Winter Shape Up 2017

Is finally here!!

Welcome to Winter Shape Up 2016: a perfect chance to revamp your fitness routine, thrive from healthy eats, and revitalize your love for healthy living. Whether you’re looking to achieve a fitness, fat loss, lifestyle, or energy goal, hopefully this plan will provide you with steps, ideas and inspiration along the way.  

For the friends who are new to Winter Shape Up, here’s how it works:

– I’ve been doing the Shape Up plans on my blog for years as a way to share free fitness and meal plans with my readers. I’m so happy Anne has joined in the fun to share her expertise as a Registered Dietitian. She’s my WSU partner in crime, and we love being able to put together these plans for you all. 

Here’s an intro video so you know what to expect!

 

Each week, for the next 4 weeks, Anne and I will be posting free full workout schedules, meal plans, videos, printables and grocery lists.

While you can follow these exactly as suggested, remember that these are just suggestions; they can be always be adjusted or modified to suit your personal needs and schedule. If you have a class that you like to do each week at the gym, by all means keep it in, but just remember not to do the same type of workout on consecutive days. For example, I wouldn’t take a hardcore bootcamp class the day after Workout 1, and avoid strength training the same muscle group two days in a row. If you need help shuffling things around, please hit me up in the comments or ask in our interactive Facebook group.

Your 4-week focus:

-Visualize a goal. What’s your intention behind Winter Shape Up? Looking to shake up your routine? Burn fat? Get stronger? Write it down what you’d like to accomplish and remind yourself daily for the next 4 weeks. If you made an inspiration board, this is a great time to update it and check it regularly!

If you’re looking for fat loss/muscle gain, I highly recommend a body fat assessment towards the beginning of the Shape Up, or take some pics and measurements so you can gauge progress.

Keep in mind: this isn’t a weight loss plan. While weight loss may be the result of changing up your routine and implement new diet or fitness strategies, remember that weight is a poor indication of overall health and body composition. Focus on foods and habits that will encourage fat loss and encourage lean muscle retention/building if that’s your overall goal. All in all, use strength, energy levels, and confidence as some mental success meters. <3

-Nutrition. Eat like a PRO: meaning you’re going to emphasize PROtein and PROduce. Anne has a variety of delicious, healthy and satisfying recipes in the meal plan with vegan and gluten-free options.

-Consistency. The greatest way to achieve a new fitness or health goal is consistency. Stick with it and remember that the little things definitely add up! Be gentle with yourself throughout the challenge, and endeavor to be consistent in your actions to achieve your personal goal for the 4 weeks.

-Be a cheerleader for yourself and other Winter Shape Up participants. Make sure to check in each morning with your workout, pics of your healthy eats and to cheer each other on! The comments are a great option (which is how you’ll enter the giveaways), or if you’d like to tweet/Instagram, use the hashtag #wintershapeup and tag us @fitnessista @fannetasticfood. 

We also have a private Facebook group with lovely supportive, active members. Check it out here!

The Winter Shape Up will run from Monday, January 30 to Sunday, February 26.

Here are links to all the content (this page will be updated as the new pages are published).

Week 1 workouts (here! just scroll down a little)

Week 1 meal plan

Week 2 workouts

Week 2 meal plan

More details and FAQs for the Winter Shape Up are below!

How do I enter the giveaways?

We’ll have two giveaways running each week. Check in on each weekly post for your chance to enter! (For week 1, you’ll check in for your workouts below in the comments, and check in with your eats on Anne’s week 1 page.)

How do I keep track of all of the deliverables and info? It seems like a lot!

This page that you’re currently reading (the Intro post) will be your home base for ALL things Winter Shape Up-related. Each week’s meal ideas and workouts, plus any giveaways will all be linked here. If you’re joining in, keep this page in a safe place (bookmark it, Pin it, keep it in your pocket) so that you can easily access all of the info.

A special “thank you” to our Winter Shape Up sponsors:

they help us provide this awesome challenge for free and will be sharing amazing giveaways along the way!

Sabra // Nekter // Wild Blueberries // Passion for Pasta // Vital Proteins

And so much gratitude to my friend Grant Hunker, who kindly flew out to San Diego to film and edit the videos for us. We filmed 6 videos for you while Anne was visiting (workouts 1-4 + a bonus cool down and warm up). I’m so thrilled we were finally able to do the workouts together!

Here is your Week 1 Winter Shape Up workout schedule:

 (*Pretend that Sunday says Monday, and follow the order as it’s written or shuffle as needed. So today is Workout #1 + 15 minutes of steady state, tomorrow is workout #5, etc. The challenge starts today! I’m hoping to get an updated graphic from the designer today.)

And the links to all workouts:

Workout 1 (+ video)

Workout 5

Workout 3 (+ video)

Workout 4 (+ video)

To get the bonus videos (warm up and cool down), and to receive your workout plan + links on each Friday of the challenge, sign up for my newsletter:

 

Now it’s time for this week’s featured sponsor and giveaway, from a company and product I use almost every.single.day: Vital Proteins!

A little bit about Vital Proteins:

-Vital Proteins supplies grass-fed collagen hydrolysate (you can read about why I love this here!) products from easily dissolvable and tasteless powder, to vanilla coconut water peptides, gelatin, and beauty greens. They also have whey protein on their site.

-Collagen is the most abundant protein in the body and can greatly impact the health and vitality of your skin, hair, tendon, cartilage, bones and joints. From months of using collagen regularly, I’ve noticed a huge difference in my hair, skin and nails. I love the Vital Proteins brand because it dissolves so easily, and is perfect in my afternoon cup of coffee for extra protein and nutrients. 

From the website:

-Several studies on collagen, which represents 90% of organic bone mass, suggest that orally administering collagen peptides may provide beneficial effects on bone metabolism, especially in the calcium-deficient condition such as osteopenia, without obvious undesirable effects. Several studies show that a daily intake of 10g of collagen peptides for 4 to 24 weeks may increase bone mass density. Supplementation with 30 – 70 grams of collagen peptides per day showed a reduction of risk for injuries on muscle, tendons, and ligaments in athletes.

I’m a huge fan, and love using their collagen on a daily basis. They also have little travel packs, which are the perfect size for stashing in your gym bag.

Vital Proteins kindly offered a month’s supply of collagen + a shaker bottle for a lucky Winter Shape Up participant!

Here’s how to enter:

-Leave a comment below each time you complete a workout this week (It doesn’t necessarily have to be a WSU workout! Just tell me what you did and how you’re feeling!). 

-Send a tweet to @vitalproteins @fitnessista @fannetasticfood #wintershapeup and let us know how you’re liking the challenge! Leave an extra comment to let me know

-Instagram a sweaty photo of yourself after one of the Shape Up workouts, and be sure to include: #wintershapeup @fitnessista @fannetasticfood @vitalproteins

I’ll pick the lucky winner on Sunday of next week and announce in our Week 2 post. 

Happy Winter Shape Up and I’ll see ya later with some adventures from the weekend.

Ready, set, let’s do this.

xoxo

Gina