Winter Shape Up 2015: Week 2

Hi friends! Welcome to Week 2 of the Winter Shape Up! Anne and I are loving all of your amazing check-ins and posts. Keep up the great work! Remember, you already did the hardest part, which is getting started. Keep the momentum going!

Just like this cute little powerful penguin 🙂

You can jump into the Shape Up at any time, and please feel free to shuffle around the workouts to work with your schedule/life. Let me know if you need help or have any questions. As always, check with a doc before making any fitness changes, and honor your body. These workouts are designed for women who have a solid steady state cardio base (at least 30 minutes most days of the week), and are comfortable lifting weights. If you’re just beginning your fitness journey, or getting back in the game, join in the for strength training (use light weights to begin and progress from there), and instead of the Tabata and HIIT intervals, do steady state cardio. You can complete this on the treadmill (walking or jogging), stairclimber, rowing machine, or bike. 

Be sure to send in your sweaty pics on Twitter and Instagram, or check out our WSU Facebook group. 

Here’s what Week 2 looks like:

Links to your workouts:

Workout #3 (30-minute barre video)

Workout #2 (21-minute HIIT with video)

Upper body workout

Lower body workout

Workout #1

For this year’s Shape Up, I designed the plan so that we would have TONS of variety. You have 6 Winter Shape Up-specific workouts (HIIT, Strength, Tabata, Barre), with different upper body, lower body, ab work, and cardio workouts sprinkled in. Variety is the spice of workout life, right? 🙂 I’m so stoked that you’re enjoying the workouts so far!

A very special thanks to this year’s Winter Shape Up sponsors:

Wild Blueberries / Cabot / Sabra / Sizzlefish / About Time / Fitfluential

Congratulations to the Week 1 giveaway winner, who will receive a Jump Start pack from our friends at About Time. (Whey protein powder and various workout fuel in delicious flavors, sweetened with Stevia.)

 Kelsey!

(The lucky winner has been emailed!)

Our Week 2 sponsor is Wild Blueberries, which I love to purchase for smoothies, breakfast cookie dough cereal, and blueberry breakfast bakes. They have amazing flavor, and are the perfect size. I usually find them at Sprouts or Whole Foods.

You may not know this, but not all blueberries are created equal. Wild Blueberries have a more intense flavor, double the antioxidants and fiber, and a deeper blue pigment, which makes them serious nutritional superstars when compared to the regular ones you find in the produce section. The reason they have more fiber is due to the higher skin-to-pulp ratio than their larger cultivated counterparts. As for the antioxidants, they have a greater concentration of the flavonoid anthocyanin, a phytochemical found in blue-pigmented fruit. Because they grow in such harsh conditions, the antioxidants protect them from hash sunlight and rigorous conditions. We get to reap the cell-protecting benefits. 🙂 

Wild Blueberries are also smaller than regular blueberries, which makes them the ideal size for baking and cooking. Because Wild Blueberries haven’t been modified by man, they’re not meant to travel great distances fresh, so you’ll find them in the freezer section of your grocery store. Just be sure to look for “Wild Blueberries” on the label. Check out this link to find Wild Blueberries near you!

Our friends at Wild Blueberries generously offered a $25 Whole Foods gift card + a Wild Blueberries infused water bottle. (One reader will be chosen from my site, and one from Anne’s.)

To enter, simply leave a comment below each time you complete a workout this week. You already have a freebie entry from yesterday (rest day!), and an additional one if you’ve already worked out today.

Let’s hit week 2 with a bang!
xoxo

Gina