Thursday, November 5, 2015

All about Cize: Shaun T can teach anyone to dance- for real!

My last blog entry was about my Cize transformation but I wanted to give a little more background information on what Cize is about as a program. Shaun T is famous for creating programs like Insanity and T25, but his background is also in choreography and dance. His first program through Beachbody was actually Hip Hop Abs. I tried one of those workouts earlier this year when it was released as part of the member library for Beachbody On Demand and couldn’t even get through a 20-minute routine. I have NO coordination and NO dance background. I LOVE music though, so I’ve always struggled with wanting to dance but not knowing how or not feeling confident enough to just let loose, be goofy, and have fun.
When I first heard about Cize I was intrigued but didn’t think that it was for me because it was a dancing program. Beachbody gave a sample workout on Beachbody On Demand before the entire program was released and I had fun doing it, but still didn’t think I would buy the program. It wasn’t until the program was released and I saw how much FUN everyone was having that I decided to buy it myself. Most workouts can be fun, or we do them because we know how good we feel for exercising, but Cize is so different. You are HAVING FUN the WHOLE TIME dancing and not even realizing that time is passing, you are sweating, and the calories are getting torched.
Shaun builds each routine step by step and breaks everything down into simple movements that you already do every day. He says “you move everyday, I’m just putting it to a rhythm.” And he is so right. When you get a move or short sequence done, you add to it and before you know it you are ready to “Cize it up” at the end to a complete dance routine. A really awesome feature of the workouts is that once the routine is over, it goes to a screen where you can pick from the cooldown, 8 count abs routine, or “Cize it up” again. Some of the routines are so great that I kept doing the routine over and over again.
The entire program has 6 routines on 3 discs, plus a short (but effective!) ab workout. They range from 30-50 minutes and features the following songs:
1.     "Hands in the Air" by Timbaland. (It introduces you to the first 8 moves you'll be using for the whole program.)
2.     "Treasure" by Bruno Mars
3.     "Lose My Breath" by Destiny's Child (I loved this routine and would do the “Cize it up” chapter over and over again.)
4.     "Problem" by Ariana Grande
5.     "Pass That Dutch" by Missy Elliot
6.     "Chandelier" by Sia. (This was the last routine in the whole program and really took the emotion and moves to another level where you really were feeling it.)
You can choose from a beginner calendar that takes 6 weeks (1 routine a week) or an advanced calendar for 4 weeks. I felt like a beginner but did the advanced calendar instead because I did not think doing 1 routine for an entire week would hold my interest. Overall I had a great time doing the program. It is completely based on your effort, so beginners to experts can have fun and get their heart rate up at the same time.

            Wow….all of this information and I just realized I didn’t touch on the 2nd half of the program: the nutrition!! I LOVE the nutrition guide for Cize. It is based off the color-coded portion control containers from the 21 Day Fix, but you can still use the nutrition guide even if you don’t have the containers. The “Eat Up!” guide gives you a food directory so you can eat WHAT you want, but it just shows you HOW MUCH you need. The best part of the book is the meal builder. It gives examples of simple, staple meals, and all the ways you can customize and mix it up. There are pages like eggs every day, oatmeal bowl, yogurt parfait, Shakeology bar, salad bowl, wrap it up, simply grilled, Asian stir fry, healthy pasta, and snacks on the go. For the wrap it up meal you have steps to follow for each category/container of food: pick your wrap, pick your protein, add your veggies, add an “extra”, add dressing, and (optional) add flavor. You’d think a wrap was easy to make, or maybe so easy you get stuck and don’t know how to make it interesting. My family doesn’t really eat from recipes of stuff but we do basics like every Thursday we have a big salad for our meal. So on Thursdays we go to the salad bowl page and can make a different one each time.

            The Cize kit also comes with a get started guide, a weekend survival guide, and (if you order through a coach like me!) a free bonus workout called “Hold Your Own” that gives you some moves you can use when you’re out no matter what song is playing.

You can see my whole YouTube playlist of Cize routine progressions here: bit.ly/kboecizevids

Here is my before/after of the Full Out routine:






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