Review: Cize

This program is for everyone. Even if you can't dance at all, Shaun T provides step by step simple instructions. It is so fun!! every workout is different and there are tons to choose from and some you dance to popular songs, like Ariana Grande and Black eyed peas.

Here are the workouts:

• Crazy 8s- Starter dance moves that you will use throughout the program. Song: Hands in the air, originally sung by Timbaland. - 35 min
• You got this- More new moves, but more pace. Song: Treasure, originally sung by Bruno Mars. -43 min
• Full out- Level 2, little faster and sweat poring routine. Song: Lose my breath, originally sung by Destiny's Child. - 35 min
• In the pocket- More confidence more challenges and skills. Song: Problem, originally sung by Ariana Grande. - 37 min
• Go for it- More excitement more love of Cize. Song: Pass that dutch, originally sung by Missy Elliot - 41 min. 
• Livin in the 8s- Final routine and another challenge. Song: Chandelier originally sung by Sia. - 52 min. 

The next level:

• Work your body- Get ready to work, work , work. Song: Body sung by Chilli. - 31 min
• Own every move- Own it and burn those calories. Song: Nobody love, originally sung by Tori Kelly. - 33 min
• Whillin out- Get crazy and have fun with this routine. Song: Shut up, originally sung by Black eyed peas. - 30 min
• Sync it up- New moves and more rhythm. Song: Brokenhearted, originally sung by Karmin. - 36 min. 
• Turn up the mix- More confidence with these moves. Song: One last time, originally sung by Ariana Grande. - 40 min
• Speed it up- Big challenge, speeds up from 160 BPM to 231 BPM. Song: Circus, originally
  
  sung by Britney Spears. - 43 min
• Get into it- Fast paced routine with heart racing steps and calorie burning moves. Song: He aint with me now, originally sung by RichGirl. - 38 min
• Turn it on- intense dance combo. Song: Wild, originally sung by Jessie J. - 34 min. 

My favorite ones were Speed it up, whillin out, crazy 8s, turn up the mix, in the pocket, you got this and full out. I had a lot of fun with these workouts and I would always be sweating like crazy.

"You can burn between 200 and 400 calories in just a half hour of dancing"

Speed it up is way fun, but really hard. You go from slow to fast to really fast. At first its easy, but once you cize it up it is hard. The more you do it the better you get at it.
He repeats moves in a couple of workouts, quite a bit from crazy 8s. The next level is more fast pace than the others.
If you don't get really into it and do each move with all you got..... it will get boring and your heart rate won't go up and you won't sweat.
I didn't really follow a schedule I just did what I felt like doing that day. I also did a hybrid with this. Body beast, 22 minute hard corpse and this. It was pretty hard but it made Cize more enjoyable.
I was training for my first spartan race and this helped with cardio and agility in the mountains in Colorado.
I love how fun shaun makes it, you don't even realize that your working out and burning calories.

after

It took me about 3-4 months to finish this program because I was doing a hybrid.

I maintained weight and added some lean muscle.

before

here are my before and after pics:)



This is a very enjoyable program, but can easily get bored when doing the same workout everyday for a week.
I recommend a hybrid program with this.




 short post.... not much to talk about.

Facts about potty training

Updated 3/7/2018

Oh the dreaded potty training......
Im thinking I would write a post about my experiences, facts and thoughts on potty training.
Now I started putting Nash on the potty when he was 18 months old. I wasn't forcing it or anything, he actually liked it. I would tell him that this is where you go potty and pretty soon he would start saying "potty".
When Nash turned 2 he went pee in the potty a couple times and I was so proud of him. I did put underwear on him to show him what underwear felt like than a diaper. Right before he turned 3 he lost interest in the potty. I did get him his own potty... but he would rather go in the "mommy and daddy potty"
Nash is moderate autistic, so potty training and other things are very hard for him to understand. We talked to Nashs therapists and teacher and decided that school would help us and him understand what the potty is.
I know this sounds weird, but when Nash would see me go potty than he would tell me he wants to go potty and wear underwear too. It works for me and him so I worked with it.
For a couple of months now I put underwear (he prefers paw patrol or cars underwear) on and set his potty timer for 20 min. Every 20 min I would say pee time; take him to the bathroom, turn on the water, sit him  on the toilet, and pour warm water down his belly. Ya its weird but he peed every time, no matter what. Hes at that point now where he can go without the water and he now tells me when he needs to go...only if his underwear is on. After every bathroom time which is now 30 min, if he went pee he would get a sucker or fruit snack. He would ONLY get these if he went pee. If he goes poo (which he has done more than a couple times) he get to choose something at wal mart or McDonalds. Nash would pee a little and hold it in than tell me he needs to go pee. He is such a big boy!!
Any way here are some facts:

• Patience is a virtue here....lots and lots of patience.
• Lots and lots of accidents. Don't get mad tell them its ok and that they will try again with a new pair of underwear.
• Watch cartoons about going potty,  like Daniel tiger.  I like the song he sings to go potty. 
• Get a potty watch if they can stand to wear it. 
• If they poo in the underwear, say "ok since you pooed in the underwear we have to throw them away". If its their favorite underwear...throw it away anyway. Its a good way to teach them that if they poo in them they are gone forever.
• Bribing is needed. You already read what I bribe Nash with. Another way is to tape a toy in front of the toilet and if they poo they get to play with it for 20 min. Than put it back and next time they poo they can play with it again. 
• I put nash on the toilet backwards so that hes facing the lid. He doesn't fall in and he has more control.
• You thought you were done with poop.... haha ya your wrong. 
• Every time they go potty act like its a party. Clap, dance, jump around, yell good job!! Nash LOVES it!
• Let them choose what underwear they want. It helps...
• First couple of days let them run around naked. 
• Get them a special potty timer
• Get a very own potty or potty liner of their choice. 
• Let them flush the toilet. It makes them feel more big. 
• NEVER get mad and yell at them and tell them its naughty... they are learning remember. 
• Let them choose when they want to start. Nash is 3 and a half and hes just getting it. Don't rush it'll click one day. 
• Let one parent teach. Both parents are good but both have different ways of training.... its very confusing. I potty train Nash myself and I actually don't mind it. They way preston does it is way different so we stuck with what I do. 
• On Nashs 2nd B day I asked for underwear. They are expensive!!! I asked for a size bigger and now that hes 3 they fit him perfect. So don't be afraid to ask for underwear for the kids birthday or even christmas.
  
• Wait till them and you are comfortable with the peeing till you go places with underwear on. Get a system down. I'm at the point where Nash can go to grandmas and wal mart with underwear on and no accidents. Just small close places first.
• When I started putting pants on Nash with his underwear thats when he was telling me when he needed to go pee. 
• Show them the body parts and what they do and where the pee and poo goes. 
• Get a chart. Every time they go potty mark a box. When its full they get a big prize. Do this once they understand it more. 
• When they are busy and playing they will forget to tell you when they need to go. Make sure when they play remind them if they need to go. Nash does this, when hes watching a movie he always remembers when to go. Its they playing part that's hard, but he's catching on quick. 
• Im a working mom so I only put underwear and potty train after work and on my days off. I would like to take a couple days and just do potty training. I have read that you can do it in 3 days but it depends on the kid and parent. I am very constant with it. 
• Pinterest has a lot of ideas and tips. Check it out.
• Read books about potty time. Nash likes the "everybody poops" book. We also have " a potty for me" he likes to read.
• When you put on the underwear tell them they cannot pee or poo on ( insert character name). I put Nash's on and I tell him "ok you can't pee on marshall or chase, so make sure you tell mommy when you need to go potty" It works for Nash. One day he told me " I no pee on mater, I pee potty" It was way cute and he was even doing the potty dance. 
• For pooing my husband cut out a diaper and put it on Nash and it worked. Now whenever he needs to poo he asks for a diaper. We are slowly getting rid of the diaper, its mainly for comfort and security which there is nothing wrong with this. He is still pooing in the potty he just wants his comfort. At first on this we would have him poo in the bathroom with his diaper, than slowly cut out more and more of the diaper and showed him where poo goes. Now when he poos in the potty he yells " mom look at my poo!! Im a big boy". 

Update on nash: he is fully potty trained just the cut out diaper with pooing. Night time we are slowly getting. Im really glad I waited till Nash was ready. I've read that boys take longer because they can't hold their pee in. Although now nash will wear underwear all day, no matter where we go. If he needs to go he'll tell us and he'll hold it in till we make it to the potty. He caught on so quick! I'm so proud of him.
Small update: he is now, well as of 3 months ago is going by himself without assistance while standing and peeing. The pee stickers we have help him aim. With him standing is WAY easy on us!! especially him. I also taught him to pee outside. Its nice...sometimes. At first he didn't like it, I told him to pee on the rocks or pee on that bug. He loved it and he caught on. The bad side... when we are at the park or other places outside he thinks he can go pee on the rocks in front of everybody. We are slowly teaching him not to.

Every kid and mommy and daddy are different. Everyone has their own way of potty training.

Nash is my first kid so I got more one on one with him. So when I have another I would know what to do instead of pulling my hair out. 

I hope this post helps someone out there. 

Make sure mamas to have a glass of wine in hand if your doing the what I like to call the "3 day challenge". Trust me your gonna need a whole bottle and more haha. 

Review: Shift shop

Shift shop is a 21 day rapid program. This program has a lot of jumping, squats, lunges and burpees. I do not recommend to people who are sensitive at the knees and lower back. I myself have bad knees and had no idea what I was getting into. I did do a lot of modifying on certain moves and it helped. It also is mainly SAQ (speed, agility,quickness) practically the whole program is.

So I made my own agility markers by cutting circles with cardboard and coloring them and gluing the non slip stuff you put in drawers. They worked awesome!! you don't have to have the markers, but it helps to have them to know where to go. I also put motivational quotes on them to help me get motivated.

Here are the workouts:

Week 1:

• Speed 25- 1 min intervals that will make you work and sweat - 25 min
• Strength 25- Easy to learn 1 min intervals of resistance training. -25 min

Week 2:

• Speed 35- Get ready to improve your agility and stamina and burn more calories. - 35 min
• Strength 35- New challenges, new moves get ready to feel the burn - 35 min

Week 3:

• Speed 45- New dynamic drills to ramp up your conditioning. -45 min
• Strength 45- Challenge every muscle group and get more definition. -45 min

• Shift core- 9 one min ab shredding workouts - 12 min
• Shift mobility- Stretch and rejuvenate. - 20 min

Deluxe:

• Super speed 50- Adding a sandbag; this workout brings 3 rounds of calorie burning moves -50 min
• Super strength 50- 3 rounds of resistance intervals. Very challenging with sandbags. - 50 min
• Super shift core- 9 intense 1 min core workouts with sandbags. - 15 min

I did not do deluxe. I plan on doing this whole program again in a couple months and thats when I plan on doing it with the deluxe.

 

Week 1 wasn't easy, it was very challenging from day one. Although it was very enjoyable. Speed 25 has a lot of burpees, running in place, bear walks, jumping jacks and frog jumps in it. You use only 2 agility markers. Strength consists of planks. bicep curls, push ups, and sumo squats. I just used 10 pound weights and I did just fine. 

"Everyone stop for a second and be proud of yourself. Whether you've seen results, hit a plateau, reached your goal, or even just started today, you are trying." 

Week 2 was a little bit harder but a lot more agility on speed 35. You have the agility markers in the diamond and straight line form. The first half of the workout you do the triangle form. You do each workout 1 min long than again for 30-45 sec. Than the second half is the same but different moves. I really enjoyed the second half. 

Strength is a ton of squats and lunges its crazy!!! You do each move for 1 min than for 30-45 seconds and he breaks them up at the end.



Week 3 was insane!!!! different bear walks, jumping, sprinting and of course... the downing burpee!!!
Each workout is 45 min and the strength 45 has a burnout mode at the end. Buckets of sweat is what to expect on the speed 45. After you get past the first round of speed 45 it gets so much better. I wasn't a big fan of the square set up. This is where the downing burpee is, it was on circuit 3. Its intense but its way fun to do. I had a very hard time with this week, but I made it though.

Below are my before and after. This program is only 21 days, you can do another round. I've seen results from 31 days and those results are amazing. I plan on doing another round here after I finish my other programs.

Body beast: review

If you enjoyed P90x than body beast is for you. From the creators of P90x comes Body beast. Body beast is for intermediate to advanced groups. This program builds lean, strong muscles in 90 days. All weight training all strengthening your body.

There are 3 different types of calendars:

• Huge beast- for people who want to build muscle mass; recommended for men. 90 days
• Lean beast- For those who want to get ripped but loose weight recommended for woman. 90 days
• Beast up- for men and woman who want a short program but great results. 30 days.

Here are the programs.:

• Body beast basics- just some knowledge of whats about to come. 8 min
• Build chest/ tris- all about the chest and triceps. 49 min
• Build shoulders- build strong amazing deltoids. 38 min
  
• Build legs- shed fat and get those legs toned. 38 min
• Build Back/ Bis- work that back and those biceps. 50 min
• Bulk chest- a lot different than build. More weights and more reps. Different angles and every muscle on your chest. 30 min
• Bulk back- literally every muscle in your back will get worked. 29 min
• Bulk legs- cut and define every muscle in the leg. 40 min
• Bulk shoulders- added weights and lower reps. 35 min
• Bulk arms- get ripped and defined biceps and triceps. 36 min
• Beast abs- work on abs to lift more weights and improve posture. 11 min
• Beast cardio- get sweating with this workout that uses weights and cardio. 30 min
• Beast total body- work your head to toe. Every muscle. 39 min
• Rock a bye beast: beadtime stretch- specifically before bed. Stretch right before to get a good nights sleep. 5 min
• Lucky 7- work with 7 compounds and intense exercises. Creates and work muscle fibers to get lean, strong muscles. 24 min

Beast up:

• Beast up legs- longer, forced and super sets to get maximum results. 45 min
• Beast up chest, shoulders, & triceps- progressive sets, forced sets and tempo sets to help get major definition. 56 min

Body beast deluxe:

• Tempo chest/tris- Tempo Sets rely on the latest weight training science to work your chest and tris so intensely that you can actually feel your body getting stronger. 53 min
• Tempo back /bis- Tempo Sets rely on the latest weight training science to work your back and bis so intensely that you can actually feel your body getting stronger. 53 min

I did the lean program. So in my schedule it does not include the beast up, body beast deluxe and the beast ones. I did the bulk and build and the cardio ones.

My husband built our own rope climb
in our personal gym. 

The first couple of weeks were hard. I was so sore everyday, every muscle in my body hurt. Even ones I didn't even know worked that way. The Bulk legs workout is amazing. I have always had big, jiggly, fat legs. I wanted toned and beautiful ones. The build legs I did't really like it has way to many lunges in it. I hate lunges!!! I think the whole workout it lunges. So if my schedule says leg day I would do the bulk instead of the build one. I also feel like I'm getting more out of the bulk one.
Month 2 consists of shorter time but longer phases. Im really enjoying month 2; although I am adding in another cardio in it. 28 minutes doesn't seem long enough for me.
Before I started I was doing yoga poses that I could not do at all. I was trying to do the crow, headstand and fallen angel. I would always fall. After month 1 I am able to do all of them!! I can now go to crow to headstand back to crow without falling. That's how much upper body strength I got.

"You messed up your diet and you didn't exercise today- so what? You didn't ruin anything. Get back on track tomorrow. If you have one flat tire, do you slash the other three? OF COURSE NOT!"

This program is a lot different than P90X. This has less cardio days and focuses on certain muscles everyday. Also P90X has longer time and focuses on upper body and lower body instead of certain muscles. ( see P90X review for more info)
So the cardio and abs that are on here I didn't really enjoy. I did not get what I want out of the cardio. I decided to do a hybrid calendar with Cize. That will be on a different post for the review for that.

This program helped me finish my first Spartan race. 

Every couple week I would slowly up my weights. Since hes using the pyramid workout with the 15,12,8 and 8. I did 5 lbs for 15 reps than 7.5 for 12 reps than 10 for 8 reps than back down to 7.5 for another 8. Than at 3 weeks I upped it a little. Now I'm at 7.5 for 15 reps, 10 for 12 and 12.5 for 8. Man my muscles hated me that first week. Now when doing this Iv'e learned to be careful with my
weights. I have already hurt my shoulder and pulled a muscle deep in my shoulder blade ( upper trapezius). I started working on the muscles by rolling them and massaging them and they were good as new. So when upping weight please take your time and don't rush in like I did. On a couple workouts... I think build arms maybe... he does the pyramid system again but a little different 15,12,8,8,12,15. Wow that set always kills me. You start with light weights than work your way up than you do it backwards. Than on chest I think haha.. he does 5 sets of 5 reps without upping or lowering weights. So you choose a weight you can handle and do it without rest, its actually quite hard.

" when the scale goes up and the inches go down, it's  not weight gain it's results gain."

Month 3 I upped my weights again now I'm doing 10,12.5, and 15. 10s being my lowest weight and 15 my highest. I did back and a cardio workout and I was dying the next day. Also the next day it was cardio again and abs. So the day after that I could barley breath, talk and sneeze or even lift my arms up in the air. Underneath where my armpits are hurt so bad and my ribs!!
One thing that is very important is to do a lot of self-myofacial release or rolling. Especially before leg day. Muscle rolling makes a huge difference during this program. Less stiff, sore muscles and more lengthened and less tight muscles. You can do this for a warm up or a cool down. Now the program includes those but I liked to the SMR before I pressed play or after Iv'e finished the cool down Sagi provides. I had a lot of tightness on my upper back and my hamstrings so the SMR really helped with releasing all that tension.

" LADIES..... lifting weights won't make you big and bulky. You won't look like a man. You don't produce enough testosterone. It will actually enhance your feminine curves. Stop believing the false rumors." 

With this program I didn't "bulk up" like how men do. I toned up, created lean muscles and worked muscles I have't worked in a long time. This is a very good program to help you tone and to somewhat loose weight.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed this program. Although I really would have liked more cardio and leg day, I did get some of the results I wanted. I personally didn't see a change in my legs. I saw major results on my upper body. My back, shoulders, and arms got the most of it.    Below are my results.

Before

after