“The Female’s Ultimate Guide to Fitness” eBook Review

I have a super exciting review to share with you guys today, on a subject matter that I haven’t reaaaally dived into on my blog, despite my love and passion for it (bear with me, I realize how cheesy I’m sounding already, but I think this is important stuff!!).

Story time: I was always a pretty active kid, and when I started high school, I joined the track team and ended up being a pretty decent sprinter. Practices were 6x a week with meets on the weekends, and overall it was damn hard. We would do endurance runs interspersed with hill sprints, 200 m. dashes over and over again, and this dreaded stairs workout… Seriously, I kinda shudder just thinking about it, I sometimes can’t believe I subjected myself to such extreme workouts 6 out of 7 days of the week.

However, I never really considered it to be “working out.” To me, it was always just “practice.” And I would come home from practice, and a long day of school, and would eat whatever I wanted. Which usually involved more or less two dinners, and servings of Goldfish by the bowlful. So of course, once I graduated from high school and wasn’t involved in any sports in college, my not so great eating habits and my two or three times a week elliptical sessions at the gym weren’t enough to keep my body from changing. And not in a good way. I gained the freshman 15 and then some and was not a happy camper.

Despite my initial efforts, it took a good two years to develop a love and understanding of fitness and healthy living and to get back into shape, to be happy with how I looked. I’ll be honest, I’ve definitely had my fair share of issues with body image and acceptance. There was a brief period of time where I ended up being a bit underweight, was crazy about what I’d eat and wouldn’t eat, and I was miserable, like super super unhappy with my personal life and just with myself. I’ve thankfully pulled out of this scary mentality, but sometimes I still find myself holding myself to unrealistic and unhealthy expectations. Instagram is filled with so many bloggers with kick ass bodies, and I think, oh if I only had a smaller waist, or longer legs, or thinner arms, then I’d be happy. I’ve learned that there are some things that can’t be changed, and working towards a stronger version of yourself, both inside and out (duh), is always the best goal to have. This of course doesn’t happen over night, and is definitely somewhat of a lifelong journey. I think the best foundation to do this is to develop a healthy lifestyle, filled with fitness and predominately good wholesome eating (but eat french fries and cupcakes when you need to.)

So, over the past few years, this is what I’ve been working on. Just developing a solid foundation. I’ve discovered my personal key to successfully making fitness a regular part of my life is simply finding workouts that I love. For me, I know that I absolutely love barre classes, as well as the results they provide my body, so I try to go to classes several times a week. However, I like to get in a few cardio sessions per week as well. I like to change things up, and sometimes (usually) I just really don’t want to get on the treadmill.

So, I am always on the hunt for new ways to raise my heart rate, that will challenge and push me. And workouts that I can do on the go, and without a proper gym, are key. Especially since I’m about to start working full time and will be traveling and spending late hours in the office.

That’s why I was so SO happy when the beautiful fitness blogger Helen Bavin (@bodiesbyh) reached out to me about reviewing a copy of her new fitness eBook “The Female’s Ultimate Guide to Fitness.” In addition to providing a 4-week guide of strength and cardio exercises, it is written specifically for women, and tells you exactly when you should be doing the exercises according to your fluctuating hormones (Day 1 of the cycle is whatever day you start your period). I had no idea that there were more effective ways to exercise and eat depending on what’s going on with your body (for example, during days 1-14 of your cycle, the follicular phase, women tend to have better workouts due to increased insulin sensitivity and increased pain tolerance, so during this phase you are instructed by the guide to do weight training 2-3x per week).

The guide gives you flexibility in what exercises you do, which is great if you’re like me and get pretty bored of the same exercise routine over and over. Plus, you should always choose to do workouts that excite you and that you actually want to do! No one likes getting on a treadmill for thirty minutes thinking “Please kill me, please kill me, I hate this, omg.” (I may be referring to myself here.) It’s all about figuring out what works for you and what you find to be, dare I say, fun.

The book also features 7 days of healthy recipes, including snacks, and gives a list of stretches and yoga flow sequences to do on rest days.

A few of my favorite recipes that I tried are the quinoa “oatmeal,” the mango salsa baked salmon and asparagus, and the almond and coconut flour chocolate chip cookies. I love that they’re made with no refined sugars and are soon satisfying, not like store bought cookies were you have four and are like yeah no I still wanna eat 14 more of these.

Most importantly, I love the messaging of this book— it is not meant to be a quick weight loss fix. It is meant to promote self-love and to empower yourself, to listen to your body and do what’s best for it. I particularly love the High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and strength training exercises in this book (endurance cardio has never been my fave!), and now in week three, I can already see myself looking leaner, my muscles more defined, and my body finding increased flexibility!

You can order “The Female’s Ultimate Guide to Fitness” at bodiesbyh.com now.

Xo,

Meghan