King of Kettlebells – 14 Day Challenge

Welcome world 

So on my quest to get fitter this year I've been searching through pinterest for inspiration and one thing that keeps cropping up is Kettlebell workouts. Having read what felt like hundreds of articles on kettlebells, the benefits of them, how easy they are to use and their magical calorie burning power I've decided to put together my own kettlebell workout combining the most popular moves and seeing how much difference swinging a kettlebell will make to my waistline. 

I'm going to try this workout for 2 weeks going through the 20 minute circuit every other day. To get an idea of how well its working, if it works at all, I'm going to take my measurements on day 1 and then again on day 15. I'm going to weigh myself on these days too but I am far more interested in measurements than the number on the scales.  

I've designed the workout in the style of Kayle Itsine's 28 Day Bikini Body Guide workouts in the sense that it's broken down into 2 mini circuits, do the first 4 exercises for 1 minute each then take a 30 second break before starting on the second circuit. Do each circuit twice with a 30 second rest between rounds. My plan is to do 2 rounds of these exercises for the first week and increase to 3 rounds for week 2. A 20 minute kettlebell workout supposedly burns 400kcal so I have pretty high hopes for this challenge. 

King of Kettlebells Challenge 

Circuit one: 

• Bent over Row 
• Sumo Squat and curl 
• Russian twists 
• Kettlebell Snatch 

Circuit two: 

• Windmills 
• Swing through Lunges 
• Kettlebell single leg dead lifts (12 per side) 
• Kettlebell Swings 
• Halo 

I'm going to accompany these circuits with a 10 minute hula hoop session on either end to warm up and cool down as well as 5 minutes of stretching. 

Lets see how this goes 

Until next time 

Ellie x 

Lets try this 'Accountability' thing again

Welcome World

So it's been almost exactly a year since last I actually remembered to post here (though I did write a couple of times they just never quite made it to the blog...) and unfortunately my aims haven't changed all that much. I've still go quite a bit of weight to shift (35lbs :S) I still cook enough to feed a small army and have yet to master this whole being an adult thing. BUT I have started exercising, its almost become a regular thing, having discovered the joys of Salsa. A couple of hours a week of being twirled around a dance floor really helps work up a swear and the weight did start coming off!

Then Christmas happened. No dancing and far too much food means that everything I managed to lose came back with interest. So now we start again. This time the plan is to stick to it (isn't that always the plan?) Tonight I am getting back on the dance floor for my first class since Christmas and this week the workouts begin in earnest. I had a bit of a rude awakening over the weekend when I accidentally stood on the scales in my boyfriends flat (they live in front of the bathroom sink) and realised that not only has all the weight id lost come back but that it was exactly a month until I was due to leave on a holiday to Spain with Latin, Ballroom and Salsa Society (LBSS) and the idea of getting into a bikini with a group of girls with enviably flat stomachs and far better will power than I have was horrifying.

So, starting yesterday (22nd feb) I have started working out in earnest to see how much of a difference I can make in a month. This blog is where I am going to try and keep track of my progress. I will take pictures, post measurements, try out new workouts and all that fun stuff over the next few weeks and post them here and hopefully actually manage to stay accountable. I took all my measurements yesterday and recorded them in my super snazzy new health and fitness tracker which I downloaded and have ordered myself a couple of adorable stamps to mark off workouts as I do them.

My plan is to try a new workout/exercise/sport/dance party every week and post a reviewlet of them on here and try and find something new that I love, that way it stops feeling like a chore. This week kettlebells.

Until next time
Ellie xXx