts by the end of the month, receives a very special gift from me!

So far, over 20 of members have signed up for the challenge and they are NOT messin’ around about getting those workouts in. Check out our leader board…some folks have already completed 7 workouts in only 5 days! #FIERCE

Clients are SO excited about the February challenge – who doesn’t love a gold star?

As you can imagine, our classes have been super packed and energetic. Our awesome instructors do an amazing job of leading the crew. Here’s a quick pic from Kemi‘s Body Sculpt class last night…

And a post-workout pic of me, Jenny and Annabel after Annabel‘s SUPER FUN Turbo Kick class…

Next weekend were are hosting a special Valentine’s Day workout! All members can invite their special someone to workout with them for free. We already have lots of dudes registered for Dance Dardio – should be entertaining! Maybe I’ll make all the guys freestyle dance in-between burpees 🙂

The lobby at GRIT Fitness – excited for Valentine’s Day!

Well gang that’s all for now. I hope your February is off to a LOVELY start! Any fun plans for the weekend? Post a comment and let me know. I’ll back on Monday with a new workout, breakfast ideas and fitness fashion favorites. Lots of luv to you! xoxo, Brit

Lifestyle

Life as an Entrepreneur + Sexy Arms Workout

January 29, 2015 No Comments

Hey gang! I hope your week is going well. This is week has been MUCH more mellow than last, as my new studio is up and running without the craziness of grand opening week. My team and I are having a blast getting to know our clients and teaching classes. The energy at GRIT Fitness is through the roof! After this week, we’ll operate in a more “business as usual” mode with less on-the-fly to changes to our schedule, policies, memberships, etc. For instance, today marks the end of our grand opening membership offer to enjoy a year of unlimited classes for only $75 per month! If you live in Dallas, you’d best get up on this (wink wink) – CLICK HERE to purchase!

There are SO many moving parts to manage when running your own business. Everyday I wake up with a long “to do” list and every night it’s never finished…sigh. I thought I’d be able to manage everything on my own, but I’ve quickly learned that I need help! In order to grow and execute things with the highest level of quality I HAVE to depend on others. This has been really tough for me because I pride myself in “doing it all.” Fortunately, I have some amazing friends who’ve volunteered to work the front desk and help with social media marketing barter for classes. Not bad huh? I’m a lucky girl.

Right now I’m focusing on outlining the marketing strategy that we’ll execute over the next few months. I’m also prioritizing my team’s development, so I spend lots of time in one-on-one practice sessions to grow the skills of my instructors. I have NOT figured out how to keep my car clean, plan my meals or how to effectively structure my days, so if any fellow entrepreneurs have advice, PLEASE SHARE!

Alright, that’s enough about my life. Now moving on to some valuable info for you! In honor of Throwback Thursday, here’s one of my all time favorite, Sexy Arms Workout from the GRIT by Brit archives. Give this bad boy a whirl this weekend and let me know how it goes! You can CLICK HERE for details and to watch an instructional video. ENJOY! xoxo, Brit

Lifestyle

SELF Time Makover Program – Making Time to Chill Out

January 26, 2015 No Comments

Hello friends! Happy Monday! I’m intrigued by SELF Magazine’s 21 Day Time Makeover Program, so I jumped on the bandwagon and I want to share my experience with you guys. The program requires you to take a short quiz to the find the right time makeover program for your personality type. As expected, one of the recommendations for my Type A personality is to “chill the eff out.” As a result, I decided to get more serious about my personal goal to allocate one day per week to just “chill.” Yep, that’s right, I’m making time to do absolutely nothing.

My recent transition from corporate America to opening my own fitness studio had been SO exciting a but a bit exhausting. Now I teach up to 13 classes per week and when I’m not teaching I’m doing marketing, training instructors, selling memberships, installing water fountains, cleaning toilets…the list goes on and on. Here’s a few pics from the studio that we took over the past few days…

Thursday night’s hip hop class was a huge hit! My little sister, Kortani AKA Tootie, is a fierce dance instructor!

Here’s a little video clip of the choreography our clients learned in their first hip hop class. Not bad huh?

I as so excited that my friend Anna recently moved to Dallas from Boston. We met while she was in high school in Ithaca, NY. I volunteered as a youth leader at Bethel Grove Bible Church while I was in college at Cornell and she was in our youth group. Now she’s all grown up, living in Dallas and engaged! Small world 🙂

My amazing friends have continued to send me pretty flowers and gifts – so blessed to have a strong support network!

While I had a crazy busy grand opening week at the studio, I did however, devote my entire Sunday to just chill (we don’t have Sunday classes at GRIT Fitness yet). Contrary to popular belief, it was actually a lot harder than I thought…

I started the day by making my coffee and watching a church service online. It took so much power to not turn on my laptop, but I succeeded. I then sat on my couch for a bit and folded some clothes until lunch time. My friend Dan and I enjoyed a fun Sunday brunch at Henderson Tap House and caught up over several mimosas – that was a great decision 🙂

When evening rolled around, I couldn’t help myself so I started analyzing the customer feedback surveys from our first week of classes and outlined enhancements we are going to make at GRIT Fitness this week. I only spent a couple of hours on this, so I’m still proud of myself as I spent the rest of the day just chillin’ (wink wink). I hope to do better next Sunday – will keep you posted! xoxo, Brit

Couldn’t help myself, finished the day doing just a little bit of work…I’ll do better next Sunday

If you had a Time Makeover, what would you make time for?

Lifestyle

The countdown is on…major life change coming up

January 15, 2015 No Comments

Image: My new biz headshot for GRIT Fitness Studio

OMG what a week. I hope you’re doing well. So I’m officially 2 days away from grand opening my own fitness studio, GRIT Fitness, in Dallas, TX – yay! If you happen to live in the area or travel here, I really hope you swing by, take a class and give me a hug! We are having FREE CLASSES all of next week to celebrate our grand opening. You can CLICK HERE to reserve your spot in Body Sculpt, Turbo Kick, Piyo, Hip Hop, Dance Cardio or Power Flow.

Our launch party is this Saturday (see flyer above) and I’m excited/nervous! This week has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster ranging from extreme excitement to massive panic attacks. And on top of that, I’m so behind on blog posts – PLEASE FORGIVE ME!

I figured I’d give you a compete personal update via photos and captions (more workouts to come next week – I PROMISE!) Here it goes…

I spend most evenings at my studio in one-on-one sessions with my instructors practicing their class formats – it’s so fun and they are so fierce! Here’s me and Kayah after dance cardio

And here’s me and Melissa after practicing Power Flow

The instructors on my team have been kicking’ booty and I’m 100% confident that we’ll have a successful grand opening next week – spots in our free classes are filling up so quickly!

Meanwhile, I fed my entrepreneurial soul by attending a Harvard Business Women’s event during which the founder and CEO of Poo-Pouri shared the story of how she started her business. She now brings in over $30 million in revenue a year and started with only $25K investment – I was inspired..sigh

You should watch this YouTube commercial for Poo-Pouri #hysterical

During the day I spend most of my time preparing for the grand opening. This week I ordered these cute water bottles for our launch party on Saturday 😉

And got a banner to hang on our building…

I’ve continued to teach 5:45AM & 6:45AM spin classes everything Thursday, and today was no different. While getting up early can be a drag, it sets a positive tone for my day

I played “No Flex Zone” on my playlist today, so me and some of the fellow instructors HAD to take a flexin’ pic after my classes 🙂

Now I’m headed back to the studio (as usual) to stuff swag bags, help my dad set up tables and finishing the final touches in preparation for Saturday. Say a prayer for me and wish me luck. I’ll send positive vibes your way as well.

Have a wonderful rest of the week and weekend! xoxo, Brit

Dallas GRIT Fitness

Dallas Grit Fitness: Studio Set Up – Home Stretch!

November 24, 2014 No Comments

Hey guys! I hope your week is off to a good start. I was feeling pretty chipper this morning, but then the reality of the MASSIVE AMOUNT of work I have to do to get my studio set up hit me like a ton of bricks – AHH! From writing the press release, conducting instructor orientation, planning the grand opening party and finishing renovations, I don’t expect to sleep much in the next month. The frustrating part is that so much of what needs to be done I can’t do by myself. Having to rely on others is definitely giving me a life lesson in humility. Alas, lots of progress is being made so I’ll rejoice in that regard. We have come such a long way! Remember when we started with the demolition work?

The most recent accomplishment is mirror installation! Alpha Glass company installed the studio mirrors last Thursday! They really open up the space and make it feel like real studio. I think this is the most excited I’ve been so far.

Paint – check, Floors – check, Mirrors – check! 3 huge renovations milestones DONE!

Tomorrow the electricians will come and install additional power outlets, lighting and the sound system. I’m really excited about the lights because they respond to the bass in the music 🙂 I went to Guitar Center and totally geeked out from all of the lighting options (see below). Finally, I decided to buy the Ultrabar colored lights. Can’t wait to have these installed tomorrow!

Checking out all of the cool studio lighting options! So fun

After Thanksgiving the real fun begins – decorating! While decorating seems simple, it also requires professional help – UGH! Is there any particular fitness studio decor that you like? If so, post a comment and let me know!

Stay motivated this Monday! xoxo, Brit

Dallas GRIT Fitness

Dallas Grit Fitness: Site renovation almost complete – we have a floor!

November 18, 2014 3 Comments

Image: I literally ran outside and jumped around in front of the truck delivering my studio floors!

Great news gang! We are less than 2 weeks away from fully renovating my very first fitness studio, Dallas Grit Fitness – YIPPEE! Last week marked the completion of a major renovation milestone as our floors were installed! I was so excited when the floors arrived, I couldn’t stop jumping around and cheering. You can see me in action on this Instagram Video clip. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm, right?

Floor installation at Dallas Grit Fitness was no easy task since our space was formally a chiropractor office. We had to demolish all of the existing carpet and tile to create a smooth surface for the new studio flooring.

Now that the hard work is done, I’m excited to move on the to fun part – decorating! I got lots of cool wall art and lighting for the studio. We will also install a full wall of mirrors and the sound system this week. It’s really coming together. I can’t wait to share my energy, passion and grit with you in person. If you live in Dallas or ever come to visit, you must pop in to Dallas Grit Fitness for a sweat session! 🙂

Smoothing out the surface to ensure the floor is completely level

All smooth! Waiting for the surface to dry to until we start laying the floors

Floors are installed and the black base was molded to the wall – almost ready to dance!

Get ready for the most FIERCE, FUN, FABULOUS fitness studio in Dallas! xoxo, Brit

Dallas GRIT Fitness, Just for Fun

Dallas Grit Fitness representing at lucy!

November 11, 2014 No Comments

Image: Me and my friend Andria shown’ our grit – GRRRRR!

Hey Friends! Happy Tuesday. I hope your week is off to a good start. Just wanted to share a few photos from my event at lucy Dallas last weekend. I was there promoting my new fitness studio, Dallas Grit Fitness. We enjoyed a fun day of photos, goodies and 30% off all merchandise! lucy Dallas will be one of the proud retail partners of Dallas Grit Fitness. Stay tuned for more fun events and discounts from lucy in partnership with Dallas Grit Fitness!

I’ll be back tomorrow with your workout of the week – Oh Hey Workout Wednesday 🙂 Luv, Brit

Me and the lucy Dallas store manager – excited about Dallas Grit Fitness grand opening!

More fun representing Dallas Grit Fitness!

Giving away GRIT DVD’s, flyers and KIND bars to lucy shoppers!

And of course we got our shopping on – a girl can never have too much activewear!

Had a blast – can’t wait to see you in your lucy gear at Dallas Grit Fitness!