I never thought yoga would do this for me...

            Happy Friday everybody, I wanted to share that no matter what my step meter says with zero intensity minutes measured all week ;) that I have been working out every day. This has been my first week of the 3-Week Yoga Retreat that I've been doing online from Beachbody on Demand and it's been amazing.

            Most people know that yoga can help you relax and increase flexibility- within the first four days this week I was already getting deeper into stretches and felt so much more flexible. The direction given by the trainers is so precise that I have made little adjustments to poses that I have been doing wrong for years. I've been getting deeper stretches; I've been feeling less pressure in my lower back as I'm learning to even breathe more correctly in order to support my lower back. I have always suffered from low back problems until I found PiYo but this yoga retreat has been amazing for my back: it hasn't even been cracking at all in the morning or feeling tight at all.

            Another thing I know people don't like to talk about, but yoga has helped my digestion amazing even more than the added bonus than having my daily Shakeology with the digestive enzymes and probiotics and all that good stuff. I did some Googling and I didn't realize that so many yoga poses with the twisting and the concentration on your core and your breathing really help loosen up your intestines and get everything moving so there's no stagnation or no uncomfortable feelings or anything like that.

            I have also noticed since I wear a Garmin Vivofit all the time is that my sleep graphs in the morning have been really different: it seems like there's a lot more dark blue (deep sleep) on my graphs every morning as opposed to light blue (light sleep). I am a numbers nerd, so I went through the 9 nights that I have been doing the Yoga Retreat so far and then I did the same number of nights before I started. I wrote down the amount of deep sleep and total sleep that my Garmin has telling me I've been getting.

            I had been averaging 9 hours and 15 minutes of sleep in the 9 nights leading up to my yoga program and I was spending 23% percent of that in deep sleep (2 hours, 11 minutes) each night. Since I started the Yoga Retreat, I've actually only been averaging 9 hours of sleep a night (I had bible study, girls night, and have been up late watching the Cubs in the playoffs). So I’ve actually been getting less sleep per night then before the yoga program but I have been spending 29% of my night in deep sleep, which works out to 2 hours and 45 minutes. This means I've been getting less sleep overall but I have been getting half an hour more of deep sleep at night!!

            Deep sleep is so important to your physical health, your mental health, and to your whole body because that's when your body regenerates. Deep sleep is when things get moved from short-term to long-term memory; it's when your muscles rebuild themselves; it's really where you just get reset for the next day. The fact that I have been sleeping less but been getting more deep sleep has been such an added gift that this program has given me…in addition to the better digestion, in addition to the less tightness in my lower back, in addition to the increased flexibility, in addition to not just the less tightness in my back but I feel taller and lengthened.  That is an amazing benefit of yoga: you feel just stretched out and you don't feel as so compressed and tense.

            Oh, and more deep sleep means that I have had more energy during the day it's just one of the greatest things that I think Beachbody has come out with because anyone can do this! The fact that it is free is totally amazing. If you want to try this yoga program, it takes 21 days and no more than 30 minutes a day (the weekends are actually shorter)- it's totally free with your trial of Beachbody on Demand. If you have never tried yoga before, you should give it a try! It's going to help you sleep better; it's going to help you de-stress; it's going to help your energy, your digestion…everything! It's not got some of the Eastern religion connotations or weird music to it, it's just stripped down simple basic yoga and it's going to make you feel great.

            I had been looking for a low-impact program to continue on from Country Heat and this program fit the bill for me. If you want to learn more about it or if you want to keep following my journey please stay tuned and make sure you are following my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/boeknowscleanliving

Beachbody's newest supertrainer: the 20's workouts

Have you been watching #the20s on #beachbodyondemand the last few months? Who do YOU want to be Beachbody's next super trainer?? 

This will be a longer post, but here's my thoughts on the workouts and trainers:

I'll feel this tomorrow!! Today did all 3 beginner workouts from the 20s on BOD so I could make an educated vote. I was so busy all week- I wish I would have prioritized these so I could have also done the 3 advanced ones. I didn't realize there was only a few day window to vote.

I just did all 3 beginner routines. I was most excited for Erica's because I've been wanting to try barre. But I felt it was all counting and no explanation or personality really. Some moves made me feel a burn, but I felt rushed in keeping up because the moves weren't demonstrated first like the other 2 did. She didn't get much airtime this season. I almost wish Derrick was in the finals instead of her but I do remember he was bad at counts.

I loved Joe's. I like his personality and was funny but also his take on low impact but also cardio. I felt a bit too much flirting with Shallamar but he interacted with both of them great and made me laugh. I had FUN doing it and listening to him. I'd never done most of those moves but he explained well and used his other people a lot. I enjoyed hearing a bit of his fitness backstory with the multiple knee surgeries and why he works out this way.

I liked Megan's and was the most out of breath from hers. Some was from rushing from move to move. I didn't like that I needed equipment. I used my couch and pretended there were lines. Needing to buy equipment is a big barrier to people for trying a program, especially those who don't have a lot of space to workout in. It took me half the time to figure out the overall plan of the workout, lol. Her moves were nice, I had to modify many because my shoulder is strained right now. Her personality was good but lacked that extra special thing Joe had. I feel her story and inspiring her dad and family to change their lives is very cool and it was definitely played up with a lot of camera time this season. For a beginner program, hers was the hardest for me.

I might watch the others tonight but if I had to vote based on workouts alone, I'd vote Joe. Although his elevator pitch was atrocious and it drove me crazy that he mis-said 22 Minute Hard Corps as 22 Hard Corps. Megan I think won more of the challenges, and Ericka was a quiet front runner in the rankings all season long.

What do you think? If you haven't been watching, who would you vote for just based on this quick review? 

No DVDs? No problem. Beachbody on Demand explained

            Good morning everybody! I am at my parents right now (which is in Illinois) and I'm since Corey and I are doing the same workout program, I left my DVDs at home so he could use them. The great thing is that I have access to Beachbody on Demand online which gives me online access to all of the workout programs I’ve bought. I can log onto my computer and do that if I wanted to, and there's also an app on my phone that I can use to stream my workouts.

            A lot of people didn't don't know about this capability from Beachbody or they prefer to work out in an actual gym, or don’t like DVDs, or just find themselves traveling (like me) and don’t have my program with me. Well now you can take your workouts wherever you are!

            Today I want to work out a life-size Tony Horton and since my parents have the newest Apple TV, I wanted to show you guys how simple it is to log on and stream your workouts if you don't have the DVDs. The new Apple TV has a Beachbody on Demand app in the App Store. It is a free app, and after you download it you can either create a free 30-day trial account or log in with your account that you already have. After you log in to your account, you have access to all of the programs you’ve already bought as DVDs. There’s also over 3,000 unique workouts like exclusives from all of the super trainers, it's even got a maternity line, and you can pay for a “digital unlock” of other premium programs if you don’t want to buy DVD copies.

You don’t just get the workouts; you get the nutrition guides, the workout calendars, everything that you would get if you bought a physical copy! You can get all of this if you use the Beachbody on Demand app on your smartphone, too. The great thing about the app on your phone is that you can download up to 7 workouts to use offline! I’ll be doing that when I’m in Nashville for Summit since I’m not sure the tv or Internet situation for where I’ll be staying. ;)

            If you have any questions about Beachbody on Demand or would like a free 30-day trial to check it out, please contact me by commenting below or follow me on Facebook at bit.ly/1fitlife