- I'm already out of breath.
It's only 30 minutes.
Oh my gosh, I'm tired.
I have a sort of love hate relationship with working out.
I'm lazy.
But I always feel better after I go to the gym.
When I heard about Kayla Itsines,
she is a very popular fitness guru on Instagram.
She has over 11 million followers.
Her main sell on her fitness program is the fact
that it's only 28 minutes and you have
the option of doing it from home.
So I wanted to see if you could actually
get results from doing a home workout
and what her program actually consisted of.
And I guess, number three,
see if I could cancel my gym membership.
I think one of the biggest challenges
doing this for six weeks would be eating better.
I sort of have a salt tooth, so I love eating chips
and just salty snacks and Taco Bell and things
that aren't necessarily good for you
that are full of sodium.
So I wanted to see if this program could help me
feel less bloated on top of trying to get toned as well.
So the program I selected to do on Kayla's app called Sweat
was a program called Bikini Body Guide which she calls BBG
and essentially that's a 28 minute program that focuses
on strength and cardio exercises.
I was a little skeptical that working out just
for 28 minutes a day would prove actual results
so I was kinda just curious to try it myself.
I actually reached out to Kayla and her team to learn
a little bit more of the logistics behind the program.
Kayla told BuzzFeed, "If we are realistic,
"many women do not have time to be working out
"for hours every day, and exercise seems to be
"the first thing we drop when our schedule gets too busy.
"Rather than focusing on the length of the workout,
"I like to focus on the effectiveness.
"By reducing the length, you can implement it
"into everyday life and make it part of your daily routine."
Which seemed achievable to me
and something I definitely wanted to try.
So there is two sections in the Sweat app
when you download it.
One is if you wanna do these exercises at the gym,
but since I wanted to try this at home,
I selected the home workout option.
You need a yoga mat, a foam roller, some sort of stool
or chair you can step on to do up and down steps.
I forget what it's called.
And weights but they are optional.
And then the last thing you need is a water bottle.
So one of the most confusing parts of the app for me
was looking at the meal calendar.
I misinterpreted the calendar as something I had
to strictly follow when it was just sort of
meant to be a guide.
So I started week one.
And I was feeling very motivated.
I had gone grocery shopping,
I had all the equipment I needed.
All I needed to do was start the exercises.
Everything is all set up down here.
So we'll see how much it kicks my ass today.
I started with a leg day and I didn't stretch beforehand.
So that was my first mistake.
I was so sore the next day that it hurt to sit down.
It hurt to walk, it hurt to do anything other
than sit still and try not to move my muscles.
And that's when I realized just how out of shape I was.
I had planned to do another one of her resistance workouts
the following day, but I was too sore to do anything at all.
So instead I chose to do a cardio day even though my legs
were sore I still kind of powered through it
and got outside and hiked.
It's actually a really nice day out.
So, I'm already out of breath.
I feel like it's a testament to how out of shape
I am right now but I'm gonna go all the way up
and all the way back down,
and that should be about 45 minutes.
So, ready to do it.
The second challenge for me on the first week was the food.
So normally when I came home from work I would just kinda
go overboard on things like pasta or breads
or anything that had carbs.
But I kind of tried to stick with the calendar
the first week and one of the things
I ended up food prepping for dinner
was the quinoa tortilla soup which was actually pretty good.
The second thing that was hard for me
to transition was how I snacked.
At work I would usually go into the canteen
and eat crackers or chips.
I had to kinda swap out those habits.
And instead eat a banana or eat some yogurt
or a few almonds and it wasn't as bad as I thought,
but I still was really craving cheese.
So when I started week two I thought it would be
somewhat easier than week one
but I was still really, really sore.
Just completed the abs workout and I'm sweaty, I'm tired.
It's hard, it's harder than you think.
When you see her doing the exercises on the app
she makes it look so easy.
But I knew I was getting a good workout in,
so I just stuck with it.
I also noticed that I was hungrier than previous weeks.
I still stuck with the meals that the app
was recommending me, but I'm not perfect
so I ate some crackers and cookies here and there.
Even though I had switched from going to the gym
to bringing the gym into my living room,
it was still a really challenging workout.
There were times when I would finish those 28 minutes
of resistance exercises and just be covered in sweat.
Or I would finish 45, 35 minutes of cardio
and just come home with a soaking wet tank top.
I felt good mentally after an exercise,
but I guess I just didn't realize
how impactful these workouts would be.
By week three I wasn't seeing a big physical difference
in terms of how toned I was.
But I noticed a huge mental difference.
I liked having the option of going straight home from work,
doing a workout, immediately go shower,
and not waste time getting into my car,
driving home in traffic, that sort of thing.
Even if there were days I didn't necessarily
want to do these app exercises,
I still made myself do them anyway because.
It's only 30 minutes, it's only half an hour,
and it's gonna end soon.
It's like sitting on the couch and watching
an episode of a sitcom.
I noticed it was becoming increasingly easier
to make healthy food choices,
especially because I was meal prepping,
I found snacks that I really enjoyed eating
and felt that I wasn't taking away anything
that I enjoyed other than cheese.
But I still had these healthy snack options
I could eat if I was hungry.
But the holidays were coming up.
And I knew that was going to be a challenge.
Because one of the things I love doing during the holidays
is eating and drinking, especially if you
are in a family or social setting.
I think one of the hidden benefits of doing Kayla's program
was the fact that it could come with you.
The fact that I could just take it from one home
to another home made it easy to continue doing.
When I started week five, this was the point where I began
to notice very subtle changes.
For instance, in the very beginning during week one,
I could only do about 10 mountain climbers
before I had to stop and catch my breath.
By week five I could do 25 mountain climbers
before stopping and taking a quick break,
and then doing 25 more.
I was also noticing that I was becoming
a little bit more toned, definitely less bloated
because I had cut out so much sodium and pre-packaged food.
And I think it was a combination of eating healthier,
not necessarily eating less but just eating more good food
combined with the cardio and the resistance.
It was for sure showing.
So week six rolled around and I was feeling pretty good
about myself, so I decided to compare a photo I had taken
in the very beginning to one at the beginning of week six.
And I definitely noticed that I am way less bloated,
I feel like I have more strength and toned
in my stomach, in my arms, and overall
I was just feeling really good mentally.
I think coming home after work and giving myself
a 30 minute break just to exercise
was a good mental health break
that I needed and my body also needed.
So that was something I feel
like I learned through this program.
In the beginning, I think I was a little bit skeptical
about how Kayla's program would work for me
at home using no gym equipment.
So I was very, very surprised
when I saw the before and after pictures.
The biggest difference I think I noticed was in my arms
and in my abs just from the way I was not toned before.
Kayla really helped me become more toned
over these six weeks.
But there's also a huge, huge difference
in the way I felt mentally.
It was almost like a relief and feeling refreshed
to end the night in a more relaxed mood.
Even though I challenged myself to do Kayla's program
for six weeks, I still continue to do some of
the resistance exercises at home.
Especially if I am going out somewhere after work
but I have to come home first.
I'm always just like, well, I can fit in
a 30 minute exercise, take a quick shower, change,
and be on my way to go throughout the rest of my evening.
If you are like me and are sort of lazy when it comes
to going to the gym or maybe you just don't want
a gym membership or hate going to the gym,
consider an at home fitness program like the Sweat app
because you don't have to deal with the hassle
of people or waiting for equipment or parking
and all the other things that come along
with going to the gym.
When you can just do it from the comfort of your own home.
(upbeat music)